Production of Social Critique
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.
Many organizations and arts associations belonging to the cultural sector have recently appealed to the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia, the Belgrade City Secretariat of Culture and other relevant institutions, as well as to the expert community, requesting urgent adoption of concrete measures of support for artists, cultural workers and the self-employed sector in culture. They face economic hardship caused by the state of emergency in Serbia, which was declared due to the corona virus pandemic.
Aware that their services are needed during the outbreak of coronavirus, the Glovo App delivery workers keep driving. They ask no dedication award from the company, but demand to be fairly paid and that their wages return to their January levels – to that end they have started organizing.
The introduction of state of emergency in Serbia exposed all the difficulties of modern motherhood.
More than 100 people gathered at a protest organized by right-wing organizations on Sunday, including participants of so-called “national patrols” that intercepted migrants in downtown Belgrade.
Although the number of migrants in Serbia has only slightly increased since the beginning of the year, and the number of crimes perpetrated by migrants represents merely 0.06% of the total number of crimes committed, social networks are flooded with fake news, which raise panic over a fabricated issue.
In the year 2019, declared by the Government of Serbia to be the year of occupational safety and health, more employees died than in 2018, when as many as 53 workers lost their lives. Concurrently, the Ministry of Labour for the first time refused to provide the author of this piece with information concerning the employers who hired the passed away workers, as well as the information regarding the possible violations of labour regulations, although withholding such information contradicts the law on Access to Information of Public Importance, the former Commissioner Rodoljub Šabić pointed out for Mašina.
Every year, thousands of medical workers leave Serbia and the surrounding Balkan countries for Germany, where hospital and retirement homes are more than willing to dish out hefty sums to intermediaries who bring in fresh employee material. It is a play on people looking for a better life, with plenty of money involved. But who are the key players?
Export of medical health professionals is weakening the public health system in Serbia and is against the interest of its citizens, says Mario Reljanović, a research fellow of the Belgrade Institute of Comparative Law.
Domestic legislation has for the first time regulated the position of employees engaged through agencies, although such employment has existed for years. In what way and how much will the new law help agency workers? We discussed this with Jugoslav Ristić, president of the Confederation of Autonomous Trade Unions in Kragujevac and Mario Reljanović, an expert in labour law.
At the end of July this year, 15-year-old Alexandra was killed in Caracal, southern Romania. The fact that the police, whom she had called three times, took nineteen hours to locate the call and arrive at the scene of the killing, caused shock and indignation across Romania, but also pointed to the state apparatuses’ mechanisms of subordination, and the catastrophic effect of capitalism on the outskirts of Europe.
Postmen protested today in front of the main post office in Novi Sad. Post of Serbia workers don’t give up on their demand for better material position and fight against the increasing pressure exerted by management and the authorities.
Post of Serbia workers rejected the government’s salary increase proposal yesterday. A large number of employees of this profitable company currently earn wages closer to the minimum wage than the average earnings in the republic.
A large number of Post of Serbia workers continue the work stoppage they started two days ago. The reason for dissatisfaction are low salaries and the management’s wage increase proposal, which many workers deem unfair. After the main postal center in Zemun was blocked on Monday night, a series of stoppages in postal units in many cities across Serbia followed. Delivery workers and drivers are most likely to suspend work, while counter clerks joined at different locations.