Degtyar Valentyn
Gostynnyi Dvir: a Case-Study of Civic
Activism
Modern civic activism more and more often takes forms of mobilizations,
because of certain issues or conflict for the use of city space. Such types of
protest bring together very different concerned citizens and groups mostly
standing aside from political parties. Gostynnyi Dvir in Kyiv is a recent
example of such public initiative. The following case-study is an exploration
of the its dynamics. Up to this time, as the story develops, tactical lack of
resources and the cold time of the year resulted in radicalization, but
decrease of efficiency of resistance to Gostynnyi Dvir commecialization. It
first started as a peaceful occupation and establishment of free cultural
space, which hosted hundreds of visitors and dozens of events daily during the
warm time of the year, particularly summer, 2012. Large enthusiasm was sparkled
in various actovist sources, however the coordination of participants was
insufficient to quickly achieve strategic victory over the construction company
“UkrRestoration”. Most recently protesters have been expelled and nationalistic
political parties try to join into the protest, although this scares away many
of the creative people and artists, who initiated fight for Gostynnyi Dvir as
free cultural space.
This small research is a
case-study of civic activism focusing on public protests against Gostynnyi Dvir
privatization enduring in Kyiv since May, 2012. As it is only a small research
it is not methodologically precise as to focusing on specific research
questions, but it serves as an exploratory research and an introduction into
the field of grassroots civic activism.
The case-study itself is
presented as a narration based on empirical materials of
participant observations, talks with activists and media monitoring of related
news.
The structure of this article is the following. The up-to-date story of Gostynnyi Dvir protests is told. Then, a discussion placing this story in the wider context of occupy protests worldwide is suggested.
The Gostynnyi Dvir Protests Story: from ‘Civic Campus’ to a Hotspot
Situated in a prime
location at the heart of Podil, between Kontraktova and Sagaidachny squares and
directly in front of Kyiv-Mohyla main building, Gostynnyi Dvir became a hotspot
of public protest against commercial development.
The upsurge of recent
protest activity began in May 2012, however some artists suggested the idea of
creation in Gostynnyi Dvir of an open cultural space before and there were some
uncertain attempts to do it at that time. The more powerful ongoing movement
since 2012 became possible, because of significant enhancement of Kyiv protest
networks and civic activism capacities. This can be explained by interplay of
such three factors: spreading of social networks Internet, the emergence and
popular action of urban movements against development projects, especially the
Save Old Kyiv initiative, general growth of protest networks and mobilization
structures in Ukraine, including the rise of new left, that is, roughly
speaking, anarchists, neomarxists and new social democrats, and autonomous
rightists, better known as the Ukrainian nationalists.
In April 2012 the Kyiv
City State Administration (KMDA) authorized reconstruction of Gostynnyi Dvir
into a new office and trade center. In a month time, initiative group of
concerned citizens, autonomous network activists, artists and journalists
called for a peaceful protest to be held near the building at Kontraktova
square on May, 26, which they declared an ‘alternative day of Kyiv’ [Lebedeva,
2012, May]. The initiative group named “Right for the City” used to organize
protests against public space privatization before. These were ‘picnics’,
temporary space occupations or other symbolic activity. This time a ‘picnic’
grew into a fullscale occupation. One of the activists brought a sledgehammer
and smashed the lock on one of the gates into the yard of Gostynnyi Dvir. So a
lasting occupation by the public started.
That day the initiative
group publicly declared the emergence of Gostynna Republic designed to serve
Kyivans and citizens as free cultural space, arena open for all peaceful
gatherings, lectures, workshops, parties, art exhibitions and so forth [Gostynna
Republic website]. They opened up a facebook page and other media channels and
launched a powerful networking, involving all possible types of collectives,
cultural and educational initiatives, other protest groups. The participation
framework was defined as non-party, so the initiative core distanced from any
collaboration with parties. At the same time they engaged into court processes
against the development company “UkrRestoration”.
At the very first days
developers tried to scare protesters off by welding the entrances to the yard,
but protesters secured the main entrance from the side of Bogoroditsa chirch
and established a vigil there. Soon a banner was installed, the arch entry now
looked as gates to another part of the world. They intended it to be “something
between Hyde Park, European squat, open gallery and resistance HQ” [Ievtukhov,
2012, p.1].
Numerous public events
were held in the yard. In the warm time of the year, especially summer, the
schedule of activities at Gostynnyi Dvir was very intense. Journalists and
civic rights organizations organized seminars for public activists and
by-standers, eco-activists educated on environmental issues, pollution,
recycling and so on, in the evenings people just came from all over town for
much fun like salsa dancing, open theatres or other activity. Overall, the spot
became a lively place with both fun and meaningful activities. The space itself
was filled with critical art like a monument to Yanukovich or Boyko oilrig. So
besides various public activism largely expressed was the popular disliking of
top rulers. They also opened an indoor open gallery dedicated to
anti-development projects protests. These protests aim at securing public
areas, like parks, alleys, squares and etc. against construction, to keep it
for the public. One of the exzibits at that gallery was a copy of the blue cat
from the Peizazhna Alley that many Kyivans love. This is a reminder of
successful mobilizations against certain groups of interest, which wanted to
seize the Peizazhna Alley. Hundreds of people visited these events and saw the
exhibitions.
Things
got harder for protesters as winter came. Particuarly, in December the
developers activized and brought more construction workers to the site. They
took one of inner premises and started reconstruction works. Guards hired by
the developers started a brutal offensive against Gostynnyi Dvir defenders. By
December, 21 they have captured the site, there are reports of tear gas usage and
blockade of activists by the private guards. Police did not interfere.
Journalists report that Berkut even supported the “UkrRestoration” guards [Shestopal,
2012, December].
From that time on the
Gostynnyi Dvir became a matter of confrontation. The Gostynna Republic no
longer functions and the open cultural space is currently gone. There seems to
be a shift in allocation of activist sources. The field action of direct
confrontation with the developers workers and guards was taken up by rightist
forces, recently Svoboda party tried to join this action and be noticable. In
what has been the hardest fight for now, in February 2013, Berkut beat several
people and about 30 were detained. Alongside field action, there are persisting
trials and picket actions of the initial movement core – the anti-development
projects activists of “Right for the city”. They picket various authorities and
appeal to law enforcement agencies for justice.
So, summing up, a
straight line of radicalization of Gostynnyi Dvir protests can be seen. The
occupation tactics, which allows to open up a free cultural space vibrant and
lively is effective to preempt violence and generally enlighten citizens,
however for reasons of weather and activists’ lack of resources, the offensive
of developers was possible in the cold time of the year. The further story is
yet unknown, but the potential for succesful mobilizations related to the issue
is strong.
Discussion: Revitalization of City Space
The
dominant framing of such areal protests is that of resistance to the commercial
system, where private capital dominates. The civic protest is that of creating
human value instead of playing the game of creating money value. The logic of
dominating capitalist system is exposed as the one penetrating all spheres of
human life and colonizing the city space with endless advertisements and
competetion for consumers. Resistance to this is therefore called
“revitalization of city space”, that is promoting and securing spaces of public
use such that serve everyone and mostly for free: parks, libraries, cultural
spaces etc [Harvey, 2008].
About
a month ago V.Brukhovetsky commented to one media that he adressed Kyiv authorities
with a suggestion to allocate Gostynnyi Dvir to Kyiv-Mohyla academy. Appeal
received no support from officials, of course, the student community liked the
idea a lot. Think of how V.Brukhovetsky himself won the whole place of the now
NaUKMA, which then used to be a totally different institution. This is a
reminder that real life space is that of tough contest.
Finally
some phylosophical questions can be proposed: how can common good be achieved
for the comfort of Kyiv inhabitants or is private ownership of everything still
better and more efficient?
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