«We Got 20,000 Small-sized Leaflets, and Distributed Them From the Plane»: Dianne Feeley on the Grassroots Past and Present in the U.S.
I met Dianne Feeley in front of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv on 7th of March. There she had to meet — at the invitation of the independent student union — with the students and discuss reproductive rights in the US. I said hello and while shaking her hand I thought to myself surprisedly: […]
The Role of Student Demonstrations in Mobilizing People Against Authoritarian Regimes – The Case of Serbia During Mid 90s and Mid 2020s
The winter of 1996/1997 on the streets of Belgrade was as bitterly cold as this one. Yet, just like 28 years ago, students in Serbia’s capital have once again taken to the streets demanding justice and the rule of law. Using their university buildings as safe spaces, these students step out each day at exactly […]
Democracy in Peril: Georgia’s Choice Amid Global Shifts in Power
Since November 28, a river of people has been flowing ceaselessly down Tbilisi’s central Rustaveli avenue, with diverse streams of protesters marching by day and merging into a powerful rush by night. Since regaining independence in 1991, Georgia has never witnessed such massive mobilization without a political leader helming the movement. Some have attempted to […]
Local Communities and Labor Movements Under Threat in Sakartvelo: Interview with Left Activists
In April-May 2024, tens of thousands of Georgians took to the streets to protest against the new "Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence," which was finally passed by the parliament on May 28th, overturning the presidential veto. This law requires NGOs that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to declare themselves as […]
Commotion and Margin of Opportunity: How COVID-19 and the War Have Affected the Position of Nurses in Ukraine
During the last few years, there have been two major shakeups in the Ukrainian healthcare system: COVID-19 and the full-scale Russian invasion. Both of these events have increased the demand for healthcare medical staff, as has increased the real risk to their lives. And yet, the majority of healthcare workers in Ukraine are nurses. According […]
The Maidan Shooting: Conspiracy Theories and Unanswered Questions
A decade ago, the Euromaidan protests successfully toppled the Yanukovych government. Paradoxically, nobody faced justice for the bloodiest attack against the protesters, the mass shootings of people who went up Instytutska Street on 20 February. All the killed supporters of Euromaidan became immortalized as the Heavenly Hundred, with their names and photos being publicly displayed […]
The Iranian rebellion, the role of Russia and the responsibility of intellectuals. Interview with Frieda Afary
In this part of the interview the Iranian American socialist and feminist, translator and writer Frieda Afary speaks about the most recent feminist and anti-authoritarian uprising in the country as well as the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the challenges for the global progressive movements. In the first part of this interview, published earlier, Frieda […]
Labour, protests, and state capitalism in Belarus, three years on
Last week, two labour activists from Naftan oil refinery were detained by Belarusian security service KGB on charges of undermining national security. The detained Volha Britikava and Aliaksandr Kukharonak have already spent short stints in jail for criticising Lukashenka’s government and participating in anti-government protests. They are among the latest victims of the ongoing repressions […]
Partisans or Workers? Figures of Belarusian Protest and Their Prospects
These week’s protests in Belarus have clearly overcome their initial electoral focus and morphed into an expanding dissident movement of urban middle class and workers. In a recent (August 4) article for Open Democracy platform on the presidential campaign in Belarus, I tried to explain why the opposition candidates from the ruling elite and the “creative class” […]
More contagious than coronavirus: electoral unrest under Lukashenka’s tired rule in Belarus
Volodymyr Artiukh At the onset of Covid-19, everyone in Belarus, including president Lukashenka, expected that the elections planned for 9 August would be at the very least boring. The country’s previous presidential campaign in 2015 was bleak and predictable, characterised by a cold truce which had set in between Belarus’ opposition, terrified by Russia’s activity in […]
