Hadjimichalis, C. – To Archeio https://toarcheio.org To Archeio project site Mon, 20 Apr 2020 14:55:14 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.4.1 Crisis and land dispossession in Greece as part of the global ‘land fever’ https://toarcheio.org/items/crisis-and-land-dispossession-in-greece-as-part-of-the-global-land-fever/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:25 +0000 http://arc.local/items/crisis-and-land-dispossession-in-greece-as-part-of-the-global-land-fever/ Continued]]> The exploitation of land, but also of natural elements linked to it―such as water, forests, landscape, the subsurface and biodiversity―nowadays comprise investment targets for local and international speculative capital at some unprecedented extent, intensity and geographical spread. From 2009 on, Greece became a target country due to the current crisis which has decisively contributed to the de-valorisation/depreciation of the exchange-value of land, decreasing monetary values by 15–30%―depending on the area―when compared to 2005 prices. The special legal status imposed by the Troika as of 2010, forms a lucrative environment for speculators–investors, dramatically altering the legal, constitutional order and imposing something of a semi-protectorate status upon the country. This short paper explains how the crisis in Greece made public land via privatisations a major target for dispossession by global and local capital.

]]> From streets and squares to radical political emancipation? Resistance and lessons from Athens during the crisis https://toarcheio.org/items/from-streets-and-squares-to-radical-political-emancipation-resistance-and-lessons-from-athens-during-the-crisis/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:18 +0000 http://arc.local/items/from-streets-and-squares-to-radical-political-emancipation-resistance-and-lessons-from-athens-during-the-crisis/ Continued]]> The current crisis with imposed austerity measures hit Greece in 2009. People in large cities such as Athens were the first victims. Resistance took various forms including mobilizations and fights in the streets and squares of Athens. Although to some extent spontaneous in the beginning, these mobilizations were not without political preparation (at least for some participants) and this partially explains both their intensity and stability and the violent police reaction. Resistance and anti-austerity mobilizations were outcomes of non-politicized people coming together with various more organized political forces, such as unions, non-unionized temporary workers, antiracist and anti-global movements, members of the European Social Forum-Greek section, small leftist and anarchist groups, plus larger political parties of the left such as SYRIZA, which succeeded in forming a wider radical alliance. In this alliance the role of radical social movements, including urban movements, has been decisive. During the past 10 to 15 years dozens of urban grassroots movements emerged in the Athens metropolitan region. Partly as a response to projects related to the 2004 Olympic Games, and partly in response to chronic socio-spatial inequalities and injustices in various neighborhoods, these movements were radical in nature, multi-class in social base and quite militant in terms of tactics. And since 2009, the crisis acted as catalyst, and radical social movements made the crucial link between sectoral/local struggles and those arising from wider socio-spatial contradictions and injustices aiming at political change. The paper critically evaluates these events, putting them in theoretical and comparative perspective, trying to understand the limits and the lessons-so-far from such an experience and asks whether they point to a wider radical political emancipation.

(PDF) From streets and squares to radical political emancipation? Resistance lessons from Athens during the crisis. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266686312_From_streets_and_squares_to_radical_political_emancipation_Resistance_lessons_from_Athens_during_the_crisis [accessed Aug 22 2018].

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