Written by Sara Baptista de Sousa
A country without culture ceases to have values. This was the most heard in the Cultural Protest that took place on October 13, in Lisbon, Portugal. From Praça de Espanha, ordinary citizens, artists and arts managers, participated on the riot in what was called “Woodstroika”.
The primarily motto of this demonstration was given by the maestro Claudio Hochman, head of the Symphonic Orchestra, who presented the protest has a “cultural manifestation, nonpartisan, suprassindical”. Thousands of protesters occupied almost entirely the Praça de Espanha, and attended the opening of the event with the concert of the orchestra that played Beethoven’s fifth symphony. But “Woodstroika” was not a festival or a party, but a protest; a national protest that happen, at the same time, in Lisbon, Oporto, Aveiro, Coimbra, Braga or Santarém, where each town had a different programme. This was the first major reunion to sensitize that culture cannot be destructed, that it is a stone of our own identity as a country. Sentences like “a nation without culture is an empty nation” echo through the streets.
Besides the common citizens, dozens of popular Portuguese artists joined the protest, from Peste & Sida to Rádío Macau, or the duo of guitarists Dead Combo, passing through some typical fado with the group Deolinda, and many others, in an unusual reunion of artists, offering their free services to to the fellow protesters. This was a day for culture, where artists took the stage and did not fail to mention the political and social situation of the country. For these artists and art workers, the cuts in the cultural budget are terrible and are making the creation impossible to happen. We have the creativity, but we do not have any means to reach it, so this is destroying the imagination process for all the art workers throughout Portugal. Budget cuts are affecting the cultural area in several ways, with the Government even talking about the dissolution of one of our public channels – the only one that focus its programming in art and culture.
Lisbon is desesperate, but does not act like Greece, the riots were peaceful, were the music and the dance and happenings were joined by the presence of actors or directors, in an union for a better cultural Portugal. Our culture is very important and the artists have a close relationship with their audience. We can easily reach out and talk to an artist. We can see an actor on the bus, or a musician in the subway. We have an unusual freedom that leads us to this protests and that joined generations that are fighting for them, their families and their right to work, but most important, the right to have cultural freedom. While the Greek create brutal riots with victims, Lisbon prefers to sing their protests out, and showing that a country is nothing without its culture – with this way of thinking, we believe that our ideas will echo more. Culture is
the first sector of society to feel the crisis, and in the protest marchers where shouting that we have reach a time “when a man as turn into a dog”, as a Portuguese musician has said.
Portugal is angry, and its capital, Lisbon, is the key point where everyone goes to express their discontent; Portuguese citizens are lifting themselves up to put a stop on this growing discontent. This riot didn’t involved any form of brutality, and it was more like an cultural event that a riot, something where Lisbon proved to be the master – revolt without injuries or victims.
