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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The council of the political leaders was held in the presidential palace a day after the referendum of the 5th of July, chaired by the President of the Republic P. Pavlopoulos. The Prime Minister and President of SYRIZA A. Tsipras, the acting President of ND E. Meimarakis, the President of POTAMI S. Theodorakis, the General Secretary of the CC of the KKE D. Koutsoumpas, the President of ANEL P. Kammenos and the President of PASOK F. Gennimata attended the 7-hour meeting.

During the meeting the parties of SYRIZA, ANEL, ND, POTAMI, PASOK came to an agreement and indeed signed a joint statement, interpreting the result of the referendum as acceptance of the euro and the EU and paving the way for an anti-people agreement.

The General Secretary of the Central Committee of the KKE, D. Koutsoumpas, expressed his complete disagreement with the joint statement.

The General Secretary of the Central Committee of the KKE, Dimitris Koutsoumpas, made the following statement after yesterday’s meeting of the political leaders chaired by the President of the Republic:

“We listened to the briefing of the Prime Minister in the meeting chaired by the President of the Republic concerning the course of the continuing negotiations and discussions, after the referendum of the Greek people.

We clearly expressed on our part, once again, the views of the KKE regarding the assessment of the referendum result and chiefly as regards the enormous problems being experienced by the Greek people inside the predatory alliance of the EU, which has a political line that continually increases the impasses for the people, the people’s income, the course of the country and the course of our people as a whole. It has been demonstrated, once again, that there can be no pro-people pro-worker negotiations inside the walls of the EU, inside the capitalist development path.

The KKE disagreed as a whole with the joint statement, which the rest of the political leaders and political parties agreed to. Our disagreement is related to how we understand the verdict of the Greek people yesterday and chiefly to our assessment of the course and tactics for the negotiations that the government is proposing and that the other parties accept, at least as regards its general framework and direction.

No one has authorized anybody to go and sign new memoranda, new painful measures for our people. And these measures will be harsh.”

In response to the question of a journalist as to whether he is talking about a “solution outside the euro”, D. Koutsoumpas stressed the following:

“No. We made the following issue clear, that this political line can go in two directions: either they will sign, as it seems and is being scheduled – we will see in the days to follow- a painful agreement, with harsh anti-people measures, a new memorandum, or we will have a state bankruptcy, with a grexit, with a departure from the euro or a double currency or something else. We hear about this mainly from the “partners”, the political parties did not say this at the council of the political leaders. The “partners” talk about this. So our people must be prepared. The position of the KKE is that both these possible outcomes, i.e. an agreement with a memorandum and harsh measures or a grexit or something else will be at the expense of the Greek people.

The rupture with the EU, capital and their power has as its precondition a totally different strategy, workers’-people’s power, that the people are truly in power and socialize the means of production, disengage from the EU and unilaterally cancel the debt. This is the comprehensive and totally different proposal of the KKE and has no relation to the various views that will lead to the new pauperization of our people. And I mean views that exist in other parties, as a minority at the moment, as they are in the governing party, that talk about exit only from the currency.”

#Greece #austerity #KKE #Troika #Syriza #Europe

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). On the result of the referendum: Hundreds of thousands of people supported the proposal of the KKE

On the 5th of July 2015, a referendum was held in Greece. The question posed was whether the citizens agreed or not with the proposed agreement, tabled by the EU-IMF-ECB, that will continue the anti-people measures worth 8 billion euros.

The governmental majority of SYRIZA-ANEL rejected the proposal of the KKE for the government’s draft agreement to also be placed before the judgment of the Greek people in the referendum together with the issue of abolishing all the anti-people laws that have been passed in recent years and the issue of disengaging from the EU. At the same time, the coalition government explained that the NO in the referendum is interpreted by the government as approval for its own proposed agreement with the EU-IMF-ECB, which inside 47+8 pages also includes harsh antiworker-antipeople measures, worth about 8 billion euros.

In these conditions, the KKE called on the workers to turn their backs on the false dilemma which was being posed in the referendum, using all appropriate means. The forces of the KKE outside the election centres handed out its own ballot paper to the voters which said:

• 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

Of course, it was understood that this ballot paper would be counted as a spoiled ballot, but together with the blank ballot papers and the abstention it constitutes a political current that disputes the choices of the SYRIZA-ANEL government and also of the imperialist organizations, with whom the government is negotiating for the needs of capital in Greece.

It should be noted that together with the parties of the coalition government (SYRIZA-ANEL) fascist Golden Dawn also took a position in favour of the NO,, as well as other small nationalist and ultra-left groups, like ANTARSYA.

On the other side, the rightwing opposition ND, social-democratic PASOK that governed until January 2015, together with POTAMI, KIDHSO (the party of the former Prime Minister G. Papandreou) and other smaller bourgeois political forces took a position in favour of a YES which they stated would be interpreted as being consent to “staying in the EU at all costs”.

The final results were the following: [see table with results – editor]

In his first statements after the announcement of the result, D. Koutsoumpas, the General Secretary of the CC of the KKE saluted the thousands of people who responded to the call of the KKE and did not submit to the blackmailing dilemmas i.e. those that cast the ballot proposed by the KKE into the ballot box, a proposal which the government refused to put to the vote in the Parliament, depriving the people of the right to cast it in a mass way into the ballot box.

He noted that in relation to the dubious question of the snap referendum, a section of the people was able to overcome the entrapment and deception and gave a first response, with the spoiled ballot, and also with the blank ballot, while some chose abstention from this process.

The General Secretary addressed himself in particular to those who chose NO, believing that in this way they could stop austerity, that they can answer the anti-people measures and memoranda in this way. He called on them not to be complacent and not to consent to the government’s effort to transform this NO into a YES to new anti-people agreements. He stressed that the KKE extends its hand to them for the struggles against the deterioration of their lives that will begin the day after the referendum.

The KKE issued a similar militant call to those who chose YES under pressure from the big employers, due to fear about closed banks and fear of the consequences for their salaries, pensions and small savings.

The KKE notes that the negotiations promised by Mr Tsipras, based on his proposal, will inevitably lead to a new worse memorandum.

The situation highlights the necessity of the movement and our people adopting the proposal of the KKE for a pro-people way out of the crisis in a mass and determined way. The KKE will be in the frontline of all the struggles of our people in the following period, strengthening, from tomorrow, the anti-monopoly anti-capitalist line of struggle, the rallying around the KKE.

#Greece #austerity #KKE #Syriza #Europe

Millions of Greek voters go to the polls July 5, in a referendum that will have important implications for the country's future. The prime minister Alexis Tsipras, of the governing SYRIZA (Coalition of the Radical Left), announced the referendum last week after a breakdown in negotiations with the so-called Troika (the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank, and the European Commission). The referendum basically asks: do you accept the Troika's proposed austerity measures (“yes” or “nai” in Greek) or do you reject them (“no” or “oxi”)?

But the referendum has taken on a much larger meaning than this. Sensing an opportunity, the Greek capitalist class is throwing its weight behind a yes vote; their TV, radio and newspaper outlets which dominate the country's media are clamoring for “yes” and warning of disaster if “no” prevails. There are even reports of employers forcing their workers to turn out to the “yes” rally that took place in Athens on July 3. A win for the “yes” vote would mean favorable conditions for the old center-left and center-right parties of PASOK and New Democracy to come back to power – these are the parties that signed on to the austerity agreements of the last five years. A “yes” vote is important for the capitalist class because it deals a blow to the anti-austerity movement, and also brings some stability into the economy in the form of badly needed funds for the cash-starved banking system. Those in the “yes” camp skew heavily towards being older and more conservative.

On the other side is the “no” camp, and here you will find those from the ranks of the poor, the working class, the youth and the unemployed, as well as the pensioners struggling to survive, those without healthcare, and students with no prospect for employment. A victory for the “no” vote would send a strong message to the IMF, the ECB and the EC that Greece refuses to submit to humiliating and poisonous austerity measures that will enslave the country to massive debt payments for generations to come. A victory for “no” would offer encouragement for those forces that are struggling against austerity. Instead of turning back towards the old politics of austerity, a “no” vote provides more favorable conditions for struggle.

The problem is that SYRIZA is not in a position to lead this struggle. SYRIZA has already shown it is not going to deliver on its promises to end the austerity measures. Instead the party is proposing their own milder version of the Troika's austerity measures (an “honorable compromise” they call it), which does things like push back implementation of some of the measures (e.g. phasing in the retirement age of 67 later on, rather than immediately) instead of rejecting them outright. More broadly, SYRIZA isn't prepared to, and doesn't have the objective of, confronting the monopolies and the capitalists who run the country, or breaking with the European Union — preconditions for building a more just economy and society.

To break the chains of austerity, Greece needs a rupture with the Troika and the European Union. To have an economy that serves the people, the big industries and monopolies which dominate economic life must be in the hands of the working class. These questions are not on the referendum, of course. So while the “no” vote is important if only for its symbolic value, it's also understandable why the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) has urged workers to reject both the “yes” and “no” vote – because the choice should not be between SYRIZA's milder austerity and the Troika's dictates: the choice should be between working people running society or monopoly rule; between producing according to people's needs or producing for capitalist profit, and between distributing wealth fairly or allowing millions to suffer so a tiny handful prosper without measure.

No matter what happens with the referendum, one can only hope that the struggle in Greece will continue to strengthen and build people's organizations while keeping their eyes on the prize: a society where working people rule and social justice is the law of the land.

#Greece #austerity #KKE #Syriza #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

For more than a year the Greek people, the workers and youth, members of the trade union front PAME and the Communist Party of Greece have said NO to the measures that the Greek government authorities are willing to impose on them. They are completely opposed to the fact that the bourgeois class in Greece, its governments, with the support of the EU, the IMF and the ECB, attack the people in order to bankrupt the people under the conditions of the crisis and increase the immense profits of the big financial and industrial capital.

The Greek people, the workers and youth, PAME and the Communist Party of Greece need all our solidarity. Their struggles can give us precious experience.

Greece itself is a rich country. However, the wealth is concentrated in even fewer hands. Indeed, unacceptable measures are taken against the working people. What happens now in Greece will be extended to all countries of the European Union.

In all of Europe the question is being raised: Who has to pay for the crisis of capitalism?

All European bourgeois parties – Social Democrats, Liberals, Christian Social, Conservative and Greens – are united in supporting their colleagues in Greece and the infamous measures of the EU bodies.

The governments and the European Commission are about to intensify the measures against the peoples: a general lowering of wages, generalisation of insecure working condition, a witch-hunt against all people receiving social welfare benefits…

Altogether this means the pillage of the world of workers by the world of capital.

In Greece, the workers, the youth, the ordinary people say NO. They are building a resistance that is exemplary for all Europe.

Solidarity with this resistance is our duty.

Everyone should know: today they attack the Greek working people, tomorrow it will be the turn of the Portuguese, the Spanish and the Italian people – and the day after tomorrow they attack all of us.

We are all Greeks!

Support the struggle against the shifting of the burdens of the crisis onto the shoulders of the working people!

Down with capitalism! For a socialist society!

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• Communist Party of Ireland
• Workers' Party of Ireland
• Party of Italian Communists (PdCI)
• Socialist Party of Latvia
• Lebanese Communist Party
• Socialist People's Front, Lithuania
• Communist Party of Malta
• Communist Party of Mexico
• Popular Socialist Party of Mexico
• Palestinian People's Party
• Communist Party of Pakistan
• Peruvian Communist Party
• Communist Party of Poland
• Communist Party of the Russian Federation
• Communist Workers Party of Russia – Revolution Party of Communists (RKRP-RPC)
• Communist Party of Soviet Union
• Communist Party of Slovakia
• Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain (PCPE)
• Communist Party of Sweden (SKP)
• Communist Party of Turkey (TKP)
• South African Communist Party
• Union of Communists of Ukraine
• Communist Party USA (CPUSA)
• Communist Party of Venezuela
• Belorussian Communist Workers' Party
• Communist Party of Great-Britain-ML
• Pole of Communist Rebirth in France (PRCF)
• l'Union révolutionnaire des Communistes de France (URCF)
• Communist Network (Rete dei Comunisti), Italy
• Communist Party of the Philippines
• Communist Party (KP), Sweden
• Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), USA

#Greece #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization #frso #AllWorkersMilitantFrontOfGreecePAME #austerity #KKE #Europe