arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

Indeed Thessaloniki, as the second largest city of Greece, is one of the most important cities. Its port makes it one of the greatest commercial centers not only of Northern Greece but also of the Balkans. Its monuments and archeological sites attract many visitors all year round.

But it is also the unemployment capital, especially in the younger people. Many times in the last decade its port, roads and neighborhoods have been used for the dirty purposes of NATO, American and European imperialists in their slaughtering of the Balkans. The ?hospitality? of the city officials is the synonym of social racism and brutal exploitation of the multitudinous economic immigrants that stream into the city looking for work.

But there is also a different kind of ?seeing? the city. There is the rich history of labor struggles for decades and centuries. Here we will limit ourselves to the last century.

In 1909, before even the liberation of the city from the Ottoman Empire, the ?Federation? is created, a socialist organization with rich activities. It organized labor unions, and the first May the 1 st demonstration in 1911 with the participation of 12,000 workers.

In 1916, during the martial law imposed by the Anglo-French troops, we have the tobacco workers strike.

The spring of 1936 is one of the greatest moments of the working class struggles in Thessaloniki. The tobacco workers go on strike. In a few days all tobacco factories in Northern Greece are on strike. On May the 8 th there is general strike that is suppressed violently. Thirty workers are killed and more than 300 wounded. The next day (May the 9 th ) the funerals of the killed transforms into general uprising. Other 10 workers are killed in the clashes with the police and army. The city for 36 hours is in the hands of the workers. The army unites with the ranks of the workers. Finally the capitalist agree to the workers demands. After this the Metaxas government sends powerful and trustworthy troops from Larissa and quells the uprising. A few months later, on August the 4 th , Ioannis Metaxas, with the king?s help and England?s assent, abolish the Constitution and imposes a dictatorship.

The labor and antidictatorship struggles continue unceasingly. The town?s prisons, as in all Greece, are full with militant workers, democrats, and communists.

On April of 1941 Germany and Bulgaria declare war on Greece. On April the 9 th the Germans enter Thessaloniki. Earlier the same day many imprisoned communists escape from the Asvestohori sanatorium.

The triple Occupation (Italy, Germany, Bulgaria) starts. Italians occupy the Ionian Islands, Bulgarians Eastern Macedonia and Thrace. Greece is dismembered. On May the 1 st , 1941 the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) creates in Thessaloniki the first national liberation organization, ?Freedom?. Correspondingly in Athens the ?Democrat? is founded.

In 1943 the Germans decide to expand the Bulgarian occupation into the whole of Macedonia and Thrace. In July there are great demonstrations and popular mobilizations in Thessaloniki and soon general uprisings in many big cities of Macedonia and Thessaly. The struggle climaxes on July the 22 nd in Athens with more than 300,000 patriots demonstrating against the Bulgarian occupation of Thessaloniki. The demonstration is suppressed by German tanks. Thirty people are killed, 300 wounded, 500 arrested. But the objective is met; the expansion of the Bulgarian zone of occupation is aborted.

In 1944 the Germans start ?search and destroy? operations in Northern Greece. Hitlerites and Greek traitors burn down the village of Hortiatis (a few Km from the city) killing 246 patriots.

On October the 30 th , 1944, with the end of war, Markos Vafiadis enters the city ahead of his troops. The city is flooded with red flags.

On December of 1947 Imperative Law 509 is voted. KKE and the national Liberation Front (EAM) are considered as ?traitorous and foreign-motivated organizations acting against the Greek national territorial integrity?. KKE is declared illegal. There is an orgy of violence and terrorism all over Greece against the democrats and communists. These are the years of civil war. The monarcho-fascist regime is fully supported by the US. All the following years the people of Greece and Thessaloniki fight an unequal war with KKE on the frontline.

On March the 20 th , 1944, Yannis Zevgos, member of the Politburo of the KKE is murdered in Thessaloniki by Christos Vlachos. On May 1948 the body of the progressive American journalist George Polk is found floating on the sea. For the assassination two communists are blamed, but behind all these is the Intelligence Service agent Randall Coate.

The end of the civil war does not bring calmness in the political life of the country. The following governments of the country balance themselves between the designs of the palace and the schemes of their English and American patrons. State hoodlums in Thessaloniki assassinate an important and special figure of the labor movement, the deputy of the United Democratic Left (EDA) Grigoris Lambrakis on May 22, 1963.

In the following years the country is ?put on ice? by the dictatorship. For seven years the people of Greece with their undiminished struggle created the conditions for the toppling of the dictatorship.

In November 1979 the fascists tried to demonstrate in the city?s streets. The city?s democrats with their own counter-demonstration succeeded in aborting this demonstration.

Students, high-schoolers and teachers struggle against the reactionary educational laws of the New Democracy and PASOK governments defending their rights in education and work. Major points of these struggles are those in 1980, 1986,1989, 1990,1998.

The last decade the US and NATO are bombing Yugoslavia and Iraq. They choose the Thessaloniki port for deploying their troops to neighboring countries. The population of Thessaloniki expresses its condemnation of the warmongering policy of the Americans and their allies, expresses its opposition to the policy of the local bourgeoisie to abide by its patrons? wishes. At the same time it expresses its solidarity with the peoples of Yugoslavia and Iraq, along with the solidarity with the Palestinian and Kurdish peoples (especially after the arrest of Ocalan, in which the Greek government was involved).

The people of Thessaloniki numbers many years of struggle and resistance: from the first Commune of history the Zealots revolution of 1342 up today the people resist, struggle and demand. Their growing movement does not stop to put fear on the bourgeoisie and their foreign patrons.

...the organisations also, but they don't have a common goal
Coming myself from a village with almost everywhere widows of the war in Belgium I understand your need in writing such brief and strong histories. I'll save your story to tell to others visiting my cultural project if I may.

by the way I forgot to say, the first of may I joined the meeting in NAFPLIO Comrades there have very militant ways of expressing themselves Oppression might have killed many but the spirit is very much alive and ready to tackle the attacks of the future. But when will we go in the offensive ourselve ; overcoming the purely material demands ?