Picket of our beach

A few days ago we were on our way to take the tram to go to Athens when we saw that there was a picket outside the entrance to our beach. So, of course, we went to investigate. It was a picket by the youth section of the Communist Party of Greece, demanding free access to our beaches.

The situation on Greek beaches is becoming unbearable as it is in other parts of the world. There's been quite a lot in the press about Italian beaches, as in the Guardian recently. Exclusive beach clubs, bars and restaurants are taking more and more of the coastline in the Athens Riviera, but also all over the mainland and the islands, Paros for instance. 

Until quite recently, beaches remained open to the public for free. Now, 'free' beaches are becoming rare. Privatisation of the beaches means you have to pay:  to get in; for sunbeds; for unbrellas; and for the use of other facilities. Our beach is one of the most 'reasonable' in terms of prices. You pay 10 euros to get in and 6 for a sunbed. You can do the maths of what this means for a family of four who are also likely going to want to have a drink and maybe something to eat. Fortunately, we get in free because we are residents, all we have to do is show our resident's card.  A sunbed costs us 1 euro. But, most people are not so lucky. In other parts of the country the prices are much higher and we feel this every time we go to one of the islands. A luxury lounger on Paros can cost up to 120 euros.

According to the leaflet that the protesters were handing out, the profit of these privarte enterpreneurs on the beaches was 23,6 bn euros in 2025.

This situation leaves people who cannot afford these prices on a limb. Sometimes you have to wallk for a very long distance to find a free beach where you can put your towel on the sand and maybe, plant your own umbrella. These 'free' beaches are invariably in remote and less attractive areas, they often have a litter issue, and no facilities, things like showers,  toilets or a lifeguard.

 

Open and Free Beaches for the People and for our Youth.

As we were leaving we saw a part of the protesters walking towards the other entrance of the beach to picket there.

Mikis Theodorakis - Songs of resistance

As promised in my previous post here are four songs by Mikis Theodorakis.


To Gelasto Pedi (The laughing boy)





Written in honour of Irish revolutionary hero Michael Collins, this song has come to stand for various resistance figures in Greek history. It was linked with Sotiris Petroulas who was killed, aged 22, when police attacked demonstrators in July 1965. Since Kosta Gavras's film Z about the assassination of MP Grigoris Lambrakis, the song has been identified with Lambrakis.  It's very popular and one of the most recognised songs in contemporary Greece.



T'was on an August morning, all in the dawning hours,
I went to take the warming air, all in the Month of Flowers,
And there I saw a maiden, and mournful was her cry,
'Ah what will mend my broken heart, I've lost my Laughing Boy.
So strong, so wild and brave he was, I'll mourn his loss too sore,
When thinking that I'll hear the laugh or springing step no more.
Ah, curse the times and sad the loss my heart to crucify,
That an Irish son with a rebel gun shot down my Laughing Boy.
Oh had he died by Pearse's side or in the GPO,
Killed by an English bullet from the rifle of the foe,
Or forcibly fed with Ashe lay dead in the dungeons of Mountjoy,
I'd have cried with pride for the way he died, my own dear Laughing Boy.
My princely love, can ageless love do more than tell to you,
Go raibh maith agat for all you tried to do,
For all you did, and would have done, my enemies to destroy,
I'll mourn your name and praise your fame, forever, my Laughing Boy.

It was on an August morning, all in the morning hours,
I went to take the warming air all in the month of flowers.




The Slaughterhouse





The beatings have started in the office
I count the beatings, the blood I count
I am being fattened up, shut in a slaughterhouse
today you, tomorrow me.

In the evening they are beating up Andreas in the terrace
I count the beatings, the pain I count
behind the wall we will be together again

Tap tap from you, tap tap from me
Which, in this mute language, means
I am holding strong, I am holding on

In our hearts the festival begins
tap tap from you, tap tap from me.

Our slaughterhouse has started smelling of thyme
and our cell of red sky

(music and lyrics by M. Theodorakis)

This song is about the notorious headquarters of the security police at Bouboulinas Street in Athens where torture of political prisoners was an everyday occurrence. Theodorakis was in solitary confinement for 60 days there. He joined a hunger strike but fell unconscious and was taken to Averoff prison hospital with an internal abscess.

'I heard the cries of men undergoing torture. I saw comrades who had been so badly tortured with the falanga (beating of the soles of the feet) that they could not walk. In the Averoff prison hospital I saw men who had had the bones in their feet broken by the severity of the torture. I was a man called Petropoulos, a member of the Lambrakis Youth Movement (which Theodorakis founded) with the bones in his feet broken in this way and with no nails left in his toes' says Theodorakis, recalling these awful days.  (from the Guardian )


O Antonis (from the Mautsausen album)

 

The lyrics are by Iakovos Kabanellis who was incarcerated in the Mauthausen Nazi concentration camp for four years.


Asma Asmaton (The Song of Songs)

Another song from the Mauthausen album.






Oh! How beautiful my beloved is
With her care in her daily dress
And with the comb in her hair.
No-one knew she's so beautiful.

Maidens from Auschwitz,
Maidens from Dachau,
Have you seen my love, perchance?

We saw her on her long journey.
She no longer wore her dress
Not the comb in her hair.

Oh! How beautiful my beloved is
Pampered by her loving mother,
And her brother's kisses.
No-one knew that she's so beautiful.

Maidens from Mathausen,
Maidens from Belsen,
Have you seen my love, perchance?

We saw her standing in the frozen courtyard,
With a number on her white arm,
And a yellow star over her heart.