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Surplus Citizens Struggles in the Greek Crisis, 2010–2014

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Surplus Citizens Struggles in the Greek Crisis, 2010–2014 Surplus Citizens Struggles in the Greek Crisis, 2010–2014 Dimitra Kotouza A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 109,645 words University of Kent September 2015 Abstract This thesis analyses the social struggles that occurred between 2010 and 2014 during the crisis in Greece: labour struggles, the movement of the squares, demonstrations and riots, neighbourhood assemblies, solidarity projects and economies, local environmental struggles, and anti-fascist and migrants’ struggles. It discusses their internal and external limits in the historical specificity of the contemporary crisis and class relation. Drawing critically on Théorie Communiste’s periodising schema, these struggles are framed, first, through a shift in the dynamic of the class relation effected by the crisis and the re- structuring, which is a continuation of the first phase of ‘neoliberal’ restructuring in the 1990s. This shift intensified a central capitalist contradiction: while the capital relation imposes most violently the absolute dependence of subsistence on the wage, the wage relation fails to guarantee subsist- ence and integrates proletarians as surplus to capitalist reproduction. Second, the struggles are framed through the deep political crisis of state sovereignty and the relation between state and civil society, caused by the relentless imposition of the restructuring in conjunction with supranational institutions. These historical transformations are traced through the mutual constitution of interna- tional tendencies and the development of class struggle in Greece, against theories of dependency and underdevelopment. Ideological responses to the financial crisis and the logic of the restructur- ing are interrogated by employing theories of value, fetishism, and the state influenced by the Ger- man ‘value-form’ debate. Foucault-influenced conceptions of governmentality and sovereignty are also deployed to examine the restructuring’s forms of imposition and the biopolitical crisis- management strategies of the state, which reinforced the racialised and gendered constitution of civil society. The thesis argues that these two elements, the changing dynamic of the class relation and the crisis of the state and civil society, defined the struggles of this period, in which two core char- acteristics can be identified. First, labour struggles confronted the dilemma between the necessity and inadequacy of the wage through an ambivalence between their attachment to work and their estrangement from it. This ambivalence did not question the terms of the dilemma posed, which were only questioned fleetingly in riots that interrupted the normality of commodity exchange. Second, the deep political crisis provoked struggles defending democracy, with the disempowered ‘Greek citizen’ as their central subject, which constitutively excluded migrants. The splitting of these struggles between leftwing anti-imperialist and rightwing anti-immigration nationalism, and into a struggle between fascism and anti-fascism, were not able to challenge this constitutive exclu- sion, which was only questioned by migrants’ own struggles. Nationalism and the drive to reinforce unsettled social hierarchies played into the governmental effort to contain the political crisis, through the state’s biopolitical management of the migrant and marginal, racialised and gendered surplus populations produced in the crisis. Table of Contents List of Abbreviations 5 Transliteration Map 7 Acknowledgements 8 I. Introduction 9 Between Social Struggles and Communism 9 Fetishism and Ideology 17 The State and the Citizen, Race and Gender 20 Theory and Empirical Study, Theory and Practice 23 Chapter Overview 26 II. Periodising Greek Capitalism: Considering a ‘Semi-Peripheral’ Temporality 31 Introduction 31 Greek Capitalism and Class Structure 42 The Case of Greece 42 On Class 45 The ‘Traditional’ and ‘New’ Petite-Bourgeoisie 50 Capital and the Bourgeois Class in Greece 55 The Greek Working Class and Labour Movement 57 Cycles of Struggle Since the Metapoliteusi 61 Metapoliteusi: The Victory and Defeat of the Labour Movement 61 1990–2008: The Continuing Restructuring and Struggles Against It 72 The Riots of December 2008 and Their Aftermath 78 Conclusions 82 III. The Crisis and Restructuring 86 Introduction 86 The Crisis in Greece amid the World Crisis 87 Finance and the Capital Fetish 95 The Logic of the Restructuring 98 Fetishism and the Political Crisis 107 Conclusion: The Crisis as Class Struggle? 111 SURPLUS CITIZENS 4 IV. Resistance to the Restructuring and its Limits 114 Introduction 114 Labour Struggles 118 Organisations of the Unemployed 134 Mass Demonstrations and Riots 136 The Squares Movement (May-July 2011) and Its Aftermath 138 October 2011 145 The Riots of 12 February 2012 148 The ‘Non Existent’ Student Movement 152 Self-Organisation 156 Neighbourhood Assemblies 156 Solidarity Initiatives and ‘Alternative Economies’ 159 Local Anti-Development and Ecological Struggles 167 Keratea 168 Skouries 172 The Movements' ‘Other’: Immigrants’ Struggles and Anti-Fascism 179 Conclusion 193 V. The Nation-State as a Limit of Struggles 197 Introduction 197 The State's Mediation of Crises and Social Relations 201 State Mediation as the Historical Limit of Struggles 205 Policing and Nationalism: from the State to the Surplus (Non-)Worker 206 The Greek Far Right and Its Growth after 1990 207 Crisis Policing and Golden Dawn’s Empowerment and Criminalisation 210 The War Discourse of the Restructuring 218 Anti-Fascism and Left Nationalism 222 The Crisis of the Nation-State and the Management of Surplus Populations 225 Racism, Misogyny, Homophobia: Affirming Capital in Fear of the Abject 232 Conclusion 237 VI. Conclusion 240 Bibliography 250 List of Abbreviations ADEDY Anōtatī Dioíkīsī Enōseōn Dīmosíōn Ypallīlōn [Higher Administration of Public Employee Unions] AK Astikós Kōdikas [Civil Code] AN.EL. Anexártītoi Éllīnes [Independent Greeks] ANTARSYA Antikapitalistikī Aristerī Synergasía gia tīn Anatropī [Anticapitalist Left Coopera- tion for the Overthrow] Ar. Arthro [article of a law or statute] ASOEE Anōtátī Scholī Oikonomikōn kai Emporikōn Epistīmōn [Athens University of Economics and Business] ATA Autómatī Timarithmikī Anaprosarmogī [Automatic Inflationary Readjustment] DIAS Díkyklī Astynómeusī [Motorcycle-Mounted Police] DIMAR Dīmokratikī Aristerá [Democratic Left] DELTA Dýnamī Elégchou Tacheías Antídrasīs [Rapid Response Force] (Greek Police) EAM Ethnikó Apeleutherōtikó Métōpo [National Liberation Front] EEAM Ergatikó ΕΑΜ [Workers’ EAM] ECB European Central Bank EC European Commission EKPA Ethnikó Kapodistriakó Panepistīmio Athīnōn [National Kapodistrian University of Athens] ELAS Ethnikós Laïkós Apeleutherōtikós Stratós [National Popular Liberation Army] ELME Enōsī Leitourgōn Mésīs Ekpaídeusīs [Union of Secondary Education State School Teachers] (regional union) EL.STAT Ellīnikī Statistikī Archī [Greek Statistical Authority] ENEK Eniaío Ethnikistikó Kínīma [Unified Nationalist Movement] EPEN Ethnikī Politikī Énōsis [National Political Union] ERT Ellīnikī Radiofōnía kai Tīleórasī [Greek Radio and Television] EU European Union EYP Ethnikī Ypīresía Plīroforiōn [National Information Service] (1986–) FEK Fyllo Efīmerídas tīs Kyvernīseōs [Official Gazette] GD Golden Dawn (Chrysī Augī) GSEE Genikī Synomospondīa Ergatōn Elládos [General Confederation of Workers of Greece] GSEVEE Genikī Synomospondía Epaggelmatiōn Viotechnōn Empórōn Elládas [Hellenic Confederation of Professionals, Craftspersons, and Merchants] IKA Ídryma Koinōnikōn Asfalíseōn [Institute of Social Security] SURPLUS CITIZENS 6 INE-GSEE Institoúto Ergasías GSEE [Labour Institute of GSEE] IME-GSEVEE Institoúto Mikrōn Epicheirīseōn GSEVEE [Small Enterprises Institute of GSEVEE] IMF International Monetary Fund KKE Kommounistikó Kómma Elládas [Communist Party of Greece] KYP Kentrikī Ypīresía Plīroforiōn [Central Information Service] (1953–1986) LAOS Laïkós Orthódoxos Synagermós [Popular Orthodox Rally] N Nomos [Law or Statute] ND Néa Dīmokratía [New Democracy] OAED Organismós Apaschólīsīs Ergatikoú Dynamikoú [Organisation for Labour Force Employment] OLME Omospondía Leitourgōn Mésīs Ekpaídeusīs [Federation of Secondary Education State School Teachers] OVES Omospondía Viomīchanikōn kai Ergostasiakōn Sōmateíōn [Federation for Indus- trial and Factory Trade Unions] PAME Panergatikó Agōnistikó Métōpo [All Workers Militant Front] (KKE labour union) PA.SO.K Panellīnio Sosialistikó Kínīma [Pan-hellenic Socialist Movement] PEKOP Panattikī Énōsī Katharistriōn kai Oikiakoú Prosōpikoú [Pan-Attica Union of Cleaners and Domestic Staff] PK Poinikós Kōdikas [Penal Code] POE-OTA Panellīnia Omospondía Ergazoménōn Organismōn Topikīs Autodioíkīsīs [Panhel- lenic Federation of Local Government Workers’ Associations] SEK Sosialistikó Ergatikó Kómma [Socialist Workers’ Party] SEO-115 Kínīsī tōn 115 Synergazómenōn Ergatoypallīlikōn Organōseōn [Movement of 115 Cooperating Workers’ Organisations] SKYA Synéleusī gia tīn Kykloforía tōn Agōnōn [Assembly for the Circulation of Strug- gles] SOVA Sōmateío Vásīs Anérgōn & episfalōs ergazoménōn [Grassroots Union of the Unemployed and insecurely employed] STET Sýndesmos tōn Ergatikōn Táxeōn tīs Elládos [Association of the Working Classes of Greece] Syn.E.Ko.Ch. Synéleusī anérgōn kai Ergazoménōn se prográmmata Koinofeloús Charaktīra [Assembly of Unemployed and Employed in Public Benefit programmes] SY.RIZ.A. Synaspismós Rizospastikīs Aristerás [Coalition of the Radical Left] TC Théorie
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