Belarusian Professional Protesters in the Structure of Democracy Promotion

Alena Minchenia

doi:10.3167/arcs.2020.060113

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.

Highlights

This article analyzes divisions within Belarusian protest communities by focusing on a particular group: the professional protesters
A concert without a march was, on the other hand, seen as a betrayal of the real cause the opposition was expected to support, and the professional protesters promoting it were derogatively referred as “the concert opposition.”. In his announcement “Political opposition has no right for Helsinki [sic] syndrome” published on Facebook and Vkontakte, Mikalai Statkevich, one of the most active proponents of street actions, frames this division among the Belarusian protest communities as follows: Today, many people confuse the political opposition with non-political civil organizations and initiatives . . . What is normal and enough for the latter is absolutely not enough and sometimes not normal for the former
Subjectivity of professional protesters as it is defined in this article from the perspective of performativity has multiple dimensions

Summary

Introduction

This article analyzes divisions within Belarusian protest communities by focusing on a particular group: the professional protesters. Like their international colleagues, activists of Belarusian political organizations have faced effects of professionalization of activism that differentiate their access to resources of the protest economy.

Results

Conclusion