X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.3 PL11]
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.hellas
Date:         Wed, 22 Jul 1992 15:55:41 EST
Reply-To:     Eleni Horaitis <s893937@MINYOS.XX.RMIT.OZ.AU>
From:         Eleni Horaitis <s893937@MINYOS.XX.RMIT.OZ.AU>
Subject:      Gramma gia Makedovia
Comments: To: HELLAS <HELLAS@brownvm.brown.edu>
Comments: cc: Macedonia <macedonia@husc.harvard.edu>

Mia snmeiwsn prwta..

H Efnmerida "EPOXH" pou avaferei o Swtnrns, eivai n
kata kosmov "The Age".  Neotera gi'auto ta bradu.

Parakatw, akolou0ouv 2 grammata, pou dnmosieutnkav sto
periodiko "Catalyst" tou RMIT.

Nomizw pws o tupos pou exei grayei kai ta duo grammata, grafei
sto s.c.g.

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The Editors,

You will appreciate, after reading the details in the following letter, why I
have approached you to ask that you print it in your paper.

I am asking you to print it because if I restrict my information to only those
small numbers who read the socialist press in Australia, a great wrong will, I
believe be, perpetuated.

In terms of news, it is true that the Greek Macedonian communities will want
to be aware of and follow the event I have detailed in my letter. Neither of
these communities is as yet aware of it. The refusal of The Age to print my
letter adds, indirectly but effectively, to the censorship by the Greek
government.

University newspapers provide the opportunity for students to be apprised of
facts that may not make it into the mainstream media, but which are indeed
valuable for full appreciation of a situation that is often debated. This is
a role for university newspapers.

You may wish to query the factual basis of the details in my letter. I would
be very happy to speak to you about this. I can also provide photocopies. The
material I am working from is of course in Greek.

I hope you will agree and consider including my letter in your next edition.

Regards,

Mark Matcott.

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Dear Editors and students,

In a recent article in The Age newspaper (26 May), Vassilis Maghinas, Greece's
secretary-general for press and information speaks of the "total and absolute
opposition of Greece to the use of the Greek name of Macedonia."

I wrote a reply to his letter which The Age letters editor chose not to print.
I hope to show that Maghinas' assertion is problematic and The Age's decision
is unhelpful to both Greeks and Macedonians.

Greece is not the Greek governemnt, however absolute that government may be in
its views. The fact is that there is a movement withing Greece that does not
endorse the conservative government's policy.

Recently five members of OSR (Organisation Socialist Revolution) were charged
with the offence of publishing and distributing a pamphlet which not only
argued that Macedonians should be allowed to choose their own name for their
country, but also that there is indeed an oppressed Macedonian minority within
Greece, that the government's line is a smokescreen to sidetrack anger over
its austere economic policies and to justify further militarisation, that 
support for Macedonian self-determination has been a real current within
the socialist movement in Greece.

The Greek authorities, by bringing these socialists to trial, are trying to
perpetuate the myth that there is no dissent against its line on Macedonia.
It is regrettable therefore, that The Age has assisted the Greek government
in its censorial policy.

It is also regrettable that among the witnesses for the prosecution is one
Konstantinos Plevris, an election candidate for the far-right ENEK party.
Plevris, in his book Let's Talk About Jews, (on page 188) argues that the Nazi
holocaust is a fiction. He writes, "If the Germans had intended to annihilate
them, they could have succeeded in one stroke, for example by poisoning the
water." With reactionary friends like this, the Greek government does not need
enemies.

Already a large number of people have protested against the attempt to silence
dissent on this issue. A list of 188 signatories includes 39 who sign as
presidents, secretaries or trade union federations. There are regular lectures
and debates on campuses about the issue and about this censorship.

The booklet, Crisis In The Balkans, The Macedonian Question And The Working
Class, will hopefully be available soon in Australia. It has sold 1,000
copies in Greece and is into its second edition.

It will be interesting to see the outcome of the trial of these non-existent
dissenters.

Mark Matcott
International Socialist Organisation


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Gia tnv avtigrafn,

Elevn
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