The Greek Tragedy

Few events in recent European political history have baffled the commentariat more than the widespread Greek insurrection or "riots" (according to right-wing analysts) of December 2008, and those last month [May 2010], when a quarter of a million people took to the streets and the Greek Parliament was stormed by trade unionists and other demonstrators. The catalyst for the 2008 events was the unprovoked police killing of 15-year-old Alexis Grigoropoulos on 6 December in a bohemian district in downtown Athens next to the polytechnic and the law school, both associated with student militancy for some 60 years. The catalyst for the 2010 events was the imposition on the Greek people of the harshest austerity measures ever seen in modern Europe. The Greek government accepted a loan from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union that could tide over repayment of its debt (but would not resolve the underlying problem), and in return, it adopted measures that will lead to a deep economic depression and destroy the post-war social contract.

The reaction of the Greek people was expected, but would not have been as immediate and powerful had the 2008 events not happened. Within hours of Alexis's killing, huge protests, occupations, and demonstrations broke out all over Greece. In an unprecedented move, large numbers of secondary pupils occupied some 800 schools. Daily marches to police stations, parliament and ministries were accompanied by sit-ins, street demos, theatre disruptions, the raising of a banner on the Acropolis Hill calling for resistance, and the burning of the Christmas tree in Syntagma Square. Violence against banks and luxury shops was limited and no casualties were reported. Opinion polls had half the population supporting the protests.

Solidarity protests throughout Europe created fears of the protests spreading and French Premier Nicolas Sarkozy had to pull back a school reform bill. The insurrection led to a plethora of anxious interpretations. Many often contradictory causes were put forward: economic (unemployment and neo-liberal economic measures), political (persistent corruption and failure of education), cultural or ideological. But the most prominent reaction of commentators was incomprehension mixed with incredulity.

No political organisation directed the insurrection, no single ideology motivated it, and no overwhelming demand was put forward. The persistent question "What do the kids want?" often led to the conclusion that the events were not political because they could not be integrated into existing analytical frameworks. What united the protestors was a refusal, a "No more," and "Enough is enough." Is this a new type of politics after the slow decay of democracy?

The urban space has always been a site of conflict. From the riots of early modernity to the Bastille, the Paris Commune, the Reform, Suffragette and Civil Rights Movements, to May 1968, the Athens Polytechnic 1973, and the Prague and Bucharest Uprisings, the "street" has changed political systems, laws and institutions. In this sense, the December insurrection was a recognisable form of "street" resistance. But this was no ordinary protest. Imagine Westminster and Whitehall under siege everyday for two weeks.

A condensation of causes, strategies, and actions turned December into the Greek May. As events developed, the insurrection took on an impetus of its own, drawing in ever-larger numbers in a snowballing effect that kept unsettling every attempt at explanation or pacification. The listing of possible causes could not help understand the effects. The before and the after became indistinguishable; causes, effects, and actions were intertwined into a knot that could not be easily unravelled. In the same way that the coming of the insurrection could not have been predicted, its happening could not be controlled and its long-term effects are only now becoming clearer. This was a type of political action that could not be simply explained from what predated it or reduced to the sum of factors that made it possible.

It was precisely the rejection of routine politics that turned the insurrection into an event, in the technical sense of philosopher Alain Badiou. Every social and political situation has an infinite series of elements, classes, groups and people with different interests and ideologies, customs and habits. But in...