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The UK election in 2015 and the British Left. An interview with Luke March.

Note from the LeftEast editors: this interview with political analyst Luke March (University of Edinburgh) was made by Artem Koretsky and Rouslan Kostiouk. It has originally been published by RabKor collective in Russian

RK: In May there will be parliamentary elections in the UK. After the last general elections in 2010, your country has faced an unusual situation for British politics: the existence of a two-party coalition government. How do you assess the current balance of forces leading the political parties?

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Staff and students join in struggle against financialization of higher education in the Netherlands

At first, it did not seem that the student protests at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) looked very different from the wave of movements against financialization of higher education that have swept over Europe in recent years. What makes the Maagdenhuis occupation different, and possibly more challenging, however, is the fact that students have been joined by a large number of staff members, including from the – mostly outsourced – support staff.

The demands of the joint movements, the ’New University’ and the ’Rethink UvA’ campaigns run by UvA students and staff, respectively, explicitly target neoliberal higher education policies in the Netherlands, ranging from the axing of “unprofitable” degrees to increasingly “flexible” labor standards and imposed teaching standards.

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On the mass migration of the population of Kosovo

This article was originally published on the Serbian online platform Masina: proizvodnja drustva kritike.

The recent wave of mass migration from Kosovo has, in the local media, been primarily reported through a nationalist matrix. So far, little to no attention has been paid to the structural and economic causes which, in the vast majority of instances, are the key trigger of these migrations. However, no sooner will many of these migrants arrive in their desired destination in some western European land, than they will be met with a stricter legal framework limiting the possibilities for seeking asylum and receiving work permits.

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STOP the International Russian Conservative Forum

The close ties between the Kremlin and many European far-right parties are not a secret. The current Russian government’s warm friendship with Marine le Pen has neither precluded official statements of “concern over the growth of neo-nazism” in Ukraine or the Baltic States, nor prevented some European leftists from voicing support, not only for Vladimir Putin’s policies, but for his rhetoric as well. Just at the moment when politicians from Die Linke or Jean-Luc Mélenchon express their disgust at the presence in the Ukrainian government of some representatives of the far right, an entire congress of European neo-fascist politicians will take place in Saint Petersburg, with unofficial support from Dmitry Rogozin, Russian Deputy of the Prime Minister.

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What lies beneath Die Linke’s silence over Syriza?

Despite its continuous vocal advocacy for radical changes in the EU economic and financial policies, Die Linke has remained to a large extent passive regarding the Greek government and its initial actions, relying predominantly on open declarations of support.

The formation of a Syriza-led government in Greece presents an important milestone for the efforts of the European left to abolish the current EU austerity policies. The latest steps in this direction were offered at the negotiations with the Eurogroup.

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Work, Art, and Deindustrialization in Rijeka. An Interview with Althea Thauberger.

This interview explores Althea Thauberger’s experimental digital film Preuzmimo Benčić (Take Back Benčić). The film was made in collaboration with 67 child performers from Rijeka, Croatia. Part documentary, part fiction, the film follows the children’s activities and reflections during a 6 week period when they occupied the H and T buildings of Rijeka’s former worker-managed Rikard Benčić factory. The site had served as a sugar refinery, tobacco processing plant, and ship and motor factory. It now sits empty and deteriorating after being closed and its workers fired during the privatizations of the early 1990s.

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Was the 8th of March cancelled in the Balkans this year?

Wrapped in a perfumed Valentine’s-meets-Mother’s-Day packaging, year after year International Women’s Day seems to become further stripped of its political flavour. What is worrying is that this occurs at a time when women face deteriorating conditions across the region, in their homes, at the work place and society at large. We asked activists, researchers and feminist thinkers, about the cross-temporal meaning of the day, the current state of women’s struggles in their countries and their sources of inspiration.

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International Women’s Day in the Balkans: Ankica Čakardić

Ankica Čakardić is an assistant professor at the Department of Philosophy, University of Zagreb. She coordinates educational programmes at the Centre for Women’s Studies in Zagreb, is a member of The Organisation for Workers Initiative and Democratisation, Croatia, Women’s Front for Labour and Social Rights and the Feminist-Marxist reading group FemFront.

“Unfortunately we can really only speak of a decline in the situation of women. During the 1990s the ground was prepared for the further accumulation of capital and privatisation of common/public goods.

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International Women’s Day in the Balkans: Anita Tolić

Anita Tolić is a member of the Initiative for Democratic Socialism and Institute for Labour Studies in Slovenia. “In the relative absence of an organized, progressive feminist struggle, the economic and social circumstances, which generate re-traditionalisation, re-patriarchalisation and re-domestification of women, threaten to cause even further regression of the historical achievements for which women (and men) have struggled.”

What does the 8th of March mean in Slovenia? How is it celebrated today, and how do you think its meaning/celebration has changed in recent years, and especially in comparison to YU-times?

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International Women’s Day in the Balkans: Eirini Gaitanou

Eirini Gaitanou, is a PhD student at King’s College London, studying social movements amid the crisis in Greece. She has been active in the social movements in Greece for over a decade and has participated in both practical and theoretical debates during this time. She is a member of the anti-capitalist coalition ANTARSYA, on whose ticket she stood as a parliamentary candidate in the recent elections.

“The reality brought about by the crisis affects women to the fullest extent.