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Athens, Greece. Relevant in recent past, as it emerged as Greece's new capital in the mid-1800s, and really began to increase in size and importance following WWI.

Not complete. Citation not formatted for all my sources yet. The organization, among other things, is severely lacking, as I bit off more than I can chew with this topic and my school/work schedule.

Politics and Social Movements
A number of ‘sub-state’ political groups have incorporated covert violence into their political campaigns. Use and support for minor acts of violence during political protests has been reported by a small but varied group of the Greek public. Studies have tended to focus on the far-left and anarchists acts of violence, and not the far-right. Since the 70s, the time of the Junta, anarchists and far-leftists have used explosives to attack symbolic targets. Violent groups in Greece are generally divided into two generations, the first generation since the Junta of 1967-74, and the second beginning in the early 2000s. The first generation of far-left violent groups were often in response to far-right groups who were linked to the security forces and carried out attacks on the political left. After the Junta was overthrown and democracy was incorporated, the constitution of 1974 conceptualized the far-left attacks as legitimate acts of political protest. One of the main two parties from 1974 until the present, PASOK (Panhellenic Socialist Movement), started out as part of the PAK, which was a far-left group that used armed struggle. The far-left violent groups of the first generation often operated under the idea that the current government was the same as the authoritarian Junta, only under the guise of democracy. These violent far-left groups also used non-violent tactics towards political change, such as political demonstrations, university occupations, and unannounced worker strikes. The two most prominent of the left-wing first generation violent groups were the ELA (Revolutionary Popular Struggle), and the 17N (Revolutionary Organization 17 November, which was named after a military-suppressed student protest in 1973).Between 1975, its founding, and 1995 when they ceased operations, the ELA carried out over 100 bombings of symbolic capitalist targets, such as police, banks, government offices, and buildings tied to US interests. 17N first came to public attention with the 1975 murder of a CIA station chief in Athens. They carried out several bombings and bank robberies and killed 22 more people, only to fall apart after a premature bombing in 2002, when 19 individuals were charged. New attacks by far-left and anarchists groups began in 2007, and violence by police and far-right groups have also increased in the first decade of the 2000s. A lot of the political unrest can be traced to the anxieties caused by the financial crisis, with rising unemployment, household debt, and high profile corruption scandals. SYRIZA (Coalition of the Radical Left), the current ruling party, has left many leftists unsatisfied, and others have criticized SYRIZA for not denouncing political violence. By 2009, there were regular occurrences of far-right groups of black-clad men chasing and attacking immigrants in Athens, suspected of being Golden Dawn members. In 2010, there were regular “patrols” by these platoons of black-clad men in the Agios Panteleimonas district of Athens, a place of high-tension between immigrants and Greeks. On May 12, 2011 close to 500 far-right individuals chased and beat immigrants in central Athens, again suspected of being Golden Dawn members, with 19 immigrants injured and 6 Greeks, as well as many immigrant shops damaged. On several occasions, far-right activists have been seen cooperating with police, as well as emerging from police lines to throw molotov cocktails and attack far-left demonstrators and immigrants. It was such an issue, that in 2009 the PASOK Minister of Citizen Protection acknowledged there was problem of police cooperation with far-right extremists.

Some far-right violent group members have been arrested, such as Nikolaos Michaeloliakos, who established the far-right fascist party, Golden Dawn.

A New Dawn? Change and Continuity in Political Violence in Greece

Exarcheia is Athen’s traditional core of intellectual and political activity and sometimes described as an “anarchist neighborhood.” The student uprising in 1973 and the December 2008 riots both started in that neighborhood. After the 2008 riots, the neighborhood began experimenting with here-and-now politics and creative forms of resistance, such as Guerrilla park, or Park Navarinou, that was formerly a parking lot, and they transformed it into a positive public space for the community based on self-management and anti-hierarchical structures. In this parking-lot-turned-community-park they host events such as no-ticket cinema screenings and anti-consumerist bazaars. This neighborhood is involved with versions of solidarity trading initiatives such as gifting bazaars, time banks, barter economies, collective cooking events, theatrical plays, artistic exhibitions and educational courses, as activists and neighbors try to provide opportunities for everyday radical action. One such place is the Sporos cooperative, which is sympathetic to the Zapatistas and sells Zapatista grown coffee and products related to like-minded produces, focusing on ethical consumers and fair trade products. Skoros is a collective that provides permanent space for an exchange of goods or services, but without any expected returns. Vox Squatted Social Center is run by anarchists, and the minimal profits from their sales go to court fees for other anarchists. Golden Dawn received 7% of the votes in July 2012 election, and they are experimenting with their own here-and-now politics, by creating “migrant-free zones,” operating “From-Greeks-for-Greeks” soup kitchens, as well as social services like walking Greeks to the ATMs so they feel safe. There was even fascist rice, which is now a term for a product or organization which is revealed to be connected to extreme-right causes and groups. In response, there have also been fascist-free zones set up in neighborhoods, and advertised fascist-free products.

Commodity fights in Post-2008 Athens: Zapatistas coffee, Kropotkinian drinks and Fascist rice Following Greece being fully incorporated into the Eurozone in 2003, and as a result of the preparation for the 2004 Olympics, Athens saw increased centralized growth at the expense of other cities. In addition, after 9/11 police presence and surveillance was expanded. New urban and social movements arose as a response, with the “right to the city” as a core idea about public space, as well as the natural environment, quality of life, and self-management of both space and free time. When a small park in the Kypseli neighborhood was going to be converted into a parking lot by the Mayor of Athens, residents called for his resignation and went to the park with shovels and planted trees themselves. Following the shooting that sparked the 2008 riots, many students were protesting for their free time, because of the way the university entrance exams are set up, students have to attend regular high school and then take private course after school to prepare for them.

From the December Youth Uprising to the Rebirth of Urban Social Movements: A Space–Time Approach

Athens has a special importance to the Olympic games, as Greece was the original birthplace. This falls in with modern Greek ideals that the culture goes back uninterrupted to the days of classical Greece, which also influences authoritarian and xenophobic elements in society. In the lead up to the 2004 Olympic games, a 2001 law was passed that side-stepped earlier court rulings to protect the environment. There was not enough support to block several damaging constructions, but Mount Imittos was targeted to build a high voltage power station. Over 40 Athens based political groups opposed the project, utilizing lawsuits, petitions, protests and assemblies, and physically obstructing the project, and they found support from politicians from a diverse background. However, the authorities attempted to pacify the activists by claiming the project was cancelled, and then sent 25 platoons of riot police to repress the demonstrators and secure the construction site.

Risk versus National Pride: Conflicting Discourses over the Construction of a High Voltage Power Station in the Athens Metropolitan Area for Demands of the 2004 Olympics

Street protests, insurrections, and ritos, are seen as important in Athens, and this can be seen in the Aganaktismenoi (Aγανακτισμένοι), or Indignants, anti-austerity movement following the December 2008 uprising in the center of Athens. The uprising was sparked by the police killing of a 15 year-old. Following the killing, roughly 800 secondary schools were occupied, there were daily marches to police stations, and ministry buildings were met with varying manners of protests: from sit-ins, street happenings, a resistance banner raised on the Acropolis, the occupation of a state TV studio, and the burning of the Christmas tree in Syntagma Square in front of the Parliament building. In addition, banks and luxury shops were attacked, along with the burning of various buildings, and some looting. The police kept their distance as young people protested for two weeks in central Athens. There were no specific demands or political parties dominating. Following, in February 2011, 300 immigrants who had lived and worked in Greece for ten years and were being kicked out occupied a building in central Athens and staged a hunger strike. The government gave in to their demands for papers after 40 days, but several of them ended up dying due to medical complications from their hunger strike. Mirroring Tahrir Square, on May 25, 2011, the Inignants began their occupation of Syntagma Square. There were daily occupations and rallies, initially peaceful, without political parties or party banners, and at their height, involved up to 200,000 people. No leaders or spokespersons emerged, and the only statements to the press were formal resolutions by their daily assemblies, which represented something more akin to the role of the ancient agora.

Athens rising

Due to the “power vacuum” of the weak state presence in the urban areas of Athens, various neighborhoods and Greek universities became incubators for radicalism and radical grassroot alternatives, because the Greek state actors were incapable of confronting nor dividing the social and political challengers.

Cities and social movements: theorizing beyond the right to the city

The Indignants at Syntagma Square are often seen as two separate protests, with different political imageries. While the upper square section, directly opposite the Parliament building, is often seen as espousing nationalistic and xenophobic views, the lower square is seen as being about more inclusive policies of political solidarity. The movement as a whole is connected by many with the Indignados of Spain and the Occupy movement in London and New York. The Indignants of Syntagma Square are also categorized as being on the cusp of a new global political movement, but at the same time having so many voices and viewpoints, that there is no clear direction or claim. The curious aspect of the Indignants is that it presented conflicting and often radically opposed political ideologies. However, both the upper Syntagma and lower protests protested against corruption and lost political and economic stability. Part of the problems that are seen to have caused the Indignants movement is the intense privatization of space in Athens starting in the 1990s leading up to the 2004 Olympics, which was accompanied by social control through increased surveillance and policing. This led to the urban center of Athens becoming a polarized space of extreme poverty and wealth following the Olympics. The first large gathering of the Indignants came on May 25, 2011, just ten days after the occupation of Puerta del Sol in Madrid by the Spanish Indignados movement. It was a massive protest without party banners or flags against the Greek crisis, with anger and indignation the catalyst. It lasted for several weeks, and the police responded brutally on several occasions. The upper square originally was hurling verbal abuse at MP’s at the Parliament building, but then shifted towards minority groups and immigrants as well. The lower square became a space with more organized efforts, such as the popular assembly, launching social media accounts, organizing food supplies, temporary accommodations, and an emergency first aid center. It would be a simplification to say the borders between the two were so defined, they were more porous and even broke down at times, but generally this was the characteristics on more days of the protest. Since political parties were effectively banned from the squares, even the union workers of the public electric company were booed for striking as an organization and not as individuals. Golden Dawn was also absent from the Indignant protests, although they tried to approach the square once as a group, but were repulsed by the people. This banning of political parties from the mass protests was an unprecedented phenomenon. The Indignants gatherings continued up until the end of July.

The spatialization of democratic politics: Insights from Indignant Squares

During the December 2008 uprising, around 800 buildings, mostly in Athens, had been burned, including banks, government buildings, and the main courthouse in Athens. A mid-December poll showed that 60% of Greeks described the events as a “popular uprising.” One perspective on the unrest points to the shift of power in the modern Greek state, as going back to the Ottoman rule of the country, and the successive state, previously had clientelist networks which allowed for the common citizen to have more influence through their patrons than the current system allows.

Legitimation Crisis and the Greek Explosion

A number of factors and policies influenced the current social and political unrest in Athens. Part of the troubles stem from Greece entering the European Union and the Eurozone, with certain functions and authorities transferred up to transnational agencies. In addition, urban policies during the crisis, such as a huge privatization program of public assets, energy, telecommunication and transport infrastructures, as well as the policing and securitization of public city space against social protest and immigration. Greeks also lodged their protest by voting with Greece’s two largest political parties losing half of their voters in the 2012 national elections, and the collapse of two coalition governments since the debt crisis began. Part of the securitization problem can be seen in Greece’s police to inhabitants ration, one of the highest in Europe, with 453 officers per 100,000 inhabitants in 2009. The current demonization of immigrants can also be traced to a similar demonization of Albanians by the mass media in the 1980s. Securitization sentiments can be seen with a border wall built in the Thrace region with Turkey to deter immigrants in 2013, and a “sweeping “policing policy started in summer of 2012 in the city center of Athens under the name Xenios Zeus (Foreign Zeus). A new law was also passed in 2011 removing academic asylum, which dated back to the end of the dictatorship, and prohibited police operations on universities.

Athens and the politics of the sovereign debt crisis

Shortly after the transition to democracy in 1974, Andreas Papandreou founded the socialist party PASOK. PASOK first won state control in 1981 with 48.2% of the national vote. Despite being a new ideological political movement, Papandreou used patronage politics to gain power.

PATRONS AGAINST PARTISANS: The Politics of Patronage in Mass Ideological Parties

Greek journalism is primarily advocacy reporting is highly polarized and strongly emphasizes political viewpoints. Wealthy industrialists dominate media ownership, and have a long tradition of using media to push for political gains. One commentator noted “give me a ministry or I will start a newspaper,” is a traditional threat in Greece. Public television news divisions change management with each change in the government, and is often used to influence political support for the government in power. Of Greek journalists surveyed on whether they were subject to professional intervention, 65.7% answered that they were. Part of this is a result of Greece’s late transition to democracy in 1974.

Political Clientelism and the Media: Southern Europe and Latin America in Comparative Perspective

The Indignants, connected with the Occupy movement and the Spanish Indignados, was part of a broader movement that started with the Arab Spring. It was really ignited when April 2010 Greece signed the Memorandum of Understanding with the EU and the IMF to fund the state, but it came with austerity measures. Ten days before the first meeting, Indignados in Puerta del Sol in Madrid could be heard teasingly singing, “Keep quiet, or you will wake up the Greeks.” The small assemblies of the lower square were reminiscent of the ancient Greek agora. The lower square was leaning towards a leftist-libertarian ideology, whereas the upper square were more nationalistic, but a common aim for both was blocking the fiscal strategy passing through parliament on June 28 and 29, 2011. The police’s actions brought an accusation of excessive violence by Amnesty International. None of the promises made in the Indignant squares ever became realized within formal politics.

Hannah Arendt in the streets of Athens

Occupations of building in Greece goes back to refugees occupying empty buildings during the interwar period. During the dictatorship, squatters occupied church owned land in Athens, attracting and creating a radical culture. Many of these Athenian squatter settlements were legalized, but never received infrastructure. Voluntary associations and NGOs aren’t as common in Greece, because the clientelist politics after the civil war in the 1940s did not allow for these kinds of organizations, which took power from the state. NGOs mainly emerged following Greece joining the EU, when EU measures and directives were favorable.

Urban Social Movements in ‘Weak’ Civil Societies: The Right to the City and Cosmopolitan Activism in Southern Europe

The Indignant movement was a response against the memorandum signed by Greece and the IMF. After the first memorandum, the Greek government has announced several more new austerity measures. The first protests against austerity measures were in February of 2010, and multiple strikes and mass rallies took place throughout the rest of 2010. There was an unprecedented diversity of socio-economic and political backgrounds among the protesters. The first attempt to occupy Syntagma Square was actually two months earlier on February 23, 2011, but the police and small numbers of protesters made sure it was unsuccessful. Occupation and squatting are not new political tactics for Greeks, as multiple protests have previously occupied public buildings. Even though some commentators saw clear divisions between the upper and lower squares, there was no direct confrontations between the ideologically opposed protesters. Following the Indignant movement of Syntagma square, from September to October of 2011, there were few days that went without strikes and demonstrations.

RAGE AND PROTEST: THE CASE OF THE GREEK INDIGNANT MOVEMENT

Athens was central in the anti-neoliberal social movements because a weak state did not allow for the government to deal with the worst effects of urban neoliberalization in Athens in the 90s and 2000s, and local authorities did not have the capacity to deal with the problems either. A Washington Post article described Greece as the heart of a “anarchist renaissance” in Europe. Neighborhoods in Athens are important for cultivating radical activists in these movements. The Greek state still reflects a tradition of top-down governance due to the history of the military dictatorship. That combined with the clientelism, which is no longer a viable option for Greeks to influence power. Athenians tried to use the Olympic Games to increase revenue from the national government, but many of the policies to prepare Athens for the games created some of the extreme wealth disparities in the city center.

The urban roots of anti-neoliberal social movements: the case of Athens, Greece

More than 25% of Greece’s population mobilized in some form to protest the austerity measures imposed by the government and its creditors. The movements in Greece are seen as part of a broader worldwide “facebook revolution” due to the use of social media to mobilize. Following the austerity measures, as acts of civil disobedience many refused to pay the new taxes and protested in new settings such as football stadiums and school parades. Protests and demonstrations were circulated on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. The first day of the Indignants movement, May 25, 2011, 50,000 people showed up. The “battle for Syntagma Square” between protesters and police left nearly 800 peple injured and millions of euros in damages.

Think globally, act locally? Symbolic memory and global repertoires in the Tunisian uprising and the Greek anti-austerity mobilizations

Papandreou enjoyed a long term of power as prime minister (1981-1989 and 1993-1996) as leader of the radical marxist party PASOK, which first came to power in 1981 elections, and came to power through Radical Mass Movements and strong claims to resistance against the dictatorship, seizing on a new pluralist order. Mass radicalism is the substitution of a whole type of political with a different one. Social movements start at a grassroots level, whereas Radical Mass Movements are top-down with the aim of replacing governments.

Political Leadership and the Emergence of Radical Mass Movements in Democracy

A New Dawn? Change and Continuity in Political Violence in Greece

Commodity fights in Post-2008 Athens: Zapatistas coffee, Kropotkinian drinks and Fascist rice

From the December Youth Uprising to the Rebirth of Urban Social Movements: A Space–Time Approach

Risk versus National Pride: Conflicting Discourses over the Construction of a High Voltage Power Station in the Athens Metropolitan Area for Demands of the 2004 Olympics

Athens rising

Cities and social movements: theorizing beyond the right to the city

The spatialization of democratic politics: Insights from Indignant Squares

Legitimation Crisis and the Greek Explosion

Athens and the politics of the sovereign debt crisis

PATRONS AGAINST PARTISANS The Politics of Patronage in Mass Ideological Parties

Political Clientelism and the Media: Southern Europe and Latin America in Comparative Perspective

Hannah Arendt in the streets of Athens

Urban Social Movements in ‘Weak’ Civil Societies: The Right to the City and Cosmopolitan Activism in Southern Europe

RAGE AND PROTEST: THE CASE OF THE GREEK INDIGNANT MOVEMENT

The urban roots of anti-neoliberal social movements: the case of Athens, Greece

Think globally, act locally? Symbolic memory and global repertoires in the Tunisian uprising and the Greek anti-austerity mobilizations

Political Leadership and the Emergence of Radical Mass Movements in Democracy

Economic Crisis, Social Solidarity and the Voluntary Sector in Greece

FROM STREETS AND SQUARES TO RADICAL POLITICAL EMANCIPATION? RESISTANCE LESSONS FROM ATHENS DURING THE CRISIS

Moving relationships/shifting alliances: Constructions of migration in the leftist anti-racist movement in Athens.

Greek Politics in the Era of Economic Crisis: Reassessing Causes and Effects

Right-Wing Populism and Extremism: The Rapid Rise of “Golden Dawn” in Crisis-Ridden Greece