Gáspár Miklós Tamás


Gáspár Miklós Tamás, often referred to in the media as TGM, is a Hungarian marxist-anarcho-syndicalist philosopher and public intellectual. He is currently a contributor to online newspaper Mérce and to OpenDemocracy, where he writes primarily about political and aesthetic questions.

Biography

Gáspár Miklós Tamás was born in today's Cluj, Romania, but he has been living in Budapest, Hungary, for years. His mother was Jewish and escaped being deported to Auschwitz because she was imprisoned for being a communist. As a dissident at the end of the state socialist period, he was initially a libertarian socialist. While in contact with libertarian authors, his perspective is distinct from the Budapest School, a major school of thought in Hungarian Neo-Marxism. He was also the member of the informal group called democratic opposition. From 1986 to 1988, he taught in the U.S., Britain, and France, and also continued his studies at Oxford University. At the beginning of the post-socialist era in 1989, he became committed to a liberal program, and was a leader of the Alliance of Free Democrats. He served in the Hungarian Parliament as a representative of the Alliance of Free Democrats, from 1989 to 1994. He re-identified as a Marxist in the early years of the 21st century. He served as President of the extra-parliamentary Green Left between 2010 and 2011.
He is a vocal opponent of the Hungarian government led by Viktor Orbán and the Fidesz party, as well as capitalism and neoliberalism. His theoretical work draws on the ideas of Italian autonomism, German Neue Marx-Lektüre, and American Political Marxism. He also refers to the insights of - among others - Georges Bataille and Moishe Postone.
He is known for developing the concept of post-fascism. and also invented the term ethnicism. In his words,