War and class: Lessons for Ukraine and Russia through the Lens of the Breakup of Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia was breaking up for a long time. It had more than 30 years of transition and the country had multiple wars: one in 1991, then another in 1995, 1999 and then the Kosovo struggles. For these reasons alone, Yugoslavia could provide a useful way to approach the question of war and the post-war […]
Together in Trouble: Social Policy for Just Reconstruction in Ukraine.
The war bitterly hit the whole population of Ukraine. Many people lost their jobs and left their homes. According to the September survey of the sociological group Rating, only 61% of Ukrainians remained at their job positions, 36% of whom worked full-time[1]. According to World Bank estimates, as of August 2022, about 817,000 residential buildings were damaged, 38% of which – […]
Is it easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of Putin?
Peace is not the absence of war but a virtue born of the strength of the soul. Spinoza The best of the West is outside the West, in young Iranian women who let their hair down and are murdered because of it. The best of Europe is outside Europe, in the young Ukrainians who unfurl their […]
Resistance and Solidarity. The Left Volunteer Movement in the Russo-Ukrainian War
Before the full-scale war, the Ukrainian left movement was neither considered influential nor had a party or national representation, backboned by a strong community. However, the Russian invasion made leftists look for new contacts and approaches. Spokespeople of leftist and anarchist organizations elaborate on the experience of resistance during the round table Resistance and Solidarity: Ukrainian […]
International solidarity. How foreign leftists are helping Ukraine in the war
Since the beginning of the full-scale war, we have published numerous critical texts about those leftists who have got stuck in the past and keep seeing the war as just another confrontation between Western and Russian imperialism. Some adhere to this idea due to sincere beliefs; others simply choose a more comfortable position of not […]
Support Ukrainian Resistance and Disempower Fossil Capital
By Ilya Budraitskis, Oksana Dutchak, Harald Etzbach, Bernd Gehrke, Eva Gelinsky, Renate Hürtgen, Zbigniew Marcin Kowalewski, Natalia Lomonosova, Hanna Perekhoda, Denys Pilash, Zakhar Popovych, Philipp Schmid, Christoph Wälz, Przemyslaw Wielgosz and Christian Zeller On June 9, Heino Berg, Thies Gleiss, Jakob Schäfer, Matthias Schindler, Winfried Wolf published a detailed statement in Junge Welt in which […]
52 apartments for IDPs. The gap between housing policy and the shocks of war
Full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine caused an unprecedented housing crisis. More than hundred thousand homes were destroyed or damaged, millions of Ukrainians had to flee their homes. Housing policy did not manage to address the housing needs of internally displaced people. At the same time the crisis encouraged creation of new non-profit forms of tenancy […]
Positions of the global left over the abyss of imperialist escalation
It has been half a year since the Russo-Ukrainian full-scale war started. Apart from the events on the battlefield, there have been plenty of political discussions, particularly among the left. In this text, I try to summarize their main points and present arguments regarding the Russian invasion both as a specific issue and a part […]
Eastern Europe’s Tragedy. How the Spheres of Influence Policy Amplifies Reaction
Should the Left support the division of the world into imperialist spheres of influence? A year ago, the very posing of such a question would have surprised me, since the answer seems obvious: of course not. Unfortunately, the apparent sympathy with Russian aggression against Ukraine by many on the Western left has shown that this […]
Replacing the corrupt elite is not enough. Review of a book on the political economy of Ukraine
A global perspective A very positive feature of Marco Bojcun’s new book, ‘Towards a Political Economy of Ukraine’, is that it attempts to situate the development of capitalism in Ukraine in the global perspective. The author cites some authors from the tradition of world-system analysis, such as Chase-Dunn, and repeatedly underlines Ukraine’s particular function in […]
