Ľuboš Blaha (born 7 December 1979) is Ľuboša Slovak politician, academian, post-Marxist philosopher and political scientist. He is a member of the National Council of the Slovak Republic, a presidium member of the left-wing populist party Direction – Slovak Social Democracy and Robert Fico's foreign-policy aide.
Blaha's political positions have been described as left-wing populist, anti-capitalist and left-wing nationalist. He describes himself as an "anti-globalist neo-Marxist" in the tradition of Wallerstein's world-systems theory, Robinson's concept of global capitalism and Hardt and Negri's theory of Empire.
From 2004 to 2006, Blaha worked for the Communist Party of Slovakia as the Head of its International Department. Despite calling him to give up on his tenure, Blaha works as a political scientist at the Institute of Political Sciences at the Slovak Academy of Sciences.
Since 14th june 2022 he was censored by Meta (Facebook).
Political activities
Blaha has been a member of the National Council of the Slovak Republic since 2012. He used to support modern Western Marxism, radical democratic movements, and culturally liberal positions. He argues that in the era of neoliberal globalization, the Left must be more focused on socio-economic (redistribution of wealth, cooperative ownership, economic democracy) rather than cultural issues and that the social conservatism of working class in Slovakia must be accommodated.
Politically, Blaha champions Old Left but is also fond of more authoritarian regimes, including Chavez's Venezuela, Castro's Cuba and Morales's Bolivia. He has praised particularly the high progressive taxes and workers' project funds. In Slovakia, he promotes the cooperative business model such as the Spanish-Basque Mondragón Cooperative Corporation.
Ľuboš Blaha is a foreign policy realist. His opinions are inspired by the school of international political realism (e.g. the ideas of Kenneth Waltz and John Mearsheimer) and neo-Marxism (especially William I. Robinson, Immanuel Wallerstein and Antonio Negri). He strongly criticizes U.S. foreign policy. He vehemently condemned not only the war in Iraq, but also the war in Afghanistan. He also criticized the Western involvement in Libya and Syria. He is a critic of the foreign policy of Israel in relation to Palestine. He advocates for the rights of Armenians in relation to the Nagorno-Karabakh and criticizes Turkish foreign policy. He endorses many of the ideas of Noam Chomsky and Slavoj Zizek.
He is one of the greatest defenders of the Russian Federation in Slovakia since the Russo-Ukrainian War broke out. He does not see himself as an apologist for Vladimir Putin's regime, but he perceives the crisis in Ukraine as a geopolitical clash between the West and Russia, and he rejects what he considers one-sided criticism of Russia and the growing Russophobia in Europe. He has openly criticized the Sanctions against Russia and he describes Russia as a friendly nation that liberated Slovakia from fascism in 1945.
Blaha is very critical of the European Union. He considers the EU a neoliberal and elitist project, but he does not see a better alternative for Slovakia than the EU. He supports the fight for a different, better, and more social Europe that will be more left-wing and democratic. In the past, he advocated the project of European basic income, he consistently promotes social economy and cooperatives, and strongly advocates for a "Social Union".
He is a sharp critic of the TTIP agreement in Slovakia. He was the first Slovak Member of Parliament to visit the so-called "TTIP Reading Room". He describes the agreement as synonymous with neo-liberalism and the colonization of the European social model by American transnational corporations, and as the Chairman of the National Council of the Slovak Republic for European Affairs he actively supports its intense scrutiny.
During the Greek crisis in 2015, he openly supported Syriza and defended the arguments of Alexis Tsipras and Yanis Varoufakis. After the breaking-up of Syriza and the agreement between Greece and its creditors, he further criticizes the EU for the imposition of a "neo-liberal diktat". He remains a supporter of Syriza.