CRVENA: Classroom with Katarina Peović - Left Politics in the Age of COVID-19
Questions and answers
In the conditions of a pandemic, in capitalism, the left answers fundamental questions such as the question of the need for production for needs, global inequality, the relationship between public and private. It is increasingly difficult to ignore the contradictions of the capitalist economy and the mode of production oriented exclusively towards the creation of profit. At a time when the need for self-sufficiency in the production of medical equipment is becoming apparent, and health care has no alternative - contradictions are piling up. In the sphere of political and economic changes that are taking place, such as the disappearance of restrictions on public spending, state investment in company ownership, and determining for private companies what to produce, we can truly say "everything that is solid and steady turns to smoke." But at the same time, we are faced with the rigid persistence that something changes, even at the cost of human lives. The issue of civil liberties is being manipulated in order to circumvent the fundamental issues of endangered material living conditions. Just as the until recently unquestionable rules of public-private subordination and superiority are changing, so is the global consensus and confidence in the effectiveness of capitalism in the pandemic era, especially in rich capitalist countries, which despite wealth have not sufficiently protected the broadest levels of society affected by the COVID-19 virus. This certainly applies to the United States with 6.26 million infected, but also to the UK, Sweden, as well as all countries richer than Eastern European countries like Spain and Italy. In the coming months and years, the issue of (in) equality will become more pronounced, both inequalities between the global North and the global South, and between the rich countries of central Europe and the poor periphery, but certainly between the inhabitants of each country. Can a pandemic end the stubborn status quo, or will the negative indicators only intensify?
About the author
Associate prof. dr. sc. Katarina Peović was born in Zagreb in 1974. She graduated in Comparative literature and Croatian studies at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb (1993-1999). She received her master's and doctoral degrees in the field of cultural studies at the same faculty. From 2004 to 2005 she was an Assistant at the Institute for Social Research in Zagreb. Since 2005, she has been employed at the Department of Cultural Studies at the Faculty of Philosophy in Rijeka, where she teaches courses in the field of cultural theory. She is the author of two books, Media and Culture (2012) and Marx in the Digital Age (2016), and has edited the collection of texts of the Temporary Autonomous Zone (2003). She has written for Zarez and H-Alter, and has published scientific and professional articles in many publications. Since March 2017, she has been a member of the Workers' Front (Radnička fronta), an anti-systemic and anti-capitalist left-wing political party. She has been a Member of the Croatian Parliament since July 2020.
Tuesday, 22. September 2020, online at 18:00.
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The program is implemented with the support of the Olof Palme International Centra and i-platform.