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Statement by LevFem Regarding the Latest Demolition of Roma Houses in Bulgaria: please circulate widely

Anti-Roma racism, ethnophobia, and prejudice have reached intolerable proportions in Bulgarian government, the Bulgarian public sphere, and Bulgarian society at large. LevFem stands in solidarity with our Roma sisters and brothers who are subjected to incessant daily racist abuse, harassment, violence, and dehumanization, and navigate countless forms of prejudice while surviving an increasingly hostile racist, […]

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Solidarity Call

Fighting for justice for homeless people in Hungary. A Város Mindenkié | The City is for All- Call for Solidarity

 Hungary-based organization “The City is for All” has launched a call for solidarity with their struggle against a new law which punishes homeless persons even more harshly than before:  Dear international friends, On October 15, 2018 a new law came into force in Hungary, penalizing homelessness even harsher than ever before. The Constitution amended in […]

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Transformations of housing provision in Romania: Organizations of subtle violence

This article is based on empirical data and is a small part of an ongoing research project on housing struggles and transformations in housing policies in Romania. We look at these transformations within the wider historical and economic context, outlining some of the links between privatization and austerity measures, individualization and privatization of housing provision, […]

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„When is it time to act if not now?!” Participatory action research about housing movements in Hungary

Ilona Csécsei – Andrea Csengei – Mariann Dósa – Imre Kleiner – Magdolna Palotai – Ibolya Tünde Szakmáry – Zoltán Sziráki – Károly Szombathy – István Tompa – Éva Tessza Udvarhelyi – Nándor Wittmann (as known as “When is it time to act if not now?!” research group) “Something should be done, but I don’t […]

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The Rent is too Damn High! – the development of the first Romanian tenants’ association

Note from the LeftEast editors: this piece has been published in cooperation with the Serbo-Croatian web portal Bilten. The title of this text has a long history, originating with the tenants’ movement in New York City that was tackling the problem of unaffordable rent. I use this phrase because this is the exact feeling that […]

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Resisting “Dirty Business”: Report from the Field of Social Exclusion in the Czech Republic

by: Ana Tomicic, Petr Kupka As the position of the Roma community is regularly being evaluated as more difficult than that of other minority communities in Europe, the Council of Europe and the European Union have been paying particular attention to Roma issues in recent years, especially since 1993, as part of the EU’s assessment of […]

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VIDEO: #TalkReal in Cluj-Napoca: Combating environmental racism in Eastern Europe

This video and accompanying abstract is part of our ongoing collaboration with Talk Real. In this episode, held in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, Talk Real discusses the implications of environmental degradation for the local Roma community, and the intersection of systemic racism with environmental neglect. In its post published on October 4, Talk Real writes: Pata Rât […]

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Housing and class (trans)formation in Romania

The following piece was originally published in Croatian on the online platform Bilten. The article provides an overview on the political economy of housing in Romania as a key driver of the formation of capitalism after the dismantlement of socialist industries and related residential urban systems. It discusses statistical data and information on legislation at […]

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VIDEO: “We are equal, not illegal!” Housing rights commemoration in Cluj-Napoca, December 2015

The commemorative action “We are equal, not illegal!” took place in Cluj-Napoca, Romania on 17/12/2015. It involved people from the marginalized ‘residential’ space of the city (called Pata Rat) and from other areas with precarious and insecure housing conditions, as well as local activists for housing justice. This public event was a moment of joint […]

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It takes one to mobilize one: Polish tenants’ movement as an example of a mobilizing organizational structure

This article demonstrates how cultural dispossession preventing the Polish marginalized from collective action can be reversed by organizations, which mobilize the grassroots. Based on the case of mobilization within Warsaw tenants’ movement, Kasia Gajewska analyzes the process of mobilisation, the role of the organisations in it, and the profile of the organisers. In his ethnographic […]