After the Wall

After the Wall
Democracy and Movement Politics in the New Europe
Edited by Patrick Burke, Mark Thimpson and Hilary Wainwright
TNI/Pluto Books, 1992

The Eastern European revolutions of 1989 brought to an end the Cold War division of Europe. Yet in the months since that "hot autumn", it has been foreign ministers, IMF officials and multinational executives who have made most use of the new mobility across Europe. But now social movements in East and West are also beginning to take advantage of the new opportunities to shape the future of Europe.

This book is a record of one of the first post-revolution meetings of activists from the two halves of Europe. In June 1990, at the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam, members of Civic Forum, Solidarity, the East German Independent Women's Association, and others, met Western peace activists, feminists, Green activists and trade unionists for three days of lively and probing discussions about democracy in the new Europe. These discussions focus on a shared hope of democracy and on the threat to its growth. There is disagreement. But there is also much common ground: a shared commitment to the importance of popular movements independent of the state and political parties; a common stress on personal responsibility for change; and a common desire for social arrangements through which to achieve both freedom and social justice, pluralism and equality. Social movements have a key role to play in establishing a democratic, peaceful, just and ecologically sustainable order in Europe. This book will show you how some of them are trying to do just that.

Contents

Introduction by Hilary Wainwright
Europe of the Elites

• Security Structures in Europe, by Mient Jan Faber

Social Movements and Political Power: East Central Europe

• Civil Society in Power, by Tomaz Mastnak
• Social Movements and Parliamentary Democracy in East Germany, by Vera Wollenberger

Social Movements and Political Power: Western Europe

• How Democratic are Parliamentary Democracies? Greenham Common. Case Study, by Lynne Jones

Social and Democratic Regulation of the Economy

• The Transnational Information Exchange, by Jens Huhn and Dirk de Jager
• Economic Transformation in Hungary, by Julia Szalai
• The Role of Small Enterprises, by Mario Pezzini

Democratising Public Services

• Women in Local Government in Britain, by Di Parkin
• Women's Education in Sweden, by Stina Sundberg

What Kind of Europe?

• Istvan Rev. The Helsinki Citizens' Assembly, by Julianna Matrai

All chapters include a report of the discussion.