Neue Freie Presse
- The former Greek dictator describes his downfall
- Striking British miners’ capacity to resist is weakening
- Restrictions on trade union activity in Russia
The Neue Freie Presse of September 28, 1926 presented a deposed Greek ruler’s defense of his authority alongside two reports on organized labour. Pangalos invoked parliamentary support, presidential recognition and a claimed popular mandate, then blamed betrayal for his fall. A London telegram reported Cook’s readiness for compromise and resignation amid criticism of the miners’ leadership. A Moscow dispatch described rules confining union demands in concession enterprises to contractual and legal rights while requiring attention to the businesses’ survival.
Translation
The former Greek dictator describes his downfall
From our correspondent.
“The insults directed against me do not anger me. Since he overthrew me and took my place, he would naturally have to speak first. But I am still the lawful President of the Republic.
“People say many bad things about me. Yet no one should forget when and how I came to power, and under what circumstances I was overthrown. Is it true or not that, when I carried out the coup last year that brought me to power, the men who called themselves the ‘leaders’ had lost all their prestige in the eyes of the people? I carried out a revolution. My cabinet received the votes of the National Assembly. I did not touch the President of the Republic. He himself recognized me. Until quite recently I let him keep his car and a sailor assigned to him. Afterwards, people slandered me to him, and he too turned against me. I put forward my candidacy alone; ninety percent of the people voted for me. I had public works carried out such as we had never seen in our country. I brought the old royalists back to power with the intention of reconciling the parties among our people. As for foreign affairs, I shall tell you things that you must not write in your newspaper, but that are good to know. I changed twenty-five ministers in order to find good ones. And I intended to hold elections in October. And I would not have fallen if my ‘own sons,’ my best friends, had not betrayed me. Nevertheless, I bear no hatred towards anyone. I would like it very much here if I did not have to think all the time about my daughter, who recently became dangerously ill following a difficult childbirth. I could rest and collect myself. I have worn myself out.”
They bring us dessert and coffee too. I ask him to show me the notebook containing the memoirs he has written. He reads me the following remarkable passage:
Striking British miners’ capacity to resist is weakening
Telegram from our correspondent.
[?] London, September 27.
The miners’ general secretary, Cook, admitted in a speech that the miners must reach a compromise as soon as possible. But if a retreat had to be undertaken, it should at least be an orderly retreat. Cook declared himself ready to resign.
The Observer, which apparently expresses the government’s view, hints very clearly that the miners could obtain better peace terms if they dismissed their demagogic leaders.
Restrictions on trade union activity in Russia.
Restrictions on trade union activity in Russia
activity in Russia.
Far-reaching demands prohibited.
Moscow, September 26.
The Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union reports: The Central Council of Soviet Trade Unions has published a regulation governing the activity of trade union organizations in enterprises operated by concessionaires and private individuals. Under this regulation, the work of these organizations in concession enterprises is to be directed exclusively towards protecting workers’ economic, cultural and living-standard interests as provided for in the Labour Code. Trade unions are not authorized to make demands on a concessionaire beyond those arising from the collective agreement and the Labour Code. When making demands upon the conclusion or renewal of collective agreements, trade unions must take the economic position of concession enterprises into account so as not to bring about their liquidation.
Local-news supplement of the
Context
Parliamentary acceptance after a seizure of power
Pangalos builds his defense as a sequence of authorizations: discredited leaders justified revolution, the assembly approved his cabinet, the president recognized him, and the people subsequently endorsed him. The Foundation of the Hellenic World places his parliamentary acceptance against weariness with parliamentary instability and dates his rule from the coup of June 25, 1925 to August 22, 1926. It also describes censorship and deportations during that rule. These circumstances explain why acceptance by existing institutions matters to his prison defense without settling his claim to lawful authority. He presents recognition after the seizure of power as justification for continuing to hold it. His claimed ninety percent of “the people” supplies an appeal to popular authority without distinguishing the population from participating voters. Finally, calling his betrayers his “own sons” turns the loss of power into a rupture of personal loyalty. [Foundation of the Hellenic World](https://www.fhw.gr/Chronos/14/en/1923_1940/domestic_policy/facts/06.html)
Compromise and the struggle to keep the miners together
Cook’s reported willingness to resign connects the search for a settlement with a struggle over who could lead the miners into it. The contemporary Otago Witness records his September 26 call for compromise and a united return to work. The same report describes a dispute over national and district settlements: the miners sought a national wages agreement, while the government maintained its proposals for district negotiations. Frank Hodges also attacked the leadership for missing opportunities for peace. Against this background, the Neue Freie Presse’s “orderly retreat” can be understood as an effort to preserve collective action while accepting a settlement. The Observer’s suggestion that dismissing leaders would improve the terms applied a different pressure, presenting the leadership itself as an obstacle to peace; the Austrian paper’s qualification “apparently” matters because it attributes, rather than demonstrates, a government position. [Otago Witness, September 28, 1926](https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/OW19260928.2.108)
Workers’ protection within limits set by enterprise survival
The Moscow report describes protection bounded by both law and commercial viability. Collective agreements and the Labour Code define permissible demands, while negotiations to conclude or renew agreements must consider whether an enterprise can survive them. The regulation therefore preserves a protective role for unions but restricts their bargaining ambitions. Lenin’s earlier text on unions under the New Economic Policy helps explain this institutional tension: it assigns unions the protection of workers’ immediate interests, while also treating them as participants in state power and economic construction. In private and leased enterprises, it excludes direct union control of production and channels regulatory participation through state bodies. Read alongside that earlier policy, the reported 1926 rule illustrates how workers’ protection could be made conditional on economic requirements: avoiding the liquidation of a concession enterprise becomes an explicit consideration in bargaining. [Lenin, Role and Functions of the Trade Unions Under the New Economic Policy](https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1921/dec/30.htm)
Original
Der griechische Exdiktator schildert seinen Sturz,
gegen mich gerichteten Beleidigungen erzürnen mich nicht. Da er mich gestürzt und sich auf meinen Platz gesetzt hat, müßte er selbstverständlich zuerst sprechen. Aber ich bin noch immer der gesetzliche Präsident der Republik. Man spricht viel Schlechtes von mir. Es sollte aber niemand vergessen, wann und wie ich zur Macht gelangt bin und unter welchen Umständen man mich gestürzt hat. Ist es wahr oder nicht, daß, als ich im Vorjahr den Staatsstreich unternahm, der mich zur Macht brachte, als die Männer, die sich die " Führer " nannten, in den Augen des Volkes ihr ganzes Prestige verloren hatten? Ich habe eine Revolution gemacht. Mein Kabinett hat die Stimmen der Nationalversammlung erhalten. Ich habe an den Präsidenten der Republik nicht gerührt. Er hat mich selbst anerkannt. Bis vor kurzem noch habe ich ihm sein Auto und einen ihm zugeteilten Matrosen belassen. Man hat mich nachher bei ihm verleumdet, und auch er hat sich gegen mich gewandt. Ich habe meine Kandidatur allein aufgestellt, neunzig Prozent des Volkes haben für mich gestimmt. Ich habe öffentliche Arbeiten durchführen lassen, wie man sie bei uns noch nie gemacht hat. Ich habe die alten Royalisten zur Macht zurückgeführt mit der Absicht, eine Versöhnung unter den Parteien des Volkes herbeizuführen. Was die auswärtigen Angelegenheiten anlangt, werde ich Ihnen Dinge sagen, die Sie nicht in Ihrer Zeitung schreiben dürfen, die aber zu wissen gut ist. Ich habe fünfundzwanzig Minister gewechselt, um gute zu finden. Und ich beabsichtigte, im Oktober die Wahlen zu veranstalten. Und ich wäre nicht gefallen, hätten mich nicht meine " eigenen Söhne ", meine besten Freunde, verraten. Dennoch hege ich gegen niemand Haß. Hier würde es mir sehr gut gefallen, müßte ich nicht die ganze Zeit an meine Tochter denken, die jüngst infolge einer schweren Geburt gefährlich erkrankte. Ich könnte mich ausruhen und sammeln. Ich habe mich sehr ermüdet. Man bringt uns das Dessert und auch Kaffee. Ich bitte ihn, mir das Heft mit den Memoiren, die er geschrieben hat, zu zeigen. Er liest mir folgende merkwürdige Stelle vor:
Erlahmende Widerstand3fraft der streikenden englischen Bergarbeiter.
[?] London, 27. September. Der Generalsekretär der Bergarbeiter Cook hat in einer Rede zugegeben, daß die Bergarbeiter so bald als möglich zu einem Kompromiß kommen müssen. Wenn aber schon ein Rückzug angetreten werden müsse, solle es wenigstens ein geordneter Rückzug sein. Cook erklärte sich zur Demission bereit. Der " Observer ", der offenbar die Ansicht der Regierung zum Ausdruck bringt, deutet sehr klar an, daß die Bergarbeiter bessere Friedensbedingungen erlangen könnten, wenn sie ihre demagogischen Führer entlassen würden. Beschränkung der gewerkschaftlichen Tätigkeit in Rußland.
Beschränkung der gewerksc<aftliczen Tätigkeit in Rußland.
lichen Tätigkeit in Rußland. Verbot weitgehender Forderungen. Moskau, 26. September. Die Telegraphenagentur der Sowjetunion meldet: Der Zentralrat der Sowjetgewerkschaften hat eine Verordnung über die Tätigkeit der Gewerkschaftsorganisationen in den Betrieben von Konzessionären und Privatpersonen veröffentlicht. Dieser Verordnung zufolge soll die Arbeit der erwähnten Organisationen bei Konzessionsbetrieben ausschließlich auf den Schutz der wirtschaftlichen, kulturellen und Lebenshaltungsinteressen der Arbeiter, wie sie das Arbeitsgesetzbuch vorsieht, eingestellt sein. Die Gewerkschaften sind nicht befugt, sonstige Forderungen außer denen, die durch den Kollektivvertrag und das Arbeitsgesetzbuch bedingt sind, an den Konzessionär zu richten. In ihren Forderungen beim Abschluß der Kollektivverträge oder bei deren Erneuerung haben die Gewerkschaften die wirtschaftliche Lage der Konzessionsunternehmungen zu berücksichtigen, um nicht deren Liquidierung herbeizuführen. Chronikbeilage der