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FOUNDING DECLARATION OF MIKIS THEODORAKIS'S INDEPENDENT CITIZENS' MOVEMENT II

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News

2011

Author: Mikis Theodorakis

Publishing date: 01.12.2011 17:21

We have to oppose the weapon of disobedience to the authority’s moral, national, democratic and historically illegal decisions.

Mikis Theodorakis protests

FOUNDING DECLARATION OF MIKIS THEODORAKIS'S INDEPENDENT CITIZENS' MOVEMENT

SECOND PART

National risks

Alongside all this - according to the newspaper "TA NEA" - a research group based in Statford, U.S., forecasts that Greece will soon lose the Aegean, so it will disappear as a country (except if - add the wise Americans - the Greek people decide to choose one or more bosses to protect it). These are not my words; I've read them in the newspaper "TA NEA" last summer.

So some say that we will lose the Aegean, others claim Ipeiros and Macedonia, and a third party (Turks and Americans) seem to get up to something in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace.

Is it really too much to wonder if there are and if there ever have been any genuinely patriotic governments in this country and what they have done all these years against the open wounds that surround us?

And this is why I refer to such purely national issues; because only an independent and responsible nation can deal with them.

Simultaneously, we have to review all the outstanding issues concerning the Muslim minority on the basis that, whatever their characteristics and needs, they should be fully respected and their rights should be absolutely equal to those of other Greeks and preserved as something valuable. I would even suggest, as an act of goodwill, to ensure free education to all public higher education institutions for the Muslims graduating from high school.

National Defence

At this point, let me deal extensively with the major issue of National Defence:

1) Prepare a new national defence doctrine, outside NATO's plans, with the ability to undertake crushing defencive blows in case of hostile action that compromises the integrity of the country.

2) Review our relationship with NATO.
• Which are the states and peoples to which NATO's strategy is hostile, and if and why they are also our own enemies.
• A big part of our economic bleeding is due to the fact that, for decades, we are obliged to contribute to the economic prosperity of countries such as USA, England, France and Germany through the purchase of weapons that serve key objectives of NATO.
• The countries that threaten us today, by claiming Greek territories or denying our sovereign rights, happen to have the implicit support and diplomatic, economic and military assistance of the U.S. and NATO. How can we entrust our country's national defence to those who prefer the interests of our opponents against ours? Isn't it like allowing the wolf to guard the sheep? And is it not grotesque to participate ourselves, as NATO members, to the plans for the destruction of our country? We saw previously that NATO has forced us to share the Aegean 50% - 50% with Turkey, half-half, east and west, to the point that Erdoğan complains to Papandreou, because when flying over Chios we violate Turkey's rights! We have arrived at this extremity of national humiliation behaving as servants due to our foreign dependence that has transformed us to secondary satellites, even lower than Skopje and Albania.
• All the Greek governments until today were following an Arab - friendly policy, while pursuing friendly relations with Israel. The Greek position on the solution of the problem that concerns the two peoples was that there should be a fair solution which satisfies both sides. During the Andreas Papandreou governance there was some variation with the establishment of close and cordial relations with the Palestinians, as they were and still are the main victims of this terrible tragedy, attitude that was supported by the vast majority of our people.

And while inside Israel, a relative balance between the extreme nationalist and pacifist was achieved, with the Iraqi war, in which Israel took an active role, the first prevailed; that transformed Israel in to the policeman of the strategic goals of the U.S. in Middle East and led it to brutal aggression against Lebanon and Gaza, which they have since isolated, condemning thus hundreds of thousands of civilians to malnutrition and poverty. And as we saw, Israel's war machine, which probably has nuclear weapons, is preparing to make the first blow to the planned war against Iran.

After all this, how can we justify that our country decided to proceed with the establishment of a close relationship - and even to the level of military cooperation with allocation of our national airspace to a military force whose targets are the Palestinians, the Arab world and Iran-? Since when these peoples became our enemies? And what are our national interests that lead us today alongside the aggressive Israel?

And I say "aggressive" to dissociate it from the People of Israel, with whom nothing divides us other than the commitment of the Greek people to respect the rights of all peoples and defend peace.

The Age of decline

Today, we Greeks are experiencing an unprecedented form of decay, which leads us firmly towards total national disaster. The reasons that caused this, as we saw, started decades ago. Except that they were designed and implemented with unprecedented ingenuity, inventiveness and "magic" accuracy, so that, the otherwise experienced and suspicious Greek people, not only failed to perceive anything, but, on the contrary, half of the population became an enthusiastic participant to its self-destruction and the other half watched unsuspecting and puzzled, totally blinded by the blinding brilliance of the unprecedented fraud.

Thereby, some people put us in a slippery slope, gooey of faeces mutated to jam, and all together, conspirators, participants and watchers-by began, idiotically, the journey into the abyss of our national disaster.

The current unprecedented form of total destruction requires analysis, opinions, ideas and visions that are beyond what we are accustomed to today. We live a new international and domestic situation which should be addressed with new solutions. That's why our public interventions should only aim to maintaining Greek people’s hope alive. If we really want to help our people to overcome the crisis and move along the path of national independence and progress, we should offer them a new ideological framework, through which a new road will be created and solutions will be drawn that will help them get rid of their enemies and move forward.

The greatest difficulty is the fact that our political system as a whole is rotten and most importantly, is dependent. It has also trapped large popular forces and has enormous economical means. It dominates the media, trade unions, the state mechanism, thus it has great power to influence through bribery. And finally it has the full support of powerful international centres of decision.

Even more difficult is the catalytic effect that has begun becoming a commitment by the aggressive international forces (IMF, Troika) which, as proves the situation in our country but also in France, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Iceland, etc., they have intensified their efforts to demise the social fabric of each country through a systematic effort of degrading the working masses.

I do not know what happens elsewhere, but here, as I said, attacks, unfortunately with the help of our fellow compatriots, against modern Greek culture (since 1974) have occured and recently also against our national constitution in all its aspects, history, culture, ideas, manners and customs ... So we have simultaneous blows to our social, historical and cultural fabric.

Why is all this happening? This is a key question that demands a clear and factual response, on which the framework of our efforts will considerably rely.

The deep incisions

And because I want to finish with another "argument" of government propaganda, which unfortunately has influenced large parts of our people, proving that once again governments hide the reality or rather they reverse it, I answer to what they constantly support, that they are the first to dare make the deep changes that the country needs, without calculating the political cost.
They, of course suppress the fact that these changes are decided and imposed by Troika, humiliating thus our national dignity to the extreme, as if , amongst ten million Greeks, there could not be ten brains equal to those of the foreign officials to accomplish today, like yesterday, what is inherent.

Two answers

Let me end this issue with two answers, after I add that these deep cuts on the carcinomas that condemn us to underdevelopment and have existed for decades, should have been done long ago.

Answer 1: These could not be done by the Governments of the Right, because the correlation of forces wouldn't allow it, considering that any change would harm sector A or sector B who will react with all their might. So in the case of N.D., it would have to face superior forces, extremely united, such as PASOK, the Left, trade unions, public utilities, the press and TV, which had and still have the power to paralyze everything. Just imagine what could happen if N.D. would do what PASOK does today. The demonstrations would paralyze Athens and Thessaloniki every day. PPC (the electricity company) would pull the plugs. The officials would paralyze the public utilities and the State. Farmers would block the roads etc. etc. We have, anyway, seen all this during the recent governance of New Democracy.

Answer 2: These necessary deep changes (sections) in order to modernize our country could and should have be done only in 1981, the time of PASOK's victory, which among others as a socialist party that it wanted to show and be, had a historic duty to eradicate all carcinoma of a die-hard authority, which essentially started with Metaxa and continue to date! Because back then a favorable balance of power existed more than ever before, with a mighty PASOK, a friendly Left and controlled remaining fortresses of Power, Unions, Associations, State, Public Utilities, Press etc. and having in front of them a losing, numb and powerless N.D.

So if the current government should blame someone who didn't dare make these structural changes, this someone is primarily itself. Of course this does not, in any way relieve N.D. from its own responsibilities which are many and serious...

Besides, the moment and the way these changes are happening now is absolutely wrong in many aspects, so as to resemble surgery without anaesthetic...

So, because these changes are not made for the people but they actually are against them, since they have to pay all the surcharges, the first results after one year of experimentation are entirely negative and I wonder where Mr. Papandreou derives his optimism from, when the numbers are relentless, indicating that the country is sinking deeper every day into the economic and general crisis.

The treadmill (noria) and five questions

Before proceeding to our movement's positions for the way out of the crisis, allow me to pose some issues in the form of questions, that will help us see where we stand today, how and why we are where we are and then how we will get out of the impasse and most importantly, where we will go and also how we can go where we should go.

Question One: Have we realized that the current crisis strikes equally every citizen in this country to the same extent, even if someone is affected today more than another? Should this country sink, we will sink altogether, rich and poor, right and left, centrists, anarchists. In other words, have we realized that we are a nation in the same area, in the same homeland? Hence, if we are saved, we will all be saved or none?

Question Two: Have we realized that in this suffocating loneliness, which becomes worse because all nations of the world and especially those in Europe are in the same situation, everyone is trying by all its means to save itself without waiting for help from anywhere? And not only this, but even the most powerful nations exploite the weak ones without mercy, in order to serve their own exclusive interests. In other words, the world in which we live is like a jungle, becoming more and more dangerous for the weak as the international crisis is growing.

Question Three: Have we realized that there is currently no trace of international solidarity and therefore we, as a separate national body, have no friends, because, as we said, everyone cares for himself and the only thing that can bring people close to one another is the mutual interest. And this means that if we will be ultimately saved, then we will be saved altogether or none. Therefore we have to raise the biggest and most powerful forces we have as a single people against the others who care to rally around themselves, in order to overcome the crunch, which we all have to deal with because of the present international crisis. In other words in order to endure, we must gather altogether as a strong fist.

Fourth: We should realise that the current situation affects us all equally. Thereafter, we need to analyze it, so we will be able to confront it and change it. The picture that I have and I think helps us see what happens, is the picture of a treadmill (noria), where usually a mule with blinders goes around in countless circles in order to pump water from the well. This, for too many years, since the governments instead of ensuring that our people live thanks to a development system based on its own productive forces, they resorted to the easy solution of loans from foreign powers.

The main reason for this was not only the incapability but also the clientelism that altered the State mechanism into a true Minotaur, who lived on the people's blood. Thus we entered the national noria, given that the loans brought interest, interest brought taxes that were not enough to satisfy the government needs, which resorted to new larger loans, which increased the interest, which increased the taxes, which were bringing new loans and so on. Therefore, the true picture is this: in the middle the gluttonous State and around it the entire Greek people making endless vicious circles, and as the interest were increasing they had to walk faster and faster until they ended up gasping and collapsing from exhaustion, just like it’s happening now.

My answer to the noria problem is one and simple: We must get rid of it. We must find ways to get rid of the Public Debt and thereafter to consider if it is possible to live without loans and rely solely on our own forces.

Question Five: Are we willing to make altogether this leap which will take us away from the consumer hysteria that dominated our lives? Because this hysteria is sinking us every day to an even deeper dependence on our lenders, the foreign banks, who when they realized that this race of consumerism made us financially untrustworthy, since we neglected our country's development, i.e. we impoverished it as we finally impoverished ourselves to the point of becoming a laughingstock in the eyes of the world, then and for that reason they turned off the loan valve, thus resorting to the Troika and the Memorandum, which puts us back in the noria

Troika-Loans-Taxes-Loans-Interest-Taxes, while in the meantime it uses a whip to make us run around faster. We ended up, in other words in absolute national disgrace.

We, therefore, have to change our mentality at national level. The tactic of living above our means and consume more than we produce, cannot go on. It leads nowhere. Or rather, it consistently leads us to greater national dependence - and therefore individual dependence- and ultimately to widespread bankruptcy, decay, misery, shame.

At this point I think that our nation is waiting to hear a responsible and fully documented proposal as to what can and should be done in order to change in a self-sufficient, self-reliant, independent nation, based solely on its own abilities and strengths, that will help it raise the wealth needed to live by its own country, soil, seas, ability and diligence.

Are these enough to live on? Have we the subjective possibilities to rely on our own forces without loans and without outstretching our hand asking for charity? Are we able to become independent? And most importantly: Can we decide to live in a different way than the one we are used to in the last decades, since the passion of consumerism came over?

At this point, for our people to be convinced, as I said earlier, there should be documented answers which will form a new Vision for the future, a new generalized patriotic ideology, based both on technical infrastructure and our historical tradition, namely the moral and cultural values that we should oppose to the dominant spirit of "bliss" which is based on a lifestyle alien to the Greek character and which serves large economic monopolies in their attempt to place the increasing production of consumer goods, exclusive materials, that, like the hallucinogens, cause a temporary illusion of happiness and which we now know where it leads.

The main challenge is, the happiness of the people, the true happiness and not illusory and ephemeral, based on the feeling in each one of us born by the realization that we love the country we live in, the unique homeland, which means that we live and prosper based on our own forces and efforts and along with those living under the same sky we can build our own life, which is consistent with our character, our habits and our traditional customs.

So, new institutions must be selected according to our people's image and likeness that will help society to move forward grounded on justice, solidarity and true love of the homeland and its people.

Seven proposals to exit the crisis

Before I continue towards the final proposals of the Movement, I would like, just for historical reasons, to quote my suggestions regarding the exit from the crisis, which I released in the summer of 2010.

Since then, as you will see, there are some key differences, made after careful consideration and which mainly concern the decision to immediately exit from NATO and the proposal which includes the participation of political parties to end the crisis.

Today I see that the initiative for the creation of this Movement of Independent Citizens should not take the form of a party nor even a movement with organizational form. On the other hand, the feeling that what we are proposing today will have to be, not only essential, but also realistic and, above all, should not cause dangerous jolts in an era of extreme sensitivity as to the readiness of both the people and, above all, of the country to accept changes over the limit of its capabilities. We have to be careful of what we propose and keep it within the limits of what is possible, taking of course into consideration the international balance of forces, our national commitments and the extremely difficult position of our country.

And I turn to my proposals made last summer:

First:: We must get rid, once and for all, of the Public Debt. Otherwise, we will be forced to borrow forever, to pay interest and thus between loans and interest, our people will be living a life of a slithering reptile rather than that of a human being.

Second: In order to pay back the Public Debt and to secure funds for our people's and country's revival, we should:
• Exploit the value of part of the State Property, except from some strategic public utilities, energy and telecommunications.
• Exploit the value of part of the ecclesiastical and monastic property.
• Oblige the rich to contribute to the common national effort, through special taxation and other means according to their economic capacity.
• Create a public national banking pillar, which will break the bank cartel for the benefit of the people, contributing to the repayment of debt.
• Demand a debt "haircut" in cooperation with the countries in southern Europe, which face similar deficit problems.
• Demand in every possible way the so-called "war reparations" from Germany which are due to Greece for thousands of killings of innocent victims, the incalculable destruction and theft of the country's wealth.

Third: According to reliable estimates, these methods will bring to the public coffers more than one trillion Euros, of which, after subtracting the Public Debt, there will be enough money to support the regenerative efforts of the country and which will be allocated according to the needs in defence, development, health, education and the eradication of poverty.

Fourth: For reasons of national dignity, our country should retrieve from the E.U. support mechanism, IMF and NATO and should turn for support to other friendly countries such as Russia, China and the Arab countries, with which trade and other relations should be further developed.

Fifth: The National Defence should be strengthened significantly with the supply of high end military defence material from Russia and China. Because I believe that it is stupid and dangerous to be members of NATO which is openly and blatantly plotting against us by cultivating systematically our neighbours' nationalism targeting even our territorial integrity.

Sixth: With main slogan "For the salvation of the Homeland," all spiritual people should lead in this regenerative mobilization leaving behind the attitude of inaction and silence.

Seventh: It is obvious that the nature and mainly the significance of the problems our country is currently facing are such that a single party cannot bear the responsibility for solving them alone. This is why I believe that all the parties should agree on a government of national unity, which could rule having the overwhelming consensus of the electorate and could make use, in the meantime, of all human resources available, within and outside Greece, all the experts, incorruptible and capable, who could provide life-saving services in these critical times and who in their majority remain unexploited.

The final positions

1. - Immediate repayment of the public debt:
• Effort to reduce it.
• Exploiting of the state, ecclesiastical and monastic property.
• Compulsory by law financial contribution from businesses, banks and wealthy individuals.
• Effort to reduce spending on armaments, if, of course, our security is ensured.
• Fair tax system, elimination of tax evasion.
• Offsetting our debt to Germany with the German compensations, through new negotiations under the auspices of an International Committee of members-war victims (USA, UK, Russia, China, Serbia).

2. - Public Loan:
• Find other sources bearing low interest rate and long repayment.
• Effort to offset debts by creating joint ventures.

3. - Defence expenditure:
• Direct negotiations with Turkey on mutual reduction of armaments.
• Cessation of military supplies from Germany-France.
• New agreements with Russia and China in terms of, firstly long repayment of the debt, secondly payment in kind and thirdly offset of debts by setting up joint ventures around domestic wealth resources with absolute assurance of our national interests.

4. - National Defence (I mentioned earlier)

5. – Exit from IMF, Troika etc.

6. – Growth:
Prepare a modernizing development plan for immediate execution.
Elaborate a modern development programme tailored to our production resources and forces, aiming to making people self sufficient. Under this programme, the absorption and adaptation of our actual needs in civil service and public utilities staff should be pursued, so that the state budget will get rid of the unbearable weight of a monstrous parasite mechanism, which absorbs the largest share of the Budget and detains the country in underdevelopment.

7. - 'Green' development of the country.
Exploiting the "natural" energy resources, developing tourism.

8. - External Relations:
• Review the agreements between Greece and NATO and erase those impinging on our national interests.
• Entry in bilateral negotiations with Turkey, Skopje, Albania to solve all outstanding issues, aiming in forging friendly relations.

9. - International economic relations:
Shift from unilateral reliance on US and Europe and seek new economic relations in every direction that will allow us to achieve more favourable terms.

10. - Annual State Budget:
The picture of the numbers that accompany public spending reflects the essence of a social policy. So far, all governments placed at the top of the list the State expenditure (after Defence) and regarded as last the expenditure on Education, Health, Sport and Culture. This policy, regardless of the party label of the government implementing it, is purely against our people and in its substance under developmental.

If we want a society populist and progressive but also productive, then we must reverse the choices made so far. Thus, we should put at the top of the list Health, Education, Sports, Culture and then State. To reform completely the priorities of the annual expenditure for each sector, with objectives:

First the Defence of the country due to the hostile environment in which we are condemned to live.

Second the productive development of the country aiming at independence and the orderly closure of the gap between social classes with regard to the principle of social justice and under the doctrine of "fair inequality" which will not only enhance fair play but will also ensure to the weaker the rights that every free man should have in a free society.

Third Health on equal footing for all citizens.
The total(overall?) care for the important issue of 'education' of young people.
Fourth, State (state apparatus, public organisations, etc.).
The budget, therefore, should be allocated according to the following priorities: National Defence, Public Works, Social Solidarity, Agriculture, Commerce and Industry, Health, Education, Culture and the State.

11. - The three social pillars upon which a modern state must be based in an era characterized by high competition, dominance of national markets and national hazards, as in our case, should be National Defence, Public Health and general high-level Education.

For this reason the annual outlays(allocations, expenditure?) from the State Budget should be accordingly high, and the wages of those who serve in these critical sectors, be markedly higher than the wages of the other employees, since on the quality of their performance depend both the safety and the health of the citizens. It is also necessary to form highly scientific staff to contribute to the development and progress of the country.

12. - Rational restructuring of the clerical force in the State mechanism and public utilities. Plan for the definite conversion of the public utilities into organisations which create positive work.

13. – EDUCATION Greek- centred, humanitarian, completely modernized. And CULTURE.
Objectives:
The emergence of graduates with a high degree of intellectual, scientific and moral formation.
The creation of responsible citizens and strong personalities inspired by the highest human ideals.
Instead of a unilateral technocratic direction, pursuit a comprehensive education programme from the beginning of schooling to the end that includes all the intellectual and artistic achievements and ideas of mankind.

Specific initiation programme in Greek education that includes History, Philosophy, Art and the Ideas from the pre-classical times, antiquity, Hellenistic period, Byzantium, Hellenism during the Ottoman occupation and modern times from 1821 to today.

The confrontation of the timeless Greek tradition, both historic and spiritual, with the congruent intellectual currents of each era is important.

It must be the State's responsibility to create conditions within which the National Cultural Renaissance can be developed, giving the opportunity to the People to participate in building a Modern Greek culture anchored on his historical, spiritual and cultural traditions.

Objective: The younger generations of Greeks to be proud of their ancestry and be self-confident, particularly in the current international scene which is dominated by nationalistic tendencies.

Immediate actions

Because the clock is ticking and Greece is sinking more and more, in order to complete the Salvation Plan, very soon there should be a small national delegation with the necessary national prestige which should visit the below capitals to discuss with their respective governments seeking solutions in the interest of our country:

First, Moscow and Beijing to negotiate:
– a loan agreement at the lowest possible interest rate and repayment after 20 years at the earliest
– repayment in kind and by creating partnerships to help in the exploitation of our national
wealth, to promote our economic development and the creation of jobs
- Especially from Moscow it should be requested to reactivate our agreement for the oil pipeline, so this project could be finally implemented.

Second, Ankara to discuss:
– The immediate formation of the continental shelf and the rights of each country.
– To consider individual or joint efforts to exploit potential mineral reserves.
– The shaping of the conditions which concern the two minorities in Thrace and Constantinople according to the international agreements signed by both countries.
– Greece's decision to terminate all agreements made under NATO and concern the Aegean. For this, we must respect the rights deriving from international treaties for each country's right to consider as its national space 12 miles of sea, air and undersea area around its territory and exceptionally, for the purpose of facilitating the free navigation, the temporary retreat of Greece and accept a 6 mile zone, but only on certain Aegean islands.

Third, Berlin, to announce:
– The disruption in supply of military equipment from Germany.
– Our intention to combine the repayment of our debt with their repayment to us of the war damages.

Fourth, Tirana and Skopje, to declare that:
– Greece considers as hostile act any kind of claim on its territories.
– Greece considers that the name "Macedonia" is a Trojan horse for the maintenance and possibly the future application of the Doctrine of the "Aegean Macedonia", which for us is casus belli.
– We wish to develop even closer friendly relations.
– If they insist, we are willing to get to the point of even interrupting our diplomatic relations.

Dear Friends,

I tried, as concisely as I could, to analyse, to denounce and to suggest.
I want to believe that this text can be viewed by each individual citizen as a base on which to be informed, to think and try to examine thoroughly the issues raised and to reflect on the solutions proposed according to his own creative and free way of thinking. He can also add his own solutions to help more effectively not only our exit from the crisis but also the search for the Greece and the society that we dream of constructing.

The most appropriate thing to do at the times that we live and the conditions under which we are forced to fight, is to seek a wider exchange of views within the environment where we live and work. The nicer and more fruitful discussion is the collective one. If it is finally achieved that all these thousands of individual and collective efforts meet objectively and subjectively in the same direction, then this period of ideological people-centered fermentation, may lead to specific initiatives, actions, interventions with team, dynamic character, with a more and more focused and integrated form, so that independent citizen's shall become an element of change in the country's advancement,, beneficial for the People and the Nation.

Having accumulated an experience of seventy years of constant presence in the heart of national and political life, with organisations, parties, movements, revolutions, dictatorships, resistance of every kind and every form, following the unstoppable and often stormy waves of a historical journey from 1940 to today, that is characterised by unprecedented changes, I assure you that no matter how much I searched, I could not find another method for the current independent Greek citizen to escape the suffocating oligarchic control - party - government status quo other than the method I launch and propose today.

The conditions of our country's dependency and the methods of dependency of a large proportion of our population have established a situation of real fortresses.

Only three methods exist to demolish them:
First, if we want to attack them from inside, then it is certain that we will be assimilated.
Second, if we strike in direct confrontation, we will be exterminated.
Third, there remains the third option, to fortify ourselves under the condition that the people themselves will create the necessary force to win, having extracted from their guts the leading forces that will lead them to victory.

Disobedience

The results of the last elections pose serious problems in relation to that percentage of voters which legitimize a government and give the right to the ruling party to claim that it has the majority of an entire people and therefore it is entitled to rule.

Already the fact that the various alchemies – allegedly necessary for the scheme to operate - enable governments of a substantial minority of less than 50% to be designated and to make decisions and take measures that may even be contrary to the interests of the real majority, has the effect of undermining people's unity, which only a substantial majority can secure and therefore ensure the national unity which should be the alpha and omega for the entire society's normality and progress.

But what happens when the great abstinence and the existence of many parties lower the bar of the government majority to one third of all voters? This is no longer a percentage of a restricted minority as before but a result of a tiny minority, which therefore is unacceptable that it should represent the entire nation and particularly at times of national crisis.

From the alchemies of the current parliamentary system’s constitutional experts we declined to the caricature of a parliamentary democracy that allows a negligible parliamentary minority to exercise power in the name, but also, if it so desires at the expense of, the real majority of the people.

The democratic principle does not exhaust its meaning in the formal legitimacy of authority, i.e. the observance of constitutional procedures. Nobody disputes the legality of the two electoral rounds or election results. What is disputed is whether, with such a large absenteeism, which is more than half the electorate, there is substantial authority legalization. The democratic principle requires, so that the principle of popular sovereignty be retained beyond the formal legitimacy of the authority, also its substantial legitimacy. It requires that the election result states or at least reflects the consensus, the majority's acceptance. But here we had widespread absenteeism. We talk about absenteeism not about blank votes, because unlike absenteeism, blank votes express consensus at least to the electoral process.

This fact, in the opinion of an ordinary citizen like myself, is deviation from the democratic legitimacy, in which the majority rules and the minority controls.

Today, while a minority rules, the majority is doomed to suffer passively its decisions. Fact which in my opinion legalizes the disobedience and makes it the majority's defence weapon against the undemocratic legitimacy of the minority.

In the first round of elections for "Kallikratis", PASOK lost one million of its voters. This means that ruling party supporters, one way or another, disagreed with its policy. How is this disapproval of the Government programme by its own followers recorded at constitutional level and not just formally? And, more importantly, what is the level of the system’s real democratic operation? And with what consequences for the country? And by which substantive rather than typical and perforated validity as now does PASOK still monopolize the decisions in the Parliament by voting laws and measures on grounds of its Government majority?

This is a constitutional impasse, which aggravates, distorts and undermines the country's good governance leading to a substantial abuse of power and converts the Parliament in an alibi for a basically dictatorial imposition of a minority over a majority. In other words, it leads to the violation of Democracy as a system which ensures equal rights for all citizens.

I guess that after the regime's conversion from Presidential Regime to Prime Minister – centered regime, the role of President of the Republic, who according to the Constitution is the "Regime's regulator", remains passive.
What should be done? Ideally, the same government should sense its position and search inside and outside the Parliament the widest possible consensus seeking that any decisions be approved by the substantial majority of people, and stop conceitedly entrenching in a constitutional legitimacy that resembles the "empty shirt" of George Seferis.

Today, we may say that the King is naked, meaning that historically and nationally he is inadequate to support the rights of his people.

In the meantime, and until the political authority resolves its problems, we, the overwhelming majority of independent citizens, have moral, national and democratic duty to consider the decisions of this minority, in an era that the fate of our country is given to foreigners, and oppose the weapon of DISOBEDIENCE to the authority’s moral, national, democratic and historically illegal decisions.

Disobedience, individual and collective, to all unpopular measures imposed by our foreign monitors' orders, which affect, besides our country's and people's interests, our personal, popular and national dignity.

In the history of democracies, civil disobedience has been the means of non-violent and transparent resistance of conscious citizens against the decisions of a government that violates the fundamental rules of social coexistence. Civil disobedience is not an arbitrary concept. It is a whole theory of political science and constitutional law and vested right of our political and constitutional culture. Its roots go back to the beginning of constitutionalism, the Magna Charta and the famous right of resistance. It indicates the citizen's right not to comply with its obligations towards power, when the power violates first the "social contract". Let us not forget the final provision of our Constitution: “Observance of the constitution is entrusted to the patriotism of the Greeks".

Dear Friends,

I exposed as briefly as possible, my views, which you can find completed in the book released entitled "The Spark".

Those who agree with me, I call upon them to form independent Initiative Committees in the areas where they live, work and study aiming at informing, brainstorming and motivating people around them and make whatever interventions they can with whatever means they have.

At a later stage, these scattered Committees should try to have contact with each other to coordinate their actions, in order to eventually create Initiative Committees covering an area of work, a school, a neighbourhood, a city, or even a region.

I, personally, have already formed around me a ten-member Initiative Committee, composed of friends and collaborators and we are willing to contribute to the coordination on a wider scale.

Before I leave, I would like to summarize our key objectives and the immediate action that we should develop:

I do not hesitate to tell you that they have managed once more, to make me feel a stranger in my own country. Big Brother, the eye of Authority, has now entered for good in our homes watching us and trying, through lies, distortion and relentless propaganda, to force us to become someone else, as those who learned to live only with bosses and implement obediently their wishes and orders. Only that now some foreigners are hiding behind their Greek names and Greek language, who through thousands of means but unfortunately also through thousands of our fellow countrymen managed once again to divide us, disorient us, daze us, lead us to the edge of the cliff and frighten us so much about our own personal existence, that we cannot see around us the great National dangers which surround us menacingly.

And this is the first thing I would like to emphasize. The Great Danger today is not so much our economic plight but the very integrity of our Homeland. And it's not impossible that these two are linked, i.e. to stun us daily with new measures, so our thoughts are distracted away from the Important issues, such as our National entity. So when the hostile acts will suddenly occur, there will be no longer true Greeks to prevent them.

Under these circumstances there is nothing else to do than to fall back to ourselves and seek strength from the traditions that everyone has inside him and then find the true patriots who feel and think like us, drawing strength from one another, until we become thousands. Because only then we will be able to exterminate the monster of foreign dependence, which, since it failed to face us head on, is disguised as a Trojan Horse and got to the point of legislating in the Greek Parliament hidden behind a narrow parliamentary minority that actually is followed by only a 20% of "Memorandum" supporters and most of them probably follow because they still cannot see the "big picture" of things..

And it is really surprising how the other members of Parliament, the President of the Parliament and even the President of the Republic accept the change of the Temple of the Hellenic Republic in a machine of legalizing an undemocratic and unpopular policy. Why isn't there a referendum, to see how many Greeks are in favour or against the Memorandum, Troika and especially the IMF?

Dear friends - compatriots,

In order to advance until we banish from our Country the foreign grasshopper, we should re-name the words "Freedom," "Independence", "Democracy," "Equality," "Justice". The words "Nation", "Greece", "Hellenism." We must rediscover the meaning of the Greek Education, Greek Culture and Greek Ethos. The words "National Pride" and "Homeland". The foreigners and their domestic servants have plagued our concepts of "Truth," "Honesty," "Integrity", "Kindness," "Respect," "Solidarity", "Hospitality".

We are totally surrounded by a Cyclops whose name is Lie and who waits for Odysseus to remove his brutal eye. And Odysseus is none else than all of you. We, all, the Independent, the unintegrated and opposed to this rotten world which strangles us.

I summarize:

First: The attack that we are suffering today has started decades ago and involves all the sectors of our national life: our History, our Culture, our Ethos, our Education, our Economy and finally our Social Cohesion and our National Integrity.

Second: During the Civil War, Americans came to Greece to stay. And they stayed. Until today. Along with NATO and Europe they cut us off from the rest of the world. And after they mellowed us with Marshall Plans, Delors packages etc now is the time of redemption. Now the baton is taken by our old familiars, the Germans.
Today they consider us as a third class country. They call us corrupted, incompetent, crooks and they threaten to throw us out of the Paradise of the 4th financial Reich which they built at the expense of the whole of Europe, which, you will see, will soon show signs of extreme reaction... Unless we tighten our belts to suffocation and close our eyes to their nation-killing plans. Thus the famous "We belong to the West" has become a nightmare for the country and our people.

Third: Because the West is no longer an option but α compulsion, we only have two roads ahead of us; of course, we must first find a way to stand on our own feet;
• having behind us the validity(strength?) of the overwhelming majority of our people, to renegotiate, as equals, the whole net of our relations with sole criteria our country's independence and our people's interests.
• or
• to unite our forces in order to achieve the necessary drastic turn in our national guidelines that will ensure us our National Independence and Security as well as our economic survival, growth and self-sufficiency.

Fourth: The present government and the main opposition party took power thanks to the trust and favour of foreign dependence forces. So today, no matter what they say to us the natives, they are loyal servants of an unpopular policy, as it stems from the two centres of international authority with which both parties are closely related: the U.S. and the Europe of Banks.

Fifth: In addition to these two powerful parties, our entire political system contributed passively or actively to the ideological, political and moral disarmament of the Greek people throughout the bi-parti period from 1974 to today, when the reactions of leftist parties are not commensurate with the unprecedented attack against the Greek people, and also with the NATO plans which threaten the very independence of the country.

And
Sixth: I have already mentioned the Greek Parliament and I reiterate that the Parliament's tragic role today is to cover, using its validity, a morally and historically illegal procedure with disastrous consequences for the country's future. Eventually, this process leads us to the perfect national humiliation and in mockery of our Parliamentary Republic. Therefore, the Disobedience- that should be our main slogan for this period and the starting point of our actions, in order to void, in practice, all the illegal, undemocratic and unpopular decisions- is a right and duty of each independent citizen, of every free Greek!

I will conclude with a slogan which I believe expresses the essence of the Movement, which from this moment will start coming into existence and spreading throughout our country:

GREECE BELONGS TO GREECE AND ONLY TO GREECE!

Mikis Theodorakis
01.12.2010

Translated by Anastasia Tertilini
Second lecture:
Augustina Doughty-Papassideris

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