Free Mario Bango
Roma under attack in Slovakia
By Bill
Dorr
Mario Bango, an 18-year-old Roma organizer in Slovakia,
faces 12 years in prison for defending his family against a
racist attack. Local politicians and the media--much of them
owned by U.S. companies--are using Bango's case to intensify
bigotry against Roma people. Activists in that East European
country have formed a defense committee and are appealing for
international solidarity.
On March 10 Mario Bango and his twin brother Edo were
riding a bus in Bratislava, Slovakia's capital, when Edo was
jumped by a young racist named Branislav Slamka. This was not
unusual. Roma people in Slovakia today are frequent targets
of violence and beatings by neo-Nazi "skinhead" gangs. In his
early teens Edo was hospitalized after such a beating.
This time the outcome was different. Mario came to his
brother's aid and, in the course of the struggle, Slamka was
stabbed. The Bangos called the police and waited while Slamka
was taken to a hospital. At the police station, Mario Bango
was arrested while cops subjected his family to racist
anti-Roma slurs.
Slamka died several days later. Mario was charged with
"causing serious injury leading to death." The Bangos are
poor and have difficulty affording a lawyer.
Though Slamka was a known racist with reported Nazi
affiliations, the media and right-wing parliament members
have portrayed him as the "innocent victim" of Roma who were
trying to steal his wallet. Using racist stereotypes they are
whipping up a lynch-mob atmosphere against Mario, the Bango
family and all Roma people.
Roma people, also called "Gypsies," compose 9 percent of
Slovakia's population. They are the largest national
minority. Since the overthrow of the Czechoslovak Socialist
Republic in 1989 and its division into the Czech and Slovak
republics, Roma have lived under a reign of terror.
Right-wing political movements have tried to scapegoat
Roma for the suffering caused by the restoration of
capitalist ownership and the economic dictates of the
International Monetary Fund.
In reality the Roma have suffered the worst from
capitalism. The shutdown of Slovakia's formerly state-owned
heavy industries has hit particularly hard at the Roma, many
of whom were industrial workers.
They are the poorest people in a poor country. They make
up 40 percent of the prison population.
Edo and Mario have been fighters against this injustice
since their early teens. Believing in working-class unity,
they joined the Young Communist Lea gue and supported strikes
and labor protests.
They organized an anti-fascist youth march in Bratislava.
They helped poor tenants in a Bratislava suburb resist a
wealthy speculator who was trying to evict them from their
homes.
They also developed a passionate identification with the
African American and Native struggles in the United States.
This reporter met the Bango brothers last September in
Prague, where they had come to join massive protests at a
meeting of the IMF.
International solidarity urged
"Mario's life in the service of the oppressed has now been
interrupted by the attack of a misguided racist," said a
statement issued by the Mario Bango Defense Committee in
Bratislava.
"After one experience of a direct racist attack, after
years of fear of skinhead attack, after years of nonstop
stress while simply walking in the streets, after being
forced to stay at home every night to avoid violence and
after escaping several attempted attacks, a moment came which
was perhaps inevitable.
"Mario has been fighting for others for years. It is time
now to express to him our thanks. Therefore we ask you to
join us in demanding that the Slovak government drop all
charges against Mario Bango."
The statement asks that protest messages be sent to: Urad
Vlady, Office of the Government, Namestie Slobody 1, 813 70
Bratislava, Slovak Republic, phone 011 421 7 5729 5111, fax
011 421 7 5249 7595, email: urad@government.gov.sk; or to
Kancelaria Prezidenta, Stefanikova 14, 814 38 Bratislava,
Slovak Republic, phone 011 421 7 5441 6624. To send email
from the Slovak president's Web site at www.prezident.sk,
click on "VIRTUALNA POSTA," then click on "NOVY PRISPEVOK"
("new message").
Readers can send letters of soli darity to the Mario Bango
Defense Com mittee, PO Box 178, 850 00 Bratislava 5, Slovak
Republic, or email freemario@post.sk. Donations for his
defense may be sent to the Friends of Mario Bango, c/o
International Action Center, 39 West 14th Street, New York,
NY 10011. Make checks payable to the IAC and write "Free
Mario Bango" on the memo line. The funds will be forwarded to
the defense committee in Slovakia.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
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