https://toarcheio.org To Archeio project site Thu, 30 Apr 2020 16:10:12 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.4.1 https://toarcheio.org/items/violence-and-extreme-right-activism-the-neo-nazi-golden-dawn-in-a-greek-rural-community/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:43 +0000 http://arc.local/items/violence-and-extreme-right-activism-the-neo-nazi-golden-dawn-in-a-greek-rural-community/ Continued]]> After years of marginal appeal in the electorate, Golden Dawn (GD), a hitherto minor grupuscule of the neo-fascist right, has experienced impressive and continuous electoral success in Greece since 2010. Ιn this paper, we focus on the micro-scale of local communities and explore how violence is used by a local activist in ways that attract sympathisers to GD. Employing ethnographic research in a rural community we observe an everyday rhetoric that gives GD a privileged position in the circulation of violence. We argue that, rather than being a collateral symptom of neo-fascist mobilisation, violence may under certain conditions be one of the strengths of extreme-right movements.

]]> https://toarcheio.org/items/the-rise-of-golden-dawn-the-new-face-of-the-far-right-in-greece-2/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:40 +0000 http://arc.local/items/the-rise-of-golden-dawn-the-new-face-of-the-far-right-in-greece-2/ Continued]]> The article examines the rise of the one of the most extremist political parties in Europe,
Golden Dawn. It sketches the historical trajectory of the Greek far right, examines the
ideological, organisational and voter profile of Golden Dawn, and offers possible
explanations for its breakthrough in the 2012 elections. The article shows how the
economic crisis has brought a massive realignment of the Greek electorate away from
mainstream parties, giving rise to anti-system and anti-immigrant sentiments. Golden
Dawn’s violent tactics have allowed the party to establish an anti-system and antiimmigrant
profile and capitalise on these sentiments. The party’s future will depend on its
capacity to absorb organisationally any future tensions between party pragmatists and
idealists.

]]> https://toarcheio.org/items/the-impact-of-the-greek-indignados-on-greek-politics/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:38 +0000 http://arc.local/items/the-impact-of-the-greek-indignados-on-greek-politics/ Continued]]> The burden of this paper is to assert the significance of the 2011 movement of the Greek indignados for Greek politics during the Great Recession. Acknowledging the systematically feeble analysis of the nexus between non-institutional and electoral politics in social movement literature, the authors analyze the emergence, development, and heritage of the Greek indignados, focusing squarely on their impact on public opinion and the domestic party system, both at the level of interparty, as well as intraparty dynamics. The authors’ conclusions are drawn mainly from an analysis of political party discourse, public opinion data, and interviews conducted on the field, catering equally for the supply and demand side of the novel political claims that surfaced during the first years of the Greek sovereign debt crisis. The authors point to the crucial contribution of the movement’s discourse in facilitating voter defection from the traditional two-party system that ruled Greece for more than thirty years, and argue that the indignados functioned as a beacon of populist discursive tropes, which cemented the emergence of a new divide in Greek society between pro- and anti-bailout citizens. Conclusively, the authors take the position that the imprint of the indignados on the Greek psyche has had tremendous repercussions in consolidating a new party system, by undermining traditional political forces and legitimizing new, anti-establishment contenders.

]]> https://toarcheio.org/items/neo-nazism-in-an-established-democracy-the-persistence-of-golden-dawn-in-greece/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:33 +0000 http://arc.local/items/neo-nazism-in-an-established-democracy-the-persistence-of-golden-dawn-in-greece/ Continued]]> The literature predicts that extremist right-wing parties like the Greek Golden Dawn (GD) are doomed to stay in the margins of electoral competition, scaring away voters with their authoritarian views and violent tactics. Defying scholarly expectations and despite the criminal prosecution of its leadership, GD increased its electoral strength in the May 2014 European elections. The article contrasts the neo-Nazi GD with Western European radical right parties and examines the factors that facilitated the persistence of such an extreme political party in an established European democracy. It shows how GD managed to capitalise on the de-legitimation of Greek political institutions and, through its organisational activity, present itself as a socially legitimate anti-system alternative.

]]> https://toarcheio.org/items/queer-responses-to-austerity-insights-from-the-greece-of-crisis/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:32 +0000 http://arc.local/items/queer-responses-to-austerity-insights-from-the-greece-of-crisis/ Continued]]> During the last years, Greece has implemented an unprecedented number of austerity measures affecting every domain of social, economic and political aspect of the population’s life. Together with several social movements acting during this time against austerity, queer groups found a fertile ground to explore their discourses and practices by adopting an enlarged agenda of claims, attacking simultaneously gender hierarchizations and the rise of neo-Nazism, both accentuated after austerity measures. This article focuses on ‘sexual politics of austerity’ seen from the side of queer anti-authoritarian groups in the country’s biggest cities. Based upon an empirical exploration of queer groups’ discursive production, this article shows how these groups attempt to create their own, autonomous space as a response to the politics of austerity and how this queer discourse adapts to new reconfigurations of the austerity-driven Nation based upon a Marxian reading of ‘totality thinking’.

]]> https://toarcheio.org/items/they-became-big-in-the-shadow-of-the-crisis-the-greek-success-story-and-the-rise-of-the-far-right/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:23 +0000 http://arc.local/items/they-became-big-in-the-shadow-of-the-crisis-the-greek-success-story-and-the-rise-of-the-far-right/ Continued]]> Greece has been in ‘crisis’ for six consecutive years now and during this time living standards have dropped considerably for the majority of the population, strict austerity measures have been implemented and unemployment has reached a record figure of 27.8% (with a Eurozone average of 12%). At the same time, a ‘success story’ is prominent in dominant discourses where Greece is portrayed to have achieved a primary budget surplus and according to which the ‘worst has passed’. The dire consequences of austerity, the political polarisation of Greek society and the rise of the far-right party Golden Dawn (GD), however, indicate a much less positive picture. In this context, the article aims to problematise the complex nexus of relationships between the financial crisis and the re-emergence of the extreme right-wing party, GD. The discussion draws on an analysis of 1497 postings from the online website of the British newspaper, The Guardian. We focus on discourse strategies for attributing/resisting blame emerging from the analysis of the postings, but also as negotiated in two popular threads on the online discussion board. The article takes a critical stance and combines the discourse-historical approach with a micro analysis of the interaction. This allows us to pay special attention to the multiple layers of context and to combine the macro and the micro in the constructions of blame and sense making of the crisis. Analysis of the data shows that a range of actors is held responsible for the current situation, while the rise of GD is constructed both as a ‘product of’ and ‘movement against’ the crisis. We close the article with the implications of our study and areas for further research.

]]> https://toarcheio.org/items/in-the-shadow-of-grexit-the-greek-election-of-17-june-2012/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:22 +0000 http://arc.local/items/in-the-shadow-of-grexit-the-greek-election-of-17-june-2012/ Continued]]> This article provides an overview and analysis of the Greek elections of June 2012. Placing the elections within the broader framework of the Greek socio-political and economic context, it discusses the electoral campaign and results, juxtaposing them to the 6 May electoral round. The election results confirmed many of the trends of the previous round, including electoral volatility, the fragmentation of the party system and the rise of anti-establishment forces. The main difference was the entrenchment of the pro- versus anti- bailout division and the prominence of the question of Greece’s continued eurozone membership.

]]> https://toarcheio.org/items/the-rise-of-golden-dawn-the-new-face-of-the-far-right-in-greece/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:17 +0000 http://arc.local/items/the-rise-of-golden-dawn-the-new-face-of-the-far-right-in-greece/ Continued]]> The article examines the rise of the one of the most extremist political parties in Europe, Golden Dawn. It sketches the historical trajectory of the Greek far right, examines the ideological, organisational and voter profile of Golden Dawn, and offers possible explanations for its breakthrough in the 2012 elections. The article shows how the economic crisis has brought a massive realignment of the Greek electorate away from mainstream parties, giving rise to anti-system and anti-immigrant sentiments. Golden Dawn’s violent tactics have allowed the party to establish an anti-system and anti-immigrant profile and capitalise on these sentiments. The party’s future will depend on its capacity to absorb organisationally any future tensions between party pragmatists and idealists.

]]>