For crying out loud, how many beaches does this island have?
I asked, with a tone of desperation, the colleague journalist that was sitting next to me in the car.
More than seventy,
he replied calmly
but don't worry, I have something different for you in our next stop,
he added, with an ambiguous smile on his face!
Serifos is one of the small islands of the Aegean sea that embody all the cliche of Greek summer, at its best!
But "Megalo Livadi" is much more than a seaside settlement with a lovely beach. Even before we slope down to the sea, I could see the signs that something out of the ordinary has happened here. The derelict Neoclassical building and the rusty metal ramp in the sea can be seen from afar and they are remains of a past much different from the one of the average vacation destination!
Snooping around a bit, I found plenty remains of the mining activity that used to take place here. And asking around I found out a few pieces of this place's history.
There were mines in the area since the antiquity but it was the 7th of August of 1916 that marked the history of this place.
This is the date of the first strike in Greece and it was right here!
Seven people died during the strike of 1916 in Megalo Livadi in Serifos. Everyone on the island that we talked to told us about the miners' strike and we were very keen to go and see the area that marked a memorable event in the struggle of the Greek working class.
A French company mining iron-ore on a Greek island, a German director, and Greek workers - these are the elements that make up this story. The conditions in the mines were awful: long hours, low pay, non-existent safety which resulted in numerous industrial accidents and quite a lot of deaths. The company furthermore refused to rehire workers who had been drafted into the Greek army after they had been demobilised. This proved to be the last straw. The 460 miners formed a union and organised a strike. Their leader was Costantinos Speras, a seasoned trade unionist and experienced in industrial protest.
Unable to force the workers back to work, the company asked for the help of the Greek authorities who sent a 30-man gendarmerie detachment from nearby Kea. After detaining Speras and the strike committee, the gendarmerie fired on the workers who had gathered at the ore landing dock and refused to permit a cargo ship to be loaded. Four workers were shot dead and a dozen wounded.
The workers, supported by their wives, attacked the gendarmes with stones, killing three of them. The freed leadership of the workers took control of the island and sent a message placing Serifos under protection of the French fleet in Milos. The French army refused to intervene and a Greek warship arrived. Speras was arrested and charged with high treason but was released a few months later when the royalist government was ousted. The mines opened again after improvements were made to the working conditions of the mine and an 8-hour day was established. This strike was decisive in the establishment of the 8-hour working day throughout Greece.
source
Troubled times that are now fading into oblivion like the, once majestic but now a wreck, mansion that used to house the headquarters of the mining company.
The small exhibition of stones and mining tools in the building that used to be the elementary school is one more reminder of the past.
I am not sure if there is any interest in those old stories any more. For sure the summer visitors don't come for the history but for the (more than 70, remember?) beaches :)
Unless stated otherwise, all the pictures and the words are mine.
Thank you for reading and if you want to know more about me you can check out my introduction post.
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