Athens Polytechnic Uprising

The Athens Polytechnic Uprising was a student uprising in November 1973 against the Greek Military Junta.

Background

Since the 21st of April 1967, Greece had been under the dictatorial rule of the military, a regime which abolished civil rights, dissolved political parties and exiled, imprisoned and tortured politicians and citizens based on their political beliefs. 1973 found the military junta leader Georgios Papadopoulos having undertaken a "liberalisation" process of the regime, which included the release of political prisoners and the partial lifting of censorship, as well as promises of a new constitution and new elections for a return to civilian rule.

The first massive public action against the junta came from students on 21 February 1973, when law students went on strike and barricaded themselves inside the buildings of the Law School of the University of Athens in the centre of Athens, demanding repeal of the law that imposed forcible drafting^[1] of "subversive youths", as 88 of their peers had been forcibly drafted to the army. The police were ordered to intervene and many students were reportedly subjected to police brutality. The events at the Law School are often cited as the prelude to the Polytechnic uprising.^{[citation needed]}

The student uprising was also heavily influenced by the youth movements of the 1960s, notably the events of May 1968 in France.^{[citation needed]}

An anti-dictatorial student movement was growing among the youth, and the police utilised brutal methods and torture towards them, in order to confront the threat.^[2]

Events

The entrance of the National Technical University of Athens

14 November

On 14 November 1973, students at the Athens Polytechnic (Polytechneion) went on strike and started protesting against the military regime (Regime of the Colonels). As the authorities stood by, the students were calling themselves the "Free Besieged" (Greek: Ελεύθεροι Πολιορκημένοι, a reference to the poem by Greek poet Dionysios Solomos inspired by the Ottoman siege of Mesolonghi).^[3][4][5]

An assembly was formed spontaneously and decided to occupy the Polytechnic. The two main student parties, the Marxist pro-Soviet A-AFEE and Rigas did not endorse the movement.^[6] Leftists and anarchists initiated the sit-in. While they contended that the uprising should demand capitalism's abolition, the larger, unconvinced rebel group disagreed and chose instead to demand democracy's restoration.^{[citation needed]} A Coordination Commission of the Occupation was formed but had loose control over the uprising.^[7] Police had gathered outside but did not manage to break into the premises.^[8]

Slogans and graffiti by the students were anti-NATO and anti-American, and compared the Greek junta with Nazi Germany.

15 November

During the second day of the occupation (often called celebration day), thousands of people from Athens poured in to support the students.^[8] A radio transmitter was set up and Maria Damanaki, then a student and member of A-EFEE, popularized the slogan "Bread-Education-Freedom". The demands of the occupation were anti-imperialistic and anti-NATO.^[9] Third parties that allied themselves with the student protests were the construction workers (who set up a parallel committee next to CCO) and some farmers from Megara, who coincidentally protested on the same days in Athens.^[10]

16 November

A proclamation was announced on Friday, 16 November by the CCO that the students were aiming to bring down the Junta. During the afternoon, demonstrations and attacks against neighbouring ministries took place. Central roads closed, fires erupted and Molotov cocktails were thrown for the first time in Athens.^[11] The Junta decided to reply firmly, by repressing the riots. Snipers were placed at buildings next to the Polytechnic and assassinated 24 people in total^[when?].^[12] Students barricaded themselves in and constructed a radio station (using laboratory equipment) that repeatedly broadcast across Athens:

Maria Damanaki, later a politician, was one of the major speakers. Soon thousands of workers and youngsters joined them protesting inside and outside of the "Athens Polytechnic".

17 November

In the early hours of November 17, 1973, the transitional government sent a tank crashing through the gates of the Athens Polytechnic.^[15] Soon after that, Spyros Markezinis himself had the task to request Papadopoulos to reimpose martial law.^[15] Prior to the crackdown, the city lights had been shut down, and the area was only lit by the campus lights, powered by the university generators. An AMX 30 Tank (still kept in a small armored unit museum in a military camp in Avlonas, not open to the public) crashed the rail gate of the Athens Polytechnic at around 03:00 am. In unclear footage clandestinely filmed by a Dutch journalist, the tank is shown bringing down the main steel entrance to the campus, to which people were clinging. Documentary evidence also survives, in recordings of the "Athens Polytechnic" radio transmissions from the occupied premises. In these a young man's voice is heard desperately asking the soldiers (whom he calls 'brothers in arms') surrounding the building complex to disobey the military orders and not to fight 'brothers protesting'. The voice carries on to an emotional outbreak, reciting the lyrics of the Greek National Anthem, until the tank enters the yard, at which time transmission ceases.

An official investigation undertaken after the fall of the Junta declared that no students of the Athens Polytechnic were killed during the incident. Total recorded casualties amount to 24 civilians killed outside Athens Polytechnic campus. These include 19-year-old Michael Mirogiannis, reportedly shot to death by officer Nikolaos Dertilis, high-school students Diomedes Komnenos and Alexandros Spartidis of Lycee Leonin, and a five-year-old boy caught in the crossfire in the suburb of Zografou. The records of the trials held following the collapse of the Junta document the circumstances of the deaths of many civilians during the uprising, and although the number of dead has not been contested by historical research, it remains a subject of political controversy. In addition, hundreds of civilians were left injured during the events.^[16]

Ioannides' involvement in inciting unit commanders of the security forces to commit criminal acts during the Athens Polytechnic uprising was noted in the indictment presented to the court by the prosecutor during the Greek junta trials and in his subsequent conviction in the Polytechneion trial where he was found to have been morally responsible for the events.

Results

• The uprising led to an end to attempted liberasation of Greece and the reinstatement of military law. However, this would backfire and lead to the democratisation of Greece in 1974.
• Upon democratisation, Greece banned police from entering universities.
• The uprising became a symbol in Greece of resistance to tyranny.
• The uprisings dates are a national holiday and often see mass protests and riots.
• The uprising led to the increased popularity of anarchism in Greece.
• The 17N insurrection group in Greece is named after the final day of the uprising.