Category Media Commentary

AnalyzeGreece! is a brand new project, aiming to deliver top-quality analysis of the situation in Greece, for English-speaking audience. I am one of the (more than 70!) contributors. Here’s some of the articles I’ve contributed:

What would a Syriza victory mean for the movements?

StripGreece series: An analysis of the 2015 election’s visual propaganda (all articles co-authored with Myrssini Antoniou)

StripGreece 1: Shooting dice

StripGreece 2: The video director of ND has been fired!

StripGreece 3: The graphic designer is on leave. Permanently.

StripGreece 5: 2015 Campaign slogans and images

StripGreece 6: A department store poster

This post will be updated when new contributions are published.

You may find AnalyzeGreece! on Facebook and Twitter.

The piece that follows, commenting on the 2014 euro-election results, is an extended version of an article published in the “Il Manifesto” newspaper (30/05/2014) and the website of Sbilanciamoci (LINK).

Le elezioni europarlamentari in Grecia: un messagio di paura e di speranza

Markos Vogiatzoglou – Ricercatore, European University Institute

È innegabile che ogni persona di sinistra si sia rallegrata per la vittoria di Syriza—con un margine di più del 4%—alle elezioni europarlamentari greche di domenica scorsa. Tuttavia, al di là di quest’ovvia constatazione, ad un’osservazione più attenta il risultato di domenica mostra l’emergere di tendenze sociopolitiche meno evidenti.

In primo luogo, è necessario sottolineare l’aumento significativo dell’affluenza elettorale: si son...

The following article was published on 19/01/2014 in the political analysis Sunday supplement of the Greek newspaper “Avgi”.

Here’s the LINK.

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Φλωρεντία, 14.1.2014. Όταν μετακόμισα στην Ιταλία, το 2011, είχα την αίσθηση πως εγκαταστάθηκα στην πλέον σκοτεινή γωνιά μιας Μεσογείου που φλεγόταν. Απ’ όπου κι αν το ’πιανε κανείς, η σύγκριση ήταν απογοητευτική: Στην Πορτογαλία κάθε μήνα πορεύονταν μισό εκατομμύριο άνθρωποι ενάντια στα μέτρα λιτότητας...

This brief article is a (non-peer-reviewed) contribution to a collective publication in Interface (vol.5, issue 2) entitled: Social movements and the European crisis: activist and researcher reflections. 

You may download the article from here.

The following article was published in the Italian review Senza Censura, July 2012

CLASS STRUGGLE WITHOUT CLASSES? 

Two (and a half) years of defeats for the Greek Movement.

The question we are examining in this article is the Greek movements’ perspectives after more than two years of bitter defeats and disastrous austerity. Although it is difficult, even for us Greeks, to examine and analyze in depth this issue – moving beyond the impressive TV images showing buildings in flames and hundreds of thousands of people filling the streets of Athens – conducting this analysis is absolutely necessary, for two reasons:

a)      First of all, in order to understand the reasons for which the movements opposing austerity in Greece have, until now, failed...

The following article was published in Chronos Magazine, June 2013.

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Το δώρο γενεθλίων του Ντέηβιντ Χόππερ – μια περιπλάνηση στα χρόνια του θατσερισμού. 

Έχει ενδιαφέρον να εξερευνήσει κανείς το πώς απλές, φαινομενικά, ειδήσεις φέρουν βαρύτατο συμβολικό φορτίο. Ο θάνατος μιας γηραιάς πρώην πρωθυπουργού, σκουριασμένης, ασθενούς και αποσυρμένης από το δημόσιο βίο εδώ και χρόνια, προκάλεσε όχι μόνο ζωηρή συζήτηση σε παγκόσμιο επίπεδο, αλλά και πυρετώδη αρθρογραφία. Δημοσιογράφοι, opinion makers, κοινωνικοί επιστήμονες και κάθε λογής σχολιαστές, από τον πολύ Σλαβόι Ζίζεκ μέχρι την ταπεινότητά μου, όλοι θεωρήσαμε καθήκον μας να γράψουμε δυο γραμμές για τη θανούσα και την πολιτική της...

http://www.dinamopress.it/news/la-tatcher-a-atene

In tutta la Grecia proseguono gli scioperi generali contro il governo. Mentre i “neo-thatcheriani” vogliono limitare il diritto di sciopero e “riformare” i sindacati.

Lo sciopero di mercoledì 20 febbraio si svolge, oltre a tutto il resto, sotto l’ombra dei progetti del governo di limitazione del diritto di sciopero e della “riforma” dei sindacati. Il governo propone un modello oltraggioso di deregolamentazione del movimento operaio. In questo suo tentativo si basa, a mio avviso, su tre fatti.

In primo luogo, sulla percezione, ben assorbita da una parte importante della società, che le leadership delle organizzazioni dei lavoratori sono “incapaci”, “svendute” ma anche composte da “bari professionisti”...

Here’s an interview I gave to the radio show of Amisnet, Rome, Italy, on the Greek trade unions and the problems they are facing due to the crisis.

Read More

Here’s the links to the video coverage of the event “#Trade Unionism 2013 in Greece”, co-organized by Red Notebook and Enthemata Avgis, in which I had the pleasure to participate.

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The following article was published on the political analysis website Red Notebook – March 16th, 2013.

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Δεν φταίει (μόνο) ο Παναγόπουλος!

Την Πέμπτη ξεκινά το 35ο Συνέδριο της ΓΣΕΕ. Εκτός απ’ τις συνήθεις καταγγελίες για τα «μαγειρέματα», τα σωματεία-σφραγίδες, τους αντιπροσώπους-φαντάσματα και ούτω καθεξής, τούτη τη φορά οι διοργανωτές του συνεδρίου θα πρέπει να αντιμετωπίσουν την κριτική και σ’ ένα ζήτημα που μέχρι τώρα περνούσε απαρατήρητο: εξαιτίας του ιδιόρρυθμου συστήματος εκλογής εκπροσώπων, ορισμένοι απ’ τους συμμετέχοντες στο συνέδριο θα έχουν επιλεγεί 2, 3 ή και 4 χρόνια πριν τη διεξαγωγή του...