Greece: a ‘testing ground’ for globalist control policies long before COVID

Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D.

POE-OTA Refuse Council Workers Union Greeting Merkel

Greece is a country renowned for its bureaucracy, where such procedures take place the ‘old-fashioned way’ and where court cases may take years or decades to be concluded. A common sight at public services are huge piles of paper folders, with nary any technology in sight.

Enter COVID, and suddenly Greece is a technological trailblazer. Seemingly overnight, the Greek state unveiled an SMS text messaging system through which, during the country’s two lockdowns, citizens were obliged to text before leaving their homes. Vaccine appointments were conducted digitally and swiftly while ‘efficient’ Germany lagged. And Greece was the first country to propose ‘vaccine passports’ to the EU. Greece’s digital COVID response was praised by The Economist.

Far from a contradiction, this is part of a longstanding trend in Greece. Due to the country’s geopolitical importance and wealth of resources, it has long lacked full sovereignty. As such, Greece has long been an ‘early adopter’ of policies which one may broadly associate with what we call ‘globalism’.

Along with bureaucracy, Greece is known for shipping–and shipping magnates. As far back as 1933, the Bank of Greece found that most shipping revenues never entered the Greek economy. In 1953, the Greek government issued tax breaks for shipowners, which have remained, while shipowners registered their fleets in tax havens and proceeded to hire sailors from developing countries such as the Philippines, where they also set up training programs.

From early on, magnates such as Aristotle Onassis were jet-setting globalist icons–and relied upon the global financial system for their capital. Onassis also maintained close ties with the military junta which ruled Greece from 1967-1974; the same regime that pioneered the first wave of imported cheap labor to Greece, from Pakistan and other downtrodden countries, undercutting local labor, which fueled a new migration wave in the late 60s to mid 70s.

And lest one believe that a massive amount of migrants only reached Aegean islands such as Lesvos in 2015, when the international media ‘discovered’ the story, the islands–and Greece–have received migration waves since prior to the “War on Terror,” as this April 2001 poll from the Lesvos newspaper Aegean Times indicates.

At the same time, in the 50s and 60s, the Greek government’s official policy to “reduce unemployment” was not to create jobs and develop industry, but to export Greeks to countries like Germany, via the Gastarbeiter agreement, to help them industrialize instead, while Greece ‘developed’ from remittances sent back by migrant Greeks. 

Ah yes, the ‘economic crisis’. How did Greece get there? One starting point is in 1981, when Greece joined the then-European Community–and ‘socialist’ Andreas Papandreou, son of a former prime minister, came to power. Papandreou ran on a platform of leaving NATO and the EC and expelling U.S. military bases, but proceeded to renege on those promises. In the meantime, the beautiful Greek language was neutered, while crass Western culture was delivered straight to households’ TV screens by the state broadcaster, which began rebroadcasting foreign private broadcasters while independent Greek broadcasting was still banned.

His successor, Konstantinos Mitsotakis, father of the current prime minister, began a privatization wave in the 90s presented in Greece then and now as “foreign investment.” Later in the 90s, the technocratic prime minister Kostas Simitis sold the national telecommunication company and the management stake of the new Athens airport to German firms, while bringing Greece into the Eurozone in 2002 amid a spending spree for the 2004 Olympic Games, whose infrastructure was largely built by illegal migrant labor. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs assisted in the performance of ‘Greek accounting’.

As a prelude to the economic crisis, and long before ‘social justice’ protests went mainstream, December 2008 riots following the Grigoropoulos shooting incident wrecked central Athens. In shades of Big Tech surveillance, the riots led to the government requiring SIM cards to be registered.

The ‘economic crisis’ itself was not a Greek first. The IMF previously had imposed “structural adjustment programs” in Africa, Latin America, and elsewhere. However, for the first time, the ‘chickens came home to roost’ within the EU, while the bloc’s first technocratic government, that of non-elected central banker Lucas Papademos, was installed in 2011.

SYRIZA later helped usher in the first elements of a cashless society in 2015, imposing capital controls via ATM withdrawal limits, which de facto forced individuals to conduct transactions via debit card. Cash transactions over a certain amount were banned, while mandatory QR codes for all cash register receipts, and connection of all cash registers to the tax authorities, were introduced.

The crisis also delivered a de facto carbon tax, with heating oil so heavily taxed that few could–or can–afford it. This ‘green’ policy fuels (pun intended) a noxious smog over Greek cities each winter, from the use of haphazard fireplaces.

Greece has indeed been at the forefront of the climate crisis since the 90s. Massive ‘wildfires’ would burn large swaths of land and would then be blamed on unscrupulous property developers (even though affected areas often were inaccessible), lit cigarettes, and grandmothers accidentally setting cooking oil ablaze in outdoor stoves. In 2007, two such fires burned large swaths of Attica and the Peloponnese. 

A documentary aired by Russia 24 referenced the “Pythia” plan for the destabilization of Greece and then-prime minister Konstantinos Karamanlis, via the 2007 fires, the 2008 riots, the Vodafone wiretapping scandal, and the attempted suicide of a close adviser following a sex scandal, put into place over Karamanlis’ plans to bring the South Stream gas pipeline from Russia to Greece.

Destructive fires in 2018 and in summer 2021 were increasingly blamed on climate change, which however was used as the impetus to bring purportedly ‘green’ policies to Greece. Lignite mines in northern Greece–the country’s main source of energy–are being privatized, completing efforts launched in the 1950s by Nazi collaborators, as revealed by declassified CIA documents.

Of course, long before 9/11 and the “War of Terror,” Greece (and Italy) were at the forefront of CIA-infiltrated ‘terror’ groups used as a bogeyman; namely, Greece’s November 17 and Italy’s Red Bridgades (think Operation Gladio).

Meanwhile, in a foreshadowing of COVID, the Greek government purchased, in 2009, 24 million doses of the Tamiflu vaccine (for a country of 11 million), presented by Greek state virologist Sotiris Tsiodras, who in 2020 became the public face of Greece’s COVID response and harsh lockdowns.

January 2022

The War on Terror in Greece

Bushs War on Terrorism: Greece & N17

Vngelis Translator

8/2/02

Fake Terrorism: The Path Towards a US Occupation & Dictatorship

The trotskyists but also many other people with a basic political criterion, have negated from the beginning all the talk by the authorities regarding 'terrorism';. They have condemned it as a conspiracy of the secret services (of the CIA and its local subjects) which serves the plans of the USA for dictatorship and world domination.

The false nature of terrorism was in all cases clear by the glaring contradictions, the logical contradictions which always remain unanswered and the glaring lies the authorities serve in the

27year terrorist serial. The official version provides endless examples which make clear the criminal hands which control the scene.

Concerning the lies many are those who doubted the badly fabricated lies of the authorities. For this reason alone the terrorist conspiracy would have failed in its first stages if the parties of the

Left hadn't  remained silent and they didn't support the completely corrupt mass media.

The worst thing is that the architects of the conspiracy have found an ally in the unbelievable stupidity of many middle class elements whoc

use the name of the Left. We see them permanently on the tv channels, in the discussion panels and the pages of the press appearing as

official witnesses of people who know from the

inside that there truly exists Left terrorism and

consequently that the secret services say the truth.

Many times the stance of these people provokes the justified suspicions. It is also true that amongst such leftists there is room for the paid agent. They are nothing more than people

full of bourgeois preconceptions. Despite their leftwing appearance they are full of fear and contempt for the popular masses and they

believe that the saviour of the plebians will not be a task undertaken by themselves, but by a few selected souls. They obviously belong in this category. The existence of some terrorists

who fight the power is an illusion to which they find moral existence and confirmation of their soul and personal worth. They could never accept the deconstruction of the right. The police know fully that such elements exist only in the realms of fantasy. But it finds amongst them those useful idiots who are necessary so as to build its

conspiracies and cover its lies.

These useful idiots are utilised by the authorities systematically by the mass media so as to affirm the existence of left terrorism and to conceal with leftwing moral authority the official lies.

From what is stated by the police and fake letters whom Mr. Fitanidis (journalist) receives every now and again, in the dustbins of Eleftherotypia (Freepress-Greek daily) we are led to the conclusion that the terrorists are left-wing people and followers of Marx. The portrait of the latter appears in the so-called hideout of N17 amongst rockets and other terrorist instruments. But Marx like Lenin and Trotsky had spent much ink and had used up a lot of their political activity in the struggle against terrorism, of Bakunin personally and against all those who ignored the masses and

wanted to make the struggle for freedom and justice a personal issue of a bunch of conspirators. For this reason Marx could never be the idol of individual terrorists. Thus Marx's portrait could never be placed by some leftists amongst the symbols of the terrorists but only by a bunch of useless police bureaucrats who are unable to create a conspiracy worthy of the name despite the armies of the well paid informers whom they have as advisors.

Individual terrorism has nothing in common with the Left if by this meaning we imply the theory of scientific socialism founded by Marx & Engels. The marxist left always aimed for the mobilisation of the masses led by the principle which declares that the liberation of the workers can only be a task of the workers themselves. No one can do it for them and without them.

Historically individual terrorism was linked not to the Left but mainly to bourgeois democratic movements which fought under the monarchic regimes demanding parliamentary democracy. They boomed under Tsarist absolutism in Russia during the 19th century. The bombers and executioners of Nardodnya Volya, the most important terrorist party weren' t leftists but officers of the tsarist army who joined the democratic movement. Their actions constantly provoked constant reprisals of absolutism, exiles and executions with the unnavoidable result: the total annihilation of the organisation.

In contrast to the above the executioners of N17 work in broad daylight under the watchful eye of the police and have never been caught in the act. This has no precedent in world history. Never has

terrorism functioned for 27 whole years without the police never catching one member. The actions of the anti-terrorist police till today has been the useless attempt to manufacture terrorists. Some mouthpieces of the authorities states that this is the price of democracy! To the ears of Greek citizens this argument resembles black humour. The reality is that if the secret services never arrested one person for 27 whole years, there is a valid explanation as it is impossible for one to arrest oneself.

Another justification by the authorities was the frightening organisation and connections of these unscrupulous and hard executioners. They always knew beforehand even the slightest movement

of their victims, always hit them when they were without their bodyguards, they always managed to change their plans and were also able to disarm the police in police stations, steal whole lorryloads

of weapons from large military bases! How was all this possible? The official liars always had a stupid theory handy: 17N had entered and corrupted the secret services.

Now after 27 years these unscrupulous murderers, the uncatchable invisible men, with achievements that haven' t been seen in Bond movies, have now been caught! Who are they? The church mosaic man Savvas Xiros and his friendly brothers!

Disciplined by the invisible hand of big brother, all the media stars have been courtmartialled, lost their summer vacations so as to take part in the giant operation known as the desert storm of lies ! They don' t have the slightest hope of convincing the Greek people that the poor folk who are being held by the authorities are unscrupulous and uncatchable murderers of the invisible organisation.

The credulity of the scenarios would have remained false even if its police directors had covered every aspect of the story. This because

of the fact that the phenomenon of modern terrorism is in total contrast with the laws of history. History teaches us that individual

terrorism doesn't appear under any conditions, but as a symptom during absolutist regimes. As a reaction to oppression and the alienation of the popular masses from every right and every legal

means of defence of their interests. But even in those cases individual terrorism as well as many other things isn't a timeless phenomenon from the era of the movement against monarchies

many years have passed. The experience of the political struggle has differentiated itself in the minds of the people and its organised

vanguard. Individual terrorism has been abandoned as a conclusive method of resistance which distances the movement from its final aim

instead of bringing it closer.

But the phenomenon of individual terrorism even if rare manifested themselves in the recent era against the dictatorship in Greece, Spain

and elsewhere. In history as in nature there always exist episodes of restorationism. Such a case was the attempt of Alekos Panagoulis against the life of the dictator Papadopoulos. No one then spoke about a provocation, no one doubted the originality of his motives as his actions were absolutely explainable in the given conditions and in no way could have provoked an overturn of the US inspired coup. There were many other lackeys of the US ready to take his place.

The situaiton was totally different after the fall of the coup. The conditions which gave rise historically to terrorism were not only lacking when the phenomenon appeared in Greece but were radically different. The era was characterised by the mass participation of the masses on the political horizon. We already had the events of May 1968 in France. There were dynamic movements in all the ocuntries of Europe and a militant anti-war movement in the heart of imperialism in the USA. In the same period US imperialism sufferred a decisive defeat in Vietnam. A whole series of dictatorial regimes collapsed due to the dynamism of the masses. The same fate befell the US lackey state in Persia, the Shahs.

In this era the popular masses in Greece dominate the streets. They adopt the most radical forms of action accompanied many times their strikes with occupations of factories. Quite broad is the feeling for change, a climate for change which will be broad and deep. On the other hand the ruling elite and their state mechanisms are in a total state of confusion and disorientation. The officers of the army dare not travel about the place with their uniforms on and the police manoeuvre like beaten dogs.

No tendency in the movement felt it lacked political strength and despair and it is totally ludicrous in the conditions we described for

some leftists to abandon the dynamic popular movement to hide like rats and make bombs with clocks and dynamite. The Left understood

quite well what the consequences of such actions would be. This is an even more serious reason which negates whatever relations any party

organ or group with the practice of individual terrorism. Neither the groups of the youth who throw Molotov cocktails can have a relationship with this invisible organisation. Only agents and professional killers of the secret services can be found behind thecold blooded murders and all the activities of the invisible terrorists, as only the imperialist state has something to gain from this conspiratorial practice which guarantees the excuse required for the intensification of oppression and the terrorising of the Greek peoples. Its no coincidence that 17N made its debut the CIA station chief Wells. The experienced agents of the US secret services could not act in any other manner. Their first task was to dissasociate from the beginning the CIA. One may ask: would they sacrifice one of their own so as to achieve this? From where does it come that he has been sacrificed? No one saw Wells dead, and no one saw the British agent Saunders!

Terrorism wasn' t required by the Greek people who has no reason to abandon the field of struggle to some self-proclaimed saviours who

will fight on their own with the status quo. Only they who were holding on with paralysed hands power needed terrorism so as to use it

as an excuse so as to reaffirm the police state alongside its morale, which had collapsed after the endless defeats it had sufferred internationally.

Until then the state had mobilised its oppressive machine in the name of the communist threat. But that what they called a communist threat dominated in many places around the world and represented around 2 billion people, had a significant appearance in international trade, great technological achievements in the arms

industry and in space and in many other sectors. In other words it had developed into an international force for which western imperialism

had to deal on the same level. Under these conditions the communist threat was no longer valid. The imperialist state had a need for a new

public threat to achieve the cooperation or the acceptance at least of an undeclared state of siege, which was ever more necessary as the

capitalist world entered into an economic crisis with explosive social dimensions.

As this threat didn' t exist it had to be invented! This is what they did. With the murder of people selected on the basis of unknown criteria, with the robbery of banks and actions which many times cost the lives of uninvolved citizens, the state managed to achieve the militarisation of society and to place the automatic weapon of the

policeman in front of the nose of every citizen.

With the anti-terrorist laws imposed in all countries they ensured citizens had no legal rights and they handed him over to legalised

police control. At any moment in time they can place anyone on a blank piece of paper and manufacture a terrorist and ensure they never see

the light of day. No one can now feel secure. But the state wants the citizen to feel secure, whoever they are. Instead he must feel deep

inside himself that if he doesn' t subjugate himself fully to the callings of power, if he doesn' t orientate himself with this he is under threat. As Bush stated "whoever isn't with us is against us" and will suffer the consequences. That is why the journalistic couriers of the secret services let it be known that various known people with standing could do damage to the credultiy of the official lies.

Fake terrorism doesn' t only have the purpose of serving political agendas of national dimensions. After the fall of the USSR it developed into a ruling element of imperialist policy. It became

the strategic excuse for the launching of wars and the imposition of the world dictatorship of the USA. Its not only citizens that can be characterised as terrorists at any time and be imprisoned  even in prisons abroad. Whole states can be characterised as  terrorist states, states  which support terrorism, which accept it or which don' t fight it in a decisive manner. These states can suffer the most severe sanctions, even up to bombardment with tactical nuclear weapons or to be placed under occupation.

To an extent Greece is under a regime of direct occupation as foreign secret services are the true government and can go anywhere freely on

its soil and to question Greek citizens at will, to hold them and interrogate them without anyone uttering a protest. We are only at the beginning. Many more things will follow. The straw men who act as the government agreed in the summit of 15 in Seville to hand over (before the current year is over) to the British the guarding of the Greek

borders. They have also accepted the arrival of 50,000 foreign police who will undertake to protect us from the  terrorists during the Olympic games. No one can predict that they will leave when the games are over. For years now they have been preparing the division of Greece into small protectorates based on the Yugoslav model, the

subjugation and dissolution of the Greek nation, for which they have declared it to be the main bastion of anti-americanism in the Balkans

and Europe. The chasing of  terrorists aims to terrorise all citizens, it aims in silencing ever public voice of protest, to silence every resistance so as to pass these plans.

Parties and organisations of the Left remain numb and immobile, trapped in the confused positions and their acceptance of the conspiracy which they have shown so far. Its time for them to wake up

and act. The bell rings for the whole Left. Tomorrow it will be to late. There is no other way of resisting and overturning the imperialist plans if we don' t unmask the conspirators, if we don' t show who is behind the bloody terrorist serial and what they aim to achieve if we don' t march on the streets to defend the innocent victims who have been caught in the states nets. The struggle isn' t behind but in front of us. They who were jealous of Hitlers visions  and are now following in his footsteps attempting to re-create their own 'new order' will have his fate. For years now they have learnt to play with fixed players they have developed the audacity of phenomenal superiority.

But it is only phenomenal. History lets no one deceive it. In the end it places every crook on its bench.

Athens July 2002