"Freedom of assembly" is a given democratic right and civil resistance, expressed in marches or peaceful demonstrations, is a core feature of democracy. Disobedience to orders that are considered unjust is as old as the famous disobedience of Prometheus to the command of Zeus not to reveal to people the use of fire. Sophocles' Antigone is certainly the most brilliant example of political disobedience. Refusing to submit to Creon's laws and defending the unwritten burial laws for her brother, she embodies the conflict between the unwritten law (natural law) and the law of men (positive law), delimiting the space between individual conscience and political obligation.
In the Western world, since the age of Enlightenment, a tradition tolerant of civilized political disobedience developed, which led to the right of protest against unjust laws as a means of political expression, a dramatic, final appeal to the conscience of the majority to reconsider. That is why it is done in a civilized and public way, without violence, since it aims to convince of the sincerity, intensity and integrity of the intentions of the act.
In this exhibition you will find archival material, photographs and documents, as well as works of art about demonstrations, marches and protests. For nearly a century, from political gatherings, such as those of 1908 for the Union of Crete, to the student resistance during the Junta, a rather bloody affair, people have been gathering, passionately protesting for their rights and freedoms. Protesting for freedom and equal rights, free education, women's vote or fairer working conditions and other democratic rights, demonstration as a civil right is enshrined in Article 11 of the Hellenic Constitution. After all, as Rousseau rightly points out, the people are both legislators and subjects of law, they are masters and subjects.
The exhibition contains items from the following institutions:
