Note from LeftEast editors: We translate this article by Nenad Glišić, which appeared in Bilten on November 24, 2021. It is the first text in a series of interventions LeftEast will publish on developments Serbia since last week. The article was republished as part of a cooperation between Eastern European leftist media platforms in ELMO (Eastern European Left […]
Category: Protests
Note from LeftEast editors: We share a brief article about a strike at the automotive supplier plant in Beluša, Slovakia. The article was originally published on the Karmina.red blog on September 13, 2021, in Slovak and English. This brief article also contains the links where you can dowload the informative pamphlet outlining the background story of the […]
Note from LeftEast editors: We insert this article by Ailynn Torres Santana that originally appeared on the NACLA website on July 22, 2021. Protests began in Cuba July 11, 2021 (J-11). They spread gradually from San Antonio de los Baños (Artemisa province) and Palma Soliano (Santiago de Cuba province) to other parts of the country. […]
Note from LeftEast editors. The article is a reprint: it originally appeared at JewishCurrent on April 1 2021. Translated from Polish by Sean Gasper Bye. ON MARCH 8TH, 2021, International Women’s Day, I drew a lightning bolt on my mask in red lipstick, put a thermos in my backpack, and went out […]
During the past year, healthcare workers all around the world have shouldered an incredible burden. Although both people and policy makers have applauded their contribution to the COVID-19 response, little has been done in practice to actually protect and support workers on the frontline. It is difficult to disregard the fact that thousands of nurses, […]
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 […]
Although the shooting of an unarmed citizen can be considered an isolated event, there has been an increasing escalation of violence by the police in recent years. We, as activists of Organizata Politike, have witnessed it while protesting alongside chromium miners, oil refinery workers, and students. A very violent intervention by the police took place last year against the artists who were defending the National Theatre against demolition.
This wave of repression also relates to a decision by the Ministry of Interior to send into early retirement more than 1,000 policemen from the older generation, replacing them over three years with younger newcomers in better physical condition but lacking any experience in handling complex situations. Such was the case of the policeman who killed Klodian; a man in his early twenties who had joined the force only recently, and who had been immediately transferred to one of the most infamous police units: “The Eagles.”
We share here notes by LeftEast contributing editor Volodymyr Ishchenko on Belarus from August 10th (Part 1) and 19th (Part 2), 2020. Part 1: SOME QUICK COMPARATIVE NOTES ON BELARUS (August 10, 2020) 1. Both Lukashenka and Tsikhanouskaia claim ~80% voters. The official results look suspicious as they are improbably stable. Lukashenka gets ~80% of […]
Although Belarus is often referred to as a repressive state, the familiar ‘Parisian arsenal’ of tear gas canisters, water cannons, rubber bullets, and stun grenades was used here on a mass scale for the first time. Western technologies of violence were complemented by traditional post-Soviet police brutality: beating and detention of random people, torture, humiliation, and sometimes threats of rape in jail, the hunting down of journalists, etc.
None of the opposition leaders joined the crowd or made radical statements. The opposition movement turned out to be on the whole amorphous, without clear leadership at the top and any leaders from below. At the same time, the ruling elite showed no signs of a split, the security apparatus and the bureaucracy generally remained loyal, although there have been signs of hesitation at the lower and regional levels (with several state media journalists and police officers resigning).
Note from LeftEast editors: This article originally appeared in Dversia on 07.10.2020. “Tear gas, rubber bullets, and batons against bare-handed youth! Dad, this is for you who died and there was no respirator! (..) This is for you and for my newborn son! There were no respirators in the Zemun hospital while they (the National […]