"We ourselves are interested in resolving this issue": Attempts by socially-engaged Roma in post-war Czechoslovakia at self-organization and political participation (1945-1968).
Abstract
Chapter in a book on the efforts of Czechoslovak Roma to participate in the negotiation of Roma directed approaches and policies, from local administration level to the central level institutions, and to establish an organization that would represent their interests in the negotiations with state representatives during 1945-1969. While existing historiography concentrates rather on the period 1969-1973 and on the establishment and activities of the only official Romani organization in communist Czechosovakia, the Union of Gypsies-Roma, Sadílková discloses the processes and developments that have prepared the grounds for the actual establishment of the Union, analysing in detail the cooperation of Romani individuals with local and regional administration.
The text contributes to the study of societies under communist dictatorship and the agency of members of (marginalized) minorities inside state structures. The text is based on a large number of documents of Romani provenance, either newly discovered or so far not analysed in greater detail.