BY GEORGES MEHRABIAN
ATHENS, Greece - More than 20,000 workers and students
marched here May 1 in the largest working-class protest to date
against the U.S.-NATO aggression in Yugoslavia. The General
Confederation of Labor of Greece (GSEE), the Athens Labor
Center (EKA), and other trade-union bodies called on working
people to turn this year's May Day rallies into anti-war
protests. Protest marches also took place in Thessaloniki,
Patras, Volos, and other cities. In the northern port city of
Thessaloniki, a two-day blockade of the port was called by
several trade unions and prevented the movement of NATO
hardware bound for the Republic of Macedonia.
After a rally in downtown Athens, workers contingents marched to the U.S. embassy to express their opposition to the U.S. imperialist war. Most union contingents marched as part of the several thousand strong bloc of the Pan Labor Struggle Front (PAME) led by pro-Communist Party union officials. The march was met by several hundred riot police which had surrounded the U.S. embassy.
"Not one soldier to Yugoslavia, We won't fight for the USA and Germany!" and "EU and NATO syndicate of war!" chanted the marchers.
The protest included several contingents of students from various colleges and technical schools. Sprinkled within the protest were a few Serbian flags and Greek flags. Equally numerous, though, were the flag of the old Yugoslav federation. For the first time a contingent of Albanian immigrant workers participated and unfurled the Albanian flag.
Although speeches from union officials at the May Day rally reflected the Greek nationalist and pro-Serbian government stance of the labor officialdom, the tone of the action was in sharp contrast to that of an "antiwar" concert held a few days earlier, on April 26.
Some 50,000 people attended the concert in the central downtown square of Athens, which was organized by some 40 singers and musical groups, the same people who had pulled together a nationalist mobilization at the time of the abduction of Kurdish leader Ocalan by Turkish secret police. It was supported by youth groups of all the political parties. At the April 26 concert Greek, Serbian, and Byzantine flags of Orthodoxy - a favorite of the right wing and fascists - abounded, side by side with red flags.
A few days earlier, Greek navy lieutenant Marios Ritsoudis refused to board his warship, which was headed to the Adriatic as part of a NATO force. The reason, Ritsoudis said, was that he is a Greek Orthodox Christian and would not be responsible for the deaths of fellow Orthodox Christians in Serbia. Many protests that have included right-wing forces, have had as a central slogan "Greece, Serbia, Orthodoxy!"
In a move aimed at giving Athens a substantial boost in air power in the Aegean Sea and in the Balkans, the government announced the purchase of 50 new U.S.-made F-16 fighter planes, 15 French Mirages, and 75 Eurofighters.
Supporters and friends of the Committee of Communists participated at the May 1 action, including by setting up a literature table with a banner reading, "No to the imperialist intervention! Greece out of NATO! Self-determination for the Albanians of Kosova! Open the borders to the refugees!" They handed out hundreds of statements explaining these demands and invited people to come to a forum on the war in Yugoslavia the next day. The forum was an eyewitness report by Natasha Terlexis, who participated in the Militant reporting team to Yugoslavia.
"I was attracted to your table by the banner, especially the point about self determination for the Albanians," said one young participant who identified himself as Ioannis, at the march. "No one else has presented that, and I strongly agree." Another young person expressed similar opinions, and bought the Greek translation of Imperialism's March Towards Fascism and War by Jack Barnes. In all seven copies of the Greek edition of The Truth About Yugoslavia: Why Working People should Oppose Intervention, two copies of Imperialism's March Towards Fascism and War, and two titles by Marx and Lenin were sold off the table.
Supporters of the Committee of Communists did not participate in the April 26 event.