Belarusian Professional Protesters in the Structure of Democracy Promotion

Abstract

This article analyzes divisions within Belarusian protest communities by focusing on a particular group: the professional protesters. In Belarus, this group occupies a crucial position in between the international structures of democracy promotion and the internal attempts of political mobilization against the politics of President Aliaksandr Lukashenka. Performativity as an analytical perspective is employed to define positionality of professional protesters in relation to other political subjects and within the system of democracy promotion. The article shows implications of neoliberal rationality for social and political changes for protest communities in Belarus. It argues that the financial assistance obtained by protest professionals, as well as nondemocratic leader ship style of the oppositional leaders, fills the Belarusian protest field with suspicions and accusations, add to a hierarchical and exclusionary way of participation in decision-making, and alienate activists from protest politics.

Untitled

“…The so-called 'old opposition' appeared to be disoriented and unable to lead the people willing to go to the streets. NGOs also played a minor role in providing organizational resources to the masses of protesters, possibly because of being corrupted by the history of enforced and encouraged marginalization (Minchenia 2020). The protests, instead, have been coordinated by local groups and through social networks (Gabowitsch 2021).…”

“…In this tradition Lukashenka's authoritarian populism has been described as relying primarily on coercion (Goujon 2002;Eke and Kuzio 2000;Rouda 2019), and Belarusian society has been diagnosed as lacking national consciousness (Marples 1999), acquiescent to the terms of a 'social contract' with the ruling elite (Gaiduk, Rakova, and Silitski 2009). Additionally, Belarusian opposition has been characterized as corrupted and lacking support among the broad population (Minchenia 2020;Pikulik and Bedford 2019). The explanations of recent social and political protests stemming from this approach (Merzlou 2019;Mudrov 2021;Ishchenko 2020) do not account for their timing, their mobilization and coordination outcomes, or their capacity to impact the decisions of the authorities.…”

Wild Border of Politics

“…In autumn 2020, Todar, the Belarusian singer mentioned earlier, was one of many Belarusian musicians who performed in neighbourhood concerts -informal gatherings of residents between housing blocks -that were a distinctive feature of the protests in Minsk at that point. The nature, catalyst and consequences of the Belarusian protests have been widely debated, especially in relation to previous protests, activism and self-organisation in Belarus (Ackermann, Berman and Sasunkevich 2017;Minchenia 2020;Wałyniec 2021). Further discussions have taken place about their relationship to changes in the economic structure (Gapova 2021), digital technologies (Gabowitsch 2021) and external political manipulations (Bekus and Gabowitsch 2021).…”

Types of protest: essence and basic concepts

“…Бүгінгі таңда маңызды əлеуметтік ресурстарға отбасы, өзара көмек беретін топтар, коммерциялық емес жəне қайырымдылық ұйымдар, дін орындары жатады. А. Минчения (Minchenia, 2020) Мәдени наразылық Наразылықты мəдени тұрғыдан саясиландыру кез келген мəдени мəселені саяси шешудің реакциясы деуімізге болады. Кез келген субмəдениет басым көпшіліктен мінезқұлқымен ерекшеленетін қоғам мəдениетінің бөлігі ретінде көрініс табатындықтан наразылық белгісі деп пайымдауға да болатын секілді.…”