Now those of us who remember the early years of the post-colonial period have begun to consider ourselves “average”. However, despite the passage of time, the atmosphere of those years remains unforgettable.
A climate that has nothing to do with the caricature of “progressive folklore” that is often and unfairly presented.
After all, what condensed was society leaving the dictatorship and from the long period of post-colonial authoritarianism and believed that he could finally hope.
Because if anything has characterized postcolonialism, it is hope. Hope for change.
People believed then, regardless of their historical ideological point of reference, that this country could chart a different path.
To escape the combination of authoritarianism and conservatism that the victors of the Civil War tried to impose.
In order to obtain an economic dynamism based on the power of knowledge and work to provide everyone with a dividend in development. There should be social mobility and the next generation, children should have a better standard of living than their parents.
To be a true democracy where the people are truly sovereign.
To be a country capable of acting independently on the international stage, and not only as part of an alliance.
And this hope was expressed in different ways.
This was expressed in people’s desire to get an education and read more.
This was reflected in the increase of politicization and conscription in parties, organizations and movements. It promoted vision and creativity in professional activities.
It created a mood of mobilization and struggle.
It is obvious that in the post-colonial period we had not only the positive, but also dark spots and shadows.
And we had opportunism. And cynicism. And people who used the draft as “training” to deal with people and situations. And the “jobs” that have been created are often a waste of wealth. And there were many cases when the matches were not just “cashed out”, but literally sold out.
But postcolonialism was not only that. These were anxieties, hopes, demands, and thousands of people who joined the struggle with moving faith, modesty and selflessness and even today stand out for their morality in their social environment.
And aspects of postcolonial hope seemed to be justified at different times.
In particular, Andreas Papandreou and his governments took action improving the position of the working and middle classes and the steps needed to modernize the institutional framework, from the recognition of National Resistance to radical changes in family law.
But the core of hope that gave birth to postcolonialism remained unfulfilled.
What’s worse, for several years now it seems that everything is being done in the opposite direction.
From the rebranding of neoliberalism to economic orthodoxy to the promotion of individualism (and individual gain) in absolute value, examples abound, not to mention rampant racism and xenophobia.
Therefore, a parallel attempt to slander post-colonialism, especially from the most radical sides, is not accidental.
And sometimes simply delete, as was done in the memorandums, when the goal was to destroy the social conquests of the post-colonial era.
Or, even worse, that the victims of the memorandums, the popular layers, are to blame for the crisis that brought us to the memorandums.
But I believe that what happened in the post-colonial period, with hundreds of thousands of people in demonstrations, mass interest in politics, widespread politicization, radicalism and the dream, was neither an epidemic nor a historical typo.