After 1 May - the struggles continue
We hope that all Cross-Border Talks’ readers, listeners and viewers spent 1 May well - no matter if you marched in workers’ demonstrations or just enjoyed free time.
Even now, when everyone has returned to work, it is not too late to have a look at our 1 May-related content. Małgorzata Kulbaczewska-Figat shares a personal note on the weakness of the Central European left-wing 1 May events, and why this is not a good situation for local workers. In another short comment, she points out the newest challenges - and chances! - for the trade union movements in the region.
One of the strike actions won by Polish workers in recent times: Paroc Poland strike, 2019.
Eniko Vincze, housing activist from Cluj-Napoca, comments on the meaning of 1 May in post-Socialist Romania and explains why fighting for affordable housing is inevitably linked to fighting for workers’ rights.
And Florentin Iancu, president of the Romanian IT workers’ labour union SITT, recalls the 14-year-old history of the organisation and names important successes it had in terms of educating people and building a democratic union structure.
-We try to make our union as participatory and as democratic and transparent as possible. So if there is one thing that people want nowadays, especially young people, is to trust the leadership of the union and to be part of the way the union behaves. In our case, nothing is being decided. If we’re in a collective negotiation and a final offer from the company comes, nothing is decided by an in-group. Decisions are taken by the workers themselves - Iancu says.
The Finnish Social-Democrats’ failure to win parliamentary elections was a shock to a big part of the left, where PM Sanna Marin is praised for how she led the country throughout COVID-19 pandemic. Could the Finns now trust parties that promise austerity and intend, among others, to privatize the world-famous education system? Cross-Border Talks’ Wojciech Albert Łobodziński asks these questions to Finnish journalist Toivo Haimi.
Antti Petteri Orpo, the leader of victorious Finnish conservatives.
While Finnish elections have a victor and the defeated, those in Bulgaria brought no substantial change to the political landscape. Neither the pro-European, liberal (social-liberal for some) political camp, nor the former country’s strongman Boyko Borissov won a majority, and the majority of Bulgarians did not vote at all. Małgorzata Kulbaczewska-Figat reports from the ground, having spoken to the Bulgarians about their hopes and disappointments.
This lone banner of the GERB party on a rainy day in Rousse shows how apathetic was the electoral campaign in Bulgaria. Photo by Małgorzata Kulbaczewska-Figat
While the Bulgarian electoral campaign was still ongoing, the country’s president Rumen Radev, together with his Romanian counterpart Klaus Iohannis, signed a document announcing ‘strategic partnership’ of Sofia and Bucharest. What does this mean in practice? Vladimir Mitev asked Radko Vlaykov, the Bulgarian ambassador to Romania.