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Left perspectives on the protests in Russia and Navalny

Note from LeftEast editors: We publish a range of commentaries on the recent protests in Russia and Navalny. They include views from within but also from outside of Russia. Further comments are encouraged and will be considered for publication as part of the ongoing WeAsked series on this topic. Liza Smirnova Georgiy Komarov Katya Kazbek […]

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COVID-19 Crisis in Hungarian Cultural Production – Vulnerability and deepening authoritarian control

Note from LeftEast editors: The article is complemented with the reproductions of the paintings of Rita Süveges. In her works, she inquires the possibilities of the representation of the capitalocene and the nature transformed by capital and labor. She is a member of xtro realm, an artist group, which is dealing with new-realist and ecological […]

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Left perspectives on the protests in Russia and Navalny – Ilya Matveev

Ilya Matveev, a researcher and lecturer in political economy based in St. Petersburg and co-author of the Political Diary podcast At first, Navalny’s decision to return to Russia was bewildering. What did he expect to happen? The state had clearly decided to put him behind bars, disregarding international pressure (in any case, after the highly […]

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All posts Interviews

Interview with Wolfgang Streeck: “I definitely prefer a cooperative over an empire”

Note from LeftEast editors: This interview was originally published in Mérce, a left-wing news site in Hungary. It was conducted via e-mail and published on the occasion of Merkel’s departure from power, and to provide context for Hungary’s and Poland’s initial veto on the EU COVID19 recovery package. NL: For many Hungarians Germany is a […]

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All posts FeminEasts

(Post)pandemic struggles of social reproduction: Issues of Czech social and care workers and possible solutions through sectoral unions

Note of the LeftEast editors: The present text, which we co-publish together with TSS is part of a series of publications and webinars on the topics of social reproduction, (women’s) labour and migration in East-Central Europe and beyond. The video from the second webinar (Post)pandemic struggles on social reproduction, where this text was first presented can be seen […]

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All posts Theory

Victimhood and Decolonization: Key Lessons from a Series on Mérce 

Note from LeftEast editors: Between June and December 2020 the Hungarian Portal Mérce published a series on “Victimhood and Decolonization”. The following text is an English-language summary on the series, written by one of its co-editors. Despite notable early post-war attempts and several more in recent years, Eastern European discussions have surprisingly rarely interpreted the […]

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The Unbearable Lightness of Critique of the Enlightenment. Reading The Invention of Eastern Europe 25 Later.

The background for writing this review was Larry Wolff’s book, Inventing Eastern Europe: The Map of Civilizations on the Mind of the Enlightenment, which was published in autumn 2020 in a Polish translation, more than 25 years after its first English edition. This review attempts to see how the book can be read today. This […]

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Essential Strike Manifesto for the 8th of March

Note from LeftEast Editors: We share the Essential Strike Manifesto by E.A.S.T. (Essential Autonomous Struggles Transnational), a network composed mostly of women, migrants, workers and activists born out of the struggles on social reproduction triggered by the pandemic crisis of Covid-19. E.A.S.T., as the acronym suggests, has Eastern and Central Europe as its main focus […]

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Navalny’s Return and Left Strategy

Russia has had an eventful week and it’s not even finished. First, Alexey Navalny flew back to Moscow, then he was immediately arrested upon crossing the border, and the next day his team published a video illustrating Vladimir Putin’s own corruption and calling upon all citizens to come out to the streets against the government […]

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All posts Protests

Thousands of people support freelancers in Serbia. Negotiations with the Government announced for Monday

Note from LeftEast editors: We reprint this article from the portal Masina where it was originally published on the 18th of January. Online workers held a protest on Saturday in front of the National Assembly of Serbia. The authorities accepted invitation to negotiations, stated Miran Pogačar, president of the Association of Internet Workers (URI). Members […]