Since already the beginning of the 1980's the Greek repressive mechanism
are attempting to become aligned to the European and American "anti
- terrorist" context in a political institutional and "operational" level.
Until that time the Greek police because of the civil war past and
because of the dictatorship was not seen too kindly by the majority of society.
At the same time the persecuting authorities had to confront a serious,
for Greek reality, armed activity not in the sense of quantity but rather
in the sense of frequency and level of impact these armed organisations
had many of which enjoyed vast social acceptance. Also during that period there
grew within the anarchist and to a lesser degree in the far - leftist sphere
a fighting tendency which on the one hand freed itself from the restrains
of traditional dead - ends of past historical revolutionary currents and
on the other attempted to list it's own stately and differentially through
the initiative of direct confrontation with the suppression mechanisms
and more generally with the state.
| The forces of persecution in order to show
productivity in the field of "antiterrorist" activity and especially in order to bring to a hold the fighting tendency that we described earlier released o pogrom of persecutions against the most radical components of the anti - authoritarian strife, the peak of that persecution being the arrest of many fighters and their trial for armed activity. This attempt was correlated with the penalization of entire political areas through a campaign of slander against members of that area (called agents of crime,traffickers of narcotics and so on, together |
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with the cultivation of a climate
of fear among the conservative parts of Greek society in an attempt to
increase tension and to bring about the generalisation of state repression).
In the decade of the 90's, no matter how many important victories were
won
against the forces of persecution, vast changes of antidemocratic and
antisocial nature, are taking place. Victories for civil rights that
were gained during the decade of the 70's that implemented the exercise
of personal and collection rights are no more in existence. For the first
time value is shifted form the protection of civil rights and liberties
to the protection of social order. The accused is judged according to his
or her political beliefs and moral character. Greek prisons are filled with
people addicted to narcotics to whom are applied several sentences of imprisonment while in 1996 alone hundreds of accumulated years of imprisonment are given to 500 occupants of the Polytechnic School who were arrested after
a violation of the right of asylum by the special MAT units of police. American agents have officially taken over the office of "antiterorrism activity" in police headquarters.
In the person of G. Balafas there is expressed during this period a confrontation that exceeds the importance of his case. On the one hand the US and the Greek repression mechanisms are attempting to bring forth the creation of a process were by the accused for "terrorism" will be bought to court only as means of validating their conviction neutralising any possible attempt for judiciary defence. On the other hand the movement of solidarity to the person of G. Balafas composes not only the defence of basic social and civil rights but also the fight against neoliberal barbarism and imperialist domination.
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