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WeAsked: Left Perspectives on Venezuela from the (Semi)Periphery

Venezuela has been at the center of heated left-wing polemics for some time now. As tensions rise in the border regions of the country and self-appointed “interim president” Juan Guaido calls for ever more militant action, including even armed rebellion, concerns grow over the possibility of a foreign intervention. As with previous such interventions, legitimacy […]

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All posts We Asked

WeAsked: Left Perspectives on Venezuela from the (Semi)Periphery

Venezuela has been at the center of heated left-wing polemics for some time now. As tensions rise in the border regions of the country and self-appointed “interim president” Juan Guaido calls for ever more militant action, including even armed rebellion, concerns grow over the possibility of a foreign intervention. As with previous such interventions, legitimacy […]

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We Asked: Geopolitics & the Left, Part II

In continuing the theme of the conflict between Russia and the West, which we discussed last week, now we turn to the broader issue of a leftist perspective on geopolitics. Even though most of the articles LeftEast publishes deal in one way or another with the transnational connectivities, we have been somewhat reticent about the […]

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We Asked: Geopolitics and the Left (Part I: Russia & the West)

The latest wave of confrontation between Russia and the West—from the Skripal affair and the following diplomat expulsions and sanctions on Russia to the gassing of Douma residents most likely perpetrated by the Assad regime and the resulting US-UK-French bombing raids on Syria–rarely left the front pages of mainstream media. LeftEast has until now resisted […]

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The Left in Greece & Macedonia: We can write new pages of common struggle!

The ongoing negotiations between the Greek and the Macedonian government on the issue of the “name” of the Republic of Macedonia have sparked a nationalist backlash in Greece- it manifested itself in two mass nationalist rallies, the first in Thessaloniki on January 21st (which ended with the burning down of the Libertaria Squat) and the […]

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We Asked: Refugee Rights Organizers Address the Conditions of Refugees on the EU’s Borderlands

As the EU’s refugee ‘crisis’ continues to develop, we sat down with refugee rights organizers in central and eastern Europe to discuss the local reception of refugees, how EU policies are influencing member state policies, as well as activist responses that are seeking to curtail rising European xenophobia. Click on the names below to learn more about the responses of community […]

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International Workers’ Day: resounding struggles from Greece to Russia

“For more than twenty years have the wage workers of this country begged and prayed their masters, the factory lords, to reduce their burdens. It has been in vain.” – this proclamation could easily have come from a 1st of May rally in 2015, as it remains equally relevant today. But it dates back to […]

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All posts FeminEasts We Asked

Was the 8th of March cancelled in the Balkans this year?

Wrapped in a perfumed Valentine’s-meets-Mother’s-Day packaging, year after year International Women’s Day seems to become further stripped of its political flavour. What is worrying is that this occurs at a time when women face deteriorating conditions across the region, in their homes, at the work place and society at large. We asked activists, researchers and […]

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International Women’s Day in the Balkans: Ankica Čakardić

Ankica Čakardić is an assistant professor at the Department of Philosophy, University of Zagreb. She coordinates educational programmes at the Centre for Women’s Studies in Zagreb, is a member of The Organisation for Workers Initiative and Democratisation, Croatia, Women’s Front for Labour and Social Rights and the Feminist-Marxist reading group FemFront. “Unfortunately we can really […]

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International Women’s Day in the Balkans: Anita Tolić

Anita Tolić is a member of the Initiative for Democratic Socialism and Institute for Labour Studies in Slovenia. “In the relative absence of an organized, progressive feminist struggle, the economic and social circumstances, which generate re-traditionalisation, re-patriarchalisation and re-domestification of women, threaten to cause even further regression of the historical achievements for which women (and […]