47 years have passed... It was dawn on Saturday, November 17, 1973 when the fatal order was given to the tank that had been stationed in front of the main gate of the Polytechnic. "Come in". From the moment the gate and those who guarded it were broken, the great carnage began. Junta Papadopoulos-Ioannidis-Patakou-Makarezou showed her most hideous and at the same time vulgar face. Soldiers and policemen "lay down" with the shootings of the students and not only. A few hours later, and while the workers were passing by to go to work, the hoses of the municipality of Athens washed away the blood...
This year the conditions are indeed special. It does not mean, of course, a mass march and a mass celebration in times of a pandemic. However, the government's back-and-forths and uncharacteristic decisions opened the debate about the Polytechnic for good. And make no doubt, on the agenda is not only the matter of how to celebrate this year, but also the...main course, the November uprising. And that's because some people don't feel comfortable with this moment in Modern Greek History.
The News 24/7 spoke to two people who took part in the uprising in one way or another. Not many people know them, just as they don't know the majority of people who in those days defied everything to stand in front of the tanks. Both concluded the (not so) obvious. The messages of rebellion are more relevant than ever...
"I almost cried when the police breached the Polytechnic gate"
Today, Katerina Papagika is a retired hospital doctor and a member of the Association of Imprisoned and Exiled Resistance Fighters 1967-1974. In 1973 he fought through the lines of the (illegal at the time) KNE with the main goal of the downfall of the Junta of the Colonels and the return to democratic normalcy.
We initially ask her something that is the path of many in later years. A massive reaction occurred only six years after the dissolution of the Republic...
There may have been a reaction on a mass level in 1973, but the first serious movements and gatherings had already taken place in 1972 and earlier. The Polytechnic, as we know it, would not have existed, as a much more comprehensive rebellion, without those processes , answers and reasons.
A lot of work was done by local associations that started their activity, since we could not meet in our schools in which of course the Junta had appointed councils and people of its liking. When I say local clubs, I mean, let's say, those of Cretans, led by Ioanna Karystiani, but also others. Those clubs became centers where people could freely exchange views.
From there on, of course, there were organized political forces such as the Communist Youth, Rigas Feraios, AASPE, PPSP, etc., organizations that were naturally illegal and also did good work.
This void of mass reaction in the previous year has another explanation: "We must not forget that immediately after the establishment of the Junta an incredible repression took place and all the organizations were dissolved. It was a brutal repression, nothing was left and we started after almost from scratch. We also have to notice this:It all started with the youth, it was a new generation that said what we would say today about "Basta".
We also invited her to take a position on the fact that during the uprising the "hard", radical line was crossed, as if the movement had overcome its fears during the event:. And that was a lesson that can still be useful today. Sometimes we become conservative and believe that the world is not going to follow, a fear takes hold of us. The Polytechnic proved that a mature message can, even if we do not realize how mature is, to prevail and function even if the organized forces remain cautious".
At the Polytechnic, many of the organized forces considered the developments premature, but it turned out that the historical event exceeded their estimates. Sometimes what can bring people together is something very simple. In the recent uprising in Chile, it all started with an increase in the price of the metro ticket. Shall I bring a Greek example? Did anyone expect the youth uprising of December 2008?".
"Ara" , concludes Ms. Papagika, "at the level of the movement we must always be one step ahead and be willing to change and take risks".
Back to today and the obviously historic fact of the joint announcement of the three parliamentary parties and not only:"As a fact, I found it very positive that there was finally a joint text of the parties of the Left. Similar moves should have been made for many others issues that concern the world. I also think that a joint step should be found with the extra-parliamentary left and of course the movements. I am not a fan of common fronts for all the material, but there are fields for common action".
When I saw the Police breaching the main gate of the Polytechnic, I almost cried. Police inside and outside the gate, a breath away from the monument. But Bogdanos could go to the Polytechnic. And when I heard about the "ban on gatherings of more than four people" I was outraged.
We convey to her the statement-proposal of the Prime Minister for the laying of flowers by all political leaders:"The Polytechnic is not flowers. It is a struggle for bread, education, freedom. And to make the connection with today, our Polytechnic says that we should stop talking about individual responsibility. Instead, we have a collective request to strengthen the NHS with the recruitment of permanent staff. The corona virus is not treated with flowers.
Of course, a mass march with thousands of people could not take place today, all the necessary measures must be taken for maximum health safety. But no, a flower from political leaders doesn't tell me anything. Health is a priority. However, health does not mean opening ICUs without staff or moving doctors from one hospital to another".
So in conclusion "today we honor the Polytechnic by continuing to fight for health but also for freedom and of course for bread. Through organizations and movements that exist or that we need to build" .
"They envy and hate the Polytechnic"
Dimitris Seremetis, a young student in 1973 and a participant in the uprising, is a professor of Applied Economics at the University of the Aegean.
In violation of journalistic rules, we started with the least important. Was there something entirely personal that motivated him? Do other things matter, apart from the strictly political?
"Everything matters. Love, pure emotional relationships, friendships, I would say they are of capital importance, just as important as political ideas and associations. Anyway, when you're 20 years old, all this runs in the blood, doesn't it? you can pretend they don't exist. I refer you to the song "two children in love" ( ss normal title:Pilgrimage) of Xarchakos without knowing if it has any political dimension. Besides, it doesn't really matter".
For Dimitris Seremetis"first there was passive resistance to the Junta. And I would say that it arose from the first moment. But at the same time there was an intense fear and caution, especially in the previous generation that had paid dearly for the occupation and the civil war. we must forget that the Polytechnic was very close in time to the post-conflict era. The generation of the 40's that gave blood to those struggles was the generation of our parents. These people suffered, they struggled with the dictatorship but among them the choice of an attitude prevailed prudence, precaution and caution".
Then "after the first historical "groups" were slowly formed - a typical example was the Mavili Square group - gradually the organizational frameworks for the mobilizations began to be set up and the mass struggle began.
Ever since the beginning of the dictatorship, even in the provincial town where I grew up, we were very disturbed by the Junta. We were in our early teenage years and they forced us to go to church, we were forbidden to go to the cinema, we were forbidden to travel after 8 pm, we were given military haircuts. All these were forms of violence. The youth could not bear this at all. As soon as I entered the University and went down to Athens, I found fellow competitors and everything started to change. Discomfort could give way to action".
When the big time arrived, the line, according to Dimitris Seremetis, was given by the major student factions of Greece:majority. In the beginning, of course, things were different, more radical groups took the initiative, but that changed within three days. What the major factions of the left movement failed to do until the end was to advance in the assemblies their line on the form that the mobilizations would take after Friday and Saturday. Before the dichotomies were overcome, the tanks came.
The line of the KNE that talked about evacuating the site and organizing demonstrations throughout Athens was not passed. As a matter of fact, due to the intervention of the tanks, the other solution was imposed, to stay inside and defend to the end".
We ask him what he thinks of the opinion, recently expressed by the Prime Minister, that participants in the uprising took advantage of their participation and built political careers:"I often hear this about politicians who built their careers at the Polytechnic thanks to their participation in the uprising. In this category who else can one include besides Kostas Laliotis, Maria Damanakis, maybe a few more. Is it possible that this characterizes an entire population like the one that took part in the uprising?
No matter what Damanaki did next, they wouldn't stop hating her. People who say these things live with caricatures, with shadowy enemies they hate. They cannot advance thanks to political goals and ideas. There were students from the Polytechnic who lived through the suspension and then refrained from any political activity. The vast majority pursued other kinds of careers, in the sciences and elsewhere. There were also persons whom no one knows or ever learned that participated in the uprising".
"Does the other side feel embarrassed?" insist:"I think embarrassment is an indulgent description. It seems to me that there is intense envy or even hatred here. We can say the following. That the generation of the Polytechnic is the only generation to date whose struggles have not been able to be silenced or sidelined under systematic distortion and persecution. What I knew from the Resistance and in the 40s I learned in some form of secret school, it was a forbidden discussion. On the contrary, our children learned about the Polytechnic in schools .
I came out of the Postcolonialism as an honored person, I found myself doing reduced military service, the state found this way to reward my resistance action. In the previous generation, the opposite had happened. The resistance fighters were hunted down and many of them were exterminated.
Without having any intention to compare the Polytechnic with other periods of great upliftment of the democratic spirit, our generation was not hunted for its action, that is why they are now trying to exaggerate the meaning of our participation in the uprising".
The joint announcement of the three leftist parties, therefore, creates a special feeling for him:"From the development I can say that I am moved. I consider it in a way a miracle and we need many such small miracles, we must stand up and head, because the situation has become almost vulgar in both political life and everyday life. We can achieve this only with united democratic forces.
I feel that a significant part of the youth is very difficult to tolerate this kind of bans that the Prime Minister and the ELAS leader implemented. And if I were 20 years old today, I would have the urge in every way to find ways to participate and I would take all the risks. This is the nature of youth.
But because the years have passed and we are now dominated by logic and prudence and because we should not underestimate the health risk, we need to find other ways to react. One way is a legal appeal to overturn the decision, another is mass signatures on the three-party statement. A few people could also demonstrate in a perfectly coordinated and very careful manner, making a symbolic march. The mass march clearly cannot be done, it opens fronts and lends itself to provocations. A provocation that the government needs.
How can sobriety be combined with the needs of youth? I have no answer to that..."
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