Month: September 2015

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Mapping the Hungarian Left: parties and movements

source: Paprikapolitik.Com

By 2010, after eight years in government the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) had eroded the popularity to such an extent that MSZP lost 60% of its former voters (1.4 million people) and its traditional coalition partner, the liberal Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ) disappeared from the political map of Hungary.

In parallel with the weakening of MSZP and the disappearance of SZDSZ new parties and movements have started to rise in an effort to become inevitable political actors at the time of the parliamentary elections in 2014.

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Call for Support: Hungarian Left-wing organizations demand adequate policies for the refugee crisis

Migrants wait on a platform for a train at the Keleti train station in Budapest, Hungary, September 3, 2015 as Hungarian police withdrew from the gates after two days of blocking their entry. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger - RTX1QUXB

The crisis in Western Asia and North Africa keeps deepening. Neither the key North American and European actors in the one and a half decade-long armed conflict, nor their regional allies are willing to abandon the politics of brutal interventions, even if these are indefensible according to international law. The aim of maintaining political violence is clear: gaining control over the arms market, trade routes and sources of raw materials, most importantly oil.

NATO and the great powers are responsible not only for aggravating the crisis, but for the civilian casualties of the armed conflicts and the millions of forcefully displaced people as well.

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Why is Russia backing Assad?

Note from the LeftEast editors: this article written by the editors of the Russian socialist website OpenLeft.Ru was posted in an English translation by Nick Evans at RS21.Org.Uk.

A whole range of evidence [also here] indicates that Russia is activating its military aid for the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad up to the point of direct involvement of Russian troops in the Syrian conflict. Why now in particular, and what lies behind this?

Taken individually, neither military and political ties, nor economic ties between Russia and the Syrian regime are sufficient to explain the stubborn support for Assad from the Russian Federation, which had become the source of a serious conflict with the West even before the events in Ukraine.

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The Western Hypocrite at a Crossroads

The Western Hypocrite at a Crossroads

“I’m obliged, unfortunately, to note that the word ‘hypocrite’ has been and will continue to be a fixture within the diplomatic lexicon,” Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, announced recently, while talking about Russia’s divergence from the West on the situation in Syria. It is hard to argue with the point. If the American and European rhetorical attacks on Russian internal politics have focused on Russia’s imperial ambitions and its aggressive “revisionism” within Post-Soviet space, then Russia has answered those accusations with reference to “double standards” and hypocrisy.

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The far-right as a counter-hegemonic bloc to neoliberalism? The case of Jobbik (II)

source: BBJ.HU

Note from the LeftEast editors: This article has been adapted for LeftEast from the original in Eszmélet 105. Follow the link to read PART I: From right –wing movement to the third force in Hungarian politics: Jobbik’s ascendence 1999-2010

PART II: ‘National rejuvenation’ and ‘social justice’: the ideology and praxis of Jobbik

The two main main ideological concepts informing Jobbik’s worldview and actions are ‘national rejuvenation’ and ‘social justice’. The former derives from the idea of an ‘organic nation’, built on Völkisch, Christian foundations and encompassing the historical borders of ‘Greater Hungary’ as the natural foundation of society.

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The opportunities and challenges of Jeremy Corbyn’s victory for building a genuine anti-austerity movement

source: VersoBooks

Note from the LeftEast editors: The following is an analysis by long-time Toronto-based anti-poverty organizer John Clarke, about the implications of a Corbyn victory as leader of the British Labour Party for the fight against austerity in both the UK and in Canada (where a social-democratic party with a new ‘third way’ leadership is slated to win in the upcoming federal election this October).

It would be hard to credibly deny that the election of Jeremy Corbyn to the leadership of the British Labour Party has significant implications at a time when so many people (and not just in the UK) are looking for a way forward in the struggle against austerity. 

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#crossingnomore: “We have forgotten what it is like to feel safe”

by Caoimhe Butterly, source facebook

A few kilometres away from the small Serbian border town of Sid, a dirt track through corn and turnip fields serves as passage to tens of thousands of women, men and children seeking refuge and lives of more possibility. The unofficial border crossing between Serbia and Croatia is surrounded by sun-lit verdant fields, apple orchards in the distance and a calm that brings temporary respite to those who have been on the road for weeks or months.

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Looking through the fence: Hungary’s refugee psyche

Refugees crossing the border between Serbia and Hungary. Geovien So/Demotix. All rights reserved

by Eszter Kovacs, source OpenDemocracy.Net

While the Hungarian government uses a timeless mix of methods – fences, racism, police force, self-pity and tear gas amongst others – to argue against the right of people to flee war and attempt to gain sanctuary in Europe, we must remember it is not the only country doing so.

Hungary’s attitude reflects the xenophobic rhetoric of the current British government. It takes lessons from Australia, a country that detains its asylum seekers in off-shore processing camps.

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Lebanon’s Garbage Politics. And interview with Elias El Khazen.

Mattia Gallo: What are the reasons that led so many people to demonstrate in Beirut in recent days? How did the protests start? What are the claims, slogans, and demands of the people who took to the streets?

Elias El Khazen: Since the end of July, protests have been occurring in Lebanon against the failure of the Lebanese state, in its two instantiations, the pro-Syrian March 8th and the anti-Syrian March 14th coalitions, which have taken turns governing the country for the last decade, to agree on a new contract for waste disposal and the consequent build-up of rubbish in the streets.

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Greece: first thoughts on the electoral outcome

Note from the LeftEast editors: we post this comment written by an author with pseudonym Quincey, first published on AnalyzeGreece. We are looking for more analyses and reactions on the electoral results in Greece in the following week, so if you have authored anything or are planning to do so, consider submitting it to lefteasteditors [at] gmail.com

Some first thoughts on the electoral outcome:

1. First and foremost, it is a triumph of Tsipras. Not of SYRIZA.