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Mapping Workers’ Struggles: The Position of Workers in the Post-Socialist Balkans

This is the third instalment of contributions from the Balkan Social Forum’s working groups. This week’s instalment is by the Working Group on Workers’ Struggles, which was composed of: Mersiha Beširović, Heiko Bolldorf, Maja Breznik, Stipe Ćurković, Petre Damo, Robert Fai, Marko Grdešić, Mario Iveković, Jovica Lončar, Branislav Markuš, Tibor T. Meszmann, Davor Rakić Kićo, Jasna Petrović, Milenko Srećković, Romana Zidar, and Jovica Lončar (coordinator)[1]

Introduction

The discussion of the group had several general goals, both aspirational and concrete: sharing information, connecting union activists with other civil society organization activists, and members of the academia, finding overlaps in knowledge, connecting theory and practice, searching for a common vocabulary, inclusive solidarity-based identities and agendas, locating national and sectorial similarities and differences and searching for tentative strategies which can be effective in a variety of settings.

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Turkish Homeland, Russian Roulette

Turkey’s decision to shoot down a Russian fighter jet over the border with Syria was a first in the history of the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance (NATO) and may yet become a pivotal moment in the unfolding of the Syrian civil war, but it did not come out of nowhere. Over the last week pressure has been building within Turkey over the assault on Syrian rebel positions by the Russian Air Force and ground forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.

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Albania: Students protest against neoliberal education reform

Students in Albania are taking to the streets against a major neoliberal reform affecting higher education. The reform is promoted by ‘socialist’ Prime Minister Edi Rama. We interviewed Redi Muci, a member of the movement “Për Universitetin” and a lecturer at the Polytechnic College of Tirana. (This article first appeared in Left Voice).

What is going on in the universities in Albania currently? Why are students mobilizing?

The Socialist Party that holds office in Albania recently passed a law in parliament which will implement a neoliberal reform with dire consequences on the future of higher education.

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The Balkan Route: Winter is Upon Us

“Self-organized solidarity and mutual aid initiatives have for months been the only thing preventing complete breakdown and disaster along refugee routes through the Balkans. But the ad hoc nature of this activism has shown its limits, and now that bureaucracies (both state and non-) have started lurching into ‘action,’ the effect has been to limit autonomous efforts even further, without replacing them with something better. Quite the contrary: with winter coming, border, customs and immigration officials in many countries are making it harder for refugees to find relief, or it to find them.

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Art and Politics in Russia in a Time of Crisis

On our trip to Moscow in June 2015, we met with Ilya Budraitskis, who spoke to us about the crisis facing Russia today and its effects on art and culture. Budraitskis’ argument is presented here alongside drawings by Sveta Shuvaeva, whom we also met while in Moscow. These works were made over the last two years in reaction to the mediation of current events in Russia by the Internet and television. [This article originally appeared in post].

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“Fuck off, Google!” Interview with Nick Dyer-Witheford

The interview was conducted in Kyiv, Ukraine following a lecture by Nick Dyer-Witheford at the National Technical University of Ukraine “Kyiv Polytechnic Institute” (NTUU KPI). We would like to thank those who brought this lecture and text to life, namely Yurii Dergunov, Volodymyr Ishchenko, Serhiy Odarych, Alona Liasheva and clearly Nick Dyer-Witheford.

On Marxism and cybernetics

Starting from the era when a strong Marxist sociology developed, including structural functionalism, communicative approaches, the Frankfurt school, etc. In your opinion, to what extent does it make sense to use Marx’s dialectical approach for analyzing phenomena of robotization, mass communication, information revolution, developments that Marx and his followers could not even imagine, especially taking into account the mechanisms of governing, control, and violence concentrated in the hands of the ruling class?

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Economic Alternatives for the Balkans

This is the second week that LeftEast features texts prepared by the working-groups of the Balkan Forum. This week’s text addresses the exploration of economic alternatives in the region. The Balkan Forum’s Working Group on Economic Alternatives was composed of: Petra Rodik, Vladimir Cvijanović, Primož Krašovec, Vladimir Unkovski – Korica, Milan Medić (coordinator).

The global economic crisis, which began with the collapse of the U.S. real estate market in 2007-2008, was reflected unevenly in the Balkans, but had similar end results.

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It takes one to mobilize one: Polish tenants’ movement as an example of a mobilizing organizational structure

This article demonstrates how cultural dispossession preventing the Polish marginalized from collective action can be reversed by organizations, which mobilize the grassroots. Based on the case of mobilization within Warsaw tenants’ movement, Kasia Gajewska analyzes the process of mobilisation, the role of the organisations in it, and the profile of the organisers.

In his ethnographic study, Kalb (2009) demonstrates how Polish citizens are dissuaded from protesting by the media and the elites, which diffuse a negative image of protest and the working class.

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On the Fire that Sparked an Uprising

On October 31st during a rock concert in the underground club Colective in Bucharest a fire broke out, killing 27 and injuring another 200. Almost a fortnight after the total number of casualties reached 54, with many more still in critical condition in hospital.

This was the biggest tragedy in the recent history of Bucharest and its social effects will still be felt in the foreseeable future. In the short run, this dramatic accident sparked a series of processes that are still underway and whose significance is still uncertain.

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The Struggle for the Commons in the Balkans

In the coming weeks LeftEast will be featuring texts prepared by the working-groups of the Balkan Forum. This week’s text addresses the growing struggles for the commons in the region. The Balkan Forum’s commons working group consisted of: Danijela Majstorović, Georgi Medarov, Dubravka Sekulić, Vladimir Simović, Tomislav Tomašević and Danijela Dolenec (coordinator).

This paper was prepared for the 2nd Balkan Forum that took place on May 12-14, 2013 at the Subversive Forum in Zagreb. The forum aimed to open a space for social movements in the region to discuss common strategies of resistance and viable alternatives to the current social, political and economic model.