ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the roots of anti-austerity movements in Italy and Greece. The radical Left in post-war Greece and Italy, after the end of the anti-Nazi national liberation struggles, initially followed different paths due to clear differentiations in the construction of their political systems. In Italy, the major anti-Nazi armed movements were absorbed in the two major Left parties, the PCI and PSI, which opted for a parliamentary and institutionalised course to promote the democratisation of Italian society and safeguard the civil rights of the working classes. In Greece, the defeat of the communist forces in the civil war (1947–1949) and the constitution of a nationalist anti-communist state of emergency created negative political opportunities for collective action until the mid-1960s. This chapter describes the evolution of social movements in both countries, and explores the similarities but also the differences of the anti-austerity movements and protests in Greece and Italy in light of their historical backgrounds.
