Kapitalizme karşı doğrudan demokrasi

Yazar:Yavor Tarinski

“Demokrasiyi kısıtlamanın en etkili yolu, karar verme mekanizmasını kamusal alandan hesap vermeyen kurumlara yönlendirmektir: krallar ve prensler, rahip kastları, askeri cuntalar, parti diktatörlükleri ya da modern şirketler.” Noam Chomsky [1]

Bugünlerde demokrasi ve kapitalizm sıklıkla neredeyse eşanlamlıymış gibi kullanılıyor. Bu birbirinin yerine geçme hali yalnızca siyasi lügate değil aynı zamanda sosyal imgesellere de nüfuz etmiş durumda. Mevcut sistem tarafından baskı gören veya sömürülen çoğunluk bu iki kavramı suçlama eğilimi gösteriyor.

The Spatial Dimensions of Citizenship as an Antidote to Mob Rule

By Yavor Tarinski

The attraction of evil and crime for the mob mentality is nothing new. It has always been true that the mob will greet “deeds of violence with admiring remark: it may be mean but it is very clever.

-Hannah Arendt[1]

Among opponents of direct democracy there is this reoccurring argument of it being prone to the so-called “mob rule”[2], as if the people, once empowered, will most probably turn into a mob. But this line of thought, deeply submerged into oligarchic imaginary, is highly fallacious and deceptive. There are certain reasons because of which the people can degrade into mob, and Hanna Arendt’s work can provide clarity into distinguishing the former from the latter, as well as alternative civic routs that can lead to the emergence of an active citizenry instead.

Potere ai quartieri: la Grecia insorge contro la brutalità della polizia

di Yavor Tarinski

È delle città come dei sogni: tutto l’immaginabile può essere sognato, ma anche il sogno più inatteso è un rebus che nasconde un desiderio oppure il suo rovescio, una paura.
(Italo Calvino)

Sono i primi di marzo, un gruppo di pattuglie della polizia raggiunge una piazza pubblica del quartiere ateniese di Nea Smyrni. Una volta lì, comincia a controllare se le persone stiano rispettando le misure di contenimento della pandemia imposte dal governo.

Cities beyond bureaucracy: Exploring commons-based strategies

Urban researcher Nikos Vrantsis interviews Yavor Tarinski, author of Common Futures: Social Transformation and Political Ecology [co-authored with Alexandros Schismenos] (Black Rose Books, 2021), on the current bureaucratic state of cities and the democratic perspectives offered by autonomous urban movements. 

All Power to the Neighborhoods: Greece Rises Against Police Barbarity

By Yavor Tarinski

With cities, it is as with dreams: everything imaginable can be dreamed, but even the most unexpected dream is a rebus that conceals a desire or, its reverse, a fear. 

~Italo Calvino[1]

 In early March, this year, a group of motorized policemen reach a public square in the Athenian neighborhood of Nea Smyrni. There they begin checking the people around whether they have done the proper procedures according to the government’s anti-pandemic measures. Soon after that the policemen begin issuing fines to those who they deem to be outside in violation to the measures, which provoked disagreements among some of those gathered around, without however any sign of violence. Enraged by the calm and reasonable arguments of a young man, some of the officers attack him and start hitting him mercilessly with iron batons (that are not part of Greece’s standard police equipment)  all over his body, while he and all those around him beg them to stop. The whole incident is captured on video[2] by many of the passersby.

Η ηλεκτρονική εκδοχή της λογοκρισίας: Social media & πολιτική

Φαίνεται πως το Internet ολοένα και κυριαρχείται από συμφέροντα ιδιωτικών εταιρειών που το ελέγχουν καθώς και από παράγοντες υπεράνω όλων μας, τους οποίους δεν γνωρίζουμε αλλά μας καθορίζουν. Παράλληλα, κάποιοι θεωρητικοί της τεχνολογίας και των μέσων θεωρούν πως το Internet βρίσκεται ακόμη υπό νοηματική κατασκευή.

Futureless Present, Time and Social Transformation

The following is the introduction of the new book “Common Futures: Social Transformation and Political Ecology” by Yavor Tarinski and Alexandros Schismenos.

‘Healthy and positive’ communities: Facebook and the restriction of political content

By Yavor Tarinski

Recently Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that he and his team are working on stopping political content from circulating within the platform in order, as he puts it, to “make sure that the communities that people connect with are healthy and positive” (advancing the technocratic logic of “blissful” life freed from political deliberation).

Το facebook περιορίζει την πολιτική… για το καλό μας!

Του Γιάβορ Ταρίνσκι

Στις 27 Γενάρη, στα πλαίσια των τακτικών αναφορών για την πορεία της εταιρίας, ο ιδρυτής του facebook Mark Zuckerberg ανακοίνωσε ότι αυτός και η ομάδα του αποφάσισαν να βάλουν ένα τέλος στην κυκλοφορία πολιτικού περιεχομένου εντός της πλατφόρμας προκειμένου, όπως το θέτει ο ίδιος, να βεβαιωθούν ότι οι κοινότητες με τις οποίες συνδέονται οι άνθρωποι θα παραμείνουν… «υγιείς (!) και θετικές». Αυτό δεν αποτελεί έκπληξη, καθώς η εταιρία προχωρά προς αυτή τη κατεύθυνση εδώ και αρκετό καιρό, διαγράφοντας σελίδες και προφίλ αντιφασιστικών και ελευθεριακών ομάδων και προωθώντας έτσι την τεχνοκρατική λογική μιας ευτυχισμένης ζωής απαλλαγμένης από το βάρος της πολιτικής.

Enlightenment and Ecology: An introduction to Bookchin’s legacy

By Yavor Tarinski

The following is an excerpt from the new book “Enlightenment and Ecology: The Legacy of Murray Bookchin in the 21^st Century”, edited by Yavor Tarinski and published by Black Rose Books.