Nikos
Mottas writes about the legendary Greek Communist leader,
partisan-fighter in WW2 and Greece's Civil War, long-time
(1972-1991) General Secretary of the Communist Party of Greece,
CHARILAOS FLORAKIS.
By Nikos Mottas.
It
was the 22nd of May 2005 when the tireless communist, the
militant guerrilla captain, the popular leader, comrade Charilaos
Florakis passed away. At 91 years of age, he was completing a life
full of struggles; a life given to the ideals of a better world, for
the perspective of Socialism and Communism. His life was given to
KKE, to the Party he loved and gave everything.
The
life and activity of Charilaos Florakis has been core part of KKE's
history, of the most glorious- but also difficult- peoples struggles
in Greece during WW2 occupation, during the Civil War as well as the
country's modern history. Comrade Florakis, with his firm faith in
the ideas of Marxism-Leninism, was never absent from Greek working
class struggles.
Charilaos
Florakis' political activity began in the pre-war decade of 1930s, as
a member of the Communist Party's youth wing (OKNE) and later as a
student and vigorous worker at the so-called “TTT” (Posts,
Telegraphs, Telephone Offices). At an early age, as a teenager, he
understood the signs of the ongoing class-struggle in the Greek
countryside of '30s: