AROUND THE WORLD
Greece Cops trap themselves IN THE latter part of September, the Greek minister of the interior announced on TV with great fanfare the arrest of three persons suspected of belonging to a terrorist network. According to the government, these arrests were to lead to the dismantling of all the "terrorist" groups operating in Greece today.
It was only 48 hours before a big scandal broke out. The police services in the Athens region had in fact arrested a vulgar tout and provocateur in the hire of the Greek secret services (the KYP), a certain Krystalis, who admitted his real role. Arrested at the same time were two old classmates of his, Tsitsilianos and Behrakis. The latter two claimed that they had nothing to do with the offenses charged against them and no. relations with Krystalis other than having remained on friendly terms with him since their school days.
It should be noted that Krystalis has had quite a checkered career over the last ten years, having belonged to several left organizations. For a certain time, he even managed to become general secretary of the youth organization of the EDA [the Union of the Democratic Left] -the party of Manolos Glozos, a hero of the resistance against the Nazi occupation, who has been elected to parliament on the slate of Andreas Papandreou's PASOK party. After that Krystalis became a TV reporter. During all this time, in fact, he was an informer working for at least five different intelligence services.
For a week, the press kept bringing out more and more the real dimensions of this case - bombings perpetrated by the secret police, competition among the various secret services, surveillance of journalists and left groups by the police. In a nutshell, these reports showed in a striking way that the government, whatever it may claim, has not managed to get its own intelligence and police services under control. The affair will certainly lead to new scandals because the arrested informer has already declared his readiness to make revelations illustrating the way the police operate.
Krystalis' codefendent, Tsitsilianos, belonged to the editorial board of the magazine Marxistike Sispirosi
("Marxist Regroupment"), in which there are also activists who declare their sympathy for the Fourth International Tsitsilianos is accused of "Inciting to violence," a charge for which a letter found at his home is offered as evidence. The letter was an anonymous one sent to Marxistike Sispirosi in response to articles on the question of individual terrorism. The editorial board of the magazine considered this letter infantile and devoid of interest and therefore refused to publish it.
Tsitsilianos is also charged with a bombing perpetrated in Athens at a time when he was on an island far from the city.
The third person arrested, Behrakis, is accused only of "participating in the creation of a gang, " on the sole evidence that four refill cartridges for a camping stove were found in his home.
So, the government of the PanHellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) has become implicated now itself in sinister cases of police provocation in which no one can say where the deception ends and the truth begins, nor for whose gain and for what reasons such operations have been mounted.
It is not surprising that the PASOK has today become so deeply mired in this kind of sordid affair, because it has adopted the institutions left to it by the right. It has made itself the prisoner of these institutions and of the state repressive apparatus in the same way as the French Socialist Party has, that is, without any scruples or hesitations.
It is therefore necessary and urgent to launch a broad campaign to demand the immediate release of Tsitsilianos and Behrakis. At the same time, it is necessary to campaign for the dissolution pure and simple of the secret services, which divert important sums from the state budget and have no funciton but to spy on the workers movement and mount provocations against it. [From Greek revolutionary Marxists] o Britain Gillick defeated LAST WEEK a decision in the House of Lords overturned an Appeal Court judgement in favour of Victoria Gillick. Gillick's campaign had been the latest in a series of attacks on women coming from the right, and had looked like being successful when it culminated in the favourable appeal court ruling last December.
After that ruling it became illegal for doctors to give any advice on contraception or abortion to young women under 16 without the consent of their parents. Predictably the number of under 16s attending family planning clinics fell dramatically, and the number forced to go through the trauma of unwanted pregnancy rose correspondingly. All this, Gilick asse corespondin do all this Colet protect' young women.
Last week's law lords decision, however, had the immediate practical effect of restoring the situation to the 'pre-Gillick' position. In fact, the ruling goes further in that it at least begins to recognise the rights of young pople to make decisions about their own lives.
The law lords, who are not normally noted for being the most vehement supporters of womens rights had clearly noticed the strength of feeling against Gillick, from doctors, social workers, and especially (although the press often neglected to i ention it) from women themselves. A concerted campaign, including a national demonstration, had shown that women were determined reject 'Victoria's values' Britain Anti apartheid demonstration AN ESTIMATED 100 thousand demonstrators marched through the streets of London on Saturday November 2 to denounce apartheid in South Africa and to call for stiff economic sanctions against the Pretoria government.
This will be seen as a big blow to the policy of the increasingly unpopular Thatcher government, which has refused sanctions till now.
The demonstrators were addressed by, among others, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, former presidential candidate in the United States and Oliver Tambo, leader of the African National Congress.
The demonstration was marked by the presence of newly formed local anti-apartheid organisations and other groups. In particular members of the Broad Water Farm defence committee, scene of the recent riots in Tottenham, London were present. The people there were eager to make their links with the people of the South African ghettoes.
Police profile on the march was heavy, especially near the South African embassy where scuffles broke out and an alarming 140 people were arrested.
PERU