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A Lesson in Self-Immolation (Film Review)

Note from the LeftEast editors: a Bulgarian version of this text first appeared on the pages of Kultura weekly newspaper. Christina Grozeva and Peter Valchanov’s The Lesson (2014) is probably the first feature film that explains the Bulgarian winter of discontent in 2013. It tells the story of a “normal” week in the life Nadezhda (Margarita […]

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Social unrest in Moldova: Expropiate the Mafia!

Note from LeftEast editors: We republish this text by Alexander Moldovan from marxist.com, where it was originally published on the 26th of January 2016.  On the 20th of January, a new government in the Republic of Moldova was sworn in to the tune of mass protests outside of its Parliament buildings. Opposition figures claimed an […]

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Did it Ever Happen? Social Movements and the Politics of Spontaneous Consensus in Post-Socialist Romania

Note from the LeftEast editors: This article has first appeared in Romanian on the website Criticatac. It was translated into English by Maria Pozsar and extensively reworked by the author.                          1. The Oblivion Today, only two months after they took place, the protests mentioned in […]

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Albania: Tens of thousands march against the government

Last week almost 50,000 people demonstrated in Tirana, the capital of Albania, against the socialist government of Prime Minister Edi Rama. The protest was organised by the right-wing opposition Democratic Party and demanded the resignation of the government. The strength of the demonstration, together with the current student movement against neoliberal reforms, expresses a growing […]

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Greece: A call for support of the struggle of VIOME workers

Note from the LeftEast editors: we publish this call, sent around by the general assembly of the workers at VIOME, in solidarity with their plight and struggle.  — Dear friends: As a result of the legal battle waged against the VIOME workers collective, the state-appointed trustee is now organising a series of auctions with the aim of […]

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An Economy of Taste: the case of Uber in Bulgaria

Nearly everywhere the operations of Uber have generated controversy. For example, Uber sparked mass protests of taxi drivers in France demanding that the service be discontinued. In contrast, when the Bulgarian Commission for the protection of competition (CPC) fined, and ordered Uber to stop operations in the country, citizens protests erupted in defense of the […]

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The association that dissociates: on the Kosovo-Serbia Agreement

Note from the LeftEast editors: this article was originally published by the Balkan web-portal Bilten.org. On August 25th, in Brussels, Kosovo’s Prime Minister, Isa Mustafa and his Serbian counterpart, Aleksandar Vucic, signed the Agreement on the Association of Serb majority municipalities in Kosovo. This was the flash point and most disputable event of the three year negotiation […]

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All posts Protests

“Rise Above!”: Students of Kosovo fearless in defence of higher education reforms

LeftEast Editor’s note: For a couple of weeks now hundreds of citizens of Kosovo- have been rallying in support of greater autonomy for the University of Pristina. Gathered under the slogan ‘For University’ they joined in support of the Rector’s proposed reforms for improving the quality of higher education. Yesterday’s dismissal of the Rector by […]

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All posts Interviews

Anti-militarisation protests in Japan. An interview with Chie Matsumoto.

On August 30, tens of thousands of people (120,000, according to organizers), protested outside the Japanese parliament against new military legislation that would allow the military to fight abroad. This would happen for the first time since World War II to Japanese troops. According to its constitution, Japan is barred from using force to resolve […]

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Ukraine’s government bears more responsibility for ongoing conflict than the far-right

The question of autonomy in the Donbass has fractured the fragile coalition, but the government must start thinking of solutions – not point fingers at paramilitaries anti-autonomy protests in Ukraine (in pictures)   by Volodymyr Ishchenko The Guardian, 05.09.2015 Violence erupted outside the parliament building in Kiev this week during protests against constitutional changes which […]