Takis Fotopoulos

Born	(1940-10-14) October 14, 1940 (age 71) Chios, Greece
Era	20th / 21st-century philosophy
Region	Political Philosophy
School	Founder of the Inclusive Democracy project.
Main interests	Political philosophy, Political Economy, Philosophy of Social Science, International Political Economy, International Relations, Social Movements
Notable ideas	Inclusive Democracy, the present multi-dimensional crisis, the transnational elite and its wars on terrorism, critique of left-wing politics
Influenced by Aristotle, Karl Marx, Mikhail Bakunin, Peter Kropotkin, Rosa Luxemburg, Cornelius Castoriadis, Murray Bookchin

Takis Fotopoulos (Τάκης Φωτόπουλος) (born October 14, 1940) is a political philosopher and economist who founded the inclusive democracy movement. He is noted for his synthesis of classical democracy with libertarian socialism^[1] and the radical currents in the new social movements. He was an academic, and has written many books and over 900 articles, several of which have been translated into various languages. He is the editor of The International Journal of Inclusive Democracy (which succeeded Democracy & Nature) and author of Towards An Inclusive Democracy in which the foundations of the inclusive democracy project were set.^[2] Fotopoulos is Greek and lives in London.^[3]

Early life[link]

Fotopoulos was born in the Greek island of Chios and his family moved to Athens soon afterwards. After earning degrees in Economics and Political Science and in Law from the University of Athens, he moved to London in 1966 for postgraduate study at the London School of Economics on a Varvaressos scholarship from Athens University. He was a student syndicalist and activist in Athens^[4] and then a political activist in London, taking an active part in the 1968 student movement in London, as well as in organisations of the revolutionary Greek Left during the struggle against the military junta in Greece (1967–74). During this period, he was a member of the Revolutionary Socialist Groups in London, which published the newspaper Μαμή ("Midwife", from the Marxian dictum, "violence is the midwife of revolution"), for which he wrote several articles.^[5]

Academia and afterwards[link]

He was Senior Lecturer in Economics at the Polytechnic of North London from 1969 to 1989, until he started editing the journal Society & Nature, later Democracy & Nature and subsequently the online International Journal of Inclusive Democracy.^[2][3] He is also a columnist of Eleftherotypia,^[6] one of the most widely-circulated newspapers in Greece which has filed for bankruptcy.^[7]

Inclusive Democracy[link]

Takis Fotopoulos developed the political project of Inclusive Democracy in 1997 (an exposition can be found in Towards An Inclusive Democracy). The first issue of Society & Nature declared that:

"our ambition is to initiate an urgently needed dialogue on the crucial question of developing a new liberatory social project, at a moment in History when the Left has abandoned this traditional role."^[8]

and specified that the new project should be seen as the outcome of a synthesis of the democratic, libertarian socialist and radical Green traditions.^[9] Since then, a dialogue has followed in the pages of the journal, in which libertarian socialists like Cornelius Castoriadis, Social ecologists like Murray Bookchin, and Green activists and academics like Steven Best have taken part.

The starting point for Fotopoulos's work is that the world faces a multi-dimensional crisis (economic, ecological, social, cultural and political) which is caused by the concentration of power in elites, as a result of the market economy, representative democracy and related forms of hierarchical structure. An inclusive democracy, which involves the equal distribution of power at all levels, is seen not as a utopia (in the negative sense of the word) or a "vision" but as perhaps the only way out of the present crisis, with trends towards its creation manifesting themselves today in many parts of the world. Fotopoulos is in favor of market abolitionism, although he would not identify himself as a market abolitionist as such because he considers market abolition as one aspect of an Inclusive Democracy which refers only to the Economic Democracy component of it. He proposes a model of economic democracy for a stateless, marketless and moneyless economy but he considers that the economic democracy component is equally significant to the other components of ID, i.e. Political or direct democracy, Economic democracy, Ecological Democracy and Democracy in the Social Realm. Fotopoulos' work has been critically assessed by important activists, theorists and scholars.^{[10][11][12][13][14][15]}

Works[link]

Major works[link]

• (English) Towards An Inclusive Democracy. The Crisis of the Growth Economy and the Need for a New Liberatory Project (London/New York: Cassell Continuum, 1997), 401 pp. ISBN 0-304-33627-0 and 0-304-33628-9.
• (Greek) Περιεκτική Δημοκρατία (Athens: Kastaniotis, 1999), 656 pp. ISBN 960-03-2416-6
• (Italian) Per Una Democrazia Globale (Milano: Eleuthera, 1999), 254 pp. ISBN 88-85060-37-4
• (Spanish) Hacia Una Democracia Inclusiva, Un nuevo proyecto liberador (Montevideo: Nordam, 2002), 325 pp. ISBN 9974-42-098-9
• (French) Vers Une Démocratie Générale (Paris: Seuil, 2002), 250 pp. ISBN 2-02-052846-0
• (German) Umfassende Demokratie, Die Antwort auf die Krise der Wachstums-und Marktwirtschaft (Grafenau: Trotzdem Verlag, 2003), 445 pp. ISBN 3-931786-23-4
• (English) The Multidimensional Crisis and Inclusive Democracy (Entire English E-book publication [2005] of the book with the same title published in Athens, 2005 by Gordios, 334 pp. ISBN 960-7083-69-5. Published in Chinese, 2008. ISBN 978-7-5607-3533-7)
• (Greek) Περιεκτική Δημοκρατία: 10 Χρόνια Μετά (Athens: Eleftheros Typos, 2008), 591 pp.
• (English) The pink revolution in Iran and the “Left” A Special E-Book Issue of the International Journal of Inclusive Democracy (Vol. 5, No. 3, Summer 2009), PDF Version

Books published in Greece[link]

• Dependent Development: The Case of Greece (Athens: Exantas, 1985 & 1987).
• The Gulf War: The First Battle in the North-South Conflict (Athens: Exantas, 1991).
• The Neo-Liberal Consensus (Athens: Gordios, 1993).
• The New World Order and Greece (Athens: Kastaniotis, 1997).
• Inclusive Democracy (Athens: Kastaniotis, 1999).
• Drugs: Beyond the Demonology of Penalisation and the 'Progressive' Mythology of Liberalisation (Athens: Eleftheros Typos, 1999).
• The New Order in the Balkans and the First War of the Internationalised Market Economy (Athens: Staxy, 1999).
• Religion, Autonomy and Democracy (Athens: Eleftheros Typos, 2000).
• Globalisation, the Left and Inclusive Democracy (Athens: Ellinika Grammata, 2002).
• From the Athenian Democracy to Inclusive Democracy (Athens: Eleftheros Typos, 2002).
• The War against 'Terrorism': the Elites Generalised Attack (Athens: Gordios, 2003).
• Chomsky's capitalism, Albert's post-capitalism and Inclusive Democracy (Athens: Gordios, 2004).
• The Multidimensional Crisis and Inclusive Democracy (Athens: Gordios, 2005).
• Inclusive Democracy - 10 Years Afterwards (Athens: Eleftheros Typos, 2008).
• Global Crisis, Greece, and the anti-systemic movement (Athens: Koukida, 2009), 318 pages, ISBN 978-960-94100-0-7
• Greece as a protectorate of the transnational elite (Athens: Gordios, November 2010), 412 pages, ISBN 978-960-6826-18-4

Contributions to other books[link]

• (Greek) Studies on the contemporary Greek Economy, ed. by S.Papaspiliopoulos (Papazisis, 1978). (Takis Fotopoulos' contribution: "Dependent development and industrialisation").
• Education, Culture and Modernization, ed. by Peter Alheit et al. (Roskide University, 1995). (Takis Fotopoulos contribution: "The crisis of the growth economy, the withering away of the nation-state and the community-based society").
• (Italian) Complessità sistemica e svillupo eco-sostenibile, ed. by I.Spano & D.Padovan (Sapere 2001). (Takis Fotopoulos contribution: "La crisi dell 'economia di crescita. Societa ecologica e democrazia").
• Defending Public Schools, ed. by David A. Gabbard & E. Wayne Ross (Praeger, 2004). (Takis Fotopoulos contribution: "The State, the Market and (Mis-)education").
• (Greek) Globalisation, Technology and Paideia in the New Cosmopolis (Atrapos, 2004). (Takis Fotopoulos' contribution: "Contrasting views on globalisation and the myth about the end of globalisation").
• Critical Perspectives on Globalisation, ed. by Robert Hunter Wade, Marina Della Giusta and Uma Kambhampati (Chelthenham, UK & Northhampton, MA US: Edward Elgar publishing, 2006). (Takis Fotopoulos contribution: "The global 'war' of the transnational elite").
• Globalised Capitalism, The Eclipse of the Left and Inclusive Democracy, ed. by Steven Best (Athens: Koukkida, 2008). And as Special Issue of "The International Journal of Inclusive Democracy", Winter 2009, in English: Online/PDF (with two contributions by Takis Fotopoulos, "Recent Theoretical Developments on the Inclusive Democracy Project" & "Is Inclusive Democracy Feasible and Desirable?").
• Eco-socialism as Politics: Rebuilding the Basis of Our Modern Civilisation ed. by Qingzhi Huan (Springer, 1st Edition, 2010, XI), 224 p., Hardcover, ISBN 978-90-481-3744-2 (Takis Fotopoulos contribution: "The De-growth Utopia: The Incompatibility of De-growth within an Internationalised Market Economy").
• Academic Repression: Reflections from the Academic Industrial Complex ed. by A.J.Nocella, Steven Best, Peter McLaren (AK Press, Oakland, CA & Edinburgh, 2010), 590 p, paperback, ISBN 978-1-904859-98-7 (Takis Fotopoulos contribution: "Systemic Aspects of Academic Repression in the New World Order". A full version of this essay is published in The International Journal of Inclusive Democracy, Vol. 4, No. 4 (October 2008).
• (Greek) Critical Pedagogy in the New Middle Age, ed. by Maria Nikolakaki, (Sideris, October 2011). (Takis Fotopoulos' Contribution: "From Education to Paedeia" ISBN 978-960-08-0581-9).

Videos[link]

• Takis Fotopoulos talk on the Multidimensional Crisis and Inclusive Democracy, Oxford University, November 2008. Google-video in 3 parts. Part 1 (talk), part 2 (talk/discussion), part 3 (discussion).
• Takis Fotopoulos' Interview to Oliver Ressler about Inclusive Democracy. This is an interview with Takis Fotopoulos taken by Oliver Ressler for his video series "Alternative Economics, Alternative Societies" on July 19, 2003, about the Inclusive Democracy project. English and Greek subtitles are available. In this video, Fotopoulos discusses the constituents of Inclusive Democracy: Political, Economic, democracy at the Social level and Ecological democracy. He is also offering a thorough analysis of the ID' s proposed economic model for a market-less and money-less economy. Finally, he refers to the transitional strategy for the transformation to an autonomous society, for an Inclusive Democracy.
• A talk given by Takis Fotopoulos at the University of Vermont (US) in 1996, followed by a discussion in which Murray Bookchin, Dan Chodorkoff and others take part. Google Video in 3 parts Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

See also[link]

• Democracy & Nature Journal
• Inclusive Democracy project
• Anarchist economics
• Cornelius Castoriadis
• Economic Democracy
• Libertarian Socialism
• Murray Bookchin

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• See also the "Inclusive Democracy" entry in the Routledge Encyclopedia of International Political Economy, (ed. by Barry Jones), Vol. 2 (2001), pp. 732–740.
• “The Inclusive Democracy project – six years on“, (essays on the ID project by Michael Levin, Arran Gare, David Freeman, Serge Latouche, Jean-Claude Richard, Takis Nikolopoulos, Rafael Spósito, Guido Galafassi, Takis Fotopoulos and others), Democracy & Nature, Vol. 9, No. 3 (November 2003).
• “Debate on the Inclusive Democracy project (Parts I & II)“, The International Journal of Inclusive Democracy, Vol. 1, No. 2 (January 2005) and Vol. 1, No. 3 (May 2005).
• Takis Fotopoulos, "Inclusive Democracy" in Alternative Economies, Alternative Societies ed. by Oliver Ressler & Aneta Szylak, 240 pages (20 pages in color), languages: English and Polish, ISBN 978-83-924665-0-5 (Gdansk: Wyspa Institute of Art, Poland, 2007). [Published in German/Hungarian by Promedia Verlag, Vienna 2008. ISBN 978-3-85371-291-7].

External links[link]

• Takis Fotopoulos' Archive
• Democracy & Nature
• The International Journal of Inclusive Democracy - ISSN 1753-240X.
• Inclusive Democracy - A transcript of a video interview given by Takis Fotopoulos to Oliver Ressler for the project Alternative Economics, Alternative Societies.
• An Interview with T.Fotopoulos by Indymedia Hungary, April 2005
• Interview for Equal Time for Freethought radio show - [show 247: Takis Fotopoulos, Dec 30th 2007] - WBAI 99.5 FM New York City, 1] read the transcript, 2] listen to the audio mp3—72 Mb

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. No cleanup reason has been specified. Please help improve this article if you can; the talk page may contain suggestions. (May 2009)

Vassilakis Takis (born October 25, 1925) is an artist living in Greece. Adopted by France, his works can be found in many public locations in and around Paris.

Life and work[link]

1940–1950

• 1936-1941: His childhood and teen years coincide with the dictatorship of Metaxas and the Axis Occupation of Greece.
• 1942-1946: His political involvement as leader of EPON results in a six-month prison sentence. - He discovers Picasso and Giacometti. - Starts creating plaster busts.

1950–1960

• 1952: Together with Minos Argyrakis and Raymondos he builds a small studio in Anakassa. - He creates the Quatre Soldats, a plaster sculpture depicting four marching soldiers. - Participates in the first "International Exhibition" in Delphi.
• 1954: Departs for Paris. - Discovers Egyptian sculpture. - Starts making sculptures out of forged iron: Oedipus and Antigone]', Sphinx and Eidolon.
• 1955: Influenced by the invention of the radar and the technological landscape of the station of Calais, he constructs his first Signaux. - First one-man show abroad: "Figures of plaster and iron" at the Hanover Gallery in London.
• 1956: The Signaux become kinetic, are flexible and resemble electric aerials. - Participates in the "First International Exhibition of the Plastic Arts at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.
• 1957: The Signaux are transformed into Signaux Feux d'Artifice. With those Feux d'Artifice, he performs happenings on the streets and squares of Paris thus anticipating future "Street Art" performances. - Creates his first bronze spheres which he calls Espaces Intérieurs and the first bronze Plants.
• 1958: Discovers the magnetic fields which will constitute the basis of his oeuvre. Becomes father of a daughter Anna, with English artist Sheila Fell.
• 1959: A nail tied to a nylon string is suspended in mid air by the attraction of a magnet: this is the first of the télémagnétiques sculptures of Takis. Alain Jouffroy calls it Télésculpture.

1960–1970

• 1960: Performance at the Iris Clert Gallery in Paris under the title The impossible: man within space. The South African poet Sinclair Beiles reads his magnetic manifesto: "I am a sculpture...I would like to see all nuclear bombs on Earth turned into sculptures" and throws himself into the air momentarily suspended by the magnetic field of a magnet attached to his belt. - The French Ministry of Industry awards him a patent for a Télésculpture and a Télésculpture électromagnetique. - He consorts with the "beat" writers. - He experiments with the Ballets Magnétiques.
• 1961: His autobiography Estafilades is published by the Juilliard publishing house. His Sculptures Télémagnétiques go on show at the Art Gallery of Alexandros Iolas in New York (which remains his dealer until 1976). Meets Marcel Duchamp in the USA. - Murs Magnétiques, Télépeintures: Magnets hidden behind the flat fabric surface attract objects hung from nylon strings. - Télélumières: The usual function of cathode tubes is reversed; blue light is emitted.
• 1962: Becomes father of a son, Thanos Vassilakis, with American artist Liliane Lijn.
• 1963: Takis creates his first musical in collaboration with Earle Brown. It is entitled the "Sound of Void" and is exhibited one year later in Cordier-Ekstrom Gallery in New York in an exposition under the title "For Eyes and Ears". The "Sound of Void" is the predecessor of the Musical Sculpture .
• 1964: Construction of the "Research Center for the Art and the Sciences" in Gerovouno begins.
• 1965: First Sculptures Musicales.
• 1966: Cadrans. - Takis's Electro-musical relief at Indica Gallery in London. The New Scientist magazine in an article entitled "The sounds of tomorrow" comments that Takis, Yiannis Xenakis and John Cage are the most promising musicians of the century (article issued on December 22, 1966).
• 1967: Participates in the "Light and Motion" exhibition at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.
• 1968-1969: Settles in Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA as visiting researcher and begins creating the series of Sculptures électromagnétiques. - Takis's invention Sculpture hydromagnétique is the result of his research at M.I.T. Liquid is suspended due to electromagnetic forces. - "Sea Oscillation Hydrodynamics", Takis's second figment is inspired by "the perpetual moving bicycle wheel of Marcel Duchamp". The oscillation of the sea is used to produce electricity. - In January 1969 during the exhibition "The machine as seen at the end of the mechanical age", at the MOMA in New York, Takis storms into the museum and removes one of his Télésculptures which he claims, is being exhibited without his permission. The artist considers this action as a symbolic one which will help the initiation of a more profound dialogue between museum directors, artists and the public. The incident makes the front page of New York Times. Takis along with other artists as well as art critics like Nicolas Calas establish the Art Workers Coalition group to defend the artists' rights. He inspired a group of people to start a chip company of the same name.

1970–1980

• 1972: Retrospective at the Centre National d'Art Contemporain in Paris.
• 1973: Holland Festival Ballet: Takis's Light Signals and Sound Sculptures form the stage setting and inspire the choreography of Jaap Flier's dance group "Elkesis" of the Nederlands Dans Theater. - Théâtre de l'Odéon in Paris: Cacoyiannis directs the Vacantes while Takis composes the performance's music.
• 1974: The first Espace Musical goes on exhibition at the Kunstverein in Hanover. - First Sculptures Erotiques. - Takis composes the music for Costas Gavras' film Section Speciale.
• 1977: Participates in the Kassel Documenta VI exhibiting an Espace Musical.
• 1979: Performance with Charlemagne Palestine at the Musée Rath in Geneva. - Kölnischer Kunstverein, performance with Nam June Paik in Cologne inspired by Takis's Espace Musical.

1980–1990

• 1981: "3 totems- Espace Musical" at the Forum of the Centre Georges Pompidou.
• 1983: Takis creates the music and the stage design for Sophocles' Electra directed by Michael Kakoyannis, in Epidaurus.
• 1984: Participates in the exhibition "The Century of Kafka" at the Centre Georges Pompidou.
• 1985: The Centre Georges Pompidou orders a Mur Magnétique for the entrance to the Galeries Contemporaines. - First prize at the Paris Biennale.
• 1986: "Parallel Erotic Line": a performance with Joelle Leandre (musician) and Martha Zioga (dancer) at the Musée Rath, in Geneva. - The "Research Center for the Art and the Sciences" is founded in Athens.
• 1987: The defence public authority grants Takis the use of the largest space that has ever been given to any artist in the history of Paris: 3,500 m² (26,840 sq ft) for a forest of 76 Signaux 3.50 to 9.50 m. (11.4 to 31 feet) high.
• 1988: Wins the French Grand Prix for Sculpture. - Creates a signal for the Seoul Olympic park. - "Jocasta": performance and exhibition "Electra 88", in Stavros Mihalarias' Art Center. Takis designs the costumes, composes the music, sets the scenery and directs the performance.

1990–2000

• 1990: Commissioned for Signaux lumineux for the Grande Arche de la Défense. - Takis's representative works at galerie Xippas in Paris. - "Isidos Awakening": performance with Barbara Maurothalasiti.
• 1992: Transforms the Beauvais waterworks into a 65 m (211 feet) musical sculpture.
• 1993: Retrospective at the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume. - Inauguration of K.E.T.E. in Athens. Five Aeolian Signals ornament UNESCO's garden. - The Ministry of Greek Culture, Melina Mercouri, qualified them as "totems of the 21st century". - French Republic honors Takis with the special edition of a stamp depicting Takis' spiral.
• 1994: The Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume exhibition is shown at the School for Fine Arts in Athens.
• 1995: Takis is elected to represent Greece at the 46th Venice Biennale where he declares: "I am a citizen of the world" and "annuls" the Greek pavilion as a symbolic gesture of the annulment of frontiers in art; choosing to exhibit in the open space before the pavilion.
• 1999: The Attiko Metro authority commissions the creation of a work for the Fix station in Athens.

2000–

• 2000: The Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA) and the Hayward Gallery in London put Takis' artworks on show. - Takis exposes his "solar energy sculpture" in Delphi.
• 2001: The European Parliament awards the "Research Center for the Art and the Sciences" an Honorary Plaque for its contribution to the field of renewable energy sources. - Takis donates three signals for the permanent collection of Centre Pompidou in Paris. The signals are placed in the terrace of the building in the 5th floor. Four years later, the picture of the three artworks is used for Centre Pompidou's Christmas card. - The galerie Xippas exhibits Takis's artworks within the framework of manifestations for the Art Athina 2001 project.
• 2003: Takis participates in the exhibition "Music Mirrors - History Conscience" commissioned by the Company for the Creation of a New Building for the Greek Lyric Stage and Academy - "Maria Kallas". He offers a "musical" as a symbolic gesture for the New Greek Opera. - Takis's "Ligne paralléle vibrative" (1972) and "Colonne magnétique" (2003) are presented at Xippas gallery in Athens. - Exhibition at the European Cultural Center of Delphi: Takis participates with the "Dedication to Apollo (study 1)".
• 2004: The "Musical Spheres" are displayed in the Atomium's exposition "en equilibre et en movement". - Takis new work "the Music of Spheres: Musical Space 1" is shown in Larissa Contemporary Art Center in Greece. - "Magnetic Walls", "Aeolian Signals", "Antigravity Spheres" and "Musical Spheres" are exposed in one art show in Sicily (Galleria Credito Siciliano) and Milan (Galleria Gruppo). - The Olympic Games in Athens inspired Takis to exhibit his "Olympic Spirals" and "Aeolian Signals " in the National Glyptotheque as well as in the exhibition "Athens by Art" organized by the Athenian municipality. Takis's poster inspired from the Athens 2004 Games and commissioned by the Musée d'art contemporain du Val-de-Marne. - He puts out of use four of his "Musicals" exhibited in Athens by the Bonham's auction house. He manages that these are not sold by auction in London.
• 2005: "Solar Magnetic Fields" exhibition at Stavros Mihalarias Art Center in Athens.

References[link]

• Busch, Julia M.; A Decade of Sculpture: the New Media in the 1960's (The Art Alliance Press: Philadelphia
• Associated University Presses: London, (1974) ISBN 0-87982-007-1

External links[link]

• Update on his work

Oliver Ressler (b. 1970 in Knittelfeld in Austria) lives and works in Vienna. He produces theme-specific exhibitions, projects in the public space and videos on issues such as global capitalism, forms of resistance, social alternatives, racism and global warming. His work constantly tries to blur boundaries between art and activism.

Major works[link]

The ongoing project “Alternative Economics, Alternative Societies” was shown at 21 different venues, including solo-exhibitions at Galerija Skuc, Ljubljana, 2003; Kunstraum Lueneburg, Germany, 2004; Centro Cultural Conde Duque, MediaLabMadrid, Madrid, 2004; Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center, Istanbul, 2005 and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, 2005. A publication on the project was published by the Wyspa Institute of Art, Gdansk in 2007.^[1]

Many of Ressler’s works have been realized in collaborations: “Boom!” focuses on the central contradictions of globalized capitalism (with David Thorne), “European Corrections Corporation” on the phenomenon of prison privatization (with Martin Krenn), and “What Would It Mean To Win?” on the protests against the 33rd G8-summit in Heiligendamm (with Zanny Begg).

Together with Dario Azzellini, Ressler produced the films “Venezuela from Below”, 2004 and “5 Factories–Worker Control in Venezuela”, 2006, which was presented as a 6-channel video installation at the Berkeley Art Museum, USA.

Ressler has participated in more than 150 exhibitions, including the biennials in Prague, 2005; Seville, 2006; Moscow, 2007^[2] and Taipei, 2008. For the Taipei Biennial 2008 Ressler also curated the exhibition "A World Where Many Worlds Fit" on the counter-globalization movement.^[3]

Awards[link]

In 2002, Ressler’s video “This is what democracy looks like!” won the 1st prize of the International Media Art Award of the ZKM.^[4]

References[link]

External links[link]

• webpage

The Greek is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Bill Raymond. The Greek is the head of an international criminal organization involved in narcotics and human trafficking.^[1] The Greek is a mysterious figure involved in numerous criminal activities. His given name is never mentioned on the show, and though he is known only as "The Greek", he has stated (in the episode Port in a Storm) that he is not actually Greek. A quiet and unassuming man, the Greek prefers to keep a low profile, operating all of his business through his lieutenant Spiros "Vondas" Vondopoulos. His smuggling organization operated from a small diner in Baltimore for years, and while Vondas would conduct business the Greek would listen in quietly at the counter. Nick Sobotka, upon seeing the Greek identify himself, was amazed that the shadowy figure had been in plain sight the entire time.

Despite his calm appearance, the Greek is cunning and ruthless, and only interested in facts that make him more money. Series creator David Simon has said that The Greek is an embodiment of raw unencumbered capitalism.^[2] Anyone interfering in this process is eliminated immediately, and he prefers to leave victims headless and handless to hinder identification.

The Greek's smuggling operation includes importing sex trade workers, illicit drugs, stolen goods and chemicals for drug processing. He bribes union stevedores to move containers through the Baltimore port for him and uses his muscle, Sergei "Serge" Malatov, to run containers back and forth from the port to his warehouse, a front managed by "Double G" Glekas. The Greek supplies the major drug dealers in East Baltimore with pure cocaine and heroin, using Eton Ben-Eleazer to move his drugs. His chief client is Proposition Joe, but he is also affiliated with smaller drug dealing organizations like those run by "White Mike" McArdle. His sex trade interests in Baltimore include a brothel run by a madam named Ilona Petrovitch, bringing in girls from eastern Europe. He manages to avoid prosecution for his crimes because an FBI counter-terrorism agent named Kristos Koutris tips him off if a criminal investigation gets too close. It is suggested he and Vondas may serve as federal informants.

Biography[link]

Season 2[link]

The Greek began to draw police attention in Baltimore when his contact at the docks, Frank Sobotka, became the target of an investigation. At the same time a container of thirteen dead young women intended for the sex trade was discovered at the docks, triggering a high-profile homicide investigation. The container belonged to the Greek and the girls were killed by a crewman onboard the vessel that had delivered them. The ship's crew had been paying the girls for sex and when one of the girls refused, she was killed. The crewman responsible dumped her overboard and collapsed the air pipe to kill the remaining women. The Greek had Sergei track the crewman down, interrogated him personally, and had Vondas kill him.

As the investigation continued the police were able to link Eton and Sergei to the drug smuggling operation. When police began tracking containers as they left the port, The Greek and Vondas began to close down the operation temporarily by dumping their cell phones and stealing "clean" containers. Persuading Sobotka to keep the smuggling operation going he bought further protection from Agent Koutris by betraying a load of Colombian cocaine, giving him time to destroy incriminating evidence in the warehouse and Glekas' store.

The Greek recognized that the investigation was too extensive to stop and made plans to leave, sending Vondas to assure Proposition Joe that supply of drugs would continue albeit with new faces. He attempted to buy Sobotka's silence with promised legal aid for his son, but when he learned from Koutris that Frank was planning to turn informant he had the union man killed. Although Frank's nephew Nick Sobotka was able to identify The Greek in a photo and Sergei was pressured to give up the location of his hotel suite, Vondas and the Greek had already boarded a flight to Chicago. Aware that the Greek and Vondas were gone, the police left the investigation behind and moved on to the drug dealers he supplied.

Seasons 4 & 5[link]

The Greek continued to supply "Proposition Joe" Stewart, who formed an organization with other drug dealers called the New Day Co-Op to provide The Greek's product to them in exchange for reduced violence and sharing of territory. When Omar Little steals an entire shipment of heroin from the Greek's men as it is being delivered to Stewart's people, Marlo Stanfield demands a meeting with Spiros "Vondas" Vondopoulos in order to allay his fears that Stewart was responsible.^[3][4] Once Stanfield is satisfied, he waits for the Major Crimes Unit's investigation into his activities to cease and then moves to establish a direct relationship with Vondas and the Greek. After getting in communication with Vondas through former soldier Sergei,^[5][6] Marlo eventually sells himself as Joe's replacement by convincing the Greek that he requires an insurance policy in the form of a replacement for Proposition Joe, in the event that anything should happen to him. Realizing that Stanfield will move against Stewart regardless of his approval, the Greek accepts Marlo's proposal to act as an "insurance policy," knowing that it will mean Joe's death.^[7][8]

After Stewart's murder, Stanfield meets with Vondas to initiate their new business relationship.^[9][10] Stanfield's tenure proves short lived when he is forced into retirement by an investigation, and the other Co-Op members purchase the connection from Stanfield. In the closing scenes of the series finale, Slim Charles and Fat-Face Rick take over meeting with Vondas while the Greek listens quietly in the background.^[11][12]

References[link]