The difficult challenge of âremaking our worldâ (Loftus, 2012, p. ix). ⢠The question of dispossession in Greece: Why here? Why now? How? ⢠Socio-ecological ...
Tales of Dispossession and socio-environmental struggles in times of crisis: Lessons from Greece
Giorgos Velegrakis PhD researcher, Geography Department, HUA, Greece, member of European Network of Political Ecology – ENTITLE* Thanos Andritsos PhD researcher, Geography Department, HUA, Greece, Ioannis Margaris Post-Doc Researcher, School of Electrical & Computer Engineering, National Technical University Athens (NTUA), Greece *Research for this presentation benefited from EC funding under the Marie Curie Actions – Initial Training Networks - FP7 – PEOPLE - 2011; contract Nº 289374 - ENTITLE http://politicalecology.eu/
This presentation • The difficult challenge of “remaking our world” (Loftus, 2012, p. ix) • The question of dispossession in Greece: Why here? Why now? How? • Socio-ecological movements in times of crisis: The production of new, “antagonistic” spaces and environments • Two pivotal case-studies • Conclusions and open questions – On political (transformative) grounds – On epistimological and ontological grounds
• THIS BOOK IS ABOUT REMAKING OUR WORLD. (…) Indeed the desire for the world to be radically different is, I would argue, a commonplace one: nearly always more a stifled anger than a revolutionary cry, the challenge, surely, is to understand the movement of this anger, to learn from it, to built on it, and transcend it in both humble and democratic ways. (Loftus, 2012, p. ix) • If remaking the world really is a commonplace desire, the task ahead is also one that requires working with day-to-day reality as it is. (…) Reality is woven out of numerous entanglements of so-called social and natural relations. (p. ix) • Crucially, this book will argue, both a philosophy of praxis and its allied critique of everyday life mean connecting with an understanding of the production of environments. (p. xiv)
• The (renewed) cruciality of socio-ecological movements • Confronting collectively the multiple alienations that capital produces • Political praxis questioning the current power relations
Why focusing on Greece at the moment? • the impact of the memorandum on Greek labor relations is unprecedented in Greek and European political history. The creation of “spaces of dispossession” brings up (again) the issue of uneven development within Europe • from the protests of the Greek December 2008 to Syntagmasquare occupation, general strikes and everyday struggles, contentious movements are developing in very creative ways and seem to determine the political outcomes. • the political context is unstable and extremely dynamic, if only to consider the enormous growth of SYRIZA (the Coalition of the Radical Left) and the parallel right-wing extremism; • Understanding the importance of moments like this (Lucaks)
Dominant production of current environments • Fast-track development projects (new financial and legislative mechanisms) • Massive privatisations of public assets • According to European Commission Greece experiences some “delayed mobility” of land values. -> Devalorisation/depreciation of the exchange value of land • Exploitation of natural resources ->Oil extraction project proposals
New energy projects approved by the Greek Regulatory Authority for Energy.
Production of alternative, “antagonistic” spaces and environments Student Movement, 2006-2007
December Riots, 2008
People’s Assembly, Syntagma Square , Summer2011
People outside the building of the national broadcaster , June 2013
Waste conflict in Keratea: “The social movement is a means of expression” • A “development project” with the use of new legislative mechanisms • The first socio-ecological movement in the memorandum period (December 2010) • The state’s immediate reaction -> police brutality and oppression • A model of movement in times of crisis: coherence, “legal and illegal” means, alterdevelopment discourse • A social movement that won and determined political outcomes.
Halkidiki’s anti-gold movement: “The necessity of radical socio-ecological transformation” • The most intensive and resilient social movement in times of crisis – following the methods and the content of the “Syntagma square movement” • Villagers accused of being terrorists – From “decent women” to “rebels” • Production of a new democratic space? • Attempt for a production of radical different environments at different scales.
• The (renewed) cruciality of socio-ecological movements – Do they just oppose the dominant politics? Are they reduced to “a passive mass of alienated, discouraged, and therefore more easily ignored and manipulable populations” (Harvey, 2014)? or – Do they produce alternative and democratic spaces and environments “antagonistic” to the (also produced) dominant ones? How? What are the limits?
• Confronting collectively the multiple alienations that capital produces – Alienated beings vent their anger and hostility towards those identified as the enemy, sometimes without any clear definitive or rational reason. – Or they may plot and plan, construct political organizations and movements aiming to recuperate or redeem that which has been lost. (Harvey, 2014)
• Political praxis questioning the current power relations – How are the socio-ecological movements contribute to overall antisystemic politcal projects and alternatives? Connections with other participatory actions/movements, classical politics and (anticapitalistic) parties ?
