NCJ Number
198750
Date Published
2001
Length
270 pages
Annotation
This book presents the activities and ideology of the Greek Revolutionary Organization, 17 November, the last of Europe’s Marxist-Leninist terror organizations.
Abstract
After presenting a brief introduction to the history of the revolutionary organization, 17 November, which has waged a violent terror campaign against United States’ and NATO personnel as well as Turkish diplomats since 1975, the author describes the Greek traditions of violence, power, and protest by detailing the birth of modern Greece’s civic ethos and political traditions, Greece in the inter-war period of the 20th century, the legacy of Greek civil war, and the Third Hellenic Republic. Addressing the large-scale demographic changes that enabled terrorism to develop in Greece, the author discusses the November 1973 revolt and transition or metapolitefsi that encouraged the formation of 17 November. Through discussing the post-civil war period of socio-political and cultural change that culminated in November of 1973 and by addressing the metapolitefsi and the extra-parliamentary left, the author describes the Epanastatikos Laikos Agonas (ELA)’s argument that meaningful revolutionary change requires strategic direction from an armed vanguard of professional revolutionaries. Detailing the history of 17 November, the author discusses the tactics, targets, and operational evolution of this revolutionary organization from 1975 to 2000, by addressing the three phases of this group. After describing the ideology, strategy, and political violence of 17 November, the author focuses on the Greek State’s response to dealing with terrorism by highlighting the development and abolition of Law 774/1978, the formation of anti-terrorist law 1916/1990, and the relationship between the Greek Government and the media. The author argues that the growth of democratic political freedoms provides violent conspiratorial organizations with much greater opportunities to conduct campaigns of violence and challenge the values and processes of open liberal democracies. Appendices, bibliography, index