In autumn 2013, Romania witnessed some of its biggest post-1989 protests. From September to about early December tens of thousands of people took to the streets in major cities of Romania. The reason was the project of an opencast mine in Roșia Montana, a small mining town located in the Apuseni Mountains. In the making for almost 16 years, the project has been mired in controversy. First, the very existence of the project and its non-transparent character raised suspicions of complicity between local politicians of all stripes and the Canadian mining firm behind the project. Allegations of conflicts of interest, illicit lobbying and top-level corruption were abundant. Long-term journalist investigations gave credence to many such views, documenting a vast network of business and political interests, both local and global, undergirding the project. [...]
About the project
The Belgrade office of the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung has decided to initiate a research project on some of the main socio-economic, political and cultural topics of relevance for the region of Southeast Europe. We believe that there is a serious lack of critical, left oriented analyses and case studies which would challenge the mainstream portrayal of the so called «transitional economies» or «transitional societies» as «corrupted», «inefficient», «nationalistic» or «backwarded», as is still common, both in the East and the West.
With this research project we want to provide relevant analyses and information on the region to interested critical researchers and left-wing oriented actors, local and international, as well as international scholars, journalists, antifascists, political activists and theoreticians.
