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Calling Fascism by Its Name: The Rise of the Radical Right and Organizing Leftist Resistance in Romania

Note from LeftEast editors: This text was originally published in Courrier des Balkans (CdB), in two parts. The interview was conducted and translated to French by Florentin Cassonnet, a CdB correspondent in Bucharest. The current text is a slightly edited version of the original interview. Courrier des Balkans: You recently organized a seminar about fascism […]

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Serbian elections results: did the right grow stronger?

On April 3 2022 presidential, extraordinary parliamentary and elections for the assembly of Belgrade, Bor and 12 other cities and municipalities were held in Serbia. Note from LeftEast editors. This is an updated version of the article which was originally published on April 8, 2022, on Mašina . We publish it as part of our cooperation […]

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Gessen, My Critique, and the Polish Trap

Note from LeftEast editors. The present text is simultaneously published  in Polish in Kultura Liberalna. An earlier version of this text in English, including the author’s original letter to The New Yorker, used incorrect pronouns for Masha Gessen. The present text has been corrected. On Saturday, March 27, I first learned of a little controversy […]

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Slovenian Corona Coup d’Etat

In the blink of an eye, the coronavirus epidemic revealed to the world just how vulnerable global capitalism is: the stock market is in freefall, global supply chains are coming to a grinding halt as privatized healthcare buckles in an instant. The fallout from decades of liberalisation, privatization and financialisation is immense. Even the most […]

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Austrian Presidential Elections: From tragedy to farce and back again?

It seems that when Karl Marx spoke about historical events always happening twice, once as a tragedy, the second time as a farce,[1] he thought about Austria in regard to the farce. Indeed, the eleven month long election campaign was not free of farce. From the candidacy of a rather shrill and eccentric real estate […]

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‘Pure’ democracy against the extreme right?: Erdoğan’s ‘Clinton’ and ‘Trump’ moments

The marriage between capitalism and democracy was one of convenience or interest, the product of a very specific period. A temporary reconciliation between capitalism and democracy seemed possible under conditions created by a capital accumulation regime that rested on the specific balance of power between social classes following the two world wars. The “logical contradiction” […]

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On the Importance of a Strong Work Ethic: Etho-politics in Serbia

During a recent visit to Slovenia, Serbia’s Prime Minister Vucic made a statement on a theme that has come to figure prominently in many of his public speeches and press statements – that of the importance of a strong work ethic. Speaking of his government’s economic reforms and foreign policy measures, Vucic poignantly argued for […]

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Presidential Elections in Croatia. An interview with Tomislav Orešković & Marko Milošević of the Workers’ Front.

  Vladimir Unkovski-Korica: Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović narrowly defeated incumbent Ivo Josipović to become the new president of Croatia. She is the first member of the centre-right Croatian Democratic Union to become president since the death of the country’s first president after independence, Franjo Tudjman. Why did she win and what did she campaign for? Milošević: Her […]

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A government of the Left in Greece: the coalition of SYRIZA with ANEL and what lies ahead

After January 25th, with the landslide victory of the radical-left SYRIZA over the right-wing New Democracy, we have in Greece the first (and only) left-wing government ever elected in a European Union member state. This alone is already a major development, not only for Greece and its crisis-ridden society, but also for a Europe struggling […]

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Florin Poenaru: Nature, Nationalism and Anti-Capitalism in Romania

Research Paper Series of Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Southeast Europe No.1 In autumn 2013, Romania witnessed some of its biggest post-1989 protests. From September to about early December tens of thousands of people took to the streets in major cities of Romania. The reason was the project of an opencast mine in Roșia Montana, a small […]