"the human rights are dead"

"What we can learn from the Greek riots"

Costas Douzinas 9 01 2009

In the Greek case, antagonism resulted from the tension between the structured social body with its political representatives and groups, causes and interests radically excluded from the political order. Huge numbers of people cannot formulate their demands in the language of politics. The protesters do not say, "I want this or that" but simply, "Here we are, we stand against". Not we claim this or that right, but we claim the "right to have rights". They seem to be saying that, "We, the nobodies, the schoolkids, the suffering students, the unemployed, the generation that must survive on a salary of 600 euros, are everything."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/09/greece-riots/print