By Nikos Mottas
Abraham (Avraam) Benaroya was born to a Shephardic Jew family in 1886 in Bidin, in the then Principality of Bulgaria, a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire. He began studying at the Faculty of Law in the University of Belgrade, but didn't graduate; instead, he became a teacher in Plovdiv. Being a polyglot, Abraham was fluent in at least six languages, including Ladino, Greek, Bulgarian, Serbian, English and Turkish.
From his early years, he embraced socialist views and became a member of the Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers' Party, the so-called “Narrow Socialists” led by Dimitar Blagoev. Following the Young Turks revolt in 1908, Benaroya moved to Thessaloniki, where he continued his activity as a socialist organizer. Due to the multinational composition of the city's population – Greeks, Jews, Turks, Bulgarians, etc – he embraced the idea for the creation of socialist movement in the form of a federation, in which all national groups would equally participate. Consequently, in 1909, he played a leading role in the foundation of the “Socialist Workers' Federation”, better known as “Fédération”.
Representing the major ethnic groups of Thessaloniki – Jews, Greeks, Bulgarians and Turks - the “Socialist Workers' Federation” soon became the most influential socialist-oriented party in the Ottoman Empire, creating militant trade unions and establishing links with the Second International. At the same time, it became a point of reference and activity for the most progressive intellectuals in the broader geographical region of Macedonia. Nonetheless, despite its indisputably pioneering role as a socialist organization, Fédération had no clear revolutionary orientation, while the ideology of its leaders was an amalgam of Marxism and other, bourgeois socialist tendencies (e.g. ideas influenced by French socialist leader Jean Jaurès).
Benaroya's leading role in the labour movement, primarily through Fédération, resulted in numerous persecutions by the Ottoman and – later – by the Greek state authorities. Due to his opposition to the First World War, he was exiled for two and a half years in the island of Naxos, thus becoming one of the first political exiles in modern Greek history.
An important issue in Fédération's strategy under Benaroya was the fact that it never submitted politically to any of the two major pillars of the then bourgeois political establishment, thus keeping equal distances from both Venizelists and Monarchists. This strategy favored and strengthened the efforts for the emancipation of the labor movement thus paving the way for the creation of the first revolutionary socialist party in Greece.
Representing the major ethnic groups of Thessaloniki – Jews, Greeks, Bulgarians and Turks - the “Socialist Workers' Federation” soon became the most influential socialist-oriented party in the Ottoman Empire, creating militant trade unions and establishing links with the Second International. At the same time, it became a point of reference and activity for the most progressive intellectuals in the broader geographical region of Macedonia. Nonetheless, despite its indisputably pioneering role as a socialist organization, Fédération had no clear revolutionary orientation, while the ideology of its leaders was an amalgam of Marxism and other, bourgeois socialist tendencies (e.g. ideas influenced by French socialist leader Jean Jaurès).
Benaroya's leading role in the labour movement, primarily through Fédération, resulted in numerous persecutions by the Ottoman and – later – by the Greek state authorities. Due to his opposition to the First World War, he was exiled for two and a half years in the island of Naxos, thus becoming one of the first political exiles in modern Greek history.
An important issue in Fédération's strategy under Benaroya was the fact that it never submitted politically to any of the two major pillars of the then bourgeois political establishment, thus keeping equal distances from both Venizelists and Monarchists. This strategy favored and strengthened the efforts for the emancipation of the labor movement thus paving the way for the creation of the first revolutionary socialist party in Greece.
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| The founders of SEKE, November 1918 |
Abraham Benaroya was among the first socialists in Greece who understood the necessity for the foundation of a working class party with Marxist-Leninist characteristics. That is why he played a leading role in the preparation and organization of the First Panhellenic Socialist Congress on 4-10 (17-23 with the Julian calendar) November 1918 in Piraeus.
The outcome of the Congress, which aimed to merge all the Greek socialist organizations under a common party, was the foundation of the Socialist Worker's Party of Greece (SEKE), renamed to Communist Party of Greece (KKE) in 1924. Apart from Benaroya, among the founders of SEKE were Demosthenes Ligdopoulos, Aristos Arvanitis, Nikos Dimitratos, Stamatis Kokkinos, Michalis Siders, George Pispinis and Spyros Koumiotis.
The foundation of SEKE, which took place a year after the Great October Socialist Revolution, wasn't an easy task. From the very beginning, the ideological differences in the form of tendencies became quite noticeable and the internal struggle for the formation of a solid ideological character and strategy continued for several years. In this context, Benaroya fought for his revolutionary ideas within SEKE, supported the Party's participation in the Third International (Comintern), played an instrumental role in the foundation of the General Confederation of Greek Workers, but was ultimately expelled from SEKE in 1923 due to ideological reasons. Despite this development he remained active in politics, but his influence in the broader labor movement was significantly restricted.
In the years following his expulsion from SEKE, Benaroya focused his activities in Thessaloniki, adopted a rather reformist agenda and formed a coalition with Alexandros Papanastasiou, a progressive bourgeois politician and moderate socialist, with major aims being the abolition of Monarchy and the combat of fascism, racism and Antisemitism. The outbreak of the Second World War shattered, once and for all, Benaroya's political aspirations, but most significantly, he experienced immense personal tragedies. His eldest son, Lazaros, was killed during the 1940 Italian-Greek War, his wife was sent to a concentration camp and didn't return, while he himself was arrested and transferred to Nazi concentration camp in Germany, where he stayed for one and a half year, until his liberation in 1945.
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| Benaroya in his later years |
In 1946, upon his return to Greece, Benaroya participated in the Socialist Workers Union, a social democratic group led by prominent progressive personalities, including novelist Nikos Kazantzakis. Although he had strong reservations towards the Zionist movement and the vision of a “Jewish State”, the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 inevitably draw his attention.
According to sources, he gradually developed an appreciation for Labour Zionist leaders, particularly David Ben Gurion and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi. In 1952, he traveled for the first time to Israel and a year later, he decided to permanently migrate and settle in Tel Aviv. In the following years and until his death in 1979, aged 92, Benaroya lived a rather humble life, being the owner of a small convenience store.
Despite all his ideological flaws and political weaknesses, Abraham Benaroya is rightfully considered one of the pioneers of the Greek communist movement and one of the “fathers” of the KKE. He and his comrades in the legendary Fédération, inspired by the most progressive ideologies of the then era, set the basis for the construction of a labor movement in especially harsh times. His legacy will endure for generations of Communists.
* Nikos Mottas is the Editor-in-Chief of In Defense of Communism.
