Lefteast
During the last six months or so, I have paid more attention to the idea of a Universal Basic Income (UBI) as a potential central element of a future-oriented social protection system, implementable on a scale from the local to the global and all points in-between. Although this demands a separate text, I continue to […]
All pictures by Michele Lancione. Published first in: Society + Space Magazine (www.societyandspace.org), republished here with the authors’ permission. On circulation and solidarity Twenty-four, twenty-four hours to go, we want to be instructed While it may appear that we have paid insufficient attention to the real dangers of the crisis underway thus far, we want […]
The essay will unfold in two parts. The first focuses on what we call bioterity, the ways in which the war against the virus extends austerity regimes into the very biological mechanisms of human existence, and where these mechanisms’ legitimate existence become further removed from a discernible social life. The current mode of governing the crisis in Italy will serve as the primary means to elaborate this notion.
Thus, we have to organise and politicise. If anything, the current crisis has demonstrated that the capitalist economy, despite all its hubris over the last couple of decades, is embedded and subordinate to society and not vice-versa. The next crisis will, there’s no doubt about it, demonstrate that the society is embedded and subordinate to nature and not vice-versa.
My wife and I have been in the middle of a lock-down for quite some time: no need to be afraid of it. What you need to be afraid of is inaction induced by a false sense of Western superiority. You can live with the lock down.
The second set of guidelines has been passed on by comrades in Germany. They are authored by physicist/data scientist Ben Maier, who researches the spread of infectious diseases. His material was initially posted on the self-publishing Medium.com platform and has since been distributed widely, including by mainstream media outlets. We repost it here with the author’s kind permission.
These guidelines were developed in the context of forming groups in the US that need this knowledge to be able to safely engage in mutual aid (i.e.: to self educate so that we do not cause harm when we think we are helping). We share so that mutual aid groups in different contexts can borrow from them, and adapt them according to the contexts in which they are operating. The main message is that agreed upon protocols are very important.
The racialization/inferiorization of Roma has been normalized over centuries and supported by social structures. Therefore, instead of organizing public protest against such statements, we rather tacitly accept and even mainstream these violent discourses. In this sense, the racialization of Roma is not a novelty. However, the way it is framed in illiberal political discourse excludes any other point of view, even if comes from the independent judiciary.
Dear Readers, As we try to care for ourselves, our loved ones, and our comrades, we are also struggling to find ways to engage in mutual aid that make sense under conditions of “invisible” contagion. We repost below two recent pieces that inspired us, and some links to resource pages. The LeftEast collective has been […]
LeftEast reprints Natalia Savelyeva’s article with the permission of OpenDemocracy-Russia. We’re told that we should “do what we love” when it comes to our jobs. But what if loving what you do leads – slowly, imperceptibly – to abuse? In social sciences, a lot of work is dedicated to why people become committed to organisations. […]