Revolutionary People's Struggle

aka Revolutionary Popular Struggle

The Revolutionary People's Struggle (Epanastatiko Laikos Agonas; ELA) is a Greek terrorist group that has been active since 1973. The ELA is believed to have between 20 and 30 hard-core members.

The ELA was founded during a period of intense political turmoil in Greece. Student protests in November 1973 had triggered a police crackdown that killed more than 30 of the demonstrators and wounded scores. Shortly thereafter, these events heralded the fall of the Greece's ruling military junta and its replacement by a civilian government in 1974. Many leftists believed that the democratic reforms had not gone far enough and that mid-1970s Greece was [Page 316]finally ripe for a communist revolution. The ELA hoped to help inspire that revolution.

For much of its history, the ELA, unlike its more nationalist and secretive compatriot, the Revolutionary Organization 17 November (RO-17N, or 17N), engaged in violence primarily as a political tool rather than an end in itself. While the ELA's ideological position held that revolution could come only through violence, the group organization believed strongly that it needed to “educate the proletariat” before revolution could take place. This ideological necessity of appealing to the working classes directed the organization's strategy and for some time confined its acts of violence to largely symbolic, propaganda-oriented targets. In keeping with this goal, the ELA periodically printed a newsletter, Andipliroforissi, to explain its ideology and attract followers.

From 1975 through 1992, the ELA engaged in hundreds of bombings, mostly at Western and capitalist targets within Greece: large corporations, banks, American military facilities, European Union offices, and U.N. offices. After 1986, some Greek institutions were targeted as well. Although these bombings caused millions of dollars in property damage, no one was killed and few were wounded by them; the ELA seems to have deliberately planned this lack of bloodshed, evidenced by the bombs' construction, placement, and timing. In February 1992, however, the character of the organization changed drastically after it announced an alliance with a group called the 1st May Organization. On February 26, 1982, the ELA detonated a bomb under a Greek police bus, injuring 18 policemen. This was the group's first attempt to deliberately cause casualties, and it involved a remote-control device considerably more sophisticated than those used in previous attacks. Clearly, the alliance with 1st May had led the ELA in a new direction.

On November 22, 1993, the ELA offered to initiate a cease-fire in return for the release of certain prisoners. The government rejected this offer, and the ELA responded with a series of bombings over the next year, culminating in the September 20, 1994, bombing of another police bus that killed one police officer and wounded 10 others. Since 1995, the ELA has not claimed responsibility for any more bombings, and some experts believe the organization to be defunct. However, the U.S. State Department believes that a new group in Greece, the Revolutionary Nuclei, may be succeeding the ELA.