Crisis and concomitant forms of collective action :a critique of the Greek indignant movement

Abstract

What can the Greek indignant movement tell us about the forces that shape political subjectivity and forms of collective struggle that can subvert and resist capitalist power relations? In this thesis I argue that Greek indignants’ desire for autonomy and a more “ethical” politics contributed to the decline of the movement, perpetuating the global politics of austerity and a liberal understanding of politics after the crisis that feeds inequalities produced within capitalism. I seek to unravel the forces that contributed to the decline of the Greek indignant movement and the social, political and economic mechanisms that contributed to the production of political subjectivities within the movement. My examination demonstrates that there is a tension between how participants maintain the diversity of the movement and how they build the movement as one with collective political goals; between a desire for autonomy and a desire for a cohesive and effective political programme that has been devised in a collective way. I navigate this tension by examining the production of contemporary forms of political subjectivities in these times of crisis. I engage in a critique of Laclau and Mouffe and Hardt and Negri’s theories on the mechanisms for the production of a collective political subjectivity. I critique their concepts of the “people” and the “multitude” and their assessment of the mechanisms for the production of a collective political subjectivity, bringing this critical analysis within my examination of the Greek indignant movement. I argue that emotion, ideology, culture and the economy bear upon the production of political subjectivities within the movement in important and significant ways. My critique of this theoretical debate provides a rigorous starting point from which to unravel the mechanisms of the production of political subjectivity. I continue with a close examination of the political processes that contributed to the rise and decline of the Greek indignant movement. I demonstrate how emotion and affect are key in the emergence of forms of resistance. In these forms of resistance emotion and affect are bound together with the embodiment of hegemonic ideologies that shape the actions of the Greek indignants contributing to the decline of the movement. I conclude by demonstrating that the Greek indignant movement, in spite of its failures, can still offer the basis for the beginning under which anti-capitalist politics can flourish and serve as an example for the forces that can contribute to building an emancipatory collective political subjectivity.