‘This is a cage for migrants’ Delivered by Ingenta IP : 94.67.166.95 On: Thu, 17 Oct 2019 07:25:18 Copyright The Policy Press Movements in and after 2008 As described above, there has been a movement in Greece focused on rights and anti-racism since the late 1990s. This movement operates through the mobilisation of typical and atypical networks. Nevertheless, since 2008 there has been a shift in the ways people mobilise, an evolution that draws its references from the post-2008 riots era and also from the ‘indignant’ movement of Athens’ Syntagma Square in 2011 (see Giovanopoulos and Mitropoulos, 2011). In addition, the basis for mobilisations has also evolved as a result of the economic crisis and the imposition of the so-called ‘troika’ era12 in May 2010. In terms of the evolution of the types of mobilisation, one may observe the emergence of more grassroots groups, identified in many cases by their locality and their attachment to a certain neighbourhood, such as resident assemblies (eg, the assemblies of Alsos Pagratiou, Voukoupou (ie, Vyronas, Kaisariani, Pagrati, and Petralona, all in Athens, or Agia Sofia in Patras). As regards the types of mobilisations, there have been more actions with a general humanitarian character and more groups have emerged to engage in anti-fascism. For the purposes of our analysis, we will only refer here to those initiatives that have played a key role and which manifest primarily an anti-fascist character. However, this does not mean that they are the only ones to have been mobilised for that purpose. One initiative, called Never Again (Pote xana: http://potexana.wordpress.com/), began as a gathering of political groups, associations, organisations and others in order to find a response to racist attacks. Other initiatives that run campaigns and support advocacy are the Movement against Racism and the Fascist Threat (Kinisi enomenoi enantia sto ratsismo kai ti fasistiki apeili: www.antiracismfascism.org/) and the Deport Racism Movement (Kinisi apelaste to ratsismo: www.kar.org.gr/). Furthermore, Open City (Anoixti poli: http://old.anoihtipoli.gr/) – the Athens municipal platform of the left-wing Syriza party – has been active in the movement in the Agios Panteleimonas district. At the same time, longstanding initiatives from the autonomous milieu, (anarchist-antiauthoritarian groups) such as the Villa Amalia (http://villa-amalias. blogspot.gr/) and Skaramaga (http://en.squat.net/tag/skaramanga/) squats, have played a significant role in the anti-fascist movement. Finally, the local assemblies described above have played an active role. The main activities that these initiatives are engaged in are: • • • • • demonstrations; awareness-raising campaigns with local residents on the issues of racism, intolerance and xenophobia; small festivals; solidarity activities; actions focused on schools and advocacy. Another important event at a national level, but which managed to attract attention around Europe, was the mass hunger strike in early 2011 of 300 undocumented migrants in Athens and Thessaloniki, lasting 44 days, who demanded the ‘legalisation’ of all undocumented migrants in Greece (see Mantanika and Kouki 2011). While this event was not directly related to anti-racist/anti-fascist issues, it nevertheless constituted quite an extraordinary initiative at both a national and European level 195