Eastern EU states want ban on Soviet symbols

international | eu | other press

Friday February 04, 2005 11:10

by Rosebud

EU: European Parliament members from eastern Europe called for a ban on communist symbols such as the hammer and sickle yesterday if the European Union decides to outlaw Nazi symbols, such as the swastika.

MEPs from the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania and Slovakia said any ban should also cover communist symbols, because of killings and torture suffered by people in the former Soviet Union or countries under Moscow's domination.

"If there is to be a pan-EU ban of the swastika . . . we would like to see symbols of the communist regime banned as well," Hungarian deputy Mr Jozef Szajer said.

The deputies wrote to EU Justice, Freedom and Security Commissioner Mr Franco Frattini to press their demand.

EU justice and interior ministers are to discuss a possible ban on Nazi symbols in the light of a recent scandal over Britain's Prince Harry wearing a swastika at a costume party, as part of proposed rules to ban racism and xenophobia across the 25-nation bloc.

Mr Frattini's spokesman said the commissioner did not think it would be appropriate to include Soviet-era symbols in that ban.

"In the context of discussions on fighting racism and xenophobia, including anti-Semitism, this may not be the most appropriate context for discussing a ban of Soviet symbols," Mr Friso Roscam Abbing said. - (Reuters)

© The Irish Times

save preference

Comments (5 of 5)

what do these symbols actually mean?

by Iain

Mon May 09, 2005 18:45

the swastika has been used for centuries in buddhism, jainism, hinduism and many other religions. are we to ban a symbol that to some people holds religious value?

as for the sickle and hammer, that was lenin's sign. stalin simply used it for his own ill deeds. I happen to believe strongly in worker rights and to me, that is what it symbolizes. by banning it, you are simply ignoring the original meaning and passing the blame from stalin to lenin. I have family that died because of him, I don't support anything he did, but that doesn't make me want to ban the symbol he STOLE from a good man.

that would mean repeating the Great Terror of century XVIII to XIX

by believer - "its the rack for you!" LOL

Fri Feb 04, 2005 12:20

religious symbols means Western Art.
Music, Painting, Literature, it is all inseperable from occidental belief patterns.
The humanists of the French revolution did try to clear Notre Dame of Paris, but then felt the need to raise an altar to rationality. They renamed the months, they tore down the statues but then raised others to yet new idols curiously all in anthropromorphic form. The slow birth of "Marianne" as a symbol quickly included the pangs which plunged all of Europe and much of the Americas into the first mechanised and total wars of the modern age. As such both Soviets and NAZIs found they could not "ned religion" they needed to subvert and pervert its inante purpose in the human condition which is the public or private statement of non material existance.
(i'm waxing now...) LOL

Get rid of all religious symbols so

by Non-believer

Fri Feb 04, 2005 12:14

Millions have been killed in the name of religion. Surely that's the natural progression of this pc madness.

One problem now in the East and Centre of Europe

by hmmmmmm

Fri Feb 04, 2005 12:13

is the move to revisionism and denial of the darkness comitted in the name of both conflicting utopian state ideologies of the XX century.

We've to think about it, its more than just symbols,
but it's not quite the last page of Animal Farm.

think about it

maybe this really is a question for local communities.

by hmmmmmmm

Fri Feb 04, 2005 12:08

Grass root level, street level, municipal authorities if need be. These symbols are detested by some communities and genuinely fondly remembered by others. It seems pointless to open up these scars at times by imposing common trans-state policies.- If we look northwards we see a situation where symbols and flags is one of the main points of contention, yet neither side would accept a complete ban of all symbolism,- would they? "You are now entering the north of ireland where no flag may legally be flown and the only colours you can use are purple, yellow black and white."

Certainly in the case of the swastika, all civilised society is in agreement, but someday that symbol too will have to redeemed from its mis-use, but not quite yet...
In Spain local communities now have the right to remove the remaining symbols of the falangists which are mostly found on social housing project buildings.
In some areas they gladly remove them, they remind them of the oppression of dictatorship. In some they want them to stay because the majority there are reminded of the cheap house they got during the dictatorship.
I reckon we ought worry more about the symbols of the future, which are those of corporate entities and stop them being plonked by marketing imperialism on top of every famed landmark in the East.

Upcoming Events

New Events

Other Press

User Preferences

Feeds

Blog Feeds

Anti-Empire

The Saker

Lockdown Skeptics

Voltaire Network

Eastern EU states want ban on Soviet symbols

Comments (5 of 5)