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Against superficial internationalism: from left exuberance to liberal tears over Afghanistan

On the day liberal-neocon imperialism was defeated once and for all, DiEM25’s thoughts are with the women of Afghanistan. Our solidarity probably means little to them but it is what we can offer – for the time being. Hang in there sisters! The euphoric message launched into the Summer twittersphere by Greek left-wing economist and politician Yanis Varoufakis, […]

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How Capitalism Erases the Human Costs of Post-1989 Transitions

Note from LeftEast editors: We reprint this article, which appeared in the Black Box East section of the Berliner Gazette in German on December 2, 2021.  After the post-1989 shock therapies imposed on “communist” regimes forced countless workers to move to Greece, where they became essential to the country’s economy, Troika’s austerity measures imposed on Greece at […]

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And all walls shall fall? Humanitarian crisis on the EU’s frontier leaves asylum-seekers stranded, six dead

Popular among the anti-communist dissidents in Poland, Mury (English: Walls) was a protest song written by singer songwriter Jacek Kaczmarski in 1978 to the music composed by a Catalan, Lluís Llach. Mury/Walls was an anthem of those yearning for political freedom and civil liberties. “Pull the teeth of the bars from the walls! Tear off […]

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Leviathan of Fear: the EU-Turkish border crisis spills over into Serbia

Racist patrols and protests are spreading in Serbia, as the far right seeks to exploit the migrant crisis for political gain, write Anja Ilić and Vladimir Unkovski-Korica. This is a significantly expanded version of an article first published on Counterfire. When news broke that Turkish–EU tensions in Syria had led to Ankara’s cynical decision to stop preventing […]

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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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[Podcast] Sweeping (Away) Poor Working Conditions: Cleaning Workers Struggle in Italy

This episode looks into working conditions in the commercial cleaning sector in Italy. You will hear from migrant and local workers about their common experiences and mutual interests. The project consortium involved Multicultural center Prague (lead), University of Padua, “Our choice” foundation, Red House Center for Culture and Debate, Estudios y Cooperación para el Desarrollo […]

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Outsourcing Exploitation to Europe’s Periphery

This interview exploring Madlen Nikolova, Jana Tsoneva and Georgi Medarov’s recent research on subcontracting, inequality and worker resistance in Bulgaria was originally published on the website of the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung. Most people probably associate outsourcing and subcontracting, whereby a company pays another company (usually in a country where wages and labour standards are significantly […]

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The Long and Winding Road to Socialism: a conversation with Srećko Horvat

When the reader embarks on reading The Iliad or The Odyssey, she knows quite well what will happen to whom and yet she doesn’t know exactly when. Capitalist financial crises are pretty much the same; we know from past experience that they will happen but we don’t know how and when. The European Debt crisis […]

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A Freight-ening Tale: Bulgaria Finally Stands up to the EU

This article has been published in collaboration with Bilten. The following is an overview of a recent episode in the relentless war on social rights in Bulgaria. I will focus on the aborted reform of freight drivers’ work conditions as it presents us with a rare case of a clear internationalization of the extremely exploitative […]

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Call for Solidarity from Bulgaria: No Nazis on Our Streets, No to Fortress Europe

Note from the LeftEast editors: In January 2018 Bulgaria has taken the presidency of the Council of the European Union for the first six months of 2018. Meanwhile Neonazis will still be marching the on the streets of Sofia in February to commemorate General Hristo Lukov: the head of the interwar Legion and Minister of War […]