Citation

Memos C. Int. J. Urban Reg. Res. 2010; 34(1): 210-216.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1468-2427.2010.00950.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In Athens, on 6 December 2008, a policeman shot 15‐year‐old Alexis Grigoropoulos in cold blood and killed him. After the killing, spontaneous protests began in the Greek capital and within days the insurrection had spread all over Greece. Radical actions took place even in the more remote and politically conservative areas. The Greek insurrection was not an isolated and temporary episode, nor an abstraction. This essay reflects on the revolt and endeavours to shed light on the context in which it broke out. It considers it as a result of the crisis of capital and neoliberal values and, at the same time, of our negation of capital and its state — the crisis of capital being produced by our struggles and refusal to identify ourselves with neoliberal norms and values. Considered dialectically, the crisis intensifies our struggles and reproduces the crisis of identification with capitalist bearings.