“17th of November Revolutionary Organization"

by Nicholas Petropoulos

Following a review of (a) the 17N terrorist activities since its inception,  (b) the  types of terrorist organizations, and  (c) the social profile of  left-oriented terrorist groups, the study constructs a social profile of the 17N arrestees with regard to age, gender, class, education, income, urban background, psycho-pathology, etc., using  newspapers,  defense lawyers and observation of selected  trial proceedings as sources. In turn, it compares the 17N social profile with that of W. European terrorist groups. Some differences were noted with regard to age, gender, family, rural-urban origins and class composition. The paper explores the sources of the differences; raises several questions about recruitment processes, the effectiveness of terrorism as a means of change in democratic societies, and the feasibility of social profile research on terrorism; and concludes with proposals for more in-depth  follow-up studies, after the completion of the trials, using a variety of methodologies. .

A sketch of some of the 17N defendants in the first level trial  by Spyros Ornerakis  (Ta Nea 8/12/2003)

Some Causes  and  Impacts upon Greek Society
by Nicholas Petropoulos

Following the assassination of  the 15 year-old youth Alexis Grigoropoulos (A.G.) on December 6 (St. Nicholas Day), by a Special Police Guard in the area of Exarcheia, an area in Athens associated in the minds of people with a subculture of anarchists, there followed a series of mass demonstrations and protests. At first, the protest demonstrations were restricted to extra-parliamentary, anti-establishment and anarchist groups around Exarcheia area and the historical National Technical University of Athens, but within the next two days, the demonstrations had spread to other areas of Athens and to several cities of Greece and included youth from all levels of education, all districts of Athens and  all strata of Greek society. No doubt both the conventional and the new technologies (television, cell phones, blogs, websites etc.)  facilitated the mass mobilization and the diffusion of the demonstrations to several Greek cities, as well as to cities in Europe and other parts of the world.¹ The demonstrations, that were almost always accompanied by rampages of destruction, were especially intensive during December 2008 up to the Christmas holidays, but also extended  well into the first months of 2009 although with reduced frequency.  For almost a month, the anarchists had taken over the capita of Athens, despite their repugnance for power, and the electorate wondered if there was a government.

Left(Photo 1): Ta Nea  18/03/09 (from archives).	Right (Photo 2):  Ethnos 10/12/08.