Production of Social Critique
“It is our duty to be here, to show that we will not put up with injustice” and “We will be even louder until all political prisoners are released” are some of the messages activists of the Joint Action Roof over Your Head addressed the public with at Wednesday’s protest in front of the Misdemeanor Court in Belgrade.
The crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic deepens the already serious social and economic problems the societies in the region of former socialist Yugoslavia face. Our struggle must include solidarity politics, stated the four leftist parties that adopted the Declaration on Regional Solidarity.
The beginning of the week saw the dissolution of what started as the biggest protest in Serbia in a decade. Activist organisations and few opposition parties continue to demand the release of whom they claim to be unjustly jailed “political prisoners”.
The police arrested non-violent protesters, among them leftist activists, on the sixth day of protests. Joint Action Roof Over Your Head organized a protest outside Central Prison in Belgrade demanding...
Police brutality marks the first two days of protests in Belgrade, while the third protest goes on without incidents.
For two days in a row Serbian citizens have been protesting against their government and the new anti-pandemic measures the president had announced. Both on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon the protests started peacefully, only to turn into a havoc of protester-police clashes and police brutality as the night fell. The alt-right is trying claim the lead and steer the riots according to their agenda. Meanwhile, some left wing organizations see the demonstrations as a spontaneous expression of people’s justifiable dissatisfaction with the government and long accumulated anger.
Protests in Serbia erupted on July 7 after president Aleksandar Vučić announced that the government will reintroduce heavily restrictive measures due to the bad epidemiological situation in the country. During his announcement the president put blame on the citizens for the acute health crisis. The protests continued last night in several cities in Serbia. Similarly to the first night, there were riots and brutal police violence.
The green-left coalition won 7 seats at the Croatian 151-seat parliament, surprising everybody. The turnout was less than 50%, the lowest ever in Croatia’s parliamentary election. The conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) won the biggest chunk of the electorate, while the Social Democratic Party (SDP) suffered a heavy blow to its position. Several right-wing parties won seats, too.
As the coronavirus epidemic once again accelerates in Serbia a number of questions emerge, and the media and public focus once again on healthcare workers. What conditions are their working under in these (new) circumstances?
According to Luka Mesec, coordinator of the Slovenian party Levica (the Left) and Slovenian MP, the coronavirus pandemic exposed many of the capitalist system’s shortcomings, creating opportunities for left-wing politics. The pandemic has clearly shown that it is the workers, and not the managers, who ensure the functioning of our economies, emphasizes Mesec.
After a two-months delay, the Spring Exhibition at the Art Pavilion “Cvijeta Zuzorić”, entitled “Where does the future begin?” has finally been opened.
Many right-wing organizations and parties around the world put the fight for animal rights at the forefront of their activities. Similar practice, however, was not unfamiliar during the first half of the twentieth century.
Mašina was awarded a special plaque by the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (NUNS) “for an innovative approach to investigative journalism and coverage of the topic of workers’ rights in Serbia”, as it was said at the ceremony. The plaque was also awarded to the editorial board of Južne vesti, while the awards for investigative journalism were given to colleagues: Adam Santovac, Aleksandar Đorđević, Jelena Veljković and Vuk Cvijić.
Arnaldo Otegi is the general coordinator of the Basque EH Bildu, which unites different sectors and parties of the left. The fourth guest of the series of talks “Meeting the Left” spoke about the revolutionary program minimum, the need for a different Europe and the need to cooperate more on the left.
Serbian citizens donated a total of 1.5 billion Serbian dinars (close to 13 million euros) to the Democratic Party (DS), the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) and the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) between 2012 and 2018, according to a research of the parties’ financial statements, conducted by the Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS).
In an interview within the “Meeting the Left” series Heinz Bierbaum, President of the European Left Party (EL), talked about the crisis of the socio-economic system and a strategic document newly adopted by his party.
The second guest in transform!’s series “Meeting the Left” was Katja Kipping, Co-Chairperson of the party Die LINKE. The conversation largely focussed on European politics.
Catarina Martins, Coordinator for the Left Bloc (Bloco de Esquerda) from Portugal, advocates forming of a European recovery fond weighing 1.5 billion €. The fund should be financed directly by the European Central Bank, stated Martins in an interview which was a part of the “Meeting the left” series.
About 50 members of the “Levijatan” and “I live for Serbia” far right movements gathered yesterday in front of a migrant centre in Obrenovac near Belgrade, into which their comrade-in-arms, Filip Radovanović, forced his way by car last week. Filipović was arrested on the occasion.
It was not until mid-March that EU member states reached a halfway decent agreement on action against COVID-19. The rich states of the north express a lack of interest in solidarity policies, but that’s precisely what could blow up in their faces.
„Calezedonia group“ in Serbia is continuing production of its regular assortment even though the government is increasing its restrictive measures to combat coronavirus.