New youth and student
GREECE having gotten permission from the Committee on University Inviolability, in which there was a representative of the PASK [Panellenia Syndikalistike Parataxis - Pan-Hellenic Union Fraction, the PASOK student-union fraction], one TH Tsamourkelis (!), invaded the Chemistry Faculty. Using tear gas and trampling under foot the fundamental of university concept inviolability, they arrested 18 anarch-
THE UPSURGE of protests against draconian austerity measures was one of the most dramatic developments in Europe toward the end of 1985. It was described in an interview with a Greek Fourth Internationalist leader in the last issue of IV.
The following two articles from the December issue of Ergatike
Pale, the paper of the Greek section of the Fourth International, give more facts about the student and youth mobilizations that took place alongside the massive workers actions.
It is interesting to note that many of the same features and problems were present as in the Italian high-school student mobilizations that took place about the same time.
The tradition of the 1973 Polytechnic uprising is extremely important, not just for the student youth but more generally because it was the only uprising against the junta, and so in a sense is seen as having saved the honor of the Greek people.
On Sunday, November 17, a march was planned at the Polytechnic. This year it came in a period of sharp confrontation between the government and the workers. Tempers were very high, and the political climate
The PASOK government's severe economic austerity measures were still very recent, and the struggles of the workers were at their peak. Among other things, no more than three days had gone by since the giant national strike mobilization of November 14.
The two CPs (1) had made a considerable effort to put a damper on feelings of hostility to the government in the commemoration of the Polytechnic uprising. The crowning touch was their student trade-union groups voting for a common resolution with the PASOK trade-union fraction in the university, which avoided saying anything about the economic meas-
Nonetheless, it was clear that the
Polytechnic march was going to have the character of opposition to the government's economic policy.
The government responded to the resistance of the working people by resorting both to ideological repression (lies, intimidating statements, and physical repression demagogy)
(sending the MAT [militarized police] offices of the CP-Interior into the union fraction, etc.)
International Viewpoint 27 January 1986 the Papandreou government's government's decision respond forcibly became clear also during the Polytechnic march, with the appearance of many platoons of the MAT, who followed the march in what can most as a provocative
The march was almost peaceful, except for the breaking of some windows in the Hilton hotel by anarchist groups. However, this seems not to have satisfied the police and the MAT, who did not want to confine themselves to intimidating people by their presence.
Thus, provocations began in Exarcheion Square, and when the anarchists in the square responded by
Molotov cocktails, of the MAT "lost his head" and murdered a 15-year-old youth, striking him from behind.
murder had the result of dramatizing a series of events that at a real cinematographic carefully in order to draw the necessary conclusions. this article, however, we will only describe the
On the same evening, a group of anarchists occupied the Chemistry Faculty to press the immediate demand for the punishment of the murderer. On the morning of Monday, November 18, special units of police,
As soon as the murder of the 15youth became known, the government tried to appear hearted." In the person of its chief,
Alexander Papandreou, it started shedding crocodile tears that the killer would be punished.
Parallel to this, the MAT and the MEA [Monades Ethnikes Asphaleias -
Units, a special police force similiar to the flooded the center orgy of terror that they had unleashed the previous evening.
All the parties without exception condemned the murder, but none of seemed inclined to make a responded immediately with a march on Monday afternoon. The anarchists participated in the march, and during it often broke off and trashed or set fire to shops. They came under attack from the MAT, which was waiting impatiently for an order to The occupation of the Polytechnic
In the meantime, the slogan for the Polytechnic was launched, and was finally followed. Along with the anarchists, quite a few far-left organizations took part. Other far-left organizations, however, disagreed with the action and left after the march. They included the OKDE [ Organosi Kommounistike Diethnistike tes Elladas - International Communist. Organization, the Greek section of the Fourth International], the OSE [Organosi Socialistike Espanastasi - Socialist Revolution Organization, sympathi-
British state group, the SWP], and the KKE (ML)
The Communist Party split dur ing the period of the dictatorship of the colonels. One section, which had the majo rity within the underground organization at the time, became known as the CP-Interior. The other section, with a majority in exile leadership and sup ported by Moscow, became known as the CP-Exterior. After the fall of the junta, the CP-Exterior far outdistanced its Eurocommunist rival, the CP-Interior, but the "Interior" retains certain tradition in the student movement. In particular, it took a more sympathetic attitude to the Poly technic uprising in November 1973 than the "Exterior." - IV.
9
----- pull-quotes on this page -----
radicalisation The case of the polytechnic occupation
[Communist Party of Greece, Marxist
The principal occupation were for punishment of the killer, dissolution of the MAT and the MEA, and the disarming of the police. Sometimes also slogans were raised against the PASOK government and its antilabor measures.
In the courtyard of the Polytechnic on Monday evening, at least 5,000 opposition to the terror that had been unleashed by the MAT and the MEA and had culminated in the murder of
In the meantime, the EFEE [Eniaia Phoitike Enosis tes Ellados - United Student Union of Greece] decided mark of the Polytechnic occupation will be the damage caused both the anarchists and by the fascistic attacked the occupiers under the protection of the MAT.
The murdering policeman was let
"sensitivity"
the government's
At the same time, of the anarchists arrested in the Chemwere jailed, facing grave with this, the
Exterior launched a crude provocation, which in accomplished nothing but gave the events for its own profit.
should be