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Christos Konstantinidis (in Greek: Χρήστος Κωνσταντινίδης) is a Greek publisher, translator, and anarchist activist. He actively participated in radicalizing Athenian universities during the Greek junta (1967-1974) and was particularly involved in the Athens Polytechnic uprising (1973), an event that marked the beginning of the fall of the junta.

He is generally regarded as one of the first links between the Greek student movement and anarchism, and he holds an important place in the revival of anarchism in Greece.

Biography

Christos Konstantinidis became politically active during the dictatorship of the colonels (1967-1974) after being trained in activism in Paris. In 1971, he founded the International Library (Διεθνής Βιβλιοθήκη), which quickly became the gathering place for the Athenian anarchist and anti-authoritarian movement. Through his bookstore, he managed to circulate texts by Goldman, Bakunin, Kropotkin, as well as more recent works, including situationist texts. Guy Debord's The Society of the Spectacle (1967) is one of the books he helped to transmit clandestinely, according to several testimonies collected by Nicholas Apoifis, who often refers to this example.

With Nikos Balis, he participated in radicalizing students. Quickly, within this emerging circle of anarchists, he founded the first anarchist group within Greek universities. In February 1973, he initiated the occupation of the Faculty of Law in Athens.

He played a central role during the uprising at the Athens Polytechnic, particularly by facilitating the publication of leaflets and materials for the movement. He participated in and encouraged the central action of the uprising by occupying the Faculty of Athens with his group on November 14, 1973, and strongly supported the idea that the occupation should be sustained over time, which was ultimately adopted. During this General Assembly, he had the following motion passed with his group:

The autonomous assembly of workers located in the premises of the Polytechnic School calls on workers to occupy places of production and to create factory and strike committees with the ultimate goal of establishing workers' councils. The minimum program of the workers' councils is the destruction of wage labor, the state, capitalism, and politics.

With his comrades, he also tagged the university with slogans such as "Down with the State!", "Patriots are assholes!", and "Down with wage labor!" The group's banner, which read "Down with the State! Down with Capital! Down with Authority!" occupied the entrance of the Athens Polytechnic during the first days of the occupation, until communist militants removed it and the tanks of the dictatorship forcibly entered the university grounds.

Konstantinidis opposes attempts to politically co-opt the movement, particularly by the Communist Party of Greece (KKE).

In 1975, he also published and translated anti-communist anarchist literature, such as "Listen, Marxist!" by Murray Bookchin. Later, the publisher took on the responsibility of publishing the Greek anarchist newspaper Pezodromio with Balis. Konstantinidis later managed the anarchist bookstore La Rose Noire (Μαύρο Ρόδο).

Legacy

Konstantinidis is one of the prominent figures in the Greek anarchist movement of the late 20th century; he is frequently mentioned in testimonies regarding these circles. An activist in the 1970s, he is generally regarded as one of the first links between the Greek student movement and anarchism, and he holds an important place in the revival of anarchism in Greece.

References