New Future

Notes on the Serbian student movement As in many other regional cases, most notably in Hungary, Poland, or Romania, the commonplace framing of the recent protests in Serbia by Western analysts revolves around the protesters’ anti-corruption demands and demands for the rule of law.

The Rise of a Post-Soviet Oligarch After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine and Georgia entered a period of widespread privatization and economic liberalization. The Soviet command economy was dismantled, and state holdings were sold for pennies.

“The European Parliament is the same as the Serbian Parliament: they are not interested in dialogue, ” said Zlatko Kokanović, activist from the environmental association Ne damo Jadar (We Will not Give up Jadar), after he was prevented from joining the debate that followed the screening of Peter Tom Jones’s documentary Not in My Country: Serbia’s Lithium Dilemma in the European Parliament […]

Note from LeftEast editors: The horrors of violence and the struggle for justice in Palestine are intertwined with the struggles unfolding in streets, classrooms, and university campuses across the world.

Note from LeftEast editors: At a time when we must keep our eyes wide open, the ongoing protests in Serbia demand urgent attention and support. Students and self-organized Serbian society are offering a powerful lesson in fighting for social justice, basic rights, and the true meaning of solidarity.

Currently, there are more than 330 political prisoners in Azerbaijan, however the Azerbaijani authorities deny their existence in the country. The group is diverse, encompassing journalists, bloggers, human rights defenders (among them labour rights activists and trade union organizers[1]), deported political exiles along with religious figures and political party members.

We are witnessing a significant transition from a welfare economy to a warfare economy. Supranational economic structures designed to promote people’s well-being are now being repurposed to support conflicts and enhance border security. Meanwhile, political and cultural elites appear disconnected from the escalating crises.

Germany faces its deepest political and economic crisis since reunification. The economy has not recovered from the pandemic, class stratification has deepened (almost one fifth of residents are on the brink of or below the poverty line), while increasing numbers mistrust democratic institutions, and authoritarian, extreme right-wing positions have become normalized.

Over the last two decades in Romania, the housing question has received more attention than before, from left-wing as well as, at certain times, liberal or even right-wing organizations, alliances, and/or political actors.

Leftist filmmakers of the 1960s revolutionized the art of documentary.

Note from LeftEast editors: This article was originally published on Counterfire on February 4, 2025. On January 28, the ongoing mass protest movement in Serbia brought down the country’s government, inaugurating the biggest challenge to the more than decade-old rule of the authoritarian president, Aleksandar Vučić.

From January 31st to February 10th, workers at the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine (ZCMC) in southern Armenia, the country’s largest mining company and its biggest taxpayer, went on a wildcat strike to protest what they described as inhumane and unsafe working conditions and unfairly low wages.

Serbia has been shaken in recent months by student-led protests. What began as an isolated demonstration to honour the dead and demand accountability after a railway station canopy collapsed in Novi Sad has quickly evolved into a mass movement that is presenting Aleksandar Vučić with his most severe test yet.

January 2025 begins year two of Javier Milei’s four-year presidential term. The first ‘Rothbardian’, ‘paleolibertarian’, ‘anarchocapitalist’ president ever. What do these terms mean and what can this radical Argentine political experiment teach the world? ‘Rothbardian’? ‘Paleolibertarian’? ‘Anarchocapitalist’? That’s a lot of deviant terminology to unpack.