We demand the life we deserve, a life with modern rights based on our time, a better future for us and our children.

Two weeks have passed since the crime in Tempe, Larissa and the country is shaking with anger and daily struggle. The strike on March 8 that shook every city in the country with the pulse of the workers and youth, the big rallies, the daily mobilizations, the banners in schools, neighborhoods, stadiums are the best answer to those who try to hide the crime and to shake off all responsibility.

The demand not to cover up the crime in Tempe means to strengthen now the struggle against the system of profit, its state and its governments. This means that the whole country to go on halt again on Thursday March 16, the day of a nationwide General strike.

PAME called on all trade unions, the National Federations, the Regional Trade Union Centers, the base level unions, to take into their hands the preparation for the success of the strike on 16 March! To make use of every second, to work night and day to reach every workplace, the factories, the yards, the ports, the shops, the hotels.

Let Thursday’s strike become a volcano of struggle that the voice of those killed in the murderous trains to be heard all over the country!

Their profits – Our dead!

The days pass, but nothing can erase the real responsibilities of the murder in Tempe! It is now clearer that the cause of treating human life as fuel for the profitability of business groups is not some personal oversight or a simple human error.

The culprit is the state of the few, the policy of commercialisation that degrades human life and weighs it in the cost-benefit ratio, where the cost is the life of the people and the benefit is the profits of the business groups.

We have around us more ‘valleys of the Tempe’!

All these days, there is a growing concern in the minds of many workers from every sector, from every workplace.

Is it modern and normal for our lives to be characterized by the phrase “we go and whatever happens”? To start our shift with our lives on the line? The dozens of workplace “accidents”, i.e. the employer crimes that are on the increase, have the same cause as the crime in Tempe. The profits of the few! Our safety, the protection of human life is being squeezed to the limits of corporate profitability. Low “cost” is the cheap worker, the worker who works without protection measures, the worker whose access to the public and free health care system is made more difficult, who is pushed to the private clinics for his health.

In the system of profit and exploitation, “good” transport is the expensive transport with the lowest possible wage costs. This is why behind the windows of the “silver arrows” on the Greek railways, the telecommand system was non-existent, layoffs and retrenchment of workers led to cuts in safety and intensification of work, with outsourcing escalating (e.g. cleaners). These are now coming to light despite persistent warnings from workers and their unions.

We do not fit a life where protection comes at a cost, dignity will lie between evictions and auctions of homes, wage raises-breadcrumbs which force us to cut even basic necessities. We must not accept a future that is being prepared for a life of living on coupons and dying on a one-way ticket.

You count profits and losses – We count human lives!

Not only is it not modern but it’s outrageous to count 2 more dead, young workers in the last 10 days and this passes in silence. We cannot accept living in agony whether we will return on two feet back to our families because in modern ghettos, intensification is harvesting deaths along with occupational diseases, which are on the increase due to the lack of health and safety measures.

Questions have been raised especially in the last few days about the simple things that are not taken for granted. Where are the emergency exits in stations, in workplaces? What escape plan is there in large workplaces in case of natural disasters? Where are the famous occupational physicians in large factories, in logistics, in large shopping centers, in workplaces where large numbers of workers are concentrated? The lack of safety measures seems to exist in all transport, in buses, trolleybuses, metro, trams, ferries, airports! This is what the unions in these sectors have been denouncing for years. Now they must be listened to, now immediate action must be taken to ensure that human lives do not become mere numbers.

The experience of the last 12 years and the tragic disasters that have put their stamp on this course of capitalist barbarism confirm that there are no “messiahs”! Our lives are worth living and we want them safe for ourselves and especially for our children! Dozens are the young people who “didn’t make it”. We will not let it pass!

It is a debt for every worker, every young person and youth, to continue to demand the obvious: The crime must not be covered up!

To strengthen the struggle for:

• Modern, safe, cheap mass transport against the policy that puts the safety of passengers and the rights of workers in the balance of the costs and profitability of business groups.
• The strengthening of the public and free health care system
• Immediate flood, fire and earthquake protection measures. Control here and now of earthquake armoring in schools, colleges, hospitals, workplaces.
• Immediate measures to protect health and safety in all workplaces.
• Recruitment of permanent staff in health, education, social services, civil protection services
• Let the whole country STOP again on Thursday!

EVERYONE ON STRIKE!

#Greece #Labor #generalStrike #Europe

Workers and doctors in Public Hospitals of Greece organized militant actions and strikes all over the country on Wednesday, February 22 demanding the strengthening of the public health care system with permanent staff and state funding, the tenure of contract workers, the inclusion of health workers in the Unhealthy and Hazardous category and more.

The workers of “Evangelismos” Hospital in Athens specifically gave a fierce welcome to the government and the Prime Minister himself, who appeared at the hospital for an event “acknowledging the three-year-long hard fight” of the health workers. For this the government deployed riot police cars and police forces to protect them during the presentation of “honorary awards to the NHS”. In fact, the political leadership of the health ministry and the PM, Mr. Mitsotakis, entered the hospital through the side doors, to avoid the workers who had gathered outside of the Emergency Department, demonstrating their demands.

“No more fiestas and mockery. We are fighting for public and free health care” “Hospitals are not businesses, give state funding,” demanded the Hospital Workers Union, with patients and their attendants applauding from the windows.

#Greece #AllWorkersMilitantFrontOfGreecePAME

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the influential Greek labor organization, the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME).

A massive, militant, musical protest took place on Tuesday, January 10 at the Ministry of Education in Athens against the Presidential Decree 85 that downgrades the degrees of Art Schools and the working rights of artists.

Students and teachers of Art Schools, musicians, dancers, actors and more protested in front of the Ministry with music, dance and banners with paintings demanding recognition of their education and studies, demanding to be free and public.

The president of the National Union of Musicians, cadre of PAME, Vasilis Paraskevopoulos noted:

“It is hopeful that young people, especially students of drama schools, have stepped forward to demand in principle an education that is appropriate to their needs. An education that must be public, that must lead to a university degree and that gives full employment rights. In this direction we have faced a series of governments over the years that have attacked this right. A right that is truly denied to thousands of working-class families, children with talent who cannot afford to pay a load of money to study. We must continue. We have to push them. We have to scare them with our mobilizations and win what we are entitled to”

Similar demonstrations took place also in Thessaloniki, Larissa and other cities of Greece.

#Greece #AllWorkersMilitantFrontOfGreecePAME

PAME that represents the class unions of Greece, expresses its solidarity with the strike of thousands of nurses in Minnesota and Wisconsin in the USA who are demanding 27% wage increases.

Health workers both before and during the pandemic have been on the front line of protecting the lives and health of the people. But governments and business groups that treat health as a commodity on the one hand treat the sick as customers who must pay to get well and on the other exploit health workers with intensification and low wages.

In conditions of exploding costs of living, workers cannot live with increases that do not meet their real needs. The struggles and mobilizations that are developing in many countries around the world show that workers with organized and collective struggle and with the power of solidarity can win, can overturn anti-workers’ plans and impose their just demands.

PAME supports the just demands of the Minnesota and Wisconsin nurses and expresses solidarity with their strike.

#Greece #PeoplesStruggles #MinnesotaNursesAssociation #AllWorkersMilitantFrontOfGreecePAME

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

The World Federation of Trade Unions honors the 76th anniversary of the peoples’ anti-fascist victory on May 9, 2021.

9 May is the symbol of the great victory over Fascism and Nazism which in the times of the II World War seemed impossible to many. However, the enormous military power of the Germans and the Fascist Axis (Italy and Japan), despite the enormous support they received from the German and the International Monopolies, was defeated by the organized resistance of the peoples and the role played by the Soviet Union. This is the legacy of the World Federation of Trade Unions and the militants around the world.

This was a decisive strategic victory for the future of mankind. It changed the global correlation of forces in favor of workers and peoples and has boosted national liberation movements and decolonization and the struggle against colonialism. But first of all, it proved that only the organized people can really put an end to Fascism and the system that gives birth to it. Peoples united can achieve victories that seem impossible.

A child of this victory is the founding of the World Federation of Trade Unions on October 3, 1945.

However, 76 years after that date, US imperialism and its NATO allies are promoting conflicts that seriously threaten world peace and increase fascism and intolerance in various forms. The caravans of innocent refugees, the situation in Ukraine, the rivalries between the alliances but also within them only bring negative developments for the peoples.

Nowadays, a methodical effort is being made by the European Union and the USA to present May 9 as supposedly Day of Europe. To forget the great victory of the red army and the peoples against fascism. It is the duty of all of us to prevent the falsification of historical truth.

These servants of exploitation and imperialism who today try to rewrite historical facts with slander and lies, must fail.

In the face of these developments, the employees and workers raise our own flag, the flag of the WFTU, with our demands and needs written on it.

The WFTU salutes the anniversary of this epopee by reaffirming its commitment to the defense of world peace, the rights of peoples, especially the working class, to the socialist perspective.

Long live May 9, 1945, the day of the victory of the peoples against Nazism and fascism!

The Secretariat

#Greece #WorldFederationOfTradeUnionsWFTU #Antifascism #VictoryDay

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following account by the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) of the June 11 protests.

Thousands of workers protested in Athens and other Greek cities, on June 11, against the system that creates poverty and unemployment, war and refugees, racism and all forms of discrimination.

In Athens, starting with the rally in Syntagma, outside the Greek parliament and marching to the U.S. embassy, workers from all the sectors, from different workplaces, along with the self-employed, students and other young people, took part in the first rally organized after the end of the restrictive measures, continuing the multifaceted action that took place all the time before, in unprecedented conditions.

The rally of the Federations, Labor Centers and Trade Unions in Syntagma was attended by a multi-member delegation of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), headed by its General Secretary, Dimitris Koutsoumbas, who made the following statement: “We unite our voice with all the workers, the popular families, who cannot breathe in a system for which they have paid too much and continue to pay even with their lives, due to the huge shortages in the health sector. They can't breathe because of the lack of work, insecurity, poverty, low wages, unemployment. They can't breathe from the state repression, the violence, the debts to the banks, to other services.”

Regarding solidarity with the American people, D. Koutsoumbas noted: “Our march to the U.S. Embassy wants to express our solidarity with the American people, who are currently on the streets fighting against a government, the Trump government, which expresses all capitalist barbarism, racism, terrorism and repression.”

During the march, the GS of the CC of the KKE, Dimitris Koutsoumbas, met with Palestinian Ambassador Marwan Toubassi. They exchanged views on developments on the Palestinian issue and the aggression of the state of Israel. He reaffirmed the KKE's solidarity with the Palestinian people and the actions of the Party, inside and outside Parliament, in order to recognize the Palestinian state.

Earlier, in a statement, D. Koutsoumbas stressed: “We want to express our solidarity with the suffering Palestinian people, because of the Israeli occupation and the U.S. stance, with the growing settlements, the annexations, the imprisonments, the persecutions and murders. The Greek government has an immediate duty to implement the unanimous decision of the Greek Parliament to recognize here and now the Palestinian state. “

#Greece #PeoplesStruggles #KKE #Europe

PAME, a member of the WFTU, expresses its solidarity with the workers and the people of the United States who are on the streets of rage against barbarism and misery.

The assassination of George Floyd was another death toll in the world's richest country. Murdered either by racism or by poverty. The pain and misery of millions of poor Americans is shared by that of the thousands of Greek immigrants in USA, as well as the thousands of refugees and immigrants in Greece today who have experienced and continue to experience racism.

We salute with pride and class solidarity the unions, trade unionists and workers who, with multiform and organized manner, they stand by the protesters during these difficult and critical times and oppose the repression and arrests of militants.

The exploitation of developments by bourgeois political parties, both in the United States and in Greece, shows their hypocrisy and opportunistic exploitation of the developments, so as to disorient the people from the fact that their policy nourishes and cultivates nationalism, racism and xenophobia. The policy of wars and the massacre of peoples abroad, poverty, oppression at home.

Racism and repression against the poor, people of color, or immigrants and refugees, is a manifestation of the rottenness of a system that murders and oppresses the many for the profits of the few. The virus is capitalism and it kills either by violence or poverty.

PAME, the class unions of Greece, express their solidarity and support in the struggle of the peoples, the workers of the whole world who unite their voices against injustice and racism, for a world where workers will live in brotherhood, without exploitation.

#Greece #Labor #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #PoliceBrutality #Antiracism #Justice4GeorgeFloyd #MinneapolisUprising

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

Fight Back! is circulating the following comradely greetings from the Communist Party of Greece to the Freedom Road Socialist Organization on the occasion of their 8th Congress.

Kommounistikó Kómma Elládas (KKE)—Communist Party of Greece

Dear Comrades,

The Communist Party of Greece sends you its comradely greetings on the occasion of the 8th congress of FRSO.

We appreciate your efforts in expressing solidarity to the peoples of Palestine, Syria, to all the peoples who are struggling in the world against imperialist crimes, interventions and wars. We value your determination to inform the American people about international developments and the dangerous role the U.S. government plays in them. We thank you for your solidarity towards the struggles of the class-oriented trade union movement, PAME, of the popular strata, against the anti-people policies of the SYRIZA-ANEL government and the strategy of involving our country in the imperialist designs of the USA and NATO in our region.We are following with interest the battles you are waging on a wide range of issues that concern the working class of the U.S.A., your dedication to the labor movement, to the movements for the political and social rights of the oppressed members of society, the rights of immigrants, the youth and students.We wish you great success in your congress proceedings, for the further development of the class struggle and international solidarity in the new conditions that are being created by the policies of the Trump government and the sharpening of the intra-imperialist rivalries with other powerful capitalist forces.

The international developments highlight even more intensely the historically surpassed nature of capitalism that has nothing to offer the people except for wars, poverty and misery; the necessity for Marxist-Leninist Communist Parties to exist that are rooted in the working class, which imbue the daily struggles with a modern revolutionary strategy for the overthrow of capitalism, for socialism.

Athens, May 24, 2018 The International Relation Section of the CC of KKE

#Greece #Socialism #PeoplesStruggles #frso #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganizationFRSO #KKE #Europe

Struggle for Collective Agreements and Abolition of Antiworker Laws – General Strike on May 30The government of SYRIZA-ANEL refuses for two whole years to bring in Plenary of the Parliament the bill they 518 Regional Trade Union Centers, Federations and Trade Unions had tabled on 17 October 2016, day of a Panhellenic Rally, with which workers, class trade unions demand the abolition of anti-labor laws, restoration and signing of sectoral employment contracts, coverage of of workers' wages, with increases in wages, pensions and wages social benefits.Trade unions had handed over to all parliamentary groups – except for the fascist party of Golden Dawn – the bill which is still in the drawers of the Ministry of Labor and of the Government.The only parliamentary group that responded was Communist Party of Greece (KKE), which on 18 October 2016 tabled the proposal of the Trade Unions, asking to come to plenary for debate and voting, which the Government has never done. On Thursday, May 24th, the KKE parliamentary group re-submitted it the Law Drift in the form of Question on current issues to the Minister of Labor, Social Security and Social Solidarity and asked to be discussed at the Parliament.At the conclusion of the Question it is noted that “though almost two years from its deposition, the government denies arbitrarily and in breach of the regulation to bring to the debate above Law drift. This denial shows its intentions to continue and escalate the attack on labor rights, further strengthening the ban on collective agreements; and promoting flexible forms of employment aimed at tension of the exploitation of the working class and the popular strata for the supporting the profitability of capital, in line with the guidelines of the EU, promoted in all its member countries, either located in Memorandum status or not.

PAME calls the Unions and the workers more decisively to rally on the path of counter-attack, taking our life into our hands. To put the needs and interests of the working class and the popular strata that are in conflict with the strategy of capital, the EU, and the government’s policy, at the heart of our demands.

All in the General Strike on May 30th!

#Greece #PeoplesStruggles #strike #AllWorkersMilitantFrontOfGreecePAME #Strikes

Athens, Greece – On Nov. 9, more than 170,000 workers in 64 cities across Greece took to the streets to fight government austerity measures, nuclear armament, and court rulings that make labor strikes in the country illegal. 18 U.S. trade unionists attending a week-long seminar with the World Federation of Trade Unions joined the demonstrations at Syntagma Square in the city center of Athens.

Talking to workers and protesters, the American delegates saw many parallels between their struggles at home and in those of their Greek brothers and sisters. Like U.S. workers, decent health care, safe working conditions, wages, pensions, stable work schedules and full time employment represented their top demands. These workers saw nothing in common between themselves and the bosses and politicians who sought to drive them into poverty and were ready to fight for their family and future. They urged us to do the same and to continue our struggles in workplaces across the U.S.

The demonstrations were called by PAME (All Workers Militant Front), the country's leading militant trade union organization and fierce opponent to the governing Party Syrizya's anti-worker platform. Syrzia rose to power under the guise of fighting austerity in the wake of the global financial crisis of 2008 but quickly bowed to the demands of the banks, attacking workers through wage and pension cuts, and failing to tax wealthy Greek industrialists. PAME is vowing to fight the most recent attacks and calling on union federations across Greece to prepare for a general strike, legal or not.

#AthensGreece #Athens #Labor #Greece #PAME #Europe

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). Mass combative strike response of the workers to the anti-people political line of the government-EU-IMF

A 24hr general strike was held in Greece on 17 May 2017, as well as the strike rallies and demonstrations of the All-worker’s Militant Front (PAME) in dozens of cities, against the measures which the coalition government of the “Left” party of SYRIZA and the nationalist party of ANEL brought for discussion on that day in Parliament. Protest demonstrations will be organized by PAME all over the country on 18th of May, the day the measures will be voted on.

Thousands of workers through their mass participation in the strike on the 17th of May all over the country declared: ““We will not become the slaves of the 21st century.”

In Athens, the strike rally of PAME ended with a large march to Parliament.

It is worth noting that the measures the SYRIZA-ANEL government brought after the negotiations with the imperialist unions of the EU and IMF for the 2nd evaluation of the 3rdMemorandum. It is clear from the results that the government negotiated with the lenders on behalf of the interests of the domestic monopoly groups and not the people, with the aim of accelerating the process of an exit from the capitalist crisis that favors capital.

The new raft of anti-people measures further escalates the assault, thrusts new burdens onto the already struggling popular households, at the same time when better conditions are being formed for the activity of the business groups (such as the new measures to liberalize the market and accelerate privatizations).

In brief, the measures provide for:

• New reductions in salaries and pensions, so for example, with the result that the pensioners will lose a sum equivalent to two months’ pensions a year
• Increase of direct taxation even for those who have a low income, through the reduction of the tax threshold. So, for example, a salaried employee who earns 615 euros a month and who does not pay any direct taxes today, will be called onto to pay up to 300 euros of tax a year, i.e. almost half a month’s salary.
• New reductions in public funds for healthcare spending.
• New cuts to various benefits (unemployment, heating).
• There are other measures to support capital in the new agreement, such as the increase of privatizations, the complete liberalization of mass dismissals for big capitalist businesses, the legislation of new obstacles to the calling of strikes, the consolidation of all the anti-workers laws on collective labour agreements passed since 2011, the creation of new obstacles for the signing of collective labor agreements, the legalization of “lock outs” organized by the employers, the abolition of the Sunday holiday with painful consequences for retail workers and small shopkeepers, with aim of accelerating the concentration of the retail sector into department stores and supermarket chains etc.

These new measures will have a cumulative impact in a period when the situation of most employees and self-employed has already deteriorated dramatically due to the policies both of the previous ND-PASOK governments and the current SYRIZA-ANEL government.

In 2016, 45% of the population had an income under the fixed poverty line.

The General Secretary (GS) of the CC of the KKE, Dimitris Koutsoumpas, attended the strike rally of PAME in the Ethnikis Antistasis sq. in Athens and made the following statement to the mass media: “The class war is now in progress, it is a marathon, not a rifle shot in the air. The class war must be a daily and continuous one. The harsh anti-people measures, the 4th memorandum along with the previous memorandums must be thrown in the dustbin of History and the only ones who have the authority to do this are the Greek people, the labor-people’s movement.

For that reason, our call is: Popular uprising everywhere, not a day or hour must be wasted; the struggle doesn't end today or tomorrow but continues.

The KKE, the class-oriented forces, the militant movement, PAME, the Social Alliance will be present, every day, everywhere, in the streets and in the Parliament, in the factories, in the cities and the villages. This is a constant struggle, which must lead to the overthrow of this rotten and corrupt system, of its governments, for disengagement from the EU, with a social and economic plan which will have at its epicenter the working people, the ever-expanding needs of our people.”

#Greece #Labor #AllWorkersMilitantFrontOfGreecePAME #KKE #Syriza #Europe

Everyone on strike

A 24hr general strike will be held in Greece on 17 May 2017, as well as the strike rallies and demonstrations of the All-worker’s Militant Front (PAME) in dozens of cities, against the measures which the coalition government of the “Left” party of SYRIZA and the nationalist party of ANEL is bringing for discussion on that day in Parliament. Protest demonstrations will be organized by PAME all over the country on 18th of May, the day the measures will be voted on.

The SYRIZA-ANEL government is bringing these measures after the negotiations with the imperialist unions of the EU and IMF for the 2nd evaluation of the 3rd Memorandum. It is clear from the results that the government negotiated with the lenders on behalf of the interests of the domestic monopoly groups and not the people, with the aim of accelerating the process of an exit from the capitalist crisis that favours capital.

The new raft of anti-people measures further escalates the assault, thrusts new burdens onto the already struggling popular households, at the same time when better conditions are being formed for the activity of the business groups (such as the new measures to liberalize the market and accelerate privatizations).

In brief, the measures provide for:

• New reductions in pensions, with the result that the pensioners will lose a sum equivalent to two months’ pensions a year
• increase of direct taxation even for those who have a low income, through the reduction of the tax threshold. So, for example, a salaried employee who earns 615 euros a month and who does not pay any direct taxes today, will be called onto to pay up to 300 euros of tax a year, i.e. almost half a month’s salary.
• New reductions in public funds for healthcare spending.
• New cuts to various benefits (unemployment, heating).
• There are other measures to support capital in the new agreement, such as the increase of privatizations, the complete liberalization of mass dismissals for big capitalist businesses, the legislation of new obstacles to the calling of strikes, the consolidation of all the anti-workers laws on collective labor agreements passed since 2011, the creation of new obstacles for the signing of collective labor agreements, the legalization of “lock outs” organized by the employers, the abolition of the Sunday holiday with painful consequences for retail workers and small shopkeepers, with aim of accelerating the concentration of the retail sector into department stores and supermarket chains etc.

These new measures will have a cumulative impact in a period when the situation of most employees and self-employed has already deteriorated dramatically due to the policies both of the previous ND-PASOK governments and the current SYRIZA-ANEL government.

In 2016, 45% of the population had an income under the fixed poverty line.

The KKE calls on the people to protest against the new agreement in a combative way, on the basis of their needs, which are constantly being sacrificed at the altar of the recovery of the profits of the monopolies. It calls on the people, beginning with the strike of the 17thof May to organize their counterattack decisively, to demand the immediate recovery of the great losses they suffered during the period of the crisis, against the new offensive of the ruling class, EU, IMF, which is being unleashed by the SYRIZA-ANEL government.

The workers with their mass participation in the strike of the 17th of May, in the other mobilizations, with their organization in the workplaces, must declare that: “We will not become the slaves of the 21st century.”

#Greece #AllWorkersMilitantFrontOfGreecePAME #KKE #Europe

Thousands of small farmers, from all over Greece, met up with the trade unions of Athens and marched to the Parliament on Feb. 14 to protest the anti-people’s policy of the SYRIZA government and the European Union.

The farmers, who have created roadblocks all over Greece for more than three weeks, organized the national demonstration as an escalation of their struggle.

The All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) and the trade unions of Athens welcomed the farmers and confirmed their common struggle against the common enemy, the monopolies and the EU.

The farmers National Committee extended a call to all farmers to participate in the demonstrations of PAME, on Feb. 21, in many cities of Greece.

#AthensGreece #Greece #PeoplesStruggles #PAME #Europe

On Tuesday, January 17, the Parents Association and Teachers’ Union of the 1st Primary School of Iconio, Perama (neighborhood of Piraeus, next to Athens, the largest port of Greece), were holding a meeting for the reception of 27 refugee children, who are to start attending at this school.

The school meeting was attacked by a fascist raid battalion, of the Golden Dawn, headed by one of their MPs (who is also accused in the trial for the murder of the Antifascist Pavlos Fyssas and the murderous attack against union leaders of PAME). The fascists attacked the parents and the teachers, while police forces were present and did nothing to stop them. The fascists were repelled by the strong stance of the teachers and the people at the school.

The PAME-affiliated Unions of Piraeus and Perama stated:

“The Piraeus workers and the whole country have accepted the refugee children in schools alongside with their own children since the vast majority of people understand that the refugees are forced to leave their countries, chased together with their family to escape rockets and bullets, getting drowned in rafts to survive, you need solidarity and protection, especially when it relates to infants and young children.

Our Unions from the first moment stood by the refugees, did everything in their power to show their solidarity, material and moral, but also to demand from the government immediate measures so that refugees can reach the fastest in the destinations they wish, but while they stay in our country to live in appropriate conditions.

We urge every parent to isolate the neo-Nazi criminals who trample on the bad situation we are living as workers and trying to present those responsible, as victims.

Responsibility for the tragic situation that forces millions of people to leave their homes, have those who cause people to be slaughtered in wars for the sharing of oil and natural resources of each country. The neo-Nazi Criminals Golden Dawn will do what they can, to hide from the workers that, for the refugee situation and the situation that we live the workers in our country, guilty are the business groups, the monopolies that profit billions from the imperialist wars and interventions.

This is the reason why the capitalists finance and support the fascist Golden Dawn all these years. We call on the workers of the Piraeus region, to welcome the refugee children like our own, together and to strengthen our struggle against wars which cause death and uprooting of people”

The Trade Unions of:

Metal Workers and Shipbuilding Woodworkers Union National Union of Maritime Mechanics-PEMEN National Union of Maritime Workers-Stefenson National Union of Maritime Catering Workers-PEEMAGEN Retail and Private Employees Union of Piraeus Private Healthcare Employees Union of Piraeus Construction Workers Union of Piraeus Chemical-Oil-Soap Workers Union

Athens Jan. 18

#UnitedStates #ImmigrantRights #Greece #AllWorkersMilitantFrontOfGreecePAME #Antifascism

The result of Britain's referendum demonstrates the increasing discontent of the working class and popular forces towards the EU and its anti-people policies. However these forces must disentangle themselves from the choices of sections and political forces of the bourgeoisie and acquire radical and anti-capitalist characteristics. The result records the dissipation of the expectations, which had been fostered by all the bourgeois parties-in Greece as well-together with the EU's mechanisms that the peoples could allegedly be prosperous inside the framework of the EU.

The fact that the issue of the departure of a country from the EU was posed so intensely- and indeed a country the size of Britain-is due on the one hand to the internal contradictions in the EU and the unevenness of its economies and on the other to the confrontation taking place amongst the imperialist centres, which sharpened in the conditions of the economic recession. These factors reinforce the so-called euroscepticism, break way trends, but also trends that seek a change in the form of political management of the EU and Eurozone.

Vehicles of reactionary “Euroscepticism” are nationalist, racist and fascist parties, like the UK Independence Party of Farage (UKIP), the National Front of Lepen in France, the “Alternative for Germany” and similar formations in Austria, Hungary and in Greece, e.g. fascist Golden Dawn, National Unity of Karatzαferis and others. But “Euroscepticism” is also expressed by parties that use a leftwing label, criticize or reject the EU and Euro, support a national currency and seek other imperialist alliances, with a strategy that operates within the framework of capitalism.

These contradictions and antagonisms permeate the bourgeois classes of every EU member-state. The economic and political processes underway, both in G. Britain and in the EU, the negotiations concerning the position of the British bourgeoisie the day after, can lead to new temporary agreements between the EU and Britain. What is certain is that as long as capitalist ownership of the means of production and bourgeois power remain in place, the developments will be accompanied by new painful sacrifices for the working class and popular forces.

The result of Britain's referendum exposes the other political forces in Greece, which glorified Greece's participation in the EU during all the previous years, presenting it as an irreversible process or sowing illusions about the need for even “more Europe of democracy and justice» It also exposes those forces that consider a national currency as being a panacea that will lead to the people's prosperity. Britain with its Pound Sterling took the same anti-worker and anti-people measures as the other countries that are in the Eurozone. It will continue to take the same measures outside the EU as well, as this is imposed by the need for its monopolies to be competitive and profitable.

It is certain that over the next few days the voices and “tears” will multiply, both on the part of the SYRIZA-ANEL government and on the part of the other bourgeois parties about the “need to reestablish the EU”, about the “EU that lost its way and needs to return to its roots” etc. However the EU since its creation has been and is a reactionary alliance of the bourgeois classes of capitalist Europe, with the aim of bleeding the workers dry and robbing other peoples of the world, in the framework of their competition with other imperialist centres. It was not and will not be a permanent arrangement, just as similar alliances in the past were not permanent. Capitalist unevenness and competition, the change in the correlation of forces sooner or later will bring contradictions to the surface, which will no longer be able to be bridged by temporary and fragile compromises. Simultaneously, new phenomena, processes for new reactionary alliances will be come to fruition on the terrain of capitalism.

The interests of the Greek people, the British people, of all the peoples of Europe must not be placed under a “false flag. They must not be placed under the flags of the bourgeoisie and its various sections, which determine their choices and international alliances according to their interests and on the basis of the greatest possible exploitation of the workers. The necessary condemnation of capital's predatory alliance, the EU, the struggle for the disengagement of every country, to be effective, must be connected to the necessary overthrow of capital's power by workers'-people's power. The social alliance of the working class and the other popular strata, the regroupment and strengthening of the international communist movement are preconditions to pave the way for this prospect of hope.

STATEMENT OF THE PRESS OFFICE OF THE CC OF THE KKE

#Greece #EuropeanUnion #KKE #Brexit

Patras, Greece – The first day of the big March Against Unemployment, which will travel 220 km from Patras to Athens concluded with enormous success on April 4.

The demonstrators left Patras with a big celebration of thousands of people and reached the city of Aigio, where they were welcomed by the people of the city, who expressed their support. Many of them joined the march.

In addition to the great support by the unions, the workers and people of Greece, international support for the March Against Unemployment is growing as the demonstrators continue their long journey.

The marchers are demanding full time jobs for all people; with full rights – a universal demand of the class unions.

Editors note: the information in this article is drawn press statements of Greece’s All Workers Militant Front.

#PatrasGreece #Patras #CapitalismAndEconomy #Labor #Unemployment #Greece #Europe #AllWorkersMilitantFrontOfGreecePAME #MarchAgainstUnemployment

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