Merry Crisis!
A Talk on the Greek Insurrection of 2008 with Ed Emery

Thursday, 10 December 2009
6:15pm - 8:00pm

Ian Gulland Lecture Theatre
Goldsmiths, University of London, Lewisham Way, New Cross, London, SE14 6NW

On 6 December last year a cop fatally shot Alexandros Grigoropoulos, a 15yr old anarchist, in Greece. In response, Greek youth hit the streets and the following weeks saw hundreds of school, town hall and TV studio occupations, mass demonstrations and widespread anti-state and anti-cop violence.

But the uprising was about more than police violence- it was a wider assault on the neo-liberal doctrines that all of us in the consumerist West live under. It was an assault on both the cosy consensus of parliamentary democracy and the insufferable piety of flag-waving lefties, both of whom claim to represent ‘the people’ but both of whom can visualise the future only in terms of their own power.

This talk will look not just at the events of last December, but also at the political heresies that drove the insurrection and the universality of a struggle against all power relations.

Ed Emery is a writer, musician and translator. He has written widely on Italian autonomism and Greece as well as translating texts by Toni Negri and Dario Fo, amongst others. He founded the Red Notes series of books and pamphlets ( http://libcom.org/tags/red-notes) and The Free University ( http://thefreeuniversity.net/)

Hosted by Goldsmiths Autonomy and Solidarity Society

All are welcome