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Local Communities, a Yugoslav Take on Direct Democracy

Over the last decade, the notion of participatory democracy has become increasingly fashionable in mainstream politics. The 2008 financial crisis brought out in the open the disconnect between political elites and their constituencies that plagues contemporary representative democracies. Across Europe and the Americas, the inability to overturn neo-liberal policies and austerity measures through the electoral […]

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“Art Work: Invisible Labour and the Legacy of Yugoslav Socialism”

In her book -— Art Work: Invisible Labour and the Legacy of Yugoslav Socialism (University of Toronto, 2021), Katja Praznik counters the Western understanding of art – as a passion for self-expression and an activity done out of love, without any concern for its financial aspects – and instead builds a case for understanding art […]

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The Forgotten Losses: Or Could a Suppressed War Become Our Next One?

If we want to respond to the tragedy in ways that will help the victims, and avert still worse catastrophes that loom ahead, it is wise, and necessary, to learn as much as we can about what went wrong and how the course could have been corrected. Heroic gestures may be satisfying. They are not […]

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When Mother Was Away on Business: Ida Sabo, the Last Partisan Woman

Ida Sabo (Szabó Ida) was born in Pécs in 1915 from a Vojvodina Hungarian mother. She grew up in Subotica where in 1939 she became a member of the Yugoslavian Communist Party. During World War II she moved to Ljubljana and joined the Slovene Partisans. After the war she held several high-ranking offices, i.e., she was a […]

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Restauration of Capitalism in Slovenia

This article outlines the processes of reintegration of former Yugoslavia into the world capitalist system and reestablishment of capitalism in its former federal republics, particularly in Slovenia.

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Socialist Yugoslavia and the Antinomies of the Non-Aligned Movement

This is a revised version of a talk given by the author at the Workshop ‘Dialoguing Between the Posts 2.0: (im)possible dialogue between the progressive forces of the ‘posts’’, Belgrade, Serbia 15 June 2019. He expresses his gratitude to workshop participants for their comments, and to Čarna Brković, Konstantin Kilibarda and Christian Axboe Neilsen for […]

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All posts Theory

A Utopian in the Balkans

This book review was originally published by New Left Review. Darko Suvin, Splendour, Misery and Possibilities: An X-Ray of Socialist Yugoslavia. Haymarket Books: Chicago 2018. How is it, asks Darko Suvin, with Brechtian directness, that socialist Yugoslavia started out so well, yet ended up so very badly? In answering that question he has produced an extraordinary work […]

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Letter to citizens of the EU from the “periphery”: Politics of the closed borders are bringing us closer to fascist rules

Note from LeftEast editors: This article has been reprinted from the Medium account of Are You Syrious. We, the human rights defenders and citizens from the countries relegated to the “periphery” of the European Union (EU) and the Schengen space, want to express our deepest concern for the current situation in which we can see […]

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The Antifascist Women’s Front (AFŽ) and the Reconfiguration of Women’s Citizenship Rights in Early Socialist Yugoslavia (1945-1953): a Video-Lecture by Chiara Bonfiglioli

Chiara Bonfiglioli in Ljubljana, 10.11.2018, at a ERC Eirene project workshop entitled “Women and Post-War Transitions: Politics”. Her presentation was titled “The Antifascist Women’s Front (AFŽ) and the Reconfiguration of Women’s Citizenship Rights in Early Socialist Yugoslavia (1945-1953).” Chiara Bonfiglioli is a lecturer in Gender & Women’s Studies at University College Cork.

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Reflections on Marxism and Welfare: East and West

Video of lecture and text of presentation. The text originally appeared on Paul Stubb’s website, Paul’s thoughts on the multi-level, complex and contested nature of everything. Presentation for “Marx and the Modern History of Welfare”, University of Trier 24 May 2018 Introduction Let me start by saying what an honour it is to have been […]