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.