Rang de Basanti from the film Rang de Basanti (2006)
Teri Mehfil Mein from the film Mughal-e-Azam (1960)
Rob Van Dam wins the WWE Championship at One Night Stand (2006)
CM Punk wins the World Heavyweight Championship (2008)
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About a month ago, I visited a local antiquarian bookseller and, among other things, I picked up a book called The Socialism of To-day. The book was published by Henry Holt and Company in 1916 by members of a committee of the Intercollegiate Socialist Society and purports to be “the first international and comprehensive source-book dealing with the Socialist movement in any language.”
An appealing feature of this volume is the fact that it was published just a year before the Russian Revolution and my natural inclination was to flip immediately to the section entitled “Russia and Finland” (Part I, Section II, Chapter VI) and review the authors’ assessment of Lenin and company on the eve of the birth of the USSR. It is actually Kerensky and not Lenin who dominates the 7½ pages devoted to Russia, the latter of whom is referred to only in passing on page 98 through the collective reference of six deputies of the Duma known as the “Lenin followers.”
The movement in America garners extensive coverage in this book. Entire sections are devoted to the efforts of American socialist organizations in addressing vital topics of the day such as the then-burgeoning tensions involving immigrant workers and racial and ethnic minorities. The narratives therein clearly show the care and attention that America’s radical left was willing to devote to these matters many decades before the American government offered anything other than relative indifference and complete disregard. Eugene Debs and Daniel De Leon are mentioned in these sections, highlighting their integral roles in the organization of American workers and activists.
Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht and Otto Bauer feature prominently in an extensive section of the book entitled “The Proposed General Strike for the Equal Suffrage in Prussia” (Part II, Chapter II). Included here are addresses and resulutions by Luxemburg, et al. and and editorial summary from Vorwaerts (Vorwärts).
I was pleasantly surprised to find material dedicated to the movement in Greece as part of the chapter entitled “Roumania, Bulgaria and Greece” (Part I, Section I, Chapter IX). The piece chronicles the struggles of the early socialist movement in Greece, highlighting the work of Dr. Dracoules. Eleftherios Venizelos merits only a passing mention in the piece, although the two decades following the publication of this volume would see the political career of Venizelos in a succession of high highs and low lows...often to the collective detriment of the the Greek people.
Reproduced below are pages 188 through 190 of The Socialism of To-day in their entirety. This text has been reproduced in accordance with Fair Use provisions.
GREECE
Greece has experienced a rapid industrial development during the last 15 years. As far back as the year 1885, Dr. Dracoules began with his propaganda work. In 1893, as leader of the Greek Socialist Party, he secured 4,000 votes in Athens, and in 1901 he was elected to the Greek Parliament, where he served several years.
Προλετάριοι όλων των χωρών ενωθείτε!
Attempts have often been made during the past few years to establish a consolidated economic or political organization, but up to the present without any satisfactory results. This regrettable state of affairs may be attributed to the fact that emigration is increasing day by day, and it is just the most skilled and intelligent workers who are driven from their homes on account of their unfortunate political and economic conditions. At any rate, the constant agitation of a more progressive body has already had a great influence upon public opinion, and it is to-day generally recognized that the present conditions are untenable.
It was in 1909 that the military arose and swept away the existing government. The movement was supported by a great mass of the people, because an improvement in their conditions was hoped for as soon as new members were elected to the government. The new government relied to a certain extent upon the Socialist or semi-Socialist elements which had arisen from the Dracoules propaganda, and had developed a program "of struggle against the plutocracy." Venizelos, the skillful prime minister, succeeded in turning a part of the movement to his purposes, at the same time that he was building up the Balkan League against Turkey inspired by the idea–launched by the Socialists–of a confederation of all the nations of the peninsula.
The government also succeeded in serving their own financial interests under the cloak of a propaganda campaign against modern capitalism. The people were forced to put up with this because they were helpless and disunited. The new political power offered brutal opposition to any attempt on the part of the workers to organize. Dr. Dracoules, in 1912, secured 12,000 of the 48,000 votes of Athens, and was almost elected in another district where he was also candidate. Nevertheless, the propaganda and the rising number of votes for the new movement resulted in a small progressive group in Parliament pushing forward with the labor laws.
In the meantime a Socialist weekly paper was established for the purpose of furthering the propaganda and organization work systematically. This was the first necessity–having regard to the great disruption in the existing groups. There is a very mixed "Labor Federation of Athens and Piraeus," to which 17 industries belong, whilst 1 yellow organization has compromised 14 groups since 1910. Some 15 organizations, which are naturally still weak, both numerically and financially, belong to a third tendency. They represent no unity, it is true, but there are hopes of building up modern organizations with these as a basis. The followers of Dracoules created a labor league in 1909, which comprised two separate organizations–one Socialist Party and one trades-union center. This league has organizations in several towns. It propagates an understanding between the workers of the other Balkan States, hoping to put an end to the race hatred which exists.
The Youth of the
Democratic Army at Inspection Photo detail from
The Youth of
Greece: The Heroic Struggle of
EPON, also available from the Greek Civil War Subject Archive at marxists.org
Written prior to the critical events of 1949, this work by Olive Sutton casts a critical light on British and American intervention in Greece following the formulation and execution of the Truman Doctrine. Sutton's piece places special emphasis on the horrors of the "White Terror" in Greece, a period rife with the execution of political prisoners and the starvation and murder of many Greek civilians. Murder Inc. is indeed a candid chronicle of the marriage of imperialist intervention and capitalist exploitation in post-WWII Greece. [Thanks to Mike B.]
Excerpt from the Introduction toMurder Inc. in Greece:
MOST of the seats in the auditorium were filled by bright-faced youngsters—boys just old enough to borrow their father's ties, and girls the age of trying out lipstick and piled-up hair.
They listened wisely when the speaker mentioned Hitler and Mussolini. But when he recalled "Guernica, Barcelona, Granada, the battle of the Ebro, the fight for the Spanish Republic," they widened their eyes and looked at each other, puzzled.
They didn't know the story of the Spanish Republic the first European battleground against fascist aggression, where World War II could have been prevented. They didn't know Hitler's first blow was struck in Spain ten years ago, and they grew a little restless as the meeting wore on.
It wouldn't have mattered at all if, leaving the meeting, you could think: They don't have to go through that again. But you couldn't.
You could only think: These kids may have to learn the meaning of other names, other battles…Salonika, Larissa, Sparta, Corinth, Athens…They must learn these names now, before they become the names of lost battles.
We've already fought one war so that one generation could grow up in peace. But in Greece, children die of disease and starvation and stray bullets. Bullets made in America. Those bullets endanger American children, too.
My good friend Zdravko Saveski recently translated the Wikipedia biography of Pandelis Pouliopoulos into Macedonian for the Marxists Internet Archive. When I expressed an interest in posting portions of Zdravko’s new translation on our website – alongside Greek and English translations of the biography of Pouliopoulos – Zdravko kindly agreed to write an introductory text for greeklish.org. Solidarity between the Greek Left and the Macedonian Left is alive and well!
Pandelis Pouliopoulos
Introductionby Zdravko Saveski Nationalists in every nation build idealistic and inflated versions of the history of their people and country. In doing so, they perceive the neighbour peoples and countries as enemies that have, throughout the history, conspired against the nationalists' people and country. The purpose of the leftists, who are internationalists by definition, is to overcome the ethnic prejudices, to present the real instead of romanticized view on history and to build bridges among peoples.
Macedonian nationalism and Greek nationalism were both recently resurrected by the redundant "name dispute". Paradoxically, the Greek nationalists help Macedonian nationalists to increase its support in the Republic of Macedonia, and vice versa. To counteract the influence of Macedonian nationalists, I have started to popularize the stances of the Greek leftists who have friendly attitudes towards Republic of Macedonia and Macedonians so the Macedonian public can see that "all Greeks aren't bad." Among others, I have written the biography of Pandelis Pouliopoulos for the Macedonian section of the Marxists Internet Archive and for the Macedonian Wikipedia, and I want to thank Mike for supporting my efforts. The Greek Left is much stronger than Macedonian Left and I am looking forward to future cooperation with our Greek comrades. Excerpt from the biography of Pandelis Pouliopoulos from the new Macedonian translation by Zdravko Saveski: Пантелис Пулјопулос (10 март 1900 година – 6 јуни 1943 година) е грчки троцкист, некогашен генерален секретар на Комунистичката партија на Грција и основач на троцкистичкото движење во Грција. Ги бранеше правата на етничките малцинства, вклучително и на македонското, во Грција и тоа беше една од причините за судирот со КПГ.
Во 1919 година Пулјопулос се запишува на Универзитетот во Атина, каде студира право. Истата година се приклучува кон Социјалистичката работничка партија на Грција (претходник на Комунистичката партија на Грција). Во 1920 година, за време на Грчко-турската војна 1919-1922, е регрутиран во грчката војска. Во 1922 година е уапсен за антивоено делување, но со крајот на војната е ослободен. Во периодот 1923-1925 година е активен во движењето на воените ветерани, а во 1924 година е избран и за претседател на Панхеленската федерација на ветераните. (full text) Excerpt from the biography of Pandelis Pouliopoulos in Greek, provided by Nikos Loudos: Ο Παντελής Πουλιόπουλος (10 Μαρτίου 1900 6 Ιουνίου 1943) ήταν έλληνας κομμουνιστής και ο πρώτος γενικός γραμματέας του Κομμουνιστικού Κόμματος Ελλάδας (ΚΚΕ). Υπεράσπισε το διεθνιστικό και επαναστατικό χαρακτήρα του κομμουνιστικού κινήματος. Είναι ο ιδρυτής του τροτσκιστικού κινήματος στην Ελλάδα.
Γεννήθηκε στη Θήβα το 1900 και το 1919 πήγε στην Αθήνα για να σπουδάσει νομικά στο Πανεπιστήμιο. Την ίδια χρονιά, εντάχθηκε στο Σοσιαλιστικό Εργατικό Κόμμα Ελλάδος (ΣΕΚΕ), τον πολιτικό πρόγονο του ΚΚΕ. Το 1920 επιστρατεύθηκε για να πολεμήσει στον ελληνοτουρκικό πόλεμο του 1919-1922. Το 1922 συνελήφθη για αντιπολεμική δράση, αλλά απελευθερώθηκε με το τέλος του πολέμου.
Από το 1923 ως το 1925 έπαιξε ηγετικό ρόλο στο κίνημα των βετεράνων του πολέμου και το 1924 εκλέχτηκε πρόεδρος της Πανελλήνια Ομοσπονδία Παλαιών Πολεμιστών και Θυμάτων Στρατών..., η οποία κυκλοφορεί την εφημερίδα "Παλαιός Πολεμιστής" με κυκλοφορία που φτάνει τα 20 χιλιάδες φύλλα. Excerpt from the English language Wikipedia biography of Pandelis Pouliopoulos: Pandelis Pouliopoulos (10 March 1900-6 June 1943) was a Greek communist and onetime general secretary of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). He stood for the internationalist and revolutionary character of the communist movement. He is the founder of the trotskyist movement in Greece.
Born in Thiva, Greece, Pouliopoulos enrolled at Athens University in 1919 to study law. In 1919, he joined the Socialist Labour Party of Greece (SEKE), the forerunner of the Communist Party of Greece.
In 1920, he was conscripted to fight in the Greek-Turkish war of 1919-1922. He was arrested in 1922 for anti-war activity, but was freed with the end of the war.
If
it's the first weekend after Labor Day and the heat index is in the
mid-nineties, then it must be time for the annual Greek Festival.
Despite the heat, we had a good time visiting with friends, eating and
watching the dancers. I am kind of surprised at how much Greek
memorabilia bears the label "Made in China" these days. Did Greece
grant China "Most Favored Nation" trade status or do the Chinese just love Greece?
It
was nice to see that in lieu of tip jars, festival workers were
collecting donations for relief funds to benefit victims of the
wildfires in Greece. Assuming that the cash ultimately gets where it
is needed, this seems like a great idea. As we have some good friends
from Pelopónnisos, we have heard some firsthand tales of how horrible the situation has been in recent weeks. My understanding is that the Red Cross of Greece
is still one of the best places to donate money for relief right now.
The bureaucracy of the Red Cross is often criticized, but the
organization remains one of the best centralized points for the
collection and disbursement of aid for major disasters worldwide. At
any rate, I have already received at least one chain letter for an
allegedly "genuine" ad hoc relief effort that is almost assuredly fake
and I am sure there are more to come. I would rather give to the Red
Cross and know that at least some of the money is getting through as
opposed to having a fly-by-night scam keep my cash for themselves.
On
a completely unrelated note, I have to mention the most interesting
t-shirt that I saw at the festival today. To be clear, the shirt in
question was worn by a female festival attendee and not a festival
worker or anyone affiliated with the church (as far as I could tell). The message on the shirt
read, "Hustle for Jesus." Nice.
Anyway, we have uploaded some photos of the Evzonakia Dancers in a new, off-site photo gallery. (username & password required)
My good friend Zdravko Saveski recently penned an article for the July/August 2007 issue of the Canadian journal Relay (download the complete PDF here). The article, entitled "Socialist Organizing in Post-Communist Macedonia,"provides analysis of the main problems facing the Macedonian left through discussion of specific and unique domestic and regional issues.
Included in the article is a short piece on the so-called "naming dispute," in which Zdravko accurately describes the dispute as a "preoccupation with ethnic issues, so easily aroused by the nationalist political parties and other organizations." This is, in fact. a profound statement, succinctly characterizing the nature of this significant distraction for the working classes of Macedonia, Greece and Bulgaria.
Additionally, Zdravko discusses the problem of "nostalgia for the communist past" in the former Yugoslavia, noting:
The social standards were high in the former Yugoslavia, the repression – low, and the communist leader, Josip Broz Tito, very popular. Comparing the present with the former system, the common people are ignoring the issue of democracy-dictatorship and tend to concentrate on the social issues.
Zdravko's intriguing perspective and his level of insight are characteristics which are difficult enough to come by in many publications by the international left, to say nothing of the shortcomings of the mainstream (bourgeois) press. The issues facing the left in the Republic of Macedonia are a series of complexities which include dynamics and conditions that are unique to the region itself. These problems are an addition to the myriad of more general problems faced by progressives and the radical left throughout the world. Should the Macedonian working class rise to these challenges and ultimately present a strong, unified, and sustainable movement, perhaps the working people of the world will share in the optimism of Koco Racin and proclaim, "As you have prevailed, we'll prevail as well!"
Kalliope finished her first year of Greek School tonight and we are absolutely amazed with the results of her final exam! She got 113 out of 116 possible points plus 8 extra credit points! That's 121/116! It's an A++!
If you're old enough to remember the late 1980's/early 1990's (and you were in the U.S. at the time), then you probably remember the public access television explosion. Local public access channels were jammed with amateur producers and "talent" of all sorts, covering subject matter from the obscure to the mundane. The public access sensation was more or less the basis for the film "Wayne's World" and because of the success of the film, public access cable gained a shred of credibility for a very short period of time. Hell, I even joined a friend in taking the "Community Producer" course at the local cable access channel back in 1992 or so in hopes of launching a comedy show of sorts. Thankfully, the show never made it out of the "concept" phase which was probably a good thing because most of our "concepts" were pretty bad. But somewhere there is an awful, awful public access show from 1992 that features my name in the credits as a camera operator. It was my final project for the "Community Producer" course. Don't bother looking for it.
Miss Mia and
Ratso from
Chic-a-go-go
There's still a bit of bad programming on the local public access channels where we live. I suppose this is also true in bigger cities as well, but I am sure that it is not at the level that it was 15 years ago. As far as our current selection of public access shows in Dayton goes, you can choose from a terrible show on wine-tasting or incredibly bad, boring shows on local politics. Occasionally, there is a 1970's "documentary" on the Illuminati or some other kind of conspiracy theory. These shows are always fun in a creepy sort of way. The local access channels also feature dreadfully boring shows about local city attractions and history, most of which feature embarrassingly bad "talent" and poor audio and video. I could provide the names of the shows I am thinking of, but I don't really want to give them any press. Most of these studio shows are pretty formulaic, featuring the same desk, chairs, curtain and scenery ("scenery" typically refers to 1 plastic plant). And really...it's like death to try and watch more than 5 minutes of them. The call-in shows are really the most entertaining of the bad shows, because there's a least a little suspense in waiting for a crank caller to curse on air or say something really disgusting. It becomes annoying when the on-air "talent" try to stay ahead of the callers and hit them with one-liners before hanging up on them. The absolute power of controlling a telephone (with real, live callers) becomes just too much for these guys to handle.
There are some good things to have come from public access television in the U.S. I suppose my favorites are probably pretty obscure. I have previously mentioned my affection for the show Chic-a-go-go, which I think has something of a cult following in the Midwest. There's also Pirate TV which I think is produced out of Dayton' s MVCC. This is really one of my favorite shows on television. Each episode is about an hour's worth of oddities which include music videos, cult film movie trailers, commercials and clips from long-forgotten shows of the 1980's, toy commercials, clips from Japanese game shows and all kinds of other weird stuff. I am completely serious when I say that I think that Pirate TV is one of the only shows on television worth watching. I wish they had a web site or that there was some kind of info somewhere on the web to share, but all I can offer are my rave reviews.
Nikos Konstantinidis: Protector of the good, arch-nemesis of demonic stray pets
In the U.S., I think interest in public access television is definitely waning due to the rise of blogging and YouTube. But my friend Panos has shared that Greece is fortunate to boast a bumper crop of vintage public access-like craziness. Consider the work of Anestis Keramidas, who believes that the DNA of Greeks is different from the DNA of other humans. He also believes that in 2012 the Greeks and their ancient culture will dominate the world, giving peace to all the living creatures with the help of something called the Epsilon Team. Awesome. Then there's the work of religious oddballs like Anastasis Theodoridis and far-right wingers like the Georgiades Brothers. Demosthenis Liakopoulos seems to be a bit nutty as well. But it seems that Nikos Konstantinidis takes the cake. Apparently he was bitten by a stray dog in 2006 and he used his television show to declare that the attack was orchestrated by the Antichrist. Now who wouldn't be fascinated by this guy? And he's got the backing of the Church — or at least a representative of the Church — in the esteemed Father Modestos. Christos kai Panagia!
It's good to know that Greece has picked up where the U.S. left off when it comes to televised insanity!
Thanks to Panos for sharing his Wikipedia articles. Recommended viewing from YouTube Dimosthenis Liakopoulos video 1video 2 Anestis Keramidas video
During some down time this afternoon, I read a 1946 issue of Airboy (v3, #4) that I picked up a few months ago at the2006 Buckeye Comic Con.
The issue’s final story is an Iron Ace yarn that features a young Greek
orphan named Mike. The tale opens as Captain Britain (a.k.a. The
Iron Ace) is flying Mike from a camp in Italy back to his home on the
island of Crete. Along the way, Captain Britain learns that Mike
is the living reincarnation of Icarus, Iron Ace does battle with the
immortal Daedelus, and they all meet up with Pluto, the Prince of Hades. At
the end of the story, Mike decides to tell Captain Britain the story of
the Greek Resistance forces of Crete:
The rest of Mike’s tale remains a mystery, because the above panels are
actually the final panels of the story. I looked around for more
information regarding "Captain Alexandropolus" and I was unable to find
anything on the Internet. I also checked the booksRed Acropolis, Black Terrorand the Time-Life World War II volumePartisans and Guerillasand I came up empty. I’m not sure if Captain Alexandropolus was a
real figure or some kind of composite, but I sure would like to know
more. Further reading The Greek Civil Warmarxists.org
It looks like the Greek monopoly on feta cheese
is simply not enough to keep their economy strong. The celebrated
cradle of Western civilization and birthplace of reason and democracy,
has now written a new page in the annals of political economy. Under
pressure from the EU because of it’s budget deficit, the Greek
government has come up with a rather...um... innovative way to bring it’s GDP on to a more even par with its budget deficit:
Athens
has announced that its economy is 25% bigger than thought thanks, in
part, to the round-the-clock duties of the country's prostitutes, who
were known as hetairai in ancient times.
The
Greek authorities are revising the country's gross domestic product
(GDP) after deciding that the black market should be included in the
figures.
Manolis
Kontopyrakis, the head of the national statistics service, told
Reuters: "The revised GDP will include some money from illegal
activities, such as money from cigarette and drinks smuggling,
prostitution and money laundering."
Greece's
economic output was €180bn (£128bn) in 2005 and is expected to rise to
€194bn this year. The black economy is estimated at up to €60bn,
according to Reuters. (full story)
Bootlegging and prostitution revenue figures in the GDP? Let’s see if it measures up to what we know about GDP...
...(GDP) is a measure of National
Income. It is the total value of all goods and services produced over a
given time period (usually a year) excluding net property income from
abroad. It can be measured either as the total of income, expenditure
or output.
Hmm...I
guess the bootlegging covers the "goods" end of things. And
prostitution definitely involves "servicing" of one sort or another. But
a proposal like this has to be based on some sort of intensive field
research, doesn’t it? I wonder if Kontopyrakis paid for the research
with his own money or if he used government funds in his study of price
structures, exchange rates, and the like.
At
any rate, the silver lining in Greece’s cloud of vice and profiteering
might ultimately come with an even higher cost at the end of the day.
Not only will Athens have to contend with some unwelcome scrutiny from
the EU over their new GDP figures, they also will face the likelihood
of losing money should their inflated GDP numbers ultimately be
accepted by the EU.
The
country’s newfound wealth raised eyebrows in Brussels, because it means
Greece will find it easier to bring its budget deficit below the
European Union’s 3 per cent of GDP ceiling.
Having
previously been found guilty of underestimating the size of its budget
deficit, Greece’s new GDP calculation will be scrutinised by Eurostat,
the EU statistics agency.
"Member
states revise their figures regularly, but this is quite a significant
revision and needs to be checked," said a spokeswoman for Joaquín
Almunia, EU monetary affairs commissioner.
Mr
Almunia’s aides admit they were surprised by Athens’ announcement,
which was not discussed in advance with Brussels or other EU finance
ministers. Typically, such upward GDP revisions are of between 1-2 per
cent, although Greece and Italy have each previously made big revisions.
[...]
Among
the snags of becoming so much richer, Greece will have to contribute
more to the EU budget and could lose €470m ($597m, £318m) a year in EU
funds earmarked for poor countries after a review in 2010. (full story)
Best
of luck to the Greek government in this new wacky and sensational
scheme. It kind of gives new meaning to the phrase "fetishism of commodities," doesn't it?
Efharisto
-- once again -- to the superior intellect of Antonis, who is the
honorary Minister of Cultural Affairs for greeklish.org.
