‘Direct democracy now!’: The Greek indignados and the present cycle of struggles

Abstract

This article’s ambition is to critically analyse the resistance of the Greek people to the country’s custody under the Troika that has led to a severe financial and social crisis. Emphasis is given to the ‘Outraged’ of Syntagma Square and their daily protests during the summer of 2011; a movement that has remained underreported in relation to other similar phenomena, despite the huge number of participants, and the intensity of its clash with the state. In addition, besides the empirical investigation of the Greek case, the article argues that it is of particular importance to note the movement’s cultural resources, as well as the inner class and ideological divisions. Also, the study attempts to fit the case of Greece within the global capitalist crisis and the struggles that have arisen as a response.

‘Mild Mannered’? Protest and Mobilisation in Portugal under Austerity, 2010–2013

“…Across Southern European countries, trust in public institutions has been decreasing (Matthijs 2014), while electoral participation is at an historic low. Social conflict has taken various forms across the different countries of southern Europe: in Italy it has been expressed in the emergence of a new political party, the Five Star Movement (Baldini 2013;Bartlett et al 2013;Bordignon and Ceccarin 2013;Verney and Bosco 2013), whereas Greece experienced a fragmentation of the vote and violent polarisation of protest, as well as the appearance of direct democracy movements (Verney and Bosco 2013;Kousis and Karakioulafi 2013;Sotirakopoulos and Sotiropoulos 2013).…”

Political Protest in Western Europe

“…For instance, another context could be the occurrence of the economic crisis in Europe and its potential effects on protest action. Recent studies found that in some countries -Spain or Greece -the waves of protest could be linked to the financial crisis (Castaneda 2012;Sotirakopoulos and Sotiropoulos 2013). Economically weak contexts might, in fact, provide more incentives for collective action, especially when political institutions are perceived as not receptive.…”

Hannah Arendt in the streets of Athens

“…The fact that most of these movements have not been orchestrated by political parties, but instead, sprang out of self-organization and social media campaigning creates a sense of people's politics irrupting within the sphere of 'dead' politics. Such politics have been described through the notion of the 'multitude' (Sotirakopoulos and Sotiropoulos, 2013), which stands for the possibility of resistance coming out of a multiplicity of peoples instead of a 'people'' (Hardt and Negri, 2000). In a similar fashion, Douzinas has stated that the contemporary 'multitude of the demos' does not have any 'leaders or representatives' just its own actions (Douzinas, 2012: 137).…”

“…According to this story, politics proper in Syntagma Square were split between the upper and the lower square. The upper square was more conservative and nationalistic while the lower square was leaning towards a libertarian/leftist ideology (Sotirakopoulos and Sotiropoulos, 2013). Whatever their differences were, the common aim for both was the blocking of the Medium Term Programme of Fiscal Strategy passing through parliament on 28 and 29 June 2011.…”