In many worldwide events and protests regarding recent developments in Greece, numerous supporters have been using the allegedly popular, yet populist motto ‘We Are All Greeks’. What reasoning does this motto express and which impact does it have directly or indirectly on those who do take on leaderless struggles in Greece?
Probably, some people feel some kind of compassion for the ‘suffering Greeks’ or even dread what lies in store for their own near future. They are (mis)informed, mainly through the lens of mass media and social networking services, about the distressing fact that Greece is plagued by ‘unjust and undemocratic’ austerity measures and savage cuts; and that’s about all there is to it… It may have been political marketing or patriotism ‘sloganists’ who reintroduced into the global political scene one of the most famous patriotism quotes in English (attributed to P.B. Shelley, from his 1821 ‘Hellas, a lyrical drama’). Either way, the statement was reminded vastly and publicly, through social media and subsequently in the streets. So, nowadays the related mass propaganda keeps on growing, often accompanied with symbols such as national flags, ancient Greek figures, etc. Various entities (from far-right wing to reformist or patriot leftist) are still promoting ‘solidarity’ to the Greek people identifying it with a nationality quality, a quality of citizenship, even with specific roots. Certainly, the motto screams pro-nationalist views, and not only ends up trapping those who adopt the ‘all-Greeks’ scum into a projectuality of national unity, but also enhances the state media propaganda, which slanders and prosecutes any radical political subject active in diverse social struggles, in the territory controlled by the Greek State and beyond.
Instead of breaking open the watertight compartments to which the capitalist system has confined us up to now, instead of providing the revolutionary cause many steps beyond a delimited struggle, this ‘all-one-nationality’ fallacy captures its naive followers in reactionary movements that can easily be integrated and controlled by the system. That’s why neoliberal and ultra-right forces have welcomed such wave of support as ‘optimistic’, while the neo-Nazis are reinforcing almost undisturbed their electoral campaign of racist hatred across Greece, reaching out to all Greeks too…
In this part of the world, like in so many others, the State and the bosses fiercely attack the oppressed. The financial and corporate elites conduct a merciless onslaught against the most vulnerable parts of society, stripping the bourgeois system of its ‘democratic’ pretenses, which have been maintained for ‘tactical’ reasons, in order to quell, suffocate or pacify every potential counterattack. People abroad see more and more demonstrators taking to the streets in Greek cities, while many refuse to protest remaining calm, but rather attack directly on structures that turn our lives into mere survival.
Whenever the support to others, who are striving and fighting, is based on an abstract cry called nationality, this reproduced patriotic pattern offers a helping hand to the State and the supranational bosses, to stifle the intensified social struggles; a helping hand to achieve or reassure what we crave to destroy: the social peace. Moreover, it offers very heterogeneous groups of protesters the ‘shelter’ of national unity. Nothing can bridge contrasts as efficiently as the national unity can: a great ideal unifying the people, next to a non-existing internal or external enemy or hazard. And every authority uses these weapons in times of riots and revolts, in a period of tensions which are often expressed with characteristics of a civil-internal war.
Yet nothing can bring us together with our oppressors and exploiters. No border can restrain our dreams. No sovereign-state flag can even remotely reflect our struggles. The strongest unifying factor for us, anarchists/libertarians, not only in Greece but in whole world, is the fact that we live in the same context of generalized deprivation, that we recognize this fact, and the flame of our passion for freedom burns and will burn for as long as we shall live; until, individually and collectively, we throw off habits, behaviors and mentalities imposed on us for so many years, until we abolish once and for all the State and its laws, the Capital and its structures. In our path, the patriotic germ is a hurdle that must be combated ceaselessly.
Thus, any support demonstrated with catchy and digestible ‘slogans’ results in the opposite effect of what an uprising intends for. Moreover, it proves to be damaging to the very sense of solidarity among the oppressed. We can no longer watch solidarity being turned into a sold-out supportive message of national awakenings. Solidarity is our weapon, and we defend it with constant battles against the Power, either inside or outside prison walls.
We are neither pro-nationalists, nor patriots;
we are national traitors that want to spread the revolt.
AGAINST ALL STATES AND FATHERLANDS
in Esperanto