Anarchy in Hungary 1989-2011
Local Traditions: Anarcho-Communism
Hungarian anarchist tradition basically stems from two roots. The first is the work of Hungarian anarchists — like Batthyány Ervin or Szabó Ervin — around the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, mentioned in the previous article. The other, much more lively tradition is the historical experience of the 1919 Soviet Republic and the uprising in 1956 (in the case of the latter a principal source is the confession of Angyal István). These latter events contain minimal explicitly anarchist content, so their mention begs explanation. In the international workers’ movement the anarchist and the council communist currents have numerous theoretical, practical and historical parallels despite the fact that they often distance themselves from each other and refuse to cooperate. Many Hungarian anarchists act like that too, but there are also many who acknowledge or even stress these parallels. That is how it is possible that in Hungary it is not uncommon to meet anarcho-communists who cite Marx and Proudhon, Bakunin and Pannekoek, or even the big Hungarian Marxists like Lukács György (also known as Georg Lukacs) and Mészáros István.
The Transition Era
The era of the transition has been naturally characterised by the growth in self-organised activity. Autonomous groups proliferated and tested state control in an increasingly unstable political situation. The most diverse concepts existed side by side about the transition and the reorganisation of society, often in lively discussion with each other. It is revealing that several anarchists took part in the founding of parties at the time. For example, they organised the Direct Democratic faction of FIDESz (the current party in power), which faction gave 3 of the 11 representatives of the party around the end of 1988 and the beginning of 1989.
By that time the so-called second public sphere has formed, a network of scenes, groups, events and cultural products that operated in the grey area between the public and private spheres. One of the most characteristic element of the second public sphere has been the samizdat publications (Hírmondó, Beszélő, Demokrata, and the third way Égtájak Között). These periodicals of limited circulation were first produced on typewriters, and later with various machines, but still not with press technology. Production and distribution was organised through conspirative methods, since the content was officially banned. The key figures of the second public sphere, like the samizdat writers, has been the subject of continuous police surveillance and harassment. On the other hand, very few received prison sentences of multiple years.
As control slacked, the second public sphere opened up and became known and available for more people. For instance publications previously circulated in close circles could be sold on the street. The moral of the population has been favourable for mobilisation. At the same time the international relationships through the Iron Curtain grew stronger, political activists could meet each other and exchange their views, while young people discovered such cultural currents as punk and anarchism. In such social context the first anarchist initiatives of the era begun.
Autonómia Group (1988-1990)
The group was the first anarchist organisation of the era of transition (1988-1990, the transition to the multi-party system). It started with meetings at a private flat in August 1988, and the founding declaration has been signed at the Eötvös Club cultural centre in November 17th, 1988. Then on, the group met at the same room publicly and on a weekly basis. It did not have any registered legal form or formal leadership. There was not even formal membership — persons belonging to the group participated based on their own needs and activity. There has usually been a few hundred people at the events from which 50-60 can be considered active members. They issued numerous flyers and calls, organised several demonstrations and in the summer of 1989 they published the single issue of the Autonómia newspaper in a thousand copies.
Their calls, declarations and press coverage reflect the anarchist spirit and the goals of the anarchist movement. They focus on individual and communal autonomy exercised with respect to the principles of direct democracy. According to their ideas, autonomous communities organised in social and economic life can replace all kinds of central control. Their social ideal is the network of autonomous communities of free individuals organised on a volunteer basis. In the sphere of economy they consider workers’ councils based on the workers’ individual ownership to be the building blocks of the free society to come. They refuse the institutions of power, the state structures, and have no ambition to take part in organisations that seek authority. In line with the international trends of modern anarchism they stand by the protection of minorities, feminism, anti-racism and ecology.
One of the largest street actions took place in August 13, 1989 at Budapest, during the anniversary of the building of the Berlin Wall. In March 1990 — in response to the old parliament having dissolved itself and the new one not gathering yet — they organised “Ex-Lex Days”. The most significant moment was when a dozen activists burned their identity cards and army cards in the presence of several hundred people. It is telling that even though the demonstration has not been officially registered, the police patrol that stumbled upon the event has not interfered. In May 1990 the group demonstrated against nuclear proliferation in front of the embassies of all nations which own nuclear weapons (including the USA and Russia).
The single issue of their newspaper reflects the political direction of the group. The declarations emphasise the basic principles of anarchism and urge everybody to organise autonomous communities. Several articles deal with the local social conditions, the ambiguity of the transition. Although they support the installation of a multi-party system, they state clearly that bourgeois democracy will not solve the basic social problems, the lack of autonomous communities and personal freedom. Their concept of social transition is that the people who become conscious organise from below and form their own communities, a process that propagates and renders central control redundant.
The history of the anarchist movement is represented by a Malatesta and a Bakunin text, as well as a presentation of the anarchist pedagogy experiment at Summer Hill. A long interview can be read with an English feminist about the need for abolishing patriarchal society.
The Autonómia Group dissolved itself in the spring of 1990 after eighteen month of operation. The remaining members continued their work individually or in organised form.
In April 1990 nine Hungarian activists participated in a major regional meeting of the movement organised in Trieste, which aimed to bring together anarchists from the East and the West in order to reconnect and evaluate the political situation together with the possibilities it offers.
Organisations formed following the dissolution of Autonómia
The GEO association existed as an official organisation between 1990-1995. Its goal was the formation of an anarchist life community in the countryside which can provide for the political and economical independence of its members. According to the plans they would have strived for an increasing level of self-sustainance. Around 40-50 people were mobilised around the idea with 15-20 people forming the hard core. The members bought land near the Hungarian-Austrian-Slovenian border spanning 8-10 hectare altogether. This would have been the economic basis of the coming community. The more far-reaching plans included a community that spans borders, so contacts has been established with Austrian and Slovenian anarchists. On the Hungarian side the price of land was low because of he isolation caused by the Iron Curtain, but on the other side land was still expensive. Consequently, no similar communities initiatives formed on the other side of the border. During the first years the members of the group travelled to the area regularly. There has even been a small farmhouse on the patch of one member. They planted fruit trees and organised presentations in Berlin and Amsterdam, but — since finally nobody moved there — the initiative died and in 1995 the members dissolved it formally as well.
The Nap anarcho-punk group was initiated by punks belonging to the Autonómia Group. A few dozen young people influenced by the punk subculture associated with the group from 1990-1992. An empty house in the Nap (“Sun”) street in Budapest has been illegally occupied and the community from there can be considered the antecedent of this group. The house in Nap Street (occupied in December 17, 1989) can be considered the first squat in Hungary. In the early 1990s there were squats in several towns, for example at Szeged, Szentgotthárd or Veszprém. The most widely known house in Budapest was in Liliom Street which was taken over by a French artist group on the summer of 1991 and another small group moved in after they have left. That place operated primarily as a cultural centre and in fact hosts one at the moment as well.
The Nap anarcho-punk group participated in the organisation of anti-militarist demonstrations and concerts. A solidarity demonstration with Berlin squatters on November 23, 1990, that resulted in police action, is associated with the group.
Anarchist Group Budapest (1990-1993)
Amongst the groups formed following the dissolution of the Autonómia Group the Anarchist Group Budapest (Budapesti Anarchista Csoport) became the most well-known. AGB was founded in the summer of 1990 without formal leadership or official registration. The 15-20 regular members payed a membership fee, but there were also 40-50 people who joined in the activities for more or less time. Its sympathisers and supporters around the country numbered several thousand. The group held weekly gatherings, organised lectures and debates, as well as public actions. They published the Anarchist Newspaper from 1991 to 1995, nine issues in general, with a circulation of 1500-2500. One tenth of that went to subscribers and the rest found their readership through street vendors.
The Anarchist Newspaper — according its own declaration — was written for free individuals. They envisioned social transformation as a process of long-term, non-violent “social revolution” and considered anarchy a “pure, radical humanist thought”. They propagated mutual help, social solidarity and autonomy in all spheres of life. They considered the economy and information as the crucial fields in the fight against the modern capitalist state. Their economic goal was to put the forces of production in the hands of the workers who use them. They formulated the idea of the establishment of an anarchist economic sector and a communication network with press and schools. The newspaper exercised continuous anti-militarist propaganda, took positions against the Gulf War and the Bosnian War. It represented a strong ecological view, objected to experimentation on animals, advocated vegetarianism and scorned McDonald’s for the environmental destruction it brought about. Anticlericalism also had a voice in the newspaper. In the summer of 1991, the 1991/4 issue — timed for the pope’s visit to Hungary — concentrated on the Catholic Church. Because of the extra security protocols in place, several street sellers of the newspaper has been arrested and the copies found confiscated. After months of investigation the case has been closed without charges and the copies returned. The position of women was a frequent topic, especially discrimination against women. The paper took a clear-cut feminist stance. It opposed racism and strongly criticised official politics. A characteristic article title calls “No God, No Nation, No Family!” (92/2). Other common topics include international affairs, with reports of contemporary anarchists efforts in Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany and Spain.
The AGB transformed itself in the autumn of 1992 and took up the name Anarchist Federation Budapest.
The group organised demonstrations regularly: against militarism (Day of Non-violent Forces 1990, 1991, September 13, 1992, March 1993), against the Gulf War (January 1991), against nationalism (December 13, 1991), against the Bosnian War (January 28, 1993), and on May Day (1991). During the time when young people would have to commence military training — because military service had been compulsory at that time — they routinely distributed flyers at the gates of barracks. The group held an unregistered demonstration in front of the Ministry of Defence with the participation of hundreds. The police dissolved the crowd and arrested around a dozen people. The previous demonstrations were generally organised without permission, but this has been a turning point and from this point on they did not organise larger actions without registering.
They organised a conference in the spring of 1991 on the uprising in Kronstadt and in the summer of 1991 on the apropos of the papal visit.
On the summer of 1991 the group got an office in the 13th district which operated under the name Decentrum until autumn 1993. It was a place for the weekly meetings, the alternative press reading room, lectures in front of an audience of 50-100, and the office of the Feminist Network.
They participated in the founding of Alternative Net which worked for a while as a loose network of different groups, its largest undertaking being the countrywide gathering at Gödöllő in 1993 where hundreds participated.
The group organised a national meeting at Nyíregyházán — where a local anarchist group called Kép-Más Kör operated from 1990 until the middle of the decade —, and on this meeting the Hungarian Anarchist Federation was founded. According to their proclaimed goals and principles they concentrated on fighting for a world without authority. They stressed the importance of solidarity and self-organisation, aiming at a non-violent social revolution.
The Federation did not do any practical activities.
The AGB ceased its operations after it lost its office in the autumn of 1993.
In 1994 regional federations were formed from the national federation: North-East (Debrecen), South-East (Szeged), South-West (Pécs) and Budapest. There has been national and regional meetings, local actions, publication and press products. Irregularly published newsletters informed about these activities. A few hundred people were organised through these means. The movement gradually lost its impetus and the federation-type organisations ceased their activities during 1995 and 1996.
From the second half of the 1990s there was no comparably known anarchist initiative.
From 1994 to 1998 there was a “class warrior alliance” which aimed to combine the traditions of anarchism and communism. This small group was a kind of intellectual workshop which communicated its positions principally through its publications. The program declaration states that they aim to defeat capitalist exploitation (“world capitalism”). The human race have broken into two classes, whose interests are antagonistically opposed to each other. The gravediggers of capitalism are the proletariat, the organisation of the proletariat, so they are not anarchists or communists, but classist. “We want no reforms, but revolution!”
Views along this line has been published in Anarcho-communist Akció (1994, 2 issues), Tengerszem (“Tarn”, anarcho-feminist periodical, 1994-1995, 6 issues), Kobra (1994, 6 issues) and Anarchia (1995, 3 issues). Each of these papers were published around a hundred copies, like the Barikád füzetek (“Barricade notebooks”) brochure series. One of these latter, entitled History of the Class Struggle in Hungary, 1919-1945, has also been translated and published in English, and it is an important source for the history of Hungarian anarchism. These publications are characterised by their wide international and historical perspective which blends with a radical critique of the system.
At the same time, the anarchist Vörös és fekete újság (“Red and Black newspaper”, 1996, 1 issue) and Kerítéstörők (“Fence brakers”, 1996-1997, 4 issues) were also published.
The Budapest Anarchist Troupe worked between 1995-1997 comprised of a few dozen young people. BAT mainly focused on propaganda like posters and graffiti, but some press can also be linked to this group: Anarchoid (1995-1997, 6 issues), MAD (1995, 3 issues).
Turn of the millennium
Around the turn of the millennium there has been a generational brake in the anarchist movement. This meant new blood as well, but also that the experiences of the previous cycle took long to transmit. With the disappearance of the old groups many anarchists found themselves in a vacuum. On the other hand, since travel abroad was not restricted any more, a closer international cooperation started, working through specific groups and mostly individuals.
By the middle of the 1990s what many anarchists stressed during the transition era became an accepted social reality — namely that the multi-party system and the market economy does not bring either general welfare nor individual freedom. Social differences grew suddenly and dramatically, partly driven by the process of privatisation. The system of the parties that were founded during the transition stabilised and were following each other according to a more or less predictable dance card.
The horizon of social change thus grew narrow, and in response lifestyle revolution and personal expression came to the foreground. On the other hand, as an effect of the alterglobalisation movement many anarchist-like “institutions” appeared, such as Food Not Bombs, the infoshop, the freeshop and Indymedia. IMC Hungary operated from 2001 until 2010 and more or less successfully provided a platform for the information flow between the various local and international anarchist and other efforts. It also gave space for debates that arise from these contacts.
Centrum Group (2003-2007)
Centrum Group formed in the process of two exhibitions that were thematising squatting, the second one being the Guerilla Propaganda Workshop at Dinamo gallery (2002 autumn). The group aimed to occupy a large property in Budapest in order to establish self-organised and self-governing institutions and an anticapitalist living community. The group did not explicitly advocate any ideologies — its members were mostly activists, students and punks. However, anarchists were at the hard core of the group and this shaped the theoretical debates and their practice. All in all, they squatted four buildings: the former Úttörő Áruház (“Pioneer Shopping Mall”, November 2004), the former Flórián cinema, the house under Kazinczy Street 41. (October 2005), and finally a property at the Újpest area of Budapest.
All these attempts were short-lived because the activists have not constructed strong barricades or seriously prevented the evictions in other ways. The meetings drew 10-30 people and the biggest action (at Kazinczy Street) involved around hundred people. The activity of the group generated a media attention unprecedented in the 2000s, thanks to the fact that direct action and self-organisation were virtually absent from the public consciousness at the time. As a result, the actions generated heated social debate. The last two occupations resulted in legal proceedings against 41 and 6 persons respectively. The first court hearing became a media event where the activists and journalist who were charged could individually present their views on squatting in answer to the judge. The court finally accepted the defence of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union which argued that squatting is not detrimental to society, and indeed in some cases it can have a positive effect, thus it is not a crime. However, since Hungary does not have precedent law, in the second case the court found the squatters guilty, and released them on probation. The group soon dissolved, acknowledging that they failed to find a strategy to achieve their goal.
A whole series of more or less lasting initiatives were born in the halo of Centrum (see the poster Our Goal is Life by the Model Museum of Budapest Squatters project). These roughly complemented each other in the context of a holistic movement building idea, but because of the overlaps in personnel they easily lost their wind. The Guerilla Propaganda Collective developed and taught the means of visual interventions in urban space. The Ruga Negra identified itself as an urban folklore group, and has been activey mostly in the area of visual propaganda and public art, like the Indyvisual op-pop art group or the contemporary iteration of Antifascist Action. Other initiatives concentrated on discussion, developing consciousness and debate, like the anarcho-communist debate circle, the separate male and female feminist self-development groups, the nights of the Autonomous Club, or the Community of Autonomous Youth that has been started with ambitions of a national network. The reading group of Society of the Spectacle shows how the scene has been under Situationist influence, but at the same time almost every strand of anarchism has been represented in some way. From 2005 to 2007 the activists of Centrum operated the activist/anarchist club AK57 where they held a freeshop, a library, an infoshop, workshops and living spaces. They held public and closed events as well. Two successive commune experiments has built on these experiences including around 8-10 people. The second one fell apart in 2009.
The 2010s
Since the decline of the second generation it is not clear yet where and how anarchism will reappear as an effective movement. The gap has been bridged somewhat in spirit, physical and human resources by the infoshop project, which has been reorganised in a number of spaces (squats, AK57, in Tűzoltó Street, at the Tűzraktér cultural centre, Kaszinó community space, Romház and Béla Club). Kaszinó operated in 2010-2011 in an old casino building (in the old sense of the word) between Nyár Street and Klauzál Street. According to the aspirations of the participants the activities here aimed at realising automomy and forming a community based on a community space. Besides actions, exhibitions, education and workshops there was also time for looking at collabration and communication with local and foreign groups. In contrast, Béla Club has been founded by more experienced activists and so far it housed lectures about the history of working class struggles, parties, and meetings. The rent is financed through membership fees. Meanwhile in the art scene there has been a continuous production of works and projects in the anarchist spirit, often presented in Liget Gallery. There is also a group called Community of Anarchists which organises regular meetings and distributes leaflets under a black and red flag at major demonstrations.
After the turn of the millenium there were no massive and explicitly anarchist groups, but at least a number of fanzines and websites have been published. The former include Gyújtózsinór (“Fuse”, 2001-2005, 6 issues), the Centrum publication Úttörő (“Pioneer”, 2004-2007, 4 issues), and Aktivátor (3 and a half issues during the last years). The latter started in the zeroes and many are still updated. Such a website is Anarchoinfo (http://anarchoinfo.zxq.net/), Társadalmi Forradalom (Social Revolution http://www.tarfor.hu/), Holnapután (The Day After Tomorrow, http://www.holnaputanujsag.eoldal.hu/), the website of the Barricade Collective (http://www.anarcom.byethost2.com/), Változás (Change, http://valtozas.org/), and the Rednews portal (http://www.rednews.hu/).
In 2006 the Öszöd speech triggered the first real riots and street fights of post-transition Hungary which shocked the general public. Since then the far right have successfully established a colourful and fertile array of subcultures which spawned not only the Jobbik party which is in the parliament at the moment but various paramilitary groups as well. Meanwhile FIDESz (a right wing party) returned to power in 2010 commanding an overwhelming majority, now using totalitarian methods to ensure its hegemony in all social spheres. A part of society answers with moral panic, which sometimes manifests itself in the street in the form of demonstrations and self-organisation within the limits of democracy. Anarchists have not found themselves in such a difficult historical situation since the change of system, but the anarchist idea have never been so relevant and anarchist practice so necessary.
Post scriptum
The compilation above is not at all complete, and we mostly miss what happened on the political punk and radical feminist scenes. Conspirative groups and actions are not listed, but we warn that a proper historical evaluation would have to consider covert operations as well. We hope that the documentation work will continue. At the moment we can add this much to the nourishment of historical consciousness.
Anarchu documentation at http://anarchu.metatron.sh/
