Categories
Insert

Forwards to the legacies of ‘post-communism’ in the Balkans – Vladimir Unkovski-Korica

This article is part of the regular assembly “New authoritarian tendencies – a legacy of the past?“ of the Cross-border Committee. It brings four perspectives that zero in on the post-Yugoslav space. In the years following the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the countries of the former Soviet Union, the Soviet bloc and Yugoslavia were subjected […]

Categories
All posts FeminEasts Video

VIDEO: Where have all the workers gone

This film tells the tale of textile workers in post-Yugoslav states. The garment industry was very successful in socialist times, and employed thousands of workers, particularly women. After the Yugoslav break-up and post-socialist transition, however, the industry underwent a process of economic decline and deindustrialisation. Textile workers in the former Yugoslavia faced factory closures, job […]

Categories
All posts

On the Importance of a Strong Work Ethic: Etho-politics in Serbia

During a recent visit to Slovenia, Serbia’s Prime Minister Vucic made a statement on a theme that has come to figure prominently in many of his public speeches and press statements – that of the importance of a strong work ethic. Speaking of his government’s economic reforms and foreign policy measures, Vucic poignantly argued for […]

Categories
Insert

Perils of Parliamentary Immersion

Note from the LeftEast editors: this article is re-published from the author’s  Word Press page. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead Three years ago, in 2012, Initiative for Democratic Socialism(IDS) didn’t actually exist. It was just a small group […]

Categories
Interviews

Work, Art, and Deindustrialization in Rijeka. An Interview with Althea Thauberger.

This interview explores Althea Thauberger’s experimental digital film Preuzmimo Benčić (Take Back Benčić). The film was made in collaboration with 67 child performers from Rijeka, Croatia. Part documentary, part fiction, the film follows the children’s activities and reflections during a 6 week period when they occupied the H and T buildings of Rijeka’s former worker-managed […]

Categories
All posts FeminEasts We Asked

Was the 8th of March cancelled in the Balkans this year?

Wrapped in a perfumed Valentine’s-meets-Mother’s-Day packaging, year after year International Women’s Day seems to become further stripped of its political flavour. What is worrying is that this occurs at a time when women face deteriorating conditions across the region, in their homes, at the work place and society at large. We asked activists, researchers and […]

Categories
FeminEasts Insert We Asked

International Women’s Day in the Balkans: Ankica Čakardić

Ankica Čakardić is an assistant professor at the Department of Philosophy, University of Zagreb. She coordinates educational programmes at the Centre for Women’s Studies in Zagreb, is a member of The Organisation for Workers Initiative and Democratisation, Croatia, Women’s Front for Labour and Social Rights and the Feminist-Marxist reading group FemFront. “Unfortunately we can really […]

Categories
FeminEasts Insert We Asked

International Women’s Day in the Balkans: Anita Tolić

Anita Tolić is a member of the Initiative for Democratic Socialism and Institute for Labour Studies in Slovenia. “In the relative absence of an organized, progressive feminist struggle, the economic and social circumstances, which generate re-traditionalisation, re-patriarchalisation and re-domestification of women, threaten to cause even further regression of the historical achievements for which women (and […]

Categories
FeminEasts Insert We Asked

International Women’s Day in the Balkans: Antonio Mihajlov

Antonio Mihajlov is President of the Association for the critical approach to gender and sexuality – Subversive Front in Skopje and a Committee member of the National network against homophobia and transphobia.   “Women MPs in the Macedonian Parliament vote on misogynistic legislation changes imposed by men. Young girls glorify marriage as the only feasible […]

Categories
FeminEasts Insert We Asked

International Women’s Day in the Balkans: Ana Vilenica

Ana Vilenica is a researcher, theorist and an activist. She is the editor of the book Becoming a Mother in Neoliberal Capitalism, co-editor of the book On the Ruins of the Creative City and the chief editor of uz)bu))na))) journal for art, politics, theory and activism. She regularly publishes texts on social issues in anthologies, […]