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The Chilean Crisis: behind a thirty-peso fare hike, thirty years of bourgeois domination

On October 6, a fare hike on Santiago’s subway network triggered protests led by secondary students, putting on display the terrible conflict-management skills of president Sebastien Piñera’s right-wing government in Chile. The mass fair-dodging was too quickly called a criminal act, and from then on, government officials started digging their own graves. What started out […]

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Johnson’s Withdrawal Agreement Fails Romanian and Bulgarian Migrant Workers

Editorial note: The following piece originally appeared on Verfassungsblog | On Matters Constitutional. We carry it here with kind permission from the author. Two weeks ago, on a Friday night, I was grabbing a bite to eat with a few Romanian colleagues at Bill’s Restaurant on Green Street in Cambridge, England. Two of us stepped outside for […]

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Between The Bearable and The Unbearable: The Lebanese Revolution to Come

What is happening in Lebanon is truly special. It is special in terms of local and regional politics and it is special as a more specific instance of the struggle against the rule of neo-liberal capitalism in the world. Lebanon’s capitalism has always been extreme and reactionary. When people talked about laissez-faire capitalism, Lebanon’s capitalism […]

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The Bulgarian Far Right in 2019: an Overview

We are publishing this article in cooperation with the Serbo-Croatian internet portal Bilten. The current government coalition in Bulgaria comprises one center-right and three far-right parties (Ataka, the National Front for the Salvation of Bulgaria – NFSB, and VMRO). These three “junior” partners, which go by the name of “United Patriots” (UP), exert political gravity […]

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The 2019 Hungarian municipal election in the light of hegemonic struggle within the global capitalist crisis

Note from LeftEast Editors: This piece draws on the work that the members of the Working Group for Public Sociology “Helyzet” have done on a special issue of Fordulat (#26) “Crisis and Hegemony in Hungary 2008-2018” (Válság és hegemónia Magyarországon 2008–2018), summarized in piece published by media platform Merce.hu and by Merce’s editor Szilárd Pap […]

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Between opportunity and opportunism: Vetevendosje! on verge of power after Kosovo elections

Albin Kurti’s party won the 6th October poll, but whether they will provide a clean break with the last 30 years in Kosovo remains to be seen, argues Vladimir Unkovski-Korica. Kosovo’s recent election was close. According to final preliminary results, Levizja Vetevendosje! (Movement Self-Determination!) beat the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) by fewer than 6,000 votes. […]

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The road to the East. Ukrainian workers in Russia after 2014

As a 45-year-old woman scoops up another spoonful of cereal for the three year old child she has professionally taken care of during the past couple of years, she tells me: ‘I’m not a migrant, I’m a gastarbaiter [a derogatory word for a guest worker]. And so I’m underground (podpolnij).’. Ljuba first came to Russia […]

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Disgraceful and dangerous: European Parliament equates Communism with Fascism

By voting to distort history, MEPs are legitimating fascism and imperialism, argues LeftEast editor Vladimir Unkovski-Korica in an article initially published on Counterfire. On 18th September this year, the European Parliament passed a resolution entitled ‘On the Importance of European remembrance for the future of Europe’, by 545 votes to 66. The resolution is summed up by the […]

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“A Shakespearean Act of Betrayal”: Trump Agrees to Let Turkey Invade Kurdish-Controlled Syrian Area

U.S. troops have begun withdrawing from northeast Syria as Turkey prepares to invade Kurdish-controlled areas of the country. For years, the Kurds have been close allies to the United States in the fight against ISIS. On Sunday, however, the White House released a statement that surprised many in the region, announcing that Turkey would be […]

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ROZBRAT STAYS!: The Oldest Squat in Poland Faces Eviction

In October, Rozbrat squat is celebrating its 25th birthday, but its future is uncertain. A bailiff is preparing to auction off the plot, which we occupy. We won’t give it up without a fight! Several years ago, Rozbrat filed a case in court to secure rights to the land we have been occupying based on […]