The next morning martial law, which had been lifted with the promise of elections, was re-imposed. And thousands of students and young workers were arrested, dealing a tremendous blow to student anti-junta organizations. Within a week of the revolt, Papadopolous himself was overthrown by the most extreme, uncompromising faction of the fascist clique, headed by Brigadier General Dimitri Ioannides. The last and most repressive phase of the dictatorship began. The prisons and concentration camps were again full.
The Polytechnic uprising proved that the Greek people's rejection of the fascist regime and its methods was almost unanimous. It created the subjective preconditions for even higher levels of anti-fascist activity. It reaffirmed the belief of the Greeks that a new start had to be made in the political life of the country. Its foundation would have to be the overthrow of the junta and the eradication of all those political structures, inherited from the U.S.-dominated post-Civil War period in Greece, that made a mockery of democracy and that culminated in this terrorist regime. Above all it expressed the demand for an end to foreign tutelage in general and the establishment of effective Greek independence in foreign policy.
The junta's criminal activities against the Republic of Cyprus, providing a pretext for the Turkish generals to proceed with their occupation of northern Cyprus, speeded the disintegration of the junta's power base in the army. As the Pike report showed, these activities were closely monitored by Kissinger and the Pentagon, who failed to lift a finger to prevent them despite the regular contacts between Ioannides and the CIA in Athens. The innocent blood that flowed abundantly in Greece and Cyprus brought about the restoration of democracy to its birthplace. Cyprus is, of course, still bleeding, with no end to its martyrdom in sight.
The Cyprus crisis forced Brigadier General Ioannides to transfer his power to civilian politicians, who in turn called on former prime minister Constantine Karamanlis to end his self-imposed exile in Paris and form a new government. This change occurred against a background of general dissolution to all resistance organizations following the Polytechnic revolt. The Karamanlis regime adopted some minimal positive measures, such as the release of all political prisoners, legalization of all political parties and free elections. It also withdrew from the military branch of NATO, though more in words than in fact.
Nevertheless, it has refused to complete the process of dismantling the junta strongholds in the army and state bureaucracy, limiting itself to trials and, more often than not, ridiculously light sentences for the leaders of the fascist regime and assorted subordinates.
Some immediate aims, then, of the Polytechnic uprising were eventually realized. Democracy was re-established. Yet most of the long-term demands for a structurally new democratic order and a more balanced international orientation are still the rallying points of a continuing struggle.
On the occasion of the third anniversary of the Polytechnic revolt, we thought it useful to assess its significance for the benefit of our fellow students in the U.S. Their own courageous struggles of the '60s and early '70s were a factor in ending the criminal war against the people of Vietnam. As a new administration is preparing to take over in Washington next January, we hope that American students will continue their efforts to ensure that promises of non-intervention and respect for the rights of foreign peoples are kept.
The infliction of suffering and the extinction of freedom in the name of containment, balance of power and hypocritical support for some sort of unrecognizable democracy should no longer be tolerated by the American people.
[Mietiades A. and Electra K. are pseudonyms for Greek university students in the Boston area.]