It is difficult to wish a Happy New Year...
... when 2023 ends in the shadow of conflict and destruction.
The bombing of Gaza continues in front of the whole world. The war in Ukraine is far from over, and the future of all Ukrainians is a huge question mark. But 2023 was a year of inequalities and uncertainty virtually everywhere - like the previous years. Both for residents of the Global South and many citizens of the more prosperous countries of the North feel they do not know what would happen in their lives and ‘stability’ is the last word they would use to describe their situation.
We, the modest-but-motivated Cross-Border Talks team, as much as it was possible, tried to keep track of political and social events in our immediate surroundings, as well as thousands of miles away from our homes. By analyzing political events and international relations, we tried to show how big decisions and processes affect people's daily lives. We looked for life beyond easy divisions and generalizations. We also showed people who fight for their rights - human rights and social rights. People who want to take the future into their own hands and build it in cooperation with others, instead of being someone's proxy. If we have succeeded in at least a small part in fostering mutual understanding and getting to know other human beings with their dreams and thoughts, our project has served its purpose.
In the past year you read most often:
Our content on struggling France
More than a million people took to the streets at one point against the pension reform pushed by Emmanuel Macron. Trade unions, united as never, led the largest social mobilization in recent decades. This voice was ignored by President Macron. As Malgorzata Kulbaczewska-Figat commented, this is a sad lesson on the state of democracy in Western Europe, as France is listed among the countries that are supposed to be an example of a mature, fully functional liberal democracy.
We described the huge French demonstrations from the middle of events thanks to on-the-ground reporting from Wojciech Albert Łobodzinski and Jana Tsoneva. We also wondered whether France, where social tensions have reached a level where agreement seems increasingly unrealistic, has not already begun to look at least partly like a failed state.
Former coal region in the north of France is one of the areas where social issues are the most pressing. People living here are not happy with Macron’s pro-business policies.
Our comments and interviews concerning Ukraine
The mood in Kyiv on the first anniversary of the outbreak of the war was described for us, directly from the Ukrainian capital, by historian and activist Vladislav Starodubtsev. We published the voice of Yuri Samoylov, a miner and union activist from Kryvyi Rih, who spoke about challenges Ukrainian trade unions faced in wartime conditions. Jana Korniienko of one of Ukraine's top investigative editors told us about the Ukrainian media and their prospects and Olena Kurenkova, also a journalist, spoke with hope about Ukraine’s Western alliances and new paths of cooperation. Many of you have also read, or re-read, a 2022 interview with Volodymyr Ishchenko, a Ukrainian political scientist now working in Germany, who took on the task of explaining why the Russian ruling class decided that unleashing war against the neighbour was an excellent solution to their own problems.
As our co-author Vladimir Mitev is a Bulgarian journalist with a deep interest in Romania, we devoted a lot of attention to these countries.
We wondered about the chances of their joining the Schengen zone, and how they can establish closer contacts, get to know each other, increase trade and perhaps abolish the mutual border. Malgorzata Kulbaczewska-Figat visited Bulgaria on the eve of (one of many) parliamentary elections, then wrote a report on a country devastated by economic transition period, where the most unlikely political alliances are possible, and where discussions about the past go on endlessly and cannot end with any conclusions. We showed examples of successful organizing by workers there, as in the case of the IT trade union, as told to us by Florentin Iancu. We also published an interview with Bulgarian feminist activist Lea Vajsova.
Bulgarian electoral campaign 2023 in Rousse: just empty party tents, no agitation.
What are our plans for 2024?
Even if we wanted to write only about Central and Southern Europe, there would be no shortage of topics. We have already commented on the ideological face and actions of the new Polish government, and we know that it has only just started in office. We intend to follow the electoral marathon in Romania, where citizens will vote four times in 2024. And we won't forget Moldova, where presidential elections are gearing up and the public will say what it thinks of President Maia Sandu's pro-European course.
We're also following topics related to just transition - read the next chapters of Veronika Susova-Salminen and Malgorzata Kulbaczewska-Figat's report on communities living in the shadow of the large Turów mine or watch the video report:
We have just started to publish a series of texts on the future of the Jiu Valley - once Romania's largest coalfield. It is here where the whole Europe would find an answer - whether and how the Just Transition funding could revitalize former industrial regions, where people had lost not only jobs, but also hopes for the future.
An abandoned headframe between Lupeni and Vulcan reminds the passers-by of the coal mine shaft that once existed there.
Special thanks go to our friends from the transform!europe network, who supported the project throughout 2023. We enjoyed participating in the events organized by you, and met many inspiring people at them. We still have in our memory the militant and resilient attitude of the Iranian feminists we listened to during the Warsaw MarxFem conference. The Berlin event named Socialism in Our Time abounded in interesting historical and political analyses. We look forward to more meetings with people who devote their energies to acting for societies, together with others.
And even though we have reported many times this year on events that are sad, frightening and anger us, we also want to wish all Cross-Border Talks readers/viewers/listeners a hopeful new year of 2024. May your dreams come true and the actions you take make our world at least a little better.
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