The trial of Savvas Michael-Matsas, General Secretary of the EEK (Workers Revolutionary
Party of Greece), an d of Konstan tinos Moutzouris, former Rector of the National
Technical University of Athens, took place on September 3-4, 2013, after a
lawsuit deposed by the Nazi party “Golden Dawn” on May 8, 2009, an d promoted in 2013 by the Greek “democratic” State
an d its judiciary arm, after the
entry of the “Golden Dawn” in the Greek parliament in June 2012. The trial had enormous
repercussions an d produced a huge
outrage internationally an d
nationally.
As man y statements by man y
organ izations noted, from well known as well as little known personalities
from the cultural an d political arena, including the mainstream international Press from all parts of the world:
it was the first time after the end of the Second World War, an d the defeat of Nazism, that two an tifascists, including a Jewish communist
intellectual an d leader of a
Trotskyist Party, in the case of Savvas Michael-Matsas, were br ought to court by Nazis, with the complicity of
the official State institutions in a member nation of the European Union.
It was
this powerful tsunami of protests an d
solidarity that created a political dynamic permitting the victory of the
“accused” in an initially very
difficult trial. Parties of the Greek Left, man y
trade unions, an archo-syndicalist an d an archist
collectives, cultural associations, and dozens of artists an d
intellectuals issued public statements of solidarity or
sent witnesses for the defense of Savvas Michael-Matsas. About a thousan d
people gathered in an d around the
court in the two day trial. The trial
concluded with a unan imous ruling by
the court of “not guilty” for both of the accused.
The three
interconnected aims of this outrageous prosecution were, as Savvas Michael
pointed out in his final “apology” to the court,
·
to outlaw any an tifascist
discourse an d action in conditions
of social polarization an d mass
upheaval, in a country where the ruling class in a state of emergency uses the
fascist gan gs as an instrument to re-impose its control;
· to begin, starting from the Trotskyist party, the process of outlawing the
entire Left an d the disman tling of
democratic popular rights in
Greece ;
·
last but not least, to institutionalize the virulent an ti-Semitism that accompan ied
from the start, the persecution of Savvas Michael-Matsas, an “instrument of the world Jewish conspiracy to
impose a Judeo-Bolshevik regime in Greece in crisis”, according to the Nazi non-stop hate campaign.
The organ izers of this witch hunt failed. For the first
time, after its ascent, the Golden dawn lost a trial in Greek courts – a fact
which says a lot about the current state of the judiciary in Greece. An importan t
tactical victory was achieved, hailed by
all throughout the workers movement (particularly in general assemblies where strike
action in the public sector was decided) an d
among the popular masses identifying this battle with their own struggles
against the escalating social disaster an d barbaric repression by the bourgeois State
forces an d fascist paramilitary gan gs.
But, as
the EEK stressed in its first statement after the trial, a battle was won but
the class war continues. What followed
proves the truth of that statement.
Within minutes after the trial concluded, man y
youth participating in it in solidarity with the accused were stopped an d bullied by the special DELTA police forces, shouting to them “are you coming from the trial of the dirty Jew?” This is the same DELTA force, which had attacked the EEK in a peaceful demonstration in
December 2009 nearly killing comrade Angeliki Koutsoumbou an d seriously injuring dozens of comrades. A similar attitude was expressed by the police after the massive workers demonstration in Thessalonica on September 7, where 130 demonstrators were arrested, including man y
comrades of the EEK who were insulted by the police as “dogs of the dirty Jew
Matsas”. The same insult was used the next day against an other
comrade arrested in an an tifascist demonstration in Larissa. Even more
sinister was the murderous attack, the day after the trial, on September 5, by
a fascist gan g in Pyrgos,
Peloponnesus, against the 19 year old young son of a well known trade unionist
cadre of the EEK, an attack that sent the young man to the hospital with serious injuries.
The
fascist criminal activities escalated the last two weeks after the end of the
trial: there was an other murderous
attack by dozens of Nazi storm troopers – a gan g
finan ced an d
supported by Greek ship-owners- in the Perama shipyards area against a group of
members, trade unionists an d
supporters of the KKE (Communist Party of Greece) peacefully campaigning for
the Festival of KNE (Communist Youth of Greece).
The
climax of these activities was the murder, on September 18, of the 34 years old
Pavlos Fyssas, a young left wing an tifascist
activist, musician an d metal worker- a cold blood murder organ ized at the highest level by the Nazi Party an d by its protectors in the bourgeois State, an d executed by the “Golden Dawn” Nazi Mafia in the
working class area of Nikaia, a historic stronghold of the communist movement.
The murder produced huge popular uproar an d
an ger, an d
sharpened the political crisis of the bourgeois regime an d
the Samaras government. Nevertheless, an d
despite the hypocritical crocodile tears of the government an d the an nouncement
of the “imposition of the rule of law”, the
mass an tifascist demonstrations that
followed the murder were savagely repressed by the riot police, sending dozens to
the hospital with serious injuries (one demonstrator lost his sight), an d arresting hundreds of demonstrators.
This
on-going confrontation is insolubly tied to the new phase of the class
struggle, the eruption of a powerful strike movement of the workers in the
entire public sector, in Education, in the Health services, the struggle in
three major industries (including the LARKO factory, one of the biggest in the
country an d in Europe) facing
closures under the diktat of the hated troika. The LARKO workers, who have been fiercely resisting the closure of their factory by blocking passage on the Athens-Thessalonica motor way, have been met with br utal
attacks by the hordes of riot police sent by the government.
The murder
of comrade Pavlos Fyssas, the fight with the murderous Nazi gan gs, an d
their protectors, the repressive State apparatus, the sharpening struggle
against the social devastation imposed by the troika of the EU/ECB/IMF an d the Samaras government deepen the crisis of the regime,
and reveal the ban kruptcy of
bourgeois parliamentary democracy.
The EEK
fights throughout the country to bring together all these struggles into a General Political
Strike - with no expiration date -
tobr ing
down the government,
to kick out the imperialist troika,
to smash its catastrophic policies,
to build a United Front of the workersan d popular organ izations,
to organize Workers Self Defense groupsan d workers militias against the Nazis an d State repression,
to open the road to workers poweran d a socialist way out of the crisis,
for a socialist Greece in a United Socialist States of Europe.
to
to kick out the imperialist troika,
to smash its catastrophic policies,
to build a United Front of the workers
to organize Workers Self Defense groups
to open the road to workers power
for a socialist Greece in a United Socialist States of Europe.
Savvas
Michael, 9/24/2013
 |
| Murdered rapper and anti-fascist activist Pavlos Fyssas |
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