gisw13_chapters

BULGARIADivided movements, divided rightsBlueLinkRosa Vroom and Pavel AntonovBlueLink.netIntroductionThousands of people crowded on the streets of Sofia,Varna, and Bulgaria’s other major cities in thefirst months of 2013 demanding change and immediatereforms in government. But unlike previouswaves of protest over the past two decades, thistime it was not about removing one party from powerand replacing it with another. The crowds nowchanted against all political parties together, bothruling and opposition. What had ignited a spark in2012 as an environmentalist protest against unlimitedconstruction in the country’s pristine naturalareas has now expanded into a firestorm of socialand civil society demands against corporate monopolies,overwhelming corruption, privatisation ofthe national railways, and ever tightening austerity.Demands were made by civil society for reformsthat would guarantee adequate public participationin decision making, transparency, access to justice,fairer politics, and improved living standards. Thewave of anti-status-quo protests reached its peakin February, when the centre-right government ofBoyko Borissov (a police general and former securityguard) resigned, the parliament disassembled,and preliminary elections were scheduled for May.The purpose of this article is to examine the wayin which women’s, gender and LGBT rights movementsand activists have been part of these recentdevelopments in Bulgaria, touching on the role ofthe internet in creating virtual communities.Policy and political backgroundIn what appears to mark an important new stage in Bulgaria’spost-socialist developments, civil society hasreacted decisively against democratic and economicdysfunctions 1 that had accumulated over the periodcommonly described as “transition” 2 . A problematic1 Brunwasser, M. (2009) Bulgaria Still Stuck in Trauma of Transition,New York Times, 10 November. www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/world/europe/11iht-bulgaria.html?pagewanted=all&_r=02 Smith, A. and Pickles, J. (1998) Introduction: Theorising transitionand the political economy of transformation, in The PoliticalEconomy of Post-Communist Transformations, Routledge, London.concept in itself, 3 “transition” implies a unidirectionaldevelopment from something supposedly ultimatelyevil (dictatorial state socialism) to a supposed capitalistparadise of democracy and market economy. Thisconcept has been instrumental in sidelining and marginalisingcritical thought, and preventing alternativesolutions and views of how society should operate,paving the way for a prevailing discourse which prioritiseseconomic development and financial profit overcollective and social interest. 4Although the development of civil society hasbeen largely influenced by this mainstream discourse,“islands” of resistance have taken shapearound issues and problems of collective interest,such as the protection of nature, endemic poverty,quality of health care and education, access to justice,and the rights of minorities. In this contextgender rights have also received attention. Civilsociety structures around these issues have consistedmostly of project-based grant-funded NGOsand policy think tanks. Grassroots activism andparticipation has been relatively rare, concentratedaround specific issues (e.g. threats on protected areas,changes to family laws, etc.) or occasions (e.g.Sofia Pride – the annual LGBT parade), and very feworganisations have enjoyed sustainable membershipacross the past decades.Growing access to the internet, 5 and particularlyFacebook and other social networks, have broughtchange to this picture. The internet and socialnetworks have offered a medium for unlimited communicationand exchange of ideas and thoughts,which has compensated for the decline of independentmass media and deteriorating standardsof journalism and freedom of speech in Bulgaria. 6Arguably the internet and social networks have3 Welsh, H. A. (1994) Political Transition Processes in Central andEastern Europe, Comparative Politics, 26(4), p. 379-394. www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/422022?uid=3737608&uid=2134&uid=2474118273&uid=2&uid=70&uid=3&uid=2474118263&uid=60&sid=211026348034834 Smith, A. and Rochovská, A. (2007) Domesticating neoliberalism:Everyday lives and the geographies of post-socialisttransformations, Geoforum, 38, p. 1163-1178.5 Internet World Stats (2010) Bulgaria: Internet Usage andPopulation Statistics. www.internetworldstats.com/eu/bg.htm6 Reporters Without Borders (2013) World Press Freedom Index.fr.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/classement_2013_gb-bd.pdf80 / Global Information Society Watch