Michel Pablo was the pseudonym for Michalis Raptis, a Greek revolutionary born in Alexandria in 1911. He was a twentieth century revolutionary whose life and ideas remain relevant and inspirational until today. He spent his life involved in revolutions around the globe. During the 1936 military dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas, Pablo was arrested and exiled to the Aegean island of Folegandros. He later escaped with his future partner, Elly Diovouniotis and ended up in France. His record of political engagement took him from the anti-Nazi resistance in wartime France to a role supplying weapons to the Algerian independence struggle two decades later. He worked as an adviser for Algeria’s first postcolonial president, Ahmed Ben Bella, and the Chilean socialist government of Salvador Allende. Pablo had a very strong friendship with PASOK leader Andreas Papandreou and was only able to return to his home country Greece after the fall of the military dictatorship in 1974. 

Very early on he was able to recognise the importance of anti-colonial struggles, their global ramifications and their future impact on Western powers. He was a prolific writer regularly providing commentary on global affairs and had a talent for sensing the importance of new developments made him an early supporter of the ecological movement as well as the cause of women’s liberation.

BIO
Hall Greenland is an award-winning Australian journalist, historian and political activist. He was a rider on the Freedom bus in 1965 that helped reignite the struggle for self-determination by Australia’s First Nations and was one of the founders of the Greens in Australia. He has been an elected councillor on inner-city Councils in Sydney, first as a Labor Party candidate and then, after his expulsion from that party, as an independent Green. He is the author of Red Hot: the life and times of Nick Origlass, which was short-listed for the NSW Premier’s History Prize. He was editor of The Week 2008-2012 and a sub-editor and feature writer on The Bulletin from 1999 to 2008 when he won two Walkleys. He is the author of The Well-Dressed Revolutionary: The Odyssey of Michel Pablo in the Age of Uprisings which was released in 2023.

Event Details:
When: Thursday 1 May 2025, 7pm
Speaker: Hall Greenland
Seminar: The Odyssey of Michel ‘Pablo’ Raptis
Where: Greek Centre (Mezzanine, 168 Lonsdale St, Melbourne)
Language: English

Sponsor: Kostas Stefanidis