Greece: War and Civil War

This talk is based around the Solidarity pamphlet 
'The Greek Tragedy', subtitled 'the failure of the left' 
published in 1968 as a response to the coup in Greece 
the previous year.  It states the left put up little 
resistance to the coup and places the reason for this 
in the lack of a tradition of self-activity in the 
working class.  In particular the response of the 
Spanish workers to Franco's coup of 1936 is 
contrasted with what happened in Greece.

Greek has been a somewhat unstable entity 
throughout its history and particularly with the 
coming into being of nation states in the 18th 
century. Its borders have shifted, expanded and 
contracted on several occasions over the last 200 
years leaving behind a legacy of quite virulent Greek 
nationalism.  Greek armies were also involved in 
foreign intervention against the Russian revolution 
in north west Asia minor.

The Greek communist party was founded in 1918 
and was first attacked by the state in 1921 for their 
policy of revolutionary defeatism in the war with 
Turkey.  It was banned under the military 
dictatorship in 1927.  The ban came out of the 
demand for Macedonian and Thracian independence.  
This issue dominated the KKE (Communist party) in 
the pre-war years although the demand for 
independence was dropped by the Central 
Committee in 1935.

The treason trials of the leadership in 1925 were 
significant because it was in this period that the first 
graduates from the Communist college in Moscow 
arrived and filled the vacuum.  The 3rd congress in 
1927 saw a purge and the expulsions of two of the 
three factions as trotskyists.  Typically of Stalinism 
the leader of the faction expelling the others was to 
be executed himself some eight years later as a 
trotskyist himself.

During the third period the CP repeatedly exposed 
its members to repression by for instance calling 
general strikes which only 12,000 or so would 
support.  At the time the KKE had about 1500 
members.  Mass demonstrations of as few as 150 
people were called and as might be expected the 
failure was not blamed on the Moscow line but on the 
local leadership.

This was followed by the popular front period which 
saw mass unrest up to 1936 when General Metaxas 
seized power with a regime modelled on the fascist 
states.  The KKE disintegrated in this period helped 
along by a pardon for those who confessed and 
named others.  Some 45,000, far more than the 
membership of the KKE did so.

When Italy attacked Albania in 1939 the KKE said 
there was no longer any need to overthrow Metaxas 
as he was now an allies.  Metaxas tried to play both 
sides however and in October 1940 there were anti-
fascist demos in many cities.  The British sailed into 
Greek waters and on the 28th Italy invaded.  The 
party again pledged support to the Metaxas 
government.  Metaxas responded by ordering the 
arrest of all known communists.  This was at a time 
when the Stalinist parties were meant to be 
supporting the Hitler - Stalin pact so they claimed 
the KKE's pledge of support was a forgery.

The Greeks smashed the Italian invasion and 
advanced into Albania.  Then Hitler sent troops and 
within 3 weeks defeated both Greece and the British 
forces there.  The more Stalinist party members 
actually welcomed the Nazi troops.  Metaxas had 
died and his regime collapsed.

Only limited areas of Greece were occupied and it 
appears the rank and file soldiers had some 
sympathy for the Greeks most notable when an 
Italian firing squad refused to execute the leader of 
the Greek 'left opposition' who had been building 
anti-fascist cells.

The resistance movement was split into the 
nationalist ELAS directed by the KKE controlled 
EAM which had between 10 and 40,000 fighters by 
1943 and the EDES which was favoured by the allies 
because it was pro-monarchy  Resistance was 
significant, for instance when Germany attempted to 
take workers to Germany in 1942 they were forced to 
back down in the face of a general strike.

The armed resistance however was not directed 
heavily at the Axis, rather the KKE concentrated on 
training their army and refused to help the allies at 
times.  In 1943 the KKE controlled ELAS forces 
launched an all out attack on the EDES.  This stalled 
and German high command used the opportunity to 
mount a 3 month offensive which caused huge 
damage to both groups.

Winter 1943-44 saw the worst of the occupation with 
mass starvation and the transport of 50,000 to 
Bulgaria as forced labourers.  ELAS conducted 
internal purges and re-training.

In the meantime the allies were preparing to retake 
control.  In particular they were concerned by 
mutinies in exile Greek army units in Egypt in 
support of the CP being given a place in the exile 
government.  The army came to be controlled by 
Stalinist directed soldiers committees.  The British 
high command sent the British army in, disarmed 
the Greeks and placed them in POW camps in the 
Desert.  Loyal troops were recruited out of these 
camps to form the loyalist Rimini regiment.  At the 
same time they offered the CP a place and an 
agreement was reached for a post-war national 
government.

In 1944 the Papandreou Government was 
transferred to Naples, their task was made easier on 
the surrender of Italy as they accepted the Italian 
division in Greece changing sides and so maintaining 
order.  The ELAS accepted British control of 
liberation  As the Germans left the British arrived, 
some 26,000 and 5 air squadrons.  The ELAS had 
50,000 and although it could have seized power did 
not do so on orders from Moscow.  Instead it 
proceeded to settle scores not only with fascists but 
also with ex-members, trotskyists and 
archeomarxists.

The archeo-Marxists were an intellectual tendency 
around since 1921 dedicated to translating Marx into 
Greek, in the third period (29-33) they were the 
prominent force in many of the unions.  From 1934 
on they split and became irrelevant.  Many of their 
members who survived the war were executed by the 
Stalinists. probably around 100 were executed in all.

The Greek trotskyists as elsewhere and split into 
three factions, defenceists who supported but did not 
(could not) participate in the resistance.

Defeatists who saw the occupation as irrelevant and 
sought to fraternise with German and Italian troops 
on an anti-capitalist basis. and centrists who adopted 
an 'intermediate position'.  At time these were in one, 
two or even three organisations.  In 1944-45 the 
Stalinists executed several dozen trotskyists 
regardless of which of these factions they had 
belonged to.

In 1944 and 1945 it is estimated that the Stalinists 
executed hundreds of their own members, including 
well known names in the resistance, as well as the 
archeo-marxists and trotskyists.

Greece before the war was a country ripe for social 
change with a small percentage holding most of the 
land and industry, major industries being foreign 
owned and a debt 150% of the annual national 
revenue.  The allies released this and their major 
purpose after German withdrawal was to prevent 
any social revolution.  Luckily they had Stalin on 
their side, at Yalta it had been agreed that Greece 
would be in the British sphere of influence.

The British forces re-activated the various forms of 
local authority set up by the Nazis with local fascist 
support.  At the same time Papandreou forbade the 
ELAS from entering Athens and on 30th October 
declared EAM disbanded.  All arms were ordered to 
be surrendered by December 10th.

Within days Athens saw a mass demonstration 
against the governments re-imposition of the old 
order and on 3rd November it was reported that 
2000 textile workers had taken over their factory and 
appointed a management committee.  It is difficult to 
access the extent of this movement now as everybody 
including the KKE deny it.

Churchill cabled the general in charge to act as if "he 
were in a conquered city, confronted by local 
rebellion"

More troops were flown in from the Italian front and 
on 3rd December British troops fired on an EAM 
demonstration killing 23 and wounding 150.  Martial 
law was declared and British troops disarmed 3 
ELAS units.

EAM called a general strike and ELAS seized 21 of 
the 28 Athens police stations.  On the 5th hundreds 
of thousands turned out for the funerals with 
banners reading 'British soldiers; let us choose our 
own government".  But the party leadership just 
asked the Allied government to deplore what 
happened and warned they might need to fight at 
some future date.

Scobie had no such problems, he ordered RAF rocket 
attacks on ELAS positions.  The fourth division were 
moved from Italy to Greece.  War broke out in and 
around Athens with the ELAS attacking British 
tanks with tramcars of explosives and on the 18th 
capturing an RAF base with 250 prisoners.  Scobie 
went on the offensive and drove the ELAS back and 
on the 24th Churchill arrived in Athens.

He pointed out that the British troops were there 
with the agreement of Roosevelt and Stalin by which 
Britain would have control of Greece, Yugoslavia 
would be split and Stalin would have majority 
control of Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania.  On 11th 
Jan. a cease fire was agreed, the ELAS agreed to 
withdraw 100 miles from Athens, evacuate Salonkia 
and other islands, and a general exchange of 
prisoners was arranged.

In later years the head of the CP was to claim that 
the whole revolt had been the work of agent 
provocateurs.  As the peace talks continued British 
forces occupied more and more of Greece.  The ELAS 
started to fragment in particular over the execution 
of 114 trade union officials.  Many surrendered and 
others were arrested and charged with common law 
crimes like the murder of German soldiers.  By July 
of 1945 20,000 had been arrested and 500 executed.  
This compares to 2313 anti-fascists executed by the 
Nazi's and 20 executed by the government for 
collaboration with the Nazi's.  One interesting thing 
is US opposition to this process which went as far as 
not allowing American transports to carry supplies to 
the British in Greece.  This was systematic of the 
post war years as America took control of most of the 
former Empire or refused to help Britain maintain it.

In 1945 Moscow recognised first the Albanian regime 
and then the Greek one, both serious 
embarrassments for the party.  The general election 
of 1946 was a farce with reconstituted fascist gangs 
terrorising the countryside, even the premier asked 
the British to delay the election, this was refused, 
the left boycotted and the right was elected.

In December of 1945 a republican army (DSE) had 
been founded based out of Yugoslavia, by 1947 this 
held 100 villages.  In March of 1945 US congress 
allowed 300 million in aid, 50% of which was 
military.  The DSE ranks swelled to 23,000 as people 
fled the terror in the towns but they were becoming 
increasing isolated from the working class, seeing 
the campaign purely in terms of getting a large 
enough town to call a capital so Moscow would 
recognise them.  US aid continued to flood into the 
government.  Opposition papers were closed on US 
insistence and the right to strike abolished.  In 
November 1947 a joint US-Greek army staff was 
established.  Britain donated 50 spitfires equipped 
with the new Napalm bombs..

The DSE was growing still, it was now much bigger 
than the anti-Nazi partisan forces had been but it 
was reliant on bases in Yugoslavia.  Stalin however 
was clear "the uprising in Greece must be stopped, 
and a quickly as possible".  The US for the first time 
found itself in its post war dilemma, how to appear 
as the force for democracy while backing corrupt 
regimes.

On June 28th 1948 Yugoslavia was expelled from the 
conform.  The Greek CP backed Stalin which was a 
disaster as they were reliant on Yugoslav bases and 
supplies.  Many KKE members left refusing to follow 
the Kremlin line on Tito.  Part of the anti-tetoism 
was reorganising the partisan forces as a regular 
army which was of course a military disaster, serving 
to give the Greek air force a clear target.  By late 
summer 1949 they had been driven out of Greece and 
into Albania and in 16th October the Civil war 
ended.  The pamphlet goes on to discuss the years 
that followed up to the 1967 coup but I'm leaving the 
history here.

This story of Greece has two useful lessons, the first 
is the oft repeated one of the complete failure of 
Stalinism and yet another betrayal of a revolution by 
Communist parties.  The second is more useful and 
relates quite nicely to all the D-Day euphoria going 
on recently.

We are told the allies fought W.W.II to save 
democracy among other things.  Yet Greece provides 
a clear example of where they instituted a regime 
probably as brutal as that of the Nazi's to protect 
their interests.  The refusal of the US to supply 
British troops, followed by their taking over the area 
in the post-war period demonstrated that whatever 
they claimed all the allied forces were fighting not to 
protect democracy or defeat fascism but to gain a 
larger slice of world influence.

Andrew Flood

anflood@macollamh.ucd.ie
Phone: 706(2389)

