The system change and also Eszmélet has its 10 year anniversary. To celebrate it we have organised an international conference on September 24-26, 1999 at Kossuth Klub, Budapest. Some of the speakers (Kate Hudson, Stephen Eric Bronner, Peter Gowan and Elmar Altvater) have sent us their contribution in advance that can be read in the current issue as well as the study sent to us by Immanuel Wallerstein.

One of the major topics of our ten year past was the problem of the “third way”, now discussed by Hungarian experts in this issue.

Table of contents

1. Stephen Eric Bonner : Sicness onto death – International communism before the Flood
2. Immanuel Wallerstein : Globalisaton or the age of transition?
3. Kate Hudson : Ten years after 1989 – The emergence of a new European left
4. Peter Gowan : The twilight of the European project
5. Elmar Altvater : Bombs and human rights or the militarization of politics
6. Régis Debray : The letter of a traveller to the President of the French Republic Jacques Chirac
7. Bárdos-Féltoronyi Miklós, Hajdu Tibor, Szalai Erzsébet, Jemnitz János, Forgács Iván, Jakócs Dániel, Krausz Tamás, Harsányi Iván : The Nato war against Yugoslavia
8. Krausz Tamás : History of the short 20th century
9. Andor László : Historical moovie
10. Horváth Gizella : System change and social criticism
11. Szigeti Péter, Ferge Zsuzsa, Síklaky István, Szalai Pál, Tamás Pál : The relevance of the ‘third way’
12. Síklaky István : A conceptual framework for the Third Way
13. Eszmélet : A MEGA hit
14. Eszmélet : The first ten years of Eszmelet

In 1999, the 50^th anniversary of the foundation of the Council of Europe gives a good reason to examine human rights. Now in the current issue of Eszmélet, we address social rights, more specially human rights concerning private life and sexuality. It is, of course, not a pure theoretical question – it is involved in many actual political questions both in Hungary and abroad. Such questions are discussed in this issue as the right for abortion or accepting homosexuality as ordinary human behaviour.

Sport is our second topic, of which relation to politics is of no less interest, especially the status of football, a frequent topic of our quarterly.

Table of contents

1. Hegyi Gyula : The social Europe. real chance or empty slogan?
2. Baráth Erzsébet : Who talks about undertaking here?
3. Yves Géry : Fresh met from the East
4. Andor László : Sex and politics in Amerika
5. Mark Findlay : The politics of ‘cruising’
6. Susan Zimmermann : The Hungarian women’s movement and the ‘sexual question’ in the early 20th century
7. Alekszandr Latisev : Lenin and Inessa
8. Graham Baugh : The sexual contract
9. Sut Jhally, Bill Livant : Sport and cultural policy
10. Andrei Markovits : The other American exceptionalism
11. Krausz Tamás : Sytem change and football in Hungary
12. BAL : Protest against the NATO attack in Yugoslavia
13. francia értelmiségiek : Stop the bombings!
14. Immanuel Wallerstein : Bombs away!

The key question of left-wing thinking is the critical attitude towards capitalism. The author says that the road to socialism may lead to a continuous and comprehensive extension of social rights. Therefore supporting the programme of the social Europe is a necessary, but not sufficient condition of the left-wing project.

The Parliament will have to modify the law on abortion by the Summer of 2000, according to a decision of the Constitutional Court. A ..solution" that violates human rights may well emerge, although the current regulation could also be challenged from this perspective.