Oh, sorry... without anti‐semitism. A national communist on YouTube Cover Image

Przepraszam...bez antysemityzmu. Komunoendek na youtube
Oh, sorry... without anti‐semitism. A national communist on YouTube

Author(s): Łukasz Drozda
Subject(s): Anthropology, Media studies, Politics and society, Nationalism Studies, Film / Cinema / Cinematography, Sociology of Politics, Identity of Collectives
Published by: Szkoła Wyższa Psychologii Społecznej
Keywords: popular culture; Bohdan Poreba; Grunwald; crowdfunding; nationalism; german­ophobia; anti­semitism; real socialism; YouTube

Summary/Abstract: The article describes a case of a marginal po­litical movement from the past, its presence on YouTube and its vlog commentary from the perspective of culture studies and political sci­ence. It is about a Polish national communist Bohdan Poręba’s movement called Patriotic Alliance “Grunwald”, which combined in its philosophy expressive nationalism, German­ophobia and anti­Semitism with approval of real socialism. After the Polish transition the“Grunwald’s” leaders lost their political status and have started trying to find a new politi­cal area in the internet. Poręba who was also a famous film director began working on a pa­triotic film funded through crowdfunding. It turned out that even his filmmaker’s knowl­edge was not enough to break such barriers of social network as technology and work fea­tures. It proved the characteristic of YouTube as the most democratic medium which gives a possibility of publication for niche authors, however does not enable breaking a monop­oly of mainstream’s representatives. Appear­ance on YouTube is not an impulse for po­litical movement’s renewal. It only supports bonding of a shrinking national communists’s community.

  • Issue Year: 36/2013
  • Issue No: 02
  • Page Range: 128-139
  • Page Count: 12
  • Language: Polish