Today in Labor History December 3, 1944: British trained Greek police and Nazi collaborators massacred 28 anti-fascist protesters in Athens, while U.S. and British troops watched, during a leftwing protest of over 250,000 people. Snipers shot at them from rooftops. One of the victims was a 6-year-old boy. The protesters were waving flags from the US, UK and USSR, while chanting “Viva Churchill, Viva Roosevelt, Viva Stalin” for their alliance against Nazi Germany. Originally, the UK allied with the Greek antifascist partisans. But toward the end of the war, they decided that anti-fascism and socialism were the bigger threat to profits and to capitalism, and switched allegiances. The next day, the British, who occupied post-war Greece, began attacking leftwing neighborhoods in Athens. Winston Churchill told his troops: “You are responsible for maintaining order in Athens and for neutralising or destroying all EAM-ELAS [National Liberation Front – Greek People’s Liberation Army] bands approaching the city…. We have to hold and dominate Athens. It would be a great thing for you to succeed in this without bloodshed if possible, but also with bloodshed if necessary.”
#workingclass #LaborHistory #antifascism #fascism #nazis #greece
