Social rights are universal human rights. They are fundamental to living a life in dignity. Rights to housing, education, health, work, paid holidays, and childcare are the results of historically embedded struggles, organised internationally and locally, against oppressive powers. Socialist states embraced the emancipatory and universal discourses of social rights as essential to building a rational and efficient society. Universally free healthcare, education, housing, and childcare have been integral to the development of personhood. Despite the transition to capitalism, many former socialist states continue to guarantee these rights in their new constitutions as the result of these historical legacies.
Yet, how are these constitutionally guaranteed rights realised in practice in the context of the capitalist and neoliberal transformation of these former socialist states? Does the state’s responsibility to ensure housing for everyone mean free housing for all, for example? How adequate and inclusive are social policies and welfare regimes? In which ways does the emergence of authoritarian nationalism and conservatism, for example in Hungary or Poland, or in Russia or Uzbekistan, impact upon rights to healthcare or childcare as provided by the state? How are these rights to be claimed at a time when individual responsibility has replaced the collective organisation of bargaining power?
The main geopolitical areas covered include the former Soviet Union, Europe, China, and some examples in South America. The experience of individual states is set in a global context.
- Trainer/in: Zuleykha Mail Zada