Anarchism in Greece
Anarchism in Greece traces its roots to ancient Greece but was formed as a political movement during the 19th century. It was in the ancient era that the first libertarian thoughts appeared when philosophers based on rationality questioned the fundamentals of tradition. Modern anarchism in Greece emerged in the 19th century, heavily influenced by the contemporary European classical anarchism. Because of the Bolshevik success in the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the rise of the Communist Party, anarchism faded after the first decades of the 20th century. The collapse of the military junta put an end to the monopoly of the political power from the Right, whereas the dissolution of the Soviet Union diminished the allure of the Communist Party of Greece allowing anarchist groups to gain pace in Athens and other cities.
Precursors
Beliefs, opinions and sentiments that are close to anarchist core values were expressed in Ancient Greece. With the appearance of presocratic thought, rational inquiry during the classical and Hellenistic period, challenged traditional beliefs, religion and authority itself. Socrates skepticism towards the state and its passionate support of the individual's moral freedom were among the first-ever libertarian critiques. Cynics' contribution to philosophical anarchism was the distinction between the man-made laws and nature's law, fiercely rejecting the former. Stoics followed the same worldview and Zeno of Citium, the main stoic philosopher, received the admiration of 19th-century anarchist, Piotr Kropotkin, who was impressed by Zeno's Republic- a community based on egalitarianism and friendly relations. A powerful play resonating with anarchism was Antigone, by Sophocles, where a young woman defies the orders of the Ruler and acts according to her consciousness.Ottoman era
According to some academics, shortly before and after the end of Ottoman rule in Greece, the socioeconomic relations of the Greek countryside reflected traits of Bakunian collectivism creating a future audience for anarchist ideas. Discussing the second half of the 19th century, a source argued that the level of anarchist activity in the Ottoman Empire was comparable to that in Europe. Some of the Greek anarchists were born in the Ottoman Empire, for example Emmanouil Dadaoglou was from İzmir.According to a study of anarchism in the late Ottoman Empire by Axel Corlu, Greek anarchists were significantly less than their Armenian or Bulgarian counterparts in the Ottoman Empire at the end of the 19th century. Corlu suggests that Greek anarchists were mostly focused in influencing events, struggles and structures in the Greek state rather than the Ottoman Empire.
Early anarchism
Early anarchism in Greece traces to the mid-19th century and lasted through World War II. Early Greek socialist thought was dominated by anarchism. The most influential anarchist authors in Greek at the time were Bakunin, Andrea Costa, Kropotkin, and Jean Grave; for comparison, Marx and Engels were not translated in Greek until 1893. Individuals having ties with Italy and Italian immigrants imported anarchism to the Greek mainland with the Ionian islands as a midpoint. Geographical proximity to Italy and a large Italian political immigrant community dating back to the 1848 revolutions explains why the port town of Patras saw the first organized anarchist group. Patras had organized meeting places, a viable local press and publishing activity. Various individuals were inspired by the expansion of European classical anarchism. The first anarchist publication in Greece appeared in September 1861, in the daily newspaper Φώς, issue 334. In the main article of the paper, titled "Anarchy," part A, the writer, Dimos Papathanasiou, employed classical anti-authoritarian rhetoric, characterized anarchy as the greatest good and claimed that state authorities live at the expense of the people.The first Greek-organized anarchist group was the Democratic Club of Patras. Founded in 1876 and affiliated with the anti-authoritarian Jura Federation of the First International, the Democratic Club helped to create a federated network of similar Greek groups. They also published the first anarchist newspaper in Greece, Greek Democracy. In its declaration of principles, the Democratic Club claimed that "poverty and ignorance are the greatest wounds of the people" and supported the liberation of Greeks in the Ottoman Empire. Emmanouil Dadaoglou and the Italian Amilcare Cipriani were involved in the club's founding, having previously participated with other anarchists in the 1862 Athens uprising, though details of Dadaoglou's life are unverified.
In 1876, the Democratic Club sent a greeting message to the International Anarchist Congress in Bern, and in December it accedes to the decisions of the congress. The same year, an anarchist working club was founded in Syros. In 1877, the Democratic Club took part in the Universal Socialist Congress in Ghent, where it was represented by Italian anarchist Andrea Costa. The first government crackdown on members of the club followed soon afterwards. Its members were jailed for months after being accused of a conspiracy against the king, only being released after an intervention by parliamenent member R. Choidas. It played an instrumental role in the tannery and shipyard strikes of 1879.
In the Lavrion mines, the influence of anarchist and socialist politicized foreign workers played a vital role in a series of anarcho-syndicalist leaning strikes in the mines during the late 19th century. The most famous of which took place in 1896 in Lavrio. It was organized by the anarchist union Kosmos and was accompanied by dynamite attacks, resulting in several casualties both among the workers and the mining company's guards. Despite the periodic success of Greek anarchists in mobilizing the working class, the number of core members of anarchist clubs remained small. In 1892, the clubs in Patras, Athens and Pyrgos had 40, ten and 7 members respectively.
Pyrgos, a Peloponnese city close to Patras, was another place where anarchist ideas flourished along with other socialist currents. The fight against loan sharks and the heavy taxation by the state fueled anarchist thought among small raisin producers in the Peloponnese which was the home of various anarchist groups in the late 19th century. New Light was a western Peloponnese weekly newspaper that voiced anarchist ideas. It was first published in October 1898 by the lawyer Vasileios Theodoridis. Its aim was to unify the subversive people of the Western Peloponnese to face social problems. The newspaper contained articles by Drakoulis, translations of the works of Pavlos Argyriadis, republications of texts that first appeared in Athenian magazines, and news about the Greek and the international labor movement. It also contained adages of the Orthodox Church Fathers and Charles Fourier as well as translations of texts by Bakunin, Kropotkin and Girard.
The anarchist groups of the Peloponnese were the strongest in Greece until the early 20th century. They conducted lively propaganda work in the cities and their surroundings as opposed to "authoritarian" socialists who were more interested in parliamentary politics. They encouraged abstention in the elections of 1899 and mobilized against loan sharks and taxation in the name of raisin producers. They did not seek the support of the state to confront the current crisis but they denounced instead state mechanisms of oppression.
Zestful socialist Stavros Kallergis was arguing in The Socialist that socialism is the path towards Anarchism. The Socialist funneling the contemporary socialist thought of Europe into Greece, ranging from moderate socialist to anarchist opinions, over the course of the 1890s.
Persecution against anarchists intensified in the summer of 1894. The assassination of Sadi Carnot by an anarchist led to a barrage of attacks against the anarchists by the press, and in particular by Asty, the official organ of Charilaos Trikoupis' party. Many anarchists and socialists were put on trial and this led others to either flee the country or relocate in isolated parts of Greece. Similarly, many radical publications closed down and mainstream activity was reduced.
In 1896 in Patras, Dimitrios Matsalis, a sandal maker, murdered Dionysios Fragkopoulos, a banker and currant merchant, and injured Andreas Kollas. He declared, "I acted alone. By killing I did not aim at people but I stroke the capital. I am an anarchist, and as an anarchist I am in favor of violence." He committed suicide in prison. Fragkopoulos' assassination arguably intensified the erosion of collective identities as the persecutions continued.
Persecuted anarchists and anarcho-syndicalists fled from Patras during the last years of the 19th century. The persecution began right after the International Conference of Rome for the Social Defense Against Anarchists, leading many anarcho-syndicalists that moved to Athens to establish the Anarchist Workers Association. They took part in the anarchist international congress held in Paris in 1900. Epi ta Proso was another group of anarchist intellectuals publicly advocating for anarchism in the Peloponnese that finally ended up in Athens before being dissolved.
As in the rest of Europe by that time, the so-called propaganda of the deed was employed by the Boatmen of Thessaloniki, a group of Bulgarian anarchists based in Salonica, and Alexandros Schinas, who assassinated King George I in 1913 for reasons of either anarchist conviction or mental illness.
In 1916, the anarcho-syndicalist Konstantinos Speras was a key organizer of a miners strike in the island of Serifos. The strike was violently opposed by the police, leading to the death of four workers and wounding others. The workers, supported by their wives, responded by throwing stones, killing three of the police and routing the others away. Although the strike was organized by an anarchist and the workers took control of municipal buildings, the strikers raised a French flag and asked for protection from the French fleet, which at the time had ships stationed in the neighboring island of Milos. The strike and the aftermath resulted in the improvement of working conditions in the mines and the first application of the 8-hour working day in modern Greece.
The Greek anarchist movement's momentum subsided in the 1920s as, among many factors, the Greek working class turned to Marxist ideology and the Communist Party of Greece, known for its hostility towards anarchists, was founded. Reflecting popular Greek desire for a strong state, an organized anarchist movement was dismantled in the 1930s and 1940s, between the effects of the Metaxas Regime, the Axis occupation of Greece, and the Greek Civil War. In times of changing government, Greeks relied on local government for resistance and security.
An important figure of Greek anarchism is Plotino Rhodakanaty, born in 1828. His birthplace is disputed, some authors cite Athens, others cite other European capitals. Nevertheless, he is considered one of the most important figures in Mexican socialist thought.