Table of contents

1. Agárdi Péter : Reflexions on the state of socialism
2. Hegyi Gyula : The song of the windmill
3. Melegh Attila : The moving East – global maps and the status law
4. Jean-Yves Camus : The changing face of the far right in Western Europe
5. Bayer József : Far right parties in East-Central-Europe
6. Jichak Arad : The extermination of Soviet Jews
7. Samson Madievski : History of an exhibition
8. Werth Márk : The Ungváry phenomenon
9. Krausz Tamás : On Gaspar Miklos Tamas: The situation
10. Rigó Anett : On Peter Szigeti: The attraction of reality
11. Bernard Cassen : The emergence and history of ATTAC
12. Andor László : Variations of anti-globalisms
13. Michael Hardt : Porto Allegre: today’s Bandung?
14. Ignacio Ramonet, Maurice Lemoine : The kidnap and return of Hugo Chavez
15. Roger Burbach, Hilary Wainwright : Lula before the presidental elections
16. Horváth Gizella : Letter to Georges Nemeth

A diary-like article about the events and publications of 2002 about the political developments in Hungary and the prospects of the Left. A review of the special edition of the history periodical Múltunk on Socialism is linked to the analisys of the new coalition government.

Martin Kovats, András Bíró, Ernő Kállai and István T. Kerékgyártó discuss the role of the so-called gypsy question in Hungarian history. The contemporary situation, however, is different from theprevious cases, in as much as the Roma identity became a political identity too. The marginalisation of the gypsy population and the low social prestige of the Roma undermine the trust in the political movements and parties. Another new feature is the preference of the Hungarian state for separate ethnicly-based politics.

The economy of the Roma is part of the economy of the social majority. The sources of gypsy livelihood are dependent on the economy of the society in general, which expects integration from minorities. After 1990, in all countries in Eastern Europe the gypsy was the first social group to be hit by the economic downturn, and they were also ignored by land reforms. Their positions in the labour markets are catastrophic.