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6 The anarchist and anti-authoritarian space: tensions and tendencies ‘Don’t smash the ATM … here’ There are flickers of antagonism that often precede that combustive moment when a protest march turns into a violent street-protest. These can take the form of catalysts like a chunk of marble crashing through a window here or a trunk of wood shattering an ATM (bank machine) screen there. For one particular protest, the explosion had to wait a minute, interrupted by a middle-aged woman calling from a balcony as the march passed by. ‘Oχι εδώ’ [Not here], she
austerity measures is a continual concern for the Athenian anarchist and anti-authoritarian space. Such manifestations of human misery, combined with Greece’s long history of radical politics and regime change, has inspired both resistance and a belief in the real possibility of alternative political realities. The Athenian anarchist and anti-authoritarian movement has been at the forefront in imagining and fighting for these alternative realities. This Conclusion revisits and summarises what I have learned about the movement, its internal constitution, dynamics and
by my expressions, Penelope discerned my uneasiness: ‘It is important we don’t panic’, she instructed, ‘[t]his is our space and we are defending it, there is nothing to fear, we are together, united and we are strong!’ Although myriad tensions exist in the Athenian anarchist and anti- authoritarian space, temporary solidarity reigns during street-protests. As Penelope implied in her instructions, when it is time for action the tensions within the movement are largely suppressed, as activists come together for occupations, protests and riots. Similarly for Emma
The Athenian anarchist and anti-authoritarian movement has been reinvigorated in recent years. Its public protests and battles against the Greek state, police and other capitalist institutions are prolific and highly visible, replete with rioting, barricades and Molotov cocktails. This book is concerned not so much with anarchist theory, as with examining the forces that give the Athenian anarchist and anti-authoritarian movement its specific shape. The author draws on Alberto Melucci's (1995a) work on collective identity, while offering a first-hand, ethnographic account of Athenian anarchists and anti-authoritarians in action, based on his time there in 2011 and 2013, living, squatting and protesting within this milieu. In the course of the chapters of the book, the author argues that varying shades of anarchic tendencies, and ensuing ideological and practical disagreements, are overcome for the most part in (often violent) street-protests. Athenian anarchists and antiauthoritarians are a pertinent area of research because of both their politics and their geographical location. There is the whole 'rise of anarchism throughout the activist world' phenomenon, visible from Seattle to Genoa, Quebec City to São Paulo. Anarchist and anti-authoritarian social movements are prominent actors in resistance to the current phase of capitalism in multiple, global locations. Throughout Europe, North and Latin America, Asia and the Antipodes, radical resistance to neo-liberalism often has an anarchist and/ or anti-authoritarian cast.
possibility of fascism again seizing the reins of state power cannot be discounted. It is against this backdrop of rising fascism and economic and political crisis that the contemporary Athenian anarchist and anti-authoritarian milieu has grown –in both size and political significance. The anarchist and anti-authoritarian space/movement/milieu A favourite pastime of social scientists involves categorising phenomena. This book is no exception. A large component of my study explores a particular group of people: Athenian anarchists and anti-authoritarians. Before I got
contemporary history 91 squatting is that as ‘one squat closes down, another opens up –that is what happens in Athens’. As I walked through the streets of Athens, I could see the way in which economic decline has shut down places of business and often these premises are boarded and empty. It is within this vacuum that squats appear. Around the time that squats became more prevalent, the Athenian anarchist and anti-authoritarian space saw a burgeoning artistic and written political output develop. In 1990, the Void Network began its involvement by creating social spaces
militant ethnography. Here I show that although a plethora of political actions and events inform these contemporary historical reflections, militant and often-violent direct actions dominate the narrative presented in the chapter. Moving beyond history and into the contemporary period, Chapter 6 details some of the more prominent tensions within the Athenian anarchist and anti-authoritarian space. I discuss tensions around gender and sexuality politics, tactics and media engagement, as well as violence and solidarity. I argue that negotiations and interactions around
that end, militant ethnography is a contemporary contributor to a rich history of fieldwork advancements challenging sexist, racist, homophobic, colonialist and imperialist biases that once lay hidden in the shelter of objectivity. A fusion of politically engaged participant observation and committed ethnographic research, militant ethnography expands upon recent trends researching anarchist and anti- authoritarian spaces in the English language. While very few academics engage with these collectives, the ones that do favour participant observation, ethnography or
constructivist approach, in which social relationships and networks are constructed and reconstructed within a field of action. To contextualise this point, let us consider the nature of affinity groups within the Athenian anarchist and anti-authoritarian space. These voluntary, non-hierarchical and self-regulating political and social networks are a central element of the Athenian milieu. To operationalise Melucci’s paradigm, we should not limit research to mapping the relationships between affinity groups. This would tend to treat them as homogenous entities. It is far
this body of work. I was additionally attracted to ethnohistory because it empowers marginalised groups who are unable to get across a particular historical narrative in the face of a more powerful and dominant account (Green and Troup, 1999: 176). While the anarchist community falls into this category more generally, I am specifically The early years of Greek anarchism 67 using ethnohistorical methods to give voice to the minority views within the Athenian anarchist and anti-authoritarian space itself. With its embrace of oral history, ethnohistory appears