“The road of life”: how the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh live under the blockade
July 29. The 229th day of the blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh). 68-year-old Vagif Khachatryan was evacuated by a Red Cross vehicle to Yerevan for a vital heart operation. He was detained at the Azerbaijani checkpoint near the Hakari Bridge. The Azerbaijani military took away Vagif’s passport and ordered him to enter the ward for a […]
Dana El Kurd: “Palestinians are tied to this particular place, like Ukrainians are tied to theirs”
Struggle of the people of Palestine for their freedom and independence is probably one of the ‘don’t ask – don’t tell’ topics for many Ukrainians covered under such a generalisation as the ‘Near East’, and is associated with wars in the first place. At the same time Israel is often presented as a role model […]
Our close friend, comrade and editor of “Commons” Oleksandr Kravchuk died
We lost our close friend, comrade and colleague Oleksandr Kravchuk, an economist and Commons editorial team member. For years, he has been a permanent editor and the soul of our journal. Oleksandr (Sasha) was into hiking in the mountains, dancing and playing volleyball; it always seemed that he had more health than all of us […]
Elia J. Ayoub: “The fall of Putin’s regime could lead to the collapse of Assad and the Iranian regime”
Commons talked with Elia J. Ayoub, a writer, researcher, activist and podcaster from Lebanon. Throughout the last year and a half Elia invited Ukrainian activists to his podcast, took part in discussions about Russo-Ukrainian war and advocated rights of Ukrainians to resist on the international level, connecting Ukrainian struggle to struggles of other oppressed nations. […]
Kavita Krishnan: “Our indifference to Ukraine did harm to our struggle in India”
Kavita Krishnan is one of the prominent figures in India's left and women's movements today. She has long been fighting for the rights of women, workers, and discriminated communities, playing a crucial role in large-scale campaigns to stop violence against women. In her texts, she analyzes the problems of Indian society and experiences of struggle […]
Interview with Kavita Krishnan on Inequality, Leftist Struggles, and Repressions in India
Kavita Krishnan is one of the prominent figures in India's left and women's movements today. She has long been fighting for the rights of women, workers, and discriminated communities, playing a crucial role in large-scale campaigns to stop violence against women. In her texts, she analyzes the problems of Indian society and experiences of struggle […]
Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant: UN needed to avoid catastrophe in Ukraine
Last week, Ukraine warned the world that Russia may be planning a catastrophic attack on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. The reaction to this crisis has been another failure of the United Nations – one that comes in amid a larger failure by the UN to enforce international law and diplomacy against Russia. Usually, when […]
From the Jungles of Kyiv to the Pacific Islands: The Gonzo-Anthropology of Evheny Osievsky
Evheny Osievsky died on May 22 after a landmine flew into his trench and exploded. Although looking back at Zhenya’s activity on his Facebook page, it is hard to imagine he was so close to death. Five days before he died, he cheerfully posted his last interview with the British geneticist and science popularizer, Adam […]
Ukrainian economy and society: whither the (postwar) country?
On February 24, 2022, when Russia yet again invaded Ukraine, it was already one of the poorest and most indebted countries in Europe, at war since 2014. Its needs and losses have grown exponentially – dislocation of the labour force, infrastructure destruction, ecological damage, etc. This article argues a case for large-scale multi-faceted international assistance, […]
Commons: A Ukrainian left-wing collective intellectual
One of the paradoxes of the war in Ukraine is that some of us have discovered the existence of an active left and a critical and creative thinking in Ukraine that we (including the author of these lines) have ignored for too many years. Amongst our revelations, Commons, Journal of Social Criticism, is certainly one of the […]
