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D E D IC A T IO N

T he H ellenic A m erican Society w ould like to dedicate this issue to the

students and w orkers of Greece w ho for the past seven years have been

f ighting to l iberate their country from neocolonial ist depend ence on the

United States . T he Lond on branch of A linesty International* has m ade

available to us tw o lists. The first l ist includes a bout 500 students from all

institutions of higher educ ation in Greece w ho w ere arrested, detained, tor-

tured, imprisoned, and exiled d uring the past seven yea rs, including those

arrested by the "n ew junta." T he secon d l ist (und oubtedly a part ial list)

Includes 50 people, m ostlystudentsand wor kers, who w ere killed by the "old

junta" during the N ovem ber 1973 revolt against the junta. We salute all the

students and w orkers of Greece, especially those w ho gave their lives for the

;m use of freedom in Gree ce and for a better w orld for all of us.

List of K nown D ead

Anagnoitopoulos, Nikolaos

Andarogicu -----, Cypriot Student

Argyriou

Student

Bads (or Sods)

tudent

Chalkiedik I ----, Student

Chaniotakis (or Kestanakis), .---

Christopoulos Georgios, Pharmacist

Diamentekl (or Stametak II, Marie

Dimopoulos, Andreas, Engineer

Olplas, Christos, Student

Egeland or Engetand, Doris M.,

Norwegian Student

Evangel'nos, loannIs

Famelos (or Pamelos), VasIlls,

Private Employee

FIIfni*, loannis, Teacher and

Journalist

Gerakidis, Georgics, Tax employee

Gralos, loannis, Student

illopoulos

oannidis ---, Engineer

Kampos (or Karim), loannis

Kamp', Pashril, Turkish subject

Karegiorgis, Stenos, Worker

Keramanis, Marko., Electrician

Komninos, Diomidls, High school

student

Koumoulos, ioannis

Koutournaris Spyros, Former Center

Union Deputy

Kyriskopoultte

Lazariotis, Paneyotis, Student

Manimak is (or Manimanis), Worker

Menolopoulos. ---,Student

Mentzoros Student

Merkoutis, Nikoloos, Worker

Mavroyannis, Nikolaos, Worker

Michailidis,

ikronis, Konstantinos, Student

Myryannis Micheal, Electrician

Panteleakis, Kyriakok Lawyer

Pentidis (or Spartidial, Alexandros,

High school Student

Papsdopoulos, loannis, Student

Pikled (or Beitier1), Vasitiki

Poly=Idle, O., Engineer

Pura, Elan , High School Student

Semouris Georgic's, Student

Sermons, Osorgios Student

Schizos --

Theodorou, Theolank Child

Touril, Margerete, Foreign Student

taingounis, --, Student

VrIonls, Apostolos

Yannopoulos, Georgios, Student

A rticle 114 of the 1952 G reek C onst itt it ion states: "Th e defense of

the C onstitution is left up to the patriotism of the Greeks." On N ovem ber 4,

during the George Papandreou m emorial dem onstrations against the junta,

N ikolaos M orphesis, an elementary school graduate, enacted the Greek Iw o

Jima in front of the Tom b of the Unknow n Soldier. A fter the young m an

asked that the tw o

E uz one s

guarding the tomb pardon him , he stood in front

of the tomb and said these w ords: "Ou r imm ortal ancestral heroes, the Greek

youth crown s you w ith the f lag (Greek) of freedom. M ay your m emory be

everlasting."

Nee,

11/14/73).

*T he H ellenic Am erican So ciety extends i ts deepest appreciation to M rs.

M arion Stefanou-Sarafi

for

her cooperation.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Dr. Martin Luther King

a poem by Elen Floratou-Paidousi

1

The Last Sunday in March

a short story by Christos Kano!is

pories (Wonderings)

4

a poem by Alexander Panagoulis

y "Unyielding Struggle" (Anendotos Agonas) Began in 1940

15

by Christos Alexandris

he Flowering of the Poppy

7

a poem by C. Capri-Karka

orture: Today Greece; Tomorrow ...18

by Steve Hantzis

he Bridge of Arta

8

a poem by C.

Capri-Karka

he Lack of Planning for the D istribution of Income in Gre ece

29

by Theodo re C. Ka riotis

Greek F oreign S tudent's Impressions of the U.S.A .

by Nikos Spartacos

4

K sespasma (O utburst)

a poem by Alexander Pan agoulis

7

Songs, Letters, Messages, Broadcasts . .. from the G reek People

8

Greece: Seven Ye ars of A rbitrariness

by John K sasteriakis

52

A re We Going To T alk of Lacaedemonians N ow

a

poem by C. Capri-Karka

55

Prologue for Action on the Western Front

by Nikos Petropoulos

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Dr. MARTIN LUTHER KING

I stand at one crossroads of Time.

I am Tomorrow.

I am Forever.

I wait for the dove to carry Him

to the Elysian plains.

On my knees I await for Him

to pass the Thermopylae of glory

to join those who like Him,

eagles on the same flight,

had passed the sacrificial portals.

A man named Jesus,

Lincoln,

Lambrakis of the Greeks,*

and others who like Him

have sought the Truth and Peace.

I hold a flower for His heart;

no tears, no grief, just that.

The ghastly arm of tyranny

has crawled up from Hades

to steal a star and silence the wind;

to strip the sun of warmth

and shame our childrens' dreams;

to fill our sky with tears

rage, despair and bitterness...

The ghastly arm of tyranny

has moved us back

to a shameful past

and Martin King is dead!

The blind axe of bigotry

has felled the giant tree;

but still the roots remain

the shade,

to guard the saplings

to shield the Free...

from

Elegiaka 1972

by Elen Floratou-Paidousi

*Lambrakis was the parliamentary deputy from the United Democratic

Left (EDA) party. He was

assassinated

in the spring of 1963 by right-wingers.

The story of this assassination is told in the film "Z."

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THE LAST SUNDAY IN MARCH

A SHORT STORY

The third week in January Panos Doxas went to Kaisari to see his

widowed sister, Maria, and her two orphaned children. His brother-in-law had

died of tuberculosis during the war. He took them a can of olive oil, a

basket of potatoes, and two heads of cheese. During his three day stay he

chopped and hauled from the forest enough firewood to last his sister the

rest of the winter, and on her behalf he talked terms with the sharecroppers.

Before he left, Panos promised Maria that he would go to Korinthos

and ask Uncle Panayiotis to check into the possibility of a government pen-

sion for her and the children. There was talk of parliamentary elections and

candidates could do a lot for their constituents around election time.

On his return to Plevra Panos stopped first at the square. He had not

seen his fellow villagers for three days and was anxious to hear more of the

government's plans for elections and of the announcement of amnesty to the

Antartes. The Antartes, like himself, had fought the Germans with the Greek

Liberation Army, but since the end of the war, they were persecuted as

communists by the gendarmerie and Organization X (Chi), the paramilitary

right-wing civil guard. The recent appointment of Sophoulis, an old liberal,

as prime minister raised hope of fair treatment for the thousands of former

Resistance fighters who had taken to the mountains again to avoid perse-

cution, and to thousands of others, like himself, it held the promise of relief

from fear of jail or exile to some desolate island.

In front of Sotiris's coffee house, three doors from the square, were

the Bullhead and Toothless, with rifles dangling from their shoulders and

wearing armbands with the letter X (Chi). They were Chites, members of the

Plevra Organization X. The Chites were using Sotiris's coffee house as their

base of operations.

"Howdy," Panos greeted them. They did not return his greeting but

turned their backs to him. Panos dismissed their crude manners as an

impulsive expression of contempt. In their eyes anyone who had been

connected with the Resistance was a communist, period. He was glad that

Zanos had re-opened his coffee house, which had been destroyed by the

Germans. Now he and the other Plevra democrats had a place to go to

without fear of harrassment or needling from the Chites and the right-wingers.

When Panos entered Zanos's coffee house, the dozen or so men there

stopped talking and somewhat alarmed looked towards the door. When they

saw Panos, they resumed their conversation.

Petros, who had served as the Secretary of the Plevra Organosis, the

committee that had supervised the activities of the Resistance in the village,

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called Pano s o ver to his table w here he w as sit ting w ith M ano usos, also a

form er mem ber of the Organosis.

"W here have you been? Did they take you away?" asked Petros.

"W ho w ould take m e away? W hat are you talking about?" replied

Panos and look ed at them very puzzled.

"W here have you been hiding?" asked Manousos.

"I have no t been hiding. I was at K aisari helping M aria."

Petro s and Mano usos breathed sighs of relief . "Haven't you heard?"

asked Petros. "We are in danger. The Chites are killing right and left.

D idn't you hear what happened at K alama ta?"

Panos shoo k his head.

Petros handed him The T ribune. "Read and find out," he said.

Panos read and co uld not believe what he w as reading.

Three thousand C hites had storm ed the prison o f K alamata, capital of

Messinia, and with the help of the gendarmerie had freed hundreds of

fo rm er co llabora tors and Secur ity Bat ta lioneers , m em bers o f the Greek

collaborationist arm y, who w ere aw aiting trial fo r atrocities they had co m -

m itted during the war . To insure aga inst future pro secutio n o f their fellow

collaborators, the C hites destroy ed the incrim inating files in the co urthouse.

Then , they attacked the cell block w ith fo rm er R esistance activists who to o

we re aw aiting trial fo r atrocit ies they had com m itted in the nam e of the

R esistance. The C hi tes intended to ki l l a l l o f them , but the Greek arm y

intervene d in time a nd prevented a possible m assacre. The fr ustrated Chites

had their revenge, no netheless. They killed a number of innocent dem ocra tic

citizens in Kalam ata and the

nearby village.

Petros and M anousos noticed how pale Pano s was gett ing as he kept

reading.

W hen he w as f inished, Panos folded the paper with trembling hands.

Il ls feet and h ands felt cold. "W e cann ot stay in the village during the night,

that's for sure. W e can sleep in m y cabin at the O ld Village for a few nights,"

he said. Then he stood up. better get home and see what the women are

doing. T hey m ust be worrying plenty."

That windy, blistering night Panos, Petros, Manousos, Yannis and

V lassis, all former R esistance activists, hudd led in the small D oxas cabin near

the O ld Village some tw o kilometers south of Plevra.

"W hat kind of government have w e got " exclaimed P etros. "T hey talk

of amnesty and they cannot control the roughnecks."

"Th e am nesty is bound to be carried out. The government w ould not

have announced it if they did not intend to carry it

through. Sophoulis is

pretty fair m inded," said

Panos.

"Sophoulis is old and senile. He cannot run the government. The

C hites and the gendarmerie do," spoke Yann is, another former m ember of

the Plevra O rganosis.

"T oothless and the B ullhead k eep shouting their big mou ths and keep

bragging the K alam ata attack is the beginning of the end for us. According

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to them we're all com m unists," rem arked V lassis, a first cousin to P anos and

a form er Antarte.

"A ll right, let's lo ok at the who le thing in a calm and logical m anner,"

spoke Pano s. "Those that are in jail, whether collaborator s or Re sistance

m en, did com m it at roci t ies and they did ki ll peo ple wi th no reaso n. W e

didn't do any thing like that."

"W e didn't do any harm to anybo dy, that 's for sure," added Yannis.

"In fact we pro tected our ow n people, right? Plevra has the sm allest number

of victims. O nly one m an, Pericles Sam aras, was executed by the- Resistance.

W e couldn't help him . His bro ther was a collabor ator."

"A nd it is our o wn people " began Vlassis.

"Sh I think I hear fo otsteps," said Pano s.

Silence follow ed. The m en l istened trem bling. They heard the wind

blowing. A fter a sho rt whi le they passed the bot t le o f w ine and each in

turn had a sip. The wine warm ed them.

Then V lassis spok e aga in, "The thing those C hites understand is fear

and force. W e got to arm ourselves and m aybe toss a few threats of o ur ow n.

In No rthern Greece they are taking to the m ountains already."

"Shh I hear someone coming," interrupted Panos who was near

the doo r.

Fo otsteps wer e heard near the cabin, and then cam e a kno ck o n the

door.

"Pano s, go tell whoever it is yo u are rea dy to sleep, and yo u don't want

to be disturbed," suggested Petro s hoping it was not the Chites.

They heard a w hisper, "O pen up, it's m e, Metros."

Panos o pened the doo r and M etros entered. Even though i t was dark,

M etros could tell there w as m o re than one m an in the cabin. He, too , had

been a m em ber o f the Or ganosis, but he was not considered a leftist and was

still frequenting Sotiris's co ffee house, the center of the C hites.

"W hich side are- yo u o n, Metros?" asked Yannis. "Maybe yo u will fol-

low Lo ukas's exam ple and turn on yo ur o ld friends."

"Shut up, Yannis. Yo ur m o uth m o ves faster than your brain. I cam e

here to w arn yo u, to tell you to g et going. Break up this m eet ing. A t the

co ffee ho use they talk about yo u m en holding secret m eetings and plo tting

something."

Yannis and Petros broke into a light, nervous laughter.

"I t 's not funny . I am te ll ing y ou what I heard. M aybe y o u will do

better if you do no t see each other so m uch," repeated Metro s.

"What have we come to We are suspects for talking to our own

villagers " exclaim ed Mano usos, another m em ber of the Organosis who se

eldest son had been k illed by the Germ ans up in Macedo nia in 1941.

"Lo ukas has been saying som e pretty dam aging things about m any o f

yo u," continued M etros.

"A nd nothing abo ut you, of course," replied

MallOUSOS.

"W hat he says behind m y back I do no t know . I wo uldn't put anything

past that scoundrel." Me tros w as awa re o f their suspicions. D id they think

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he had come to spy on them? He decided to tell them what he had on his

mind. "Are you going to listen to me or do you want chancing prison?

Listen carefully to what I am telling you: On election day vote Populist.

T he election results will be proof Plevra is one h undred percent nationalist

in sentimen t."

"It is a m an's duty to vote his conscience, M etros," said Petros. "Yo u

ask us to com promise our conscience?"

"How m uch consolation can your conscience give you in prison? Y ou

ought to know that, Petros " retorted M etros.

"Damn

right

I do A nd prison taught m e my consc ience was correct

all along "

"God damn all of you I took a chance coming here to warn you

because I care and I don 't want to see anybody get hurt, and you treat me as

i f I am the enem y. Get it through your h ead: T he r ight-w ingers are out for

blood. A nd they can get i t, too "

"Let's calm down, friends," suggested Panos. "Metros came here

because he cares, and w hat he says m akes sense. W e can argue all night, but

the cold fact is that they got us against the wall. We have no place to

turn to."

"And we must strike back " yelled Vlassis. "A cornered cat is

dangerou s. She strikes back w ith all her fury."

"T hat's wh at the hell is wro ng w ith both of you, the right and th e left.

You think you can solve everything with the rifle and the club and look

where it's getting the rest of us Maybe if we stopped this business of

reprisals , m aybe then w e can get d ow n to ou r w ork l ike civi lized people,"

argued Metros.

"Metros, we have gone through hell for five years now," began

Y ann is. "W e are tired of the w ar, tired of kil l ings, tired of fear and terror.

All we want is to sleep in peace Why the hell don't the Chites leave us

alone?"

"Exactly what I'm trying to tell you, all of you. Don't give them

cause to harm you, me, or anybody else," replied Metros.

Panos offered the shivering M etros some w ine. T he m an talked for a

long time that night. They were aware of their helplessness, and talking

wa s a way of unburden ing them selves from their fears and an xieties.

D espite the lack of public order, the governm ent of Sophou lis , pres-

sured by the British, announ ced that elections w ould take place on Sund ay,

March 31. The persecution of former Antartes continued unabated. The

M inistry of Interior w as disqualifying from voting l ists form er R esistance

sympathizers and k now n dem ocrats . T he Brit ish, who w ere in Greece at the

time w ith a sm all police force, did no t object and conveniently turned th eir

eyes the other way.

In protest, E A M , The Greek Liberation Front, the largest R esistance

organization du ring the war, and after the w ar the vanguard of the dem ocratic

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m ovem ent in Greece, was forced to call for a postponem ent of elections until

such tim e as or der wo uld have been restored. Ho wever , when i t becam e

evident that electio ns wo uld tak e place at the end o f M arch, as or iginally

planned, EA M ann ou nced that it would abstain and urged that all the dem o-

cratic parties do likewise.

Since the dem ocr atic parties follo wed the urging of the EA M and did

not take part in the upcoming elections, it left only two parties, the right-

wing Po pulists and the m iddle-of-the-ro ad L iberals. But the L iberal Party

had w eak candidates, and being,the rival o f the Po pulists, its candidates we re

kept under surveillance by the gendarmerie and the Chites.

The K or inthia slate of the Po pulist Party included two f or m er well-

kno wn co llabo rators w ho m onths befo re w ere in jail, but the rightist courts

had let them go f ree. Tho dor is Sam aras, a Plevran, was active in pro m oting

the candidacy o f his fellow collaborator, Pappayiannis fro m K or inthos, who

as it was rum or ed, had been an info rm er fo r the SS. Pappayiannis had helped

his friend, Th o do ris, land a lucrative po sition w ith the K o rinthia R elief

D istribution Co m m ittee.

O n the first Sunday o f Ma rch Tho dor is, Pappay iannis, and two o ther

Populist candidates came to Plevra with an escort of four gendarmes

com m anded by Lefteris Nestos, another native Plevran and a form er m em ber

of the Security Battalions.

The gaunt lho doris clim bed the low wall separating the churchyard

fro m the square and introduced the candidates. There w ere sho uts, applause,

and zeto es (long live).

"D ow n with the com m unists , the enem ies of o ur country," shouted

Tho dor is, and the Plevra C hites and right-wingers applauded.

"W e want our K ing " Tho doris went on, voicing the Po pulist slogan

for the return o f the king.

"Bring him back, soon " roared the crowd.

"Plevra will vote Populist to the last m an " claime d T hodoris.

"D o not count m e, collaborator " shouted Petros.

"Communists like you do not vote " retorted Thodoris. "You will

pay for your treason "

"Listen who is talking treason " Pettus shouted back.

O ne of the gendarmes m oved c lose and nudged Petros away w ith the

rifle butt. "Go to your fields," he ord ered .

"Go back where the hell you came from On this very ground my

forefathers stood long before you were a sperm in your father's balls,

Baskina (pig) "

T he gendarm e ram m ed the rifle butt at Petros's side and the frail man

fell to the ground. Vlassis saw w hat happened, ran and punched the a ssailant

in the mouth. An other gendarm e sneaked up on V lassis and hit him on the

head w ith the c lub. D ow n w ent V lassis, blood tr ickl ing from the r ight s ide

of his head.

"Com rades do st ick up for one another," remarked Th odoris.

Pan os, Yann is and oth er l iberals w ere dow n by the square in front of

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Zanos's place.

"W hat the hel l is going on," remark ed Y annis. "Pano s, look at your

cousin. He is on the ground and they are kicking him "

Panos ran tow ards the m elee and began swinging at the gendarmes .

Some of the Plevra Chites joined in and the rightists outnumbered the

left ists three to one. T he gendarm e that had hit Vlam is swu ng the club at

Pan os's ribs and ano ther gendarm e ram m ed the rif le butt at his test icles .

Pan os fell to the groun d, paralyzed by the excruciating pain.

T oothless k icked him on the s ide and com m ented, "He w on' t screw

his K atina tonight."

"C om mu nists believe in sharing and helping each other. M aybe one of

his comrad es will do it for him," added Le fteris who w as standing over Pan os.

Pan os heard both of them . H e reached an d grabbed Lefteris by the

legs. Lefteris lost his balance an d fell. Pan es grabbed the rifle from his han ds

and sprang to his feet. H e took a few steps away from the crow d.

"E verybody stay whe re you are " he ordered . "Vlassis, Petros, get up.

T oothless, come here "

T oothless stood trem bling. H e looked to T hodoris . But T hodoris and

the cand idates stood frozen, their tongues tied.

"H ear m e, Toothless, I w ill blast you to high heaven " yel led Pan os.

Petros and V lassis stood up and moved aw ay.

T oothless did not m ove. T wo gendarm es cocked their rifles.

"Panos, don't kill him He is not worth going to jail for," yelled

Petros.

Panos moved close to Toothless and rammed the rifle butt at his

s tomach. Dow n w ent T oothless , m oaning and groaning, and c lutching his

aching stomach.

"You look after your dog-screwing sisters and leave m y w ife alone,"

hissed Panos and spat on him. Then he turned to Lefteris who had just

stood up and w as brushing off his uniform.

"Lefteris , I have never done a nything to hurt you or your kin. T hat

remark was u ncalled for," said Panos and handed him the rifle.

Sophocles the T all spoke to Father M anolis, "Yo u are the priest, why

don't you say som ething?"

"C om mu nists get wh at they deserve," answ ered the priest.

"Some priest you are," charged M anousos.

Sophocles turned to the gendarm es, "Y our job is to keep order and

not to hit people. If they canno t take som e booing, they sho uld not run for

parliament." T hen he turned and spoke to Patios and the others.

Pano s, Sophocles, Vlassis, Petros, and M anousos w ent away .

W hen Pa nos cam e hom e, he found K atina s itt ing by the low f ire and

his m other sleeping on the cot near the fireplace.

"I fell down ," Panos explained the lum p on his head as he squatted to

warm his hands.

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K atina loo ked at him and detected so m ething had happened. She did

not believe his ex planation.

"D o yo u want to tell me about it?" she asked in bed.

Pano s told her about the scram ble but did not m ention anything abo ut

Toothless's or Lefteris's remarks.

"C an't yo u fo rget politics for just once, Panos?"

"I never regretted joining the Resistance, and no damn collaborator is

go ing to call me a traitor."

They heard K yra K osm ou stir in her cot.

"Go to sleep, K atina," he said. "To m or ro w we'have a full day ahead of

us.

The next evening Kyra Kosmou asked Katina to go and fetch

water as soon as she and Panos were back fro m the fields.

"The ur n is m or e than half full, Mo ther," protested K atina.

"Go child, do n't arg ue," insisted the old lady.

Panos had not said m uch all day. He m otioned fo r K atina to go.

"I want to talk to y ou," said his m other as soo n as K atina was o ut of

the house.

"Is it abo ut Ka tina?"

"N o, i t's abou t you. A nd yo u are go ing to l isten. I do no t want your

wife to hear m e when I scold yo u. You are a m arried man and in the future

you are going to be a father. You carry on the way yo u do and what is going

to happen to the gir l you m arr ied when they car t yo u of f to jail? I heard

what happened last night, every thing. Yo u had a right to pro tect your wife's

nam e, but yo u should not have gotten yo urself in a scuffle like yo u did."

"M o ther, they were kill ing V lassis and what they w ere saying was

directed at m e, too ."

"There y ou go , just like yo ur father . A lways sticking up for what is

right. These are different tim es, son. N ever befo re in m y life have I seen so

m uch hate and vengeance. Pano s, getting even never helps anyone. Yo u need

to calm dow n. Kee p your m o uth shut until the sto rm passes. The right will

find itself."

Panos k indled the firewo od and sat silently. K yra K osm ou leaned for-

ward o n her stoo l and sighed.

K atina returned and she loo ked disturbed. No w wha t, thought Pano s.

His wife loo ked at the black draped figure sitting by the fire.

"M other baw led me out fo r getting into a scuffle yesterday," explained

Panos.

"A nd yo u better take to m ind everything I said," snapped the old lady.

"M other , the things they said about m e do not bother m e. Stop and

think who said them ," said Katina and put her arm aro und her m o ther-in-law.

"This whole village has go ne crazy ," co ntinued K atina. "They w ould not

speak to m e at the fountain."

Kyra Kosmou stood up and put her arms around her. "Oh, poor

child. You suffer too. They are envious because you married a Doxas.

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The lord w ill punish them ."

Pano s wanted to get out. He co uld not stand fem ale sentim entality.

He did not dare go to the square . He knew that few, m aybe none, o f the

liberals wo uld be there.

"W e are strangers in our o wn place," he said to himself.

In bed Katina cuddled next to Panos and put one arm around his

neck. "Y ou protected m y ho nor , just like they w ri te in the boo ks. I 'l l le t

yo u in on a l i tt le secret . N o ta Garoufa lias m ade a crack a bout yo u having

sm ashed balls. She's go t a sm ashed head. I hi t her w ith the water ba rrel ,

her own."

Pano s brok e into a giggle. "If she were any thing to get excited about,

I wo uld show her what I can still do."

K atina jabbed his side with her elbow . "That 's not funny," she said

somewhat jealously.

"I just said that."

"Pano s, did yo u ever have an a ffai r wi th a gir l?" she asked af ter a

short pause.

"Yo u are acting silly. W hat kind of a question is that?"

"Yo u did not answer m e."

Panos was discovering that his bride could be very stubborn. He

wo ndered how m uch she knew abo ut his affair with N ike while in Kephesia

during the days of the December Revolution. He decided to evade her

quest io n. " I went to a w hor e o nce o r twice, but that does no t count ," he

told her.

"K atina, you are acting like a schoo l girl. No w stop it and go to sleep."

"I am not going to stop and

I

am not sleepy yet."

He gro ped for her brea sts and she squirmed at his touch.

"D id you ever do anything with Eleni?" she asked unexpectedly.

"So that's what is o n yo ur m ind. N o , I never had an af fair with Eleni."

"They say she did it wi th al l the Antar tes. Ho w co m e yo u were the

exception?"

"Go d dam n it Yo u are acting silly. Believe m e what I tell yo u. Eleni

had a fe w m en, that's all. The village m akes a big deal o f it."

"Yo u m ean to say it 's not a big thing fo r a girl to sleep with m en befo re

she is m arried? W ould you have liked me 'to have done that?"

"I think y ou ar e itching fo r a go od screw ing tonight."

Fotopoulos, a retired currants merchant who before the war had

m arried a yo ung girl from Manna, was in Plevra the m iddle of March cam -

paigning. He w as running as an independent and no o ne w as taking him

seriously, nor did he have any chance of being elected. With financial

success came am bition to becom e a m em ber of that deliberative bodyk now n

as the Vo uli, the Greek Parliam ent.

The Plevrans gathered to listen, boo and joke, even though they

expected to be treated to ouz o, Tur kish coffee and cigarettes.

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Loukas was the mastermind behind the welcoming. They made

Foto poulos ride a donke y and paraded him through the village shouting:

"W e want Fotopoulos Fotopoulos is our man "

W hen they go t back to the square, they m ade him stand on o ne of the

benches to deliver his speech. A s he began speaking, Lo ukas and T o othless

lifted the bench. The short Fotopoulos tottered and fell. The amused

Plevrans lifted him o n the bench again yelling:

"Speech Speech "

Sopho cles the Tall, Pano s, Yannis and others loo ked o n, rather em -

barrased for their C o-vi llagers' behavior . Metros cam e o ver to them and

rem arked sor row fully, "W e certainly need lessons in m anners."

He and So phocles talked o n the side, then they went close to the cro wd.

"A ll of y ou o ught to be asham ed of y ourselves," adm onished Metros.

"Mr. Fo topoulos , yo u a re a go od and ho nes t m an . But running fo r

parliam ent is sort o f stupid," said Sophocles.

Fo topo ulos realized he had be en the object o f a joke, but he did not

lose his com posure. He asked fo r silence.

"I have had the best response to m y cam paign here at Plevra. Allow m e

to say a few words," he began.

Lo ukas shouted, "Zeto " and began clapping his hands.

"Let him say what he has to say. W e drank and sm ok ed at his expense,

the least we can do is listen to him speak," said So phocles.

"W hat I have to say will not take long," co nt inued Fotopo ulos . He

coug hed twice and stretched his short torso to its full height.

"N o m an is better than the nex t and no citizen is denied the r ight or

the opportunity to t ry for polit ical off ice, how ever naive he m ay be. If yo u

consider m e not wo rthy of yo ur t rust, then do no t vote fo r m e. But when

you vote, remember, the right to cast your ballot is the cornerstone of

dem ocr acy. It should not be abused; it should not be bargained away . No one

should intim idate yo u to vote one w ay o r another . For vo ting without the

freedo m to vote o ne's conscience is not voting at all, m erely a form ality.

"I am before yo u as one who took the courage a l l of us should have,

and that is to speak up and be heard, to say w hat one has to say a nd do what

o ne has to do and then be judged by his fel lo w cit izens. Yo u have heard

candidates of o ne or two parties. D o no t judge them by their party sym bols,

but by the men they are. That's why I afn running as an independent. I

kno w what yo u are thinking: No party wanted him that's why he is running

on his own. May be so. I did not approach anybo dy, nor was I approached

by any o ne to jo in this slate o r that slate. My qualificatio ns are the sam e as

for all of you a citizen in goo d standing.

"O ne final thoug ht befor e I close. Rem em ber, this is the first election

in m or e than ten years. Ma ny o f yo u will be voting for the first t im e. Mak e

sure yo u register. A nd yo u are qualified to vote no m atter what yo ur political

leanings if you have no t been sentenced to jail by the cour ts or co nfined to an

insane institution. A nd if either w ere the case, yo u wo uld not be here today .

"Thank you for the kind attention. Zeto our people Zeto Hellas

Zeto demo cracy "

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The crowd responded with applause and zetoes. Loukas and the

Chites stared at the ground and quietly walked away.

Panos and m any yo ung Plevrans asked for specifics on ho w to register.

Fo topo ulos explained that it was really a sim ple m atter. A ll they had to do

was take the tim e and go to the nearest gendarm e post . "Y ou w il l need

proof of age, a birth or baptismal certificate, or an army discharge will do,"

advised Fo topoulos.

A week befo re the election Pano s and the other Re sistance activists

we re sitting at Za no s's., co ffee h o use talking of their alternatives. V lassis

had w ith him a leftist paper,

Rizospastis ,

and the m en were reading it.

Zano s brought to the table the coffee the m en had ordered, and when

he saw the paper, he panicked. "Yo u will ruin m e Please take that paper

out of here " he pleaded.

"If we see dang er, we'll put it away," Pano s assured him.

The fro nt page o f the paper was devoted to the atro cities com m itted

by the gendarmerie and Organization X. It made reference to names

mysteriously disappearing or to dead bodies discovered,

all

leftists or

Re sistance sym pathizers. The edito rials wer e vo ciferously against the elec-

t io ns and wer e repea ting the call o f E A M fo r abstaining. The po ssibili ty

always ex isted that the gover nm ent m ight postpone the elections. But by

then it was obvious no po stpone m ent was in the work s.

"The B ri tish want the elections," said Pet ros . "They w ant to m ake

sure they go t their stoo ges in before they leave."

"W e are between two fires," sighed Ya nnis. "Yo u do no t vote, they

cart yo u of f to jai l. Yo u vote, then you hate yo urself . I 'l l eat dirt befo re I

vote Populist."

"The liberals are anti-com m unists and anti-ro yalists. Vote liberal. They

are no t going to thro w us in jail fo r that," said Panos.

"The them e o f the rightists is that anyo ne who is no t for the K ing is a

com m unis t rem arked M anousos . " I los t a son fo r tha t. I cannot even be

free to vo te the way I w ant." He turned to Pano s.

"For the sake o f yo ur bro ther's sacrifice and yo ur father's death do no t

vote . You w ill be sham ing their m em ory." M anousos wiped a tear. Panos

was trying hard to co ntrol his em otions.

"My brother gave his life so that Tho doris can m ake a fo r tune and

Le fteris flash his stripes," said Pano s and stared aw ay fr o m the m en. Yannis

slapped his back gently.

"Zano s, bring us som e ouzo ," ordered Panos.

The co ffee m an bro ught a bottle of o uzo and glasses. Pano s filled each

glass. He ra ised his rust and propo sed a toast:

"I drink to m y beloved com rades, the A ntrates, true freedo m fighters."

He gulped his drink and then rem ark ed, "If the C hites hear m e, I dare them

com e and ask m e to take it back."

The fo ur m en drank to Pano s's toast.

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"I thought elections were supposed to be free and secret," spoke Takis,

Eleni's husband who also had served for a year with the Antartes.

"Democracy is a tool you use to your advantage. When it does not suit

you, you bend it, subvert it, twist it to any way you want if you are in

power," explained Petros.

"As I see it we cannot win," began Yannis. "If the Populists win, then

they will send to jail thousands of leftists. If they postpone the elections till

the summer and the Populists are defeated, then the British and the rightists

will move in and take over with a dictatorship, like Metaxas did, and that

friends will lead us to civil war."

The men nodded their heads and whispered, "Amen."

Petros read about the nearly fifteen hundred observers who had come

from England, France, and the United States to supervise the elections. When

he finished reading, he remarked, "They are the epilogue to aperfect farcical

scenario."

Sotiris's coffee house was Plevra's polling place on Sunday, March 31,

1946. Three gendarmes were present to make sure the election was peaceful

and without incident. The Plevra Chites were on hand just in case they were

needed. There were three observers, one for the Populist Party, one for the

Liberal Party, and a foreign observer.

Panos had taken to heart his mother's words, especially now that he

was married. He debated over and over what candidate of the Liberal

Party to vote for. Some of the names were old and familiar, some were new.

Only one Liberal candidate had come to Plevra but he did not have the

makings of a deputy. The pathetic Fotopoulos had impressed him more than

this Liberal candidate. Panos decided to vote for him. That way he was

not placing himself in the uncomfortable position of abstaining.

Petros and Vlassis were at the square but they did not intend to vote.

Yannis and Manousos had voted earlier. Petros had seen them go into the

coffee house.

"Are you voting, Panos?" asked Vlassis.

"Yes."

"Are you afraid to stand up? How can you throw your vote away?"

remarked his cousin.

"Cousin, you choose not to vote. I choose to vote, and I am voting

for the man of my choice," replied Panos. He left them and walked towards

Sotiris's place past the ruins on either side of the road leading away from

the square.

Inside the same gendarme corporal that had given him a hard time

over qualifications in Kiato because he was a Resistance man was behind the

first table checking identity cards against voting registration lists. Behind

another table were the ballots and on the third table rested the ballot box.

Two Chites, Loukas and Niketas, were standing by the wall. They looked at

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Pano s disapprovingly. Pano s ignored them , to ok o ut his identity card and

handed it to the cor poral. Stam atis was just finishing voting. Panos wo ndered

who had m arked his ballot s ince the old m an did not know how to read o r

write.

The gendarme looked at Panos suspiciously, checked the identity card

and handed it back, nodding his head. A w ell-dressed gentlem an behind the

second table handed P ano s the Po pulist ballot.

"I do not w ant that. I want the ballot with unco m m itted candidates,"

said

Panos firmly.

The co rporal loo ked at him sternly. The fo reign observer was loo king

awa y indiffere ntly, either bo red w ith the who le electio neering o r no t quite

understanding what was going on. The other two observers were busy

talking to themselves.

"W e ran o ut of the o ther ballots," snapped the co rpora l with peeved

cynicism.

"Then I do not wish to vote," replied Panos. Loukas and Niketas

look ed at him , then quickly turned their heads away.

"If that is your w ish, I will have to m ark yo u as abstaining," said the

corpo ral and loo ked Pano s squarely in the eye.

"So be it," m uttered Pano s and stor m ed out of the place.

The gendar m e turned to the wel l-dressed gentlem an and order ed,

"Mark him A BSTAIN ED."

The Po pulist Party wo n an o verwhelming m ajori ty o f the votes cast.

N early hal f o f the el igible vo ters abstained, though. The Re gent , Arch-

bishop D am askinos, gave the m andate to the Po pulists to for m Greece 's

f i rst post-war elected go vernm ent. The EA M voiced strong objections and

gleefully proclaimed the elections w ere a fa rce. The fo reign observer s veri-

fied the abstentions as normal and concluded the elections had been

conducted without incident.

Christos Kano lis

Gary, Indiana

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A P O R IE S (W O N D E R I N G S) *

If the many submit to force the first time

why should they not accept for a second time

the power of the few

who will attain it by force?

And if they accept the slogans of the first ones

why should they reject those of others

since the same distortion always

exists in the words of the tyrants?

And if all those who want to represent the People

submit to the threat of force

and turn out to be criminals for the first time

why should they reject it the second time around?

And since they distort meaning so easily

when they call cowardice Logical

betrayal realism

why then should they not call slavery freedom?

The same then every time

those incapable of understanding the People

will ask them with false words

to submit to force?

From

The Bogia Kaii Alla Pimata

The Paint and Other Poems)

by

Alexander Panagoulis (Prologue by

Vasilis Vasilikos, Rome 1972, and

Translation by Nikos Petropoulos)

*Alexander Panagoulis attempted to assassinate strongman Pipadopoulos

during August of 1968. A lack of coordination saved Papadopoulos. Papa-

dopoulos said he escaped because "God was a philhellene." Panagoulis was

sentenced to death but because of international pressures his sentence was

commuted to life imprisonment. It is while he has in prison that he wrote

these poems which were smuggled out of Greece. During August 1973, he

was included in the "general. amnesty." When be got out of "Orison, he said

that he did not regret his act; history had called for it and somebody had to

try it. He is now in Europe organizing to overthrow the present junta.

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M Y " U N Y I E L D I N G S T R U G G LE "

(A N E N D O T O S A GO N A S )

BEGAN IN 1940*

My name is Christos Alexandris, son of Demetrius. I was born

in

Greece, in Goumennisa, Macedonia the Province of Kilkis. I finished the

sixth grade of school. my

parents are in Greece. I, from 1940-1974, am

found in and out of Greece. I am a combatant (agonistis) of the National

Resistance from 1943 until today. I have given my all to the heroic Struggle

for a Free and Democratic Greece as has my Companion. But for the many

misadventures and crude errors by the leaders everytime our struggle was

betrayed. We took part in the struggle during the occupation, hardships,

hunger and poverty. We fought German fascism and expelled the Germans.

in the end we were betrayed the Bourantades** came from the Middle East

and they began to hunt us. this time all the Greek reactionaries hunted us. In

the end we took refuge in the mountains, joined the guerilla movement be-

tween 1945 and 1949. fought the Greek fascists but in the end we were de-

feated and took refuge in the Socialist countries. by 1950 I was wounded

three times, now disabled, the same as my wife. We lived as refugees in the

Socialist countries. 20 years. Since I had a brother here we came to America

too. Always with the faith in our Fatherland that one day it will be freed

already others are continuing our struggle in Greece. From 1940 until today

they slander us as foreign-instigated for all our life they would put various

slanderous labels on us, a lot in Greece but twice as much behind the iron

curtain (the parapetasmaas the Greek s call i t). Bu t they didn't m ake u s kneel.

A s strong as Papadopoulos was, our Struggle overthrew him an d in the end w e

shal l W in and Greece w i ll belong to us Greeks a nd no t to the sundry F ascists ,

SS collaborators, and security battalioneers. Experiences from the civil war.

*Mr. Alexandris came into contact with us at an anti-junta rally in Chicago

at the time of the fall student demonstrations He took the initiative to cor:

respond with us and in the process told his story. The story is a composite of

two letters to us; an attempt was made to preserve the integrity of his style

and sequence. The only major exception involves the last few lines beginning

with

if

your journal

which were part of his first letter to us. After he volun-

tarily asked us to use his story to expose the junta, we asked him to provide

us w ith m ore inform ation and permission to use his name.

**Collectively refers to Greek Army contingents in the Middle East who

after the defeat of the Nazis returned to Greece and persecuted those who

had fought in the resistance against the Nazis. The term comes from an

actual Greek f igure w ho h eaded a Securi ty Battal ion direct ly un der the N azis .

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W e were part of the Dem odatic A rm y of Free Greece we w rote history and

Glories for our S truggle. O ur cit izenship was subtracted from us by the

Greek nation which government I don't know but we are listed in a newspaper

of the Greek Governmen t where it is written I paid them no attention such

dates for m e they are invalid. A t any rate they have us classified as draft

dodgers, because I didn't present myself to the Greek A rmy. I have n ever set

foot in a Greek E mbassy in m y life I'm disgusted w ith the fascists. and I w ill

never go. my

children are born in R om ania. Last year there was noise of

dem ocratization, and my children asked to go to get acquainted with. Greece

to see our ow n grandm as brothers and sisters and our father's land. we took

out A m erican passports that is for our children because w e ourselves are

classified as citizens w ithout a country. we h ave not a one Greek docum ent.

w e bought the tickets for the airplane and so tha t our children wou ld stay in

Greece for 2 m onths. W hen our children went to the Greek C onsulate they

told them w e w ill not give you a visa to go to Greece but the C onsulate w ill

write to Greece to the P apadopoulos Governm ent, and if they approve you

w ill go. The sum m er passed and w e got no answer. the case even had i ts

ram ifications in Greece s ince they asked our

parakoubara(casual acquain-

tances) wh o w e w ere. By the end of O ctober the C onsulate replied that the

C hristian Governmen t is unable to give my ch ildren an entrance visa to Greece

and so w e postponed everything and m y children never wen t to Greece my

M other. I am sending you a photocopy* from the C onsulate and if you are

interested use it to expose the Junta. Because of this I asked you to do

w hatever you can to d iscredit the w retched fascists. m yw ife's sister in the

struggles of the D em ocratic A rm y of Greece in one battle of 1948-49 they .

captured her w ound ed they took her to the hospital and once they treated

her and got her w ell they sent her to her hom e. A nd afterwards they put her

through a court-m artial and they executed her in front of our parents in the

village in Greece, because sh e w as part of the struggle. that's wha t fascists

are. But we the agonistes don't forget. you can use m y nam e in the open for

the exposur e of those Fa scist executioners. thus w e help our struggle.. .

If your journal com es out in Greek I ask you to send it to m e right aw ay. As

for the help that you ask, I w ill help as m uch as I can , but there is one thing

that you should know that I as w ell as my wife we are w e are agonistes of the

N ational Resistance 41-45, 45-49 and today and both o f us are disabledfrom

the long struggle of our Pe ople here w e are doing pseudow ork for 2 dollars

an hour washing dishes because other w ork w e can't do because of our dis-

ability. both of us are w ith broken han ds. I have 3 children, and I am con-

tinuing the un yielding struggle un til the final victory of our People.

from C hristos A lexandris

Chicago, Illinois

-

January 1974

(Translated by N ikos Petropoulos)

*In formal handw ritten language the Greek C onsulate replied: W e inform

you that w e are unable to grant you a

visa

for Greece

Sas pl iroforoum en ot i

adinatom en na sas horigisoum en theor isin isodou is Ellada).

T he reply had

the junta's new stamp on there to signify its conversion to a republic; the w ord

Royal

was scratched out from the reply note: with the C om pliments of the

Royal C onsulate General of Greece.

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THE FLOWE RING OF THE POPPY*

Th e Greeks down in the sewers

the tourists down on the shore.

N ow that the clocks have stopped

no m ore m ilitary aid

send your bandages

your drugs

to numb red poppy the wound,

and m ake us too forget the upper world

as w e have been forgotten down here.

Friends you whom we m eet through fum es

a wall of dense smok e

(dam p with the drugs)

that thickensm ud, earth, and brick

m ake up your m inds,

wh ere are you and w hat are you,

get out of this torpor.

H ere, on the operating table

talking only in hallucinations

reality diminishes

into bending ghosts

wh ile only a far-away voice like logic

gives an accou nt of the events

Re sponsibility disintegrates in your d im m ind

your m attress is on fire

stand up

from T he Sorrow of H ellenism,

Poem s 1969-1971

by C. Capri-Karka

*This poem, in the form of an appeal from the tortured Greek political

prisoners to the Americans who use drugs, draws a parallel between the

Greeks w ho have hal lucinations as a result of torture and those A m ericans

wh o try to forget, with d rugs, a world they don't accept.

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TORTURE: TO DAY, GREECE; TOMORR OW , . . .?

A single isolated case o f individual torture is o f co urse terrible. The

repor t of such an event can m ake a person squirm and f linch and wo nder

how anyo ne can infl ic t such agony on thei r own k ind. Pity for the poo r

wretched victim abo unds.

A dd to this isolated act the reaso n (ideology) behind i t and inform a-

tion w hich proves m any m or e sim ilar acts are occurring. Then add that these

acts are the regular policy of a go vernm ent tow ards its own citizens* whom it

defines as political enem ies D raw the eco nom ic conne ctio n between such a

go vernm ent and U.S. business interests. Think abo ut how y ou fo ught those

same corporations to end the war in Viet Nam or to get a meager pay

increase. N ow yo ur react io n to the tor ture takes on a new dim ension. A

logical person becomes physically afraid, I am physically afraid.

I don ' t m uch care fo r the idea that those who stand in the way o f a

new A m erica see tor ture as a legitima te weapon. But they do . The second

part o f this article will deal with that reality. This first part is a repo rt on

the violence which faces bro thers and sisters in Gree ce and o ther nations as

yo u read this today .

I.

Cases of torture and the current extent of its use.

A m nesty International is a hum anitarian or ganization without religious

o r po litical affiliation which was fo unded to help "priso ners o f co nscience"

anyw here in the wor ld. I t defines "prisoners o f co nscience" as those who

have neither practiced no r advo cated violence but are im prisone d fo r political

or religious beliefs. The essence of its wo rk is based on A rticles 18 and 19 o f

the U niversal Declara tion of Hum an R ights, procla im ed by the U .N. o n

D ecem ber 10, 1948.

A rticle 18 reads: "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, con-

science and religion; this r ight includes freedo m to chan ge his religion o r

belief, and freedo m , either alone o r in com m unity w ith others and in public

o r private, to m anifest his religio n o r belief in teach ing, practice, wo rship,

and observance."

A rticle 19 reads: "Everyo ne has the r ight to f reedo m o f opinio n and

expression, this right includes free dom to ho ld opinions without interfer ence

and to seek, receive and im part info rm ation and ideas through any m edia

regar dless of fr ontiers."

1

O n D ecem ber 3 0 , 1967, A m nesty In te rna tiona l (headquar te red in

Lo ndon w ith co nsultative status categor y I w ith the Co uncil of E uro pe) sent

an investigative delegatio n to Greece. T wo m o nths later ano ther visit was

In March 1968 General Pattako s, D eputy Prime M inister and M inister of

the Interior, asserted that the Greek r egim e o nly detained "com m unists."

He later added that "co m m unists are not Greeks but beasts."

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arranged. An American lawyer by the name of James Becket was part of

both delegations. He completed two reports for Amnesty International and

then wrote a book entitled

Barbarism in Greece.

The initial effect of these

reports shook Europe and led to the

Look

magazine article about Greek

torture published in the United States. The next five individual cases of tor-

ture and the list of torture techniques are taken from Becket's book and the

two A m nesty Internat ional reports .

K aterina A rseni is an actress born in 1936 on the is land of C ephalonia.

She i llegal ly left Greece after her im prisonm ent and torture. She now res ides

in the Greek exi le com m unity of Paris.

On August 23, 1967, three plainclothes Athens Security Policemen

entered her house in the early hours of the morning and arrested her.

Lambrou was the leader, his two assistants were Mallios and Babalis, these

three becam e her regular interrogators.

After ramsacking her house the police discovered mimeographed

leaflets printed by the underground resistance group, the Patriotic Front.

They also found several forbidden books and a tape recorded message by

T heodo rakis, the Greek com poser.

She was threatened with a revolver and had her hair pulled while still

in her h om e. The police w anted information regarding contacts , names, e tc .

The police then took her to the car and told her that she would be

stripped* and executed if she did not talk and proceeded to drive to an

abandoned old quarry. En route they beat her on the head with the sides of

their palm s, and twisted her f ingers and w rists threatening to break her bones.

Upon arrival she was made to lie flat on the rear seat of the car with

both doors opened. One man lay on top of her and covered her mouth with

his hand while the others removed her shoes and began to beat the soles of

her feet (falanga) with two long police clubs. ( The pain of this common

torture is reported to be beyond imaginationthe only description comes

from experience.)

After some time she was forced to walk barefoot and bleeding on the

rocks and thorns of the quarry at the same time being beaten on all parts of

the body causing her to bleed from the mouth and nose. When this finally

stopped, Babalis took out his gun and placed it on her temple and again

threatened execution if she did not talk. She reported that at that point she

would have welcomed death and she did not react at all to their threat.

T his , she said, infuriated them even m ore and they resum ed beating her past

the point of memory.

In Athens, on Bouboulinas Street, the Security Police have their

headquarters. In the basement is located the "inner isolation block." These

cells are cold, bare, and almost totally without light. They measure roughly

*In Greek culture nakedness is very m uch feared.

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five feet by eight feet with urine, feces, water, and vom it cove ring the flo or .

Ther e are no benches or beds and a prisoner m ust sit and sleep on the flo or

without blankets Evening and afterno on m eals m ust be purchased. It was to

this place that K aterina A rseni was taken af ter her initial arrest and tor ture.

For the first five day s she underw ent exhaustive late night interro gation.

Blackm ail, threats of violence to her fam ily, bribery, and o ffers o f better

t reatm ent were the tactics fo r these f i rst days. O n the f i f th day she was

ordered into "strict isolation" which meant she received no food nor water

and was no t allowe d out to urinate o r defecate, only for interro gation. This

continued for fo ur day s, then she was re turned to "reg ular isolation."

On the eleventh day she was moved into a cell with a hysterical

wo m an. Ka terina had lost a lo t of w eight and was co nstantly dizzy and

lapsed into co m as instead of sleep. She stayed in this cell fo r nine day s and

was then m ov ed to an individual cell.

O n the sam e day of this m ove an interrogator nam ed Spanos was put in

charge o f her questioning. He, w ith three o ther assistants, led K aterina to the

"ta ratsa" which is the upstairs terrace. A m o torcy cle engine is used to co ver

the so unds of scream s which would otherwise reach the street and nearby

buildings. She w as put o n a thick bench, stripped and tied tightly fro m feet

to shoulders. She was beaten on the soles o f her feet , her thro at grabbed,

hair pulled, m atches struck nea r her eyes, and m outh stuffed with a urine-

soak ed rag. Spanos gave the orders as to w hat to r ture to apply and at what

point, and his three assistants responded acco rdingly. H e w o uld constantly

ask for nam es and inform at ion threatening to throw her f ro m the ter race

naked if she did not talk.

A fter several hours she was carried fro m the room shaking and unable

to speak. They tr ied to revive her with water and they checked her f eet to

see if anything was broken. Then her regular interrogators (Lambrou,

Mallios, and Babalis) returned and began questioning her and threatening

her w ith the electro -shock m achine. She was very lucky, it was never put to

use on her.

Fo r thirty eight days she wa s conf ined to isolatio n, 'D uring this tim e

she swears to have seen m en crawling on their elbows and knees to and fro m

interro gatio n, their feet and heads brok en o pen and bleeding. She reported

sexual tortures and one case o f m iscarriage induced by beating. A m an in the

cell next to her w ent crazy and w ould beat him self unco nscious, scream ing

fo r the police not to rape his sister or kill his m other.

One day while Katerina was in isolation, the police brought her

brother , a soldier , to her a nd he too was under arrest . They o rdered him to

beat her to pro ve his loy alty. He refused.

A fter sixty-two days o f being kept by the Security P olice she was tried

and fo und guilty o f "distribution o f illegally pr inted m aterial and possession

of a taped m essage by Mikis Theo dor akis" and received a three year sentence

suspended.

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Petros Gavala.sis a Greek Orthodox priest. His treatment when initially

arrested was similar to that of most others. Insults and beating. His resis-

tance was based on his responsibility as a Christian. His torture was some-

what unusual but not unique.

Upon his arrest he was taken to the Gendarmerie of Heraklion. There

he remained for thirty hours. During this time he had to urinate three times

in his pants. He was kept in a "dank and dark unsanitary cell" for twenty-

seven days subjected to constant insult and threat.

All variations of political dissidents both left and right are subjected to

arbitrary arrest and torture. A nghelos P neumatikos,

a career military officer,

was a royalist. His support for the deposed king was reason enough for his

torture.

He was slapped and insulted upon his arrest and after a day at the

security police (Asphalia) headquarters, was transferred to the Greek Mili-

tary Police Headquarters He was placed in a small dark, cold, filthy cell and

for the next month Army personnel interrogated him. They used various

methods of producing anxiety before torturing him with the customary

falanga. One method was to run a motorcycle engine just outside his cell

causing disturbing racket for many hours. Along the same line was the beat-

ing of his cell door, made of iron, with heavy bars. During intervals in the

noise, a guard would bring angry attack dogs on leashes into his cell,

biting and tearing his skin.

Unable to extract a statement by these methods, the torturers buried

Anghelos alive leaving only his head out of the ground. He was unable to

remember the duration of this incident because of "the anguish, the nervous

strain and the constant questions shouted by people working in rotation."

After this and still without a confession, the falanga torture was used.

It is

interesting that after A nghelos was court-martialed and comm itted

to C oridallos Prison of Peraeu s he brought a legal suit against then P rime

Minister Papadopoulos. Anghelos accused the Prime Minister of responsibility

for his torture. O n A pril 19, 1969, A nghelos was brought to trial, this time

for "insulting the Prime M inister."

Pavlos Klavdianos

w as a s tudent at the School of Econom ics and

C om mercial Studies. He w as arrested on February 29, 1968, and taken to

Security Police Headquarters. It is difficult to rank the various tortures for

comparison, but in general young leftists seem to receive the worst the regime

has to o ffer.

Pavlos's interrogators used sticks, rubber straps and wires. W ith these

they beat him all over his body. The y tied his genitals with a string and

yanked on the string .

Next he w as tied to a bench and the soles of his feet were broken open

by falanga beating. T hen h e w as ordered to ru n in a circle

in

order to re-

stimulate the feeling

in

his feet. All the time he was running, fifteen police-

men beat him. He was

then retied to the bench and falanga continued until

he was unconscious.

The next day he was again beaten on the genitals after another falanga

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session. On the same day he was transferred to the 505 Marine Battalion

at Dionysos.

Immediately upon arrival he was subjected to falanga and a cigarette

put out in the palm of his right-hand. Electric wires were then connected to

his head and neck and attached to an electrical source. He experienced this

torture twice.

He was stripped naked and made to run in the courtyard before an

entire battalion. The guards prevented him from sleeping by making noise.

After a few days he was then made to lie on the floor while water was

dripped onto his forehead, producing acute headaches. One night, attack

dogs were left in his cell. He was hung by the ears and another time by

the hands. While he was hanging by his hands he was beaten on the

stomach,

dislocating his shoulders. A mock execution w as also used.

W hen he finally received a trial, the A thens Special Military Court sen-

tenced him to twenty-one years imprisonment.

Pavlos never signed a co nfession.

Petros Vlassis

is anothe r student.

Petros, unlike P avlos, broke dow n and signed a statement denoun cing his

friends and all opposition to th e dictatorship.

The following is a quotation

from his testimony, before the European Human Rights Commission, taken

fromBecket's book. (This occurs after a falanga session.)

"Tied on the bench and with the dirty cloth over my mouth, I was

beaten by Police lieutenant Gravaritis on the bones. Using a thick piece of

wood he started on the ankles, then hit the shin bones and the knees. After

he finished with the legs he worked on

arms and hands. Then he beat me on

the testicles and tore me trying to push the wood up my rectum . That ordeal

together with the beatings on the upper part of my fingers, on the elbows and

on the bones gene rally, was the m ost horrible of all. I could not m ove

my

legs &

Gravaritis himself put we t pieces of cloth on m y legs to try and bring

them back to life."

T he following is a sum mary of that portion of A mnesty International

entitled "Techniques of Torture."

A . Physical Torture

1)

T he standard tortu re of every A sphalia station is falanga.

Some comm on m ethods which accompany falanga are: pouring

water dow n the m outh and nose w hile the victim is

screaming;

putting Tide soap in the eyes, mouth and

nose; banging the head

on a bench or on the floor; beating on other parts of the body,

etc.

2)

Sexually-oriented methods such as shoving as many fingers as

possible or an object into a woman's vagina, then twisting and

tearing without mercy. The same may also be done to the anus.

Also a tube is inserted into the anus and a blast of high pressure

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wa ter is forced into the bow els. Beating m en's genitals w ith

long thin sand bags. O ne trade unionist was beaten so badly that

a testicle was driven into his body.

3)

Gagging by stuffing urine soaked rags far dow n a prisoner's

throat. A lso grasping of the throat so as to tut off the windpipe.

4)

Beating the head w ith sand.bags and beating the head against

the floor.

5) Beating naked flesh with wires knotted together like a whip.

6 )

Hanging a prisoner by the w rists for a long period of time.

7)

Jumping on the stomach.

8)

Tearing hair from head, face, and pubic region.

9)

Rubbing pepper onto genitals, eyes, nose, underarm s, etc.

10)

Pulling out fingernails and toe-nails.

11)

Burning by cigarettes and other means all parts of the body.

12) Electro-shock.

B. N on-Physical T orture

1)

Prisoners are intentionally mined to cells within earshot of

those being brutally tortured. Nervous collapse, such as happened

to Mikis Theodorakis, is the final product.

2)

T he horr ible conditions of confinem ent. Cells filled w ith

vermin. W ater standing on cell floors with excrem ent floating

about. Arbitrary food allotment.

3)

Threat to kill, rape, or maim

4)

Stripping naked.

5)

M ock executions.

6 )

Statement signing. Man y consider this to be the m ost in-

humane technique of the regime. A person is made to denounce

wife, parents, children, politics, conscience, ideals, etc.

These

five

cases and the A mnesty International Report apply to the

situation in Greece only. If Greece we re the only country engaged in such

acts, the hum an suffering would be u nexcusable but at least somew hat

limited. Greece is not the only country . In a recent article which appeared in

T he New R epu b lic ,

Rose Styron made this comm ent:

"Word comes now from C hile that since the coup, Brazilian police have

been perm itted to enter the cou ntry, to seize and tor ture Brazilian politcal

exiles there. The use of `palmatoria' in Brazil is comparable to lalanga' in

Greec e. 'Tr uth drugs' and the sophisticated misuse of light and sound

derange the Irish, Uruguayans, Russians. Electroshock is routine in Iran,

Indonesia, South A frica, Spain. N aked burial-to-the-neck for nights, comm on

in Viet N am an d Poland, was used in C alifornia last year on the 16 -year-old

blacks. Rigid stan ding in

a

cold cell, within a circle, flogged to stay awake for

days is standard in C zechoslovakia, in South A frica, in Argentina. A Greek

litany of the past decade: 'Say I killed my m other, but let me sleep.

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In 1971 the U.S. government awarded a $400,000 contract to the

American firm of Raymond, Morrison, Knudson, Brown, Roat and Jones to

build hundreds of new "tiger cages" for the Thieu regime.

3

These new cages

were actually smaller than those already in use. Our recently appointed

CIA director, William Colby, testified before Senate committees in 1970 and

1973 leaving no doubt that. American supervisors are present during the

torture of Thieu's opponents. Thieu's shackles are made by Smith and

Wesson and his tear gas is manufactured in Pennsylvania.

4

Colby is the past

head of "Operation Phoenix," a program designed to eliminate all anti-Thieu

organizations by murder (over 10,000 during the first year).

With U.S. support, Thieu produces some of the most shameful con-

ditions in the world today. Anthony Lewis of the New York

Times

described some men who had fallen victim to Thieu.

"It is not really proper to call them men anymore. 'Shapes' is a better

wordgrotseque sculptures of scarred flesh and gnarled limbs. . .years of being

shackled in tiger cages have forced them into a pretzel-like crouch. They

move like crabs, skittering across the floor on buttocks and palms."

II.

To rture and the U .S.

Torture is violence, second only to genocide..

So what does electro-shock applied to the genitals of some suspect

Brazilian, South Viet Namese, Philippine or Greek have to do with you and

me, safe here in "democratic" America? Other than the relative certainty

that the instruments of torture and the accompanying technical experts

are American,5 what's the connection?

In a word- imperialism. In general, the details go something like this:

The dependency which the U.S. and poor* nations share is primarily

economic in nature. In some cases, as in Greece strategic military concerns

figure in heavily also (13 major U.S. bases, nuclear, military, air, naval and

intelligence

6). In any case, these economic-military relations have been well

documented** and awareness among U.S. workers is increasing daily.***

The fact that the U.S. has economic interests worldwide and must protect

these interests militarily is no big surprise, it is the logical extension of what

*The client states of U.S. imperialism are not the "developing nations"

U.S. media would have us believe In general they continue to backslide

economically.

**The

Age of Imperialism,biagdoff. The Enemy,

Felix Greene.

***The Arab oil boycott, while not the menace U.S. oil companies would

have us believe, has emphasized the internationalness of our economy.

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has always been the guiding rule of U.S. business

-

grow or die. Slaughtering

entire Indian nations or forcing Viet Namese into concentration camps

(strategic hamlets), the driving force has always been private profit.

The daily suffering and violence which is forced on the 70 percent?

of the world's people who live in U.S. dominated nations is the other side of

the super-profit coin. By exploiting the natural resources and cheap labor of

poor countries, the U.S. can sell its goods cheaply on the world market and

rake in the profits from such an advantage. It can also afford to provide rela-

tive comfort for its own working class to ease political tensions at home.

At the same time, the political situation of the poor nations is very

unstable. The people in these countries are not passively accepting their

assigned role as the world's "niggers," i.e., Viet Nam, Cambodia, the

Philippines, Greece, etc. They are struggling to break free of U.S. dominance

and this leads to the use of increasingly violent repression by those in power.

Torture is just one indicator of the political bankruptcy of a regime.

At the

point where people in poor countries decisively begin to struggle

for state power, the economics of the situation changes. Where once the U.S.

claimed an asset, the protection of that asset becomes a liabilityyou might

even say the U.S. falls into the red. The financing of repression and war in

the poor nation comes almost totally from the U.S.

8

Where do the generals

get money for their electronic battlefields and mercenary ground troops?

From the taxes that fall heaviest on the poor and working class here in the

U.S. 8

What happens when the nation puts itself on a war economy?

More jobs in certain sectors, but less real income for the workers, partly

because of the inflation caused by deficit-financing and by the flow of dollars

overseas. What happens when the U.S.-supported mercenaries can't handle

the situation? The impulse is to send in American troops, but because of the

success of the anti-war movement and the demoralization of the armed

forces this has become a difficult political move. So spend more on tech-

nology, torture, and mercenaries and what do you get? More inflation (food

prices up 20% in 1973, Dept. of Labor), a decline in real wages (a drop of

2.3% in 1973, Dept of Labor), working class discontent (the recent trucker's

strike), millions of twisted pieces of foreign flesh, and for the rich, the moral

responsibility for which someday the people will hold them accountable.

As the discontent here in the U.S. widens, the rich and powerful will

combine acts of repression and reform to stifle it, carrot and stick style.*

As corporate profits are cut into more and more by reforms, the reaction to

discontent will be increasingly repressive. The rich and powerful class in the

U.S. has never had any moral hang-ups about violence. When the economics

*On the same day Nixon announced a proposed freeze on the cost of

No. 2 diesel fuel, it was also announced that the FBI would be investigating

"all criminal acts."

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of the U.S. imperial system come home and the common people come to see

the need for a second American revolution, it will be Americans who are

wired with electroshock machines.*

What a horrible prediction. If it's a foregone conclusion that there will

be systematic torture right here in the U.S., what's the use of fighting

against it?

While I believe that those in power will some day resort to torture, it is

a political question as to when that torture begins. Does it begin 10 years

before the people win state power or two weeks before? For Americans to

limit this period of torture, as they have limited direct military intervention,

the fundamental goal is an aroused, informed citizenry able to take the

power of the economy away from the rich. The work to be done by those

already aware of their opposition to the system is to "patiently explain"

in reasonable American working class terms the class realities of today.

Certain sectors of the working class are more strategic than others, i.e.,

trucking, steel, arm ed forces, and auto w orkers, but

personal integration

into

the

working class is an indispensable prerequisite. By consolidating the power

of American workers, all people under the thumb of U.S. business, Greeks,

South Viet Namese, Latin Americans, Africans, all these and others will face

less torture and daily violence

Steve Hantzis

Indianapolis, Indiana

*Electro-shock is already being used. In federally-funded prison programs

across the nation, inmates are involuntarily subjected to "electro-shock

therapy." Although the voltage level is relatively low, still discomforting, the

instrument can be turned up! One of the products of this therapy seems to

be loss of early memories.

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References

1.

Becket , Jam es,

Barbarism in Greece,

New York: Walker and Co.,

1970 , p . 8 7.

2.

Styron, Rose "Torture,"

The New Republic,

Vol. 169, No. 23,

(D ecem ber 8, 1973) , p. 18.

3

Ibid,

p. 19.

4

Ibid,

p. 20.

5.

Stuart, Peter C., "To rture as a Po litical W eapon,"

T he C hristian S cience

Monitor, (Decem ber 5, 1973 ) , p. 7 .

6. Papandreou, Andreas, ' Greece: The Meaning of the November

Uprising."

Monthly Review,

Vol. 25, No. 9, (February, 1974),

p. 20.

7.

Greene, Felix,

T h e E n e m y ,

N ew Yo rk: Random Ho use , 1970, p. 123.

8 . Magdo ff , Harry,

The Age of Imperialism,

New York: Mo nthly R eview

Pr ess, 1969 , p. 42.

9.

reene, Op. Cit ,

p. 263 .

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THE B R IDG E OF A R TA*

Pull m y go od m an, each loo p, pull on the chain

four years no w w alled in plaster

the bridge is so lid

without bread, without water, without sleep these eyes.

Foo tsteps so und and the bridge trem bles

wild birds fly, for eigners pass through:

do come, do come,

wo e for o ur fa te , pity for o ur lot .

W e dig with our nails to co m e into the light,

we are one w ith the stone.

Ho lding the rock o n our shoulders

thudding steps in ou r ear s

the m o uth full o f bloo d, the eyes full o f night

and abo ve, people strolling

in Sunday's holiday sun

Health and happiness to yo u the m asons and yo u their apprentices

one aim s with the tro wel , the other with the m or tar

the eyes f ill with earth, the night with bloo d

and we are turned to stone in the stance o f w aiting.

Now the bridge cracks, the river bleeds.

For eigners take yo ur clothes take yo ur wraps

and return to y our land, go back to y our o wn.

Fo r as the walnut leaf trem bles so will the bridge

and as the leave s fall so w ill the passPr s-by.

f r o m

The Sorrow of Hellenism,

Poems 1969-1971

by C. Capri-K arka

*The Bridge of Arta

is a very old folk ballad. A large crew was trying to

build this bridge, but every night the bridge w ould co llapse. In order to m ake

the bridge stand, they had to sacrifice a human life The young wife of the

master-builder was walled in, alive. The modern parallel is the need to sacri-

fice the freedom of the Greek people in order to secure the bases for the

A m erican fleet in the M editerranean.

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THE LACK OF PLANNING

FOR THE DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME IN GREECE*

state is not to be termed happy in regard to a

portion of the citizens, but in regard to them all."

Aristotle, politics

(1329 a)

The Greek planners, dazzled by the high living standards of the de-

veloped countries and convinced that real life begins at $1,000 or thereabouts,

decided to go after a high growth rate in GNP in their mad chase after certain

magic figures of average per capita income. This high per capita income has

been achieved now, but it has also resulted in a severely skewed income distri-

bution pattern.

The goals of the Greek planners supposedly included raising the income

of the poorer sections of the population. Unfortunately, this goal is not their

first priority, and even when it is mentioned it is on an abstract level without

any real policy measures taken to close the gap between the few rich and the

many poor segments of the Greek people and regions.

How could they have a policy of regional and personal distribution of

income, while at the same time having as objectives a very high rate of

growth, rapid industrialization, and increasing participation of the private

sector in the overall development of the Greek economy? All these are con-

tradictory policies of the orthodox Greek economists. They will never

achieve even a decent level of distribution of income and wealth if they con-

tinue

pursuing all these objectives that would make Greece look good in

international statistics but n ot in rea lity.

It seems to me that the basic premise of those who support a high rate

of growth is that the status quo (and their privileged position in it) must be

preserved at all costs. They say the poor have no incentive to be anti-growth.

In the short run, growth probably does raise their salaries, although it

usually raises prices faster (this is exactly what happened in Greece). How-

ever, in the long run, the poor will still be on the bottom no matter how

much money they have. This is the way people who advocate growth want

it, and they also stand to gain from it, since they are usually the capitalists.

The stress on a high growth rate is especially vicious propaganda since the

poor accept these arguments and thus conspire in their own oppression.

It is very difficult to determine patterns of personal income distribution.

Unfortunately, serious studies in Greece have yet to be made on the subject.

*This paper was prepared for discussion at the Union for Radical Political

Economics (Washington Chapter) in December 1973. It represents aninitial

draft that will be revised and lengthened at a later date.

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The o nly adequate data were co llected by I . A delma n and C. T. Mo rris in

the early 1960 's, and they give the fo llow ing results:

L o w -

pper-

Poor Middle Middle Middle High

ighest

Percentage of Population 0-20% 21-39% 40-60% 61-79% 20%

%

Percentage of Incom e

.00 12.80 12.30 16.40 49.50

3.00

The Athens Daily Post

said that in 1970 the num ber o f m illio naires

ro se to 1,553 and is still r ising, superm agnates like O nassis, Niarcho s, and

Linam o s are in a class by them selves. Mea nwhile, the people live in such pov-

erty that large num bers are forced to em igrate in search of work .

Per capita GN P has risen from $400 in 1961 to $1,250 in 1972. Ho w-

ever, it is important to point out that the significance of these per capita

figures is m isleading an d it is dim inished by the co nsiderable ex isting in-

equalities in incom e am ong r egions as well as am ong gr oups. Yo u don't have

to be an eco nom ist to see that the gap is_increasing. Just take the ro ad fro m

A thens to Epirus and yo u will feel asham ed o f the co nditions that exist in

parts of the co untry. Co m pared to the capital city, the countryside is shock-

ingly and unbelievably backw ard. A thens seem s l ike a different wo rld, an

alien bo dy graf ted o nto m ainland Greece. Unfo r tunately, one o f the m ost

impo rtant things fo r the qualitative developm ent of a co untry, such as

the

distribution of income and wealth, has been forgotten to a very large extent

by the Greek planners.

It is a very sad phenomenon, especially in the last six years, that

qualitative matters have been neglected and the quantitative achievements

have become not only a priority, but the only goal for, progress,

If anA as will now try to show much of

the

planning has

actually been working against a better redistribution of regional and perSonid

income.

Professor Karageorgas has found that "instead of improving the situ-

ation, the Greek tax structure increases the inequality of income distri-

bution. This adverse distributional effect of taxation is shown by the fact

that the Gini coefficient increases from 0:5884 before taxes and transfer

payments to 0:6058 after the allocation of the tax burden. Among the

reasons for such a distributional impact are the regressive effective tax rates

of almost all consumption taxes, the extensive tax evasion located mainly: in

the high income levels, and the great number of special tax privileges to

various persons and social groups:

4

*

*The most usual single indicator of size inequality of