CRISIS IN GREECE
For somewhat more than a year a certain amount of political freedom has existed in Greece after many long years of. repression, On February 16, 1964, the Caramanlis regime’ was defeated at the ballot box despite scandalous electoral frauds. Power passed into the hands of George Papandreou, leader of the Center Union party and a liberal in terms of Greek politics, This turn resulted in the restoration of democratic rights to a certain degree. The labor movement breathed more freely, The legalization of the Communist party was considered possible,
But Greece is the only country in the Balkans where capital-. ism was maintained following the war, With the political and mater+ ial assistance of British and American imperialism, including armed force, the reactionary monarchy was restored to the throne, the church was bolstered and the army was shaped up to highly reactionary specifications.
To.these reactionary forces, democracy represents a standing threat. Their fear of democracy is not without a real basis. At the end of World War II, the Greek proletariat stood close to taking power, failing only because its. leadership bowed to pressure from Stalin and paved the way for the landing of British troops who then participated in a civil war that eventually crushed the proletarian forces and guerrilla fighters.
Papandreou's victory last year was a welcome sign of the
~le-—
revival of the Greek proletariat, The regime itself, however, was clearly an unstable one. While the workers sought to utilize the relatively democratic atmosphere to maximum advantage, the officer caste busied itself with conspiracies to liquidate the Papandreou regime,
When Papandreou sought to block these plots by at least naming a new minister of the armed forces, he ran into resistance from the monarchy. The proposed change was scarcely a radical one, since Papandreou's candidate for the post was a member of the Center Union. The monarchy, however, decided to utilize the issue to oust Papandreou. King Constantine provoked Papandreou into a hasty resigna-~ tion; and, in a move that had evidently been worked out well in advance by his advisers, appointed George Athanasiades-Novas, a member of Papandreou's own party, to replace him as prime minister,
The move thus had elements of a coup d'état, with the 25~yearold king serving as ostensible director of the operation,
The labor movoment was alarmed. Papandreou's ouster might well signify a return to the McCarthyism of the Caramanlis period. A wave of protest swept the country. In Athens July 16 demonstrators were in the streets and the police were trying to club them down. It was reported that 108 had been injured, half of them being police, This was followed by a demonstration July 18, involving 25,000 participants. In Salonika, 3,000 demonstrators staged a rally near the university. They carried banners condemning the "royal coup d'état in Greece," and American policy in Vietnam and the Dome incan Republic. At Heraclion in Crete several thousand persons attended a meeting at which speakers denounced the "government of the king."
Grocce may face a turning point. The reaction is pressing for a return to a regime like that headed by Caramanlis. To maintain itself it would inevitably prove to be even more ferocious and bloody. To meet this threat effectively, the masses have no choice but to move forward, bringing down the monarchy. This opening political wedge would put in question the entire present social and economic system.
Thus, at one of the extremities of Europe, the social equilibrium threatens to be upset. Workers everywhere should watch events in Greece now with the closest attention and be prepared to demonstrate their solidarity with the Greek people in their struggle against the threat of another wave of McCarthyism in Greece,