From democracy to neoliberalism – from Poland to Ukraine
Following recent waves of labour struggles in Poland, Jan Ladzinski reflects on the contradictions of movements for democracy that result in neoliberal reforms and suggests possible lessons from the Polish experience for Ukraine. This is a year of strikes in Poland. From the very first days of January, 20% of GP practices in the country […]
Beyond the Holocaust – POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews
Jan Ladzinski discusses how POLIN’s attempt to place the Holocaust and subsequent emigration of Polish Jews in the wider context of the one thousand years of shared Polish-Jewish history is not only useful politically but also potentially subversive The ideas behind the project POLIN, meaning both “Poland” and “rest here” in Hebrew, opened its core exhibition […]
The Ghetto uprising – resistance is never futile!
Jan Ladzinski introduces Wladyslaw Szlengel’s poem, Counterattack, on the 72nd anniversary of the start of revolt in the Warsaw Ghetto Exactly 72 years ago the Warsaw Ghetto saw an unexpected revolt. In the years of the Nazi occupation as many as 400,000 Jews were crowded into an area of 1.3 square miles, deprived of food and […]
Report on solidarity picket for Ukrainian miners
Jan LadziÅ„ski reports on a solidarity picket outside the London HQ of the oligarchs who are refusing to pay Ukrainian miners a decent wage. On Friday afternoon there was a solidarity picket outside the offices of EVRAZ, the company in charge of Kryvyi Rih coal mines. EVRAZ is owned by Russian oligarchs: Roman Abramovich, Alexander […]
Where next for Ukraine?
As the major news services shut down their live coverage of events in the Ukraine, the battle for the country’s future might be just beginning.
Neither Brussels nor Moscow
Jan Ladzínski reports on Ukraine Much has happened in Kiev since 21 November. Most of it went unnoticed in the Western media, except for engrossing images of the destruction of Lenin’s statue and protesters using a bulldozer against the police. The little information in the mainstream British media quickly dampened any left enthusiasm for the […]