Anti-Austerity Protest and the Politics of Solidarity During the Economic and Refugee Crisis in Greece (2009 -2016)

In this paper we will present the preliminary findings of an ongoing research focusing on the refugee crisis in Greece (2015-2019), the solidarity politics, and xenophobic counter mobilizations occurred between 2015-2016. Laying on protest event analysis and variations of collective action during the years of acute economic, social and political crisis we will argue that anti-austerity campaign in Greece reached its peak at the momentum of Aganaktismeni (Indignados) mobilizations and «Occupy Squares» events in 2011. As our data reveal, in the aftermath of Aganaktismeni declining protest, anti-memorandum mobilizations, although at high frequency, gradually saw their dynamics fading away i.e., their capacity to produce eventful protest events, thus signaling the transposition of popular expectations into the realm of institutional politics. Aspiring to contribute to the ongoing literature on shifting collective action our emphasis will be put on what has been considered as the anti-austerity protest cycle’s most salient outcome: the emergence of «solidarity» collective action frames and the related forms of everyday resistance and «direct social action». For that purpose, we will focus on the solidarity initiatives flourished in 2015, with the outburst of the so- called «refugee crisis». By adopting a relational approach highlighting the interplay between waves of contention, the fluctuating institutional environment, and broader societal processes, we will demonstrate the politicization potential of anti-austerity and pro-refugee solidarity collective action, as well as its antipodal depoliticization dynamics. We argue that the latter was the result of different and interconnected process: (a) the relative ineffectiveness and routinization of contentious repertoires identified with anti-austerity protest, (b) the unexpected electoral success of SYRIZA in the double elections of 2012, (c) the selective co-optation of solidarity structures and frames by institutionalized actors- such as SYRIZA and many NGO’s, and (d) the discursive subordination of solidarity frames and activities to the «realm of necessity» as prescribed by the rationality of continuing austerity politics.