COMMONS MOVEMENT IN ATHENS

In Athens, a number of community protests and projects reflect the needs that the capitalist economy cannot provide.
In 2008 youth uprising in the capital in answer to the economic crisis created collective experiences that reclaimed the city as a liberating environment. What started as peaceful protest led to riots and police intervention.

The riots symbolized the need to form social bonds as well as collective struggle and survival in order to emancipate the community.

“One protester, 32-year-old Paris Kyriakides, said: “Speaking as an anarchist, we want to create those social conditions that will generate more uprisings and to get more people out in the streets to demand their rights.

In the end, the violence that we use is minimal in comparison to the violence the system uses, like the banks.” (4)

THE ACT OF PROTESTING IS A COMMONS ISSUE

The riots then inspired a host of other community led spaces/ projects. Such as the Navarinou park movement.

“Navarinou heralded this new culture, this new spirit of people taking their lives into their own hands. They know that they can no longer expect the state to support them and through this process, they are discovering how important it is to share.” (4)

“There is a new mood of cooperation because people understand that the only way to get their voice heard is to make alliances.” (4)

“There’s a more romantic approach now, one that says we are no longer in need of fancy, over-designed spaces,” she says. “Instead, we want smaller, ‘pocket’ spaces like Navarinou Park that are accessible for everyone – spaces where we can create memories, meet with our neighbours, talk and learn to culturally co-exist.” (4)

Another example being the Culural centre that used to be an abamdoned municipal building. Today the centre gives lessons in foreign languages, history, philosophy, tai chi, traditional dance, guitar and photography. A collective kitchen operates twice a week alongside a library and cinema. Much like the ethos of the Jean Stokes Community Centre, only it is completely run by the community.

“There is a new mood of cooperation because people understand that the only way to get their voice heard is to make alliances.” (4)

Creating commons space becomes an essential step towards freedom.

KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE

The Navarinou park movement, the Stavros Niarchos Cultural Centre, the protests all aim to give voices to the people who have felt undermined by capitalism and the reinforcement of hierarchy and poverty and educational division.

Utilising public space to share skills, to dicuss, offers a freedom that purely instiutionalised or formalised knowledge exchange cannot. It exists on the concept of egalitarianism. Everyone is equal, so we should value all forms knowledge exchange equally; which will lessen the bridge between communities. Movements such as this one reinforce this. It gives back the freedom to the individual. It values all kindsof knowledge and it allowsfor all kinds of exchange. It is through these efforts that we really give the individual a chance to thrive.