Monday, Mar. 12, 1973

A Mosquito on a Bull

For the first time since the military junta seized power and imposed martial law six years ago, Greece has been rocked by political protests. Surprisingly, the demonstrations were organized and led by Greek university students, who have until recently been considered the most passive and timid in Europe. "I smell the fresh breath of spring," exclaimed Opposition Leader John Zighdis, a former Cabinet Minister who was imprisoned for a year and a half by the colonels. "This will lead to the destruction of tyranny and the downfall of the dictatorship." Retorted the government spokesman, Byron Stamatopoulos: "The student problem is like a mosquito sitting on the horn of a bull."

The truth lies somewhere in between. What is certain is that the regime of George Papadopoulos has been shaken by the students, on whom it has lavished free tuition, spanking new schools, and even free meals. A good many of them, however, now feel that such material benefits are not enough. They want the same kind of freedom from government interference enjoyed by their European counterparts. Thus, students at Athens' elite Polytechnic Institute boycotted classes last month after the government announced that it planned to upgrade the status of the so-called "sub-engineers." These, in effect, are second-class students who follow a simpler curriculum than do regular engineers and are subject to certain professional limitations after they graduate. (For example, they can build a house no taller than two stories.)

This fairly parochial protest might have died down in a few days, but a government official (no one is certain who) sent squads of policemen to the campus to break up a meeting on the sub-engineer problem. Outraged by this "violation" of the university, students began taunting the cops with cries of "Fascists!" and "Gestapo!" For good measure, some also threw in two peculiarly Greek insults: pustis, meaning the passive partner in a homosexual relationship, and malakas (masturbator).

The police responded by beating and dragging off a number of the demonstrators; eleven of them were charged with "insulting authority." Eight were later found guilty and given eleven-month suspended sentences.

In an attempt to forestall further demonstrations, the government enacted a new law that empowered the army to rescind the draft deferments of any student who boycotted classes. The law only spurred more protests. Strikes and demonstrations spread to the University of Athens and to the Aristotelian University of Salonika to the north. The students have called a temporary truce, but another mass rally is scheduled for this week. If the government does not back down, warns one student leader, "we will come down the streets."

The protests have opened a Pandora's box of grievances. At the top of the list is the so-called Decree Law 180, which empowers the government to in stall a "commissar" in each faculty. These are usually retired generals with few if any academic credentials; they operate a network of student informers and plainclothes policemen who check illegal student organizations and inform on teachers suspected of "subversive" lectures. Other grievances include the alleged rigging of student elections last November, plus a shortage of up-to-date books and other materials. Above all, the students are angered by the interrogation and torture of politically suspect youths. Some of them told TIME Correspondent William Marmon last week that they can document more than 300 cases of student beatings in Athens alone.

The government, which had begun to relax some of the martial-law provisions, has tightened up once again. Two weeks ago, newspaper editors were ordered to stop covering the student protests. All did except George Athenassiades, editor and publisher of right-wing, independent Vradyni. The next day 20 tax investigators, accompanied by police, ransacked the Vradyni offices and Athenassiades' home, taking documents and papers. Police also entered the Hellenic-American Union building in Athens (which houses the U.S. Information Service Library) and roughed up a receptionist and several students suspected of being protesters.

Greece's disorganized and ineffective political opposition is watching the student protest movement with unreserved delight. There seems to be little hope, however, that the demonstrations will topple the regime. Only the army could oust Papadopoulos, and it is still firmly controlled by the junta. Clearly, though, the government no longer controls the minds of the students, who seem to have been radicalized by events of recent weeks. As one leader put it last week: "We are the spearhead of the whole political movement now!" The mosquitoes, in short, are biting back.

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