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GLOBAL LEFT MIDWEEK – FOCUS ON EASTERN EUROPE  
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August 6, 2025
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_ Democracy is messy _

“You have blood on your hands.” Students protest in Belgrade.
Credit, Reuters

 

* New Generation of Left Activists
* Ukraine’s Left on the Anti-Corruption Protests 
* Crackdown in Georgia
* Party Alliance in Czechia
* Serbia’s Student Movement
* Occupation at Warsaw University
* Reading Albania’s Election
* The Roma Narrate Their Own Story
* Russia: New Forms of Struggle
* Remembering the Partisans

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NEW GENERATION OF LEFT ACTIVISTS
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_Áron Rossman-Kiss_ / New Internationalist (Oxford)

The East European movements at Lab-Left emerged against the odds. On
the one hand, the shadow of the Soviet bloc still looms large in the
region – including the way these regimes destroyed leftwing
alternatives and reforms from within. On the other, structural
constraints make the emergence of any leftwing alternative a
significant challenge. 

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UKRAINE’S LEFT ON THE ANTI-CORRUPTION PROTESTS
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Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières (Paris)

On July 23, protests against the government’s unwillingness to fight
corruption, triggered by the adoption of bill No. 12414, took place in
Kyiv and other cities. The Social Movement (_Sotsialnyi Rukh_) joined
the unprecedented wartime rally of nearly 10,000 people on Ivan Franko
Square.

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CRACKDOWN IN GEORGIA
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_Clément Girardot_ / Equal Times (Brussels)

“When we talk about Georgian Dream, we’re really talking about one
man: Bidzina Ivanishvili. At a certain point, he had a choice – to
genuinely step away from power or to consolidate it through an
authoritarian regime. He chose the latter,” says Vakhushti Menabde,
founder of the Movement for Social Democracy, a new political party
formed in February 2025 following the recent wave of protests.

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PARTY ALLIANCE IN CZECHIA
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_Danny Bate_ / Radio Prague International

The Czech centre-left Social Democracy party, today known for short as
SOCDEM, signed a memorandum of cooperation with _Stačilo!_, a party
that incorporates the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia. The
move, undertaken to strengthen the parties’ chance of electoral
success, has met with severe criticism from some Social Democrats.

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SERBIA’S STUDENT MOVEMENT
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_Vladimir Simović_ / Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (Berlin)

Three defining features of the movement stand out, the first being its
commitment to direct democracy. The second key feature is its active
effort to connect with other segments of society. Finally, the
movement is ideologically pluralistic, yet mature enough to recognize
that foregrounding internal differences at this stage would only
weaken its cohesion.

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OCCUPATION AT WARSAW UNIVERSITY
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_Mikołaj Ratajczak_ / Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières

The occupation of the Warsaw University student government building
has been going on for a month. The strike is led by students
associated in the youth committees of the National Trade Union
Workers’ Initiative and the Student Housing Initiative, as well as
non-members.

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READING ALBANIA’S ELECTION
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_Jani Marka_ / transform! Europe (Vienna)

Altogether, there will be four parties and two coalitions in the new
parliament with 140 seats to be constituted in September: Socialist
Party (83 seats), Democratic Party and its coalition (50), Social
Democrat Party (3), Opportunity Party (1), Coalition Initiative
Albania Becomes (1), and _Lëvizja BASHKË_ (1). The latter three
are new parties founded in the last 2 years. 

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THE ROMA NARRATE THEIR OWN STORY
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_Madeline Potter_ / Literary Hub (New York)

The Roma are often described as an ethnic minority, but many Romani
communities view “Roma” as a broad racial identity, stretching all
the way back to our Indian ancestry. Indeed, to look at the Roma as
one ethnicity is to disregard the veritable mosaic of Romani
subgroups. 

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RUSSIA: NEW FORMS OF STRUGGLE
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_Kirill Medvedev_ / Posle (Berlin)

Of the approximately 300 protest campaigns across 40 regions
that took place in Russia in 2024, the majority were devoted to
environmental and urban planning issues, whether fighting
deforestation, new penal colonies, or landfills. The most
high-profile and potentially explosive campaigns arise when ethnic
minorities’ self-determination comes into play alongside
environmental concerns. 

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REMEMBERING THE PARTISANS
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_Zlatko Janković_ / Jacobin (Brooklyn)

The Western Balkans was the only place in Europe where resistance
movements defeated the Nazis without having to rely on Allied troops.
Any progressive future for the region will have to build on the proud
legacy of this mass liberation struggle.

* Eastern Europe
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* Left Politics
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* Ukraine
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* Anti-Corruption protests
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* Republic of Georgia
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* repression
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* Czech Republic
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* SOCDEM
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* Stačilo!
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* Serbia
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* students
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* Poland
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* Warsaw University
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* Albania
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* elections
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* Romani
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* antifascist resistance
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* Russia
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* Balkans
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