Political Critique Archive

*This article is part of a five-part series, available to read here. Over the last decade many social and community centres have been created or expanded in response to Greece’s economic crisis. Today unemployment in the country remains at 25%, rising to over 50% among young people. Meanwhile as a result of austerity measures, pensions […]

I want to go back to feeling I can be both Polish and Jewish, but Poland is making that increasingly difficult. The main obstacle for me aren’t the fascists themselves. It’s Poles who watched the march and did nothing.

Earlier this month Naomi Klein, the Canadian activist, journalist and essayist travelled across Europe to present and discuss various translations of her latest book No is Not Enough. Defeating the New Shock Politics. She participated in the Labour Party Convention in Brighton, with a vital intervention. Then she was in Holland, Italy and finally Barcelona […]

Political Critique’s weekly selection from the Eastern European press.

How is a market constructed? How can we understand its multiple exchanges? In his book on the 1990s Russian transition to capitalism, one of the biggest moments of “market-construction”, Vadim Volkov shows how the hand of violent actors played a visible role in guaranteeing the enforcement of new property laws. He calls the protagonists “violent […]

In a country at war, and where the state has not regained its monopoly on violence, it is no longer sufficient for politicians to rely on shifting voter sympathies or even powerful economic capital. Achieving their political goals is becoming impossible without investment in a third type of capital, military. With that in mind, the […]

I flew to the places where 80% of people voted Trump. I wanted to meet those involved in his presidential campaign in the Deep South. Is Trump’s United States really the country of their dreams?

When I ask him if he has any plans for the future, he just shrugs his shoulders: “Here? Here there is no future. Prison was bad, but you don´t find your future outside either.” He offers me a cigarette, and we stand in silence. A boy sitting on scorched grass watches as we say goodbye […]

Just how deep is Russia’s involvement in Central and Eastern European politics?

„Google means gentrification. When they come, the rents will go up.” An elderly voice comes from the center of a crowded room. “We have to bring back our future and build something for ourselves.” The woman next to him, also of advanced age, adds: „There are already mobilisations organized for other issues, like against Amazon. […]