Direct Democracy Now the Greek Indignados

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DOI: 10.1177/00113921134797442013 61: 443 originally published online 17 April 2013Current Sociology

Nikos Sotirakopoulos and George Sotiropoulosstruggles

and the present cycle ofindignados'Direct democracy now!': The Greek

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Direct democracy now!:The Greek indignadosand thepresent cycle of struggles

Nikos SotirakopoulosUniversity of Kent, UK

George SotiropoulosDemocritean University of Thrace, Greece

Abstract

This articles ambition is to critically analyse the resistance of the Greek people to the

countrys 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 duringthe 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 itsclash 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 movements culturalresources, as well as the inner class and ideological divisions. Also, the study attemptsto fit the case of Greece within the global capitalist crisis and the struggles that have

arisen as a response.

Keywords

Greece, indignados, Multitude, the Outraged, Syntagma Square

Introduction

This article deals with the mobilizations in Syntagma Square in Athens, during the sum-

mer of 2011, which constituted a first peak in the cycle of struggles in Greece against an

unpopular government and the patronage of the country under the Troika of the

International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Union (EU) and the European Central

Corresponding author:

Nikos Sotirakopoulos, School of Social Policy, University of Kent, Canterbury, CT2 7NF UK.

Email: [email protected]

CSI61410.1177/0011392113479744Current SociologySotirakopoulosandSotiropoulos2013

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444 Current Sociology Monograph 2 61(4)

Bank (ECB). However, the forms of action, the narratives and the cultural references of

such a struggle cannot be isolated from the wider wave of protests rising throughout the

world as a reaction to the crisis capitalism has been facing since 2008.

This chain of protests can be seen as having its starting point in the uprisings in

Morocco and Egypt in January 2011, with the legacy of Cairos Tahrir Square playing animportant role in the collective imaginary of the movements to come. Next, the baton

was passed to Spain in May, with the indignadosoccupying Puerta del Sol in Madrid and

other squares in various cities. However, although less celebrated and known in activist

circles globally, the daily gathering of the Greek Outraged in Syntagma Square in the

summer of 2011 was a movement massive enough to engage in a fierce struggle with the

Greek state on the issue of the governments austerity packages, and facing defeat after

more than three months under heavy police repression. As a continuation in the wave of

protest from the Arab Spring, the Spanish indignadosand the Greek Outraged could be

considered the Occupy movement, springing up in the US in the fall of 2011 and spread-ing to many parts of the western world.

The fact that this wave of struggles engulfs diverse geographical areas with different

political traditions, economic conditions and societies facing different issues, means that

it is necessary to examine each case in its own context and special conditions, always

keeping in mind, however, how it constitutes part of a wider phenomenon.

We now focus on the case of the Greek movement and the Outraged of Syntagma

Square. Emphasis will be given to examining the following:

1. How events unfolded in Syntagma Square, with the rise, peaks and fall of themovement.

2. The social formation of the Outraged and the inner dynamics and disputes within

the group.

3. The cultural and ideological influences of the movement.

4. How it fits as a link in the global chain of struggles.

Both authors participation in the movement provided important primary material for this

article. As to the theoretical tools that we employ, concerning the sociohistorical context

within which the Greek, or generally the global, movement of the squares unfolds, i.e.the current global crisis of capitalist society, we assume the general validity of Marxist

categories and analysis. To this extent, it will be made apparent that we take the forms of

resistance that have taken shape in Syntagma Square, or any other square in cities across

the world, to be an instantiation of the class struggle that is immanent to a capitalist

social formation. However, concerning the character and dynamic of the actual mobiliza-

tion, we hold that the more traditional, orthodox, Marxist framework is insufficient. As

a result, we deploy the concept of the Multitude, as it has been developed by Antonio

Negri and Michael Hardt as a response to the perceived inadequacy of traditional/ortho-

dox Marxism, and critically test its application to the politics of Syntagma Square.

The social background in Greece

In order to understand what happened to Greece under the prism of an international cycle

of struggles, one has to acknowledge that there is no such thing as a Greek financial

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Sotirakopoulos and Sotiropoulos 445

crisis (Varoufakis, 2012: 16). True, Greece has found itself in the eye of the storm with

its national debt and was among the first weak links in the European economy to experi-

ence the harsh consequences of the crisis. This crisis, however, is global. And it is not

only a financial crisis or a crisis of debt, but a structural crisis of capitalism, still unfold-

ing, caused by the very same factors that created a period of boom in the current cycle ofcapitals accumulation:1the depreciation of the value of labour power, the financializa-

tion of capitalism operating as an accelerator for the realization of surplus value and the

making of more profits, the spreading of the investment risk through new tools such as

Collateralized Debt Obligations, the gradual retreat of what has been known as the wel-

fare state and so on (Blaumachen, 2011a). The above have created a crisis of over-

accumulation which has opened the floodgates globally, having as its first symptom the

well-known financial meltdown of 2008.

In Greece, the crisis became apparent after a short delay, in the first months of 2010.

Then, the newly elected social-democratic government of PASOK, unable to borrowmoney from the markets, called for the intervention of the Troika, comprising the

International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the European Central Bank. Since

then, the Troika has bailed out Greece on numerous occasions, providing the biggest

loans to a single country in postwar history. However, the price Greek people had to pay

was unbearable: massive spending cuts, reduction of the minimum wage, unemployment

skyrocketing above 20%, the closing of tens of thousands of small businesses, in what

has been euphemistically called by the technocrats a societys inner devaluation (TPTG,

2011, 2012). Greek society found its social backbone being broken. The objective con-

ditions for social turmoil were all there.But what about the subjective conditions? The radical milieu in Greece is per-

haps among the strongest in Europe. In the parliament, there is the presence of a

strong Orthodox Communist Party and also the Coalition of the Radical Left

(SYRIZA); the latter in 2012 making a huge breakthrough that brought the party one

step away from being elected outright to government in the May and June elections.2

In addition, Greece has a really strong anarchist camp and various other grassroots

movements. All these spring from a long tradition of social upheavals, something that

allows Kouvelakis to claim that notions of political struggle, revolt and even revolu-

tion are deeply rooted in the social imaginary of the Greek people (Kouvelakis, 2011).Granted that, our analysis argues that we cannot speak of a single, Greek narrative

of resistance, but have to respect the differentiations within the political body and the

diverse cultural and ideological resources that the various organized subjects have

drawn on.

The sociopolitical tensions were already at breaking point before the arrival of the

IMF. The victorious student movement of 20062007, blocking a constitutional amend-

ment that would lead to the marketization of higher education, and the December revolt

in 2008 that shocked and fuelled the political imagination of people in Greece and

beyond, following the shooting of a 15-year-old boy by a police officer, had set the tone

for a new generation that considered itself as having no future (Kioupkiolis, 2011). But

also in the days of the IMF, the country experienced numerous general strikes, civil diso-

bedience movements, initiatives for self-reduction in the costs of reproduction and local

struggles (Araniti and Tsakiris, 2011; TPTG, 2011). In all cases, the struggles have been

met with fierce police violence and oppression.

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Despite the numerous forms of action pursued by the Greek people, when on 23 May

2011 the Greek government announced a new round of austerity measures, there was a

general feeling that people were too disheartened to react and that the Troikas shock

doctrine could not be efficiently opposed. This is exactly when the Syntagma movement

emerged.

The Outraged of Syntagma Square

There is a nice story behind the first gathering of the Greek people in Syntagma Square.

On 24 May, one day after the announcement of the new austerity package by the Greek

government, a rumour started spreading in the Greek social media and blogosphere:

there was a banner held up by the indignadosin Puerta del Sol, Madrid, stating: Shhhhh

... keep it quiet, we might wake up the Greeks. Soon, a page was created on Facebook

calling for a peaceful protest of the Outraged Greeks in Syntagma Square for the nextday, 25 May, its followers rising by thousands every hour.3Similar events were organ-

ized through the social media for almost every major Greek city. Indeed, more than

20,000 people gathered the next day in Syntagma Square and thousands others in various

squares throughout the country. It was the kick-off of a movement that would last for

months. The big irony in the story is that the alleged placard in Puerta del Sol actually

never existed!

The tone of the movement was set in the first spontaneous public meeting taking place

in Syntagma Square, the Peoples Assembly, a quasi-institutional form that would soon

become the soul of the movement. The assembly came up with the target of not onlyreal democracy, which was the slogan of the Spanish indignados, but of direct democ-

racy. This syntactical change is anything but trivial, for it reflects a radicalization in

terms of political prescription: the demand for a real democracy, although it definitely

assumes that there is a democratic deficit, is vague enough not to pose a direct challenge

to the contemporary form of liberal-parliamentary democracy. In contrast, direct democ-

racy connotes a more concrete model of democracy that is antagonistic to the current

representative democracy and that calls for a far more radical reconfiguration of political

power and relations.

Thus, the assembly declared the character and the targets of the movement asfollows:

For a long time decisions have been made for us, without us ...

We are here because we know that the solutions to our problems can come only from us.

...

In these public squares we will shape our claims and our demands together.

We will not leave the squares until those who compelled us to come here go away: Governments,

Troika [EU, ECB and IMF], Banks, IMF Memoranda, and everyone that exploits us. We sendthem the message that the debt is not ours.

DIRECT DEMOCRACY NOW!

EQUALITY JUSTICE DIGNITY!4



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Predictably, only a part of the protesters shared the politicized spirit of the Peoples

Assembly. Perhaps this also had to do with the declared commitment of the Outraged to

keep the movement free of political parties, organizations and flags. In fact, a group of

workers on strike who were also holding a demonstration on 25 May in Syntagma Square

were booed and declared unwelcome by a number of the Outraged. They were accusedof demonstrating as union members with their own corporatist agenda and not as indi-

viduals who share a common cause. Moreover, for many, the prevailing form of protest

had been a collective chorus of abuse from the upper part of the square, accusing all poli-

ticians as thieves and traitors and calling the riot police protecting the parliament to

throw down their shields and join them.

The programmatic exclusion of political symbols had one significant exception: the

national flag. While the flags of Spain, Egypt and Tunisia (as well as of Argentina, due

to its successful expulsion of the IMF) were waved, it was only natural that the national

flag of Greece would in such a context become hegemonic. In parallel to the more radicaland libertarian/left-leaning bloc around the Peoples Assembly, there was the formation

of a more conservative and quasi-nationalist bloc, positioned on the upper part of the

square and expressing their deep affiliation to the country and nation and whose main

political slogan directed against MPs was that of treason.

Thus, we could schematically imagine a diagonal dichotomy in Syntagma Square,

one which shapes its spatial allocation and political distribution: between a patriotic

block whose political prescriptions, even when referring to the capitalist crisis, are organ-

ized around the category of the nation (upper square), and that of a left-wing bloc which

is deploying an inclusive discourse of social justice (lower square). It needs to be clearthat such a division is not absolute, especially in terms of its spatial allocation. Yet, as an

analytical distinction it does reflect real, if fluid, differentiations within the body of the

Outraged.

The ideological-political differentiation leads us back to a point made earlier concern-

ing the diversity in the cultural resources that can be identified in the background of the

mobilization. There are certainly some common themes, more importantly the resistance

against the Greek military dictatorship, the Junta of 19671974. Regardless of ideologi-

cal and political commitment, the common perception was that the Greek government, in

its decision to sign the loan agreements with the Troika as well as in its subsequent effortto upkeep the signed Memorandum, had violated the basic democratic contract with the

people as well as the latters basic democratic rights. Whether it was simply seen as a

den of robbers or the servant of specific social elites, the shared experience was that the

House of Parliament was no longer a House of Democracy. As had happened some dec-

ades ago, there appeared to be a new lapse into authoritarianism, so that it would be once

more up to the people to defend and restore democracy. This metonymic re-enactment of

the resistance against the Junta, as a shared experience among the Outraged Greeks, was

clearly expressed in a popular slogan chanted throughout the days of protest: Bread

EducationLiberty, the Junta did not end in 73. Another commonly shared symbol was

the helicopter. This was taken from the resistance of the Argentinean people to the IMF

and the countrys compliant governments in the early 2000s and the escape via helicopter

of President De la Rua from the rooftop of the presidential palace in 2001, under the

pressure of a public uprising. One of the most popular chants in Syntagma Square was:

On a magical night, just like in Argentina, lets see who gets in the helicopter first!

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The more radical left-wing bloc drew from narratives of resistance that are more spe-

cific to its own ideology from the communist-led movement of the National Liberation

Front (EAM) during the Second World War occupation, to the December revolt of 2008.

The general perspective of the left-wing bloc was thus definite: the occupation of

Syntagma Square was one more moment and signpost in the long line of social and classstruggles that have defined Greek history.

For the patriotic bloc, many of the events and narratives that make up the left-wing

tradition of resistance are foreign to its political self-understanding and imagination.

As a result, it would draw from a cultural pool that is much older and close to it: the

national war of independence. Flags of the 1821 anti-Ottoman revolution, flyers

which recited sayings of the heroes of Independence, posters depicting the latter ris-

ing up once more against the enemies of the nation, even people dressed up as the old

heroes; all these added up as clear expressions of the tradition and the symbolic matrix

through which the patriotic bloc gave meaning to its political activities. For manyleftists and anarchists, whether or not they actively took part in the Syntagma mobili-

zation, all these were not only unbearably kitsch, but also eminently dangerous, since

they expressed a nationalist agenda that was not only not conducive to qualitative

social and political change, but actually blurred the true stakes of current political

struggles. All in all, therefore, the political body of the Outraged Greeks was defined

by differentiations which on the one hand expressed their selves in diverse symbolic

invocations, while on the other expressed different political expectations. We return

to this theme shortly.

Initially, as in Spain, the occupation took the form of peaceful evening protests and ofvarious activities (assemblies, workshops, performances) that gave to the Syntagma

occupation both its political shape as an enactment of true democracy as well as a festive

character. Soon, however, the gatherings in Syntagma Square took on a more serious

aspect. One element that needs to be taken into account is the sheer number of people

who got involved. The few thousands attending in the first days became an unprece-

dented gathering of more than 300,000 people on more than one Sunday, which was

considered the peak day. According to poll research, more than 2 million citizens (20%

of the population) have participated in one way or another in the movement (Public

Issue, 2011). However, there is not much to suggest that direct democracy was beingcalled for by all those who took part in these protests. The demonstrations, massive as

they may have been, and even if they do reflect the crisis of parliamentarianism, remained

nonetheless well within the bounds of the given; indeed to a significant extent they

affirmedthe status quo, that the peoples protest was directed towards the politicians for

not fulfilling their prescribed tasks.

A characteristic of the Outraged movement that makes it a unique case compared with

the Spanish indignadosor later with the Occupy movement in the United States and the

United Kingdom, was that it soon found a specific target and a landmark for its action:

the prevention of the passage of the Midterm Economic Programme, a set of austerity

measures that the government wanted to pass towards the end of June in relation to

receiving the fifth instalment of the loan by the Troika. This target had in fact given some

cohesion to the Outraged, tentatively uniting the upper and lower parts of Syntagma

Square as a collective body.



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The initially naive ideas about the role of the police and the insistence on the more or

less apolitical character of the movement quickly dissipated, when during the general

strike of 15 June, leftist parties, radical anarchist-antiauthoritarian groups and trade

unions met the Outraged in the square and faced fierce repression by the police. However,

despite the tonnes of tear-gas and the wielding of batons by the riot police, the protestersmanaged to reoccupy the square. This was an important moment, as the battle of the

general strike on 15 June gave the movement a newborn common identity (Frantzis,

2011). It was the day when Prime Minister Papandreou had decided to resign, acknowl-

edging his inability to control the situation, only to change his mind within hours and

stay in his post.

As the day of voting for the midterm austerity package approached, tensions were

rising and it was becoming more evident that Syntagma Square was now the centre of

something bigger, something which could be described as an us versus them class war.

However, as we later discuss, although the austerity packages are indeed part of theattack waged by big capital whether of Greek or international origin for the imposi-

tion of the structural changes vital for its reproduction, the us part is difficult to describe

in class lines as a single homogeneous bloc.

The plan to block the midterm programme took the form of a 48-hour general strike

called for 28 and 29 June by the labour unions and of the Outrageds plans to surround

and impede entry into the parliament building. A peaceful blockade of parliament not

only proved to be impractical, but it also left the protesters at the mercy of the riot

polices unprecedented violent attacks, with chemical tear-gas, stun grenades and batons.

More than 500 people were injured during the two days of the general strike, with the riotpolice not hesitating to throw tear-gas into Syntagmas metro station and constantly

attack the volunteer doctors of the Red Cross who were trying to give treatment to injured

protesters. The brutality of the police against the movement was so shocking that it even

alarmed Amnesty International.5

At the same time, the midterm plan was voted in by parliament. The gatherings in

Syntagma and other squares continued for some time, until they were dissolved, partly

through fatigue and partly due to police harassment. The passing of the midterm pro-

gramme could be considered as the practical end of the movement.

The social formation of the Outraged and the theory of

the Multitude

So far we have analysed the ideological and political divisions within the Outraged

movement, but for the analysis to be complete, we also have to look at the class composi-

tion of the protagonists in Syntagma Square. Also, we should question whether the

movement can be understood using theoretical schemata that have gained significant

popularity in the last decade, such as Hardt and Negris theory of the Multitude.

Given the fact that a considerable part of the governmental measures implied a deeprestructuring of labour relations, it was predictable that a large section of the Outraged

would derive from the working class, or to use a term beginning to reappear in social

theory, from the proletariat. But the predominant role did not belong to the traditional

urban proletariat (construction workers, factory workers, ship workers, etc.); the



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prevailing social groups were the precariat people in precarious forms of employment

that are gradually become the new norm in Greece and the unemployed, whose num-

bers are reaching ever new heights, peaking well above 20%.6These two social catego-

ries can be more or less placed together, as they do not constitute stable identities but

temporary positions that largely overlap. In Syntagma Square it was mostly young pre-carious workers and the unemployed who participated young people who have been

well educated but find that their knowledge cannot be capitalized into a successful career

or even a stable occupation, as their life plan might have been when entering university

or the job market. A significant absence in Syntagma Square as far as the proletariat

population in Greece is concerned, and as opposed to the December 2008 revolt, was that

of the immigrants in the country, a factor that is partly due to the presence of xenophobic

elements, especially in the upper Syntagma Square.

In the days when the huge peaceful gatherings took place in Syntagma Square, espe-

cially on some Sundays, the petite bourgeoisie and generally the middle class were thedominant class in the square and in the surrounding streets. This is the class which, due

to the structural changes in Greek society and economy and due to an explosive rise in

the cost of its reproduction (electricity bills, transportation, cuts in social welfare), is

finding itself in a situation of imminent proletarization. This middle stratum comprises a

huge number of civil servants in the public sector, who had enjoyed stable jobs and (rela-

tively) high standards of living, as well as small business owners who make up a consid-

erably large percentage of the adult population and are obviously among the big losers of

the structural reforms undertaken in Greek capitalism.

Given thus the inter-class nature of the movement, the obvious question here iswhether these different social classes can pose a unique challenge and become unified

under a common narrative.

The Outraged have been united by a negative value consensus. By this, we mean a

situation where a group of people might not necessarily agree on what they stand for, but

they do share a consensus on what they stand against (Pakulski, 1991: 209). In this case,

it is clear that everyone in Syntagma Square was against the austerity packages and the

patronage of the country by the Troika. Moreover, this political opposition reflects the

fact that all these various classes are affected by the current crisis and its attendant social

restructuring in a manner that puts them in a position of being below; that is, not onlydamaged due to the interests of those at the top of Greek society, but also stripped of

effective political power. It is a similar state of affairs that has led to the widespread

adoption of the We are the 99% slogan of the Occupy movement that has spread across

other countries. But the consensus stops somewhere here.

While the coming together of the Outraged in Syntagma Square is grounded in the

common experience of injustice suffered, distinct class interests and social diversity have

produced political differentiations immanent to the body of the movement. Petit bour-

geois elements with little experience in terms of collective praxis, or civil servants whose

interests have been mediated by the state or by bureaucratic labour unions, have a ten-

dency for a politics of complaint, a form of protest directed at those in power who have

for years formed with them a clientele relation. Moreover, since for this middle spectrum

its proletarization is (evidently) not desirable, it will initially tend to want to conserveits

place, something that makes it prone to more conservative politics. Even when their



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previous political affiliations are displaced, what these people are crying for in Syntagma

Square, at least as an initialgesture, are politicians who may be fresh but who will

precisely uphold the old state of affairs. As Zizek would put it, they want a revolution

without a revolution, i.e. changes at the surface that would leave the deeper structural

relations intact (Zizek, 2009: 163).It has to be kept in mind, though, that as the middle classes find themselves caught

amid the polarization of capital and working class, their ideology shifts from time to time

towards one or the other pole. There is no reason to exclude the possibility that an ideo-

logico-politically hegemonic concept of the working class could inspire and include a

big part of the middle classes (Poulantzas, 1978). Still, as far as the Syntagma movement

is concerned, a majority of these people were drawn to the patriotic rhetoric and not that

of class struggle.

On the other hand, those who come from the various segments of the proletariat

especially the youth who feel that their future is bleak are more prone to alternativeforms of politics. This may range from a better form of administration of the current

system to a radical rejection of it, but the common thread is that this part of the social

spectrum is open to and produces political inventions that posit the material possibility

of another world whether the latter is a better version of the current world or its com-

plete negation. The demand for direct democracy, the Peoples Assembly and the various

thematic subassemblies, as well as the biggest burden in defending the square from the

attacks of the riot police have been primarily produced and populated by this part of the

Outraged.

Still, is there any way to bridge these different social classes in one analytical tool andas one political agent? Yes, is the answer of the proponents of the notion of the Multitude.

Having its roots in Italian Autonomist Marxism and in thinkers such as Paolo Virno and

Antonio Negri, the Multitude could be described as a social subject unifying those living

and working under capital, which has the potential to become the bearer of social change

in the globalized era of the 21st century (Hardt and Negri, 2006; Virno, 2004). As Hardt

and Negri elaborate, the Multitude can be posed as: all those who work under the rule of

capital and thus potentially as the class of those who refuse the rule of capital. ... The

Multitude gives the concept of the proletariat its fullest definition as all those who labour

and produce under the rule of capital (Hardt and Negri, 2006: 106107). Thus, theMultitude, as a class concept, is a broadened notion of the proletariat that specifically

relates to the era of immaterial labour (others naming this period as post-industrial, post-

Fordist or the information age).

Besides a class concept, the Multitude can also be understood as the bearer of biopoliti-

cal production, a notion which constitutes the dialectical opposite of Foucaults bio-

power. To put it simply, biopower is the ability of the state and capital to produce social

life itself, besides controlling material production (Foucault, 1998). This is because capi-

tals control has expanded way beyond the factory walls, to places where the working class

lives, eats and reproduces itself. The dialectical power of resistance to biopower is biopo-

litical production, of which the Multitude is the bearer (Hardt and Negri, 2006: 94, 95).

Thus, the Multitude could be understood also as a potentially political actor; but not a

homogeneous one, like the people, or amorphous, such as the masses. The Multitude

is better understood as a swarm, whose members are scattered, but who are effectively



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united in a functionally larger entity at the time of attack (Kioupkiolis, 2011: 43). Due to

its potential for direct biopolitical production, according to its advocates, the Multitude

does not need mediations such as the state or the party. Actually, any idea of representa-

tion is objected to, since it eclipses or homogenizes singularities in the construction of

identity, restricts the production of the common by undermining the necessary freedomand plurality (Hardt and Negri, 2011: 305).

There are many critiques of the theories of the Multitude, which exceed the scope of

this article (see, for example,Aufheben, 2006; Zizek, 2001, 2005). We only attempt here

to see if this notion can analytically fit in explaining phenomena such as the rising in

Syntagma Square, as has been argued by Costas Douzinas (2011) among others. Does the

tension between the petite bourgeoisie and the proletariat in Syntagma Square hinder any

such attempt? On the contrary, claims Douzinas, this is exactly the significance of the

Multitude, as besides representing a wider class approach (those working and living

under the biopower of capital and engaging in biopolitical production), it neverthelessgoes beyond older typical class identifications. For him, the whole Greek population is

potentially the Multitude, as it is kept away from the exercise of any form of power

(Douzinas, 2011: 216).

What about the Multitudes potential as a political player? For Douzinas, the initial

apolitical and naive ideas of many of the protesters are totally understandable. They were

individuals whose existence has for years been completely bound up with the mediations

of state and capital, so that when this tie is broken, as in the case of a crisis, they are left

with their symbolic universe collapsed and, thus, retreat to spasmodic actions (Douzinas,

2011: 91). Hardt and Negri never tire of reminding us how the Multitude is not the meregathering of individuals, but, on the contrary, the process by which these individuals

interrelate. The dialectical result of such a meeting produces new forms of biopolitical

production. For Douzinas, in Syntagma Square there was simultaneously a crowd, a

Multitude and a Demos, in the ancient Athenian sense, reinventing direct democracy in

the Peoples Assembly. But this coexistence of crowd, Multitude and Demos should not

be understood as different people in the apolitical upper or in the more mature lower

section of the square embodying one of these characteristics. For Douzinas, everyone in

Syntagma was at the same time crowd, Multitude and Demos, being constantly reshaped

by their interactions (2011: 221). He also sees the biopolitical production of the Multitudein the way Syntagma Square was transformed into a free space for exchanging ideas,

running debates and workshops, chilling, resisting the police and so on.

We do not dispute the merits of the concept of the Multitude for analysing forms of

resistance that characterize the current cycle of struggles. Yet, we do think that there are

also problems with the concept, which become particularly manifest in its application to

the Syntagma movement. First of all, as Douzinas use indicates, the notion of the

Multitude, although appearing as a class concept, risks blurring important differences in

terms of material determinations and hence important political differences within a social

movement like that of the Outraged or the Occupy movement. To this extent, the

Multitude ends up reproducing on the level of theory a problematic aspect of the ideol-

ogy of this movement: its tendency to an inter-class discourse that prevents political

activity from touching upon the crucial issue of productive relations. Surely everyone is

affected by the crisis, but how much space for consensus exists between a proletariat



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youth and a petite bourgeoisie whose relative prosperity needs the exploitation of labour?

We do not wish to take a hard class-line here that excludes any possibility of mediation,

but we wish to point to a real problem that the notion of the Multitude obscures.

Moreover, the notion of the Multitude not only seriously undermines the tensions

within the Outraged, but also the fact that the demand for a direct democracy, and itsattendant political declarations, prescriptions and inventions, came in the order of a rift

from the initial gathering. For the latter had nothing particularly subversive about it. On

the contrary, as mentioned earlier, if it is looked without the prettifying lenses of the

Multitude, it becomes apparent that the initial gathering in Syntagma Square belongs

firmly to the dominant political system which draws clear lines between governors and

governed, political representation and political presence, and which is what supposedly

the biopolitics of the Multitude unsettles. Simply put, it is not the encounter of this radi-

cally heterogeneous body that, on account of some presumed biopolitical-ontological

productivity, creates the emancipatory politics that appeared in Syntagma Square. Rather,it is from within, through its rift and radicalization, that such politics emerged; a fact that

helps explain also the serious tensions that appeared between the upper and lower sectors

of Syntagma Square, between those who only want to restore their old privileges and

those who think that another world is possible. True, the encounter of such groups may

be productive in terms of challenging political stances and identities, but this does not

change the fact that such differentiations exist. To this extent, it seems to us that analyses

of the current forms of political resistance may profit also by theoretical perspectives that

stress the dissensual and eruptive character of politics, and more specifically of emanci-

patory politics, like that proposed by Alain Badiou (2006) or Jacque Rancire (2010).

Towards a conclusion

According to groups like Theorie Communiste (2011) and Blaumachen (2011b) the pre-

vious decades have seen the emergence of a form of struggle which posed democratiza-

tion as its main political prescription. While we do not necessarily share their negative

assessment of radical democracy, their analyses manage to indicate a central feature of

the recent and current wave of struggles, one that on another level may be seen as defin-

ing also of recent social and democratic theory: the positing of inroads of participation asa solution to social and political problems associated with global capitalism. That much

is more than evident in the Syntagma Square movement, and indeed in squares around

the world: in the demands whether posed as a real democracy that is to improve current

parliamentary democracies, or as a direct democracy that is to displace the latter and in

the prefigurative activities of self-organization within the squares, which realize this

other democracy as possible. It would be biased to deny the political creativity that has

been unleashed; if nothing else this staging of democracy throughout the squares of the

world has regenerated the political imagination of thousands of people, putting a halt to

widespread pessimism and fatalism.

However, idealization is equally problematic. There are many problems that the cur-

rent cycle of struggles faces; above all, a marked inability to implement the political

declarations that it produces in face of state repression. One should therefore not be too

hasty to celebrate the regeneration of democracy; for this move towards a substantial



13/15


democratization is accompanied by far more authoritarian trends, as the wave of legal

measures that are passed throughout the world in order to curtail the right to protest

shows. It is not our intention to propose solutions, nor do we want to rush into predictions

on what follows, since as they stand, things are quite open, in Greece as elsewhere.

However, what is definite is that the demand for a true democracy is what gives the cur-rent wave of struggles its unity and what determines its content. If one thing can be

proposed with relative certainty, therefore, it is that developments in the current cycle of

struggles, in its dialectic with the capitalist crisis and the new cycle of accumulation

attempted by capital, will be directly related to the fortunes of this project of a true

democracy.

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or

not-for-profit sectors.

Notes

1. By cycle of accumulation, following the analysis of the Greek theoretical journalBlaumachen,

we mean a historic period characterized by a specific structure of the capitalist relationship.

The beginning of the current cycle could be placed in the early 1970s and has to do with what

has been widely known as neoliberalism.

2. A very interesting element for further analysis would be to find if and how this electoral rise

of SYRIZA is related with the movement of the Outraged in Syntagma Square.

3. See: www.facebook.com/pages/%CE%91%CE%B3%CE%B1%CE%BD%CE%B1%CE%BA%CF%84%CE%B9%CF%83%CE%BC%CE%B5%CE%BD%CE%BF%CE%B9-

%CE%A3%CF%84%CE%BF-%CE%A3%CF%85%CE%BD%CF%84%CE%B1%CE%B3

%CE%BC%CE%B1/21062797231074

4. See: amesi-dimokratia.org/en/who-we-are.

5. See: www.amnesty.org/en/for-media/press-releases/greece-urged-not-use-excessive-force-during-

protests-2011-06-16.

6. See: www.statistics.gr/portal/page/portal/ESYE/PAGE-themes?p_param=A0101.

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Author biographies

Nikos Sotirakopoulos is a PhD candidate and Assistant Lecturer in the University of Kent,

Canterbury, UK, in the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research. His PhDresearch is on the influence of lifestyle anarchism in modern social movements and more

specifically in the case of the protest camps, such as the Occupy movement. He is also inter-

ested in Marxist theory, social movements and the history of the international communist

movement.



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George Sotiropouloshas been awarded the title of Doctor of Philosophy in Politics and Government

at the University of Kent. He is currently teaching in the Department of Political Science at the

Democritean University of Thrace, Greece. His research interests and publications focus on truth

and justice as constitutive categories of politics as well as on traditional and contemporary move-

ments and the political trajectories of emancipation and resistance that they produce

Rsum

Lambition de cet article est dapporter une analyse critique de la rsistance du peuplegrec leur dtention par la Troka, qui a amen une crise sociale et financireprofonde. Laccent sera port sur les indigns de la place Syntagma, et de leurs

manifestations quotidiennes pendant lt 2011; ce mouvement a t trs largementoubli par les mdia en comparaison dautres phnomnes de la mme porte, malgr

une participation trs importante et de lintensit des affrontements avec lEtat. Dautrepart, en dehors de lenqute empirique du cas grec, nous reviendrons sur linfluence desressources culturelles sur le mouvement, ainsi que sur les divisions internes en termes

de classes et didologies. Enfin, nous essayerons dintgrer le cas de la Grce la crisecapitaliste mondiale et aux luttes auxquelles elle a donn lieu.

Mots-cls

Grce, indigns, Multitude, outre, la place Syntagma

Resumen

La ambicin de este artculo es abordar crticamente la resistencia del pueblo griego ala intervencin de la Troika que ha conducido a una profunda crisis financiera y social.Se pone nfasis en el estudio de las protestas diarias de los indignados de la Plaza

Syntagma durante el verano de 2011. A pesar de la gran cantidad de participantesy la intensidad de su choque con el Estado, este movimiento ha permanecido poco

estudiado en relacin con otros fenmenos similares. Junto a la investigacin empricadel caso griego, se argumentar que resulta de suma importancia tanto la influencia delos recursos culturales como las divisiones ideolgicas y de clase dentro del movimiento.

Adems, se intentar situar el caso de Grecia en el contexto de la crisis capitalista globaly las luchas a las que ha dado lugar como respuesta.

Palabras clave

Grecia, indignacin, Multitud, la Plaza Syntagma, ultraje

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