By: Dr Stane Granda
The developments within the Slovenian Social Democrats – who are neither social nor democrats, lacking both aspects – are quite dramatic for a historian. Unfortunately, as a historian, I cannot predict the outcome.
The name of the Slovenian Social Democracy has been stolen and abused. Not only here, but it reflects a general European trend, indicating imitation or the existence of an informal coordination among former communist parties. Slovenians do not hide this. Not only in their thoughts and actions but publicly stating that they are proud successors of the communists. It is suicidally honest!
The confrontation with Nedeljka (Dominika Švarc Pipan) has harmed the communists more than ten parliamentary interpellations. The latter only unifies them defensively. Their “essence” is at stake, and the question is how, if at all, they will survive it. The communist organisation emerged after World War I during a period of widespread political violence. Its programme was so attractive that even many Catholics sympathised with it. Slovenian Christian socialists mostly succumbed to it and became significant victims of the Slovenian communist revolution. Recall the fate of Aleš Stanovnik, Tone Čokan, and others who, except for their families, are not remembered by any political group today. Yet, they were ours and very much Slovenian.
Political violence, inseparably combining both ideological and physical forms and content, remained a lasting characteristic of communism. Similarly, lies constitute its immortal soul. A political community organised according to the most brutal mafia principles transformed into an organisation for the violent seizure of power and appropriation of the results of others’ labour. The social revolution, both within the state and the international community, liberating the exploited existing in all societies, soon became a burden for communism, simultaneously serving as a fantastic means of manipulation. This is referred to as tactics. Workers nowhere lived as poorly and without basic workers’ rights as in communist countries. At the collapse of communism, not a single proletarian stood up to defend it.
SETTLING THE SCORE WITH NEDELJKA HAS HARMED THE COMMUNISTS MORE THAN TEN PARLIAMENTARY INTERPELLATIONS. THE LATTER UNIFIES THEM IN SELF-DEFENSE. IT IS THEIR “ESSENCE”, AND THE QUESTION IS HOW, IF AT ALL, THEY WILL SURVIVE IT.
With the fall of the Berlin Wall, which collapsed like an alarm clock, the defenders of the sickle and hammer, in the name of the “right to property of the results of their power”, transformed into the greatest thieves of “social property”. There is no tycoon without a communist pedigree! Overnight, they reorganised into a political defence formation of the greatest theft in the history of humanity. They disdain socialism. Financial oligarchy is its Central Committee. For example, a workers’ leader buys an apartment for 1.2 million euros. This government will never build the promised workers’ housing, partly for that reason.
Nedeljka paid the price for arrogance and her naivety, a characteristic of many intellectuals who wish to complement their academic achievements with political messianism. Kardelj did not accidentally label them as the greatest prostitutes, willing to do anything for honour and money. This is less likely to happen to a straightforward and sober person with common sense. Unless they are dominated by opportunism driven by hunger, mental illness, or moral-political perversion. Cynicism prevails: “Anyone who is not a communist by the age of thirty is immoral; anyone who is after that is an idiot,” and “It is better to be in the party and make mistakes with it than to be smart outside of it”.
Arrogance and naivety are twin siblings and gatekeepers to hell. As an intellectual and Slovenian, Nedeljka should have been familiar with the fate of one of the first Slovenian communists, Angela Vode. She could have learned something from the case of Vida Tomšič, whose husband they refused to save, and she believed in his martyrdom until death. Unfortunately, we learn nothing from history. Fortunately, the lucky ones are unfamiliar with the history of the communist party. What brought her into politics will leave an imprint on history. Communists acknowledged their abuse of her because they did not dare to invite her to a conference to defend herself. They would have failed on all fronts against her in public. They attempt to save themselves with the promise of clarifying their own crimes, which will never happen. Nedeljka did not fear them but symbolically dethroned Kardelj’s grandson as proof of her intellectual superiority over them. Given her age, intellectual and professional potential, and especially because of democracy, and being an attractive woman from Carinthia, she will likely survive and watch from the side-lines as her “comrades” drown in a century-old living mud. A monument to the German MEP who brought her into the party could replace both the “memory” of the revolution and Kardelj in Republic Square. The price Nedeljka pays for disobedience to a party that does not tolerate dissent will be terrible, but no sacrifice is too great for freedom. The Navalny case cannot happen in Slovenia. For now! Due to the hope for the party’s demise in as short intervals as possible, which, we hope, she has accelerated, she enjoys more sympathy than she might expect just for solidarity with the unfortunate.