The Militant - February 21, 2011 -- Speeches by Malcolm X are published in Greek

Vol. 75/No. 7 February 21, 2011

Speeches by Malcolm X
are published in Greek

BY NATASHA TERLEXIS
ATHENS, Greece—Forty-five people, half of them immigrants from Ghana, Burkina Faso, Palestine, Bangladesh, Egypt, and Lebanon, attended the launching of the Greek-language translation of Malcolm X Talks to Young People at the Ghanaian Social Center here January 30. The book, which is based on the title published in English by Pathfinder Press, was just released by Diethnes Vima. It is the first full book of material by Malcolm X in the Greek language.

Samsideen Iddrisu of the Ghanaian community and African Vision opened the event. Focusing on the life of the revolutionary leader, he said, “Malcolm represented the greatest leadership potential coming out of the Black proletariat.”

“The Cuban people—and particularly our leaders—have followed closely the history of struggle of black people against racism and all forms of discrimination all over the world, where Malcolm X played a significant role,” said Eliselia Díaz Suárez, First Secretary of the Cuban Embassy in Athens.

Only in 1959 did the people of Cuba establish “a legitimate government representing the rights of workers, farmers, women and blacks and swept away all forms of discrimination,” she said. Also present at the event was Luis Prado, Cuba’s ambassador to Greece.

Kostas Athanasiou, one of the organizers of the volunteer effort to translate and promote the new book, reviewed the history of the fight for Black rights. He described Malcolm X as being formed by this long history of struggle, going over names and dates of a record little known to working people in Greece.

Georges Mehrabian on behalf of the publishing house Diethnes Vima reviewed the perspective Malcolm X presents through the speeches and interviews contained in the book.

In the discussion, Yvette Jarvis, an African American and former member of the Athens City Council took exception with the portrayal of Malcolm X as the only major Black figure who consistently opposed U.S. policies around the world. She pointed in particular to Martin Luther King’s opposition to the U.S. war in Vietnam.

While agreeing that King did so, Mehrabian said, “Malcolm X early on saw U.S. imperialist aggression in the Congo, Vietnam, and elsewhere as cut from the same cloth as racist oppression within U.S. borders. The oppressed the world over faced the same enemy and their struggles are part of the same fight to overthrow that enemy.”

Mehrabian also announced that Diethnes Vima will soon publish in Greek Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power by Jack Barnes. Twelve books were sold at the event, including seven of the new title, with five more ordered.

The next presentation of Malcolm X Talks to Young People is scheduled for February 12 by the Immigrants’ Club in Hania, on the island of Crete.

An initial round of visits to bookstores in Athens, Thessaloniki, and Katerini netted orders for 70 copies of the new book.

Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home