The Greek Civil War

Greece

Date: October 1945
Source: Fourth International, Volume 6, No. 10 (Whole No. 59, p. 319)
Author: Unknown
Transcribed/HTML: Mike B. for MIA, 2005
Proofread by: H. Antonn
Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2005). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.

Excerpts from an eyewitness account:

A few general impressions of life in Greece today. The economic situation is very tense. The shops in the big towns, Athens, Saloniks, etc., are crammed with foodstuffs, brought in by UNRRA, but at prices that only the wealthy can afford. It's just one huge black market, with no attempt at price control or rationing.

Prevailing wage rates at the moment vary from 200 Drachmas (for the lower paid laborers) to 500 Drachmas for the higher paid workers, etc. The present exchange rate is about 500 Drachmas to the dollar. Contrast these wage levels with prevailing prices of essentials: The Greek standard of measurement is the "Oks"—approximately 2⅘ lbs.

Chocolate and cigarettes are unheard of luxuries for the mass of the workers, costing 200 D. per bar or packet of twenty-a full day's pay for many. A good suit of clothes costs 70,000 D. —or the equivalent of seven months' pay. A shirt will cost 2500 to 7500 D., and a pair of shoes 12,000 to 25,000 D.

This disparity between prices and wage levels has created a great wave of unofficial strikes. During the last few weeks there have been strikes of street car men, ice factory workers, shoemakers and electricity and power workers. This is all the more remarkable because, following in the Metaxas and German-occupation tradition, the workers are organized in a single Government controlled "trade-union"—a Greek version of the Labor Front of Dr. Ley. The street car men's strike was very solid. The Greek police ran a skeleton scab service very inefficiently for a few days, but completely failed to break the strike, and the strikers obtained their demands. An interesting sidelight on this strike was that most street cars driven by these police had pictures of the Greek king plastered on them. —Such is the "impartiality" of this notoriously reactionary force.

Democracy, freedom of speech, etc., just don't exist. The newspapers of the E.A.M. (National Liberation Front) and the K.K.E. (Stalinists) are just tolerated by the Government, but only because the Government is well aware of the treacherous role played by these Stalinist fiunkeys. Papers of the International Communist Party (Fourth International), the only revolutionary party in Greece, are illegal. Members of that party are persecuted, bounded and quite frequently killed by both the Government and the Stalinists.

During the latter part of June, the main newspaper offices of both E.A.M. and the K.K.E. were wrecked, the issues all burned and the staff beaten up by gangs of hoodlums that organize their tenor under the benevolent eyes of the Greek Government. On that same evening the KKE. held a demonstration 30,000 strong! To the open provocation against the working class, their only reply was a mild protest to the Government. In contrast to this cowardly position, the ICP issued a call to the workers to form Workers Defense Guards for resistance to the fascist gangs.

A trip through the interior of Greece was very revealing. It is a country of mountains and valleys, some of the latter very fertile but in great need of development. Agriculture is carried on by very primitive methods. I saw quite a few villages—composed entirely of small round huts made of thatch, similar to those popularly associated with tropical colored peoples. Communications are in a very bad way. Good roads hardly exist, and the few railway lines have been so thoroughly wrecked that it will take years to restore them to working order.

Greek Civil War   |   Subject Archive