ESS wil rise
to cast off their chains

By BAMBIS KIATTIPIS

For six and a half years —
starting 2lst April 1967 —
Greece was ruled by a military-
fascist regime, headed by G. Pa-
padopoulos.

The main purpose for which
the Papadopoulos junta took
over state power, was to prevent
the growing democratic move-
ment from winning the ’67 gen-
eral elections, to’ break this
movement down and make pos-
sible a more intense exploitation
of the working people and of
the nation’s natural resources
by the local and foreign mono-
polies. Moreover, it had to se-
cure long-term American and
NATO military interests in the
South-Eastern basin of the Medi-
terranean, that have no other
meaning than to safeguard: the
exploitation of the Middie East
oil and be a threat to the na-
tional-democratic and liberation
movement in the area and
against the socialist countries.

To achieve these objectives
the Papadopoulos regime had to
follow a certain program, which
had been dictated by its Ameri-
can patrons. This program in-
cluded the industrialization of
the economy, the -spread of a
fascist-religious ideology and
“Western culture,” including
such an education system that
could produce cheap and “obe-
dient” working people, and the
creation of a political system
which could secure through pow-
erful bourgeois parties the per-
petuation of monopoly exploita-
tion. :

The means, by which the
Papadopoulos junta tried to en-
force its program included the
most brutal fascist and military
measures i.e. abolishing all demo-
cratic institutions and practices;
the Parliament, the political
parties, the people’s organiza-
tions and strengthening the grip
of fascist-military forces on the
state and civil life of the coun-
try through terror, persecution
and murder,

The sufferings of the Greek
people during the period of the
_ fascist regime cannot be describ-

ed. Hundreds have been brutally”

tortured and hundreds murdered;
thousands were sent to the pris-
ons and concentration camps;
thousands were forced to leave
the country; thousands lost their
jobs; the whole people had to
keep their mouths shut for six
and a half years, and had to
work on the worst possible
terms. ae

The junta’s program failed in

> Os be it4

Buses are mobilized by Greek
people to cut off army charges
at popular demonstrations in
November.

all its aspects..In the economy,
the regime put the industriali-
zation of the country in the
hands of foreign capital, espe-
cially American, which in co-
operation with the local monop-
oly capital extracted the maxi-
mum possible profits through
the intensified exploitation of
the working people and the nat-
ural resources. In agriculture the
regime introduced measures that
drove away the producers from
their land and through price
controls on agricultural prod-
ucts, the farmers were paid the

lowest possible prices. The cul- ©

mination on the effects of the
junta’s economic policies was
the disappearance of basic prod-
ucts from the market and the
unprecedented growth of infla-
tionary tendencies. (During the
last months of ’73 prices went
up more than 40%.)

The struggle between the peo-
ple and the Papadopoulos junta
never stopped. It took all pos-
sible forms and used all pos-
sible means. The people demand-
ed an immediate overthrow of
the junta, the clearance of the
state from all the fascist ele-
ments and their punishment, the
elimination of the monopoly
exploitation, popular power and
national independence from the
Americans and their allies, in
other words a new democracy
based on genuine peoples power
and a new political and social
system that could take Greece
out of economic and political
chaos and secure a steady eco-
nomic growth, a just distribu-
tion of the national income and
general social justice.

The people objectively united
against the fascist regime. They
organized themselves in a num-
ber of resistance, anti-dictatorial
and national liberation parties,
organizations, movements. and
committees. Reflecting this situ-
ation in Greece, the Greeks
abroad organized themselves in
the same fashion.

The unbearable economic con-
ditions, the new unpopular poli-
tical manoeuvres, the primitive
educational system, the chronic
deprivation of the people and
especially from the youth of the
basic democratic and academic

. liberties, the continuation of the

terror and persecution against
all progressive strivings of the
people and all the other fascist
practices installed on the peo-
ple’s way of life, all these accu-
mulated in the Greek people a
volcano of unsatisfied needs,
ready at any moment to explode
with unforeseeable consequences.

It only needed a spark. And
the spark was given in an
Athens cemetery on the 4th of
November, this year, where more
than 15,000 democrats gathered
to mourn and pay tribute to one
of their leaders, George Papan-
dreou. They were brutally at-
tacked by the fascist police.

The echoes of the Athenean
students and workers demands
like lightning spread all over
Greece. The whole country in
the course of two days upsurged
and along with it the Greek and
democratic forces in other coun-
tries. Papadopoulos felt real
danger. So did the monopolies
at home and the American pa-
trons, Papadopoulos, knowing no
other effective weapon — poli-
tical, psychological: etc. — used
violence; the most sadistic,
murderous violence of steel and
fire: the tanks given to him by
his American patrons as part of
their famous foreign aid.

The result is really unknown

. .. 13 or 113 murdered, hun-
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JANUARY 4, 1974—PAGE B :

‘to do; that is, the creation of so

dreds of wounded and hundred
arrested patriots, all thrown
without mercy into the jaws of
the fascist Minotaure.

The last measures taken by
Papadopoulos in a European
country at this moment of deep
democratic changes and interna-
tional detente, were tolerable to
nobody, not even the Americans.

Controlling the basic posts in
the Greek armed forces they
proceeded in peacefully replac-
ing Papadopoulos and some of
his assistants and in their place
install more reliable servants.
The new one, exactly of the
same breed as Papadopoulos, de-
clared from the very beginning
their adherence to the “ideals”
of the previous junta, which, as
they claim, betrayed them and
could not put them into prac-
tice. These “ideals” of course
are none others than the objec-
tives of the “program” as earlier
exposed.

The new junta promised to
realize what Papadopoulos failed
called “healthy conditions” in eral.
which Greeks could vote. But
vote for what? These “healthy
conditions” mean nothing else

than conditions in which the
Greek people can openly vote
for their enslavement, under the
protection of the fascist consti-
tutional law. In other words the
new military-fascist junta wants
to create a political spider’s
web, the acceptance of which
the Greek people will seal their
own enslavement to the local
and foreign economic, political
and military interests of the mo-
nopolies and imperialism in gen-

But the Greek people, as they
were not deluded by the previous
junta, will not be so with the

new one. They are reco
from the blow they re
recuperating their strengt
solidifying their organiz'
They stick to their just dema
They want to be free. For
freedom they fought all sorts
foreign enemies; Turks, Bulge”
Italians, Germans, British
will fight the local opp
and their American patro
of Greece.

They patiently wait
tightened fists . . . and
they do... the sun is s
the world . . . That is the
of the Greek people.

r

Leaders of Chilean Left confident

ROME — Leaders of the Chilean left, in
December, issued a new appeal regarding
the situation in their country. Faced with
the continuing persecutions, tortures, exe-
cutions and harassment of leaders and
supporters of Popular Unity and other
progressive movements, they: call for in-
creased efforts of solidarity with the people
of Chile. i
_ Expressing the “growing worry over news
from Chile which signals an increase in the
bestiality of the bloody fascist repression
. ¢- news which tells of the daily pursuit of
executions, . .
prisoners from one jail to the other, in
order to tempt escape,” the appeal
states that this “is to eliminate, by blood
and by fire, all that the Chilean people
have conquered, have. believed in, have
created in a hundred years of history,”

The appeal lists prominent figures of the
left and Popular Unity who have been
murdered or are yet imprisoned, and notes
that at every moment the spectre of death
hangs heavy over those in: jail. ~

“In Chile,” the appeal continues, “there
is no security, whether it be for a. woman

- seriously ill, or for ambassadors who de-
mand to ascertain if the right of exile is
being observed. International treaties are
not respected. The belongings of refugees
are confiscated.

“The standard of living has gone down.
Imperialism has imposed its law of plunder,
of spoliation, of pillage. The banks and
large enterprises have been returned to the
monopolies, and the land to the former ex-
ploiters of the peasants. Blackmail and
extortion are practiced on the highest
levels. Assassinations and robbery go on
with impunity. All human rights, social,
political and economic have been abolish-
ed in Chile, including the right to life. All

Allende government has been stolen from
them.”

Yet Chile will recover its freedom, the
appeal states, freedom “lost through a
fascist putsch hatched by the CIA in Wash-
ington with the assistance of domestic
reactionaries.

“The people of Chile are reorganizing.
They are regrouping for struggle in the
most severe conditions of illegality. They
are in the midst of building the largest
possible united movement which will mobil-
ize the vast majority of Chileans.

“The anti-fascist resistance is defined

ee they who will determine the character, the

Our country will again be free

. the transfer of political —

that the people conquered through the.

and led by the people in Chile itself. It is _

‘e

form, the range and the constructive feat-—
ures. There is no doubt that they will q
combine these factors to the utmost with a —
spirit of unity so as to enlarge the vast cur- — ¢
rent of anti-fascist sentiment which is found 7

everywhere throughout Chile.” q

The appeal notes that Chile is not alone, ~
that they have received assistance and ex-—
pressions of solidarity from every corner of
the globe. “We are most touched by the
large and generous fraternity .. . The peo
ple of Chile will never forget this noble ai
They know it is growing from day to day.

“Our people will continue at every mo-
ment their difficult and heroic struggle, —,
confident in their cause.

“Chile will again belong to Chilean
Chile will again be free and sovereign,
master of its liberties and its rights. For
Chile, for the people, for ourselves, the im- ~
mortal words left to us by Salvador Allende
will always be true: VENCEREMOS!”

In conclusion; the appeal calls for
mighty effort of, international  solidari
around the following four points:

@ stop the executions and tortures
political prisoners. 4
® freedom for Luis Corvalan, Clodo-
miro Almeyda, Anselmo Sule, Pedro
Felipe Ramirez, Vicente Sotta and
other political prisoners. All concen-
tration camps must be closed. J
@ safe-conduct for refugees ‘now i
_ foreign embassies. :
© an end to the massive suspension
cancellation of work permits ani
respect for the right to work; the
return to work of tens of thousands
of. workers unemployed because of
the fascist junta. 7

‘The appeal was signed by the Socialist
Party of Chile; Radical Party; Communist
Party; MAPU; Christian Left; Movement of
the Revolutionary Left (MIR); MAPU Worker (
and Peasant Party. i