About two weeks before the polytechnic uprising an important message arrived from the Thai capital.
In those days in Bangkok, the dictatorial regime was overthrown by a people's military uprising which had as its vanguard and driving force the Thai students. The remarkable thing about this event is that amidst the Buddhist apathy and general indifference that characterized Thais for political events, the student movement managed after violent clashes to overthrow the dictatorial military regime that had been in power for a whole decade. Just two years earlier when the military junta still monopolized power, categorically denying any democratic freedom, only five students - it seems unbelievable - at Bangkok's Thammasat University resisted and protested the destruction of democratic institutions. Every day these five students symbolically laid a wreath at the monument of the Republic, until at some point the authorities arrested them and imposed severe punishments on them. Two years later thousands of students were in revolt and formed the dynamic vanguard for the downfall of Thailand's military regime.
This fact was of course neither the occasion nor the cause of the Polytechnic uprising, but it was a strong message that reached Greece at the right time; it was one of the unforeseen catalytic factors that accelerate the processes and release the forces necessary for a dynamic uprising.
1973 was a defining year for Greece. Many events overturned the developments until then and had a decisive effect on the political and social transformations.
From the beginning of the year, the economic crisis began to plague Greece, inflation intensified and discontent began to manifest itself in many ways.
Although the long-term effects of the economic policies of the colonels' dictatorship were harmful, the junta regime was able to maintain the high growth rates of the late 1950s and early 1960s, the standard of living continued to rise overall (too inequalities in this distribution of wealth). The fact that many Greeks were prosperous in the early years of the dictatorship was undoubtedly a factor preventing the development of a resistance movement. The vast majority of the Greek people did not resist the junta. As Vassilis Raphaelidis mentions in his well-known... cipher style in the "History of the Modern Greek State"
"The "Epic of the Polytechnic" became a strong resistance alibi for those who for seven years were lufaing, and suddenly became resistance overnight, most of them well protected from the multi-headed mass that surrounded them everywhere. Fortunately, the hype and hype for an "epic" barely epic began to deflate slowly."
It is no coincidence that in 1973 when the colonels began to pay the price of their wasteful economic policy with inflation exceeding 30 % the first voices of discontent were heard.
The first open reaction to the regime was made by the students, whose initial student demands gradually acquired a political color. Caused by a law of the junta that gave the regime the possibility to interrupt the postponement of conscription for students who were absent from their courses.
In February and March we have a series of mobilizations in university schools and mainly in Law. These mobilizations will be the prelude to the uprising of the Polytechnic University in November of the same year. Its violent repression resulted in the strengthening and radicalization of the student movement.
The world has received the message that the junta is blowing the whistle, this is also implied by the great British actor Laurence Olivier, when in a ceremony in front of Queen Elizabeth and the junta's ambassador in London, he does a spectacularly revolutionary act for the benefit of Greece. Without anyone having foreseen the slightest, he reads - in violation of the protocol of the ceremony - a passage from a letter of GA Magkakis written during this time in the prisons of Korydallos, where he is being held.
With Laurence Olivier the protagonist of the "scandal", the Greek problem is on the front page of all the world's newspapers. The baton is soon taken by the progressive American Senator Fulbright who declares to America that "Greece has the most brutal hotel regime in the world".
The junta is weakening day by day and Papadopoulos knows his end is near.
In May 1973 a mutiny in the navy fails. The officers involved in it are arrested and only the crew of the destroyer "Arrow" manages to escape to Italy. The dictators accuse Karamanlis and the king of being the instigators of the rebellion but they deny their participation.
After these events, the colonels formally catalyze Basel and then Papadopoulos announces the creation of a Presidential Parliamentary Democracy that would be ratified by holding a referendum and promises elections for the following year, in 1974.
On July 29, 1973, George Papadopoulos was elected president of the Republic in a fraudulent referendum. In order to convince the people that he really wanted to establish a true democracy, he proceeded to impressive acts: granting amnesty, releasing political prisoners, relaxing censorship and forming a government with the leader of the progressive party, Spyros Markezini, as prime minister, who undertook the preparation for the holding of the first parliamentary elections scheduled for next year.
This temporary relaxation of the repressive measures with the Marquezini government gave the opportunity for a rapid rise of the student movement and organized mobilizations.
The first opportunity was given at the memorial service for the fifth anniversary of the death of George Papandreou on November 4. A large crowd gathered at the first cemetery of Athens. Many political leaders and party officials had come (P. Kanellopoulos, G. Mavros, I. Zigdis, Al. Baltatzis as well as Alekos Panagoulis) and the memorial service turned into a rally.
In the church of the cemetery, the arriving politicians were greeted with cheers and applause from thousands of people and the first group slogans began: "Immortal", "Democracy", "Markezini go", "Down with Papadopoulos", "Andreas is coming".
An invisible force directed the body of that mass towards the Constitution where it collided with strong police forces. The conflict between protesters and the police was very fierce, resulting in a serious toll: more than 60 civilians injured, 32 police officers injured, many people were arrested and finally 17 were detained. Five students, seven employees, two workers, three professionals. If those arrested are a sampling, it is indicative of the joining of all strata of the population in this demonstration.
In the meantime, the student movement benefited from the new conditions that had been created and suddenly took on unexpected dimensions, like an avalanche that began to roll, taking everything with it.
The trigger was the student elections. Since November 1972, the permanent demand of the students has been the holding of new, irrevocable elections. The Marquezini government wanted to satisfy it.
On November 1, 1973, the Minister of Education Sifnaios announced a series of measures and among others the holding of student elections in February 1974. However, the students wanted elections to be held in December 1973.
Up to this point the political ramifications of the student movement seemed limited; things started to drag out from November 8.
Then the students wanted to hold a rally in the law school building but the university authorities did not grant permission, because they were afraid that they would occupy the building permanently to turn it back into a political fortress as it had been in February-March.
The students - several hundreds - tried to carry out their decision but were attacked by the police. Pursued on Panepistimios and Akadimias streets, they fled to the forecourt of the Polytechnic University.
This was the beginning of the events that could be described as "the Paris May of '68" in Athens.
The police initially tried to remove them from the courtyard but in vain.
In the afternoon, the rector of the Polytechnic, the prosecutor and police officers arrived and tried to negotiate with the students to leave. They demanded the removal of the police, which was done. Not only did they not leave, but they took real possession of all the buildings, while waves of other students flooded the polytechnic area and the surrounding streets. An atmosphere of revolution and celebration prevailed and at 9:00 p.m. the gathered students numbered approximately 5,000. Traffic on Patision Street was stopped, trolleys were stopped and purely political and militant slogans such as "down with the junta", "the tyrant will die" were written on them...
Late on the night of November 8, the Polytechnic complex was evacuated without violence, but a general test had been held with great success, in a few days the real performance would take place in the same place.
By now the resistance student organizations had realized the possibilities that were opening up and were moving forward for political action. The idea of turning the Polytechnic complex into a center of resistance action and then into a base of expedition for wider action bore fruit. The spirit and deed of May 68 in Paris inspired them and was strengthened by the fresh message sent by distant Thailand. And thus began a feverish preparation for a large organized militant event under the guise of student protests.
On November 12, there were gatherings of several universities in which, alongside the discussion of student elections, political resistance slogans began to dominate. The students did not miss the opportunity of relaxing the terrorist apparatus of the dictatorship as well as the confusion that possessed everyone in the processes of politicization. On November 14, the real rebellion began. The day before, the minister of education stated that he remains unmoved in his positions regarding the student elections. They would be held after February 15, ΄74. That morning, November 14th, the general meetings of the student associations immediately convened to discuss the new situation and the slogan "forward to the polytechnic" was thrown at all of them; it was clear that there was a unified plan.
The influx began immediately, by noon more than 2,000 people had gathered, mass events began at the beginning with student slogans and gradually only political ones. Festive atmosphere, concerts of artists, revolutionary upsurge, collective and individual actions, all this was the Polytechnic, where morals and customs of the time were broken, students rebelled against oppression on many levels.
First and foremost against the junta.
Then facing a more general social establishment full of prohibitions that were not only political.
Against their parents. There was no more rebellious act then than for a girl to sleep outside the house for a night.
Throughout the three days there were tensions, disputes and sharp confrontations between the various associations and committees. But everyone remained united against the common enemy, the junta. But not between them either.
Efforts were made for guidance from the two communist parties the KKE and the KKE of the Interior. There have been hidden agendas and secret meetings, but they have not swayed the rebellious youth from their common goal of bringing down the Junta.
Self-organization was one of the hallmarks of the rebellion.
They made the radio station by themselves, built the transmitter, asked for help from the surrounding shops to find lamps, cables, microphones, set up a doctor's office, restaurants for feeding, all by themselves. Collectiveness and individuality together with the help of the world of Athens who joined the students dispelling collective fear and releasing uncontrollable forces.
The junta reacted with violence and there were 34 dead and many injured.
In explosive events, such as that of the Polytechnic, composed of many forces where opposites melt as in a volcano, after the explosion when the commotion subsides, all the opposites are present and crystallized again.
And the most frequent question that has been asked continuously for half a century is…
"What's left of the Polytechnic?"
Maybe because something "gone", maybe because many slogans were transformed into emotions.
*Cover photo: Students gathered at the Polytechnic gate, November 15, 1973. [AP Photo]