March 27, 2019

The poor pays principle in Bulgaria

by Rositsa Kratunkova  

Note from LeftEast editors: The article was originally published on dversia.net in Bulgarian on the 25.02.2019 On January 30 there were dangerously high levels of air pollution in the capital reported, three times higher than the norm. In its latest air quality report, the European Court of Auditors points out that Bulgaria is at the forefront of the EU in shortening life length as a result of the dirty air. As the main reason for the pollution the Court points the domestic heating with solid fuel. For the current 2014-2020 programming period, Bulgaria has not only reduced its investment in tackling this phenomen ..

March 24, 2019

The Country He Loved So Well: a Conversation with Yanis Varoufakis

by Griselda Qosja  

I was waiting for Yanis Varoufakis seated in an old Hamburg cafe while outside everything had turned gray. A light mist blanketed the roofs, trees, cars and the occasional passerby. It was the perfect day for snowfall although the weather forecast had given no hope for it. Inside the lights were on, the cafe packed and the conversations loud. The waiters maneuvered skillfully through the room, collecting half-eaten plates of food, under the strict surveillance of the headwaiter that although seemingly busy managed to look as bored as could be. Judith Meyer finally called. “We are at the front door”, she said. ..

March 20, 2019

“Happy Nowruz” – See You In Iran (VIDEO)

by See You In Iran  

March 20th 2019, marks the spring equinox, and therefore, the ancient festivity of “Nowruz”, celebrated by millions of people around the world as the beginning of new year. Nowruz celebrations, which date back to more than 3000 years ago, are observed by people of many different ethnic and racial groups, from the Uyghur community in China, to different majority and minority communities in Iran, to various communities in the Balkans. This non-religious festivity is a celebration of renewal of the earth with its ceremonies mostly centered around nature and community. Marking the first day of the first m ..

March 14, 2019

Manifesto of the CEU Radical Student Collective

by Radical Student Collective  

Note from the LeftEast editors: The Central European University – a private University in Budapest founded by George Soros’s Open Society Foundation – has attracted the attention of the world media with its strife against the Victor Orban government in Hungary. A struggle over its right to remain in the country ensued in early 2017 when the notorious bill remembered as LexCEU was hastily passed by hungarian legislators. It contained a Catch 22 clause making the functioning of the institution built os symbol of the transition from state socialism to liberal democracy impossible within the Hungari ..

March 8, 2019

March 8th 2019: Call for Action

by lefteast  

In celebration of The International Women’s day, we publish here the Call for Action drafted by the IWS network. We hope to see many of you on the streets today … It is in the spirt of a renewed radicalism, solidarity and internationalism, that the International Women’s Strike U.S. calls for action on March 8.  IWS US continues to be a national organizing center by and for women who have been marginalized and silenced by decades of neoliberalism directed towards the 99% of women: to wage-earning and domestic laborers, women of color, Native women, disabled women, immigrant women, Muslim women, Jew ..

March 5, 2019

Macedonia’s position on Venezuela: A Perspective from the Left

by Recep Haktan Ismail  

1. Has the government in your country taken an official position regarding the situation in Venezuela? If yes, what is the position? If we consider the twitter posts of the Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov as official statements of the ministry and the Government itself, then we could say that our government has an official position on the situation in Venezuela. The position is not the least bit surprising if we take into account that our country’s government is subordinated to Western imperialism and has completely lost its sovereignty in the last year. Namely, the Tweet read as follows: “In line with our E ..

March 4, 2019

Georgia’s position on Venezuela: A Perspective from the Left

by Dato Laghidze  

1.Has Georgia’s government country taken an official position regarding the situation in Venezuela?  Georgia recognized Guaido as an interim head of the government of Venezuela. The country’s official position is no surprise as it is always in a line with Washington’s and Brussels’ stance. There was only one peculiarly Georgian angle to this story. Since independence, Georgia experienced two ethnic/political conflict within its own territory as a result of which Tbilisi lost control on the breakaway regions – Abkhazia and South Ossetia. In 2008, the Russo-Georgian war escalated as Georgian mili ..

March 1, 2019

Outsourcing Exploitation to Europe’s Periphery

by Madlen Nikolova  

This interview exploring Madlen Nikolova, Jana Tsoneva and Georgi Medarov’s recent research on subcontracting, inequality and worker resistance in Bulgaria was originally published on the website of the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung. Most people probably associate outsourcing and subcontracting, whereby a company pays another company (usually in a country where wages and labour standards are significantly lower) to produce its goods which it then resells for a profit, with the clothing and electronics factories of China and Southeast Asia. While “Made in Korea” and even “Made in Japan” were once synonymou ..

February 27, 2019

[PODCAST] Can’t Buy Me Solidarity: Retail Workers in Czechia

by Justyna Janowska and Zdena Hofmannova  

The next installment in the series, “Europe is Working,” this podcast focuses on the poor working conditions of supermarkets and hypermarkets in Czechia, and the possibilities for collective action by workers both “native” and “migrant.” This podcast was originally published at podcasts.ceu.edu as part of the project “Towards Shared Interests between Migrant and Local Workers” supported by the Europe for Citizens programme of the European Union. The project consortium involved Multicultural Center Prague (lead), University of Padua, “Our choice” foundation, Red House Ce ..

February 25, 2019

WeAsked: Left Perspectives on Venezuela from the (Semi)Periphery

by lefteast  

Venezuela has been at the center of heated left-wing polemics for some time now. As tensions rise in the border regions of the country, concerns grow over the possibility of an intervention. As with previous interventions, legitimacy is being drawn from a combination of propaganda and a display of an apparent “international” consensus against Maduro’s Government. Many countries from the European periphery have been complicit in this agenda. LeftEast approached left-wing voices from the region about the different perspectives (not) taken by their country’s governments and left groups regar ..