Month: April 2015

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Interviews

Podemos: between populism and social movements. Interview with Jaime Pastor

The ballots which Spanish voters will cast in the municipal and regional elections on the 24th of May, will be the litmus paper for the potential of the party to get to the highest positions in Government, as SYRIZA did. Meanwhile, Web-sites and social networks pages are filled with slogans such as “Podemos gañar Madrid”, “Podemos gañar Andalucia” (“We can Madrid”, “We can gain Andalucia”). With 30% of support, and the thousands of people, which Podemos gathers for its demonstrations, this is far from unlikely.

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Perils of Parliamentary Immersion

Note from the LeftEast editors: this article is re-published from the author’s  Word Press page.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead

Three years ago, in 2012, Initiative for Democratic Socialism(IDS) didn’t actually exist. It was just a small group of some 20 citizens aiming to change the world. Three years later it is a parliamentarian political party with 6 MPs and 600 members.

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“We should recognize that there are other imperialisms”: A Marxist dissident explains what the left gets wrong about Russia. An interview with Ilya Budraitskis.

Vladimir Putin (Credit: Reuters/Yves Herman)
Charles Davis talks to Ilya Budraitkis on Salon.Com . Here we present the interview. The whole lengthy material can be accessed on the Salon website.

Obviously the biggest story in Russia and here in the United State is the recent assassination of Boris Nemstov. Here in the West, Russia right now is portrayed as sort of a police state – people are afraid to express dissent. Is there any truth to that? Can you describe what the climate is like in the wake of this assassination?

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Old wounds revealed as Romanian court re-opens miners’ case

Note from the LeftEast editors: this article is published in cooperation with the Serbo-Croatian web portal Bilten.Org 

In recent weeks the miners are back again: This time not on the streets, but on the public agenda. The Romanian High Court, following a decision of the European Court of Human Rights reopened the file dealing with the events of 13-15 June 1990 in Bucharest. After 25 years of stalled investigations, the prosecutors decided it is time for a fresh look.

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Exporting Georgia’s Anti-Corruption reforms to Ukraine; What makes them worth replicating?

“Georgians to the Rescue in Ukraine” “Georgians play key roles in pushing Ukraine’s reforms” “Ukraine’s New Cabinet Lineup Offers Broad Competence for Reforms” – these are just a few of the headlines telling us that Georgia’s post-revolutionary reformers have come to Ukraine to help out with reforms and that commentators are very optimistic about the fact.

Transnational policy transfer has taken quite a unique form in the case of Ukraine. Foreign nationals were invited to join Ukraine’s new cabinet, were granted citizenship and appointed as advisers, ministers and deputy ministers.

Categories
Interviews

Government policy no longer seeks to prevent the processes of social marginalization in Hungary. An interview with Eszter Neumann.

NGOs Protest School Segregation for Roma Children in Hungary December 18, 2014 • by Hungarian Civil Liberties Union/www.liberties.eu

The Hungarian Government’s steps towards creating a ‘work-based society’ are likely to bring cuts and conceptual reforms in education. Eszter Neumann, in an interview for Fent Es Lent, discussed the social processes behind this policy shift.

Fent es Lent: The Hungarian government is preparing serious cuts and conceptual reforms in education. Let’s begin with issues related to the secondary education system. Viktor Orbán, the prime minister has announced his intention to build a “work-based society” instead of the welfare state, and the Secretary of State for Employment announced that he would decrease the number of students studying in academic secondary tracks and to significantly increase the student share of vocational tracks.