Fight Back News Service is circulating this account of an important protest by the Communist Party of Greece (KKE).

On Tuesday, May 31, members of the Thesprotia Sectoral Organization of the KKE proceeded with a symbolic blockade of a convoy of 17 NATO military vehicles from the UK returning from a NATO exercise in the Balkans, outside the port of Igoumenitsa.

The protesters demanded that the port of Igoumenitsa should not be used as a base of the imperialists, sending a message against our country’s involvement in the imperialist war.

Police forces attempted to intimidate the protesters; however, their efforts failed thanks to the determination and composure of the communists. After blocking the road for some time, the members of the KKE left in an organized manner.

#Greece #AntiwarMovement #Europe #PeoplesStruggles #CommunistPartyOfGreece

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). KKE emerges as a consistent force of resistance

On May 26th triple elections were held in Greece – European Parliament, regional and municipal elections.

KKE succeeded in re-electing the two Parliament Members that it had in the European Parliament, amassing 257,360 votes or 5.5% (with 83% percentage of integration).

Moreover, the ballots of the People's Rally passed into the 2nd round in the 5 Municipalities which had communist mayors, while in the regions and municipalities overall, “People's Rally” significantly increased the number of elected council members.

The registering of popular discontent in the elections is leading the ruling party to announce early national elections for the end of June.

In his statement to the mass media, Dimitris Koutsoumpas – General Secretary of the Central Committee of the KKE noted the following regarding the election results:

“First of all we would like to thank all of those who responded to KKE's call to join forces with it. All of those who honored us, participating in the Party ballot, but also all those who under difficult conditions came to the ballot box and voted for the KKE in the European Parliament elections and for “People's Rally” in the municipal and regional elections. We would especially like to thank all those who took that step for the first time, for the young men and women who gave their very first vote to our Party.

Above all, the battle of the European elections, but also that of the local elections had features that in fact, refer to national elections.

The electoral results record yet another anti-people alternation between SYRIZA and ND, that is, between the two biggest parties of capital, of the EU, of NATO.

Confrontation, polarization, false promises, extortionary dilemmas, especially between the two parties of bipolarism, created such a climate that it had an effect on the popular strata who do not yet believe in their own strength, leaving it untapped.

As you know – the KKE – from the very first moment – faced all the electoral battles with uniform political criteria in all the polls. As we have stated on many occasions, the EU gives anti-popular directives, the governments implement them, the municipal and regional authorities specify them, within a asphyxiating institutional framework that has been co-created by all the other parties who have governed.

With the results up until now, the KKE gathers about 6% and elects 2 European Parliament members. The ballots of the “People's Rally” pass into the 2nd round in the 5 Municipalities where we had the majority in the past five years. However, in other municipalities, where we did not make it into the 2nd round, the ballots of the “People's Rally” recorded a significant presence in all the municipalities that varies in presence with hundreds of new municipal councilors in the Municipal Councils.

It's positive that the KKE remains a consistent force for popular interests, with the trend of renewing its forces.

Naturally, we do not underestimate the fact that the correlation of forces is still very negative in Greece and in Europe, that the labor – popular movement has still not passed into a phase of dynamic and even more massive counter-attack. We are fully aware that within the broad sections of the people, reduced demands, defeatism, fatalism prevail, as a result of demobilization and reduced participation in the movement.

We believe that such people have a much more positive stance towards the KKE, monitors its positions, is concerned, even though it still hasn't been convinced to take a more decisive step.

The electoral results for SYRIZA record popular discontent towards its government, which in recent years has implemented anti-people policies, continuing the work of the ND and PASOK governments, tantalizing the people with provisions of “crumbs” , something that ND in its own way also proclaimed.

It is not, however, positive that the people are turning to older tried and failed choices such as ND and PASOK / KINAL or other forces that are being supported and prepared to play the role of either of the bulwark, or the complement to unpopular government management.

SYRIZA has enormous responsibility because with its policies it allowed ND and PASOK to appear justified for their previous anti-popular work. In essence, it absolved them of any responsibility.

It is positive that Golden Dawn was knocked from third to fifth place and that the KKE is ahead. Of course, changes of position, such as those concerning the Greek Solution, constitute the reformulation of an overall anti-popular reactionary political scene.

The results of the KKE sends a message of hope to Communist parties and militant forces in other countries who are struggling under difficult conditions to draw a radical line of recovery and regroupment of the Communist and labor movement across Europe, away from its deadly embrace with social democracy, the beautifying of the EU or the illusion of being able to reform it for the benefit of the people's interest and the policy of being integrated and participating in bourgeois anti-people management.

It is a positive fact that in these elections a certain trend of joining forces with the KKE was expressed, with people who have struggled with us in previous years in the workers' and farmers' movement, with people of art, culture, sports, armed forces and security forces, some of whom had previously made other political choices.

This trend to join forces with the KKE expresses positive processes that we will work to multiply in workplaces in working class neighborhoods, in rural areas, within the movement rather than behind the scenes in the parliament. We are confident that such processes and even more positive ones exist in workplaces, in neighborhoods. This trend must be broadened as we approach the parliamentary elections.

The day after the elections we will encounter new forces on the path of counter-attack, on the path of political and mass struggle. Votes for the KKE will be affirmed from tomorrow morning, everywhere, in every neighborhood, in the schools, in the universities to block new measures, to claim relief measures for the unemployed, to rebuild the workers' popular movement, for the social Alliance

The KKE will continue to show the way for a genuine people-friendly way-out for our people, along with the readiness from tomorrow for a harsh confrontation and struggle for relief for the working people, the unemployed, popular households, pensioners, the youth, all those who are suffering. To block worse measures from anti-people local administrations in the municipalities and the regions. To block new governmental anti-popular measures. To demand satisfaction for contemporary popular needs. To be on the alert and have readiness for the dangerous designs of the USA-NATO and their rivalries in the region, in which the SYRIZA government actively participates, with the substantial agreement of the other parties.

We are facing the battle of parliamentary elections at the end of June. We will wage this battle with optimism, against dilemmas, that will be strengthened even more in the name of some slight differences, that do not change in essence the strategic association between SYRIZA, ND and the other parties. We especially call upon the workers, the progressives and militants to not give in to the extortionary dilemmas that will intensify over the next month.

Our slogan remains necessary and timely:

With a powerful KKE we can make a truly great difference, for there to exist a genuine people's opposition, a genuine support for the people facing every anti-popular government that will arise, for a real wall to be raised against the far-right and fascism, conservatism, for us to open the road together with the people as the genuine leader of the developments.

#Greece #PeoplesStruggles #KKE #CommunistPartyOfGreece #Europe

New York, NY – On the evening of October 13, members and friends of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) celebrated the 100th anniversary of its founding at the Kefalos Society in New York City. The highlight of the evening was an address about the current situation in Greece and the world by Zissis Lymperidis, a member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the KKE. Before his address, various friends and fraternal parties of the KKE from New York City presented short greetings. After the greetings there was a presentation of a video showing the heroic history of this party and the struggles they have engaged in.

The KKE is one of the few communist parties in existence today that can claim a history full of all phases of the struggle of the working class to establish socialism. For the majority of its history the KKE has had a clandestine existence. It has organized among Greek workers and farmers legally and illegally. The armed resistance to the Italian fascist and German Nazi occupation during WW II was led by the KKE and its fighters. When British and U.S. imperialism re-imposed the Greek monarchy and aided right-wing forces to take over Greece after the war, the KKE led a guerilla war of resistance for three years before succumbing to a military defeat, which resulted in thousands of progressive and left-wing activists being imprisoned and murdered in concentration camps.

In present day Greece, the KKE is represented in the national parliament and carries out political and economic struggle throughout Greece among workers and farmers. Comrade Lymperidis’ speech spoke of these struggles and explained the positions of the KKE.

He stated:

“The KKE is struggling daily to develop the subjective factor (labor movement, its alliance with popular middle class divisions) so that under conditions of shock to the capitalist power to respond to the duty as the driving force of the victorious socialist revolution. It battles daily to justify its primary role as a visionary, but also as an organizer of the struggle for radical revolutionary reversal of capitalist barbarism, the construction of socialism-communism.”

He emphasized later in his speech that the KKE has made an evaluation of its previous political work and has made a strategic decision not to enter into any electoral alliances with social democratic parties such as the current governing party of Greece, SYRIZA. He said:

“. . .it has been shown that so-called ‘left-wing governments’ are a mechanism for managing and reproducing capitalist exploitation. They cultivate illusions about the humanization of capitalism and a risky expectation that in the conditions of capitalist exploitation the popular problems can be solved, people’s needs can be met.”

He went to say that these governments frequently pave the way for the return of right-wing governments.

This was perhaps one of the most relevant comments for the Marxist-Leninist left in the United States and our work, since there are many activists who considered themselves on the left and espouse reformist positions that support the idea of a ‘better’ or more ‘humane’ capitalism.

The celebration presented many thoughts and examples of struggle from one of the most battle-hardened and experience Communist parties in the world. This work will continue in Greece, when the KKE will be hosting the International Meeting of Communist and Labor Parties on November 23-25 as the peak of its 100th anniversary celebrations.

#NewYorkNY #WorkersAndGlobalization #KKE #CommunistPartyOfGreece #Socialism #Syriza #KefalosSociety

The “left traffic cops” of capitalism

The government of the “leftwing” SYRIZA party that joined together with the nationalist ANEL party in government, has been face to face since the beginning of January 2016 with major popular mobilizations, which have been caused by the unbearable economic situation experienced by the workers and other popular strata. The people in this country are facing the serious consequences of the capitalist crisis for the 7th year running, like unemployment, for example. The SYRIZA-ANEL government is seeking to implement a third memorandum, which it passed together with the votes of the other bourgeois parties, aiming to transfer the new burdens onto the shoulders of the working class, the poor and medium farmers, the self-employed. It is continuing on the path of taxing the people heavily, reducing the gains of the workers and people and is seeking do the same via the new social-security law.

But how can a “left” party manage capitalism in these conditions?

The SYRIZA government claims that there is no other path for the country, other than the path inside the EU, inside capitalism. It accuses the KKE of arguing for “fantastical”, “unrealistic” policies, for “things that cannot be implemented” etc. And it even argues that because it is a “left” government it can implement this specific political line much better than the previous “rightwing” and social-democratic governments.

At the same time, they claim, for example in a recent article published in SYRIZA's newspaper, “Avgi”, that “globalized capitalism steals the toil of the farmers, not the government.” These type of “thoughtful” analyses attempt to justify the government and its political line.

In addition, a few days earlier, the Minister of Labour, Giorgos Katrougalos, in his response to a question tabled by MPs of the KKE that asked what the government will do about the case of the “Softex” company, which decided to close its factory in Greece, laying off hundreds of workers, stated the following:“we exhausted every possibility to exert pressure that a Ministry of Labor in a capitalist country can”, however the employers answered that the closure “is a final decision taken by the shareholders”. He also said that “There are limits to what a Ministry of Labor can do in a capitalist state.”

So the cadres of SYRIZA are implementing the following tactic: When the decision reaches the deeper causes of the problems of the workers and poor farmers, the question of capitalist profit, the role of the European Union, its Common Agricultural Policy, they present themselves as “realists” and as being “in touch with things” and accuse those that highlight the need of coming into rupture with the EU and also with capitalist ownership and power as being stuck in ... 1917 and proposing things “that cannot happen”.

And when the discussion focuses on the responsibilities of the government, they discover “globalized capitalism”, “the limits that exist in capitalism.” But SYRIZA must answer the following question: If globalized capital is to blame, how should one describe those that pass laws that serve this wretched system, those that as a national government serve its functioning and goals, driving the small and medium farmers off the land? How should we label the servants of capitalism? Maybe as its “leftwing traffic cops”?

Popular Unity (LAE) and “good” privatizations

However the other section of SYRIZA, “SYRIZA mark 2”, named “Popular Unity”, follows step by step the social democratic-reformist line of fostering illusions amongst the workers. So the MEP of Popular Unity N.Chountis, in a question tabled to the European Commission, asked in relation to the privatization of the electricity company (IPTO), “How is the ruling out non-European companies from the tender bids for the 20% of the company that will be awarded to a strategic investor consistent with EU legislation and the need to achieve a better price”. A few days earlier, in his speech on the same subject in the plenum of the EU Parliament, he characterized the “Commission's model for privatizations” as being a “failure”.

The MEP of Popular Unity seems to have taken on the task of “correcting” the “failed EU model of privatizations”, bringing other “players” into the game so that a better price can be achieved for the sale of IPTO.

It is apparent that the cadres of Popular Unity were well trained through their participation in bourgeois management, during the 1st SYRIZA-ANEL government, and have become experts in privatizations and advancing capitalist barbarity.

International Relations Section of the CC of the KKE

#Greece #Europe #KKE #CommunistPartyOfGreece #Syriza

Workers-Farmers, one voice and one fist

Thousands of farmers flooded the centre of Athens, outside the Parliament building, on the 12th and 13th of February. The farmers are waging a struggle of economic survival and for over 20 days and nights have set up roadblocks at around 100 points on the national highways. At the initiative of 68 roadblocks, a decision was taken to hold a national farmers' demonstration in Syntagma Square in Athens.

It was decided to hold a demonstration as the next step to escalate the struggle of the small and medium farmers, in a meeting held a week ago in Nikaia, Larisa, where it was also decided to maintain and reinforce the roadblocks, to intensify their local activity, to reject every attempt by the government to set up a dialogue in order to manipulate the farmers' struggle without taking back any of the measures that are driving the small and medium farmers off the land.

Tens of thousands of farmers reached Athens by coach and ferry to demonstrate, while those gathered enthusiastically welcomed a symbolic number of 18 tractors, which had set out a day earlier from the country's biggest roadblock on the national highway at Nikaia (Larisa).The tractors that arrived after a 14 hour journey were bedecked with flags depicting Marinos Antypas (1872-1907), the socialist revolutionary who was murdered by the big landowners.

Representatives of many farmers' roadblocks and workers' trade unions spoke at the rally.

The two-day farmers' mobilization gained the support and solidarity of workers and other popular strata. The class-oriented unions, rallied in the All-workers' Militant Front (PAME), highlighted the need to strengthen the common struggle together with the farmers, to reinforce the alliance with the poor urban and rural popular strata. The success of the farmers' demonstration, in combination with the successful general strike on the 4th of February, creates better conditions for the escalation of the workers'-people's struggle, with the central demand being the withdrawal of the law-guillotine for the social security system.

As the presidents of the farmers' associations in the prefectures of Karditsa and Larisa noted, the struggling farmers will return to the roadblocks after the rally in Athens, where they will decide on the suitable forms for the further continuation of their struggle.

Statements of the General Secretary (GS) of the Central Committee (CC) of the KKE

Dimitris Koutsoumpas, the GS of the CC of the KKE, attended the national farmers' demonstration on Friday evening, 12th of February, and made the following statement:

“The farmers' demands are just. The struggle of the Greek farmers is just. We are at their side. The government must at last stop slandering the farmers' movement, the Greek farmers. They are fighting and struggling for decent lives for them and their families, so that they can remain in their fields and villages. So that they can live decently and produce the food necessary for the Greek people. Primary production, the agricultural economy must be supported, here and now.

The government after today's popular mobilization must withdraw the monstrous draft law that will destroy the social-security system. This bill cannot be improved or amended. If in the end they bring it before Parliament, it must be defeated. It must not push forward with the draft tax laws, which once more attack Greek farmers and the working people as a whole. On the contrary, it must abolish the crushing tax laws, all the anti-social security laws, to continue to provide free fuel, as it does to the ship-owners, so that the Greek farmer has cheap energy and can produce and feed the Greek people, being able to cover the costs of production, so that their families can live decently and proudly in the Greek villages and countryside. We, the workers, unemployed, all the other farmers who could not travel here today, the self-employed tradesmen, the youth, the women from the popular families are with them. We will continue until the victory. We wish everyone strength.”

The GS of the CC of the KKE, Dimitris Koutsoumpas, also attended the solidarity demonstration (Saturday the 13th of February) with the small and medium farmers organized by labour unions, federations and labour centres, rallied in PAME, and stated the following to the mass media:

“There is one message: Workers-farmers one voice, one fist. Workers, farmers, the urban self-employed, the pensioners, youth, women from the popular families, have common class interests against the class that exploits them, against the anti-people guillotine-laws, like the social security and tax bills, against the governments that vote for these laws, against the predatory alliances that suck our people dry. What we need now is a people's alliance and counterattack.”

#AthensGreece #Athens #Greece #PeoplesStruggles #KKE #CommunistPartyOfGreece #Europe

The workers'-people's mobilizations have been intensifying in Greece since the beginning of 2016, focusing on the reactionary changes the SYRIZA-ANEL government is seeking to make to the social-security and pension system, wiping out significant workers' gains, increasing the social-security contributions of the workers and the retirement age, reducing pensions and cutting social benefits, e.g. for people with special needs.

Hundreds of trade unions all over the country, rallied by the All-workers' Militant Front (PAME) have been carrying out mobilizations in the first weeks of 2016 including pickets, rallies, symbolic occupations of public buildings, demonstrations, strikes. So, yesterday, 26/1, PAME held new demonstrations in Athens and other cities. The demonstrators in Athens reached Parliament, at the time when the discussion between the political leaders was underway in relation to the impending anti-people changes to the social-security system. At the same time, PAME's forces are playing the leading role in organizing the general strike that has been called for the 4th of February. PAME's basic demand is for the government to withdraw its plans, the law “guillotine”, as the anti-people plans of the “leftwing” SYRIZA government have been labeled by the workers.

In addition, all over the country there are impressive mobilizations of small and medium farmers, who have set up dozens of roadblocks on the country's motorways, protesting against the heavy taxes, against the EU's political line that is destroying them, as well as against the government's plan to foist new burdens on them in relation to social-security. Only at one roadblock outside the city of Larisa (Nikaia), on the country's central motorway, over 2,500 tractors have gathered at the largest farmers' roadblock in the country. Representatives from 37 roadblocks met on 26/1 at Nikaia to discuss the framework of their demands. They stress in their resolution that “We came onto the roads to struggle for our survival. To fight against the political line that wants to destroy us, to drive us off the land, to poverty and destitution, so that the land and production can be concentrated in the hands of the big farmers and business groups, implementing the directives of the CAP and of the EU in general. So that the measures to wipe out the small and medium farmers do not pass, i.e. the measures of the Third memorandum that the government agreed to with its partners, the EU and IMF, and passed with votes of other parties. These measures attack the workers and the people as a whole.” The small and medium farmers refuse to take their tractors off the roads and discuss with the government until it withdraws its draft law for the social-security system and responds to their demands, such as, for example, those related to tax reductions, reductions to the cost of production and others.

The self-employed, youth, women, who are also being attacked by the government's plans, are at the side of PAME and the small and medium farmers. An important role in these popular mobilizations is being played by the forces of the “All-farmers' Militant Rally” (PASY), the “Nationwide Anti-monopoly Rally” (PASEVE), the Students' Struggle Front (MAS) and the Federation of Greek Women (OGE). The size and dynamism of the mobilizations is such that the silence of the foreign media (US, European, Russian etc.) is noteworthy. These media have either completely concealed these mobilizations or have mentioned them in a very brief way. For this reason, the KKE is adding new photographs and videos from these struggles onto its foreign language web pages on a daily basis- http://inter.kke.gr/en/firstpage/ While those that understand Greek can visit the KKE's news portal at http://www.902.gr/ , where there is the relevant news stream.

Dimitris Koutsoumpas: The SYRIZA government is a useful multitool of the decaying capitalist system.

Dimitris Koutsoumpas, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the KKE, speaking in Parliament on 26/1, noted amongst other things, “Social security is one of the most important gains.

It is at the heart of the life of the families from the working class and popular strata. It safeguards the protection of the weak, including social insurance and pension cover, access to health and welfare services, special institutional protection for those who have unsafe and unhealthy occupations, protection from work-related accidents, leave for pregnancy and recuperation. These gains were not given easily, but achieved through the tough and bloody struggles of the workers”.

The General Secretary of the Central Committee of the KKE stressed that the goals of the government are the implementation of the plans of the capitalists to end the social character to insurance, to transform it into a private matter for each individual worker. So that sections of capital-insurance companies, big health businesses- to benefit from the collapse of the social-security system. In addition, thousands of poor farmers and self-employed people, who cannot endure the competition, are being violently driven from production. Their position in production will be taken by the large capitalist businesses.

D. Koutsoumpas underlined that “this government is finishing the dirty work, on behalf of capital, that ND and PASOK did not have the time or were not able to finish.” He underscored that the SYRIZA government is a “useful multitool of this decaying system.”

The General Secretary of the Central Committee tabled in Parliament the draft law, which the KKE has elaborated and meets the needs of the people today in relation to social security and also expressed the party's support for the workers', farmers' and other popular mobilizations, stressing that “the same and similar measures are being taken in all the EU countries. They are directions that have been in place since the beginning of the 1990s.”

He added that “The only force that can impede the government's plans to impoverish the people, that can put a brake on the surge of the monopoly groups and their governments is a strong social alliance of the people. The KKE calls on the workers to join a mass front of struggle to save and strengthen the institution of public social security (...) We say that we can lead a life with dignity, with contemporary rights. In any case, this is what history teaches us and also the gains of other peoples in the socialist countries, which were achieved in the previous century. Insurance, pensions, medical cover were the exclusive responsibility of the state (...) So we can live, our people can live as they deserve to, as long as the our country's productive potential, natural resources, concentrated means of production, become socially owned, under the aegis of people's power. So that they are utilized through central planning, which will be scientifically guided, with the active participation of the workers in the organization and administration of social production and social services, with disengagement from the shackles of the EU and unilateral cancellation of the debt. Only in this way can there be an end to the increasing torments of our people caused by the capitalist system, its crises, the EU and the governments that manage this path.”

#Greece #Europe #PeoplesStruggles #KKE #CommunistPartyOfGreece #Syriza

At the daybreak of Saturday 21/11 the coalition government SYRIZA-ANEL deployed, at the request of the employer, riot police forces against the workers of “Zoura” poultry breeding industry in Thessaloniki because they dared to go on strike to demand their wages that the employer has not paid for months.

A mass planed intervention of the riot police forces took place at the daybreak approximately at 4:30 a.m. at the factory. 28 workers were arrested in the presence of the Magistrate of the Police Court with the charge of “illegal violence” and “disturbance of social peace”, amongst them Leonidas Stoltidis, secretary of the Labour Centre of Thessaloniki and member of the Executive Secretariat of PAME, Manolis Karantousas, chairman of the Federation of Workers in Food and Beverage Industry, Giannis Tzavaras chairman of the workers’ union in “Zoura” company, 4 members of the board of the trade union in Food and Beverage industry in Central Macedonia etc.

PAME denounced the assault, while a delegation of the KKE protested at the Central Security Directorate of Thessaloniki. Throughout their mobilization the workers had the support of a large delegation of the Party Organization of the KKE in Central Macedonia, the MP and member of the CC Sakis Vardalis and Sotiris Zarianopoulos MEP of KKE.

#ThessalonikiGreecee #Thessaloniki #Greece #CommunistPartyOfGreece #Europe

Members of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and Communist Youth of Greece hung two giant banners on the Acropolis Oct. 31 to express solidarity with refuges and condemning the European Union and NATO for their role in creating the crisis. The banners read, “The EU and NATO are turning the Mediterranean into a sea of the dead. Stop this crime now. Solidarity and immediate support measures for the refugees.”

#Greece #Europe #KKE #CommunistPartyOfGreece #Acropolis #Parthenon

The SYRIZA-ANEL government recently resigned, resulting in new early parliamentary elections (most likely on the 20/9).

As is well known, SYRIZA won the elections in January 2015, deceiving the workers, promising the abolition of the anti-people laws, which had been previously passed by the governments of PASOK and ND, after the agreements (memoranda) with the imperialist organizations (EU, IMF, ECB).

The KKE had warned in a timely fashion that SYRIZA, a “left”, an opportunist party which mutated into a social-democratic party, was chosen by the bourgeoisie to manage the crisis and cannot implement a political line in favor of the people.

Our party had formulated its position that there can be no way out in favor of the working class and the other popular strata inside the capitalist development path, the EU and NATO.

As was demonstrated in a few months of managing capitalism, the “left” SYRIZA, which governed together with “right” nationalist party ANEL, not only did not abolish the 2 previous memoranda and most of the 400 anti-people application laws of the previous governments, but implemented them and passed through Parliament a third even more painful agreement (memorandum) with the imperialist powers. This agreement had the support of the other bourgeois parties and was voted for in Parliament by them: “rightwing” ND, “Social-democratic” PASOK, the “centre” party “POTAMI”. This new agreement massacres any rights that have remained, imposes new reductions in wages and pensions, abolishes social-security rights, imposes even more intense taxation of the popular strata, promotes the policy of privatizations etc.

In addition, the “Left-patriotic” government consistently operated during these months inside the framework of our country’s participation in the imperialist unions of NATO and the EU, of the “strategic alliance” with the USA. It participated in every NATO mission and exercise, it organized military exercises even with Israel, it promised a new base for the USA and NATO (on the island of Karpathos), it voted in the EU for the extension and reinforcement of the trade war against Russia etc.

So, in practice it has been demonstrated that the SYRIZA-ANEL government is another anti-people government, which with “”left” slogans served in an equally faithful way the bourgeoisie, the EU and NATO as the previous governments had done. Today, the governing SYRIZA-ANEL parties, using the same arguments that ND and PASOK had used in the past, defends the new anti-people agreement as the only way of keeping the country in the Eurozone and EU, something that it presents as the people’s salvation. SYRIZA, just as all the other bourgeois parties, sows the illusion amongst the working class and people that the EU and capitalism can be humanized, as long as the workers continue to endure the anti-people measures.

At the same time, the bourgeois political system in order to curb and control any radical changes in the people’s consciousness that could be brought about by the exposure of SYRIZA’s role continues to manufacture new parties. One such party, with the title “Laiki Enotita” (People’s Unity), was formed by MPs and former ministers from SYRIZA. These forces, which were active as a “left platform” inside SYRIZA, bear grave responsibilities as regards the deception of the people. They participated, even as ministers, in the implementation of the previous anti-people laws. They actively participated in the attempt during the previous period to trick the people that there is an alternative proposal for them inside the walls of the EU and agreed with the anti-people agreement that was signed by the SYRIZA-ANEL government with the Troika on the 20th of February, with the anti-people proposal of 47 pages submitted by SYRIZA to the EU etc. Now that the illusions fostered by SYRIZA have been dented, these forces promote the return to the national currency as a solution for the people, along with other measures for the management of the system. They act as a “barrier” to the radicalization of the people, seeking to trap the people inside the capitalist development path.

Over this entire period, the KKE consistently exposed the role of SYRIZA and the other bourgeois parties, struggled for the abolition of the memoranda and all the anti-people measures, to prevent new measures, to develop the workers’-people’s struggle for the recovery of their losses and the satisfaction of their needs in combination with the only alternative solution that is in the interests of the working class and other popular strata:

The regroupment of the labor movement and the construction social-people’s alliance between the working class, the poor farmers, the urban self-employed, the youth and women from the families of the popular strata in order to strengthen the antimonopoly-anticapitalist struggle for the real overthrow, the socialization of the monopolies, the disengagement from the EU and NATO and the unilateral cancellation of the debt, with workers’-people’s power.

We are waging the struggle with this line in order to strengthen the KKE in the labour-people’s movement and in Parliament, unwaveringly continuing the struggle for the interests of the working class and its liberation from the shackles of capitalist exploitation.

#Greece #KKE #CommunistPartyOfGreece #Syriza #Europe

Nosotros, Partidos Comunistas y Obreros, estamos siguiendo los acontecimientos en Grecia, la ofensiva de la Unión Europea, del capital y sus representantes políticos contra los derechos obreros y populares.

Nuestros partidos han apoyado las luchas de los trabajadores griegos y han expresado su solidaridad internacionalista y su apoyo hacia la lucha del KKE.

Durante muchos años, los gobiernos de ND y PASOK, en cooperación con la UE, el BCE y el FMI, han aplicado memorándums y duras leyes anti-populares con dolorosas consecuencias para la clase obrera y los sectores populares.

Hoy, el acuerdo anti-popular, el tercer memorándum, que fue firmado por el gobierno SYRIZA-ANEL, y apoyado por ND y el PASOK, con la Troika, mantiene las medidas anti-populares de los anteriores gobiernos e impone nuevas cargas a los trabajadores de Grecia, impuestos insoportables, la abolición de los derechos laborales y de seguridad social, las reducciones en los salarios y las pensiones, privatizaciones, etc., empeorando todavía más la situación de las familias de las capas populares.

Estos acontecimientos nos permiten extraer algunas conclusiones útiles para fortalecer la lucha popular:

-el capitalismo no puede ser humanizado. Genera crisis, desempleo y pobreza. En realidad, se ha demostrado que toda gestión del sistema agudiza los problemas del pueblo e incrementa los beneficios del gran capital.

-la UE es una organización reaccionaria e imperialista. La “democracia”, la “solidaridad” y la justicia social no pueden existir en su marco.

Los Partidos Comunistas y Obreros que firmamos este mensaje apreciamos la decidida y consecuente posición del KKE junto a la clase obrera y el pueblo griego por la abolición de los memorándums, contra el acuerdo anti-popular firmado por el gobierno de SYRIZA-ANEL (y el resto de partidos políticos burgueses) con la Troika (UE-BCE-FMI).

Nuestros partidos saludan la lucha de los comunistas de Grecia por los derechos obreros y populares, el derrocamiento de la barbarie capitalista y por el socialismo.

17/07/2015

1. PC de Albania
2. Partido Argelino por la Democracia y el Socialismo (PADS)
3. PC de Macedonia (ARYM)
4. PC de Australia
5. Partido del Trabajo de Austria
6. PC de Bangladesh
7. PO Bangladesh
8. PC de los Obreros en Bielorrusia
9. PC Brasileño
10. Polo Comunista Luiz Carlos Prestes – Brasil
11. PC de Bretaña
12. NPC de Bretaña
13. PC de Bulgaria
14. Partido de los Comunistas de Bulgaria
15. Unión de Comunistas de Bulgaria
16. PC de Canadá
17. PC en Dinamarca
18. PC, Dinamarca
19. PC de Eslovaquia
20. PC de los Pueblos de España
21. Movimiento Galego al Socialismo
22. Primera Línea, Galiza
23. Partido de los Comunistas EE.UU
24. Organización Socialista Camino de la Libertad (FRSO) – EEUU
25. PC de Filipinas – 1930
26. Partido Comunista Obrero de Finlandia
27. Polo de Renacimiento Comunista en Francia
28. PC Unificado de Georgia
29. PO Húngaro
30. Partido de los Trabajadores de Irlanda
31. PC, Italia
32. Movimiento Socialista de Kazajstán
33. PC de Luxemburgo
34. PC de Malta
35. PC de Mexico
36. PPS de Mexico
37. Nuevo PC de los Países Bajos
38. PC de Noruega
39. Partido Comunista de Pakistán
40. PC Palestino
41. PP Palestino
42. PC de Polonia
43. PC de Puerto Rico
44. Partido Comunista de la Federación Rusa
45. PC Obrero Ruso
46. PC de la Unión Soviética
47. Nuevo Partido Comunista de Yugoslavia
48. Partido Comunista Sirio
49. PC Sudafricano
50. PC de Suecia
51. PC (Turquía)
52. PC de Ucrania
53. Unión de los Comunistas de Ucrania
54. Refundacion Comunista de Uruguay
55. PC de Venezuela

#Greece #PeoplesStruggles #solidarity #CommunistPartyOfGreece #Europe

Dear comrades,

We, Communist and Workers Parties are following the developments in Greece, the offensive of the European Union, capital and its political representatives against the workers'-people's rights.

We, Communist and Workers' Parties have supported the struggles of the Greek workers and we have expressed our internationalist solidarity with and support for the struggle of the KKE.

For many years, the governments of ND and PASOK in cooperation with the EU-ECB-IMF have implemented memoranda and harsh anti-people laws with painful consequences for the working class and popular strata.

Today, the anti-people agreement-third memorandum which was signed by the SYRIZA-ANEL government, supported by ND and PASOK, with the Troika maintains the anti-people measures of the previous governments and thrusts new burdens onto the workers of Greece, unbearable taxation, the abolition of social-security and labour rights, the reductions in wages and pensions, privatizations etc., worsening the situation of the families from the popular strata even further.

These developments allow us to draw certain useful conclusions in order to strengthen the people's struggle, such as:

Capitalism can not be humanized. It gives rise to crises, unemployment and poverty. In reality, it has been demonstrated that every kind of management of the system sharpens the people's problems and increases the profits of big capital.

The EU is a reactionary imperialist organization. “Democracy”, “Solidarity” and social justice can not exist inside its framework.

We, the Communist and Workers Parties which sign this message, appreciate the decisive-consistent stance of the KKE at the side of the working class, the Greek people for the abolition of the memoranda, against the anti-people agreement signed by the SYRIZA-ANEL government (and the other bourgeois political parties) with the Troika (EU-ECB-IMF).

Our parties salute the struggle of the communists in Greece for the workers'-people's rights, the overthrow of capitalist barbarity, for socialism.

1. CP of Albania

2. CP of Australia

3. Party of Labour of Austria

4. Algerian Party for Democracy and Socialism (PADS),

5. CP of Bangladesh

6. CP of the Workers of Belarus

7. Brazilian CP

8. CP of Britain

9. CP of Bulgaria

10. Party of the Bulgarian Communists

11. Union of Communists in Bulgaria

12. CP in Denmark

13. UCP of Georgia

14. Workers' Party of Hungary

15. Workers' Party of Ireland

16. CP of Macedonia (FYROM)

17. CP of Malta

18. CP of Mexico

19. Popular Socialist Party of Mexico

20. NCP of the Netherlands

21. CP of Pakistan

22. Phillipinese CP [PKP-1930]

23. CP of Poland

24. Russian CWP

25. NCP of Yugoslavia

26. CP of Slovakia

27. South African CP

28. CP of the Peoples of Spain

29. Syrian CP

30. CP (Turkey)

31. Party of Communists USA

32. Freedom Road Socialist Organization (USA)

33. CP of Venezuela

#Greece #PeoplesStruggles #solidarity #CommunistPartyOfGreece #Europe

No to the new “leftwing” memorandum

The government of “leftwing” SYRIZA and nationalist ANEL, with the support of the rightwing ND, the social-democratic PASOK (who governed together until January 2015), the centre party POTAMI, is thrusting new unbearable anti-people burdens onto the working class and other popular strata.

On the night of the 10th of July, it placed before the full plenum of the parliament the question of “authorizing” the government to negotiate a new, 3rd memorandum of anti-people measures, posing the following dilemma: the continuation of the anti-people political line or the country’s bankruptcy and an exit from the eurozone.

The Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras defended his memorandum, the Tsipras-memorandum, arguing in essence that the anti-people measures are being taken n order to regain the confidence of the investors and markets.

At 5 in the morning 251 MPs votes for the government’s proposal, while the entire Parliamentary Group of the KKE voted against it. As a whole there were 32 against, 8 who voted “present” and 9 who were absent.

These developments, which reveal once again the true face of the “left-patriotic” government of SYRIZA-ANEL, also expose the unacceptable stance of various forces abroad in recent months, which supported the government, including some communist and workers’ parties, allegedly in the name of “solidarity with Greece”.

Speaking in the full plenum of the Parliament, during the discussion regarding the provision of “authorization” for the government to agree to the new, 3rd memorandum, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the KKE, Dimitris Koutsoumpas, addressing the government stressed: “You were always supporters of political amorality, opportunism, which literally and without its deeper theoretical dimension simply means being opportunistic and adventurist.

Just 10 days ago, in this very hall, during the discussion of the proposal for the referendum, the KKE clearly pointed out to you that you were calling on the people to take part in a referendum with a “yes” or “no” that only had superficial differences, as both the “yes” and the “no” meant the acceptance of a new memorandum, perhaps worse than those we have already seen.

You adjusted the “no” of the people to a “yes” for the new memorandum.

Something that was confirmed the very day after the referendum, when the rest of the political parties, those that supported a “yes” and those that supported a “no” agreed to a new memorandum which will be even harsher.

We were certain from the beginning that this would happen.

Not because we are soothsayers, but because your strategy, but because your programme, your position towards the EU, eurozone and the capitalist unions in general, your position regarding the development path and system that you want to serve, inevitably lead to you to struggle at the side of the EU, ECB, IMF, big capital, the monopoly groups, over how the division of the spoils will be conducted, how you will serve their profitability, how in the end you will reduce the people’s income, how you will economically reduce the price of labour power, how you will suck the people dry, so that the parasites of the system will prosper.”

The General Secretary of the Central Committee of the KKE, in reference of the government’s dilemma “anti-people agreement, i.e. memorandum, or Grexit” stressed that: “The 3rd memorandum will also mean the real bankruptcy of the people. Of course in a somewhat more organized way. We will have barbaric anti-people measures. With the Grexit we will see a rapid pauperization, the people’s bankruptcy together with state bankruptcy, without a way out, still trapped inside the walls of the EU, inside the same old capitalist development path.

This is why all the other parties bear historic responsibilities, especially SYRIZA which is in government today and was trusted by the people.

A real way out from the crisis and development in favour of the workers’-people’s interests require the organization of the people, their full preparation, honest talk, clear programmes and positions so that the people themselves decide to take power and to organize the economy and new society, outside and far away from the imperialist unions, with central planning, with social ownership of the wealth produced by the working class and our people.

All the other options are the failed experiments in social-democratic management, allegedly leftwing governments that manage the system, inside the framework of capitalism, and which after spreading fleeting hopes and false expectations lead the people to great disillusionment, the labour movement to retreat and strengthen conservative and even extremely reactionary trends among the popular forces.”

In reference to the entanglement of the “Greek issue” in the inter-imperialist contradictions, D. Koutsoumpas noted that: “You often present the “cruel” Schauble as the only opponent, Schauble who represents an important section of German capital, and that the friends of Greece from time to time are the USA and the IMF, and now France, focusing on the issue of the restructuring of the state debt.

Neither US or French or German capital are the friends of the people. They all demand the slaughter of the people’s rights and income. The competition between them is being conducted on the terrain of the capitalist crisis and the deep unevenness that permeates the hard core of the Eurozone. The USA and Germany are competing for hegemony in Europe. The IMF, France and Germany over the future of the eurozone. Sections of domestic capital, industrialists, banking and shipping groups are involved in this confrontation.

As long as we are involved in this dangerous web of contradictions all the alternatives will be a nightmare for the people: either the anti-people agreement/memorandum or a state default or a Grexit or even a possible war in the wider region.”

The General Secretary underlined the following as regards the future developments:

Despite the temporary compromise the tendency for the expulsion of countries remains strong. This does not concern merely Greece but all indebted countries and even those which are candidates to join the euro.

The people must not choose between their bankruptcy under the Euro or a bankruptcy under the Drachma.

A decisive solution in favour of the people requires a true rupture that has nothing to do with the fake rupture that certain forces within SYRIZA invoke when they defend the exit of Greece solely from the Eurozone.

Those who claim –including forces of SYRIZA, as well as other nationalist, reactionary forces from another standpoint– that the exit of Greece from the Eurozone, with a depreciated currency, will give impetus to competitiveness and growth and will have positive consequences for the people, are deliberately deceiving the people.

The prospect of Greece as a capitalist country with a national currency does not constitute any rupture in favour of the people. Those political forces that promote this goal as a solution or an intermediate goal for radical changes (such as the “Left Platform of SYRIZA, ANTARSYA as well as other ultra right, fascist forces in Europe) are actually playing the game of certain sections of capital.

So we will not choose whether we will go bankrupt under the Euro or the drachma, under an internal or external devaluation.

For this reason we do not choose between a memorandum and a Grexit.

Because there is an alternative solution if the people struggle for a rupture with the EU, capital and their power.

For example, we can abolish the EU commitments which have caused stagnation in domestic production, from sugar and meat to shipbuilding and many other sectors.

We can utilize the contradictions between the imperialist centres and achieve international agreements of mutual benefit for Greece under people’s power, which will be disengaged from the EU and NATO.

We can pave the way for the satisfaction of the people’s needs if we proceed to the socialization of monopolies, the means of production with scientific nationwide planning of economy”.

Finally, D. Koutsoumpas noted that the KKE called on the working people to organize their counterattack in the streets and the workplaces against the new destructive measures.

In the afternoon of the same day (Friday 10th July) PAME organized mass rallies in Athens and other major cities throughout the country against the 3rd (“leftwing”) memorandum of anti-people measures. The demonstrations were joined by trade unions, People’s Committees, Women’s Associations and Groups, mass organizations and Struggle Committees of self-employed and craftsmen as well as students i.e. by those who are being attacked by the measures of the coalition government. All of them declared: “enough! There is another path in favour of the people”.

D. Koutsoumpas who participated in the mass rally of PAME in Athens stated: “we cannot waste any more time. The working people must organize their struggle, promote their demands and organize the people’s alliance”.

#AthensGreece #Athens #Greece #PeoplesStruggles #WorkersAndGlobalization #austerity #CommunistPartyOfGreece #Socialism #Europe

As is well-known, the government of the “left” and in essence social-democratic SYRIZA party and of the “rightwing” nationalist party ANEL, in an attempt to manage the complete bankruptcy of its pre-election commitments, announced a referendum for the 5th July 2015, with the only question being whether the citizens agree or not with the proposed agreement, which had been tabled by the EU, IMF and ECB and concerns the continuation of the anti-people measures for a way out from the capitalist crisis, with Greece remaining in the euro.

The coalition government’s officials call on the people to say “no” and make it clear that this “no” in the referendum will be interpreted by the Greek government as approval for its own proposed agreement with the EU, IMF, ECB, which in its 47+8 pages also contains harsh antiworker-antipeople measures, with the aim of increasing the profitability of capital, capitalist “growth” and the country’s remaining in the euro. As the SYRIZA-ANEL government admits, which continues to extol the EU, “our common European home”, the “European achievement”, this proposal of theirs is 90% identical to the proposal of the EU, IMF, ECB and has very little relationship with what SYRIZA had promised before the elections.

Fascist Golden Dawn, together with the parties of the coalition government (SYRIZA-ANEL), took a position in favor of a “no” and it also openly supported the return to a national currency.

On the other side, the rightwing opposition ND, social-democratic PASOK that governed until January 2015, together with POTAMI (in form a party of the centre, in essence a reactionary party) took a position in favour of a “yes” to the barbaric measures of the Troika, which they state will be interpreted as being consent to “staying in the EU at all costs”.

In reality, both answers lead to a yes to the “EU” and capitalist barbarity.

During the session of the parliament on the 27/6, the governmental majority of SYRIZA-ANEL rejected the proposal of the KKE that the following issues be placed before to the judgment of the Greek people in the referendum:

NO TO THE PROPOSALS FOR AGREEMENT OF THE EU-ECB-IMF AND THE GREEK GOVERNMENT DISENGAGEMENT FROM THE EU-ABOLITION OF THE MEMORANDA AND ALL THE APPLICATION LAWS

With this stance, the government demonstrated that it wants to blackmail the people into approving its proposal to the troika, which is the other side of the same coin. That is to say, it is asking the Greek people to consent to its anti-people plans and to burden them with its new anti-people choices, either via a new allegedly “improved” agreement with the imperialist organizations, or via an exit from the euro and a return to a national currency, something which the people will be called on to pay for again.

In these conditions, the KKE calls on the people to utilize the referendum as an opportunity to strengthen the opposition to the EU, to strengthen the struggle for the only realistic way out from today’s capitalist barbarity. The content of this way out is: RUPTURE-DISENGAGEMENT FROM THE EU, UNILATERAL CANCELLATION OF THE DEBT, SOCIALIZATION OF THE MONOPOLIES, WORKERS’-PEOPLE’S POWER.

The people, through their activity and their choice in the referendum, must respond to the deception of the false question posed by the government and reject the proposal of the EU-IMF-ECB and also the proposal of the SYRIZA-ANEL government. Both contain barbaric anti-people measures, which will be added to the memoranda and application laws of the previous ND-PASOK governments. Both serve the interests of capital and capitalist profits.

The KKE stresses that the people must not choose between Scylla and Charybdis, but must express, with all means available and in every way, their opposition to the EU and its permanent memoranda in the referendum. They must “cancel out” this dilemma by casting the proposal of the KKE as their vote into the ballot box.

NO TO THE PROPOSAL OF THE EU-IMF-ECB NO TO THE PROPOSAL OF THE GOVERNMENT DISENGAGEMENT FROM THE EU, WITH THE PEOPLE IN POWER

#Greece #austerity #KKE #CommunistPartyOfGreece #Troika #Europe

Mass response to the fascists’ attack

On Thursday evening the thuggish and murderous attack of the fascists of the Golden Dawn against communists met the resolute response of the people Perama (a working class district in Piraeus) with a big and massive demonstration.

As the KKE denounced, the underhand and murderous attack by the Golden Dawn’s members took place during the night of the 12th September in Perama against members and cadres of the KKE and KNE who were fly posting in order to propagandize the 39th festival of KNEOdigitis. Nine people were injured by the murderous attack and were transported to the hospital, amongst them the President of the Metalworkers’ Trade Union of Piraeus, Sotiris Poulikogiannis, and other members of the Union’s Board.

The way in which the attack unfolded and the tools that were used – they emerged from the surrounding streets with cars and motorcycles and attacked the members of KKE and KNE in an underhand way with iron bars and clubs around which they had attached sharp objects- proving the murderous character of the attack. The members of the Golden Dawn -some of them had their faces covered, others wore helmets or T-shirts of t Golden Dawn- were headed by wellknown fascists and thugs in Perama.

The murderous attack that took place on Thursday proves the Nazi character of the Golden Dawn which permanently targets the KKE because it struggles for the overthrow of the rotten capitalist system that breeds and feeds fascism and Nazism.

The attack on the members of the KKE -amongst them were also cadres of the Metalworkers’ Trade Union of Piraeus and the unions of the ship-repair zone whose activity is a thorn in the side of the employers- proves their role as stooges of the system. The working people, the unemployed, the poor popular strata must decisively condemn and isolate the fascists of the Golden Dawn and their thuggish activity and struggle together with the KKE for the strengthening of the People’s Alliance in the workplaces and the neighborhoods.

Condemnation of the murderous attack

Dozens of trade unions, mass organizations and political parties in Greece have condemned with their statements the murderous attack of the members of Golden Dawn. On Friday 13th of September masses of working people, unemployed, youth, people from the poor popular strata joined together with the KKE and KNE in one of the biggest demonstrations that has taken place in the working class district in recent years.

#Greece #KKE #GoldenDawn #fascism #Communism #CommunistPartyOfGreece #Statement #Fascist #Europe