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On SYRIZA and its victory in the recent general elections in Greece

Note from the LeftEast editors: The following piece was composed prior to the most recent negotiations between the SYRIZA government and the EU. We republish it here not to contribute to the current crisis, but to facilitate comradely discussion and debate on the relevant political questions that emerged since January 25. We believe that the […]

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The National Bourgeoisie vs. the State Apparatus. Reconfiguring the state in Romania

It is perhaps the first time that Romania’s ongoing corruption scandals are more than just a scandal. They offer the possibility for serious theoretical reflection about wider social transformations. However, it is not because recent events dramatically altered the situation in new ways, but the opposite: recent events, precisely by their familiarity, allow us to […]

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The illiberal democracy and the revanchist city – The spatial and political transformation of Budapest since 2010

“We need to give back public spaces to the citizens” – argued István Tarlós, the mayor of Budapest and a member of the nationalist-conservative Fidesz party when he tried to justify the city’s criminalizing of homelessness in most of its public spaces. The message here was clear: homeless people do not qualify for citizen status […]

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Syriza’s victory stirs the Left’s political imagination across Central, Eastern and South East Europe

Three weeks ago the Left celebrated Syriza’s victory. The plot has thickened since, and it will surely intensify further by the 28th of February when the EU-IMF bailout is due to expire. As the Greek drama unravels, it is those who are most supportive of Syriza that will judge it most critically. Asked by LeftEast’s […]

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The Movement Needs No Commemoration

It isn’t dead. You wouldn’t know that by the news from Bosnian media today, however, one year to the day since the largest and most violent anti-government protests in Bosnia’s recent history took place. They took their cameras to the squares and city centers around the nation, filming the small crowds gathered to mark the […]

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Two weeks of a “radical” leftist experience. A rift or EU integration ahead?

Note from the LeftEast editors: We publish this article criticizing SYRIZA from the left because we believe in the possibility and necessity of such a critique, which can strengthen this movement’s resolve in the face of such formidable pressure from the outside. But it’s also important to remember “that men make history but in circumstances […]

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“We want to share the Kobani revolution with other peoples”. A Photo-Interview with Enver Müslim.

In early January 2015, a group of Turkish journalists from Bolsevik.org visited the ruins of Kobani. They talked to Enver Müslim, co-president of the canton. Here is what they heard and saw: Let’s start with the first attacks of ISIS. Why do you think that they started to attack Kobani? E.M: Kurdish people have long been […]

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Reflections on the Bosnian Spring. An interview with Emin Eminagic.

Today marks the first anniversary of the Tuzla protests, with which the bosnian spring of 2014 began. Probably the only one of the popular uprisings in the postcommunist world from the 2011-2014 wave to fire the imagination of leftists of all stripes, it is no more. But Bosnia and Herzegovina will never be the same […]

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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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Toward Universal Happiness

Note from the LeftEast editors: There was once a time when utopias were a significant cultural form of the left. Nowadays, our political imaginaries have run dry. The societies we can conceive of, even the changes we consider possible to our present state pale in comparison to what the socialists of the early 20th C […]