Greek workers' chance to kick out the right-wing

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Greek workers see PASOK and Papandreou as a left alternative to Karamanlis: but PASOK's policies have always been more nationalist than annislint a n banandren is hacking down on his radical promises Khomeini slaughters I SEVEN YEARS ago, in July 1974, the military junta ruling Greece fell, victim of its disastrous military intervention in Cyprus which had almost provoked a war with Turkey:

Veteran bourgeois politician Constantine Karamanlis was called back to assume the reins of government for the potentially explosive transition period.

A few months previous, the Caetano dictatorship had been overthrown in Portugal. The anti-Franco struggle in Spain was also moving towards a peak.

Yet Karamanlis managed to diffuse a dangerous situation for the bourgeoisie.

With soothing leftish gestures and promises - like legalising the two Communist Parties, pulling Greece out of the military wing of NATO, and holding a referendum to abolish the monarchy, Karamanlis received the enthusiastic support of most sections of the left.

The most common rationale for this support was expressed in the slogan *Either Karamanlis or the tanks' Karamanlis Won a crushing 54% of the votes in the November 1974 THE Khomeini regime is continuing its campaign of terror against the opposition in Iran, and particularly against the lett.

Another 82 Mujahedin members were shot at the weekend. According to the Mujahedin leadership in Paris, about 100 schoolchildren who had been wounded taking part in street demonstrations were taken from hospital beds to one of Teheran's prisons, shot and then buried in a mass grave. elections. The opposition was effectively marginalised. The Stalinist electoral alliance between the pro-Moscow and Eurocommunist CPs got barely 10%. The old Centre Union liberal bourgeois party led by George Mavros which was the largest political party in the sixties, was cut down to just 20%.

And the new Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), led by Andreas Papandreou got 13%.

Dissolved In the 1976 elections the New Democracy Party got a reduced majority. PASOK became the main opposition and bourgeois liberalism dissolved into small cabals.

The two Stalinist CPS, both of them tainted with three major betrayals of the working class since the 1930s, were most concerned to vilify each other so as to claim the mantle of Greek Stalinism. (The victor in this rather inglorious contest being in the end the pro-Moscow CP).

PASOK was able to present itself as the new party, making a clean sweep of all past corruption and defeats.

slaugh Amnesty International has recently published a report which conservatively calculates that over 1600 people have been executed since the fall of Bani-Sadro earlier this yeal. ''' The Islamic fundamentalists have also launched à campaign against Mehdi Bazargan (the first Iranian Prime Minister after the fall of the Shah), who last week attacked the government for "turning Iran into an sucmust, uru nun rupunurvu It originated from the left wing of the Centre Union in the 1960s formed around Papandreou (whose father at the time was leader of the Party). With the coup and Andreas Papandreou's release from the junta's prisons in 1968, PAK (Panhellenic Socialist Resistance) was formed abroad and eft ocean of blood". Khomeini is trying to purge Bazargan and his liberal supporters from the Parliament.

At the same time the farce of a new presidential election is going ahead with only one candidate and a huge intimidation of people to vote.

regime remains highly unstable. The military are just waiting in the wings to take over to to take over. engaged in all sorts of actions against the military, including bombings, etc.

After his triumphant return from exile in 1979, Papandreou proclaimed himself a Marxist, talked of workers' self-management, the destruction of the capitalist oligarchy, and complete withdrawal from NATO.

He argued that Greece's place was in the camp of anti-imperialist 'non-aligned' countries, and opposed to the EEC on the grounds that it would mean the Greek economy becoming even more 'periphery' in relation to the 'metropolis' of West European capital.

Despite the political jumble PASOK's programme (the only consistent feature is quite virulent nationalism), It got over 25% of the vote in the last elections in 1976. It could well win the coming elections on October 18.

It has gained from the collapse of bourgeois liberalism as an organised political force, and also captured traditional Stalinist bases of support.

As it scents victory, the

Alexis Carras looks a which could give a n Socialist Movement,

EN NS leadership of the party has been quick to present itself as a moderate and responsible alternative.

Mavros, the old Centre Union leader, has gone over to Papandreou, and PASOK is now significantly toning down its anti-NATO and anti-EEC stance.

Vague

Its commitments to nationalisation and economic and social reform are also fairly vague.

The pro-Moscow Stalinists are aiming to get at least 17% of the vote (the minimum figure to get significant representation in Greece's "reinforced PR" system) in order to become the third largest party in the country, and be in a position to apply pressure on any PASOK government. But Papandreou has openly stated that he will not depend on the Communists for support in Parliament.

Denied any chance of being junior partner in a socialist government, the Stalinists need to make a respectable showing in the elections and consolidate their trade union grouping ESAK (a tendency within the GSEE - the Greek TUC) if they are to be able to

t the con lajority tr PASOK.

¡ electi le Pan-

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Despite all Khomeini's measures, the Iranian