Civil society has a lot of energy. But it is difficult to mobilise this energy because many find it hard to believe that action really matters. The more abstract an issue is to be acted upon, the harder it is. But problems that are visible to the naked eye have a stronger impact on citizens: an ill-considered local building project, a road in the wrong place, untreated homelessness, a street light that is out of order, a tree line that is scheduled for destruction, a missing bus route can all too easily become a basis for organising. There are already many, many examples that make it credible that these issues are worth even a dozen people taking a stand and taking action against public power. These are causes that mobilise real social energies that lie deep down.
Every successful cause, every successful organising is a chink in the shield of power that is thought to be inviolable. Those who carry such a cause through very often stay intact because they understand that they are the real social counter-power. Moreover, these examples are sticky: if they could do it in Gyál, why not in Vecsés? We can be sure that there will be others who will remember this. The more successful cases there are, the more people will believe in their own strength.
TASZ supports many such initiatives by providing legal advice on requesting public interest information, filing a public interest report, reporting a demonstration, adding legal aspects to technical material or even passing on known good practices. The organisations and projects presented here are just a taste of the diversity of the Hungarian civil society sector, to which TASZ contributes through its legal aid and knowledge transfer activities. We hope that this taster will stimulate the release of the social energies that are latent everywhere in the country. It will certainly bring us all closer to living together more freely and better in Hungary.
