The Radical Party

The Radical Party was one of the political formations that developed in the Ionian Islands. Within this party, the terms socialism and communism were officially formulated for the first time. Concepts that were to be widely used throughout the rest of the years to this day.

It is no coincidence that in the Ionian Islands both the specific party and the specific ideologies it expressed were prominent. They developed there because there were the right conditions, economic and social.

In the interior of the Ionian Islands, class antagonisms had formed which favored the holding of games. They aimed at subverting not only politics but also social relations.

The class struggle, despite the fact that there were no industrial units, had emerged as a result of the intense reactions that had developed in the region.

The division between bourgeois and proletarians in the Ionian Islands had been carried out through the division into Nobilus, Popularus and Mesos.

The Nobils were the ruling class, who had life and death rights over the peasant workers. Farmers worked non-stop in the fields to exploit what they produced. There was a constant exploitation of their labor power, just as it was in the industries of Europe. In those the capitalists exploited to the fullest the labor power of the proletarians, who worked in an absolutely precarious environment.

These conditions prevailed in the fields of Nobile. Farmers worked without hours, without security and were systematically abused by their employers. This situation created a sharp contrast between the nobles and the farmers, with the latter rebelling from time to time asking for better conditions in their working and social environment.

The Popolars also supported their fights. This class was made up of small traders, small farmers but also various small professionals such as fishermen and artisans. The Popolaris began to believe that their interests were constantly being affected by the politics of the Nobils, as a result of which they allied themselves with the farmers, asking for the granting of privileges. These struggles began to acquire political status, a factor that contributed to the formation of the political party of the Radicals. This party started as a social movement to express all these needs. However, it soon acquired political ramifications as mentioned above.

His main theoretical goal was the application of the ideas of the French Revolution as well as the ideas of Utopian Socialism as well as various socialist influences.

It is perhaps the first party in Greece that openly developed socialist ideas, without being influenced by the special conditions that prevailed in Greece in the 19th century.

The fact that the Ionian Islands were not part of the Ottoman Empire contributed to this. The English occupation, which had been imposed on the Ionian Islands, had brought them into contact with the West and the culture it represented. Its action is divided into two periods. In the first the Radical Party acted as a social movement while in the second it was formed as a political party.

The Radical Party is just one of the manifestations of political radicalism in Greece in the 19th century, as analyzed in detail in the new historical study by Doctor of Political Science candidate Dionysis Asimiadis.Aspects of Greek Radicalism in the 19th century", which is published by iWrite Publications!