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The Democratic League of the People

category greece / turkey / cyprus | history of anarchism | review author Friday September 23, 2005 14:52author by Libertarian Historical Archiveauthor email linos at par dot forthnet dot gr Report this post to the editors

Part III of “The early days of Greek anarchism”

Written by Libertarian Historical Archive, translated by Paul Pomonis, published by KSL.

THE FEDERATION «DEMOCRATIC LEAGUE OF THE PEOPLE»

By the start of 1877, the Patran anarcηists must have estabished contacts with individuals and groups from the Heptanesos, the Cyclades (8) and the Peloponesos (9). The meetings and the exchange of views between them culminated in the decision to form a federation under the title «Democratic League of the People». The general assembly of the Patran Club ratified this decision and its charter.

In the aforementioned letter, published in the periodical II Martello of Bologna, they informed their Italian comrades of all these activities: «...Presently we will send you the General Charter of the Democratic Federation of the People and the Special Charter of the Patras’ Society.... In a short while our socialist newspaper, the organ of our Federation, shall appear...»

Panagiotis Panas not only was aware of these activities but was closely linked with them and published the news of the foundation of the Federation as well as parts of its Charter, in the newspaper Rigas which he was editing at the time: «...The Democratic League of Patras, gathered in its 2nd General Assembly, accepted the Charter of the Democratic League of the People, ratified its regulations and programme, inasmuch as it is declared the enemy of all politicians and of all those who endeavour to conserve the current situation by any means, and decided to publish a monthly newspaper under the title “Hellenic Democracy”...» (issue of 22-3-1877, published by M. Demetriou).

The conservative newspapers however didn’t extend a similar welcome to the intentions of the Patran anarchists. On 22-3-1877, the newspaper Mohlos (Lever) of Zante all but admonished the Public Prosecutor of Patras for laxity and held him ccountable for failing to intervene: «....The Public Prosecution Authorities of Patras are aware of this revolutionary socialist society and if they are not, then they should confess themselves totally unworthy of the position they hold; however, if they are aware of the existence of such a society, which is working against the established order and have not yet acted against it, then let them confess themselves in breach of their oath».

On April 8, the Patran newspaper Forologoumenos (Tax Payer) joined the fray by writing: «...the ground of this city is not condusive to the development of such monstrous ideas». On the same date, 8 April 1877, the Bulletin of the Jurassian Federation, published an article by Dionysis Ambelicopoulos entitled «Study on socialism in Greece». We cite it in its entirety, since we deem that it is a unique testimony on the history of anarchist ideas in the Greek Territory.

«Nowadays, that modern ideas are spreading so widely and that a new society is in the process of its creation, for the accomplishment of which solidarity between the peoples is the essential precondition, we believe that it is not superfluous to briefly explain which position the Greek people hold within the ranks of the movement. Thus, all our comrades who strive for the emancipation of the people, through their knowledge of the Greek people’s character, tendencies and needs, may effectively help us promote and enhance our common cause in this country.

The Greek people not only fulfill, at least in embryo, better than anybody else all the conditions for the new society, but they are also very expeditious and adaptable with regard to the application of all practical truths, judging by the nation’s mores, its tradition and its history.

This people’s history in modern times is an extension of its ancient history, the same way that its present government is a copycat of Byzantine corruption. The people do not know, and neither wish to learn of any other history than their ancient one: Out of it, they draw life and using it as a guide they seek to rediscover the lost traces of their ancestors. Some frivolous Europeans label this tendency, as backward; they demand from the people to turn their back on their individuality and to espouse the theory of constitutional monarchy and accept the rule of the rich, which has been imposed upon them. These men do not want to realise that to our people their language sounds stranger than Chinese.

Upon entering the hut of a farmer or the workshop of an artisan and examining the people closer, one will immediately recognize the citizen of Ancient Greece, just in the same way that in the face of the rich of today we recognize Byzantine corruption. Briefly, Greek people have not changed: Only their oppressors have altered their form. The people have inherited the virtues of their ancestors: They show no violent tendencies; love of equality is their sole passion; more than any other people they are dominated by the passion for personal freedom and are sacrificed for it. The biggest part of the crimes committed in Greece today result from the oppression of personal freedom. Our people love equality and it is with great pleasure that they share all their civil rights with foreigners: Living proof are those thousands of Italians in the Cyclades, the Heptanesos and in Patras who enjoy all civil liberties. Although in Greece, we are not spared from Jesuit intrigues and their anti national machinations, not a single voice has been raised against this liberalism. The people consider it a matter of honour to share their political rights with foreigners and to offer asylum to the persecuted. On Corfu, Cephalonia, Zante, all Hebrews enjoy civil rights and some have been elected in local councils, under the acclamation not just of the people, but of the clergy too. The Greek people are clever and brave, generous with their enemies; their frugality is proverbial. They have not learned to bow, they believe that all are equal, they address everybody in the singular and do not separate people by race or origin. This is the character of the Greek people.

Everything that befell this people, following the defeat of the Achaean League (10) (at 183 BC) was just an anomalous situation which attracts our attention only on those rare occasions that the latent national spirit emerged in protest at the imported authority and corruption. Recent studies on the Middle Ages confirm this clearly.

Following the end of the Peloponnisian War (11) (at 404 BC) there begins the retreat of the people from the center stage of the Polity (republique). Following the fall of the Achaean League the people lost once and for all the primacy: the rich and corrupt flattered the conquerors and thenceforth cut themselves off the nation. Thus the Byzantine embryo was concocted. The West endured the Middle Ages and the East endured Byzantium. From those days, there ceased to exist any relation between the rich and the nation, between Byzantium and Greece. On the contrary, those two poles have, to the present day, formed two opposing camps, that of the tyrants and that of the oppressed. This struggle is to be found everywhere.

The people are not carrying any stigma from that era and they will soon become masters of their destiny. Every form of corruption and tyranny has been amassed inside the government It could not have found a place anywhere else: society was more or less equal and radical equality was the people’s legacy. The clergy, as we will see below, have always stood and will always stand by the people. Thus, as the people had lost the initiative, the corrupt took over the government: Which explains why the Greek people hate everything emanating from the government.

We, Greeks, do not need to teach the people that decentralisation and the independence of the Municipalities must form the keystone of the people’s organisation and that concentrationism results in its death. Our people have learned all that from their own history and are convinced about these truths.

The Greek people have named the regime that in the West is called Republique, Constitution. As far as the constitution goes, we are equally advanced as Switzerland, America or France. Universal suffrage, for instance, has long ago been established in Greece (12).

We deem it superfluous to remind that universal has not brought about the expected results. On the contrary, corruption was legitimised (despite the fact that there is no aristocracy in our country and despite the fact that the clergy is on our side), because elections take place in the shadow of the bayonets and are decided by the many governmental machinations.

The people are not favorably inclined towards the constitution, it is only the bourgeois who label themselves «constitutionalists», just like in the West they call themselves «republicans». Consequently, the Greek people, politically speaking, grasp the new ideas.

What in the West is called communism or socialism, the Greek people express it using the term Democracy, rule of the People. It is exactly the same thing that Thucydides (13) expressed in the speech he attributed to Athenagoras of Syracuse. Modem Greeks speak exactly the same way.

There are two elements which in the past heartened the resistance against the Turkish reaction: The kleftes (14) (the bravest among the people, who were living armed in the mountains) and the lower strata of the clergy. Those champions of Hellenism deserve special attention, because their physiognomy is unique throughout history.

From the moment when the kleftes achieved their goal - national independence through the revolution against the Turks (from 1821 to 1830) - they disappeared from the center stage, since the reason of their presence was lacking. A more detailed report on that subject is of no interest to this present study.

Contrarily to what is happening elsewhere, the lower clergy are no strangers to society and do not form a particular class. They live the same lives as the people and remain loyal to them. Due to the fact that the clergyman gets married, he is familiar with all the needs of a family; The Gospel lies by the plough and only after having toiled in the fields all day long, does the clergyman go to church. He is just a simple peasant, uneducated the same way those he coexists with are, but pure at heart and honest and ready to sacrifice himself for the people he belongs to. That is why during all the revolutions, the lower clergy have seized the initiative: they were the first to lay down the Gospel and unsheathe the sword. In the folk songs that praise the revolution and the feats of the kleftes, the priest and his wife, their daughter and her loves play a primary role. The Greek clergy not only do not possess any special privileges but they are deprived of every civil right and are prevented from taking office in the government; and if by any chance they get involved in public affairs, they find themselves punished like criminals. From the one hand this is a major injustice, but on the other it protects them from many evils. That is, the clergy have never been able to ally themselves with the oppressors; on the contrary they remain their enemies. The priest’s opinion on political and social issues is considered of no greater importance than that of the peasant’s.

In Western Europe, the so-called separation between Church and State would be hailed as a success, but in Greece even the existence of such a question would appear silly. Therefore, our clergy have nothing to do with the clergy in the West and it would be an aberration to attack them. The people would consider you their enemy and they would rather not join in your endeavour. Because in the priest they have always found a companion. So, we must expect help from the lower clergy and consider them as our allies.

The superior hierarchy is mostly corrupt, Byzantine rather than Greek. Their debaucheries have already been exposed in public and they have consequently fell in the people’s esteem. That is the reason why, added to the fact they are extremely few of them, there is no need to pay attention to them as they can do us no harm. The people grasp very well the financial problem and are aware of the ways to conceive it. They are saying: What have we earned since we gained our national independence? We all fought and burned down our huts, during the revolution of ‘21 to free ourselves; but who profited from it all? The rich. The people, who used to be poor and slaves, saw no improvement in their lot. Today the farmer as well as the workingman understands very well that they are toiling for the rich and that they will forever remain poor, due to the monopoly of the capital.

When one discusses with a man of the people about his present situation, about revolution, about social and financial reforms, he marvels at the brightness and the readiness of spirit of his interlocutor and believes himself to be in the presence of an experienced revolutionary. If you ask him for his opinion, he will reply: «What you are saying is right; but today there are no people capable of carrying out social reforms. On my own I can accomplish nothing. I have no bread to feed my children tomorrow morning. There is no other way in order to eliminate this capitalist riffraff but to raise the whole people in social revolution».

If you talk to him about social reforms, he will assume some sort of back thought from your part, some treachery, because all the so called liberals have deceived him, and he will reply to you thus: «We do not believe your words more than those of the others, because they have always deceived us and we have learned this by now. Have you anything else to tell me? Can you by any chance get me a job?

Judging by such answers, it is evident that the Greek people are well disposed towards the ideas of socialism. Such a people deserved a better fate; but the rule of the rich and the Byzantine corruption, the inescapable conclusion of historical events, have stood on his way to progress.

Socialist propaganda must be organised in Greece, in accordance with the findings of this here study».

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