Acts of caring in the shadow of violence: Reconstruction of moral masculinities among Greek leftist volunteers

Recently Greece has been stuck in a state of economic and humanitarian crisis. Amid a volatile environment, some men among the Greek radical left negotiated forms of masculinity in which glorified memories of heroes, political performance on the streets, and solidarity of caring emerged. While they locally resisted European economic policies, and increasing xenophobia, they also reconstructed a moral masculinity in a hyper-masculine environment. This paper is based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out in Athens, Greece in 2012 and 2014-2015. The analysing is based on participation in general assemblies, demonstrations, spending time in hangouts and volunteering at refugee oriented sites. 36 informal and 15 in-depth interviews with radical left Greeks were conducted. In occupied refugee spaces, many Greek radical left men embedded the role of the caring and protecting with the Solidary with refugees’ grassroots movement, while they coped with their own vulnerability in a precarious environment. This was done through a shared every-day space with the refugees; through the discourse of respected autonomy and humanity; and emphasised class struggle. Thus, a hegemony of anti-capitalistic moral masculinity was emerged. However, with the practice of protective patrols thought more suitable for valiant men; discourse of the cowardice of members of the xenophobic Golden Dawn party; and calling for recognition of young heroic Greek leftist male suffering, certain traits of hyper-masculinity was nurtured. Thus, supporting gender segregation practices, as the cooking and cleaning was mainly done by the women and the migrant men. It is worth noting that most local women would uphold this segregated practice while some men and women resisted. We therefore argue that in the space ‘in-between’ hegemonic and hyper-masculinities, the morality is negotiated