In the Shadow of the Iron Curtain ─ Central and Eastern European Alterglobalists

This book examines the alterglobalist activists in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary. Based on lengthy ethnographic fieldwork and numerous in-depth interviews with key figures of the movement, it covers mobilizations and actions between 1998 and 2011 and analyzes the process of adapting the alterglobalist way of thinking, claims and organizational modes in post-socialist countries. By pointing out the main challenges the movement faced, the author discusses the ways it tried to overcome these. The main argument is that the post-communist legacy (expressed in low levels of mobilization, in rejection of leftist ideals and discourse and in deep mistrust towards political life) had a tremendous impact on the formation and the shape of the alterglobalist movement in the region.

Grzegorz Piotrowski works at the European Solidarity Centre in Gdansk, Poland and specializes in the study of radical social movements and civil society actors in Central and Eastern Europe. He is a graduate of the European University Institute, Fiesole, Italy.