Last December, the Party of the European Left (EL) held its fifth congress in Berlin, playing host to dozens of speakers from European communist and socialist parties. One of the most-watched contributions came from the spokeswoman for the working group on Eastern European and Balkan countries.

When the EL began gathering at the turn of the millennium, the Left was in miserable shape in these formerly state socialist countries. Today, left parties are present in almost every country in the region and in some, like the Czech Republic, Moldova, and Slovenia, are significant contenders.

Among those paying careful attention were John Patrick and Carol Ndosi of Tanzania’s Alliance for Change and Transparency (ACT), another leftist party laboring in the aftermath of state socialism’s collapse.