Socialist Workers' Party (Greece)
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The Socialist Workers Party of Greece (SEK) is an affiliate of the International Socialist Tendency (IST). It is the second largest organisation in IST behind the Socialist Workers Party of Britain. Leading members include Panos Garganas and Maria Styllou.
SEK originated among a group of exiled Greek students in London, led by Maria Stylou and Panos Gharganas, after the 1967 military coup in Greece. They were influenced by Maoist ideas and organised themselves as the Socialist Revolution Organisation (OSE). While in London they developed relations with the International Socialists led by Tony Cliff and were won to the politics of the IST. On returning to Greece their connection with the IST was abandoned.
In the early 1980s, the OSE again developed close links with the IST, now the SWP, grew fairly rapidly and in 1997 changed their name to the Socialist Workers Party. In 2001 a minority left to form the Internationalist Workers Left (DEA) group. SEK publishes a weekly 16-page newspaper, Workers Solidarity (Εργατική Αλληλεγγύη), and a bi-monthly magazine, Socialism from Below (Σοσιαλισμός από τα Κάτω).
The SEK is active in a number organisations, including the Greek "Stop the War Coalition".
In the 2006 Greek local elections, the SEK is three running candidates under the banner "Symmaxia gia tin Ypernomarxia" (Union for the Super Prefecture).
