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Athenian Anarchists & Anti-Authoritarians

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Athenian Anarchists & Anti-Authoritarians ‘FUCK MAY 68, FIGHT NOW!’ Athenian Anarchists & Anti-authoritarians: Militant Ethnography & Collective Identity Formation Nicholas Apoifis LLB/BA Hons. (Macquarie University) MA Research (University of New South Wales) A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Politics & International Relations Department of Modern History, Politics and International Relations Faculty of Arts Macquarie University February 2014 Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................. II SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................................. V ORIGINALITY STATEMENT .................................................................................................................... VI ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ......................................................................................................................... VII INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................... 1 HELLENIC TURMOIL ............................................................................................................................... 1 WHY ANARCHISTS & ANTI-AUTHORITARIANS? WHY GREECE? .............................................................................. 3 GOLDEN DAWN ........................................................................................................................................... 7 THE ANARCHIST & ANTI-AUTHORITARIAN SPACE/MOVEMENT/MILIEU .................................................................. 9 CHAPTER PLAN .......................................................................................................................................... 17 CHAPTER ONE ...................................................................................................................................... 20 SOCIAL MOVEMENT THEORY & COLLECTIVE IDENTITY ........................................................................ 20 TINY FLAGS ATTACHED TO MASSIVE CHUNKS OF WOOD ................................................................................... 20 THE MADNESS OF COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOUR ..................................................................................................... 23 RESOURCE MOBILISATION & THE CLAMOUR FOR RATIONALITY ........................................................................... 26 POLITICAL PROCESS THEORY & PREDICTING PROTEST ........................................................................................ 28 POLITICAL PROCESS, CULTURE AND EMOTIONS ................................................................................................ 34 NEW SOCIAL MOVEMENT THEORY: THE EARLY YEARS ....................................................................................... 36 THE PROCESS OF COLLECTIVE IDENTITY: A TOOL .............................................................................................. 40 PROCESSES OF COLLECTIVE IDENTITY: EMOTIONS ............................................................................................. 42 PROCESS OF COLLECTIVE IDENTITY: APPLICABILITY ............................................................................................ 46 NEW SOCIAL MOVEMENT THEORY: CRITICS .................................................................................................... 48 AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH? HARDT & NEGRI ............................................................................................... 51 THEORETICAL TOOLS IN NEED OF FIELDWORK: A CONCLUSION ........................................................................... 52 CHAPTER TWO ..................................................................................................................................... 53 MILITANT ETHNOGRAPHY & TAKING NOTES IN A FURNACE ................................................................ 53 “ΚΑΛΩΣ ΗΡΘΑΤΕ ΣΤΗΝ ΑΘΗΝΑ” [WELCOME TO ATHENS] .................................................................................. 53 SETTING THE SCENE: ATHENS ....................................................................................................................... 55 MILITANT ETHNOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................................ 59 ETHNOGRAPHY & PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION ................................................................................................ 61 THE PRACTICALITIES OF MILITANT ETHNOGRAPHY: ON THE STREETS & IN SQUATS ................................................. 66 ii PRACTICALITIES OF MILITANT ETHNOGRAPHY: AFTER THE STREETS & THE SQUATS.................................................. 71 ETHICS, ILLEGALITIES AND ANONYMITIES......................................................................................................... 72 RESEARCHING VIOLENCE.............................................................................................................................. 75 HOME FROM THE FIELD ............................................................................................................................... 80 CHAPTER THREE .................................................................................................................................. 82 THE EARLY YEARS OF GREEK ANARCHISM: “IT JUST DOESN’T MEAN ANYTHING TO ME” .................... 82 REPUDIATING LINKS: OLD & NEW ................................................................................................................. 82 POLITICAL TURMOIL FROM THE OUTSET.......................................................................................................... 85 ANARCHISM AS A SOCIAL MOVEMENT 1860-1900: READING THE ΦΩΣ (LIGHT) ................................................... 87 BULLETS, BOMBS & BOATMEN: THE 1900S.................................................................................................... 93 ANARCHO-SYNDICALISM IN GREECE ............................................................................................................... 96 WRITTEN WORK, SAME TREND .................................................................................................................... 98 ATTITUDES TO HISTORY: TOWARDS AN UNDERSTANDING ................................................................................ 100 CONCLUSION: NO LAMENT, JUST NOT THEIR HISTORY .................................................................................... 105 CHAPTER FOUR .................................................................................................................................. 107 A CONTEMPORARY HISTORY: ‘FUCK MAY 68, FIGHT NOW!’ .............................................................. 107 REPLICATING REPERTOIRES, RENEWING REPERTOIRES ..................................................................................... 107 1974-1983: LET SLEEPING DOGS LIE .......................................................................................................... 109 1984-1998: RIOTS, MOLOTOVS, UNIONS & SQUATS .................................................................................... 113 1999-2007: ‘THEY DON’T MIND THROWING A BRICK’ .................................................................................. 120 2008: AN INSURRECTION .......................................................................................................................... 128 VIGNETTES FROM THE STREETS ................................................................................................................... 130 2009-2011: MORE OF THE SAME, GREATER INTENSITY ................................................................................. 134 THEMES: REJUVENATION AND FAMILIARITY, RIOT-PORN & FETISHES ................................................................. 135 CHAPTER FIVE .................................................................................................................................... 139 THE ANARCHIST & ANTI-AUTHORITARIAN SPACE: TENSIONS & TENDENCIES .................................... 139 DON’T SMASH THE ATM ... HERE. .............................................................................................................. 139 GENDER & SEXUALITY ............................................................................................................................... 140 CURRENTS, TENSIONS & TENDENCIES .......................................................................................................... 150 “THE DOGS OF THE MASS MEDIA” .............................................................................................................. 153 ARSON & MURDER .................................................................................................................................. 155 VIOLENCE CELLS....................................................................................................................................... 160 TENSIONS AND UNITY ............................................................................................................................... 162 CHAPTER SIX ...................................................................................................................................... 163 iii STREET-PROTESTS & EMOTIONS: A TEMPORARY UNITY
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