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Ukraine: 30 Years in Pursuit of Equality

As the Ukrainian government gears up to celebrate 30 years of independence, the reality is that, for many, independence has not brought the prosperity they were promised. LeftEast would like to thank OpenDemocracy, where the article was originally published. Tomorrow, Ukraine will celebrate 30 years of independence with pomp. The government has prepared lavish celebrations, […]

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(Post)pandemic struggles in social reproduction: “Manage somehow”: notes from Ukraine on care labor at a time of local and global crisis

Note of the LeftEast editors: The present text, which we co-publish with TSS is part of a series of publications and webinars on the topics of social reproduction, (women’s) labour and migration in East-Central Europe and beyond. The video from the first webinar Responses to Covid-19 and (post-)pandemic: social reproduction, migrants and women in Central/Eastern […]

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From Ukraine with Comparison: Emerging Notes on Belarus

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 […]

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For an Independent Social Ukraine: a Statement by the Reds on the Biden-Poroshenko Leaks

A Statement of The Reds on Ukraine’s loss of independence Ukraine received its independence 29 years ago. The cause of political independence has always been close to the struggle for the social liberation of Ukrainians, particularly the country’s rebellious workers and peasants. The right of nations to self-determination was originally the slogan of the socialists […]

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Contradictions of Post-Soviet Ukraine and Failure of Ukraine’s New Left

Dossier 1989 Thirty Years Later: Several profound contradictions have defined the dynamics of Ukrainian economy, politics and society since the collapse of the Soviet Union: the contradiction between transnational and local capital, those between factions of the local capital, Ukrainian national identity contradictions, geopolitical contradictions with Russia, the US, and EU, and contradictions between civil society, the active public, and Ukrainian society at large. I will first expose them, and then discuss how the Ukrainian new left has been failing to respond to these contradictions with a project for Ukraine’s alternative development.

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Ukraine and the (Dis)integrating Empire of Capital

1989 Thirty Years Later: The combination of ill-prescribed market transition reforms and loaned funds mismanagement and misappropriation by kleptocratic ruling bloc with its rivalrous fractions have resulted in a toxic debt dependency that has become a tool for manipulation in the renewed geopolitical confrontation between Russian and the USA/EU, as I discuss at length in my recent book. These asymmetries and unevenness condition the consciousness, thinking, approach, praxis of politics in Ukraine, be they conformist, populist performers of counter-narratives, or ideologically progressive e.g. the Social Movement party-in-the-making, – they all have to present solutions to the same realities while interpret those via their ideological lens.

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The Left Group GUE/NGL Will Not Split: MEP Helmut Scholz on Elections in the EU and Ukraine

This interview with Helmut Scholz was conducted by editors of the Ukrainian Left magazine СПIЛЬНЕ/ COMMONS. In previous materials we’ve already generally informed our readers about how the European Parliament functions and which parliamentary groups are represented in it. In our interview with you we would like first of all to focus on the radical […]

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A comedian could be Ukraine’s next president. How did that happen?

This article by Volodymyr Ishchenko, a member of LeftEast’s editorial collective, was originally published in The Guardian. Volodymyr Zelenskiy has united a polarised country by rejecting angry nationalism – but his politics offer no panacea. A politically inexperienced comedian, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, is in the lead after the first round of presidential elections in Ukraine – and […]

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Another crisis in Ukraine? The fragmentation of the pro-West bloc

The fragmentation of the pro-Western bloc in Kiev. This is the new stage of the political crisis in Ukraine. The division is not a new one but past weeks have shown to the world how deep runs the crisis between president Petro Poroshenko and the former Georgian president (and now pretender to power in Ukraine), […]

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Ukraine’s Civil War Crimes: Facebook Post As Bad As Kidnapping, Torture, and Murder

On May 12th, the Artemovsk court in the Donetsk oblast (province), sentenced a soldier to five years of prison with a three year probation period for the kidnapping of a local civilian that resulted in his death. The ruling cited the soldier’s ‘sincere confession and military engagement in the Anti-Terrorist Operations in the East of Ukraine’ […]