Greece: Eurocrisis and Popular Resistance

This colloquium kicks off CSTCH’s annual series for 2012, “Crisis, Revolution, Reaction,” on the series of rebellions that have shaken the world during the past year. The session takes as its point of departure the financial cum political crisis that has gripped the eurozone, and focuses in on the maturation of the Greek financial meltdown. It considers, against that background, the development of political conflict in Greece, and especially the rise of a dynamic mass popular movement of resistance. Among the questions to be considered: What has been the cost to the Greek citizenry, in terms of living standards, of the nation’s continuing adherence to the euro?  Should Greece leave the euro, and will it do so?  What is the nature and significance of the new forms of direct democracy that have emerged in the course of the struggle against austerity?  What is the likely future of the Papademos government, brought to power at the end of October 2011 by way of the extraordinary coup d’etat led by Germany and France?

 

Stathis Kouvelakis is author of Philosophy and Revolution: From Kant to Marx (2003).

 

Stergios Skaperdas is the co-author of The Political Economy of Conflict and Appropriation (2008). He is also a co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of the Economics of Peace and Conflict (2012).