The Greek Community of Melbourne’s latest seminar will explore the long history of Greek revolutionary Michalis Raptis, better known by the pseudonym Michel Pablo.
The lecture will take place on Thursday 1 May at the Greek Centre with Australian journalist, historian and political activist Hail Greenland to shed light on Pablo’s life.
Pablo, born in Alexandria in 1911, was a major twentieth century figure who spent his life involved in numerous revolutions across the globe.
During the 1936 military dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas, he was arrested and exiled to the Aegean island of Folegandros and he later escaped with his future partner, Elly Diovouniotis and ended up in France.
There he participated in the anti-Nazi resistance during the war, with the revolutionary also taking on a role supplying weapons to the Algerian independence struggle two decades later.
He worked as an adviser for Algeria’s first postcolonial president, Ahmed Ben Bella, and the Chilean socialist government of Salvador Allende.
Pablo had a very strong friendship with PASOK leader Andreas Papandreou and was only able to return to his home country Greece after the fall of the military dictatorship in 1974.
He recognised the significance of anti-colonial struggles, their global ramifications and their future impact on Western powers.
Pablo was also prolific writer regularly providing commentary on global affairs and had a talent for sensing the importance of new developments made him an early supporter of the ecological movement as well as the cause of women’s liberation.
The iconic figure’s life and ideas remain relevant and inspirational even today, and the seminar will put a spotlight on all of it.
