5th International Conference Socialism on the Bench
ANTIFASCISM
Pula, Croatia (online), September 30 – October 2, 2021

Book of Abstracts (pdf) & Programme (pdf)
   

Programme includes 131 participants, 103 presentations in 20 sections, 3 keynote speakers, 2 round tables, 3 book launches.

The conference is held entirely online via Zoom. Participants and guests must register separately for each room at least a day before the conference. Please, use the following four links::

Last-minute cancellations:
Evan Sedgwick-Jell
Federico Spinetti
Marija Đorđević
Aleksandar Đenić
Nemanja Jovanović
Albert Bing
Franjo Habulin
Ivana Pantelić
Ana Radaković
Kaja Širok

Apart from Zoom, all Red Room plenary sessions are available live on CKPIS Facebook page and later during the day on our Youtube channel.

The history of antifascism dates back to 1921, when the Italian fascist terror in Istria caused a revolt of miners who proclaimed the Labin Republic (Labinska republika) and peasants who raised the Proština Rebellion (Proštinska buna) in the villages east of Pula. The centenary of these events, as well as the eighty years since the beginning of the National Liberation Struggle in occupied Yugoslavia, are the motivation behind the theme of the next Socialism on the Bench. The focus of the conference will be twofold: directed towards historical events and their later reflections, but also towards antifascism in modern society. The historical thread encompasses the reaction to Italian Fascism, German Nazism and their allies before and during World War II, until the victory of the Allies in 1945. In Yugoslavia, it includes the communist-led partisan movement and its victory over foreign and domestic fascist forces. This historical thread in the conference theme also leads us to the politics and culture of remembrance - in celebrations, commemorations, monuments, research, education and art. It is connected to the historiographical reinterpretations and the political revisionism of the 1990s and after, to discussions of the relationship between antifascism and communism, as well as to the idea of two totalitarianisms. This brings us to the second part of the conference focus, to the contemporary thematic thread. The conference wants to pay attention to antifascism in contemporary societies and the policies that shape them, the meaning of antifascism for the political left, as well as antifascist activism and actions against right-wing extremism, racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, homophobia and various violations of minority and human rights. Unfortunately, the emancipation of oppressed groups remains an issue even a hundred years after the first antifascist uprisings.

CALL FOR PAPERS (pdf)
Application form (docx)
Deadline: April 1, 2021

Keynote speakers
Darko Dukovski (Rijeka), Ivo Goldstein (Zagreb), Rastko Močnik (Ljubljana)

Programme Committee
Chiara Bonfiglioli (Cork), Ulf Brunnbauer (Regensburg), Anita Buhin (Pula), Igor Duda (Pula), Lada Duraković (Pula), Boris Koroman (Pula), Andrea Matošević (Pula), Tanja Petrović (Ljubljana)

Organizing Committee
Anita Buhin, Igor Duda, Lada Duraković, Tina Filipović, Boris Koroman, Andrea Matošević, Sara Žerić

Organizer
Juraj Dobrila University of Pula
Centre for Cultural and Historical Research of Socialism

Contact
ckpis.conf@gmail.com

Conference venue
Juraj Dobrila University of Pula: online via Zoom

We thank for the support
Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Southeast Europe

News

5.4.21. Applications are now closed. Thanks a lot for your interest! Confirmations to accepted applicants will follow by April 30.

26.4.21. Applications have been reviewed and the participants are being notified on their proposals. By June 30, the conference programme will be published, together with the notice on the way conference will be held - in person, only online or hybrid.

31.5.21. Although we hoped to welcome everybody in Pula, we must opt for the online conference. With more than a hundred participants, the hybrid option would be too complicated in terms of organisation and logistics. It is also clear now that due to the pandemic and with parts of the faculty building awaiting renovation, holding the conference entirely in person would also be impossible. By June 30, the conference programme will be published.

30.6.21. Conference programme released.

16.9.21. Book of Abstracts and the final conference programme available online.

21.9.21. We apologize, there are new Zoom links to rooms Orange, Green and Blue. If you have already registered, you must register again for those three rooms. Changes have also been implemented in the Book of Abstract and the programme.

Published papers
Lada Duraković, Andrea Matošević, ur., Antifašizam. Zbornik odabranih radova s Petog međunarodnog znanstvenog skupa Socijalizam na klupi, Pula, 30. rujna - 2. listopada 2021., Srednja Europa i Sveučilište Jurja Dobrile u Puli, Zagreb i Pula, 2023. CeKaPISarnica