Полицейската акция срещу „Окупирай“ в Кипър: автоетнография върху „За 1 грам“
The Police Raid on ‘Occupy’ in Cyprus: an autoethnographic account of ‘For 1 Gramme’

Summary/Abstract: This chapter explores issues of inspiration and motivation on how a poem (in turn becoming a song) was created in connection with a specific situation of injustice, namely the Police Raid on the ‘Occupy’ protest in the Buffer Zone in Nicosia, Cyprus, on the 7th of April 2012. Taking into account a number of ethical considerations that embrace the role of art and free speech, expression and social critique (Islam, 2015), a set of ideas and discourses will be explored through an autoethnographic journey – from context to inspiration/motivation/creation and sharing as a form of alternative media via online social media platforms (Facebook and Soundcloud). Contextualization will also be discussed through the sub-genre of dub poetry as a practice of cultural resistance against oppression (Linton Kwesi Johnson) and a much wider set of debates on the presence/absence of songs with political content. Additionally, the chapter will focus on a detailed contextualization of ‘Occupy’ in Cyprus as a non-hierarchical grass roots protest moment and the manner in which this was destroyed by state police intervention. This will consider the specificity of ‘Occupy’ in Cyprus in the Buffer Zone as expression against militarism and occupation, as well as the more generic aspect of ‘Occupy’ worldwide as a counterhegemonic form of political activism.

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