In Greece, the automobile industry began in 1961 in Thessaloniki with the Kontogouris brothers. Shortly afterward they created the NAMCO company and produced the well-known RONY car.

With PASOK's rise to power in 1981, discussion began about nationalizing and socializing enterprises, including NAMCO. Immediately, the company's suppliers became alarmed. Then the union leaders launched a months-long strike and blocked the factory. The company shut down. After that, the union leaders were asking for it to reopen.

The owner and president of the company, Gerasimos Kontogouris, writes in his book titled De Facto We Went Bankrupt, Our Economy After 1950, pp. 133-137 (excerpts):

Comrade President Tsafaridis of the NAMCO union,

You came down to Athens to lie down in Syntagma Square opposite the Ministry of National Economy and blackmail the PASOK government into reopening the factories that you yourselves, through your atavism, had closed.

I cannot confirm whether some multinational Minotaur bribed you and your union leadership to wipe out NAMCO with long strikes and factory occupations, even though it was the hive of work and progress for your fellow workers.

What is absolutely certain, what is plain as day, is that you and the union destroyed a clean Greek automobile industry and served the interests of foreign capital, which we, the Kontogouris Brothers, had targeted and would have pushed out of the foothold it had created in our country in order to sell its cars and suck the sweat of our people, driving our balance of payments into ruin.

Yes, your strike was and became purely political, a display of KKE strength against PASOK and, unfortunately, on the back of NAMCO, which brought about our destruction. And yes, the only ones fully responsible are you, and especially you, comrade President Tsafaridis.

Yes, then, the strike's motives were purely political, except that now you regret the damage you caused to the company and to yourselves, and you are trying to repair what you inflicted on NAMCO.

You closed and did not occupy the factory, but you forcefully blocked the factory gate, preventing anyone from entering to work, terrorizing your colleagues who wanted to go in and do their jobs. You would not let us manufacture and assemble the cars we produced, and as a result we stopped placing new orders at the factory in France, with the damage becoming apparent later.

When you occupied the factory gate and would not let us take the finished RONY cars out of the factory premises to supply the network at home and abroad, the courts ruled that we should be allowed to take the finished cars from the yard. So we came, with the court ruling - which you had also accepted - and with the police to remove the RONY cars. Then you, do not forget, lay down in the road in front of the factory and did not allow the cars to be collected. When we asked the Police to help with the collection, the then Deputy Commander of the Gendarmerie replied to me: "What are we supposed to do, Mr. Kontogouris, kill them?"

We were the most respected entrepreneurs in Northern Greece, and you brought us down to such a point that we were hiding from the orders issued against us by the funds, because we could no longer meet our obligations, since the strike cut off the cash flow in our accounts. You are responsible for that downfall, and today, after failing in all your aims, you come asking for NAMCO to reopen - the very company you shut down with the filthy attack you launched against it from behind its back.

Our comment: These are the godly deeds, on the one hand, of party unionists and, on the other, of the incompetent party state.

We understand the bitterness, pain, and anger of the owner of NAMCO. We sympathize deeply. At the same time, we shout loudly: never again union fascism in the workplace.

Happy May Day.

Happy Easter - Happy Resurrection.

Paul Marantos

marantosp@gmail.com