I, of course, am against bureaucracy, but it seems to me that if a social movement begins, it should have some hierarchical structure. In other words, one should be the general coordinator and everybody should hearken to his instructions, one should be responsible for conveying information to the media, the other – to negotiate with the police, and another one, for instance, to organize the daily routine of the protesters, if they stay in the same location for several days.
A day before, the youth protesting against the electricity price hike did not have such a structure, on June 24, this organizational core, fortunately, began glimpsing. Although it was still noticed that there are groups and individuals who were feeling themselves be an “independent town district”. A clear structure of social movements is necessary to achieve not only given the objective to cancel the decision about the electricity price hike, not only to avoid possible provocations but also to achieve a higher level of self-organization.
Political party rallies are different: they, as a rule, are notified, the request-form is submitted to the Municipality is signed by specific people, and it is assumed that the first figure of the party is in charge of everything, including, to some extent, the disproportionate actions of the police, due to which, the protesters of the rally may suffer. But, in the course of the history of the independent Armenia, a situation is created when the majority of our citizens do not trust the political parties. Many of the political organizations have a considerable experience in rally combats, but they are unable to use this experience because they cannot (without money) provide a proper mass of protesters.
“No to robbery” initiative or those who now organize rallies does not have such an experience, instead, he has a certain reserve of trust, which, of course, can be lost, in fact, both in the case of being overly conciliatory (which goes by itself), or being overly “non-conciliatory”, if this second option does not result in anything for a long period of time.
Young people need to be ready for various doubts expressed about them here and there, on the right and left, inside and outside for having connections with this-or-that person, starting from Americans up to Tashir Samo. They need to be ready that the political parties lacking an adequate supply of trust are jealous or will try to impose their own agenda on them. These are the necessary phases of the establishment not only for the civil society but also for the entire state.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
