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Interview with Ilya Budraitskis: Why doesn’t official Russian historical politics need the real Lenin and how is his method relevant at a time of crisis

“The (Russian) state needs a Lenin shorn of his political ideas and real biographies, a Lenin-monument. Whenever he becomes a true Lenin, a rebel and destroyer of the old order, the authorities automatically begin to regard him as a monster.”—says the historian and political theorist Ilya Budraitskis. In this comprehensive interview, conducted in Russian by […]

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Coronavirus: scientific realities vs. economic fallacies

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 […]

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Rare Treat: Recent Documentary on György Lukács Can Be Viewed Online Freely Until 03 May 2020

This Sunday (3 May), the “Georg” documentary, on György Lukács – his life, work, archives and contemporary significance – can be watched free of charge. Embedded link and password are inside the post.

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LevFem on 1st May: the current crisis is not that new for Eastern European workers

Note from LeftEast editors: to celebrate the 1st of Maywe publish the position of Bulgarian socialist feminist group LevFem on the occasion of International Workers Day under the current lockdown. Below you can find the audiorecording and the text of this position. The audio recording is read by LevFem member Kalina Drenska on behalf of […]

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The suspension of Human rights during COVID-19: For Roma in Pata Rât they have been suspended for a very long time

A State of Emergency Decree was issued in Romania on the 16th of March and prolonged for one month on the 16th of April as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Decree suspended a series of human rights and activated the country’s derogation from the European Convention of Human Rights. Part I. People living […]

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Coronavirus: not the first one, neither the last one

Today’s media emphasise our personal responsibility – just they do in the case of the environmental catastrophe – and portray people who weark their masks, work from home, and support small entrepreneurs by ordering food as responsible citizens and heroes of today. In my opinion, this distracts our attention from the cause of the current […]

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We Asked about the Bernie Sanders 2020 Campaign

Bernie Sanders’ second presidential campaign brought a ray of hope to what had been a dismal political news cycle in the United States dominated by Trump’s odious figure and the Democrats’ ineffectual, “back to normal” opposition to him. To be sure, the broader resistance to Trump has also galvanized genuine movements devoted to protecting the […]

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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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Manifesto for Housing Justice: Against the Pandemic of Capitalism and Racism

#stayhome #notstayingaside Note from LeftEast editors: we reprint the call for housing justice, first published by the Romanian group BLOCUL pentru LOCUIRE on their website. The time has come for this political agenda to change radically: housing politics must satisfy the needs of the people and respect the right to housing as a universal right! The […]

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Philosophical Necromancy or Accelerationist Hope? A response to Agamben

A version of the first part of this article in Polish is available on the author’s blog, Fronesis. When the truth offends, we lie and lie, until we can no longer remember it is even there. But it is still there. Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later, that […]