Ecological Struggles in the Neoliberal Era

By Antonis Broumas and Yavor Tarinski

1. Introduction

Life on this planet, as we know it, is a result of fragile environmental conditions that the contemporary predominant neoliberal system has already began to alter. Capitalism and its doctrine of unlimited economic growth seems to completely neglect this dependency and continues to violently exploit nature for the benefit of tiny elites, thus increasing their already enormous power.

Commons: From free access to democratic management

By Yavor Tarinski

The commons offers a framework and a process for effectively and equitably stewarding of the resources communities need to live in dignity. If we have a collective right to a resource, we should be able to participate in decisions about that resource’s use.[…] So what about this for a radical idea: let people participate in the decisions that most directly affect their everyday lives.

-Chris Tittle[1]

During the last years there has been an increasing interest in the paradigm of the commons. Much have been written and done in this field. There has been an explosion in digital commoning with new platform co-ops, wiki-projects and free software to be successfully challenging the domination of corporations in this sphere. But advances have been made and in the non-digital world, with urban agricultural projects, charters of rights and municipal platforms being developed and experimented with.

The Fallacy of Economic Growth

By Yavor Tarinski

The insistence on work and production is a malign one.

Giorgio Agamben[1]

We are being told that we need still more economic growth in order to overcome the present multi-layer crises. Actually we have been hearing this for quite some time now. Both right and left, capitalist and socialist governments, offer their theories about how we need more production and consumption, in order for our societies to progress and overcome the present difficulties.

Beyond Economism: The Prospect of the Commons

By Yavor Tarinski

The “commons” have turned out to be good compasses not only as an analytical concept facilitating the dialogue between disciplines which usually do not “speak to each other”, but also as a political project that can coordinate seemingly incoherent and incompatible struggles, both in the city and in the province…

Nikolas Kosmatopoulos [1]