September
3, 2013 could be a day of darkness for the democratic rights of the
Geek people and for the EEK, the Greek Section of the CRFI. It turned
into a triumph against the class enemy, and a beacon of revolutionary
struggle.
The
trial of Savas Michael-Matsas, the General Secretary of the EEK, and
of Konstantinos Moutzouris, former Dean of the National Technical
University of Athens, after a lawsuit by the Nazi ‘Golden Dawn”
promoted by the judiciary arm of the bourgeois State, had as a direct
aim to penalize anti-fascist activity and to produce a legal
precedent against the revolutionary vanguard, against the Left and
the workers movement as whole, against the freedoms of the people.
The entire operation to condemn the “accused” for “defamation”
of the Nazis, for “instigation of violence”, and for “disruption
of the social peace” turned into a boomerang against the Nazis and
their protectors in the “deep” State and in the Samaras
government, the instrument of the hated troika of the EU/ECB/IMF.
After
a gigantic mobilization of solidarity internationally and in Greece,
and a powerful fight in court by the accused and by their defenders
during the two days of juridical procedures in court the fake
“charges” were destroyed, the conspiracy came to light and the
final unanimous verdict was to declare “not guilty” both
accused.
It
was the first defeat of the “Golden Dawn” in courts from the time
of its ascent as this openly Nazi Party enjoyed a revolting legal
immunity for its criminal activities so far.
The
victory was the result of a powerful mobilization of solidarity by
thousands of workers, activists, intellectuals, youth, “well known”
personalities and “unknown” simple people both world wide and in
Greece . More than three thousand and half signed the petition;
thousands of personal messages of support came from dozens of
countries, from all continents, as well as from all corners of Greece
itself. Leading philosophers, scientists, economists and
theoreticians like Michael Lowy, Bertell Ollman, Alain Badiou,
Giorgio Agamben, Etienne Balibar, Robert Brenner, Milton Fisk, Nancy
Holmstrom, Eleni Varikas etc wrote powerful public statements and
organized activities of support. Articles were published in
newspapers of wide circulation internationally like in the Guardian
in Britain, in Liberation, Le Monde, Charlie Hebdo in France, Junge
Welt in Germany, Libre Belgique in Belgium, Izvestia, Komsomolskaya
Pravda et al. in Russia, Haaretz in Israel etc.
Protests
in front of the Greek embassies and consulates were successfully
organized in Buenos Aires( by the Partido Obrero and the Left Front )
in Rome and nine other cities of Italy( by the PCL and other left
wing organizations), in London ( by the Ad Hoc Committee for Savas
Michael-Matsas following a call by the Socialist Fight group), in
Moscow, and Leningrad in Russia (by the Russian Party of Communists,
the Association of Marxist Organizations, the Social Movement
Alternativyi, and others), in Odessa in Ukraine( by the ‘Against
the Current” organization), in Chicago in the United States by
local activists etc. The International Anti-War Assembly in
Hiroshima, Japan sent a message of solidarity voted in its meeting
the day of commemoration of the nuclear holocaust, August the 6th.
The
trial, although the pro-government Greek mass media were absent, was
followed by journalists of all the newspapers and web journals of the
Greek Left (including Rizospastis, the daily of the Stalinist
Communist Party of Greece), a journalist of the Russian Press, and
covered live by the National Radio-Television of Belgium (RTFB) and
by the French TV5. The arrival of the “accused” General Secretary
of the EEK was received by more than a thousand workers, and youth
holding banners and red flags, shouting anti-fascist slogans, and
singing the “International”. The supporters of the “Golden
Dawn” did not show up, apart from those in the ranks of the huge
police force mobilized on this occasion.
The
juridical procedure was a real battle. Despite the obvious hostility
of the Procurer, the accusations were falling part. From the side of
the fascist plaintiffs only two appeared; one who said that he signed
the lawsuit “ because they told him to do so” , and a second, the
official lawyer and legal adviser of the “Golden Dawn” who said
that he was ‘afraid for his life because of the leaflet of the
EEK’!!
Dozens
of witnesses of defense spoke courageously and powerfully: many
deputies and leading members of Syriza, leaders of the Antarsya, a
Russian representative of the Left in his country, leaders of the
National Federation of Public Workers (ADEDY), of the Federation of
professors of the secondary education (OLME), of the Federation of
Hospital Doctors (OENGE), Rectors, Deans, and many University
professors, leaders of the Local Government Workers, of many other
unions, Councilors in the Local Governments, leading members of the
EEK itself.
The
accused became accusers against Nazism, and anti-Semitism, against
the capitalist government and State, against the troika, the ruling
classes and world capitalism that want to crush the masses by the
ruins of their own bankruptcy and by barbarism. When the near one
hour apology by the General Secretary of the EEK ended, the comrades
and supporters who packed the court room started a thunderous
protracted applause and the Judge, very upset, adjourned temporarily
the procedure.
Afterwards,
even the Procurer asked the Judge to rule “not guilty” for both
accused, and so the final ruling declared the innocence both of Savas
Michael and of Konstantinos Moutzouris. The announcement of the
ruling was received again with thunderous applause, with antifascist
slogans (“The people does not forget, it will hang all the
fascists!”, “Death to fascism-Freedom to the People!”, “Bosses
and fascists will be smashed- Long live the world proletariat!”),
and the singing of the International.
The
first reactions in the aftermath of the trial are significant. The
people received and hailed the verdict as its own victory. Some
characteristic examples: The journalists and workers in the State
Radio-Television (ERT) occupied and self-managed by them from last
June after its arbitrary closing by the government firing 2700
workers, declared publicly on a national scale: “When we learned
that Savas was acquitted by the Court, we started shouting, embracing
each other, crying, and singing!”; or, in the general assemblies
all over the country of the Federation of Education OLME, where they
decided by 96 per cent of its tens of thousands of members to start
next week an indefinite General Strike against the demolition of
education by the government and the troika, all the speeches were
beginning by hailing the result of this historic trial. The same
happened in the general assembly of the Union of Bus Workers; of the
local government workers et al. Workers now identify their own
struggles with our political battle against the Nazis and the
capitalist State behind them.
From
the side of the class enemy, fascists and the State look for revenge.
At the end of the tens of thousands strong demonstration in
Thessalonica on September 7, although no violent incidents occurred,
the riot police arrested 150 demonstrators, including some cadres of
the local organization of the EEK. When the police arrested our
comrades as well as workers from the occupied self-managed factory of
VIOME, the policemen insulted them with the most vulgar way accusing
the comrades to be “supporters of the party of the dirty Jew”
(i.e. Savas). Something even more sinister: the young son of a well
known comrade and trade unionist of the EEK was stabbed in the back
by a gang of fascists in Pyrgos, in Peloponnese.
We are
conscious that we won an important battle with great repercussions
internationally and in Greece but the class war continue and become
even sharper!
Savas
Michael-Matsas, 10/9/2013
