Autonomism - The Greek Anarcho-autonomoi

The Greek Anarcho-autonomoi

In Greece, the anarcho-autonomoi (Greek αναρχο-αυτόνομοι: "anarchist-autonomists") emerged as an important trend in the youth and student movement, first during the 1973 Athens Polytechnic uprising against the military dictatorship that ruled the country at the time. After the collapse of the dictatorship in 1974, the "anarcho-autonomoi" became considerably influential, firstly as a social trend within the youth and then as a (very loose and diverse) political trend. The definition "anarcho-autonomoi", itself, is much debated. One reason for this is that it was originally coined by opponents. However, it was also quite quickly adopted by many adherents, used as a generic term.

Before 1973, in Greece, there was very little tradition in anarchism or libertarian socialism in general. An exception to this was Agis Stinas, an early comrade of Cornelius Castoriadis. Castoriadis belonged to Stinas's small Council Communist group (before he emigrated to France) and was influenced by it; later these roles were turned around. The small groups that existed were almost (physically) eliminated by the Nazis, the local establishment, and the Stalinist communist party during the Nazi occupation and the Greek Civil War that followed, with Castoriadis and Stinas, themselves, being two of the few survivors.

Thus, the radical Greek youth in the 1970s, having very little relative background to refer to, resided to an extensive "syncretism" of multiple trends originating in the respective movements in other European countries. Anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist trends converged with situationist, workerist, or other autonomist trends and even with radical (non-autonomist) Marxist trends. The "anarcho-autonomoi" made a very strong stand during the 1978–80 student movement, coming into violent confrontation with the police and the (also, of considerable influence) Stalinist communist youth (K.N.E). Such stands were repeated whenever the student, worker, and youth movements were rising (in 1987, 1990–91, 1998–99, and 2006–7). However, their intensity has been falling since 1990–91.

Parallel to such participation in social movements, a large number of social centres (many of them squatted) exist to this day around Greece, and many of them participate in social struggles on a local level. These social centres, whether they now identify as "Autonomist" or not (most use more generic terms such as "anti-authoritarian", while some identify as "anarchist" ), function in the ways that historically emerged through "Autonomia". There is also a multitude of small political groups which identify as "Autonomist", ranging from workerist to post-modernist. Most of them are still connected to the respective groups that identify as "Anarchist".