Tag Archives: crisis

May 3, 2020

Coronavirus: scientific realities vs. economic fallacies

by Georgi Marinov  

Note from LeftEast editors: this article first appeared in Bulgarian under the title “Some coronavirus considerations” and was published by the investigative journalism portal Bivol.Bg, and was then translated into English and Russian. It is hereby reprinted by LeftEast with the kind permission of the author and by the editorial team of the portal. With the start of the second month of coronavirus quarantine, the issue of when and how life, and most of all, the economy will be able to return to “normal” is becoming more serious. This is understandable as in the current situation unemployment level ..

April 3, 2020

Coronavirus and the Contradictions of Capitalism

by Erdem Yoruk  

Coronavirus has revealed yet another contradiction of capitalism: the capitalist tendency to globalize as a solution for the profitability crisis has undermined the capitalist capacity to profit. The virus has exacerbated an already deepening capitalist crisis into a catastrophe and illustrated how vulnerable global capitalism is to any external risk. Globalization, which emerged as a solution to a previous crisis of profitability, has rendered the world capitalist system extremely vulnerable because of the unprecedented connectedness that it has created. Also, the retrenchment in public healthcare, which was sup ..

November 20, 2019

‘The fall of the last domino’: an overview of Levica’s departure from the government in Slovenia

by Adin Crnkic  

The last couple of months have been turbulent for The Left party (in Slovenian, Levica). Firstly, the Left failed to cross the threshold in the EU parliamentary election. Even the fact that their candidate, Violeta Tomić, was also theSpitzenkandidat for the Party of the European Left did not help. And secondly and more importantly, its partnership with the minority government officially ended. Even if this outcome was expected for some months, Prime Minister Marjan Šarec never explicitly claimed that his political party LMŠ (Lista Marjana Šarca) or the other of coalition partners (SD, SMC, SAB and DeSUS) want ..

October 30, 2019

The 2019 Hungarian municipal election in the light of hegemonic struggle within the global capitalist crisis

by Helyzet  

Note from LeftEast Editors: This piece draws on the work that the members of the Working Group for Public Sociology “Helyzet” have done on a special issue of Fordulat (#26) “Crisis and Hegemony in Hungary 2008-2018” (Válság és hegemónia Magyarországon 2008–2018), summarized in piece published by media platform Merce.hu and by Merce’s editor Szilárd Pap here. On this basis, editorial work on the current article has been carried out by Ágnes Gagyi and Tamás Gerőcs from “Helyzet” and Mary N. Taylor from LeftEast. Translation work on parts of the text was done by Anna Azarova. An English lang ..

January 30, 2019

Internationalised Power Struggle in Venezuela

by Joachim Becker  

On January 10th, Nicolás Maduro commenced his third term as Venezuelan President. At that time, the oppositional president of the parliament, Juan Guaidó called on the military forces to stage a coup d’etat.  A few days later, he declared himself to be the president. Within less than half an hour, he was recognised by the USA. This fits well into the classical patterns of right wing coup d’etats in Latin America. With this step, the power struggle has reached a new phase of escalation. Since 2015, a political stalemate and a form of dual power has reigned in the South American country. In the parliamentary ..

November 20, 2018

Ankica Čakardić: We need to look for origins of fascism in capitalist crises

by Ankica Cakardic  

Note from the LeftEast editors: This interview with Ankica Čakardić was conducted by Darko Vujica and published at Prometej.Ba in BCS. It is hereby reprinted by LeftEast with the permission of Ankica Čakardić, and translated by Stevan Bozanich. Ankica Čakardić is an assistant professor and the chair of Social Philosophy and Philosophy of Gender at the Faculty for Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. Her research interest include Social Philosophy, Marxism, Marxist-feminist and Luxemburgian critique of political economy, and history of women’s struggles in Yugoslavia. She is a member of ..

August 3, 2017

Of Fences, national securities and solidarity: An open letter to Momentum

by lefteast  

Note from the LeftEast editors: As we move towards the 2018 parliamentary elections in Hungary, the Momentum Movement, recently chartered as a party, is being touted in the international liberal media as a pro Europe party with potential to threaten the right-dominated political space where the main challenge to Fidesz comes from the extreme right party Jobbik. After becoming known this spring through it’s a successful campaign against Hungary’s the government’s plan to bid to host the 2024 Olympics, Momentum is now poised to run in the elections. Momentum drives a campaign designed by communication profess ..

August 1, 2017

The Contradictions of European Capitalism: An interview with Joachim Becker – Part I

by Domagoj Mihaljevic  

The following two-part interview with Joachim Becker,, professor of Economics and Business at Vienna University and deputy head of the Institute for International Economics and Development, was conducted by the Croatian activist and writer Domagoj Mihaljević. Mihaljević: For the time being, it seems the process of capital accumulation in Europe has been stabilized through policies of fiscal stability and structural reforms. In doing this, the central focus of European ruling classes was to secure the survival of monetary union at any cost necessary. In turn, this has made the fragmentation between the core and ..

March 27, 2017

DEMOS: Social Europe, Our Europe. Priorities for Romania’s European policies

by lefteast  

Note from the LeftEast editors: As a part of a broader series of comments and analyses from different actors and groups in the Romania Left about the recent protest wave in the country, we are now publishing the policy statement/manifesto of the new left formation DEMOS. DEMOS is a leftist and environmentalist political platform from Romania established in 2016. Its members, previously active in various social movements and campaigns, decided to form it as a response to the growing inequality, severe poverty, destruction of the public goods and services and environmental degradation in the country, issues which ..

January 10, 2017

Leo Panitch: “What does it mean to smash the state? This is our great challenge.”

by lefteast  

Note from the LeftEast editors: Our comrades from the Serbian Left-wing portal MAŠINA spoke to Marxist political economist Leo Panitch (York University) during his stay in Belgrade. There he was a guest at the conference The Return of Utopia (BCS), organized by the Center for Political Emancipation. This is the first appearance of the interview in English. Its original publication in Serbian can be accessed here. On behalf of Masina it was carried out by András Juhász. Q: Would you publicly declare yourself to be a socialist? A: Definitely. Q: Why? A: That’s a hard question to decide how to answer. In t ..