Cooperation of the Regional Committee of the Union of Gypsies-Roma in Hodonín and the Regional Committee of the Union of Gypsies-Roma in Senica in 1969-1973 Cover Image

Spolupráce Okresního výboru Svazu Cikánů-Romů v Hodoníně a Okresného výboru Zväzu Cigánov-Rómov v Senici v letech 1969-1973
Cooperation of the Regional Committee of the Union of Gypsies-Roma in Hodonín and the Regional Committee of the Union of Gypsies-Roma in Senica in 1969-1973

Author(s): Dušan Slačka
Subject(s): Ethnohistory, Post-War period (1950 - 1989), Ethnic Minorities Studies
Published by: Masarykova univerzita nakladatelství
Keywords: Czechoslovakia; Roma people; borders; federation; ethnic emancipation;
Summary/Abstract: The first two Romani organisations officially approved by the authorities in Czechoslovakia – the Union of Gypsies-Roma in the Slovak Socialist Republic (Zväz Cigánov-Rómov – ZCR) and the Union of Gypsies-Roma in the Czech Socialist Republic (Svaz Cikánů-Romů – SCR) – were established in 1968 and 1969. The areas of activity of the Regional Committee of ZCR in the Senica district and the Regional Committee of the SCR in the Hodonín district neighboured each other at the Moravian-Slovak border, which was the area– in the late 1960s – of the re-established border between the two partly autonomous republics of the newly federalized Czechoslovakia. During the quite short existence of both organisations (both were terminated in 1973), the aforementioned Regional Committees were not able to carry out closer cooperation. This paper aims to show the reasons why the cooperation of these neighbouring organisations did not reach the level expected by their regional officials and also tries to explain the situation in the late 1960s and early 1970s in the broader historical process of influencing the lives of Romani communities for many generations connected by a shared history, family links and common dialect of the Romani language, living in south-eastern Moravia and western Slovakia, by the often-changing politico-administrational arrangements in this area.