user preferences

New Events

Greece / Turkey / Cyprus

no event posted in the last week
Recent articles by Libertarian Historical Archive

text“Eleftheriaka Chronika” 0 comments

textThe Democratic League of the People 0 comments

textFrom 1875 to 1880 0 comments

Recent Articles about Greece / Turkey / Cyprus History of anarchism

Απόπειρες αν ... Jul 03 23 by Αναρχικοί Αγ.Αναργύρων – Καματερού

«Ο Ήλιος της Αν... Nov 14 22 by Αναρχικό Στέκι Φιλοσοφικής

Σπάζοντας τι ... Jul 08 22 by Ελευθεριακή Συνδικαλιστική Ένωση

Search author name words: Archive

The newspaper “Hellenic Democracy”

category greece / turkey / cyprus | history of anarchism | review author Monday September 26, 2005 14:47author by Libertarian Historical Archiveauthor email linos at par dot forthnet dot gr Report this post to the editors

Part 4 of “The early days of Greek anarchism”

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

THE PUBLICATION OF THE NEWSPAPER “HELLENIC DEMOCRACY”

The publication of a newpaper had been decided and announced. It finally came out at the beginning of May of 1877 under the title Elliniki Dimokratia (Hellenic Democracy), Newspaper of the Democratic Club of Patras and with the frontispiece “Revolution is the Law of Progress». Alexandros Evmorfopoulos was designated responsible for the printing.

On the front page of the newpaper, the article «A kind of a programme» informed the readers that: «Every newspaper customarily exposes, for the sake of those it addresses to, its program, i.e. what its aims are. But for this newspaper, such an envdeavour is needless.Because, since it is the organ of the Democratic Club of Patras, the Charter and the Programme of the Club are identical to the programme and the principles of our newspaper. We will march straight on. We will tell the People what they should do in order to liberate themselves of every evil. We will fearlessly uncover all machinations employed in order to flay us. We will tell the truth without fearing the government.

Whether it puts us in jail, or leaves us alone, we don’t care. As for the other journalists, to those who will insult us we will give no reply; to those, on the other hand, who will sincerely attempt to discuss with us whatever social or political issue, we will reply with the proper politeness and decency. Hellenic Democracy is open to all the People. Whoever so intends, may write his ideas or his pain, provided they are written in common language and do not oppose the principles of the Democratic Club, on which we will ponder in our newspaper. If some employee, anywhere, is afraid to speak the truth, we promise him to keep his name secret under all circumstances, so let him write without fear...»

In fact, the newpaper was published as the organ of the Patran Club and not as the organ of the Federation. It is remarkable that all the articles were written in «....simple language....», in the language spoken and understood by everybody. This position of theirs as regards the language problem (15) at a time when Psicharis (16) and the demoticist movement had not yet made their appearance, places them at the forefront of the demoticists. It is possible that they had read N. Konememos’ study on the language problem (1873) or perhaps some of them, might have come in contact with him, through the cycle of P.Panas. Konemenos had been living in Patras since 1869 serving as the Consul of Turkey, though this capacity of his must have excluded the possibility of open contacts and public meetings.

Then, the paper published the Charter of the Federation, entitled «Charter of the Democratic League of the People»:

«CONVINCED that poverty and ignorance are the people’s biggest plights that out of those two evils stem every social misery that, therefore, our liberation from poverty and ignorance must be the highest cause for everybody who wishes to sincerely work for the benefit of our Homeland. That this liberation is of interest to us all; because it aims to bring about general equality as regards the rights and the duties of all, and shall certainly result in the liberation of our enslaved brethren. That in order for the suffering people to be liberated, they must themselves rise up and seek their liberation and the first to contribute are those who are conscious of their duty

BELIEVING That the liberation depends, in great part, on the political emancipation of the People And based upon our History and on the belief that every Human Being was created free and master of his destiny

WE ARE ESTABLISHING The Democratic League of the People In order to seek with all our strength the application of the Democratic Regime under the following conditions: A Total decentralisation and perfect self-administration of the Municipalities, i.e. every Municipality to be totally independent and self ruled B. Total freedom of the human being C. Every authority to be submitted directly to the rule of the people The Democratic League of the People Considers its enemies all those who endeavour to conserve the existing order Recognises as its Law only Truth, Justice and Morality And accepts as its members every union or individual who may accept this here Charter.

The charter of the organisation looks like a political manifesto, accessible to all. Social revolution is the saving solution for all the evils that stem out of poverty and ignorance. All must assist through their struggle towards total freedom of the individual.

The State shall be replaced by the free unions of decentralised and self administrated Municipalities. Direct democracy is the path of decisions. Whoever supports the state is an enemy.

Then followed an analysis of the charter, which covered approximately four pages. In turn this was followed by an article on the Paris Commune by the communard Arnold, a text on the Eastern Question and the news of the Benevento insurrection translated from the Italian anarchist periodical Plebe of Milan, citing Carlo Cafiero as the ringleader of the insurrection, noting his acquaintance with Marx and Bakunin. Yannis Kordatos has salvaged an excerpt of the Italian report:

The Koinonistai, it is written, have been fighting for a week now in the villages near Naples. At Letino, a small municipality in the Benevento Province, they bumed down the Municipal building and distributed items of need to the peasants, then formed a provisional government. At Gallo, another small municipality, they seized the funds, burned down the tax registers and distributed the money to the People. The crowd was pleased with the ways of the revolutionaries , that is, waging open war against the current order of affairs».

Indeed, in April 1877, Cafiero, Malatesta, Ceccarelli and Stepniak, along with 30 comrades invaded the Benevento Province. During their retreat from Gallo, governmental troops arrested Cafiero and his companions. Cafiero spent a year in jail awaiting trial; eventually in August 1878, he was acquitted of all charges. Cafiero wrote some of his most important books in jail, for instance his book «The Power of Capital», published later on by the People’s Editions of Milan. He moved to Marseille in 1878, where he worked as a cook. In October of the same year, he and Malatesta were arrested and deported to France. He went to Switzerland where he met Kropotkin.

Of interest is the text of the Patran anarchists on the Eastern Question, i.e. the emerging Balkan reality created by the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and the national awakening of the (Balkan) peoples. Deeply internationalist, it denounced the class origin of nationalism, which in the Greek territory took the form of the Megal ildea (17). It deemed that the irredentist preaching of every political authority aimed to lead the people astray from their problems, namely poverty and ignorance, and thus defend the interest of the bourgeois class, the rich. Some marxist historians have accused them for these points of view. That is, that their petit bourgeois anarchism prevented them from grasping the democratic and progressive character of the national question and its resolution in the frame of the bourgeois state, one of the «scientifically tested stages» towards socialism.

«We believe that it is our duty under the present circumstances to let you know of our opinion on the Eastern Question. Or better still, to tell you where our interest lies in this Question, as well as under any similar circumstances. We will tell you a few good words, true and irrefutable and let everybody decide what it is there for him to do.

The Eastern Question as well as any other nationality question, has served the diplomacy and the rich as a goad and as a game of cards depending on the circumstance. When we have peace, as they call it, they entertain themselves at the expense of the people over these issues, like a game of cards in the cafe. When the interests of the rich call for war, they goad us on, just like the farmer goad his ox, with a view of getting ourselves killed and kill as many as possible for their own advantage.

This is a well-proven fact and all it takes is just a glance at today’s war (18) to persuade each and everyone about the veracity of our words. Leaving aside the fact that if we examine the affairs of our land, they speak for themselves about this truth.

The Czar and his minions declared that they want to liberate their fellow Slavs from the Turkish yoke. But this is a lie, because if they truly loved freedom they would have first liberated those millions of Russians who are slaves in their own homeland, and then care for the freedom of the others. In order for you to comprehend what they mean by freedom, they who have it on their lips every day, suffice to leam that in Russia whoever dares speak against the aristocracy and the rich, is sent to Siberia and there he’s buried alive, without any hope, but the hope of his own death. Imagine this: Death being the only release; you can now figure out what kind of life is in store for them. Many thousand young people out of the finest blood of the Russian youth rot in the quarries and the graves of Siberia, just because they dared cry «Long Live Freedom». And following all that, the Czar is hailed in Europe as a liberator.

The European governments and the rich of Europe understand all this, because they themselves speak the same language and treat their own peoples the same way. But it goes without saying that it serves them not to reveal anything. However, they are getting themselves ready for any eventuality. What do they care? Are they going to get killed themselves? It’s the poor who’ll bear the brunt.

The pashas on the other hand shout that the Qu’ran and Mohammed are in danger. And the Turks, fanatic, ignorant and stupid, blind to the fact that for the pashas the pouch is both Qu’ran and Mohammed, they march onwards and then you have what have you. But let us not talk about Russia and Turkey, let’s talk about our own land and our own affairs, just as they lay in front of our eyes and we see them clearly every day. But in order for us to grasp where our interests lie in the Eastern Question, we must fist stop our ears to those words, that they are using to deceive us. We must stop our ears, when they’re speaking about ethnicity, sacrifice, self-denial and other similar lies, because those people who pronounce them don’t believe a word of them, they are charlatans. The biggest proof lies (18) when they fought for their own interests at our own expense. As for all those who fought out of sincere love of the homeland, most of them got killed, others became destitute and their children don’t have bread to eat.

Another proof is 1854, Crete and Howarth (19). During those times, when the people spilled its blood, they sat home, others in Europe, quietly nibbling our bones and earning 20% interest on their loans. Still, they shouted loyalty and homeland...

We must understand that those who are calling for the liberation of our brethren, do not seek but to enslave them. They do not seek but to eat out of our exertion and our sweat and to keep us in misery. They can afford to eat all they want, they can afford to send their children to school and thus they do not care about our children, which, we, deprived of the means to feed them and dress them, put to work from their 7th year of age and thus watch them squander their youth toiling from dawn till dusk.

What do the rich care about the People and those who toil? Interest is being paid and the workingmen toil for them. The peasants sow for them. The herdsmen produce butter and meat for them....That is the sole, bare and naked truth. And these men have to audacity to claim to be patriots. It has been a short while now that, in order to blind us, they have ordered the construction of two military camps, they have bought a few hundred guns and a machine to make cartridges, they have sent Paralos (20) to Istanbul and now they lay awaiting at the Parliament to see what other bravery they are going to do.

But if, as the saying goes, push comes to shove, they will tell us: either you all perish or we conquer Istanbul. And while we will be marching to the border, they will be heading for Europe, while the bravest among them will sit at home earning interest on their money and the rest will stay in Athens to govern the State vessel. But they will contribute 50 drachmas each for the national fleet so that some rag tag history will put them down as benefactors of the Nation.

Let us, once and for all then leam that the Turks are not to be found just in Epirus (21) and in Thessaly (22), but also inside our own home. And if we still possess some brain it is from home that we must start dealing with the Eastern Question and not in those places they choose. With this in mind, we have founded the Democratic League of the People, and whoever so wishes let him come and work along with us, if he desires to resolve the Eastern Question in the favour of the People.”

This page can be viewed in
English Italiano Deutsch
© 2005-2024 Anarkismo.net. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Anarkismo.net. [ Disclaimer | Privacy ]