TRISE - Transnational Institute of Social Ecology

"What are the modes of production of Artificial Intelligence? Well, of course, by analogy with the early centuries of colonial capital accumulation, the modes of piracy, the depletion of natural resources, the overexploitation of the labor force, and the transformation of local communities into nodes for extracting value within a vast infrastructure network — one that stretches from rare-earth mining industries to energy-and water-intensive data centers — which are the hallmark of developed countries under globalized neoliberalism, exacerbating desertification — all of this before we even reach the “dematerialized” form of data on users’ screens. This network is global, but its corporate structure is strictly centralized, and the companies’ headquarters are located in specific countries and subject to specific political mechanisms. A new division of the world is taking shape, with information-based metropolitan centers and peripheries defined in terms of connectivity, within which digital competition between the major powers — the U.S. and China — is taking place.

The political economy of Artificial Intelligence is the political economy of purely parasitic capitalism. That is why it makes no sense to seek the “ethics” of digital technologies, which are already embedded in their design as the immorality of speculation without a return on investment...

And the inadequacy of Bernie Sanders’ proposals is not a sign of moderation but an indication of the magnitude of the problem and the failure of established state mechanisms to generate the necessary political will to address it. An institutional constraint on the unparalleled power of deception and the barrage of misinformation from Artificial Intelligence and the technocrats who control it requires a radical institutional transformation."

Schismenos | in Greek: Αυτολεξεί

Can Bernie Sanders save us from Artificial Intelligence? - Transnational Institute of Social Ecology Written by Alexandros Schismenos, Ph.D. In the fourth year of the Age of Artificial Intelligence, while the world seems to be overwhelmed by governments’ institutionalized technophilia and futurists’ populist technophobia, official calls for some form of technoskepticism are beginning to multipl...

Solidarity to the Community of Squatted Prosfygika in Athens, Greece. More on their just struggle and demands here: https://www.trise.net/2026/02/22/the-community-of-the-occupied-prosfygika-under-threat-by-the-greek-state/

Resident and member of the Community of Squatted Prosfygika hunger striker Aristotelis Chantzis, who is on the 138th day of his hunger strike, was admitted to the "George Genimatas" hospital with acute neurological symptoms.

Before being admitted to the hospital, he stated:

"The struggle does not retreat, it has now begun. We will win until justice or death. We are responsible for 400 lives, we are responsible for our society and we will win. Our struggle is just and I will not retreat until justice is done. Our demands are just."

STATEMENT OF HUNGER STRIKER ARISTOTELIS CHANTZIS Resident and member of the Community of Squatted Prosfygika hunger ...

"Assemblies expand democracy beyond electoral politics. They build belonging, cultural uplift, and hope. They train leaders and prepare communities to govern themselves.

Assemblies remind us that governance should not be limited to those with the right to vote. True democracy must include formerly incarcerated people, working-class people, the underemployed, people living with disabilities, young people, and others often excluded from decision-making...

People’s assemblies matter because they:
-Reclaim people from right-wing narrative capture by grounding politics in lived experience;
-Consolidate organizational power by uniting groups around shared priorities;
-Gather data and stories to shape policy and counter disinformation; and
-Offer communities something more than a vote: the opportunity to govern."

https://forgeorganizing.org/article/returning-autonomy-and-power-to-the-people-the-case-for-peoples-assemblies/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHuYKc919iMiwIm3T9fagJMdmQjOMooITmluHuEdDd_3i_vALp5pdjEYI0Kwo_aem_58jehAavX9i46GeleyWGGA

Returning Autonomy and Power to the People: The Case for People’s Assemblies - The Forge Introduction: More Than a Vote In the United States, democracy is often defined by the ballot box. Every two or four years, citizens are asked to cast votes for candidates who make promises to represent them. But what happens in the years between elections? For many, democracy stops after the votes....

A letter of support to the Community of Squatted Prosfygika for an alternative world, signed by activist scholars and researchers.

"As academics and researchers, we write this letter in a moment of urgency, to support the struggle of the Community of Squatted Prosfygika in Greece. The Region of Attica has signed a contract for the “redevelopment” of Prosfygika housing complex on Alexandras Avenue in Athens. This puts the community under immediate threat of eviction. There are more than 400 residents living in Prosfygika, including elderly and ill persons and about 50 children, many of whom might be made homeless. We see the survival of Prosfygika as crucial not only to secure housing of its members, but also to protect its lived material and cultural heritage and the project of autonomous collective life that sustains and nurtures it. Prosfygika is a model of self-organized communal life, care, intercultural exchange, and creativity, alternative to the alienating system of capitalist modernity. For the past two decades, the alternative world of Prosfygika has offered a home and a site of collective learning, intellectual challenge, growth, and inspiration to hundreds of people, including many students, academics, and researchers. We call for international solidarity with the Community of Squatted Prosfygika and urge the Region of Attica to meet the Community’s demands."

A letter of support to the Community of Squatted Prosfygika / Επιστολή υποστήριξης προς τα Προσφυγικά - Aυτολεξεί A letter of support to the Community of Squatted Prosfygika for an alternative world, signed by activist scholars and researchers. [Ελληνική εκδοχή παρακάτω] As academics and researchers, we write this letter in a moment of urgency, to support the struggle of the Community of S...

An insightful and informative piece on the direct-democratic tendency during the French Revolution:

Of all the revolutionary groups active in Paris, no group championed the idea of direct democracy more consistently than did the followers of Jacques Roux, Jean Varlet, and Théophile Leclerc, known as the Enragés [expressors of the radical sans-culottes]...

Whatever differences existed among the Enragés -and, at times, these became quite sharp- they were united in their mistrust of representative government. They attempted to involve the people directly in politics, to sanction no law unless it had been referred first to the electors, to delimit the authority of the deputies, and to extend the scope and power of the sans-culottes through their sectional assemblies."

Jean Varlet as Defender of Direct Democracy Written by Morris Slavin, emeritus professor history at the Youngstown State University (Ohio, Verenigde Staten). He wrote, among other works, The French Revolution in Miniature: Section …

"Bookchin’s works on direct democracy and social ecology seem to directly resonate with the practices of countless contemporary social movements worldwide: from political initiatives directly or indirectly referring him or his concepts, to social media memes like the infamous “Google Murray Bookchin”, which has even been reproduced beyond the internet. For him, the question was not simply to outbid capitalism through an alternative economic model or unconventional lifestyle, as such logic operates within the framework of the contemporary system and its power dynamics. As he wrote, even though such approach may “imbue individuals with collectivist values and concerns, it does not provide the institutional means for acquiring collective power.”

Bookchin suggested that our struggles should be focused on the political question of power, i.e. the question of who has to decide on what course our communities in particular and our society in general should take."

Bookchin and the Legacy of Direct Democracy - Transnational Institute of Social Ecology Written by Yavor Tarinski. Cross-posted from Social Ecology & Communalism Workshop. [Murray Bookchin] was a true son of the Enlightenment in his respect for clear thought and moral responsibility and in his honest, uncompromising search for a realistic hope. ~Ursula K. Le Guin[1] With the fall of th...

"From Acorn to Oak: Social Ecology - For a Free and Ecological World" is a full length documentary explaining the basic concept of Murray Bookchin's revolutionary theory of Social Ecology. In the film you will see how societies can be changed, how local communities are attempting change, and how millions right now are implementing change using this bold philosophy. You will get a broad and coherent explanation of what Social Ecology is, how the theory was imagined and how past societies used concepts that built the foundation for this idea. From Acorn to Oak: Social Ecology - For a Free and Ecological World examines the best way to save all of humanity, and all of life on the planet.

From Acorn to Oak : Social Ecology - For a Free and Ecological World. Full Documentary Mangled Man Studios, REEL Films, and DANSWAR present, "From Acorn t...

An interview with Murray Bookchin, conducted by Janet Biehl on 12 November 1996 in Burlington, Vermont.

"When I say we have to democratize the republic, I mean we have to preserve those democratic features that were won by people in the past. At the same time we have to go beyond that and try to radicalize them by enlarging them in opposition to the State and those features of the State that have invaded civic life. I don’t have to be told that many aspects of city and town life today are controlled by the Nation-State or by intermediate bodies, such as provincial and state governments that function in the interests of the Nation-State. There are State features in every town or even village, let alone every city, in the world today.

But the point is that besides these very powerful State features in civic life, there are also democratic features, or vestigial democratic features, and these have to be enlarged and radicalized. And radicalizing them, I argue, is the only way in which a libertarian municipalist movement can develop as a dual power against the State.

So the slogan describes an ongoing struggle that would involve simultaneously preserving and radicalizing democratic features and civic liberties. These two processes are both part of one large process of trying, ultimately, to confront the State with a sufficiently massive public power that can ultimately overthrow it and replace it with a libertarian communist society."

Interview with Murray Bookchin on Libertarian Municipalism and More (12-11-1996) - Transnational Institute of Social Ecology An interview with Murray Bookchin, conducted by Janet Biehl on 12 November 1996 in Burlington, Vermont. First appeared in: JANET BIEHL, The Politics of Social Ecology, Libertarian Municipalism, Black Rose Books, Montreal etc., 1998 pp 145-176. Janet Biehl: Murray, one of your anarchist critics has t...

The Emergency Committee for Rojava recently issued updates about the democratic self governance of Rojava in the wake of January's crisis and as the region juggles the ongoing integration process:

Preserving Inclusive Governance in Northeast Syria During Integration – Kurdish Peace Institute Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding Preserving Inclusive Governance in Northeast Syria During Integration By Meghan Bodette, Nadine Maenza & Ghassan Bazo on May 25, 2026 Share Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on LinkedIn Share with Email As the integration of Northeast Syria into the Syria...