Athens Polytechnic uprising

The first massive public action against the Greek junta came from students on 21 February 1973, when law students and anarchists An anti-dictatorial student movement was growing among the youth, and the police utilised brutal methods and torture towards them, in order to confront the threat. == November events ==

14 November On 14 November 1973, students at the Athens Polytechnic (Polytechneion), radicalized by the nascent Greek anarchist circles went on strike and started protesting against the military junta (Regime of the Colonels). As the authorities stood by, the students were calling themselves the "Free Besieged" (Greek: Ελεύθεροι Πολιορκημένοι, a reference to the poem by Greek poet Dionysios Solomos inspired by the Ottoman siege of Mesolonghi). Their main rallying cry was: An assembly formed spontaneously and decided to occupy the Polytechnic. The anarchist group that had just formed at the university, notably thanks to the actions of Christos Konstantinidis and Nikos Balis, occupied a central place in this movement, Konstantinidis, in particular, succeeded in having the occupation extended into the night of the first day, which set the movement in motion for the long term. They adopted the following motion in the 14 November General Assembly: The anarchist group leading the uprising quickly tagged the university and placed their banner at the entrance, until it was removed by communist militants who did not support the movement. Soon after that, Spyros Markezinis had the task of requesting Georgios Papadopoulos to reimpose martial law. == Legacy ==

An annual march commemorates the uprising, starting near the grounds of the Polytechnic. In 1980, the police killed two people in an attempt to prevent marchers from passing by the American embassy in Athens, the traditional end point of the march in protest to the CIA's role in supporting the coup. The now-defunct far-left organization Revolutionary Organization 17 November, named after the last day of the Polytechnic uprising. After the transition to democracy, the group's chief hitman, Dimitris Koufontinas, attempted to assassinate figures associated with the junta, also titling his memoir-manifesto "I Was Born November 17th" (Γεννήθηκα 17 Νοέμβρη). The students' struggle had a lasting effect on Greek anarchism. This event marked the revival of anarchism in Greece and democratized anarchist positions within the country. It also marked a break between the Greek youth and the traditional leftist parties of the time, such as the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). == See also ==