Challenging the age of austerity: Disruptive agency after the global economic crisis

Abstract

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Contesting Actually Existing Austerity

“…Throughout the post-2008 period austerity has been critiqued on multiple grounds, including that it is not achieving its stated aims (Guajardo et al 2014); that it is a fundamentally flawed idea that will necessarily worsen the problems that it is supposed to solve (Konzelmann 2014); that it is having devastating effects on public health (Karanikolos et al 2013, Legido-Quigley et al 2013; that it entrenches gender inequalities and disproportionately affects already disadvantaged groups of women (Griffin 2015, Montgomerie andTepe-Belfrage 2016); and even that it constitutes the end of democratic capitalism because capitalism no longer provides enough for enough people to sustain it democratically (Schäfer and Streeck 2013, Streeck 2014. Political contestation of austerity has taken many forms in this period, including the 15M, or Indignados, protests in Spain in 2011 (Hughes 2011, Castañeda 2012; an increase in various forms of anti-austerity social movement activity across Europe (Della Porta 2015, Giugni and Grasso 2015, Bailey et al 2016Flesher Fominaya 2017, Hayes 2017; the rise of new anti-austerity parties in Greece and Spain (Kioupkiolis 2016, Ramiro andGomez 2016); and the relative success of the Labour Party on an anti-austerity platform in the 2017 UK General Election (Berry 2017).…”

Female labor activists in the German anarcho-syndicalist union (FAU) and the women's strike movement: Class mobilization against exploitation

“…According to Beverly Silver, we thus can observe a “ global upsurge of class‐based mobilization ”:

“ the labor movement is far from dead—if anything, the upsurge of labor unrest and class‐based mobilization since 2008 signals that the tide is turning ”. (Silver, )

After the rebellious Arab spring (post 2011), the #NuitDebout movement in France (2016), and the anti‐austerity protests in Europe (post‐2008) (Bailey, ; Bailey, Clua‐Losada, Huke, & Ribera‐Almandoz, ; Bailey, Clua‐Losada, Huke, Ribera‐Almandoz, & Rogers, ) the mobilization of female labor activists and feminist activists against women's exploitation is another sign for a renewal of class‐based mobilization. Additionally, the feminist approach toward labor struggles and the fight for justice and equality is another example for an intersectional approach toward resistance against capitalist exploitation (cf.…”

When Corporatism Fails: Trade Union Strategies and Grassroots Resistance to the Spanish Economic Crisis

“…Spain witnessed a widespread wave of popular dissatisfaction that manifested the profound crisis of legitimacy of the political and economic system, and confronted new attempts to secure class domination (Bailey et al ; Langman ). Social unrest quickly gained momentum, and class struggles shifted toward novel and more radical forms of resistance based on autonomous self‐organization, prefigurative practices, and direct action.…”

“…The class strategy developed by this housing movement combines demands for an improvement of the housing policies and legislation, the collective negotiation of debt cancelation with banks, and the use of autonomous, prefigurative politics (Bailey et al ; Flesher Fominaya ). The PAH's organization and activity embody prefigurative principles such as deliberation and consensus‐seeking practices, horizontality, and decentralization.…”