We Are All Greeks

By Kiriaki Orfanos

            ‘We are all Greeks. Our laws, our literature, our arts have their roots in Greece ... the flower of their youth, returning to their country from the universities of Italy, Germany and France, have communicated to their fellow-citizens the latest results of that social perfection of which their ancestors were the original source.’ Percy Bysshe Shelley said this in 1821.

            On 11/11/ 2011, a queue of protesters snaked out of the Greek Consulate in Nantes, demanding dual citizenship as a gesture of solidarity with the Greek people. This led to a series of similar acts in Lisbon, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin, Cologne and New York, with protesters bearing signs including

                                    ‘Today it is Greece - tomorrow you.’

            Outraged by the unfairness of what was happening in Greece, these people also saw that it could happen everywhere else. They saw Greece as an experiment, testing a kind of austerity that could be applied to other nations. Citing the ‘material and moral humiliation of Greek society’, the people in the queue saw that this was not going to end with Greece. It had nothing to do with national character or racial stereotypes. For them this was a class war.

            As the people of Greece were being subjected to unprecedented austerity measures, the international community gleefully scapegoated them by suggesting that the Greek people were beyond the ordinary corrupt, lazy and greedy. They came up with acronym PIGS, to describe Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain. It was a deliberate insult, meant to justify the extent of the austerity measures - the Greeks, being crooked, grasping and unwilling to put in a fair day’s work for a fair day’s wage for which they would pay their fair share of taxes, had to be brought into line. Quite simply, as bad international citizens - as a failed state - they deserved everything they got - plus a little bit extra to ensure that they never did this again. 

            Hence the Memorandum which is best describe in the words of Mikis Theodorakis,

‘ In May 2010 a single Minister signed the notorious Memorandum, our complete subservience to our lenders. Greek law stipulates, in such situations, that the adoption of such an important agreement must be decided by three fifths of the Parliament. Therefore, in essence, the Memorandum and the Troika that essentially govern us today, operate illegally not only under Greek but also under European law.

.....we concede to foreigners our National Independence and our National Property. That is our harbours, airports, road networks, electricity, water supply, subterranean and underwater wealth, etc. etc. Add to that our historical monuments, like the Acropolis, Delphi, Olympia, Epidauros and such sites since we have waived all our legal defenses.’

           

            Between the rock of their faltering economy and the hard place of international censure, some Greeks reacted predictably, and we now have the spectacle of the far-right, Neo-Nazi ideals of the Golden Dawn Party being embraced in a country, in which two short generations ago, our parents and grandparents gave their lives to resist.

            We Are All Greeks Sydney began in February 2012. It arose out of the desire of a group of people to do something that would express solidarity with, and support of, the people of Greece. Our people.

            In line with the principles of the international We Are All Greek movement, We Are All Greeks Sydney call on Australians to:

*  Stand in Solidarity with the Greek people struggling to maintain their wages and living conditions.

*  Reject all forms of racism and call for racist stereotypes of Greeks to be resisted.

*  Challenge the racism against Greeks, accusing them of being the cause of the problems

*  Reject any notion of Greek nationalism and authoritarianism as an answer to this problem

*  Support democracy and oppose a return to dictatorship and war.

We Are All Greeks Sydney is a non-nationalistic, non-party aligned, movement open to all Australians. Our goals are to:

*  inform the Greek as well as the wider Australian community, of the true characteristics of the crisis in Greece.

*  to express solidarity towards the Greek people who are being tested harshly and subjected to unfair suffering

*  to challenge the way in which the Australian media reproduce racist stereotypes about the Greek people as the main agents to blame for the crisis due to their supposed problematic character.

            We resist the notion that it is purely a Greek problem, and we relate it to issues here in Australia; the blatant and unrepentant rape of our mineral wealth for example, or the diverting of the tax burden away from the rich. We see that the international forces that created the problems in one country can, will and are creating those same problems globally, and indeed those problems are already affecting us all. Proof of this is the fact that the Declaration of Nantes, and the application to become dual Greek citizens, have to date, been translated into 17 languages, including Chinese, Vietnamese, Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish, Finnish and Malaysian.

            But tonight, our focus is on what is happening in Greece.

            When the Memorandum - illegal, humiliating and impossible - swept away Greece’s sovereignty more was lost to Greece than its absolute right to govern itself. A right fought for, time and again, time and again, in 1821, in territorial and world wars, in a visceral brother-killing-brother civil war and the chasing away of the Colonels. The Memorandum also took away a sense of self, a sense of pride, a sense of identity.

            This injury wounds us all. It especially wounds those of us who build into our own identities the notion that whatever else we are, we are also Greek in very deep and profound way. We owe this notion something; love, solidarity, a piece of ourselves, because while our voices speak in English, our hearts sing in Greek.

            Finally, a question; when Rigas Fereios wrote the Thourios, in 1797, he was living in Vienna, The Filiki Eteria was founded in Odessa, Ioannis Kapodistrias returned from his successful career in the court of the Russian Tsar to take the helm of the new country. The Nation of Greece, as we know it today, is young -  younger, indeed than Australia. And from its inception, it has had to contend with massive political, historical and economic forces ranged against it. And each time it has been in crisis, it has tipped out its people, like an upended bowl spilling water. Greeks have had to leave, to go out into the wider world and join that international community of Greeks we call the Diaspora. But Greece has survived. Part of that survival is due to the efforts of Greeks living and working in other parts of the world.

            As the new millennium is ushered in, riding on the back of unprecedented worldwide crises in every domain and on every continent, it could be argued that Greece is in the throes of its biggest crisis yet. My question is a simple one. Where in all this is the Diaspora?