Lefteast
On April 24, 2022, Slovenians voted in a parliamentary election to remove their long-time Prime Minister Janez Janša. LeftEast presents this interview with the Slovenian Marxist Gal Kirn on the broader significance of the election and its results. Q: You compare the Slovenian elections with those in France. What are the similarities and what are […]
In Slovenia, trade unions seemed to weather the storm of the transformation crisis well, albeit the 2008 financial crisis much less so. Over the last decade, the most noteworthy developments have been new initiatives in which unions, self-help initiatives, educational initiatives and workers have aimed to redefine the struggle. Channelling this spirit, an organisation named […]
In the blink of an eye, the coronavirus epidemic revealed to the world just how vulnerable global capitalism is: the stock market is in freefall, global supply chains are coming to a grinding halt as privatized healthcare buckles in an instant. The fallout from decades of liberalisation, privatization and financialisation is immense. Even the most […]
The last couple of months have been turbulent for The Left party (in Slovenian, Levica). Firstly, the Left failed to cross the threshold in the EU parliamentary election. Even the fact that their candidate, Violeta Tomić, was also the Spitzenkandidat for the Party of the European Left did not help. And secondly and more importantly, its […]
This article was first published in the Brooklyn Rail IN CONVERSATION MAPLE RAZSA with Duncan Ranslem Maple Razsa is Professor of Global Studies at Colby College. He has studied and participated in alter-globalization movements across Europe, paying particular attention to how video is produced, distributed, and consumed in activist practice. Video, he has written, enables […]
Editor’s note: We publish this text in collaboration with the regional portal Bilten following last Saturday’s (27 August) aggressive attack on Akc Metelkova, the autonomous cultural and social center in Ljubljana, Slovenia, by an organised group of neo-nazis. According to the center’s statement “the attackers shouted out fascist slogans, started to throw rocks, bottles and fireworks, and then cowardly […]
This is the text of a speech by Pavle Ilić – a sociology student at the University of Belgrade, a member of Marks21 in Serbia, and a contributor to LeftEast – that was delivered at the Marx is Muss conference in Berlin earlier this year. Pavle was on the panel entitled New Hope on the Balkan Left, which took place on Saturday, […]
This is the fourth and final instalment of contributions from the working groups that were set up by the Balkan Forum. The democratisation and participation working group consists of: Arlind Qori, Gal Kirn, Tadej Kurepa, Agon Hamza, Iva Ivšić and Suzana Kunac (coordinator). Introduction We build upon the conclusions of The First Balkan Forum […]
For more than a week the so-called Balkan Route is passing through Slovenia. The Slovenian government intended to impose the entrance quota of 2500 refugees per day. Croatia answered by sending the refugees and migrants over the so-called “Green” border. This controversy between Slovenia and Croatia created dire humanitarian conditions for the refugees and migrants. […]
“For more than twenty years have the wage workers of this country begged and prayed their masters, the factory lords, to reduce their burdens. It has been in vain.” – this proclamation could easily have come from a 1st of May rally in 2015, as it remains equally relevant today. But it dates back to […]