Why Citizens and not Workers

by Yavor Tarinski

When in countries that are called civilized, we see age going to the workhouse
and youth to the gallows, something must be wrong in the system of government.

~ Thomas Paine ^[1]

For too long now many have been viewing social emancipation through an overtly economistic lens. This is evident from the persistence of some on insisting that class analysis is central to social change: exploring which economic class is most prone to revolt against its oppressors, trying to mobilise along class line, etc.

Greece in Flames: Capitalist-made Climate Crisis leaves an increasing number of Climate Refugees

By Yavor Tarinski

These are the images from Euboea (Εύβοια), Greece, where due to raging wildfires hundreds of homes have been burned down and their inhabitants – now climate refugees – were forced to flee to make-shift camps on stadiums. And it is not only Euboea, as in many other places in Greece for fifth day now flames have been engulfing both forests and human settlements alike, leaving behind the complete destruction of vital ecosystems and livelihoods.

Climate Change, domination and the temporality of Direct Democracy

By Yavor Tarinski

[Being masters or possesors of nature] has no meaning – except to enslave society to an absurd project and to the structures of domination embodying that project.

~Cornelius Castoriadis[1]

The debates surrounding Climate Change almost always contain certain urgency and it couldn’t be otherwise as it is an issue that, if unattended on time, will develop into a catastrophe with existential for humanity consequences. So of course, there is need of a well coordinate action on global scale so as to avoid the grimmest of projections.

Defend Kurdistan Against Turkish Occupation

International call, signed by over 100 activists, scholars and political organizations:

We – politicians, human rights advocates, journalists, academics, members of parliaments, political activists, ecologists, and feminists from all over Europe – have been closely following the dangerous developments resulting from Turkey’s attacks on South Kurdistan (North Iraq) since the 23rd of April, 2021. As a result, we have gathered in Erbil today and decided that we must speak out.

Re-Embedding Citizenship in Revolutionary Politics

By Yavor Tarinski

To take no part in the running of the community’s affairs is to be either a beast or a god!

~Aristotle[1]

When exploring social change, one has to examine all aspects of it. Developing strategies and institutions that will help facilitate the coming into being and functioning of a democratic and ecological society is of an immense importance, and so is the anthropological type that will consist it. In this latter aspect, the concept of citizenship plays crucial role.

Castoriadis and the Political Question Today

Political activist Yavor Tarinski, author of “Short Introduction to the Political Legacy of Castoriadis” (Aftoleksi, 2020) answers to questions posed by the Greek political journal Aftoleksi on the topicality of Castoriadis’ thought today, during a public event.

What are the perspectives for the project of autonomy that Castoriadis’ thought offer?

Yavor Tarinski: Castoriadis offers an inclusive and holistic understanding of autonomy. He advocates for something quite different from what other autonomists support. Castoriadis challenges narrower understandings of autonomy:

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.

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.

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.