Solidarity after Compromise: The Ethics of Giving in Times of Protracted Austerity

The protracted nature of austerity in Greece encourages left-inclined citizens—involved in solidarity initiatives—to debate humanitarianism, focusing on ‘compromise’ and ‘dependency’, two concepts that structure the ideological articulation of the ethics of giving. In local narratives, ethical dilemmas about humanitarian solidarity are compared metaphorically with the nation’s compromise to austerity and dependency on foreign financial aid. In this respect, compromise at the national level is re-employed as a local metaphor that critically engages with humanitarian aid, and vice versa: local conversation about solidarity and the ethics of giving provide a metaphor to think about the wider implications of compromise during times protracted austerity. Shall we resist neoliberalism at any cost? Or survive austerity to fight another day? The continuation of austerity—and its protracted nature—also invite a consideration of temporality, and in particular, ‘temporariness’ as an experience that structures—and in some narratives, justifies—both dependency and compromise at the local and national level. The prolongation of temporariness, overstretches dependency—that of impoverished beneficiaries, or the nation state—and challenges people’s faith in ‘aid’. Such tensions, invite a reconsideration of the politics of solidarity. The article contributes to timely anthropological discussions about (a) solidarity and the ethics of giving, and (b) temporality, temporariness and crisis. At the same time, it provides valuable information regarding how social actors debate compromise and dependency at the local level, and in particular dilemmas regarding the continuation of austerity in Greece. Finally, the article provides an experimental exercise in reflexive Marxist anthropology. It makes visible the contradictions inherent in ethnographic representation—but also within Marxist-inspired ideological approaches—by splitting the author’s voice in two: a hard, idealist and a soft, realist Marxist interpreter. The two voices of the author match two ideological directions regarding humanitarian solidarity and the ethics of giving.