No More Heroes? Rejection and Reverberation of the Past in the 2008 Events in Greece

This article attempts to trace the contested relationship between the December 2008 riots in Greece and the revolutionary past, aiming to promote a discussion on the dynamic relationship between past and present. The article argues that even though the activists' repertoire was pretty much removed from the past, their discourse often echoed or reverberated its poetics. The article further discusses how past movements—including December 1944, May 1968 and the Polytechnic events of 1973, were picked up and promoted by the media as compelling alter egos. The paper further reacts against the assertion put forward by prominent analysts that the 2008 "December events" were a direct consequence of the so-called "spirit of the metapolitefsi" and catalogues the novel characteristics of the movement, including the extensive use of technology and its transnational outlook.