Lefteast

Audio- Structured Precarity: The Plight of Syrian Refugees in Turkey

This interview is on the recent waves of deportations, detentions and relocations of migrants and refugees in Turkey, the majority of whom are Syrians. This wave is accompanied by rising xenophobia, systematic harassment of and discrimation against the Syrian population in Turkey, who are blamed for the increasingly complex political and economic problems of the country. We discussed the precarious legal category of “the temporary protection status,” which in part allowed for the recent shift in Turkey’s official refugee/migrant policy to an explicitly national security-oriented one, as well as the repercus ..

So long, Exarcheia: in conversation with Athenian essayist George Souvlis

Note from LeftEast editors: We repost this interview, which was originally published on the alternative Canadian online magazine Rabble.ca on September, 3rd 2019. Political graffiti plastered on almost every wall. Three naked mannequins carelessly placed in a large garbage bin on Kallidromiou Street. Trees full of oranges on Ioustinianou. Strefi Hill. The view of Acropolis a few steps down from Exostrefis. The run down Villa Aiolos. The 2019 Antifa Football League playoffs. Messages against ‘”drug mafias, social cannibalism and state repression” and for “resistance, self-organization and ..

“Red Tape”: the Labor Crisis in Europe’s Most Unequal Country

Note from LeftEast editors: This is Part I of “Serbia’s Labor Law: a Counter-Proposal” reprinted from the author’s blog with his kind permission. I went to work in the morning and returned late in the evening. And on Sunday I had to go to work. I did not have any free time anymore. The owner of the company increased the volume of work but did not increase the number of us who are working. For every mistake, he took a part of our salaries, so I often did not get even the minimum (wage). He never paid out our hot meals, vacation and travel expenses, although we all signed that we had received them. We h ..

One Falls, We all Fall! Manifesto of international feminist solidarity

On the 26th of July, Alexandra Măceșanu, aged 15, was declared missing. The teenage girl had been kidnapped 3 days prior from nearby the city of Caracal, in the south of Romania, held against her will and raped by 65-year-old Gheorghe Dincă. Dincă confessed not only to her murder, but also to that of Luiza Melencu, who had been declared missing in April. The shock caused in society by these events continued in the days that followed, when we learnt that Alexandra had struggled and managed to call the police three times during the days of her abduction, before being murdered. Police agents did not just fail to ..

Interview: The fight against the Ilovica-Stuka mine project in Macedonia

Note from LeftEast editors: In the spring of 2017 small towns across Macedonia turned into hubs of grassroots struggles against international mining projects in the country.[1] These citizen initiatives shared the same fear: that concessions for exploitation granted as part of a wider policy for attracting FDIs will bring devastating environmental and social consequences with very marginal benefits for the local areas and the country as a whole. A particular focal point of the struggle has been the Ilovica-Shtuka mining project for the exploitation of copper and gold, by the Canadian-British company EuroMaxx Reso ..

Russian Socialists and the Struggle for Democracy

For the past few weeks, protests for fair elections in upcoming municipal polls have become weekly in Moscow and St. Petersburg as thousands have defied authorities to attend unsanctioned rallies. The police crackdown has been particularly harsh in Moscow. Protests on July 27 and August 3 resulted in over 2000 detentions. Images of police in riot gear wrestling citizens to the ground and beating peaceful protesters were reminiscent of the mass protests against election fraud in 2011-2012. LeftEast is happy to share this interview Sean Guillory (of Sean’s Russia Blog fame) conducted with members of the Russi ..

Why Moscow is ready to fight for independent politicians

In the Russian capital, administrative wrangling by the Moscow authorities has provoked mobilisation from below – capitalising on long-held discontent by city residents. Thanks to Open Democracy-Russia, LeftEast is able to share the following interview with Alexander Zamyatin, municipal deputy in Zyuzino, Moscow. He is chief editor of Mirror. In defiance of expectations, this year’s elections to the Moscow City Council have turned into a chain of political scandals and street protests. And in response, large-scale protest actions have been held in the city centre since mid-July. Public meetings with indep ..

What happened at the first Bulgarian Pride outside of Sofia? Young European Socialists Summer Camp 2019

A report from Stoyo Tetevenski For some time now, the discord on major social issues between the progressive Social Democratic and Socialist parties in Europe, on the one hand, and the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), on the other, has deepened. The BSP has been repeatedly criticized by the socialist family for its positions on migration, minorities, the Istanbul Convention, women’s rights and LGBTIQ people. One of the issues that leads to the biggest schism is precisely gender equality and LGBTIQ rights. For years, some of the members and the leadership of the BSP have either attacked the queer ccommunity ..

I, the caregiver – stories from “the grey zone”

"I hope that politicians will pay greater attention to the people who work as unlicensed labour – the thousands of caregivers, help personnel, child caregivers. The relations between foreign workers and bosses are unequal and demands for labour contracts will never be fulfilled without political will. It is necessary both for the legalisation of our work and for accessible services for the ill and children." Continue reading →

Utter Chaos Under the Heaven, the Situation Is Excellent – Aftermath of Students’ Protests in Albania

What PD and LSI leaders hope is that by withdrawing momentously from political privileges, such as the MP salary, they will be accepted by the popular classes as their genuine political representatives. In addition, they have tried to imitate some of the slogans, the gestures, and ideas of the student movement. They promise an uncompromising war against the oligarchs, and organized crime, tuition-free universities, the implementation of other important social rights, while maintaining, in a characteristic right-populist agenda, neoliberal economic policies like a 9% flat tax, and other pro-business mantra. Secret ..