Editorial.

May 1968 was defeated in a sense, with the people going back and living conventional lives, but at the same time it was a milestone of change of mind. It inspired new cultural and political imaginations and the creation of alternative cultures, anti-capitalist, anti-war, anti-colonial, and against conventional logic. And it was surrounded by student uprisings in the USA and by Prague 1968 and broader openings in many world areas, which boosted the effect of May 1968. ‘I would object to comparisons with Greece 43 years later, and we still do not know whether the Greek May of 2011 (celebrated in the picture) or 2012 (the pivotal election) is successful yet. But the banner really makes the point that the May of 2011 and all that followed, also inspires alternative cultures and imaginations against the hegemony of neoliberal neocolonialism, so it is anticapitalist too, against the new more exploitative face of capitalism and the democratic deficit that it creates. Though it is surrounded by insulting and racist remarks from abroad, it draws solidarity only from single intellectuals who see its pioneering intervention that might snowball and lead to a change of mind throughout Europe, against conventional logic which has the banks in power rather than parliamentary democracy. (Leontidou)1 Professor Lila Leontidou was discussing her photograph of a year ago which shows a banner posted by the Theatre du Soleil in Syntagma to, as she puts it, ‘celebrate solidarity between Athens and Paris.’ ‘Solidarity in Greek’, she continues, ‘is “allilegyi”, which means literally “close (egys) to each other (allilous)”. Indeed, the Left Party of Syriza on the rise in the 2012 May elections and now, has made allilegyi the basic discourse of their political campaign. To those who attack them (everybody does these days, media and politicians attack them harshly with the scare of the Greek drachma), these people say that they do have a chance if they draw “allilegyi” from abroad.’2 ‘Athens’, she concludes, ‘is as massive as Paris, and as young and inventive as that.’ Professor Leontidou was speaking before the June 17 election. Syriza has since significantly increased its vote but failed to win the election.3 But the movement against ‘conventional logic’ to which she refers, ‘against the hegemony of neoliberal neocolonialism, i.e. anti-capitalist too, against the new more exploitative face of capitalism and the democratic deficit that it creates’, seems set to continue.4 The ‘conventional logic which has the banks in power rather than parliamentary democracy’ has come to seem more fragile and unacceptable, even if the prospect of parliamentary democracy itself has also come to seem more fragile and questionable. This issue of CITY seeks to chart and analyse the struggle between this conventional and enshrined logic and an alternative logic emerging from the potentially transformative solidarities, within and across movements, nations, moments of time, across the face of, and towards a new future for, the planet. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]