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Don Kalb in Bucharest

A discussion with Don Kalb moderated by Stefan Guga and Florin Poenaru.

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A people divided: violent conflict emerging in Bulgaria

Over the last few days Bulgaria has witnessed opposing waves of mobilization that divide the country across ethnic and class lines. Since the 23rd of October, a student strike and sustained occupation has spread across six universities in the capital and other cities. The strike is the latest in a series of protests in the […]

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Moscow’s Anti-Immigrant Pogrom and the Economics of Racism

On October 13th, in Biriuliovo, a district in the south of Moscow, a series of events took place that are still the talk of most Russian media. Several thousand local residents and radical right activists held a spontaneous rally demanding “an end to illegal immigration and ethnic crime.” Soon afterwards, hundreds of the rally’s participants […]

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Green wristbands

On October 21st in Munich, Germany a group of about 30 Bulgarian migrants were pushed into a backyard by 20 police officers from the Financial Police (Finanzkontrolle Schwarzarbeit [FSK]). The incident took place in the neighborhood around the Central Train Station, where many try to find work as daylaborers, pushed to do so at street […]

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The future lasts a long time: a short history of European integration in the ex-Yugoslavia

„There is no alternative to Europe“ – is «la pensée unique« that dominates political life in the ex-Yugoslavia. As with the idea of a transition to the market, Europe is considered to be a destination that is to be still to be reached, a community of peace and prosperity. In fact, as we will show, […]

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The tragedy of Lampedusa

The fate of Africa and of the refugees coming from there is still as embarrassing to supposedly “Christian“ and “humanistic“ Europe as ever. Last week, another “refugee disaster happened“ off the coast of the Italian Mediterranean island of Lampedusa. As usual when African refugees drown or get stranded in the Mediterranean on their way to […]

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The real life of law: Polish lessons on housing activism in the postcommunist context

Abstract In this paper, I analyze the content and practice of law enforcement in the domain of tenants’ protection in Warsaw to draw lessons from Polish examples on the strategy for housing activism in the postcommunist context. The local public administration is quite weak, as it has limited financial and human resources capacities, which undermines […]

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Drowning in debt: On neoliberal austerity in Serbia and how to fight it

Serbia is officially bankrupt. We cannot, so Aleksandar Vučić,  First Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia, claims, keep spending more than we earn “or we will swallow ourselves whole”. The fault, so goes the story, lies in the economic policy pursued over the past 13 years since the fall of the Milošević regime by all previous […]

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The Austrian Election: No Change?

The Austrian elections effectively brought no changes. Basically, everything ended up as before, with the Social Democrats (SD) winning with 26.8% of the vote and the conservative Peoples’ Party (PP) and the right wing Freedom Party (FP) ending up second and third (with 24% and 20.5% respectively). The Green Party (GP) finished a disappointing fourth, […]

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The Sunset of Greek Democracy

International mass media has welcomed the arrests and jailing of the leadership of the Golden Dawn fascist political party represented in Greek Parliament.  The majority of the Greek population, including the one million immigrants, has approved this move as well. Without a doubt, Golden Dawn was and is a fascist organization of the worst kind, […]