AnarWiki/markdown/Athens_Polytechnic_Uprising.md

The **Athens Polytechnic Uprising** was a [student
uprising](List_of_Student_Uprisings "wikilink") in
[November](Timeline_of_Libertarian_Socialism_in_Southern_Europe "wikilink")
[1973](Revolutions_of_1967_-_1975 "wikilink") against the Greek Military
JuntaB

## es

Since 21 April 1967, Greece had been under the dictatorial rule of the
military, a regime which abolished civil rights, dissolved political
parties and exiled, imprisoned and tortured politicians and citizens
based on their political beliefs. 1973 found the military junta leader
Georgios Papadopoulos having undertaken a "liberalisation" process of
the regime, which included the release of political prisoners and the
partial lifting of censorship, as well as promises of a new constitution
and new elections for a return to civilian rule. Opposition elements
including Socialists were thus given the opportunity to undertake
political action against the junta.

The United States took a clandestine interest in suppressing Socialists
and had a C.I.A. operative named John Maury who was in consultation
supporting the Junta Leaders. American Vice President Spiro Agnew
praised the junta as "the best thing to happen to Greece since Pericles
ruled in ancient Athens".<sup>\[*This quote needs a citation*\]</sup>

The junta, trying to control every aspect of politics, had interfered
with student syndicalism since 1967, by banning student elections in
universities, forcibly drafting students and imposing non-elected
student union leaders in the national student's union,
EFEE<sup>\[*citation needed*\]</sup>. These actions eventually created
anti-junta sentiments among students, such as geology student Kostas
Georgakis who committed suicide in 1970 in Genoa, Italy as an act of
protest against the junta.

The first massive public action against the junta came from students on
21 February 1973, when law students went on strike and barricaded
themselves inside the buildings of the Law School of the University of
Athens in the centre of Athens, demanding repeal of the law that imposed
forcible drafting<sup>\[1\]</sup> of "subversive youths", as 88 of their
peers had been forcibly drafted to the army. The police were ordered to
intervene and many students were reportedly subjected to police
brutality. The events at the Law School are often cited as the prelude
to the Polytechnic uprising.<sup>\[*citation needed*\]</sup>

The student uprising was also heavily influenced by the youth movements
of the 1960s, notably the events of May 1968 in France.<sup>\[*citation
needed*\]</sup>

An anti-dictatorial student movement was growing among the youth, and
the police utilised brutal methods and torture towards them, in order to
confront the threat.<sup>\[2\]</sup>

### Events

The entrance of the National Technical University of Athens

### 14 November

On 14 November 1973, students at the Athens Polytechnic
(*Polytechneion*) went on strike and started protesting against the
military regime (*Regime of the Colonels*). As the authorities stood by,
the students were calling themselves the "Free Besieged" (Greek:
Ελεύθεροι Πολιορκημένοι, a reference to the poem by Greek poet
Dionysios Solomos inspired by the Ottoman siege of
Mesolonghi).<sup>\[3\]\[4\]\[5\]</sup>

An assembly was formed spontaneously and decided to occupy the
Polytechnic. The two main student parties, the Marxist pro-Soviet A-AFEE
and Rigas did not endorse the movement.<sup>\[6\]</sup> Leftists and
anarchists initiated the sit-in. While they contended that the uprising
should demand capitalism's abolition, the larger, unconvinced rebel
group disagreed and chose instead to demand democracy's
restoration.<sup>\[*citation needed*\]</sup> A *Coordination Commission
of the Occupation* was formed but had loose control over the
uprising.<sup>\[7\]</sup> Police had gathered outside but did not manage
to break into the premises.<sup>\[8\]</sup>

Slogans and graffiti by the students were anti-NATO and anti-American,
and compared the Greek junta with Nazi Germany.

### 15 November

During the second day of the occupation (often called *celebration
day*), thousands of people from Athens poured in to support the
students.<sup>\[8\]</sup> A radio transmitter was set up and Maria
Damanaki, then a student and member of A-EFEE, popularized the slogan
*"Bread-Education-Freedom"*. The demands of the occupation were
anti-imperialistic and anti-NATO.<sup>\[9\]</sup> Third parties that
allied themselves with the student protests were the construction
workers (who set up a parallel committee next to CCO) and some farmers
from Megara, who coincidentally protested on the same days in
Athens.<sup>\[10\]</sup>

### 16 November

A proclamation was announced on Friday, 16 November by the CCO that the
students were aiming to bring down the Junta. During the afternoon,
demonstrations and attacks against neighbouring ministries took place.
Central roads closed, fires erupted and Molotov cocktails were thrown
for the first time in Athens.<sup>\[11\]</sup> The Junta decided to
reply firmly, by repressing the riots. Snipers were placed at buildings
next to the Polytechnic and assassinated 24 people in
total<sup>\[*when?*\]</sup>.<sup>\[12\]</sup> Students barricaded
themselves in and constructed a radio station (using laboratory
equipment) that repeatedly broadcast across Athens:

Maria Damanaki, later a politician, was one of the major speakers. Soon
thousands of workers and youngsters joined them protesting inside and
outside of the "Athens Polytechnic".

### 17 November

In the early hours of November 17, 1973, the transitional government
sent a tank crashing through the gates of the Athens
Polytechnic.<sup>\[15\]</sup> Soon after that, Spyros Markezinis himself
had the task to request Papadopoulos to reimpose martial
law.<sup>\[15\]</sup> Prior to the crackdown, the city lights had been
shut down, and the area was only lit by the campus lights, powered by
the university generators. An AMX 30 Tank (still kept in a small armored
unit museum in a military camp in Avlonas, not open to the public)
crashed the rail gate of the Athens Polytechnic at around 03:00 am. In
unclear footage clandestinely filmed by a Dutch journalist, the tank is
shown bringing down the main steel entrance to the campus, to which
people were clinging. Documentary evidence also survives, in recordings
of the "Athens Polytechnic" radio transmissions from the occupied
premises. In these a young man's voice is heard desperately asking the
soldiers (whom he calls 'brothers in arms') surrounding the building
complex to disobey the military orders and not to fight 'brothers
protesting'. The voice carries on to an emotional outbreak, reciting the
lyrics of the Greek National Anthem, until the tank enters the yard, at
which time transmission ceases.

An official investigation undertaken after the fall of the Junta
declared that no students of the Athens Polytechnic were killed during
the incident. Total recorded casualties amount to 24 civilians killed
outside Athens Polytechnic campus. These include 19-year-old Michael
Mirogiannis, reportedly shot to death by officer Nikolaos Dertilis,
high-school students Diomedes Komnenos and Alexandros Spartidis of Lycee
Leonin, and a five-year-old boy caught in the crossfire in the suburb of
Zografou. The records of the trials held following the collapse of the
Junta document the circumstances of the deaths of many civilians during
the uprising, and although the number of dead has not been contested by
historical research, it remains a subject of political controversy. In
addition, hundreds of civilians were left injured during the
events.<sup>\[16\]</sup>

Ioannides' involvement in inciting unit commanders of the security
forces to commit criminal acts during the Athens Polytechnic uprising
was noted in the indictment presented to the court by the prosecutor
during the Greek junta trials and in his subsequent conviction in the
Polytechneion trial where he was found to have been morally responsible
for the events.

## Results

  - The uprising led to an end to attempted liberasation of Greece and
    the reinstatement of military law. However, this would backfire and
    lead to the[democratisation of Greece in
    1974](Timeline_of_Representative_Democracy "wikilink").
  - Upon democratisation, Greece banned police from entering
    universities.
  - The uprising became a symbol in Greece of resistance to tyranny.
  - The uprisings dates are a national holiday and often see mass
    protests and riots.
  - The uprising led to the increased popularity of anarchism in Greece.
  - The [17N](17N_\(Greece\) "wikilink") insurrection group in Greece is
    named after the final day of the uprising.