Organizing in the Era of the Far-Right Ascent; The Spanish and Greek Left after 2015

Externally imposed austerity and its adoption by mainstream parties from across the political spectrum in Greece and Spain in the 2000s and early 2010s triggered several waves of social mobilization, focusing on a range of issues including socio-economic grievances as well as identity and national sovereignty. Capitalizing on mass mobilizations and widespread discontent with traditional mainstream parties, left-wing outsiders Podemos and SYRIZA gradually gained support. Following their rapid ascent, these parties witnessed dwindling influence as they moderated their discourse and experienced internal disputes and splits. Popular disappointment with the parties’ performance and a de-legitimisation of leftist projects more broadly led to mass withdrawal from active popular participation as a ‘left-wing melancholia’ took hold. In the wake of such processes, space has opened for various conservative projects to increase their influence and present themselves as offering the only realistic responses to long-standing socio-economic grievances and sentiments of declining national sovereignty following the era of neo-liberal globalization. Indeed, far-right parties have gained access to parliaments in both countries espousing an anti-immigration and nationalist rhetoric that is often normalized by the mainstream parties and media. Drawing from qualitative interviews with key figures in the Greek and Spanish left -including academics, activists, trade unionists and organizers- this research identifies the strategies utilized both by institutional (parties and unions) and non-institutional (social movements, local activists and organizations) forces to counter this reactionary wave; the social bases they are targeting; and, more pertinently, the principal challenges they face. Initial findings suggest four interlinked phenomena are stifling their collective efforts to re-build and confront the reactionary wave: a) lack of co-ordination between those actors, b) decline of active membership and/or participation, c) rising violence against sympathisers and d) weakness to construct a concrete narrative for the current situation.