On the Essence of Revolution

By Yavor Tarinski

To guarantee revolution, it is not enough for the mob to be armed or for them to have expropriated the bourgeoisie: it is necessary for them to destroy the capitalist system entirely and to organise their own system. They must be able to combat the ideas put forward by Stalinist and reformist leaders with the same vigour with which they attack capitalist individuals and the leaders of the bourgeois parties.

~Camillo Berneri[1]

A complex of critical issues, ranging from rising income inequalities, climate crisis, growing militarization, etc., have led many to discuss the need of revolution. But what does this term signify? For far too long it has been used by demagogues and charlatans who try to push their own projects under a “revolutionary” banner. It suffices to remember that Donald Trump’s election was described by some as revolution, as was the case with Brexit. People, like billionaire tech moguls Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, have too been described as revolutionaries. We can assert with certainty, that there has been an effort by ruling elites and managerial classes to hijack the term revolution, along with other crucial terms, such as democracy.

Dweller-managed architecture as the basis of democratic and ecological urbanism

By Yavor Tarinski

Whenever poor people can gain access to land and materials, they build dweller-controlled housing which grows and adapts according to need and opportunity.[1] ~Colin Ward

Our contemporary cities are marked by crises and inequalities. In many places touristification forces residents to the outer tiers of their city, and most urban environments have been completely conquered by the automobile with its negative impact on so many levels, such as air and other different other forms of pollution, etc.

From citizens of nations to citizens of cities

by Yavor Tarinski

[C]itizens today no longer even approximate the high and eminently human standard of citizenship that was established in the Hellenic world—a meaning that must be recovered, as well as the personal and social training, or paideia, for producing citizens.
~Murray Bookchin[1]

Often, when people advocate for the reinvigoration of citizenship in response to ongoing crises, they are faced with an argument that views this concept as too exclusionary to be able to offer any meaningful path forward today. The citizen, the argumentation goes, is an individual part of a homogenous whole, which tends to reject anyone else from the outside.

Beyond and against homogenisation: Advancing diversity through Democratic Confederalism

By Yavor Tarinski

“The homogenic national society is the most artificial society to have ever been created and is the result of the social engineering project.”

— Abdullah Öcalan^[1]

One of the defining characteristics of contemporary humanity is undoubtedly that of homogeneity. It is a phenomenon with global proportions that has affected, in varying degrees, almost all corners of the planet. This leads to the homogenization of cultures.^[2] Increasingly, people, regardless of where they come from, have the same cultural references, adopt similar dress codes, and embrace one of several popular world languages.

Direct democracy and the need for physical space

By Yavor Tarinski

When the revolution happens, you’re going to have to be in the streets.

~Marcus Baram[1]

Nowadays there is a lot of talk about digital, or e-democracy — focusing on online participation. There are even talks of a so-called Appocracy — civic participation being channeled through smartphone apps. Many see in such means an exit from the deepening crisis of representative “democracy”.

Voices for an Israel-Palestine Confederation

By Yavor Tarinski

Democratic confederalism is the contrasting paradigm of the oppressed people.
~ Abdullah Öcalan in Prison Writings: Roots of Civilisation

The bombing and invasion of Gaza continues in full force, bringing death and destruction to countless civilians. These attacks should immediately stop, the siege of Gaza must be lifted and the apartheid on the West Bank must be dismantled. All this, as well as any jihadist project and, of course, any form of anti-Semitism, should be actively rejected and replaced by a real guarantee of peace – as revolutionary voices have been saying for years, by restructuring the region along federal or confederal lines.

Why Castoriadis is Still Important Today

Audio version of an interview with Yavor Tarinski

Castoriadis in the Context of post-Socialist Eastern Europe

Audio version of Yavor Tarinski’s text ‘Castoriadis in the Context of post-Socialist Eastern Europe’

The Importance of Political Decentralization: Reflections from the Balkans

by Yavor Tarinski

True progress lies in the direction of decentralization, both territorial and functional, in the development of the spirit of local and personal initiative, and of free federation from the simple to the compound, in lieu of the present hierarchy from the centre to the periphery.

~ Peter Kropotkin[1]

Towards Strategies for Social Change beyond Domination

By Yavor Tarinski

[W]ithout an actual transformation of political practice, we will never be in the position to actually determine the very economic, social, and ecological policies for which we are fighting.~Chaia Heller [1]

One of the most crucial issues for us today should be drafting a coherent path beyond the future that ruling elites and the wealthy have in store for us. A response to rising inequalities, of crawling precarity, of the bureaucratization of everyday life, and the destruction of nature. This is by no means an easy task. The good thing is that citizens from different localities around the world have been organizing against these tendencies. From the alterglobalist movement, through that of Occupy and the Indignados, to Black Lives Matter and the Gilet Jaunes, we have been witnessing popular attempts at reclamation of public spaces and the articulation of alternatives to the status quo.

Yavor Tarinski at the A-Bib & Archiv Vienna on Castoriadis, Bookchin & Direct Democracy

Yavor Tarinski’s Lecture in Vienna (8.8.2023) at the Anarchistische Bibliothek & Archiv. Sanettystraße 1, 1080 Wien

Ecology Councils: Grassroots Climate Strategies from Mesopotamia

By Yavor Tarinski

“The councils have always been undoubtedly democratic, but in a sense never seen before and never thought about.” ~ Hannah Arendt

As Greece and other parts of the world are once again engulfed by wildfires, while almost each day a new heat record is reached, an increasing number of people are realizing that the effects of climate change are here and are changing the face of our localities, while years of neoliberal policies have left preventive public services underfunded and ill-equipped for the disaster periods to come. It is also becoming crystal clear that there seems to be no plan for action to stop the forthcoming catastrophe. The summits of the ruling classes—the so-called COPs—have been widely recognized as failures.

Interview with Yavor Tarinski on direct democracy, social ecology, Ukraine war, and more

Yavor Tarinski giving an interview for the Varna Peace Institute

Macron’s authoritarianism sparks uprising

By Yavor Tarinski

Macron once promised to turn the French State mechanism into a “start-up” State, and this is exactly what he delivers: an authoritarian entity that doesn’t shy at murdering 17 year olds, criminalising ecological activism, and abolishing labour rights, when any of these stands in the way of its plans. Macron’s authoritarian project is not a deviation from representative institutions. Political representation is based on the logic of professionalising politics and closing off the grassroots from directly participating in decision-making processes. Following the logic of technocracy, Macron’s “start-up” state continues down the same path, turning the politician into the absolute professional, following entirely with the principles of the company model where the boss is always right.

The dangerous fallacy of ‘democracies’ and the need to reinvigorate real democracy

By Yavor Tarinski

The “democracies” is just the conventional term for that bloc of states. Internally, the democrat is an enemy 

~Jacques Ranciere[1]

Language is a powerful tool. This holds true for politics as much as for any other aspect of social life, if not even more. And there is one specific term that has been used left and right by ruling elites, as well as by grassroots social movements. I am speaking, of course, about ‘democracy’. 

Anti-colonialism and direct democracy

Written Yavor Tarinski

We don’t aim to seize colonial state power but to abolish it.
We seek nothing but total liberation.
~Indigenous Action[1]

Colonialism is still an issue today, as patterns of colonial exploitation continue in different parts of the world. Although the form might have changed, it is nonetheless still there. But the usage of anti-colonial narrative by the likes of Putin to justify their neo-colonial actions[2] has only contributed to the confusion among segments of the Western Left[3] of what the essence of fighting colonial rule really is.

A Legacy of Autonomy & the Kurdish Freedom Movement

by Yavor Tarinski

“Many different alternative movements around the world simply refused to stop imagining that another world is possible: Öcalan and the Kurdish freedom movement belong to this category.”

~ Havin Guneser

Deadly train collision in Greece reveals the dysfunctionality of state and capitalism

By Yavor Tarinski

On 28th of February 2023, a head-on collision occurred between two trains in the Thessaly region of Greece, killing at least 57 people, making it the deadliest rail disaster in Greek history.

On why Referendums aren’t synonymous with Direct Democracy

Written by Yavor Tarinski

A vote, even a free vote, may be only – and often is only – a parody of democracy. Democracy is not the right to vote on secondary issues. Real [democracy] lies in being able to decide for oneself on all essential questions in full knowledge of the relevant facts.

~Cornelius Castoriadis[1]

For years a tool known as referendum, or plebiscite, has been synonymous with direct democracy. This has led to a gross misunderstanding of what the latter really stands for, which in turn has allowed different authoritarian formations to use this term in a symbolic projection of their supposed popularity.

Who will Guard the Guardians: Direct Democracy as Suspicion of Authority

By Yavor Tarinski

There no longer are any checks on political life, no sanctions beyond those of the penal code, which, as various “affairs” have shown, functions less and less. At any rate, in such a situation the question is posed, as it always has been: “And why the devil would judge themselves, or their ‘overseers,’ be exempt from the general corruption, and for how long? Who will guard the guardians?” [1]

~Cornelius Castoriadis