In Athens, on 6 December 2008, a policeman shot 15-year-old Alexis Grigoropoulos in cold blood and killed him. After the killing, spontaneous protests began in the Greek capital and within days the insurrection had spread all over Greece. Radical actions took place even in the more remote and politically conservative areas. The Greek insurrection was not an isolated and temporary episode, nor an abstraction. This essay reflects on the revolt and endeavours to shed light on the context in which it broke out. It considers it as a result of the crisis of capital and neoliberal values and, at the same time, of our negation of capital and its state - the crisis of capital being produced by our struggles and refusal to identify ourselves with neoliberal norms and values. Considered dialectically, the crisis intensifies our struggles and reproduces the crisis of identification with capitalist bearings. Copyright (c) 2010 The Author. Journal Compilation (c) 2010 Joint Editors and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Without consideration, without pity, without shame They have built big and high walls around me. And now I sit here despairing. I think of nothing else: this fate gnaws at my mind; For I had many things to do outside. Ah why didn't I observe them when they were building the walls? But I never heard the noise or the sound of the builders. Imperceptibly they shut me out of the world.C. P. Cavafy, 'Walls' (1976: 17)

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This paper reflects on the Greek revolt of December 2008 and reexamines the dispute between Marxism and anarchism in and through the social unrest. It argues that their polemic and intolerance should not be perceived as established and unchanging. Throughout the uprising, both Marxists and anarchists created a space of openness, united action and active solidarity overcoming their sectarianism and closure. The study considers that the two opposing currents could learn valuable lessons and draw significant conclusions from the radical practice of the insurgents concerning the critical organizational issue and the means-end relationship. It argues, also, that the revolted questioned the existing Marxist and anarchist presuppositions as regards the issues of state and time. The paper maintains that the continuation of the Marxist-anarchist conflict perpetuates the crisis of the international radical movement. It concludes that both Marxism and anarchism could play a constructive role in order to form a new radical alternative and return to the practical and theoretical broadmindedness of the First International.

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