applied on 25 July, 1929, and which criminalise the “subversive” ideas. The aim was the persecution of the communists and the anarchists, and the suppression of trade union industrial action. The law whose main exponent was the Eleftherios Venizelos was the beginning for the subsequent torture, exile, imprisonment left.
“Any attempt at disturbance or violent overthrow of the civil status, of which a solid foundation is patrice, the family, the property will ranges αντιμÎτωπον the πυγμήν of the State. We are determined to εξοπλίσωμεν the state, and the first of the for the necessary legislation, as rendering possible the effective social defense against απÏοκάλυπτων ανατÏεπικών actions of the enemies of social status” were the words of Eleftherios Venizelos in 1928, on the campaign of the concentration. Words which and he did act a year later with the election of the.
It was the era of διεκδικητικών struggles of the workers and the rise of communist ideology. The development of the labour movement, which followed the similar trends in the rest of Europe with the spread of the radical/communist ideologies, the asia Minor Catastrophe with the arrival of millions of refugees, could be fertile ground for the spread of the ideologies of these. The overall poor condition of the country and of the economy due to the war and the political instability of the times those led to the enactment of the law.
It was essentially an attempt of the current institutions to maintain the established them in front of the fear of the spread of new ideas.
The law provided for a sentence of imprisonment of over six months for anyone who, in article 1, aims at the implementation of ideas having as Îκδηλον end the by βιαίων media ανατÏοπήν of the kind of social system or the απόσπασιν part of the whole of the territory or action in favour of the application of these conversion”.
The reactions initially were not many, only of the then opposition, headed by Alexandros Papanastasiou, Georgios Papandreou and Georgios ΚαφαντάÏη, which suggested that the roman empire persecuted and the fascists with the same law. Venizelos refused.
The bill finally passed on July 15, and shall enter into application on 25 July.
“The νομοσχÎδιον does not seek to co-the κομμουνισμόν as no idea, but the third International and the μπολσεβικικάς the first instance of this, which are very the ideal of communism. The νομοσχÎδιον seeks shall the followers of the third International. Don’t we διώξωμεν the κομμουνισμόν, because Christ was the herald of this idea. The Christ proclaimed to be the first to κομμουνισμόν, but from the lofty ιδεολογίαν of communism, up to the subversive activities of the people of Moscow, there is a difference” she had said in the Parliament of the Venizelos.
The law later raised a storm of reactions, both inside and outside. The opposition expressed by the legal world of the country, with articles in the magazines “Themis” and “Justice”.
A voice of protest raised intellectuals, such as Grigorios Xenopoulos, the Galatea Kazantzakis, George Nirvana, Constantine Άμαντος, Dimitris Γληνός, Albert Einstein and Henri ΜπαÏμπίς.
From 1929 to 1936 and employs approximately 16.500 citizens were arrested. Of these 3031 sentenced and exiled to the islands of Folegandros, Anafi, Amorgos and Skyros.
With court decisions broke up many associations and unions, affected by the COMMUNIST party. In the law it is based and the subsequent stricter laws such as the regime of the 4th August.
Source
“Idiom”: the first is criminalisation of communist ideas in Greece
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