Lefteast
LeftEast editors met our Azerbaijani comrades at LevFem’s / Transnational Social Strike’s conference in September 2022 in Sofia. As we knew almost nothing of the left in that country, we asked them for an interview, and they generously obliged. LE: Could you introduce yourselves: who are you and what are you fighting for? We are […]
“We see the revolution as a revolutionary process, a process that is continuing. We are now in the stage of preparation, we need to mature theoretically, politically, and organizing-wise. It’s important for us that people outside of Iraq understand that this analysis and this position exists inside of Iraq and it needs to spread.” Salam […]
On the 28th of September 2020, Ayoub N. and six of his friends were chain pushed back from Austria to Slovenia, Croatia, and eventually back to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), from where Ayoub had begun his journey to Austria a few weeks earlier. Ayoub, like many others, had been stuck for years in between the […]
In early September, two Zoom panels on the topic of decolonising Eastern Europe were organised as part of the seminar programme of the Institute of Culture and Society, Western Sydney University. We are happy to share the recordings of these conversations, hosted and curated by Tsvetelina Hristova. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has (re)produced a […]
Background In October 2019, a popular mass movement erupted all over central Iraq, eventually turning into what became known as the Tashrin uprising[1]. Under the slogan “We want a homeland” the impoverished Iraqi youth occupied squares in the centres of major Iraqi cities, expressing their strict refusal of the post-2003 institutionalized sectarian system. They demanded […]
On September 21, Putin announced “partial” mobilisation. What does it mean? Who are the most vulnerable to mobilisation? How does it affect civic infrastructures and women’s status? We asked a group of left activists, journalists, and sociologists from Russia, who have been running the anti-war media “Nevoina” (“Notowar”) since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. […]
In the 1960s (not the decade but the historical moment), new figures were simultaneously sighted in different parts of the world. Whether bardy in the Soviet Union, Liedermacher in East and West Germany, cantautori in Latin America or Italy, autor-compositeur-interprete in France, folk singers or singer-songwriters in North America, they brought together a new type […]
Kyrgyzstan is a product of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, born under the auspices of self-determination and a capitalist economy, in line with post-cold war’s end-of-history expectations. Among neighboring Central Asian countries, Kyrgyzstan is the only democracy in the region. Now, 31 years later, we see in this small and mountainous region the elementary […]
In her book -— Art Work: Invisible Labour and the Legacy of Yugoslav Socialism (University of Toronto, 2021), Katja Praznik counters the Western understanding of art – as a passion for self-expression and an activity done out of love, without any concern for its financial aspects – and instead builds a case for understanding art […]
From Foucault’s “docile bodies” to Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick” in the Wall, education has long been recognized as an inherently political institution that is intrinsically tied to the project of identity building. Schooling systems are not neutral and inclusion of any school subject in their curriculum can be used to diagnose social development. One of […]