Using education to politicize the Roma community

This collection of texts is the result of a project of political education of Roma minority which has been implemented by the Serbian Roma Forum for many years, with the support of the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Foundation for the Southeast Europe.

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The primary importance of the project lies in providing elementary knowledge from a wide field of economic and political theory and history – which, in the context of the two decades long informal education of the Roma community, represents an absolute rarity. The usual programs aimed at educating the Roma community,have avoided for decades anything to do with politics, because they are primarily oriented towards benevolent multiculturalism and the promotion of cultural identities. There was no talk of spreading the political literacy, nor was it considered necessary. Moreover, with the institutional acquisition of cultural autonomy, the Roma people had no actual say in the matter. The Roma community got “their” politicians, and they politically represent their community. It seems to be a very simple thing, the so-called alphabet of democracy! And yet, everything that is so self-explanatory in the concept of bourgeois parliamentary democracy, has been the subject of argued criticism at these workshops.