The fact that anti-fascism is becoming mainstream today is a good thing, only if it is not an empty trend that means absolutely nothing, such as posting photos (of Sava Kovačević) on the internet and not dealing with current problems that are happening, or "I am a great and outspoken anti-fascist", while at home I oppress my wife, said the writer. Lana Bastasic at a panel discussion organized by the Center for Democratic Transition (CDT) on the occasion of its 25th anniversary.
She also spoke about how important it is to be aware of our privileges, to view them in a way that we are not always the victims in a particular situation, but rather to what extent those privileges affect others and how we can help them, the CDT announced.
"Naomi Klein, whom I love very much, said it well, that fascism is always the answer to a crisis, whether that crisis is real or imagined. We definitely have real crises and then it (fascism) looks for the culprit in the wrong place, where it is easier and where capital will be protected. What surprises me now is not fascism where I absolutely expected it - some circles in Banja Luka or Belgrade or Zagreb, we know exactly what the vocabulary is and what the ideology is, but I also see it among those who oppose it, some of them would even call themselves leftists and are involved in some art, and in fact the way they speak and act is very problematic," Bastašić added.
Speaking about the literary scene in the region, she said that it is wonderful that there is diversity, that everyone has their own expression, and that there is solidarity among writers.
"I think it was easier for me to write when no one knew I existed, now I have pressure, now it's different," said the CDT interviewee, emphasizing the importance of libraries, assessing that they are often the first symptom of an impending illness.
Responding to a question about how individual identity is viewed in the region, she said that this topic has been imposed on all of us.
"Wherever I go, they ask me who you really are, where you're from, how you identify yourself, what the language you speak is called... People are obsessed with it, and I don't understand it, not out of some Yugo nostalgia, but because these things don't say anything about me. Now, I'm here to tell you, raise your hand if you're Montenegrin, what do I get from this information, every person is different. First, we need to accept that this is something that changes and that it's a good thing that it changes, it means that we can all work on ourselves and be better. Apart from change, these are the people in my life, cities more than countries, a film that changed you in some way, the music we listened to, the humor that some people have and some don't, so these things are much more important to me," Bastašić added.
Reflecting on her stay and work in Germany and the fact that, due to support for Palestine, she ended cooperation with local publishers, she said that the country is a very complex country, which "never dealt properly with that so-called guilt", that is, that they never "really got rid of fascism".
"There were a lot of colleagues when the anti-Palestinian censorship started in Germany, really left-wing colleagues, who had the best intentions, who told me that your job is to write, your strength is in the written word, you need to focus... For me, that moment is actually the same as: just do your job and keep quiet. Because what if my job is to be in the army, your job is to shoot? In the end, it's the same logic, because it's bizarre that I'm writing about these people, I'm writing about what war does to a person, what war does to children. It's bizarre to me that when that's really happening, I'm silent. It makes all that other work meaningless," said Bastašić, adding that if she can talk about Srebrenica in Banja Luka, then she can certainly talk about Palestine in Germany, and that no one has and will stop her from doing so.
The writer and author of the award-winning novel "Catch the Rabbit" gave, as reported by CDT, an interesting answer to the question: "Should we be ashamed of loving partisans?"
"Excuse me? We should be proud of that. What I find bizarre is that some people in Serbia are calling me both a 'communist' and a 'mercenary from the West'. I'm trying to explain that these things don't go together and that if there is any influence from the West, it's revisionism. In two places I've seen the greatest fear and resistance against communism, as if it were the worst thing in the world, and those are Belgrade and New York. In New York, when you say communist, it's as if the devil has descended from heaven," Bastašić said.
She said that it is "really stupid" that, even though we are not nostalgic for the Yugo, we ourselves are erasing "the only thing we can truly be proud of" - anti-fascist history.
"It's incredible how we erase ourselves from the anti-fascist struggle, from the national liberation struggle, while the Americans and British make films about it and win Oscars," she added.
Bastašić is also the author of three collections of short stories: "Permanent Pigments", "Fireworks" and "Milk Teeth". Her latest book is "The Red Suitcase", a diary from Zurich.
Bonus video:
