[Militant No. 185, 14th December 1973, p. 3 and 6]
By Lynn Walsh (Ardwick Labour Party)
With the latest coup, carried through with the much-practiced brutal efficiency of the Greek military, the political wheel has turned full circle. Many bones hove been broken in the process, but the country has not been token forward on inch.
The emblem of the 1967 colonels‘ coup was the phoenix, which was supposed to symbolise a renaissance for the Greek people. The colonels boasted that military discipline would solve all the problems of society and secure a progress which eluded the politicians. It is clear, however, that this phoenix, far from flying to paradise as in the classical legend, has ended up in perdition.
Military discipline meant inflicting the sadistic methods employed by sergeant-majors in the barracks on society at large. It is hardly accidental that Papadopoulos and his crew began their careers as NCQs. Systematic repression, overcrowded jails, concentration camps, the legitimisation of torture, aimed particularly at trade unionists, socialists and dissident youth, have been the colonels‘ methods.
Censorship
The junta’s “revival of Greek culture” meant in practice censorship of, among other things, the classical plays of Aeschylus and Euripides because of their democratic sentiments, suppression or censorship of the press and books, and the production of more lies than most governments manage to manufacture in several decades. They vainly thought that these things would secure acceptance of their policies.
Similarly the colonels imagined that the regimentation of the schools and the imposition of obscurantist curricula would produce a compliant and docile youth. The recent movement of the students has given them the answer to this.
On the economic front, the results of the junta’s policies are also diametrically opposed to the lofty aims they originally proclaimed.
For from strengthening the economy and making it more independent, they have ruthlessly sacrificed workers‘ and peasants‘ living standards to the profits of the big monopolies, at the same time enormously increasing the economy’s dependence on a handful of big US monopolies.
What was the outcome of this dictatorship? Six years after seizing power, Papadopoulos attempted to restore “democracy” or rather “guided democracy”, where discredited, corrupt and mediocre politicians provide a cover for behind-the-scenes dictatorship.
This was to be a Bonapartist dictatorship where the police and army and foreign affairs were to remain in the hands of the President; he was to appoint the members of the government – ie real control would not be vested in the “Parliament” or even the “Cabinet”. Thus the “Parliament” would be a cover for Papadopoulos‘ dictatorship.
Six years of iron dictatorship, however, inevitably bottled up enormous opposition. This was expressed in the bold opposition of the students, who had the sympathy of large sections of the middle class and the workers.
Jackboot Dictator
Hence paradoxically the dictatorship which began with a virtually bloodless coup came to an end with bloody “democratisation”. It seems possible that Papadopoulos even had a hand in provoking student demonstrations to provide an excuse for holding the promised elections under conditions of martial law in case any undesirable candidates should slip through.
It is clear that apart from a few lackeys and sycophants few people had anything but contempt for this jackbooted dictator turned democrat. Far from being placated by his reforms, the students and young workers demonstrated all the more resolutely for an end to the regime.
On the other hand, the hard-line right wing army leaders were alarmed at developments. They feared that the opposition would gain mass support and sweep away the regime. The coup headed by Gizikis was clearly a right-wing move, although they have invited a number of former right-wing politicians into the government to try to give it respectability.
But Brigadier Ioannides, widely believed to be the power behind the coup, is justly held to be one of the most hated men in Greece because of his role as head of the military police. Many of the top generals were clearly very dissatisfied at being excluded from the Papadopoulos government, particularly the privileges and perks. But their attempt to resurrect the national revolutionary phoenix is doomed to failure.
Papadopoulos‘ dictatorship was completely isolated and Gizikis‘ dictatorship will be no less isolated. Although Papadopoulos‘ regime used many of· the barbarous police methods of Hitler, Mussolini and Franco, unlike those Fascist regimes it did not come to power on the basis of mass support from the crazed middle layers of society. It was based almost entirely on the army,the police, the state bureaucracy and its network of paid spies.
Papadopoulos was able to form a military police state in 1967 only because of the rottenness of the ruling class and the weakness of the working class, particularly its lack of a party prepared to lead it in a struggle to overthrow the system. The position of the handful of capitalist families who dominated the economy together with the Royal Family and top leadership of the army was so shaky that even the election in 1964 of the Centre Union, a liberal capitalist party with a programme of democratic reforms and the modernisation of the economy, posed a threat to their position.
Every means was used first to kick out the Papandreou government and then to prevent its re-election. The attempt to prevent an investigation of the murder of the left-wing deputy, Lambrakis, by the police and then the attempt to frame up liberal and left-wing politicians by means of the so-called Aspida plot in the army, revealed the extent of corruption and byzantine intrigue within the state apparatus.
The manoeuvres of the king and the army tops provoked a series of general strikes and massive demonstrations of the workers and youth. Had there been a party prepared to mobilise the workers and poor peasants against the rotten system and fight for workers‘ democracy, all the conditions for success were there.
However the Centre Union retreated and the EDA (United Democratic Left), the Communist Party organisation which was rapidly growing in strength, confined itself to the defence of “democracy”. Given the mass radicalisation, however, the right wing of the ruling class was not prepared to tolerate democracy.
The king and the generals planned a coup to pre-empt the 1967 general election. The colonels, however, led by Papadopoulos, prepared a coup to pre-empt the king and the generals.
Sections of the capitalist class and middle class who welcomed the coup because of their fear of the mass movement of the workers, soon became disillusioned with the dictatorship. Only the big monopolies, the big banks and a handful of construction companies, all tied to US corporations were happy with the junta. Papadopoulos completely failed to consolidate support amongst the peasantry. The illegalisation or fettering of the trade unions, together with a sharp cut in the share of national income taken by the workers guaranteed the hostility of the workers to the regime.
The middle class became bitterly hostile to the narrow policies of the junta. The massive increase of workers and peasants emigrating to Western Europe, which went up to 90,000 a year,was a demonstration of no confidence in the regime.
It was these internal pressures, together with pressure from other European governments who fear an upheaval in Greece, and the repercussions it would have in the rest of Europe, that forced Papadopoulos to try to democratise his regime. Now the pressures will be even greater, particularly since West Germany has stopped immigration. This is a stopping up of the safety valve for the Greek economy.
The magnificent movement of the students was only a harbinger of struggles that must bring the working class to the forefront. It is significant that many young workers were involved in the recent clashes with the army and police. But it would be a tragic delusion, to think that it is simply a question of a fight to restore democracy.
The post-war history of Greece demonstrates that Greek capitalism is incapable of a democratic development. This is even more true in a period of sharpened world crisis. The struggle must be conducted as a struggle to overthrow the capitalist system which breeds the conditions for dictatorship and establish a planned economy, working in the interests of the workers‘ and peasants.
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