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