Radical Youth

Radical Youth Synopsis

Marchers singing anticapitalist Soviet anthems and university theatres packed to watch Communist Germany black and white movies; Either History evaded Greece and the Berlin wall never fell or it is in the making in a Greece shaken by protests and rage against the political and economic elite. Radical leftist movements, all the spectrum covered, got about 30% of the votes in the November 2010 local elections.

These groups are renewed with hundreds of angry and frustrated youngsters for reasons that escape the understanding of the casual visitor. Teenagers, sometimes as young as 12, throw stones against the Parliament, brand hammers, and justify the use of Molotov cocktails as valid means of protest.

At a time when Greece has achieved its higher level of economic development, how does one explain this anger? Is this movement specific to Greece given its historical particularities or is it a signal of the rise of more active and aggressive leftist protest movements?