with a contribution by Tanya-Maria Yeritsidou
‘May 5th to May 8th 2010 has really been the most significant milestone in the
history of modern Greece. Many times over had our people been betrayed by their
political leadership. Never however so blatantly, so brutally as they were on
the 5th and 8th of May of the year 2010. Many times had the foreign markets and
our foreign overseers intervened in the political life of the country. Many
times had political men from this country been bought off. Many times had the
vote of the simple citizen gone astray. Never before, however, was this process
shown so blatantly, so cynically. And times are changing. Memories of the tragic
national strife and cleavage, of the great errors of the past have long ceased
to be the main driver of our political thought and action. A new generation that
has embraced the modern spirit. Young people who were thirsty for the great
change, to see a democratic, progressive, independent and modern state come into
being. A generation who, in their wake, wished to leave their imprint in the
history of this country. Who wanted to break the dams set by their leadership in
all walks of life in this country. A new generation who would not stand for the
superficial mimicry of the foreign behavioral mandates of the capital. Who would
not stand for cronism, illicit ways, ceding of national power, submission and
the feeling of being a colony. A generation who saw through the second-rate
quality of the intelligentsia of this country and its concensionism. And at its
side stood the embittered, now mature generation of the Polytechnic School. Who
felt that the time has come for it to claim the offer denied to them by this
nation.
Thus, the popular movement of insubordination rose. It swelled, and became a
torrent, and topped the rural along with the urban, swept up and inspired both
the old and the young and configured the new climate for a national rebirth.
[…]
The great mottos underscoring insubordination are not new. They were already
there during the first phase of the post-war period […] But under the revolt of
May 5th 2010, these changed qualitatively. They became more profound, they
transformed into a conscience, a gospel in the hearts, minds and lips of the
average people. They formed into a concrete ideological belief system. They
became the guarantees that this nation will move forward into the future.
And thus it became conscience wrought into the very soul of the simple Greek, it
morphed into a conviction that the elections, the government, the mottoes were
simply not enough. The mantle, the façade of the political life, had be
penetrated and they would need to move in deep till they touched with the
substance. Up until, the average citizen himself were able to self-answer his
question: ‘Am I, the simple citizen, through my vote, opinion, action, in the
position to affect the political life of this country, to lead to changes, to
improve my life standards, to secure a better future for my children?’. And
there was light.
And the time of maturity came. Because through this question, with the
realization of WHO IS GOVERNING GREECE, did the simple citizen find the profound
meaning of POWER. The average citizen realized that to a great extent the
political process is a game in which he takes part only as the fifth wheel of
the wagon, with his opinion having a bearing on nothing. That the really
crucial decision-making is done according to the wishes of a network of
ESTABLISHMENT, which directs rather be directed by the government of this
country. That this power network spreads beyond the confines of our country,
that it includes the markets, the military cliques, the economic oligarchy of
this country, the higher echelons of the state apparatus, the installed and
controlled union leadership, our intellectual and a good part of our political
leadership. That this power grid is fed by privilege and illicit
wheeling-dealing. That in their sum total, these privileges, preferential
treatment, the strings to pull, comprise a brake putting a stop to the progress,
the development of the country. That these corrupt means to an end submit and
subjugate the productive sectors of this country to the privileged few. That the
country cannot move forward unless the establishment is swept away.
And so the grassroots movement for the drastic change, the deep cleansing cut,
the national rebirth, has to start from the battle for power. The battle for the
TRIPARTITE POWER:
GREECETO THE GREEKS
THE ARMY TO THE NATION
THE PEOPLE SOVEREIGN
This is the triptych of power. The mottoes are profound. They will sow the seed
of great change. But if they remain just mottoes, if all they can be are empty
words devoid of content, if they remain phrases intended to usurp the ballot and
a few standing ovations, we shall all unexceptionally bear the great
responsibility. Responsibility against the nation, against history, against the
people. And especially responsibility against the new generation’.
Andreas G. Papandreou, February 1967 or 2011?
In my year long historical research I have been conducting, I came across AGP’s
speech under the title ‘The Image of a New Greece’ which he delivered on the 9th
of February 1967 at the Athens Hilton. All I did was to update the name and
dates so that they fit the current events. All the rest of the text is taken
verbatim from the 1967 text, wherein we can clearly see the same asphyxiating
throttling we have come to feel again today, as then. The Greek People were
vibrant and into the same current of reaction, and faced then as now the same
degenerative political cancers (AGP in the rest of his speech described in great
detail how Greece is been consumed by its corrupt leadership, with its People
actually sequestered from the power that is theoretically their own, and the
privileged few enjoying above the law impunity).
Of course AGP made good use of the wish and the thirst of the Greek People to
rise to power and prolong the very political corruptness he attacks in his
speech.
He has completely imbued his son GAP with the same conception of statesmanship
and successfully imparted to him the trick of the trade: The latter made good
use of the thirst of the People to be rid of austerity by claiming that ‘money
exists’ and a return of the denationalized companies under state control, as
well as the return of the embezzled property of the type of Vatopedion, so that
he, too, could climb to power (if you remember, he had gone crazy asking for
elections under this platform) and strike the final blow to whatever was still
working in the state, thus perpetuating the ‘power grid’ his fathers has made
reference to, for at least another hundred years.
Responsibility has already been cast by AGP himself, as we can see from the
ending of his speech.
The Greek People cannot be held responsible, either because they are the ‘fifth
wheel of the wagon’ or because as a people they fight a fixed and unequal
battle.
This speech was given about a month and a half before the onset of the Junta in
Greece, thus confirming that who held power was what really mattered: seeing
that they were about to lose control of the People, they claimed there was
danger of ‘anarchy and mob rule’ and took the tanks out to the Athenian streets.
Obviously, AGP himself would find it hard to make a prolonged bid for power if
he did not apply what he castigated in his 1967 pre-election speech, neither
would he have been able to enjoy so much tolerance to the blatant breech of his
many promises. As was indubitably shown by his later political practices.
In order to preclude the same move from happening (already parrots like
Papachelas, have started croaking that there was anarchy in Greece and danger of
mob rule, while GAP himself accuses SYRIZA, who, by the way, gladly accents to
this role, that the latter is pushing Citizens to unlawful action just as the
1967 Democratic League under AGP’s command and the ASPIDA issue did back then),
we as Citizens of this country should intensely ask for a new regime and rule so
that we will not be accused of being an amorphous mass of mob.
Just as in 1843 we demanded intensely and ceaselessly a Constitution, we also
now must claim and wretch back Immediate Democracy to us and demand the
persecution of all those who have brought us all to this state, starting of
course of the 300 parliamentarians and the current government and then of course
continuing with whatever other cells AGP referred to as being part of the ‘power
grid’
Did you hear that, GAP?