Lefteast
Note from the editors: The following article is published in collaboration with the British socialist website, Counterfire.org.*
Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat their mistakes. Surveying the arguments put forward on the left in response to ruling class debates about whether the imperialist countries should intervene in the Syrian conflict, there appears to be more than an echo of arguments from the past: there appear also to be many of the same mistakes.
Note from the editors: On Saturday October 24th citizens in Montenegro went out on the streets to prevent further degradation of the constitutional order and demand the formation of a Government of National Unity to organize the first free and fair elections in the country. This protest went on following violent dispersal of peaceful civic protests on Saturday, October 17 th, and subsequent police assaults. Civic protests of a non-partisan character followed on Sunday October 18 th.
For more than a week the so-called Balkan Route is passing through Slovenia. The Slovenian government intended to impose the entrance quota of 2500 refugees per day. Croatia answered by sending the refugees and migrants over the so-called “Green” border. This controversy between Slovenia and Croatia created dire humanitarian conditions for the refugees and migrants. The Slovenian government used this humanitarian emergency produced by states and what they call a chaotic situation on the Southern border to rapidly militarize the society and call for an EU summit on the Balkan Route.
Note from the editors: Following the developing situation in Montenegro, where a popular uprising is slowly emerging against the 25-year rule of the governing Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) dominated by the figure of Milo Djukanovic, LeftEast is including a statement below that was signed by many prominent individuals and activists in Montenegro’s public life, including community leaders, feminist organizers, LGBT activists, etc, and circulated in the days before last Saturday’s protest.
The statement calls for a cross-class, multiethnic and civic movement to emerge and support the demand for the country’s first, free and fair elections that wouldn’t be under the control of the ruling party.
by TheRussianReader
October 26, 2015
Boris AkuninBoris Akunin:
In Russia, two distinct, completely dissimilar peoples live side by side, and these peoples have long been bitterly hostile towards each other. (May the Byzantine double-headed eagle that Ivan the Third selected as the country’s emblem go to hell in a hand basket.)
There is Us and there is Them.
We have our own heroes: Chekhov, Mandelstam, Pasternak, and Sakharov.
They have their own heroes: Ivan the Terrible, Stalin, Dzerzhinsky, and now Putin.
Note from the LeftEast editors: This article by Carne Ross was originally published in the Financial Times on 23 October 2015.
Perhaps the last place you would expect to find a thriving experiment in direct democracy is Syria. But something radical is happening, little noticed, in the eastern reaches of that fractured country, in the isolated region known to the Kurds as Rojava.
Just as remarkable, perhaps, is that the philosophy that inspired self-government here was originated by a little-known American political thinker and one-time “eco-activist” whose ideas found their way to Syria through a Kurdish leader imprisoned upon an island in the Sea of Marmara.
Note from the LeftEast editors: this article was originally published by the Balkan web-portal Bilten.org.
On August 25th, in Brussels, Kosovo’s Prime Minister, Isa Mustafa and his Serbian counterpart, Aleksandar Vucic, signed the Agreement on the Association of Serb majority municipalities in Kosovo. This was the flash point and most disputable event of the three year negotiation process between Kosovo’s government and Serbia’s government. From the moment that it was made public, there was the conception that we will now have a political entity that is based on the national division of the country.
LeftEast Editor’s note: For a couple of weeks now hundreds of citizens of Kosovo- have been rallying in support of greater autonomy for the University of Pristina. Gathered under the slogan ‘For University’ they joined in support of the Rector’s proposed reforms for improving the quality of higher education. Yesterday’s dismissal of the Rector by the Governing Council of the University, sparked outrage amongst his supporters from “For University”, who called for a protest scheduled to start at 11:00, on 22nd of October outside the Ministry of Education in Pristina.
It was not long ago that Poland’s name echoed throughout the whole civilized world, that its fate stirred every soul and provoked excitement in every heart. Lately one no longer hears very much about Poland – since Poland is a capitalist country. Do we now want to know what became of the old rebel, where historic destiny steered it?
– R. Luxemburg, The Industrial Development of Poland
The state of things
In August 1980, Polish society united to change the political system of the country and make democratic socialism possible.
From the editors: Early Saturday morning Montenegrin police brutally tore down a peaceful encampment that was set up in front of the National Assembly by a fraction of Montenegro’s opposition that had been calling for a new electoral law and fair elections for the past 20 days. In the evening, police deployed tear gas and rubber bullets against protesters and arrested several, including directly targeting journalists and MPs.
While till now many in Montenegro have held back supporting these protests – given the sometimes (though not exclusively) nationalist iconography and messaging – citizens groups and independent intellectuals are now mobilizing against the police crackdown.
