Categories
All posts

Liminal Temporalities of Hope in Bosnia-Herzegovina

“The governance arrangements that have been in place in Bosnia-Herzegovina since Dayton, drawn up by a team of young United States lawyers, are at the centre of the problem. Somewhat successful as a peace agreement, albeit one that more or less froze the status quo and allowed the main ethno-nationalist political parties that had fuelled the conflict to continue business as usual, it makes governance of the state almost impossible. A recurring Bosnian joke is that everyone considers the constitution laid down in the agreement as unworkable but, of course, no one can agree on what to replace it with. “

Categories
All posts

Iranians, Elections, Sanctions: Oppressed by the Islamic Republic and Starved by the International Regime

Whatever the international players do or do not do, they should immediately stop penalizing the primary victims of the regime, the peoples of Iran. In addition to the endless suffering of innocent people, the only tangible outcome to be expected from the continued economic sanctions is the antagonizing of more and more ordinary Iranians, which is precisely what the fundamentalist regime aims to accomplish.

Categories
All posts ELMO Series: Gig Work in CEE’s Platform Economy

Online discussion about platform work in East-Central Europe

On 28th June at 7 pm CEST time, East Left Media Outlet – ELMO invites you to participate in an online roundtable about platform-based gig work in Central Eastern Europe. The event will be live-streamed on the organizers’ Facebook pages and you can also join the Zoom meeting here: https://zoom.us/j/96592804162 (meeting ID: 965 9280 4162). The […]

Categories
All posts

Democracy without Consequences? From Catch-Up Modernization to Precipitous Radicalization

This text was originally published in German as a contribution to the Berliner Gazette’s BLACK BOX EAST series. It is based on a conversation that BG’s editorial team had with historian Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk. You can find more texts, works, and conference information on the English-language BLACK BOX EAST website. Reunification took place in accord with the classic pattern of […]

Categories
All posts

There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth: Experiences of people on the move on a new (iteration of the) Balkan route through Romania

With the increasing militarization of the Croatian-Bosnian border and in an overall hostile environment towards migrants, the Balkan route has been shifting in recent months towards Romania. Since October 2020, there has been a sharp increase in the number of people crossing the border in Serbia and ending up in or around Timişoara, the largest […]

Categories
We Asked

We Asked about Organized Labor and May 1 in Eastern Europe

We Need to Redefine the Workers’ Struggle… and Then We Can Celebrate! What is the meaning and importance of May 1 for organized labor in Eastern Europe? Trade unions and labor organizers increasingly recognize that the meaning of and reasons for celebrating International Labor Day are not only self-evident, but also increasingly problematic. There are […]

Categories
We Asked

Croatia – the online activities of a trade-union federation

Last year the strongest and most-organized umbrella organization for unions, the Federation of Autonomous Trade Unions of Croatia (Savez samostalnih sindikata Hrvatske, SSSH) organized its very first e-protest in Croatia, titled “A thank you is fine, but workers’ rights come first!” (Radnicima hvala ali prvo prava!) The demands of the SSSH formulated in 2020 were […]

Categories
We Asked

Hungary – the overlap with Workers’ Memorial Day. A foundation on which to stand up and organize?

Whereas most trade unions in Eastern Europe also commemorated 28 April because of the uneven effects and implications of Covid-19 on the loss of workers’ lives, in Hungary this was even more emphatic. In 2020, 1 May in Hungary seemed to especially overlap with events and statements made around Workers’ Memorial Day – a day […]

Categories
We Asked

Serbia – in the shadow of exploitation; recognizing the need for redefinition

In Serbia, May 1 was overshadowed by Orthodox Easter and by a moment of realization that many had to work on this day too, as the number of working poor increased, low, insufficient wages under subsistence level had become the new norm and reality in the country. Unlike in pre-Covid times, when Serbian trade unions […]

Categories
We Asked

Romania – novel initiatives gaining ground

Trade unions have been organizing protests since the start of 2021 against the newly adopted austerity measures of the Romanian government, which, among other things, froze the minimum wage despite rising living costs continued blocking collective labor negotiations and the social dialogue legislation. Thus, protesters have been demanding social policies from and a dialogue with […]