ABSTRACT
Trade unions and European integration have been, for long, silent in social movement studies. Research on trade unions has been even more marginal as the main assumption has been that the industrial conflicts had been institutionalised, and the working class co-opted. Neoliberalism, with the deregulation of the labour market and ensuing precarisation of workers’ condition, further challenged the role of labour in general and of trade unions in particular. With large participation of traditional actors, including trade unions, political parties and even police and military personnel organisations, protestors advocated the defence of labour and citizens’ rights. Social movement studies present optimistic and pessimistic views on both the capacity of social movements to mobilise at European Union level and the space for a “return of class conflict” in the neoliberal crisis. The well-established horizontal tradition that characterised the Greek social movement culture was reflected in the organisational structure as well as in the repertoire of action of the protest cycle.
