Lefteast
Note from LeftEast editors: The following manifesto was released on March 3 in anticipation of the upcoming Russian election on March 17th. It is the product of a number of Russian leftist academics, politicians, bloggers, and activists. Because true opposition candidates have been kept off the ballot, this manifesto calls on Russian voters to spoil […]
Imagine you are a Russian-speaker in some bombed-out Eastern Ukrainian city, waiting to be liberated. Some of the “liberators” will be first checking your closets for young men to mobilize and use as a Z-branded canon fodder. The other liberators make it clear that they see you аs nothing more than a “vatnik,” a Homo […]
The following report back from Finland by Kyle Bailey looks at a nascent protest movement against the sudden shift in Finnish public opinion when it comes to NATO membership. The Russian military’s recent aggression against Ukraine has effectively upended a key mainstay of Finland’s post-WWII diplomacy, which was built around official neutrality. In the space of a few months, this consensus has been shattered and a new consensus seems to be emerging instead around accelerated NATO membership. This short piece gives insight into the narrowing space of public debate in Finland on these issues, and highlights how a small coalition of progressive groups are attempting to challenge the militarization such a decision is surely to bring in its wake.
Russian propaganda and the prohibition of humanism Being a Russian living in Europe means having a mind filled with possibilities inadequate for the Russian context and cherishing an imperishable, naïve hope in resistance for a better future. People in the EU are calling on Russians to protest. However, the current conditions changed the meaning of […]
In 2006, Esther Cooper Jackson, the renowned Black civil rights activist, social worker, and leftist thinker, underlined at a community event in Harlem that, “more and more of us need to become internationalist” by getting involved in struggles worldwide and making ties with oppressed people.[i] As a queer feminist activist from Belarus, I reflect on […]