After the coup d’état of April 21, 1967, Greece was under a dictatorial regime, which did not allow political parties to operate, imprisoned and tortured politicians and ordinary citizens based on their beliefs, imposed heavy censorship, and massively abolished individual liberties.
Gradually, with power concentrated in the hands of Georgios Papadopoulos, in 1973 an attempt to “liberalize” the Hundred regime took place. This “liberalization”, expressed – among other things – at the beginning of October with the so-called “Marquezini experiment”, aimed primarily at the legitimization of the already imposed regime, with – after the “referendum” of July 1973 – President of the Republic – Georgios Papadopoulos – to play the central role. In order to ensure the success of this particular project, there was a relative lifting of some of the measures that had been imposed -generally but also in the universities-, without this of course meaning that the dictatorial nature of the regime was annulled. The lifting included, among other things, the release of political prisoners and a partial lifting of censorship.
However, the situation was particularly difficult for the student world. Since 1967, student elections in universities had been banned. At the same time, the regime was trying to achieve control over student unionism by appointing Boards of Directors to the student unions and the National Student Union of Greece (NFEE). As for the student elections that took place in November 1972 on the initiative of the junta and suffocating control by its mechanisms, they had all the elements of violence and fraud, in order to achieve the desired result.
As a result of continued student protests, Legislative Decree 1347 was pushed through in February 1973 making unionization compulsory (suspended) for unionized students. The first strong protest by students against this decree took place on February 14, 1973, when several students gathered at the Polytechnic University demanding the repeal of ND1347.
The reaction was immediate. The police, breaching the university asylum, invaded the area and arrested 11 students, who were brought to trial, while dozens of members of the student movement were forced to suspend their studies and be recruited. On February 21, students would proceed to occupy the Faculty of Law of the University of Athens.
Upon their departure, the police would intervene once again, with the only result being an even stronger reaction on the part of the student world and the support of wider citizens in their actions and requests. A second occupation of Nomiki took place the following month – with the regime’s reaction even harsher this time.
On November 14 of the same year, a tip-off received by the students gathered at the Law School brought them to the Polytechnic, where the students were also holding assemblies. Gradually, several students began to gather at the Polytechnic, where the same afternoon the decision was taken to occupy it. The following day, a Coordinating Committee was elected, which presented the students’ positions, and a radio station was operated, in an attempt to broadcast their demands and secure the support of the citizens.
From the evening of November 16, the police carried out violent attacks on the crowd (students and civilians) gathered outside, but without succeeding in dispersing it. Army forces and tanks were later mobilized. And at 3 o’clock in the morning the order was given to invade the chariot which was in front of the main gate. The Polytechnic station appealed to the soldiers to defy the orders of their superiors, with the announcer then singing the Greek National Anthem. The transmission continued even after the chariot entered. Policemen – undercover and undercover – as well as men from the LOK invaded and attacked the student crowd, with those arrested being taken to the General Security and the ESA.
The uprising of the Polytechnic raised waves of reactions abroad as well, with voices against the regime increasing. Despite the fact that subsequently, with the Ioannidis coup, a much harsher phase of the dictatorship was inaugurated, the beginning of the end was already visible. The return to democracy would take place the following year.
Column Editor: Myrto Katsigera, Vassilis Minakakis, Antigoni-Despina Poimenidou, Athanasios Syroplakis
