In the strike of 1929, twenty-five-years-old worker Dimitrios Michailos was killed by police fire, while six other strikers were injured. Michailos’ funeral was attended by the entire town of Elefsina, as well as by high-ranking party members of the Communist Party of Greece.
ACROPOLIS | 06.03.1929
EMBROS | 06.03.1929
EMBROS | 06.03.1929
EMBROS | 05.03.1929
RIZOSPASTIS | 07.03.1929
STRIKING WORKERS INSIDE THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE
KATHIMERINI | 03.06.1929
RIZOSPASTIS | 06.03.1929
MYRON GEKAS
EXCERPT FROM
THE FILM “ELEFSINA”
BY T. PAPAGIANNIDIS
THEY
FIRED
AT THE
WORKERS
The impact of the strike of 1929 in Elefsina resonated beyond the city, contributing to broader political changes within Greece.
In reference to the events at Elefsina, Venizelos had stated that there were "communist actors" and a "communist center in Athens which organizes and directs the strikes", and that “if the subversive actions persist, the government shall take more general measures”.
These "more general measures" produced law 4229 "On security measures of the social regime and the protection of the liberties of its citizens" which, although it had already been put forward for discussion in December 1928, was eventually passed in summer 1929, after the strikes in Elefsina, Lavrio, and Piraeus.
The events of 1929 also triggered wider political fermentations amidst the workers of Elefsina. As told by Myronas Gekas:
Before the great strike of '29, Rizospastis sold 5-6 issues in Elefsina; that's how many communists we were at the time. During the days of the strike, do you know how many issues were sold? Three hundred.
A few years later, the labour movement grew in power all over Greece, and particularly in Elefsina.
The Workers’ Center of Elefsina was founded in 1934. In the parliamentary elections of 1935, the Communist Party of Greece, under the direction of secretary general Nikos Zachariadis, received 9.59% of the total votes. The labour movement in Elefsina kept growing in strength.
One of the longest and most massive strikes of the labour movement of Elefsina began in the spring of 1936. As strikers and scabs clashed all over the city, the gendarmerie broke up the rallies through the use of force and many strikers were injured and/or arrested.
RIZOSPASTIS | 17.06.1936
In an incident during the great strike of 1936, strikers were gathered at the tavern of Marougas and mounted gendarmes entered the tavern in order to drive them out. "Panagiotis grabbed the crossbar of the front door and clubbed one of them. He then ran away and hid. Scabs were burning cement sacks to show that smoke was rising from the stacks! They thought that this would fool the strikers into believing that the strike had been broken."
MAGAZINE “DIALOGOI”, ISSUE No. 3
Regarding society at large, the town council of Elefsina created a strike fund to support the strikers. Seeking to bring the strike to an end, the management of TITAN raised the workers' salaries, but also began evicting them from the TITAN dwellings.
In June 1936, the strikers won a raise of the minimum wage from 52 to 60 drachmas, as well as the provision of financial support for the healthcare fund.
From the first days of the war, during the German occupation of 1940, the areas around Elefsina, such as Neraki, Loutropyrgos, and the railroad line connecting Elefsina to Corinth, were bombed by Italian aircraft.
According to Giorgos Milisis, prefectural secretary of the Greek National Liberation Front (EAM), during the great hunger of winter 1942 factory workers and dockworkers affiliated with EAM met with several people of "high social standing", such as the chairman of the Association of Professionals, the deputy manager of Votrys, an industrialist, and a retired army officer, at a small room which was rented for their organization next to the factories. They persuaded them to secure large quantities of food from the Red Cross in Athens. In the spring of 1942, the Food Line Service of Elefsina distributed up to 2.500 food portions to its residents.
Inevitably, the German occupation brought changes to industrial operations. The port died out and the factories were either shut down, floundered or requisitioned by the Germans.
The period starting from the liberation of Greece in 1944 up to and including the end of the Dictatorship in 1974 left a deep mark on the political and economic life of Greece. The Greek Civil War drew the attention of the United States. The Truman Doctrine, announced by the US in 1947, aimed at preventing the spread of Soviet influence in countries such as Greece and gradually consolidated the global American hegemony. In the eyes of the postwar US aid program, the dominant principles of the free market served as a guarantee for peace abroad.
MARSHALL PLAN IN ELEUSIS
The Marshall Plan was one of the main tools of American interventionist foreign policy on the European continent during the early Cold War period. The economic development of the Eleusis region, one of the largest industrial centers of the country, was affected significantly by it. Although Greece had already come under the British sphere of influence before the end of World War II—as evidenced by the Battle of Athens in December 1944—the growing economic problems of the declining British empire in late 1946 combined with the Greek government’s increased financial and military needs, urged the Americans to take a more active role in Greece. Thus, on the 12th of March 1947 American president Harry Truman presented his doctrine to the Congress, according to which the United States would help any "democratic government" threatened by "armed minorities", a direct reference to the conflict between the National and Democratic armies in Greece. Military aid would be supplemented shortly afterwards by economic aid to European states as a means of containing Soviet influence in the form of the Marshall Plan, on condition that, in exchange for the money provided, the free market and trade relations with the United States would have to be maintained by the recipient states. Under the Marshall Plan, on the 12th of November 1948, the Central Loan Committee (CLC) was established between the Special Economic Cooperation Mission of the Economic Cooperation Administration, the Greek Government and the Bank of Greece to provide reconstruction loans to affected enterprises. The total financial aid given to Greece (1947-1954) reached 1.2 billion dollars. Its aimed at reducing inflation, stabilizing the economy and strengthening the agricultural and industrial sectors. Industrial production increased from 85.5 in 1948 to 167 in 1953 (on the basis of 100 in the prewar year of 1939). According to the CLC archive, the industries in Eleusis that were supported by the Marshall Plan were the Hellenic Steel Industry, the military industry PYRKAL, the paint factory Iris, and the cement industry TITAN. TITAN, in particular, appears to have received a loan of $1.133.100, which led to a significant increase in cement production over the next few years. The industries of Eleusis channeled American financial aid into the purchase of machinery, the reconstruction, development and modernization of facilities and the introduction of new technical expertise to their operation. As a result of the financial support and of the postwar economic recovery in the 1950s and 1960s in general, the industries of Eleusis would experience the third, and last, stage of their prime that would last up until the period of the military dictatorship (1967-1974).
The Marshall Plan strengthened the war-shattered infrastructures of the Greek state and industry, being oriented specifically towards the construction of a free economy under the terms and principles of the United States. It was a plan for the holistic design of the political environment and the restructuring of relationships between market and state. This was also a period during which anticommunism formed the basis of American foreign policy, a stance which influenced Greece in its politics and economy, as exemplified by the dissolution of the administrative board of the Workers’ Center of Elefsina in 1946.
LETTER ASKING FOR THE RESIGNATION OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE BOARD
OF THE WORKERS' CENTER OF ELEFSINA |1946
From 1953 to 1973, industrial development was based on exploitation, cheap wages, and the suppression of workers' mobilization. After 1967, during the Colonels’ Junta, workers' demands and trade unions were subjected to further attempts at control and suppression. As told by Christos Spyropoulos:
"Employers found in the dictatorship the solution to all their problems. No one could be appointed to a union’s administrative board, unless they were approved by the military commander."
It is, nevertheless, also a period marked by the struggles of the labor movement, such as the strikes at the newly established factory of Chalyvourgiki. The main cause: during the initial period of its operations (1956-1963) there were 15 dead from occupational accidents due to a lack of safety measures and the intensification of work.
We mobilized through general assemblies, resolutions, theatrical plays, all under constant hardships. For example, we had a general assembly at the TITAN union and a policeman walked in and threatened us with a gun. This was a serious incident. There were all sorts of contrivances on a daily schedule (threats, intimidations, etc.).
CHRISTOS SPYROPOULOS | ERGATIKES ISTORIES - SYNTENTEFXEIS ME PROTAGONISTES TOU ERGATIKOU KINIMATOS STIN ELLADA APO TO 1920 EOS TO 1967 (LABOUR STORIES – INTERVIEWS WITH PROTAGONISTS OF THE GREEK WORKERS’ MOVEMENT FROM 1920 TO 1967)
During the 1950s, the Workers’ Center of Elefsina was in friendly terms with the regime of the time. It was after 1956, when the trade union movement was on the rise, that interventions began. All local factory unions, except that of the builders, were operating under the control of the police and the factory bosses. Anyone who dared to put forward more militant positions either in administrative council meetings or in general assemblies was laid off.
CHRISTOS SPYROPOULOS | ERGATIKES ISTORIES - SYNTENTEFXEIS ME PROTAGONISTES TOU ERGATIKOU KINIMATOS STIN ELLADA APO TO 1920 EOS TO 1967 (LABOR STORIES – INTERVIEWS WITH PROTAGONISTS OF THE GREEK WORKERS’ MOVEMENT FROM 1920 TO 1967)
The working conditions were very harsh and severe accidents were commonplace. The eight-hour day was constantly violated, and no one could complain. If they said that you had to stay from a few more hours, you had to do so, and these often amounted to unpaid overtime. Businesses circumvented the legally established eight-hour day by exploiting the phrase: “It is forbidden to work in excess of 8 hours, unless it is absolutely necessary”. In theory, the labor inspectorate had to be notified; the trick was that businesses visited the inspectorate after it had closed for the day and slipped the notification under the door, to be found on the next day, after the overtime work was completed.
CHRISTOS SPYROPOULOS | ERGATIKES ISTORIES - SYNTENTEFXEIS ME PROTAGONISTES TOU ERGATIKOU KINIMATOS STIN ELLADA APO TO 1920 EOS TO 1967 (LABOUR STORIES – INTERVIEWS WITH PROTAGONISTS OF THE GREEK WORKERS’ MOVEMENT FROM 1920 TO 1967)
ETHNOS | 07.07.1950
ELEFTHERIA | 12.08.1962
STEELWORKERS' HUNGER STRIKE | 1962