With the death of Yannis Tamtakos on 4 January at the age of 100, we could say that the last chapter of a historical journey of outstanding importance was written, which, however, remains largely unknown, pushed to the margins of official historiography, not excluding the version coming from the camp of the Left. This is the course charted by the Internationalist group animated by Agis Stinas during the years of occupation, whose members included Cornelius Castoriadis, Demosthenes Voursoukis and, of course, Yannis Tamtakos.
Yannis Tamtakos' first contact with the revolutionary movement came through the Archiomarxist movement, as a member of which he was a leading member in the workers' uprising of May '36 in Thessaloniki. In the midst of Metaxas' dictatorship he was exiled in 37 to Gavdos and during the six years or so of his exile he came into contact with the ideas expressed by Stinas and his group, the KDEE, to which he joined, leaving the Pouliopoulos tendency, to which he had previously belonged. With the escape of himself and Stinas in '42, the members of the group were linked in Athens and recorded remarkable activity, which will be referred to below. The purpose of this brief introduction, however, is not a mere listing of biographical data, nor is it a tribute to the memory of a recently deceased revolutionary. Rather, we hope to initiate a discussion on the importance of the example of Yannis Tamtakos for us today. An example whose value is, we believe, manifold and which is extremely relevant because of a number of reasons, beyond the obvious ones - his ethos, his militancy, his dedication to the project of social emancipation - which will be touched upon below.
Tamtakos never ceased to say that he was not an intellectual, but a simple labourer who failed to complete his schooling, having been forced to work from a particularly young age. Of course, education - unlike education, which is another thing - is not provided by any mechanism separate from everyday life, charged with this task, as is the case with school, but is instead the fruit of experience. The truth is, therefore, that Tamtakos had a profound political education, which he owed to his participation in the revolutionary workers' movement and his socialization through it-the title of his book of memoirs, "Memories of a Life in the Revolutionary Movement," is possibly indicative of his awareness of this fact.
Let us bear in mind that we are talking about a time when such a process of positive socialisation could still be carried out by the labour movement, as it had not yet reached its final decline under the crushing weight of Stalinism and bureaucratisation. Solidarity and opposition to the established class were the components that constituted the socio-anthropology of the proletariat, being at the same time the elements that provided the fertile ground for the emergence of the type of individual that Yannis Tamtakos advocated. An anthropological type that modern capitalism is no longer able to produce or even tolerate, to borrow a characterization by Castoriadis referring to A. Stinas.
Returning to Greece in the 1960s after a long stay as an immigrant in Australia, Tamtakos was to encounter a social reality that was markedly differentiated. It was the beginnings, the first visible signs of what constitutes today's deplorable situation, characterised by privatisation, individualism, depoliticisation, which contribute to the disintegration of the social fabric, which is a feature of the present-day West. In this atmosphere, in which the project of autonomy in its broadest sense, the demand for the emancipation of society is receding, its remnants have almost completely lost any social basis, and as a result, due to political devastation, they are being pushed to the margins.
Therefore, almost inevitably, much of it is plagued by lifestyle. Social address ceases to be a concern for many groupings, whose main function is to provide their members with the illusion of belonging, differentiating themselves from the rest of society. Thus, not only do they not respond to the crisis of the eusocialisation process, but they act as a substitute for its loss, constituting in essence a symptom of the fragmentation of society into subcultures and in no way a challenge to this phenomenon. As a natural corollary, the basic seriousness and responsibility, the absence of which is evident throughout the whole of society, do not thrive within these circles either.
The existence of a serious attitude - towards their proclaimed political identity first and foremost - would prevent people who identify themselves as anarchists and anti-authoritarians from recognizing EAM-ELAS and the national resistance as part of their political tradition, overlooking the atrocities of the Stalinists and renouncing internationalism. This sad phenomenon is particularly common and, although paradoxical, can be explained if one considers the state of the Greek Left, its nationalism still surviving under the cloak of "anti-imperialism". The pan-European paradox of the K.K.'s survival in Greece is certainly to some extent due to its embrace of nationalism.
Already from the beginning of the 1930s the "party" had practically abandoned the principles of the international proletarian revolution. It was these principles that Tamtakos and his comrades defended during the occupation, following revolutionary defeatism. And they were among the few in the world who did so. This consistent internationalist stance of theirs was not without cost, as is understandable. In the list of the numerous victims of the brutal murders of the Stalinists of the "OPLA" are not missing those of members of the group, such as Demosthenes Voursoukis, alongside those of thousands of Archeio-Marxists, Trotskyists, Anarchists and members of the KKE, whose crime consisted in their disagreement with the "line" of the party.
With this attitude the Stinas group, although identifying itself as Trotskyist, was in practice going beyond Trotsky and the tactic of "defending the USSR". Thanks to their perspicacity, its members broke with the Trotskyist theory, according to which the USSR was a "degenerate workers' state", and saw that what was taking place in Russia was the establishment of a new regime of class exploitation, a viewpoint which was later elaborated and clearly formulated by Castoriadis. The - now formal - separation from Trotskyism was now a matter of time and was not long in coming. All this leaves no room for doubt that Tamtakos was a denier of all dogmatism, who did not hesitate to question his own convictions. Together with the rest of the group, they had taken the first step towards freedom by deciding to be free. Refusing to be complacent, entrenched behind certainties and submitting to the mental confinement that this entails, they were instead imbued with a willingness for constant reflection.
In confirmation of this, it is worth mentioning that Yannis Tamtakos did not cease until the end to inform himself and to study the issue of social emancipation, which was constantly preoccupying him. He was, despite his advanced age, indefatigable and participated until recently as a speaker at anarchist and anti-authoritarian events, wishing to share his valuable experience. He first came into contact with groups in this field in the 1980s and several of his writings were published in relevant publications of the period.
Yannis Tamtakos embodied the most brilliant moments, the most democratic manifestations of the workers' movement of a period when society was asserting its place at the forefront of history, a period which today seems distant. The heroic era of the classical workers' movement is long gone. Its structures have now degenerated, and only if one is blind to the fact that they have been fully integrated into capitalism.
The example of Tamtakos leaves us no room for clinging to the past and nostalgia. The tradition it bequeaths challenges us to initiate a creative relationship with it, by engaging with it, since it is the very tradition of questioning. What we can hope for is the creative capacity of the human being, which is distinguished by imagination. And for this power to create anew the aforementioned tradition is the ideal raw material.
