Month: January 2015

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Toward Universal Happiness

Note from the LeftEast editors: There was once a time when utopias were a significant cultural form of the left. Nowadays, our political imaginaries have run dry. The societies we can conceive of, even the changes we consider possible to our present state pale in comparison to what the socialists of the early 20th C or the social movements of the 1960s were capable of. Even the obvious truism “Another world is possible!” today sounds defiant, provocative.

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A government of the Left in Greece: the coalition of SYRIZA with ANEL and what lies ahead

Source: Greekreporter

After January 25th, with the landslide victory of the radical-left SYRIZA over the right-wing New Democracy, we have in Greece the first (and only) left-wing government ever elected in a European Union member state. This alone is already a major development, not only for Greece and its crisis-ridden society, but also for a Europe struggling with numerous problems and impasses and for its peoples anxiously searching for alternatives to the dominant neoliberal model. But many have found it difficult to celebrate SYRIZA’s victory as a ‘victory of the left’, since SYRIZA immediately formed a coalition government with the small populist right-wing party Independent Greeks (ANEL), raising many questions and worries among leftist voters and various commentators in Greece and abroad.

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Dancing in Kosova

Note from the LeftEast editors: this article has been originally published on the website of Vetevendosje site, and is reprinted in LeftEast with the permission of its author.

This year a new documentary titled Dancing in Jaffa debuted to international acclaim and won awards in some international film festivals. It tells the story of dozens of Palestinian and Israeli children learning to ballroom dance together, portraying the idea that, as L. Bento explains in his recent article in the Huffington Post, “At the heart of every conflict lies a misunderstanding, often influenced by cultural biases and preconceived notions of acceptable behavior.

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Greece: Promising the meta-austerity era: Directions and dilemmas

by Theodora Vetta & Anastasios Grigorakis, original source FocaalBlog

Thessaloniki, 21 January 2015.

Since the announcement of the Greek elections, Greece has once again become the center of global attention. We know that just by watching the news on Greek TV channels. We learn bits and bytes about the discussion that has opened around possible scenarios for debt restructuring, possible domino effects of a Grexit, or analyses of the failed rescue plans. Yet, we learn substantially more about public statements coming from Wolfgang Schäuble and company, statements that address various audiences and that are meant to have disciplinary effects, to foster fear (or “reason,” in their terms).

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Fighting Fascism in Macedonia. An interview with Mariglen Demiri.

Note from the LeftEast editors: this is an interview by Mattia Gallo with Mariglen Demiri, a student of Philosophy at the University St. Cyril and Methodius in Skopje and a member of “Solidarnost” (“Solidarity” in English). Solidarity was formed in 2012 with the aim of humanizing society, promoting anti-capitalism, and fighting against all nationalist and fascist forms of organization. The interview was held in December 2014.

 

MG: What are the reasons behind the most recent mobilization of students in Macedonia?

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Greek Election Results Live

font-weight: normal; text-align: left;” target=”_blank”Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream

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To whom does Trepca belong? To the miners of Trepca!

source: Marks21, Serbia

Statement of the revolutionary socialist organisation Marks21 in Serbia

(in Serbian ovde)

In the past week, a dramatic struggle has been fought over the mine of Trepča.

Trepča is a lead, zinc and silver mine. In the time of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, it was one of the main producers of the mineral wealth of the country and it employed 20,000 people.

Today, Trepča, like Kosovo, is divided. Since 1999, Trepča is under the care of the United Nations, kept on trust until its privatisation.

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Unconditional support for SYRIZA

I will try to be short and I will try to explain the importance of SYRIZA’s victory for me as a leftist from Kosovo. I will try to present some of my points of view on how I see the problem of the Left today, on the concrete or symbolic meaning of SYRIZA’s victory for the Left worldwide in general and for the Balkans in particular, and about the reasons why we should support SYRIZA now and without any condition.

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In support of SYRIZA

Note from the LeftEast editors: with this text Left-wing activists working in/on East-Central Europe support the struggle of SYRIZA in Greece in the coming election on the 25th of January 2015. If you would like your name or that of your organization to be added to the list, please write to lefteasteditors [at] gmail . com

 

The focus of international public opinion is on Greece as it holds general elections on 25  January. The predicted victory of SYRIZA, the party of the radical left, is a threat to the austerity regime imposed on the  country by the  ‘Troika’: the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

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Florin Poenaru: Nature, Nationalism and Anti-Capitalism in Romania

Research Paper Series of Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Southeast Europe No.1

In autumn 2013, Romania witnessed some of its biggest post-1989 protests. From September to about early December tens of thousands of people took to the streets in major cities of Romania. The reason was the project of an opencast mine in Roșia Montana, a small mining town located in the Apuseni Mountains. In the making for almost 16 years, the project has been mired in controversy.