Abstract
The postwar period symbolized for many later Romani politicians and activists a possible new beginning after the atrocities of the Second World War. The introductory quote relates to Anton
Facuna's speech articulating his hopes that the Romanies were embarking on a new path at that period. Therefore, some of them joined the Czechoslovak Communist Party in the early 1950s. In my short intervention, I would like to concentrate on the frames of political action (its successes and losses, opportunities, or limits) in State Socialism by employing the theoretical hegemonic concept of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. In this sense, I try to depict Slovak Roma as a heterogenic group equipped with a wide range of negotiating strategies partly based on the categorization coined by the political scientists Timothy Agarin and Aidan McGarry (politics of representation, voice and influence). I will focus on the following questions based on the theories by e. g. Pierre Rosanvallon or Jan Teorell: How can we define a political action? In what respect can we talk about the political participation in the postcolonial categories, or in which contexts ought to be, to some degree, cautious about such comparison? To what extent were Slovak Roma able to determine themselves? How did the situation change after the Velvet Revolution?