Greece: 1 Million March Against Karamanlis

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One million people flooded the streets of Athens on the 17th November, for the 3rd anniversary of the Polytechnic uprising in 1973.

The huge demonstration, which was equalled in numbers only by that on the first anniversary, was a show of strenoth hu the workers and youth against the increasingly TE MAILNEU unpopular policies of the right wing Karamanlis government.

The whole anniversary was three day activity organised by the Natonal Union of Students, during which tens of thousands of youth and workers visited the Polytechnic School of Athens, the various Karamanlis photograph exhibitions within the premises, film shows related to the heroic uprising against the junta, and joined the discussion groups spontaneously formed around the Polytechnic.

Thousands of wreaths were also laid in the garden of the building in honour of those who. were killed, by all political organisations and parties as well as by all the trade unions of Athens and Piraeus.

The most important factor in the gathering of such a huge crowd for the demonstration was the controversy that was created over the march to the American Embassy, as a protest against the Americans who imposed the junta in 1967 and continue their imperialist policies in Greece today.

While on the previous anniversaries there was a march to the American Embassy, this year the Karamanlis government banned it, as a show of subservience to the Americans and a step forward in the taking away of all democratic rights won with the overthrow of the junta.

The controversy went on for many days, with the NUS insisting that the march should be allowed, and backed in it by all the opposition political leaders, while the government insisted that the march would undermine 'national unity' and implying that it would use the police against the crowd if the ban was disregarded:

Discussions in political organisations of the left, trade unions, in the factories, and universities, raised spirits high against the government and contributed to the mass participation, creating conditions for a defiance of the ban, which would ridicule the strength of the government.

The police force which massed its strength in Constitution Square, creating a human dam to the streets leading to the American Embassy, was numerically a drop in the ocean.

On the morning of the 17th, however, the leaders of the two Greek Communist Parties publicly advised the NUS not to break the ban, thus saving the government from a political defeat at the hands SPECIAL REPORT BY OUR ATHENS of the people.

This assistance to the bourgeoisie from the two CPs and the Stalinist leadership of the NUS on the very anniversary of the heroic struggle against the junta, can only remind the vanguard which fought this struggle of the Stalinist policies opposing the unrising in 1973 while they nrecent themselves today as the champions Dara of it.

In 1973, the pro-moscow CP, tollowing the Kremlin line of accomodation to the dictators through extensive trade relations, fought hard against the occupation of the polytechnic, and even after its members had failed to prevent it, stayed on trying to terminate it at every stage.

This was clearly shown in subsequent issues of their underground press, where they claimed that the occupation was carried out after 350 "thugs of the junta" disguised as students and led personally by the top CIA Greek man Roufogalls, came into the premises of the Polytechnic, where they "incited" the people to stage the occupation.

The Stalinists claimed this was done in order to brint abaut the Papadopoulos and his replacement with police chief loannidis, since Papadopoulos - they claimed -had come into conflict with the Americans.

CONTAINED

The pro-European Communist Party at that time, while having essentially the same line, did not publicly oppose the occupation but rather tried to contain it, and so succeeded in holding the majority of the Coordinating Committee, which was formed on the evening of the occupation and lasted for three days, until the tanks went in on the night of the massacie, the 17th.

The saving of the government, today, however, is not such an easy task for the Stalinists given the policies followed by Karamanlis and the strength of the workers movement.

The Karamanlis government, has for sometime now been arming itself with all the legal structures it will need for the smashing of the movement of the working class and the peasantry, which they clearly understand will come forward much more decisively than during 1975, as a result of the mass price increases of the present time and the austerity policy announçed recently.

ANTI-UNION

The anti-union law passed by the government in May 1975 (which is much more severe than the Tory anti-union law in Britain) was CORRESPONDENT coupled with a law that greatly increases the powers of the police against the citizens, and legalises any degree of police harassment.

And now there is a very important bill under discussion in parliament, which would allow a reimposition of internment, the most hated institution in Greece, which has been used by all governments from the 1920s on and has affected hundreds of thousands of people, especially after the civil war.

The taking away one by one of democratic rights is preparation for the implications of the austerity policy in the intensification of the class struggle.

The peasants, constituting almost 40% of the population, are now those to suffer first the burden of the increased military spending of the new budget.

This is coupled with EEC competition that has already started to have an impact on the Greek economy - one recent example being the enforced destruction of thousands of tons of cucumbers in Crete.

The fall in the prices of major agricultural products like tobacco, cotton, raisins and olive oil, has created a situation of desperation within the peasantry and mass struggles like those of 1975 are to be expected again.

By the recent stepping up of his antipopular policies, in line with the demands of the capitalists and his American patrons, Karamanlis is creating the conditions for the unity of all the oppressed and the petty bourgeoisie of the towns in opposition to him, much as Papadopoulos did in early 1973, resulting in the Polytechnic uprising and the subsequent overthrow of the junta.

So the recent forecast by PASSOK leader Papandreou that there wil most probably be elections by the end of 1977, is quite realistic. Such elections would be a major test for the two Communist Parties, since they both not only maintain that Karamanlis is the only viable government for today, but are also trying to head the strike movement and political developments so as to make sure that no challenge is posed to his"policies.

Their intervention to stop the march on 17th November, is a good example of their attitude towards the government in contrast to the will of the working people.

Only four days after the Polytechnic demonstration, further proof of the unpopularity of Karamanlis was given in a picturesque way, when the meeting Tank attacks Polytechnic in 1973 he called to celebrate the 2nd anniversary of his "democracy" in a big theatre of Athens, was attended by an audience that was less than a million by a mere 997,000.

They were all decent ladies and gentlemen with cheerful, well dressed youth, surrounded by police informers, some of whom could be seen shouting and clapping in the street in front of the meeting, as they listened to the representatives of the two tendencies of the Party delivering Greek police with armowed ca contradictory speeches - obe saying that he believes in socialistic capitalism and the other that communism must be contained!

The great problem highlighted by the Polytechnic demonstration for the leaderships of the two CFs is how to persuade the workers and peasants, and even more their own members, that tightening our belts and abolishing democratic rights to save an unpopular government is the only way forward.