On Struggle

Contemporary Eastern Europe—just like other places around the world where capital is king—is facing atomisation as a structural feature of society, one that manifests itself both horizontally and vertically, both at the level of the community as well as in the realm of politics, leaving individuals alienated. The crisis of post-socialism is manifested in its inability (and unwillingness) to engage all members of society, with a growing population of marginalised individuals situated outside formal work and scraping by with minimal welfare benefits. When faced with monolithic power, people with oppressed identities are right to slam into the status-quo for redemption of grievances. 

This issue of Kajet seeks to reclaim a lost space in times of anxiety and provide an organised structure of support, becoming an instrument of solidarity between peripheries, between marginals that share a synchronous struggle. Our struggle is therefore internationalist and collective in shape and form. In order to maintain and sharpen this collision of interests, a transgressive kind of trans-regional solidarity that ignores and dismantles geopolitical boundaries needs to be established more firmly. 

This pan-peripheral community of struggle becomes a community of purpose, a community of shared goals. The Eastern European struggle is not that of catching up with the West or regaining foothold, but that of maintaining life. For this, we need to lay the foundations for a future-oriented experimental internationalism, one that bridges theory and practice in order to conceive a world beyond capital, one that is led through indignation, solidarity, persistence, and systematic planning. So, dear reader, rise in anger and stand firm in solidarity!

Table of Contents

Dear Reader

Brief Histories of Struggle 

I. Being is Struggling

1. Gergő Varga—New Stirs on the Eastern Front

2. Ramin Mazur—Left Bank

3. Hannah Bartels—Lessons in Hardship: Narratives of Romanian Schoolteachers 

4. Nikita Dembinski—Age is a Wrinkle 

II. Everything Was Forever

1. Andrei Mihail—They Brought Us Together

2. Petrică Mogoș—Performing the West

3. Mihai Șovăială—Gone Shopping 

III. Strategies of Resistance

1. Simina Neagu—The Invisible Other (with Dana Olărescu, Bojana Janković, & Lina Džuverovic)

2. Lucie Korbelová & Elliott Papazahariakis—Sonic Futures in the Anthropocene

3. V. Leac & Vlad Brăteanu—Trees of Heaven

4. Marija Nemčenko—Do We Have a Moral Obligation to the Market?

5. Ola Korbańska—Gentle Protest

IV. Conflicting Spaces

1. Klodiana Millona—It’s Not the Fault of the House 

2. Hristina Tasheva—Static Figures 

3. Nikola Yanev—Reconciling Contested Heritage: The Case of Buzludzha

4. Anna Mária Juhász—On the Edge of the City 

5. Cristina Cărcănescu—Hopscotch, a Tale of Home

V. Ghosts of the Past

1. Sabin Borș & Ilya Rabinovich—The Labour of Representation

2. Ștefan Ionescu-Ambrosie—Keep a Drowsy Emperor Awake: Manele as Hauntological Art

3. Julien Britnic & Dragoș Boțcău—The Adventures of Rembo and the Eastern Bloc Kid

4. Charlotte Gruber & Meindert Peirens—The Fleck or Horror Vacui

5. Michał Siarek—Alexander 

Edited by Petrică Mogoș & Laura Naum
Design by Gabriel Barbu
Cover: Mr. Marius shot by Nikita Dembinski, as part of the Age is a Wrinkle series 
Publisher: Dispozitiv Books
Pages: 256 pages
Size: 16,5 x 23 x (2) cm
Print run: 2000 copies
Printed at: Kopa, Kaunas

Herkunft: Rumänien
Sprache: Englisch