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From Socialist Appeal, Vol. 4 No. 49, 7 December 1940, p. 1.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
Now that Greece has joined the fight for “freedom” our big newspapers find it convenient to omit any discussion of the character of the Greek regime of John Metaxas. There is good reason for this, because the government of Metaxas is one of the bloodiest dictatorships in Southeastern Europe. It was established by coup d’etat four years ago and maintained itself by the most ruthless terror against all its opponents.
Under Metaxas there has been neither freedom of press, nor freedom of assembly, nor toleration of political parties. Those opponents of the regime who could, like many of the Venizelists, fled abroad. All others were thrown into vile prisons or concentration camps located in penal colonies on islands in the Aegan. Not a few of our Fourth Internationalist comrades suffered this fate.
Thus Greece’s fight cannot foe remotely characterized as part of any fight for “democracy.” It is part, rather, of the imperialist struggle for power in the Mediterranean. Greece was better able to resist attack first because the attackers were the Italians. Events have already proved that the Mussolini military machine does not match in striking power that of Hitler’s Germany.
In the mountains of Albania the comparatively ill-armed Greeks have demonstrated this with the greatest of ease.
The second factor in Greek resistance is British naval control of the Mediterranean. Like all the smaller nations of Europe, Greece was placed between the hammer and the anvil by the development of the war. Had Metaxas chosen to throw in with the Axis, his coastline was at the mercy of the British fleet.
A third factor in determining Greek policy is Turkey. A Greece within the Axis would have become not only the theater of British naval operations but might also have been the object of immediate Turkish operations overland.
As it is, the Greeks have chosen to resist Italy and have secured naturally, important British support. They can in addition regard Turkey, for the time being at any rate, as a friendly ally at their rear.
Cold and hard self-interest based on strategic considerations govern Greece’s role in the war, not noisy abstractions about “freedom” and “democracy.” The elements of a genuine national struggle by the Greeks in defense of their homeland are completely obscured within the framework of the inter-imperialist conflict in which Greece is but a pawn. Certainly they are smothered totally by the Metaxas dictatorship.
“Freedom” for Greece cannot be won under Metaxas but against Metaxas. The war doesn’t change this fact.
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