FRIDAY
The “cool” Greek Autumn, 24 – 36 degrees C! Easy to see why most political activity stops in July to August, with temperatures in the 40s! Though this year, even the heat was not enough to blunt the people’s anger.
In Zakynthos, in the Ionian Islands, tourism has helped people to survive the summer, the olive and wine crops the autumn (over 2 million olive trees on the island): but now even the tour guides talk about surviving the winter. And what cost tourism extracts! We walk to Laganas in the afternoon. It is a horrifying sight, not really Greece. Hell DOES exist and it is created by British holidaymakers. Alcohol is God here, and it is serviced by low-paid, seasonal labour.
SATURDAY
We venture into Zakynthos town – most of the tourists have gone home and it is refreshingly Greek. We help the ANTARSYA comrades leaflet for the upcoming election. They are good people, and very grateful for the union contribution from Dorset Socialists, whom they closely resemble. Marina works in ERT as a journalist and tells us about her visit to Kobane in March. The area is currently sealed off, as the Turkish Air Force bomb Kurdish fighters under the pretext of attacking ISIS, and officially sanctioned by the U.S. ANTERSYA graffiti is everywhere. As far as I can tell, they call for nationalising the banks. The SEK paper, Workers’ Solidarity, displays the headline: Exit from the EU of Racism, War and the Memorandum. The Islands have a strong, core KKE (Communist Party) vote, almost twice the national average, partly due to the very bitter partisan fighting here during WW2 and the subsequent Civil War. Comrades express concern: Golden Dawn fascists have been all but shut down (only half a dozen members on Zakynthos) but their vote is showing a greater resilience.
MONDAY
To the north of the Island today. The KKE were out overnight and have plastered posters onto every lamppost in the centre of the main highway. Spot a solitary Chrissi Avgi (Golden Dawn) graffito, over-sprayed. Two of the Greek couriers are very sympathetic to my Che Guevara T-shirt, resulting in interesting conversations. Very angry about the Syriza sell out, but it seems a Left wing anger. Many see no point in voting. We have made friends with an Albanian restaurant scout who is fascinated by my badges and greets us with a clenched fist salute! Luckily, it is a good and relatively cheap eating place.
After dinner, we chat with the night clerk in the hotel. He says that Greece is a fine place for a holiday but hard to live in. He is in his thirties and has no option but to live with his parents. “This is our enemy,” he says, tapping the computer, “it takes our jobs.” He talks with a gut socialism, but doesn’t realise it. The Greek ‘common sense’ has taken a left path, even for those with no formal politics.
WEDNESDAY
Trip to Cephalonia, partly by way of pilgrimage to the site where 5,000 Italian soldiers, allied with the Greek Communist resistance, fought the Waffen SS and were massacred after the Italian surrender in WW2. This was at the village of Karfa, and they held out for 5 days of intensive bombing. The few survivors were shot in the village square. [Popularised and mis-told in Captain Corelli’s Mandolin]. The village sports a lonely, though undamaged KKE poster. Oh, I have been invited to the ANTARSYA local election press conference tomorrow!
THURSDAY
Turns out, I was rather more than invited to the ANTARSYA broadcast. I turn up, sat at the front, with a mike and camera, and Hey Presto, I am on Ionian TV for 2 ad hoc minutes! It seemed a success and the local branch take me and Jane for dinner in the evening. Refreshing to see comrades from different groups cooperating so well together. Election results on Sunday. Syriza canvassing in town tonight: they are throwing everything they have got at this!
SUNDAY
We come home tomorrow, and the weather is changing: almost unbearably sultry with storms to come. An image for Greece, perhaps? Syriza won, by almost the same margin as before, but a woefully reduced vote, only 55% turnout. This means more austerity from the Left, 150,000 who left Syriza for Popular Unity have no electoral voice and both the KKE and Golden Dawn votes held up. Nothing has changed. This was a vote against the Tory Nea Demokratia, and a last chance for Tsipras. The struggle has not gone away, la lotta continua!
Tim Nicholls
