Csatlós Judit (szerk.): Vízizrí. Munkáskultúra a Duna partján - Életmód és társadalmi mozgalmak a modernitásban 2. (Budapest, 2016)
Az erdei Telep /The “Forest" Colony - Baloldaliság / Life on the Left
Life on the Left In the history of the 1920s and 1930s written during the Kádár era (the three decades after 1956), the need to legitimise the past of the communist party caused everything related to the workers to be presented asa politically- conscious “workers' movement". The Colony was unable to keep itself free of this one-sided ideological distortion. After 1989, however, it was possible to examine the actual extent of political and ideological awareness in workers' culture and specifically the Colony. Guy Debord has described the workers' councils as “the highest level manifestations” of the proletarian movement in the first half of the twentieth century. This may also be true for workers' self-organisation concerned with leisure-time activities and workers’ culture. These movements carved out their own space and time, and their institutions (workers' hostels and libraries, associations) and art forms (recital choirs, workers’ song choirs, political theatre) became part of the culture of the workers taking part in the activities. The leisure time aspect is significant, because involvement was, in principle, a free choice. The time spent in workers’ culture, however, was not so much individual entertainment as consciously-formed collective activity that centred around the arts but was consciously distinct from bourgeois culture. The emancipation and active participation of women were specifically incorporated into its programme. Outside the social democratic party, left wing affairs were pursued illegally and under intense police surveillance. Organisations included the illegal Hungarian Party ofCommunists(KMP) and its youth wing and several other political and artistic groupsofvariousorientation (Weisshaus, Hartstein, Demény, 100%, Munka-kör and opposition groups). All of these were seeking space for themselves, and consequently made frequent appearances in and around the Colony. Since the associations were officially prohibited from political activity, the TTE leadership was unhappy with the appearance of politically "tainted” groups. Members carrying on political activity at TTE events risked suspension or expulsion. Increasing police attention had the effect of politicising workers' culture. As the “banned" signs went up, the arts-based collective leisure-time activities of workers’ culture gradually turned into a political activity even among the majority of members who presumably did not espouse the aims of the revolutionary workers’ movement. 29
