GREEK POWDER MAGAZINE
At least 60,000 persons were in the streets of Athens August 17 shouting slogans that centered against continuation of the hated monarchy. They faced some 10,000 police, armored cars, and teams with special training in the use of tear Bas. Units of the army were standing by in a state of alert.
The demonstration, according to Eric Rouleau of the Paris daily Le Monde [August 19], was close to “degenerating into a battle...
In this tense situation, which has been building up since July 15, the 25-year-old King Constantine, backed by his mother Frederika and the most ultrareactionary forces in Greece, was still maneuvering to avoid an election and to get a prime minister who would bow to the will of his advisers.
The strategists behind the king were clearly bidding for time. If the energy of the masses could be dissipated, then a "strong man" regime might be established to crack down on the workers organizations and provide Greece with another iron dictatorship like the one set up with aid of British troops and American dodiers after World War II.
The leaders of the bourgeois "center" and their allies of the "left" were ably falling in with this treacherous game as was strikingly evident during the August 17 demonstration.
Throughout the day, the monarchy had broadcast the report that the huge Panathinaikos stadium would not be available for a meeting which the General Confederation of Labor as well as various unions and the "center" and "left" tendencies had scheduled there, The reports even predicted that "extremists of the left" were preparing to unleash bloody incidents.
Nevertheless "tens of thousands of young people, mostly workers and students of Athens, Piraeus and distant suburbs, were at the rendezvous," Rouleau reported.
The crowd, it was clear, had a mind of its own. "While the orators tried in vain to make themselves heard," said Rouleau, "the crowd shouted the slogans that have now become habitual in favor of a democracy and against the monarchy."
These slogans included: throw out the German! Throw out the German!" The allusion is to the Germanic origin of Frederika. "Take your mother and get out! Take your mother and get out}" According to Rouleau, these were the least uncomplimentary of the slogans,
Elie Tsirimokos, a former leader of the left wing of the Center Union, who has indicated his readiness to play the king's game, was a target of shouts: "Down with the court socialist! Shame to the royalist socialist!"
"Phe meeting lasted less than an hour," Rouleau continued. "The organizers, from all the evidence, sought less to harangue the crowd than to set it up to defy the authorities who had banned any gathering on the public thoroughfares."
In response to a signal, the crowd moved toward Omonia Plaza where it was supposed to disperse. The police were stationed at Stadiou Avenue to prevent. the demonstrators from moving toward the parliament building and the royal palace.
"To avoid any confrontation the leaders of the oGT [General Confederation of Labor] had, for their part, installed patrols with the aim of containing the demonstrators. But these worker militants were very rapidly overwhelmed by the human sea that swept toward the police lines with cries of 'Murderers!!
"A clash appeared inevitable. While some tens of thousands of overexcited persons advanced resolutely to the demarcation line set by the authorities, hundreds of armed police moved into several 'defensive linest in order to launch their counterattack. Meanwhile, trade-union leaders as well as certain deputies of the center and the EDA (the left), shouting and gesticulating, tried to prevent the masses from continuing their course. It was only within a few inches of the first police line that they succeeded, by dint of exhortations and threats, to stop the march."
Constantin Mitsotakis, one of the leaders of the right wing of the Center Union, who took the post of minister of Economic Coordination in the abortive Novas government which the king set up after ousting Papandreou, explained to Rouleau that they hoped to win now by “wearing down the resistance" of the opposition to the king.
"We no longer fear the popular reaction," Mitsotakis told Rouleau. -"The masses who are hostile to us are becoming tired. Even the Communists are fatigued. We believe that Mr. Papandreou will gradually be abandoned by his troops and the next government -whether it is headed by Mr. Tsirimokos or Mr, Stephanopoulos -= will end up by getting the unanimous support of the parliamentary representatives of the Center Union, Mr. Papandreou would then have to submit or resign," ee
Whether this cold-blooded calculation will prove to be accurate remains to be seen. Meanwhile King Constantine under the watchful eyes of his mother, continues to ‘strike matches in the powder magazine that is now Greece.