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 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

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

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

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following call from the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) for a general strike by Greek workers Feb. 4.

National – General Strike on February 4

Demonstrations All Over Greece On January 23

The Butcher-Bill on Social Security to be Withdrawn!

We Demand Public Social Security For All

The SYRIZA Government after it extended and imposed all anti workers’ laws, which were legislated by the previous Governments and destroyed Collective Contracts, after it imposed flexible working conditions, starvation wages, abolished workers’ rights in Healthcare, now comes to give the final blow to whatever rights are left on Social Security! Whatever rights the people managed to preserve through hard struggles, during the last years, the SYRIZA Government wants to cancel them, thus realizing the demands of the big capitalists.

NOW Strike Response Everywhere! In Every Industry-Every Branch! At every workplace, school, university, neighborhood! We Organise and Escalate our Action aiming to:

Block The Butcher-Bill on Social Security!

Participation in the Strike, in the Demonstrations will affect the result of the Struggle!

Social Security means “cost” for the capitalists and the state! But for us, social security is our basic right! It is our life and it protects our families!

Justice For Us Is Life With Dignity!

To Live Humane In The 21st Century And Not In Wretchedness!

We Must Receive The Wealth We Produce!

Hope is not A Slogan! Hope lies in the Struggle against the policy of the Government and the EU in favor of the profits of the monopolies.

Hope lies in the path of rupture, of overthrowing the political and financial dominance of the monopolies. Hope lies in the path that will satisfy people’s needs!

Till today, hundreds of trade union organizations have been campaigning, calling for Strike Action, rallying with PAME in a series of actions and activities to prepare the workers’ response.

All In the Strike! – We strengthen the Struggle! We Organize!

National – General Strike on February 4

Demonstrations All Over Greece On January 23

January 2016

#Greece #Labor #PeoplesStruggles #austerity #Syriza #AllWorkersMilitantFront #Europe

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

Because banks loan out most of their deposit money, a wave of withdrawals can leave banks short of cash. Here in the U.S. (or any country with its own currency) a wave of bank withdrawals could be met by our central bank, the Federal Reserve, simply printing more money to lend to the banks to tide them over. But in Greece, only the ECB can print euros, their refusal to lend more cash to Greek banks forced the banks to limit withdrawals.

The Great Recession/Lesser Depression that swept the world in 2008 in the wake of the U.S. financial crisis also exposed more problems with the euro. Here in the U.S., the almost zero interest rates, coupled with the largest federal budget deficits since World War II, helped restore economic growth. These so-called ‘Keynesian’ policies (named after British economist John Maynard Keynes), are meant to prevent the cyclical crisis of overproduction, which are a feature of capitalism, from turning into depressions. However, they have not restored economic health, as the expansion has been one of the weakest ever, with chronic high unemployment and slow growth. But in Greece, where the ECB sets interest rates and government spending has been cut while taxes raised at the behest of the IMF and the European Union, there is an ongoing depression with unemployment above 20% and GDP down 20% as compared to 2008.

The left-of-center Syriza government of Greece won the election on a platform of staying in the Euro and ending austerity. But as these two goals are incompatible, and the Greek government has offered to accept more and more of the austerity called for by the European Union (EU), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and ECB. Syriza Prime Minister Tsipras made his last offer on June 22, which called for the primary budget surplus (which doesn’t include interest payments) to rise to 3.5%, less than, but not far from the EU/IMF/ECB goal of 4.5%. If the U.S. federal government were to run the same level of surplus offered by Tsipras, we would have to cut spending and/or increase taxes by about $900 billion, which would throw the economy back into a recession and maybe into a depression.

The biggest source of taxes would be increased contributions to pensions, followed by increases in the Value Added Tax (VAT) which is like a sales taxes, and then higher corporate income taxes. Despite Greece having the highest military spending (as a percent of GDP) of any country in Europe, there is only a small proposed cut to military spending, coming to only 2.5% of total proposed tax increases and spending cuts.

The Syriza government has called for a referendum on July 5 on the latest EU/IMF/ECB proposal. They are calling for a no vote, and saying that this means support for their slightly milder austerity proposal. But while only the pro-business parties are campaigning for a yes vote, simply voting no and supporting milder austerity is not a good solution for the Greek people.

#SanJoseCA #Syriza