Specifics of National Antiglobalism

Ukrainian antiglobalists staged another rally in front of the cabinet building on January 30. This time the reason was the official campaign against pirate CDs. What actually happened was that a group of university students identifying themselves as the antiglobalist movement of Ukraine gathered by the entrance, bringing a box pasted over with photos of pop stars and bearing the legend “Money for Starving US Pop Stars.” The box contained 93 hryvnias 60 kopiykas collected January 23 by the gate of the US Embassy, urging passersby to contribute whatever they could for the US pop stars that had “suffered so terribly” from Ukraine’s rampant CD piracy. The antiglobalists did not want to send the money via the embassy, presumably considering that it would be safest to use a domestic carrier. Iryna Holub, one of the project coordinators and a student in the Philosophy Department of Kyiv’s Shevchenko National University, said it was “profoundly symbolic” and that it was “not the purpose but a means of drawing public attention to the ideas of antiglobalism.” Among the latter Iryna most emphasized “the struggle against the economic and political dictatorship that the United States is trying to impose on the whole world.”

However, of all the participants (totaling about thirty), Iryna and her comrade-in-arms Taras Frolov, also a philosophy student, turned out to be the only ones knowledgeable of “the great ideas of antiglobalism.” The rest could just struggle to formulate their simple understanding of globalization in general. No one even tried to get near antiglobalism. Actually, there were a host of enigmatic aspects to the event. To begin with, one could not help but wonder about the sort of telekinesis bringing thirty individuals to the same place at the same time, considering that they were not members of any formally registered organization and did not even study at the same university; they had no regular meeting places. Last but not least, they had not met before the rally. Taras Frolov (another project coordinator) declared that “people came here because they really care about the future of Ukraine and the rest of the world; they don’t want to see all five continents painted the same gray color several years from now.”

The antiglobalists took their time figuring out how to convey the money until Ivan Boiko, head of the cabinet’s public relations department, went out and told them it was best to leave the box at the public reception office, specifically at the letters and parcels desk (sic), whereupon the campaigners, accompanied by journalists, headed for the public reception office on Sadova Street. At the office, the idea was received with a visible degree of skepticism. The students were informed about the formalities to be observed. Counting the money was mandatory. The students listened and then stepped aside to hold counsel. Finally they declared they were off to count the money and then left in a direction best known to themselves.