Is Greece on the verge of a revolutionary situation?

How will the public in Greece react if the protests will be hijacked by the radical groups and if the acts of terrorism will rise?

Questions:

1. It seems Greece have a problem with the communist a anarchist tendencies in the society. How to deal with these?

2. Do you think the protests will continue and they may become even more violent and perhaps some terrorist groups such Revolutionary Organization 17 November may rise?

Answers:

Roman Gerodimos, Lecturer in Communication & Journalism, Bournemouth University

1. Greek society has traditionally been tolerant of such behaviours, considering them almost as an acceptable reaction to negative political and economic developments (e.g. corruption, anti-popular measures and so on). However, I feel there is a growing divide in Greek public opinion between those who support or tolerate such behaviours and an increasingly mobilised majority of people who condemn them and are prepared to stand up in order to protect law and order. If we really want to go in-depth to the root cause, in reality a handful of armed criminals (self-called anarchists) exploit widespread social tension to create disruption. That is to say, on Thursday there was a massive and very peaceful demonstration in Athens (the biggest since the 1970s) but the people who actually created the chaos were numbered and belong to criminal groups. Therefore, the problem is one of the Greek authorities being able to protect citizens and police public places, rather than one of significant parts of the population being anarchists etc. However, the obstacle that stops Greek police from being more authoritative is negative public feelings towards the police authorities – these feelings have deep historical roots and essentially what happens is that the public on the one hand wants authorities to maintain order, but on the other hand they are not prepared to support suppression of demonstrations etc because they see that as undemocratic.

2. It is likely that protests will continue because people are very angry with the political establishment and the recent measures are hitting lower income workers pretty hard. However, the Socialist government and especially the current Minister for Civil Protection (formerly Public Order) have a robust record of arresting terrorists and dismantling terrorist groups. The anti-terrorist unit of the security services has scored several successed recently against two of the most active and dangerous terrorist groups – Revolutionary Struggle and the Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire.
Also, what has been proven recently is that there is a triangle of terrorists, organised crime and traditional leftist anarchists. That is to say, it has been shown that everyday criminal activities such as bank robberies and money laundering are funding terrorist organisations who in turn recruit members from the community of anarchists that is based in central Athens.

Sappho Xenakis, Fellow, Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy, South East European Studies at Oxford Associate, St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford

1. The supposition above is problematic because the Greek Communist Party (KKE) has been a part of Greek parliamentary politics since the fall of the country’s miliary dictatorship, and has since maintained a reputation for condeming political violence of both state and non-state groups and ensuring control over its own supporters so that they remain orderly during demonstrations. Accusations that they have not condemned current political violence appear to be entirely unsubstantiated.

What is considered to be more problematic are far-left/anarchist and far-right actors, particularly given the events that took place in central Athens yesterday. It has been alleged that the Greek police are aware of the individuals who tend to take part in political violence, but have held back from arresting them. Whatever the policing nature of the problem of political violence, it appears from the scenes caught by television of unrest, both of yesterday and of December 2008, that political violence is being seen as an increasingly enticing option for a significant minority of the population (and, as one might expect, of the youth in particular). This is evidently a political problem requiring a political solution.

2. As you may know, a number of groups engaged in political violence have emerged in Greece over the last few years. Your suggestion nevertheless seems to have been borne out with the events of yesterday marking the degree to which some groups of individuals are now prepared to engage in potentially lethal politically-violent actions. An important question is how the general public will react to such violence: there seems to be scant public support for any sort of lethal or potentially lethal political violence.

Alexander Kazamias, Senior Lecturer in Politics, Coventry University

1.  Insofar as the word ‘problem’ in your first question refers to violence, the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) has no involvement in it, nor does the radical Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) party.  Yesterday, there was a general strike, in which the unions, controlled by the ruling PASOK socialist party, all took part and an estimated 200,000 people marched in the streets of Athens.  Some individuals, whom the Communists deny as their members, stood outside Parliament and tried to break the security policy guard.  It is true that the slogan ‘Let it burn, let it burn, this brothel that is Parliament’, was heard by many of those who were marching, but the leader of the KKE, Aleka Papariga, denied that supporters of her party chanted this slogan.  At any rate, the slogan reflects the general feeling of anger across all sections of Greek society, because the incompetent and corrupt politicians are regarded as the main cause of the country’s recourse to the IMF (and rightly so, in my view).  It could be that those who tried to break the police guard around Parliament were anarchists who infiltrated the KKE’s guarded marsh, but it is difficult to tell for sure.  What we do know, however, is that there are a few hundreds of anarchists who usually spearhead these demonstrations and traditionally engage in acts of violence, but these are restricted to the destruction of private property and attacks on the security police. The tragic killing of three young people in the Marfin Bank building yesterday, including the attack on the ‘Ianos bookshop’, came from a group of professional thugs, who had their faces covered.  These individuals were deliberately targeting ordinary citizens and their political affiliation is not known.  Some of them appear to be immigrants, because according to some witness accounts, one of them spoke in ‘broken Greek’.  Others claim that they are members of the neo-fascist ‘Chryssi Avgi’ organisation, which has carried out attacks against protesting students in the past.  It is very difficult to identify who these individuals are, but prime minister Papandreou promised yesterday in Parliament to carry out a full investigation.  My assessment is that the investigation will not go very far in resolving this mystery, but we will have to wait and see.

2.  The Revolutionary Organisation 17 November has been arrested and uprooted in 2002.  Although there may be some its members who will never face justice, these have not been active in the last 8 years and the entire 17 November issue is over ever since.  During the riots of December 2008 (about the murder of 16-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos), terrorism resurfaced in a pronounced way.  The main organisations which have been acting lately are the new ‘Nuclei of Fire’, the ‘Revolutionary Sect’ and the older ‘Revolutionary Struggle’ (EA).  Six members, including possibly the leader of the EA were arrested, however, in early April and this is the second major advance by the Authorities against terrorism since the arrest of 17 November in 2002.  My prediction is that the Nuclei of Fire and the Revolutionary Sect will soon wage attacks, because this is what they did during the December 2008 riots.  Ironically, though, these attacks might have the opposite effect on public opinion, because they are seen by the hundreds of thousands of demonstrators and protesters as appropriating and spoiling their struggle in the ugliest of ways.

Overall, and you may quote me on this, I think that the yesterday’s events in Athens show that Greece is on the verge of a revolutionary situation. As Greek workers, employees and pensioners begin to feel the pain of the IMF measures and see that the corrupt political elites and business classes are again getting away without paying the price of the crisis they caused, they will keep protesting and destroying Athens and other major cities. The only missing ingredient from a full scale revolution is the lack of effective leadership in civil society by any organised movement or party. As a result, I anticipate a long period unrest and sporadic violence, but not an overthrow of the existing constitutional order in the foreseeable future.  Nonetheless, we must not forget that the IMF measures are going to last 5 years and a great deal might change under such a long period of desparation and economic depression.

Spyros Economides, Senior Lecturer in International Relations and European Politics, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

Indeed, there are fringe elements, highly radical, which are quite active in Greece. The problem tends to be that they hijack peaceful, popular demonstrations and transform them into violent protests. This is inevitably what happened yesterday resulting in three deaths. There is an element of these anarchist groups which is hardline and dangerous. There is also a part of it which is made up of disaffected youths who feel that this is a way of expressing there dissatisfaction with the political system as a whole. This latter group can be persuaded away from violent acts. The former group has been tolerated for far too long and is give too much leeway to act. In relation to terrorism: Just three weeks ago, the government managed to break up an important terrorist organisation. So, while there is a tradition in Greece towards this form of terrorism, the state has been successful in tackling it head on in the recent past.

Dionyssis Dimitrakopoulos, Department of Politics, Birkbeck College, University of London

Your first question is based on the mistaken premise that ‘communist and anarchist’ tendencies are the problem.  In reality, anger and disenchantment are widespread amongst the Greek public. That is the real problem both for the government and the other parties which, incidentally, do not appear to be making ‘political capital’ out of this crisis.

On the more specific point of these ‘tendencies’  and your second point regarding terrorism, the current Minister in charge of this issues has a good track record and, yes, I do believe that as long as there is no political actor (e.g. a party) in place who can genuinely articulate a credible alternative to the economic policies currently in place, the mood for protests will remain in place but it is not clear for how long.