Note from the LeftEast editors: In this long interview with George Souvlis, Andreas Karitzis reflects on his experience as part of the Syriza leadership during the crucial years 2012-2015, on its underpreparedness for the historic project it embarked on, on the odds stacked against it, and on the configurations of power in today’s world. While Syriza’s fight for a fair deal for Greece and a socially just Europe has suffered (a temporary or permanent–we don’t know) defeat, Karizis’s reflections need to be heeded next time the Left comes to power. Part II will follow next week. 1 ..
As the UK’s referendum on the European Union approaches, Greek workers are facing more pain from Greece’s European creditors The Eurozone last week pushed Greece to accept more austerity in exchange for a loan of 7.5 billion euros to pay off the country’s debt. This comes less than a year after Greece was promised debt relief following a bailout worth 86 billion euros last summer. No debt relief deal is in sight, however. Even the IMF, normally a keen proponent of balanced budgets, argued austerity was only making matters worse in Greece. But the Eurozone, led by Germany and the Netherlands, rejected an ..
Note from the LeftEast editors: The following interview was originally published in Serbian at Mašina.rs Dario Azzelini is a theoretician and political activist splitting time between Berlin and Caracas. He recently stayed in Belgrade to participate in the conference “Let’s bring socialism back into the game“. That gave us an opportunity to talk about different topics he addresses in his work – ranging from the question of Maduro’s election loss, the interrelation of art and politics, to cases of recuperations of workers’ factories throughout Europe. Could you comment on the resul ..
Note from the LeftEast editors: This article appeared originally on Antidote Zine and has been reprinted with the kind permission of the author. The images portray scenes in Serbia and Macedonia, December 2015, captured by unnamed photographers; please inquire before reprinting: antidote [at] riseup . net Q. Perhaps twenty years old, probably younger. Kabul, Afghanistan. At the transit point in Adaševci, buses arrive in clusters from points further south in Serbia: the border camps of Preševo (on the Serbian-Macedonian border) and Dimitrovgrad (Serbian-Bulgarian), or from Belgrade. In Adaševci, there is a ..
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 liquidating the plot of land on which the VIOME factory is located. A possible sale of the land would create the legal ground for evicting the workers from the factory. Although the workers and the solidarity assembly are decided to stand their ground and defend the fac ..
Note from the LeftEast editors: we post this comment written by an author with pseudonym Quincey, first published on AnalyzeGreece. We are looking for more analyses and reactions on the electoral results in Greece in the following week, so if you have authored anything or are planning to do so, consider submitting it to lefteasteditors [at] gmail.com Some first thoughts on the electoral outcome: 1. First and foremost, it is a triumph of Tsipras. Not of SYRIZA. Tsipras’ party is a shadow of its previous self. Tsipras, despite that he had no party mechanism to assist him, no real narrative to sell, waged a t ..
Note from the LeftEast editors: This is the first English episode of #TalkReal, a show that aims to explore the current possibilities and challenges before the left-wing movements in crisis-ridden Europe. LeftEast is happy to join in the media platforms which will be sharing the clips, including so far OpenDemocracy and ROARmag. After months of negotiations Greece reached a bad agreement with its Eurozone partners. The question “What comes next?” was widely discussed at the GCAS World Conference Democracy Rising in Athens (16-19 July), in which the interviewees of #TalkReal took part. As Markos Vo ..