Anarchism in Greece
The collapse of the military junta put an end to the monopoly of the political power from the Right, whereas the dissolution of the Soviet Union diminished the allure of the Communist Party of Greece allowing anarchist groups to gain pace in Athens and other cities.
With the appearance of presocratic thought, rational inquiry during the classical and Hellenistic period, challenged traditional beliefs, religion and authority itself.
[3] A powerful play resonating with anarchism was Antigone, by Sophocles, where a young woman defies the orders of the Ruler and acts according to her consciousness.
[4] According to some academics, shortly before and after the end of Ottoman rule in Greece, the socioeconomic relations of the Greek countryside reflected traits of Bakunian collectivism (decentralization and autonomy) creating a future audience for anarchist ideas.
Geographical proximity to Italy and a large Italian political immigrant community dating back to the 1848 revolutions explains why the port town of Patras saw the first organized anarchist group.
[17] In its declaration of principles, the Democratic Club claimed that "poverty and ignorance are the greatest wounds of the people" and supported the liberation of Greeks in the Ottoman Empire.
[8] In 1877, the Democratic Club took part in the Universal Socialist Congress in Ghent, where it was represented by Italian anarchist Andrea Costa.
It was organized by the anarchist union Kosmos and was accompanied by dynamite attacks, resulting in several casualties both among the workers and the mining company's guards.
New Light (Νέον Φως) was a western Peloponnese weekly newspaper that voiced anarchist ideas (local and international).
The newspaper contained articles by Drakoulis, translations of the works of Pavlos Argyriadis, republications of texts that first appeared in Athenian magazines, and news about the Greek and the international labor movement.
It also contained adages of the Orthodox Church Fathers and Charles Fourier as well as translations of texts by Bakunin, Kropotkin and Girard.
They conducted lively propaganda work in the cities and their surroundings as opposed to "authoritarian" socialists who were more interested in parliamentary politics.
[28] In 1896 in Patras, Dimitrios Matsalis, a sandal maker, murdered Dionysios Fragkopoulos, a banker and currant merchant, and injured Andreas Kollas.
[31] Epi ta Proso (Επί τα πρόσω) was another group of anarchist intellectuals publicly advocating for anarchism in the Peloponnese that finally ended up in Athens before being dissolved.
[48] Anarchists were branded as provocateurs by the Communist Youth of Greece as they expressed slogans not directly related to the student's demands (i.e. they were calling for sexual freedom, social revolution and the abolition of the State).
A big moment that helped attest to the self-confidence of the anarchist movement were protests to a far-right conference hosted at the hotel Caravel (among the participants was Jean-Marie Le Pen of Action Française).
In retaliation against Melistas, the Marxist-Leninist Revolutionary Organization 17 November killed Nikolaos Georgakopoulos and injured fourteen other MAT officers in a 1985 police bus bombing.
[59][60] The anarchists proposals were in contrast to the legalistic approach of the Greek Communist Party, which at the time was enjoying parliamentary participation.
[62] Alternative media and punk subcultures proliferated anarchist thought among Greek youth in the 1980s and 1990s, spreading messages against neoliberalism, reactionary populism, liberal democracy, and the state.
[63] By the late 1980s, anarchism had turned towards a broader spectrum of issues: gender inequalitiy, patriarchy, racism towards immigrants, and ethnic minority repression (Slavic and Turkish).
The 1990s was the era that the anti-authoritarian movement became more prominent and had active participation among student riots against government plans for the privatization of the education sector.
[68] On 6 December 2008, the lethal shooting of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos by a policeman in the Exarcheia district in Athens, generated immediate social unrest that quickly escalated into large-scale riots.
[69] Within a short period of time, anarchists, leftists, and sympathizers rioted and attacked banks, police vehicles and government offices in the area with unusual coordination.
[70] The Greek Government of the time (Prime Minister Konstantinos A. Karamanlis) chose to have a 'defensive' approach on the events that were taking place.
For a month, large protests were taking place in many major Greek cities, with a lot of them resulting in conflict with the police and arson attacks on government buildings, shops and banks.
[74] Athens Indymedia, an open publishing, anti-authoritarian site which attracted significant audience during the 2008 revolt, paralleled the expansion of the anarchist choros within the Greek society.
[75] (Chóros, meaning "scene" or "milieu" in Greek, is the body of loosely associated anarchist groups and collectives in Greece.
[82] After this tragic event, there was a notable drop in the attendance and frequency of protests, and more importantly the "ideological legitimacy",[83] and anarchist momentum eased.
[87] As of 2013, anarchist groups that have claimed responsibility for violent attacks include the Lovers of Lawlessness, Wild Freedom and Instigators of Social Explosion, Gangs of Consciousness, Lonely Wolf, the Untouchable Cell of Revenge and Untamed Desires.
[88] In 2017, Interpol claimed Greece was one of the only three European Union countries (along with Italy and Spain) that appear to be dealing with anarchist terrorism.
