Greece and the KKE

The fightback
User avatar
blindpig
Posts: 10592
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 5:44 pm
Location: Turtle Island
Contact:

Re: Greece and the KKE

Post by blindpig » Fri Oct 04, 2019 1:22 pm

Statement by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the KKE

Image

NO TO THE RENEWAL OF THE GREECE-USA AGREEMENT ON MILITARY BASES
NO TO THE VISIT OF THE US SECRETARY OF STATE M. POMPEO

The KKE calls on workers, the people and the youth to rise against the visit of the US Secretary of State, M. Pompeo, and above all against the conversion of Greece into a vast US-NATO base. This is also the content of the “Strategic Dialogue” with the US, initiated by the former SYRIZA government in Phase I and enhanced by the ND government with the current Phase II.

The KKE calls for uprising and mass participation in the mobilizationsof the anti-war and anti-imperialist movement against the visit of the US Secretary of State, which will take place throughout the country. It calls for support for the multi-faceted actions in order for the US-NATO bases in Greece to close down and our country todisentanglefrom the dangerous imperialist plans and competitions.

The “Mutual Defence Cooperation Agreement”, which has already been prepared behind the people’s backand is expected to be signed during the visit of the US Secretary of State, Pompeo, to Athens, furtherengages our country and our people at great risks.

It prepares to turn“once and for all”more than half of Greece to amurderous base for the US-NATO and their plans, from the Balkans and the Black Sea to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf, and make our people a target of imperialist competitions raging all over the region to share the loot in Energy, its transportation routes and the spheres of influence.

The ND government, in the framework of the “Strategic Dialogue” with the US, initiated by the SYRIZA government, proceeds to amultiannual or permanentrenewal of the Greek-USAgreement on military bases, its enhancement and expansion.

The capabilities of the Souda base, which already supports their operationsfrom the Black Sea to the Middle East and North Africaarefurther expanded.
The use of US UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) and other aircraftsis consolidatedin the air base of Larissa.
US helicopters are permanently installed in Central Greece (they currently use Stefanovikio inMagnesia for “periodic restationing”).
A US-NATO unitis installed in Alexandroupolis, as they want to exploit its port for military purposes (deploying US-NATO forces to Eastern Europe along the border with Russia) and expand USeconomic interests in the region.






The claims by the government and the Euro-Atlantic partiesthat Greece's attachment to the imperialist chariotof NATO, the US and the EU ensures peace and security in the region are unfounded and unhistorical.

Their bases are not built to protect the country and the borders, but to serve as bases for war and interventions, to protect the interests of energy giants.

This is what the US Ambassador, G. Pyatt, means when he repeatedly states that Greece is a “geopolitical hinge” and a “frontline state” for the US. That is:

On the “front line” of the war plans in the Persian Gulf and against the Iranian people, as Souda was during all the previous years on the “front line”of theimperialist interventions in Syria, Libya and so on.
On the “front line” of NATO’s plans to encircle Russia in the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea.
On the “front line” of plans to keep Turkey in the US-NATO camp, taking on the role of “the channel”, opening up solid co-management plans in the Aegean and Cyprus.
The entanglement in these plans will turn Greece into a “magnet” for potential attacks. Our country has already been targeted. The Russian and Iranian officials' statements saying that in case their countries are threatened, they will turn their missiles against the countries hosting US bases, are characteristic.

Equally unfounded and unhistorical are the claims that in this way our country is protected from Turkish aggression. Turkey, as a NATO force,escalates aggression in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean, calling into question and violating borders.

The participation of our country in NATO and the EU over the years, the presence of NATO bases in Greece not only did not prevent, but on the contrary,sharpened Turkish aggression. NATO recognizes no borders in the Aegean, which considers to be a single business space. It plays the role of “Pontius Pilate” in the Greek-Turkish disputes.Besides, the promotion of partition and co-exploitation of mineral wealth plans in Cyprus and the Aegean is promoted under the auspices of NATO, the US and the EU.

No matter how many lies they tell about the alleged“benefits” that the Greek people will have, this is the essence and it cannot be concealed;the only “exchanges” are the ones that the bourgeoisie expects for its upgrading, while for the people the price is even greater risksdue to their plans, with peoples been the victims, and that means new wars, poverty, uprooted people fromtheir homelands. The only winners will be those parts of the capital that will benefit from energy and other business partnerships, which among others,hand the country's public wealthto domestic and foreign business interests.

The KKE firmly defends the people’s interests, works for the development of the joint struggle of the peoples, for mutual, beneficial cooperation, and demands:

Immediate denouncement of the “Mutual Defence Cooperation Agreement”, the closingof the Soudabase and other US-NATO military bases.
No participation of the Greek Armed Forces in imperialist missions abroad, disentanglement from the NATO and the EU predatory alliances.
Strengthening of the struggle for disentanglement from NATO and the EU.
Strengtheningof the joint struggle and solidarity of the peoples against the imperialist war and the system that bears it.
These developments require vigilance and action. They must sound an alarm, a real uprise. With even greater intensity, even more people mustjoin the struggle to inform, to mobilize. The already thousands of signatures collected after the call of the Struggle Committee against the Bases Agreement must be multiplied. Even more organizations and trade unions must be engaged into the success of the rallies that will be held during the visit of the US Secretary of Stateto Greece for the second round of the “Strategic Dialogue”.

Let the message “No land, no water for the murderers of the peoples”be loudlyheardeverywhere.



1/10/2019



THE PB OF THE CC OF THE KKE

https://inter.kke.gr/en/articles/Statem ... f-the-KKE/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

User avatar
blindpig
Posts: 10592
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 5:44 pm
Location: Turtle Island
Contact:

Re: Greece and the KKE

Post by blindpig » Tue Nov 19, 2019 12:50 pm

No involvement in the dangerous plans of the USA – NATO – EU is the message of the uprising

With huge anti-imperialist – anti-war rallies in Athens, Thessaloniki and other major cities, the 46th anniversary of the heroic uprising of the Polytechnic University students and the workers of Athens, of November 1973, was commemorated; an event that was the pinnacle of the anti-dictatorship struggle of the people and the youth against the junta of the colonels that had been in government since 21st of April, 1967.

The slogans o fthe Polytechnic uprising are as timely as ever in the struggle against the policies that lead the people to poverty, to unemployment, to insecurity, against the involvement of Greece in the imperialist designs of NATO – USA – EU, against repression and authoritarianism.

It'snot coincidental that in Athens the great anti-imperialist rally, marching through the central streets of the city, concluded in front of the American Embassy, to remind one that the imposition of the military dictatorship in 1967, served “by fire and iron” the interests of the bourgeois class at the expense of the people, implementing the plans of the US and NATO imperialists, culminating in the coup of Cyprus that led to the Turkish invasion and occupation.





In the Statement of the Press Bureau of the CC of the KKEnotes the following among others:

"The gates of the Polytechnic were covered with the slogans" US Out! "," NATO out! ". These slogans are becoming more and more relevant every year as our country actively participates in US-NATO imperialist plans and is turning into a launching pad for war and intervention. After all, just a few days ago the Secretary of Defense in his deplorable statement - addressing an American general - emphasized that "our men shed their blood together with American soldiers in the wars we were involved in, and this will be the case in the future"!

The ND government has taken up the baton from the SYRIZA government, which whitewashed American imperialism and strengthened military cooperation with the USA. Itoffered valuable services to the system, justifying this criminal policy in the name of “the left” and “progress”, espousing militant values and ideals, strengthening the trend towards conservatism.

The other side of the coin is the attack of the government on labor and trade union rights, the increasing tax robbery of the people, the dismantlement of Social Insurance. A vital complement to this policy is the stepping up of the dogma “law and order”, employer terrorism, state repression, with the goal of putting a brake on all popular and youth demands.”

For these reasons, this year’s commemoration of the Polytechnic uprising takes on great importance. The KKE calls upon the workers, the youth, the poor- popular strata, to honor the heroic Polytechnic uprising and the dead of the struggle against the dictatorship, with mass militant participation in the events of the three-day commemoration and the anti-imperialist march on the American Embassy.

To protest against imperialist wars and the involvement of Greece. To express their solidarity towards the victims of capitalist exploitation, refugees and immigrants, which the policies of the EU – governments traps in our country under wretched conditions.

To isolate the contemporary praise-singers of the junta, those who spew the venom of racism, of fascism, of anti-communism.”

The KKE and KNE blocs, which again this year were the most massive in the anti-imperialist rally in Athens and other cities, passed the resounding message of the necessity of clashing with anti-popular policies and imperialist unions.

As the KKE emphasizes in its statement: "Those governments that have chosen to manage the rotten exploitative system and its laws have inevitably followed anti-people policies. What is now needed for a genuine way-out for the benefit of the people is to form a victorious social alliance that will fight against the monopolies, the imperialist unions, the outdated capitalist system itself, with the goal of socialism. This struggle can clash with anti-popular measures, achieve gains, defend democratic rights and freedoms for the people. "

Image

https://inter.kke.gr/en/articles/No-inv ... -uprising/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

User avatar
blindpig
Posts: 10592
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 5:44 pm
Location: Turtle Island
Contact:

Re: Greece and the KKE

Post by blindpig » Sun Feb 09, 2020 11:57 am

Greece-US agreement on military bases takes a hammering inside and outside of the Parliament

The disgraceful Greece-US Strategic Agreement was debated in the Greek Parliament Plenary session on Thursday 30/01/20, an agreement which expands and enlarges the US military bases in the country so it can be used as a multi-level military base for American – NATO assassins, at the same time transforming the country into a target for intra-imperialist competitions.



KKE parliament members denounced the agreement, pointing out that it is a crucial link for Greece's deeper involvement in imperialist wars and interventions, putting the country and people at great risk.

The KKE demanded its withdrawal, calling on the people to step up their fight against dangerous designs.



Speaking from the Parliament podium, Dimitris Koutsoumpas, General Secretary of the KKE Central Committee, noted:



«You state with no shame: “The more bases we have, the greater the obstacles to Turkish aggression!" If this is so, how is it possible that in the last three years where the "American footprint" in Greece has indeed grown, that Turkish aggression has continually increased and escalated? Don't you know that NATO doesn't recognize borders in the Aegean? Don't you know that the US, NATO and the EU have virtually legalized the invasion and occupation of NATO’s Turkey in Cyprus for so many years? Do you see something else besides all theiraspirations for Turkey's illegal drilling in the Cypriot EEZ? You pretend you don't know: Turkish provocation and aggression is firmly backed byNATO. »

And he continued, «You still say,"The Agreement is a defensive one"... Who are you kidding? Even young children today know that the US has the most aggressive plans, to thwart the plans of its competitors, Russia, China, Iran. These plans reek of gunpowder, like that which has been used for years in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya (...).»

«You also tell us:"The bases protect Greece." However, the other side of transforming Greece into a vast American and NATO military camp is what you hide from the Greek people. Why don't you tell them openly what Russian officials, or recently,what Iranian officials are saying: That US and NATO bases, wherever they exist, and in Greece, that is, are a target for reprisals. (...)

NATO bases do not protect. On the contrary, they make our country, the Greek people, a target. The Greek people are being both targeted and paying. With more than 4 billion euros a year coming out of our pockets for NATO's needs, you come forward with today's Agreement and you free it of any obligation to pay for landing, docking, or even base upgrades.»

On the government's argument that "we are receiving US technical know-how for the Greek Armed Forces", D. Koutsoumpas commented in his speech: «We see something else: You providing military equipment and Armed Forces personnel in Saudi Arabia with the responsibility of the government! Really, what sovereign rights of Greece are at stake in Riyadh and the deserts of Saudi Arabia?

Providing Greek frigates for patrols in the Strait of Hormuz while the participation of Greek Armed Forces personnel in Libya is being planned? And you are all doing this, those of the Euro-Atlantic arc. Since even SYRIZA is urging the government to find –as it says - the right formula for sending forces outside our borders, as long as it under the official aegis of the UN, the EU or even NATO! And all this in the name of "the left and progress", continuing to denigrate militant values and ideals. »





Huge rallies against the Agreement

In Athens, Thessaloniki, and in dozens of other Greek cities, class unions, mass organizations and the Greek Committee for International Détente and Peace (EEDYE) simultaneously organized huge rallies against the Agreement.

In Athens, the rally was held outside the House of Parliament, followed by a march on the US Embassy.

Nikos Papanastassis, a lieutenant colonel, a member of the National Council of EEDYE and MP of the KKE, spoke at the gathering, along with Giota Tavoularis, president of the Federation of Pharmaceutical Industry Workers and a member of the Executive Secretariat of PAME.

Dimitris Koutsoumpas was among the protestors, after coming out of the Parliament building, while a large delegation of the KKE Central Committee participated in the mobilization.

Image

The KKE voted against

Finally, with 175 votes in favor, 33 against and 80 “abstaining”, the Greek-US Strategic Agreement was ratified by the Parliament. The KKE voted against, while the Agreement was voted for by the ruling party ND and the social-democratic PASOK/KINAL. The stance of the former social-democratic SYRIZA government was hypocritical, the party which had prepared the deal while it was in government, maintaining, multiplying, and expanding the US military bases. SYRIZA now voted "to abstain", arguing that the government should have secured a better “exchange” from the US. Members of the far-right "Hellenic Solution" Party voted against based on the same logic of "exchanges", along with the social-democratic MeRA25 with its pointless pacifist argument on humanizing imperialism. _

31.01.2020

https://inter.kke.gr/en/articles/Greece ... arliament/

**********************************

PRESS OFFICE RELEASE ON THE US PLAN FOR THE PALESTINIAN ISSUE

The KKE denounces to the Greek people that the US plan for the Palestinian issue, which is falsely described as the "deal of the century", not only does not guarantee an independent Palestinian state but perpetuates and shields Israeli occupation.

Image

The plan provides:



- The ceding of Jerusalem to the State of Israel as an "undivided Israeli capital".

- The annexation of the Jordan Valley, which is the heart of the 30% of the West Bank, and areas north of the Dead Sea by the Israeli state.

- The maintenance of Israeli settlements and thousands of settlers who are occupying forces in the Palestinian territories.



This is a very dangerous development, part of the general imperialist plan put forward by the US for unacceptable arrangements in the region against the peoples.



We must now strengthen solidarity with the Palestinian people.



- For the end of the Israeli occupation and an independent Palestinian state at the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

- For the abolition of settlements and departure of settlers, return of Palestinian refugees to their homes.

- For the release of all Palestinian political prisoners from Israeli prisons.



The Greek governments, the current ND as the previous SYRIZA government, have a share of responsibility for upgrading the strategic cooperation with the state - killer of Israel, but also because they have not proceeded to the necessary recognition of an independent Palestinian state, despite the unanimous decision of the Greek parliament.

29/01/2020

THE PRESS OFFICE OF THE CC OF THE KKE

https://inter.kke.gr/en/articles/PRESS- ... IAN-ISSUE/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

User avatar
blindpig
Posts: 10592
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 5:44 pm
Location: Turtle Island
Contact:

Re: Greece and the KKE

Post by blindpig » Wed Feb 19, 2020 11:21 pm

CP of Greece, Greek Workers hold 24-hour National Strike
2/19/20 2:20 PM
Greece, Communist Party of Greece En Es Ru Sq Europe Communist and workers' parties
Greek Workers hold 24-hour National Strike

The struggle for contemporary social security rights

With huge rallies in Athens, Thessaloniki, and a total of 61 Greek cities, following the call of the Sector Federations and trade unions, workers moved forward against the new law of the ND government, which effectively touches up SYRIZA's previous law by further deepening the privatization of Social Security.

The massive strike was in opposition to employer-led and government-led trade unionism, expressed by the leadership of the General Confederation of Trade Unions (GSEE), which actively supports the strategy of big capital, embracing the criteria of competitiveness and the super profits of capital, in accordance with the so-called “resiliency” of the economy.

Video 1, Video 2, Photos

ND retains the framework of the corresponding SYRIZA law, but makes new anti-labor, anti-social insurance additions in order to safeguard against and to cover up any loopholes that provided justice to tens of thousands of pensioner lawsuits.

Under the new law, the pension is divided into two parts, a national pension and acontributory pension, which will depend on risk and stock market gambling. The employee will pay his insurance contributions, but he will not know the amount of total pension he will ultimately receive. The state will only guarantee the national minimum pension which remains at an abysmally low level.

Themore than 80 billion euros that were stolen from the state pension funds by employers and the state will not be returned.

The huge cuts in pensions in effect since 2010 remain in force.

The retirement age was raised to 67, for both men and women, with the prospect of an increase depending on“life expectancy.”

It pushes vast categories of young workers into the claws of private insurance companies, opening the road in general for public Social Security to be handed over to private insurance companies.

Workers all over the country demand the same thing:

The abolition of all anti-people ND – SYRIZA laws that turn against Social Security.
Mandatory, public and universal Social Security.
The return of all stolen state pension fund reserves.
An increase in the state budget for Health – Welfare, high-quality and free Healthcare provision for all.
Abolition of the increase in retirement age to 67. Retirement age at 60 for men, 55 for women, 5 years less for heavy and dangerous work categories.
Return of the 13th and 14th
The minimum pension to be 80% of one’s salary. No pension less than 600 euros.
Full state guarantee of all pensions.
The class unions, which rally in the All-Worker Militant Front (PAME) and who led the way in organizing the strike, declare that the fight against this new round of attack will continue. The "banner" of this struggle is the right of the working class to work and live based on the contemporarycapacities of production and science, to reap the benefits of the wealth it produces. A struggle linked to the prospect of a different kind of social, economic, and political organization, without capitalists, that will have at its center working people’s contemporary needs for education, work and a life with rights.



Dimitris Koutsoumpas: The people do not forget, they organize, they win

In his statement to the Press at the strike rally in Athens, the GS of the CC of the KKE, Dimitris Koutsoumpasrelated the following:

"The ND government will pay very dearly for the further demolition of the social security system, as PASOK and SYRIZA paid for it before. The Greek people do not forget, they organize, they win. "

http://solidnet.org/article/CP-of-Greec ... al-Strike/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

User avatar
blindpig
Posts: 10592
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 5:44 pm
Location: Turtle Island
Contact:

Re: Greece and the KKE

Post by blindpig » Thu Mar 26, 2020 2:14 pm

The Communist Party of Greece requires the expropriation of private clinics
03/25/2020
Government imposed curfew

The last week in Greece are demonstrations and protests organized by the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) . Communists, together with doctors, are demanding immediate measures to strengthen public health. In particular, the question is raised about the opening of all beds in intensive care units and the complete expropriation of private clinics.

Image

Protests are held as part of a campaign in which KKE party organizations are involved throughout the country. Together with doctors, they draw public attention to the pandemic problem and require the adoption of the most urgent measures to avoid a repeat of the Italian scenario. Greek doctors are still not fully equipped with personal protective equipment. In some areas of the country, there are not enough doctors, and at the same time, there are many unemployed doctors in the labor market. In many hospitals, some beds are “optimized”. In addition to solving these problems, the Communists also demand requisition of the entire infrastructure of the private health sector.



The head of the Communist Party of Greece Dimitris Kutsumbas listed the necessary emergency measures and additionally stated:

“The protection of public health is mainly ensured through preventive measures, primarily in large organizations, and by decisively strengthening the public health system. This is indicated by the experience of other countries, in particular Italy. In no case should the government shift its responsibility onto the shoulders of citizens and put the blame for the pandemic solely on personal human behavior ... It should have at least requisitioned private clinics and included them in the state planning system, immediately provided hospitals with all necessary means, which paramedics need. Take measures to avoid simultaneous infection with coronavirus, as well as the necessary protective measures at workplaces, in supermarkets, pharmacies, hospitals, transport, etc.,

Number of infected coronavirus in Greece close to 800 people, which is not too little for a country with a population of 11.3 million people. The threatening situation prompted the government to impose curfews and toughen penalties for violating quarantine. Using the "prohibitive" measures against citizens, the state at the same time maintains loyalty to big business and stops before the "sacred" right of private property.

https://www.rotfront.su/kompartiya-gret ... kspropria/

Google Translator
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

User avatar
blindpig
Posts: 10592
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 5:44 pm
Location: Turtle Island
Contact:

Re: Greece and the KKE

Post by blindpig » Mon Apr 06, 2020 12:35 pm

The end of myths and illusions
To face the present and prepare tomorrow


Article by Dimitris Koutsoumbas,

GS of the CC of the KKE.

We are in the midst of the pandemic of the novel coronavirus threatening our people and the peoples of the entire world. Our Party faces this unprecedented adventure for the people with a high sense of responsibility. From the very first moment, we postponed all the events, adapted the operation and action of the Party Organizations in the framework of the measures to prevent and protect public health. At the same time, we demanded that all necessary measures be immediately taken to protect the health of the people and the rights of the workers.

The content of our Party's intervention in these difficult conditions is aptly illustrated by the slogan: "We stay strong, we do not stay silent."

WE STAY STRONG, protecting ourselves, our family, our friends and comrades, our colleagues. We do not stay silent about shortcomings in the public health system. We highlight and demand all that should have already been done to address the pandemic.

We particularly highlight the need to recruit thousands of healthcare professionals, the immediate requisition of the private health sector, to protect our fellow humans who are suffering in the workplaces producing the necessary means for the survival of the people, as well as the protection of our fellow humans who are fighting a self-sacrificing titanic battle in hospitals and all healthcare units, to protect our health and lives.

We stay strong, we do not lower resistance, demand, and solidarity in the workplace and neighborhoods, certainly taking into account the protection measures and the special conditions.

We do not stay silent in the face of employer arbitrariness and government policy, which once again seek to place the burden of this crisis on the workers.

WE BREAK THE SILENCE that the government and the big employers want to impose in the name of the slogan "let's overcome this crisis together", which is a reflection of hypocritical bourgeois ethics. Quite simply, because we cannot "all together" recruit healthcare professionals, requisite the private sector, take preventive and protective measures providing all the necessary tools and means to protect workers. In the framework of this system, all the above must be done by the state and the government that leads it, along with the class that has the real power and ownership. Of course until the working class and the popular strata, "all together" and united sideline them permanently and irrevocably and construct a society where social goods will be given priority, as opposed to the capitalist profit that leads to the death of our fellow humans.

WE DEMAND MEASURES to support the workers and the self-employed who have been hit by the restrictive measures.

We demand the cancellation of about 40,000 redundancies and much more damaging changes that preceded. We will not legitimize measures taken in the pretext of the epidemic, with a view to become permanent, such as those concerning further "flexibility" of work.



* * *



WE DO NOT DENY INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY. But individual responsibility is established when a state assumes its own primary responsibility.

The New Democracy government communication strategy of turning everything into "individual responsibility" is devious, precisely because it hides the truth from the people.

It aims to conceal the enormous shortcomings in the public health system due to the EU's overall policy, which has been accepted and endorsed by all Greek governments, as well as the to date policy of degradation, commercialization, and cuts that all governments, firstly of ND – PASOK and then SYRIZA, have followed over time.

Didn't the SYRIZA government follow the same communication strategy of "individual responsibility" when it attributed the tragedy in Mandra and Mati to individual responsibility?

The hypocrisy of the current government is also proved by the necessary restrictive measures. Because these measures stop outside the "gates" of workplaces, hospitals, supermarkets and other workplaces, where workers are crowded without the necessary precautionary measures.

And all this, while there is the example of neighboring Italy, where, as it is alleged, the spread of the virus is largely due to the fact that, under the responsibility of industrialists and the government, the large industrial zone of the North has not ceased to operate, acting as the main outbreak centre.

For all of the above, we must now deal with both the ND government as well as the unaccountable big employers. We must not postpone it, in the name of the special conditions that today imply the silence of a falsified "unity", as SYRIZA and the other bourgeois parties promote, essentially calling the people to disarmament and submission. And this also concerns thinking, consciousness, pure class-oriented minds, and in practice, the militant attitude of life, so that no one feels alone in these difficult conditions.

Our own unity, the unity of the working class and the suffering people, is the one that is built daily, with patience and perseverance, steadily, against the policies of the EU, the big capital and their governments that put the people's and its children's life at risk.

Especially the opposition of parties, such as SYRIZA, will remain in history as the opposition of "complicity" in every dangerous step that ultimately affects the interests of the Greek people.

From the dangerous relations with the US and NATO, the Greek-Turkish relations and facing imperialist aggression evolving together and alongside Turkish aggression and provocation, the management of refugees'-immigrants' drama, up to the management of the pandemic itself, SYRIZA, because of its strategy of alignment and agreement, complicits in the ND government on all these issues critical to the lives of the people.

After all, the dissolution of the public health system, from the obsolete or non-existent Primary Health Care up to major hospitals that had already reached their limits independently from the pandemic, now has its own seal:



The previous ND government closed hospitals and SYRIZA let them remain closed.
ND reduced health funds and SYRIZA reduced them even more.
None of them hired the necessary medical and healthcare staff.
Together, they have been telling the people that the private business sector can help to "upgrade" the public health sector.


* * *



THE MYTH WHICH IS UTTERLY REFUTED during the coronavirus pandemic is the one saying that the public and the private sector can coexist harmoniously and thus contribute to address this situation. This myth is refuted by the profiteering of private health centers conducting the coronavirus testing, which is only accessible to those who can afford it, depriving state planning of valuable resources and at the same time increasing the risk of spreading the virus.

This myth is also refuted by the fact that the state depends on the world market "war" conducted by the big companies, which found the opportunity to run a very lucrative business, for the supply of basic material and drugs.

The necessity for an exclusively public and free Health system with the abolition of any business activity has been dramatically demonstrated.

Even now that all eyes are on the public health system, the recruitment of healthcare personnel announced by the government is not enough to meet even basic needs under normal conditions, let alone under pandemic conditions.



The current conditions require:



Immediate requisition of private health units and their integration into central state planning.
Immediate supply of hospitals with all the necessary means that the healthcare professionals require, as they know better than anyone what is needed.
The opening of all ICUs.
The recruitment of all necessary healthcare personnel.


What the opposition leader stated about the "requisition" of private hospitals, in fact concerns the extension of the EOPYY (National Organization for Healthcare Services Provision) contract. Obviously, SYRIZA does not even dare to propose the real and immediate requisition of the private health sector.



* * *



THE SECOND MYTH WHICH IS REFUTED is the one about "returning to normality" and high growth rates. All of this now give their place to the acceptance that the Greek economy as well is in deep recession.

The slowdown of the economy in the EU and other major capitalist economies has, of course, preceded, increasing the risk of a new capitalist crisis.

Of course, the current pandemic is not its main cause but only serves as a catalyst. It is certain that the Greek economy will also be affected by the "monoculture" of tourism, exposing all those who fully endorsed the extroversion of the Greek economy.

The measures taken by the EU and the governments of its member states, proceeding to protectionist measures, closing borders, and financing their own monopoly groups with funding packages, will not stop this course.

We must know that this Keynesian-type state intervention, as well as the promoted fiscal relaxation, to support the capitalist economy, will be paid once again by the workers who will be called to fill the new fiscal gaps and the new lending.

As for the famous "European solidarity", it sounds like a joke, even among the bourgeois circles of the country. Especially when, in the European Union of "freedom of movement of goods", Germany and France even banned the export of the necessary sanitary material to other countries!

It is therefore proved also in this way, and even in tragic times for the peoples of Europe, that the EU is not a union of peoples, but a "predatory alliance" and a "lion's den", an imperialist union of states, demonstrating the necessity of not just a more tough stance against it, as various bourgeois parties promote when they are in opposition, but of a political and strategic choice that will lead to disentanglement from it, with the working class and the people of each country having power and ownership.



* * *



Above all, however, the pandemic highlights, more so with every day that passes, the limits of the capitalist system.

It turns out that contemporary needs and social goods, such as health, cannot be left to the mercy of markets and profit.

This decay cannot be concealed by the adjectives that some people use to describe capitalism, such as "neoliberal capitalism", "extreme capitalism" and so on, ultimately only to conceal that they fully support the capitalist system itself.

Because, now it can no longer be said that "it may be a wrong approach", a "simple political strategy mistake" that may perhaps be "corrected by individual improvements" or by "changing some managers of the bourgeois power by alternating from liberals to social democrats" and vice versa ...

It is the same old story ...

But the people in this case are permanently intubated, trapped in conditions of a coronavirus pandemic which may not be that difficult, but in any case under capitalist conditions.

These outrageous situations, with doctors being forced to choose who will live and who will die, exist both in countries with "neoliberal" governments, such as Italy, but also in countries where fake "progressive alliances" govern, such as Spain.

Today capitalism itself is bankrupt, the market economy itself in all its versions is bankrupt, which nullifies every opportunity for the working class and the people to enjoy high-quality health services in line with the evolution of science and technology, precisely because its main criterion is capitalist profit.

Even in pandemic conditions, everything is subject to the profitability of the capital. This is why workers in the industries of Northern Italy have been working despite the prohibitions, without protective measures, with the known tragic results.

This is why the competition between transnational monopolies over who will patent the new vaccine is sharpening, at a time when there should be cooperation and joint efforts by the world's best scientists and research centers.

This is why even now the big employers trample over any remaining labor rights, try new forms of exploitation, such as teleworking, and proceed to mass layoffs.

Against the decay of bankrupt capitalism, we can clearly see the superiority of socialism that ensured health and healthcare for all, let alone in the previous century and in countries that began its construction under conditions of great delay at all levels.

The figures in Soviet Russia 30 years ago, which cannot even be compared to the situation prevailing in our country and EU countries, are relentless: over 1.1 million doctors, exclusively free healthcare for the entire population, 1,387 hospital beds per 10,000 inhabitants.

Even today, the mission of the Cuban doctors to Italy, the Health infrastructure in countries such as Germany, existing thanks to the socialist system of half of Germany back then, the German Democratic Republic, and even the management of the pandemic in capitalist China, which reveals its socialist residues, show that socialism has left its powerful social imprint even three decades after its overthrow.



* * *



So in these unprecedented conditions, we stay strong, we struggle for protection measures of workers' lives and rights, we put forward the only perspective for the working class, the majority of our people, which is the new society, i.e. socialism.

The tangible superiority of socialism, social ownership, and central scientific planning is the great legacy for the next day.

Let this prevail in our thoughts and political action during these days of "quarantine". We deny any political "quarantine", we oppose the "quarantine" in thought. We think, study and act, facing today, adapting our action, but also looking to the future, preparing tomorrow.

31.03.2020

https://inter.kke.gr/en/articles/The-en ... -tomorrow/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

User avatar
blindpig
Posts: 10592
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 5:44 pm
Location: Turtle Island
Contact:

Re: Greece and the KKE

Post by blindpig » Fri Apr 17, 2020 11:24 am

The action of KNE in Greece in the Covid-19 era



Since the very first moment the current difficult situation arose due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we, the members and friends of ΚΝΕ, were found on the frontline to support public health and the rights of youth, wherever they live, study and work in Greece. With the initiative and the militant activity of the forces of ΚΝΕ, since the first days of quarantine, we seek to break in practice the state of silence and submission the government wants to pass to workers, people and the youth.

We act with awareness we wage a difficult battle. An unprecedented battle for our generation. A demanding battle because it will last for long and its consequences will be far greater than what we have experienced until now. A complex battle, because the conflict, the ideological and political attack, especially on youth, is being strengthened and will be escalated in the short-term by the government and overall the bourgeoisie and their political parties.

We understand that the young communists’ responsibility increases even more during these difficult conditions. We do not cease our action. We adjust it. The content of action of the ΚΚΕ and ΚΝΕ is reflected by the slogan: “We stay strong, we do not stay silent”.



***


Image
On the Poster: Even the covered mouths have a voice - We make it stronger for the protection measures fro the haelth and the rights of workers.



____


Image
The posters are placed in central areas of the cities of the country, conveying to the people the optimistic and militant message of the KKE

In current conditions, the action of ΚΝΕ, by the side of the ΚΚΕ, is summarised in the following axes:

1. The conditions force us to focus on informing our forces, on enlightening the youth who keep up with the positions and the proposals of the ΚΚΕ, but also on enlightening many other people who are concerned with the recent developments and they want to listen to us for the first time. This is the reason we study intensively the daily newspaper of our Party, “Rizospastis”, the organ of Central Comittee of the ΚΚΕ. We work to increase the subscribers, namely the houses where the newspaper will enter, something which is very important during these unusual conditions, to beat the bourgeois propaganda off. At the same time ΚΝΕ publishes a special issue of their monthly magazine, the organ of the Central Council, “Odigitis”.

Moreover, we utilize several media on the internet: the portal of our Party which ensures the constant streaming of news and analysis, but also the new and updated sites of the ΚΚΕ and ΚΝΕ. We utilize and we intervene in an organised way in the internet and in the Social Media so the voice of the ΚΚΕ and ΚΝΕ can reach even more young people. We upload plenty of enlightening videos on the accounts of the ΚΚΕ and ΚΝΕ. A few weeks ago, we launched the new multithemed podcast of ΚΝΕ, which is already very successful through its first three episodes, since tens of thousands of young people watch it. In our enlightening action we utilize the Common Announements of dozens of Communist and Worker’s Parties, and Communist Youth Organizations as well, we utilize activity and initiatives of communists from all over the world.

Image
KKE's banners outside hospitals, workplaces and neighbourhoods, conveying to the people the message of solidarity and demand:

Protection of people's health. The labour rights must be ensured

2. We take precautions for the people and youth to use in a creative way their time at home due to the quarantine. We utilize our printed media as well as the the internet to make proposals on music, books, movies, to carry out book presentations through the internet. On the website of ΚΝΕ we created a section entitled "We stay strong - We ‘escape’ with the proposals of ΚΝΕ”, where theatrical performances, children’s theatrical performances, concerts from the festivals of ΚΝΕ and new productions as well, which take place in the Center of Culture and Youthful Creation of ΚΝΕ in Athens, workshops, events of the ΚΚΕ and ΚΝΕ are being showed. Recently we put in motion, through the Party’s website, a virtual tour of the visual arts exhibition about the political prisoners’ resistance in jails and in the places of exile, an exhibition which was organised by the Central Comittee of the ΚΚΕ in March but it was suspended due to coronavirus. Also, through our websites we show videos sent to us by artists themselves and we present their work which, via their songs, promotes resistance, demand and solidarity.


Image
Interventions of the federation of Accountants of Greece, the Union of Accountant Controllers of Attica Region and the Struggle Committees of Salaried and Self-Employed Scientists, at the Ministries of Labour and Justice

3. We act in a millitant and decisive way within workplaces, places where youth lives, neightbourhoods, in regard to the demanding issues which concern the shortcomings not only in health but also in labour rights. We put banners and posters in supermarkets, hospitals, mass workplaces that are still operating, in places where we can actually find people these days. We get on the frontline in workplaces to reveal and denounce the employer’s abuse and the abuse of government’s policy; They attempt to charge the working people’s shoulders with new burdens. We call upon the working people to inform their trade unions about any problem, about any lack of health and safety measures, to create health and safety committees within workplaces.

Our forces organize and support mobilizations, like the mobilization of the Federation of Doctors' Associations in Hospitals in Greece at the Ministry of Health (the first mobilization of this period in Greece), for the assertion of immediate measures of confrontation and protection from the coronavirus, and also many others that followed this one in the whole country. Other significant mobilizations were carried out by boarding students of university dormitories, who demanded and imposed their stay at the dormitory, after organizing general assemblies and militant interventions; along with the interventions of the Labor Centre of Lavrio - Eastern Attica at the offices of the handling services company "Swissport”, which had fired hundreds of employees at the Athens International Airport in the previous days. In addition, in the neighborhoods of Athens, mini vans of trade unions and mass organizations, with megaphones were addressing a call for the Day of Nationwide Action for Health, announced by the Federation of Doctors' Associations in Hospitals, on the 7th of April, world Health Day.



Image
Protest of a delegation of teachers outside the Ministry of Education, On the occasion of the shortages concerning the e-learning process that make more difficult for all the school-students to have access to it.

At the same time, teachers from all around the country have collected 5.500 signatures on a protest letter concerning the great problems with the remote learning process.

The mobilization of the Federation of Doctors' Associations in hospitals outside the Ministry of Health, which got around all over Greece, breaking from the very first moment the silence that the goverment attempted to force.
Image

4. We step ahead for the immediate organization of solidarity with those affected by the current situation, so that no family will feel alone. Solidarity committees are already being formed in the neighborhoods, while workers’ unions are taking initiatives to provide material support to those who became recently unemployed or are no paid, like the initiative of the Association of Musicians of Greece. At the same time, all over the Greece, initiatives and committees have been created by boarding students and the students’ associations. After proposals of members of KNE at the administration board of students’ associations of Medicine and Nursing Universities, in many cities, the voluntary contribution of the graduate and senior students against the pandemic is taking place, with hundreds of new forces on the side of the health officers and the public health system. Similar initiatives have been assumed by student associations of chemical engineers, of departments of Pharmacy and other related technologies to prepare antiseptics, available free of charge to public hospitals and boarding students. Many student associations organize voluntary blood donation, while school-student councils across the country decided that the school- students in their schools could send their artistic creations (paintings, artwork, etc.) to doctors and nurses to give them courage in their difficult struggle.

In these circumstances, we use all means to promote our positions, in order to contribute to the formation of a framework of demands, but also to reveal the anti-people character of the government policy. In the discussion with the youth, we utilize the activity of the Party's parliamentary group, by submitting to the parliament the demands of trade unions and other mass organizations, the questions on the most pressing problems (for example the problems of young workers, school- students and students).
***
Image
The new multi-themed podcast of KNE marks a lurge success even from its first three episodes

What will be determined nowadays is the issue that concerns what kind of conclusions will be drawn out from everything the young people of working class and popular strata are experiencing within this period; Conclusions that will determine not only their current stance, but also their future stance. We aim so that it will be perceived as widely as possible that all the anti-people measures which are being taken under the pretext of the pandemic, will only be overthrown by the struggle. We are fostering a political criterion within the youth, so that there will be no trust in the government and the bourgeois state, so that it will be mature within the conscience that capitalism, which focuses on profit, cannot solve basic problems of living and survival of world population in the 21st century.

Socialism emerges dazzlingly as the great necessity of our epoch. Socialism is the answer for the 21st century. We deny the political "quarantine"; we oppose the "quarantine" in thought. We think, we study and we act, facing today, adjusting our action, but with a view towards tomorrow, preparing for tomorrow.



The International Relations Committee of the CC of KNE

https://inter.kke.gr/en/articles/The-ac ... id-19-era/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

User avatar
blindpig
Posts: 10592
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 5:44 pm
Location: Turtle Island
Contact:

Re: Greece and the KKE

Post by blindpig » Mon Apr 27, 2020 3:29 pm

The new, yet very old, "Great Idea" of the European capital and the communists' response
by Dimitris Koutsoumbas, General Secretary of the CC of the KKE


The outbreak of the pandemic, its rapid spread, its profound consequences for human life and especially in the more developed capitalist economies, have brought great problems to the surface, which of course pre-existed, but emerged today in a loud and tragic way. The big contradictions and contrasts are even more evident in all aspects of social, economic, political, cultural life and reality, in each country individually and internationally. We must definitely make a greater collective effort and contribution not only to record and codify the new issues, but also further highlight them as well as the main trends of the developments, to draw the necessary conclusions and tasks, both in theoretical and in political, practical level. After all, many issues and aspects are still in progress.



***



The developments we are experiencing at this time, in the last month in our country and a bit more in other countries, show and once again confirm more intensely that the real danger for all the peoples of the world is capitalism at its highest stage, i.e. imperialism. It not only goes against the needs of the people and the social development itself but it constantly causes, on a massive scale, irreparable damage in all sectors due to the sharpening of its contradictions. Today, it is indisputable that the health of the people, care, protection, and security are incompatible with the capitalist profit, the greedy capital and the capitalist mode of production. Either solution will be provided based on the real needs of the people or the people will suffer, they will live in miserable conditions, they will constantly pay out of their own pockets so that the few and chosen ones of the capital will treasure. It is time, and will become even more urgent with the end of the pandemic in the coming months, to strengthen the Social Alliance, the anti-monopoly and anti-capitalist line of struggle, our own alternative proposal, our own response, the response of the hopeful socialist tomorrow. The necessity and timeliness of socialism and the socialist revolution are rising to the surface, and as time passes they will do so in a more imperative way, with new dynamics.



***



Especially during the past days, processes and competitions at a European and global level have intensified over how to more effectively support the affected capitalist economy. The effects of the coronavirus pandemic acted certainly as a catalyst for the worsening of the serious problems that pre-existed in the capitalist economy. The KKE, even when both the current and the previous government were celebrating "growth", warned that the problem of capital accumulation, as the root cause of the crisis, not only has not been overcome, but is sharpened, bringing closer a risk of a new crisis, perhaps faster than expected. In fact, the Greek economy is even more exposed to these shocks, due to its so-called "extroversion", i.e. the great dependence on tourism and shipping, generally on transportation. All previous governments of ND, SYRIZA and PASOK-KINAL waved the flag of this extroversion, while undermining the country's great productive potential, which is valuable and necessary especially in conditions such as the present, simply because it was imposed by the profits of the capital and the EU commitments.



***



It is on this ground that the discussion for a strong state intervention in the economy, called the "new Marshall Plan", is developing. This term, in fact, is used by both the followers of the current ESM support mechanisms (Germany, the Netherlands, Austria) and the followers of the Eurobond or something in-between, from the heavily indebted countries of the south. Also, this term is used by all bourgeois forces, regardless of whether they appear as opponents (neoliberals, right-wing forces, social democrats of all shades and others). This identification shows their agreement on the need for the bourgeois states and their allies, such as the EU, to intervene with an expansionary fiscal policy, to support not the workers and the people, who are again the victims in terms of health and rights, but business groups and their profitability. At the same time, to strengthen the position of the European capital against its competitors, such as the USA, China, Russia, etc., in the framework of the realignments that will take place in the international imperialist system. Of course, this does not mean that there are no differences between them, within the EU, over who will win and who will lose, which can lead to another fragile compromise. In fact, the opposite is true. Countries with smaller deficits and debts argue that lending to economies should be a matter of each state individually, through current support mechanisms. Countries with higher deficits, such as Italy and Spain, which will need large packages to support their own business groups, argue that this lending should be done on a "debt pooling" basis.



***



What is being confirmed once again is the fraud of "European solidarity". The EU and the Eurozone are by nature alliances of competing states and economies that, especially in times of crisis, "show their teeth" to one another and above all to peoples. So those who are bemoaning again about the cohesion of the EU and the "common European house that is threatened", know that this false image is fading in the eyes of the people. The collapse of already inadequate public health systems, despite the heroism of the healthcare professionals, the millions of layoffs in all countries, the overcrowding of workers at factories at the risk of their health so as not to lose any profits, the competition of pharmaceutical companies and healthcare material suppliers that deprive valuable supplies, compose the disgusting image not only of the EU but of the entire capitalist world, even in the countries - “showcases” that are at the top of the imperialist pyramid. It is also confirmed that the bourgeois management mix that is selected each time, is not determined by the particular political views of each bourgeois government, but by the needs and priorities of the capital at a given time. For this reason, after all, we have seen social-democratic forces, such as SYRIZA in Greece, implying restrictive policies that they allegedly opposed, as well as neoliberal forces now implying a more expansive policy, which they have previously criticized. This is nothing new. Modern history is full of such examples. In any case, the common denominator is the following: The workers are the ones who will be called to pay the price of the new rescue packages again. The workers paid for the memoranda and the harsh anti-popular measures in recent years, and they will be called to pay the new loans and deficits, together with the new measures already being tested in the "healthcare experimental tube", on the pretext of the pandemic.



***



This is what we are experiencing in Greece at the moment. On the one hand, thousands of layoffs, harmful changes of employment status, workers with flexible employment relationships who are not even entitled to the meager benefit of 800 euros, the destruction of self-employed professionals and farmers. Οn the other hand, a huge amount of money for big companies and banks. This is the policy that the ND government serves. This policy, with minimal differences, mainly in terms of the support schedule, is also highlighted by SYRIZA's "front-loaded" program. In fact, this even greater convergence between ND and SYRIZA, which is taking place on the ground and under a propaganda mantle of a false "national" responsibility and unity, may determine the political developments in the next period. This is nothing new either. Their signatures' ink on the third memorandum is barely dry. When the stability of the system requires so, they put aside these, now indistinguishable, differences. Both of them hide the essence: that from this enormous crisis it is not possible for both the capital and workers to win. Someone will lose and someone will win. And this struggle for tomorrow must be organized right now by the working class and the other popular strata. With demands and goals of struggle that are born today, in the struggle for health, life, daily survival, but that also target the real opponent, the capital, its governments and alliances.



***



Therefore, the "Great Idea", promoted by the capital and its ubiquitous political representatives, for a "new Marshall Plan" for the reconstruction of Europe, which is supposed to be without commitments and memoranda for the people, beneficial for both the capital and workers, is completely deceptive. The parallels they make with the post-war Marshall Plan, even presenting it as a "quintessence" in favor of the peoples, are funny. In fact, this historical manipulation is not only carried out by the ideological and political descendants of the supporters of the Marshall Plan, but also by so-called "left" forces, which simply confirm their complete bourgeois social-democratic mutation. It is worth remembering that the American funds that flowed into the ruined post-war Europe, as part of the Marshall Plan, in the second half of the critical fifth decade of the last century, was not an act of solidarity with the European peoples, but only a vital energy action for the capitalist system itself. They were used, on the one hand, for the capitalist reconstruction of Europe, which was crucial for American exports, and on the other hand for halting socialism and the revolutionary labor movement, which emerged from World War II with great prestige among all peoples of the world. For this reason, after all, a large part of the Marshall Plan was directed at infrastructure, e.g. military infrastructure, as in Greece, aimed mainly at the socialist system and the struggle of the peoples. However, the necessary post-war state intervention for the reproduction of the capital and the creation of critical infrastructure, neither interrupted the vicious cycle of crises nor ensured the prosperity of the peoples. The offered benefits, also aiming at integrating workers' and people's forces, bore the stamp of the glory of the social achievements in the USSR and the other countries of socialism, but also of the very struggle of the peoples of Europe.



***



Today, unfortunately, this formidable adversary does not exist. The peoples, however, will come out from this crisis with greater experience. The huge impasses and historical bankruptcy of the current exploitation system are becoming even more apparent today. It is up to the people to organize the struggle, their own alliance. To respond with the plan and the political proposal that is currently being promoted only by the KKE in our country. To respond aggressively to where the resources will come from, who ultimately produces all this wealth that few usurp. Promoting and demanding the above from today, and in the special conditions of the restrictions, with greater intensity and other ways and forms on the next day, is a basic condition for preparing the people's counter-attack, cultivating a climate of readiness, rallying and wide Social Alliance with the working class at the forefront. Promoting demands and relief measures for private and public sector employees, self-employed professionals - craftsmen - traders, scientists who work with service contracts, farmers, women and children of popular families, for the protection of people's health, for education and culture, for solving the refugee issue, by restoring democratic rights and freedoms, repealing any laws that restrict trade unionist and political action, stopping the intensifying repression, go hand in hand with revealing the causes, the great responsibilities and the need for the burden of the crisis to fall on the capital and not on the working class and the popular strata. With a simultaneous abolition of all previous memorandum laws and recent anti-popular measures. With the abolition of tax exemption for the monopoly groups, as the taxes must be paid by the plutocracy of the country. By combating profiteering and black marketeering. With the demand to cancel the state debt that was not created by the people who pay it dearly and continuously all these years. With the withdrawal from the program and the dangerous plans of NATO, which we pay 4 billion euros every year as a country. With the total and redemptive conflict for our people and disentanglement from the imperialist alliances of NATO and the EU. To illuminate the only way out, which lies in the superiority of socialism, social ownership in the means of production, scientific central planning, labor participation and power, which leads to the prosperity of the people, peace and the progress of humanity.

https://inter.kke.gr/en/articles/The-ne ... -response/

I would beg to differ concerning "formidable adversary'. A watched pot never boils...
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

User avatar
blindpig
Posts: 10592
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 5:44 pm
Location: Turtle Island
Contact:

Re: Greece and the KKE

Post by blindpig » Tue Jun 09, 2020 1:27 pm

We are moving into the new phase with greater vigilance, taking advantage of the experience and possibilities for an ideological - political counterattack and rallying of popular forces to the Party

By Dimitris Koutsoumbas

GS of the CC of KKE. Published in the newspaper "Rizospastis" on May 23th 2020

The situation that arose due to the coronavirus pandemic, imposed the immediate necessary adjustment of the operation and action of the entire Party and the KNE. An adaptation to the goal that our central slogan put forward from the first moment: "We stay strong, we do not stay silent". It was our response to the inadequate "We stay home" government propaganda.



We achieved this collectively, seeking to be at the forefront of the struggle to address the impact of the pandemic on health, work, and the living and survival conditions overall, helping to implement basic and crucial tasks that are integrated into the implementation of the Party's strategy.



The party organs remained structured and functioned with substitutes where needed. We managed to maintain a guiding channel to the Party Base Organizations, so that the directions of the CC reach the members of the Party and the KNE in order to be aware of what we, as a Party, say and do at every stage of development, to rally for the positions of the Party, to keep the morality and militancy of our forces as high as possible.



This has been achieved to a large extent. There were certainly serious inequalities in the level of efficiency and militancy, which were different from one Party Organization to another.



* * *



The attitude and action of the guiding organs, organizations, and cadres in the definitely odd conditions that arose, were a serious test and to a large extent constitute an overall criterion for the turning points of the class struggle.



Much more now that we had to deal with difficulties in the Party's unimpeded mass action, as a result of the restrictions and the prohibitions imposed by the government and the state that objectively affect the people's psychology, and even cause concern to broader popular forces that are more exposed to the propaganda of the ruling class than before, along with a climate of fear in the face of the existing danger of the spread of the disease.



This situation required adjustments in our action and at the same time vigilance that would not leave room for possible provocations of the class opponent and its mechanisms.



All in all, along with the known difficulties, inadequacies, and weaknesses that have been expressed, the basic and main thing that we believe should concern us, which must be properly evaluated and of course addressed, is that we eventually reach a very small part of the working class and the people, in relation to the very needs of industries, the population and the extent of the large urban centers. The situation was better where we had organized forces.



This period showed more clearly our big gaps, like having organized party forces at critical points and at critical times, such as in large workplaces, e.g. at the pharmaceutical sector, the food sector, supermarkets, couriers, etc.



* * *



As the days go by, the discussion and interest of the people about the developments are more elevated. The concerns about the developments in their life as a whole, and not just the fear of sickness, coexist and grow stronger. The fear is now shared between the coronavirus and the fact that they will go through a new crisis that will worsen their life overall.



There are opportunities for the Party's ideological and political counterattack, to strengthen the prestige and range of the forces that rally to the movement, and also to the KKE. At the same time, conservative and reactionary perceptions, metaphysical beliefs, conspiracy theories, and more coexist among poor popular strata, paralyzing any action or realization of the real way out.



We do not underestimate the fact that under these circumstances, misconceptions about "globalized fascism" and "world under siege" are reappearing and intensifying. The only thing they are offering at the moment is to conceal the role of capitalism in its imperialist stage. Moreover, they are tracking down the problem only in the form of the exercise of the dictatorship of the capital and the monopolies, while altering the revolutionary strategy of the communist movement.



From this point of view, it is a primary task and urgent need to conduct a more decisive struggle for the promotion of the strategic way out that the Communist Party suggests, which does not change, whatever the version of the outbreak of the virus and the spread of the pandemic or the competing interests may be. Precisely because capitalism is the incurable virus and socialism is the only timely and realistic solution to all this barbarism.



* * *



Developments undoubtedly have increased demands in our guiding work, in the action of the entire Party and the KNE.



It is important to understand that we have already entered a new phase, that we are in an economic capitalist crisis. The pandemic acted as a catalyst, brought the economic crisis, which will probably be deeper and with many unbalanced factors, closer and faster. Even its duration may be longer, although the ND government is trying to keep the spirits high, promoting more optimistic and faster growth rates next year. However, the European Commission and other rating agencies estimate that it will be more difficult to deal with the crisis, at a time when competition and contradictions are intensifying in Europe and internationally, and their plans include a variety of economic, political, military and repressive anti-popular measures.



This new phase, with its specific characteristics, requires us to adapt our political intervention and action to organize the struggle in a very specific manner, so that as much as is within our power, the bourgeoisie's attempt to rally popular forces behind the state, the bourgeois institutions, and the government will not pass.



It also requires us to become more capable of highlighting the fierce and objective contradictions that now stand out strongly in the capitalist system, both for the management of the pandemic and the economic crisis, to show how competition increases and how this sharpening is expressed in the region also through the Greek-Turkish relations, the increased intervention and involvement of NATO and the USA, the intensity of the offensive acts and the risks of involvement in imperialist, even military and war confrontations in our wider region.



It is clear that the ND government is taking advantage of this situation to strengthen a false "social consensus" and "national unity". In this direction, it worked propagandistically throughout the quarantine period, but also now, as shown by its communication tactics, with the fiesta it attempted on the occasion of the ten years since the tragedy in "Marfin", where bank employees died. Moreover, the same political parties that ruled during the last decade (ND, PASOK, SYRIZA) did not even do the slightest for revealing the perpetrators and abettors of the tragedy, as well as the responsibilities of the bank, but also of their state, which does not even recognize the right to compensation to the families of the victims.



At the same time, the ND government does not give up on trying to strengthen the repressive measures on a case-by-case basis and aims at consolidating them as necessary social measures. Thus, it is quite possible that it will bring the bill for the restriction of the demonstrations to the Parliament for a vote, using crowding as an argument. But there are now more examples to show the hypocrisy and class nature of its policy. While urging the Commission to "ensure that there are no quarantines or other disproportionate or deterrent requirements" for tourism, serving only the interests of the big hoteliers, it will prevent hotel employees and other workers in the tourist and food industry from mobilizing for the protection of their rights and income, due to the so-called crowding during social gatherings!



Overall, we need to realize that we are in a time when changes can happen faster and that consciousness can change quickly, either in a positive, progressive, and overthrowing direction, or in a more reactionary way.



* * *



Our main goal is to strengthen, systematize, and establish the political action, presence, and intervention of the Party everywhere. To make the Party an enlightening and organizing force of the people's-workers' struggle.



An important and irreplaceable companion in this effort is "Rizospastis", the "902.gr" portal, the announcements, posters, and banners, the electronic media, the internet, and the daily information, marking the party line massively in workplaces, in the health and education sector, in neighborhoods.



At the same time, following a specific plan, we must proceed to thousands of meetings with friends of the Party and the KNE across the country, to give answers to justified questions on the developments, but also to address a call for more active mobilization on the Party's side.



This requires special and specific discussion and work on people who in the past voted or supported SYRIZA expecting some substantial changes, but also people who may have been supporting other opportunist forces or following us from afar, many of whom were very positive about the positions and presence of the Party during this period, much more than before.



We are on constant alert, as more and more anti-labor measures will be taken, while the big employers have found an opportunity to excel themselves by reducing wages and labor rights, promoting flexible working relationships, while non-payment of wages and layoffs are very common.



We place great importance on the gathering places of the youth, such as schools, universities, sports centers, squares, parks, and cultural events as soon as they start in June. The government is preparing to bring the reactionary anti-educational bill to the Parliament immediately. The whole educational community has already taken to the streets. Teachers, students, and parents must unitedly oppose a huge NO to the multi-bill.



It is not enough to target a minister, we must denounce their policy as a whole. Because Ms. Kerameos will sooner or later be an ex-minister, like many of her predecessors, as no one is for life. But they all have a reactionary restructuring in their plans and each bourgeois government has been putting its own stone in the devaluation of free public education, the categorization of schools, the privatization and commercialization of education and other social services and goods, as well as the crucial health sector.



* * *



The main criterion for a greater effectiveness in our action will be able our guiding effort to mobilize all the forces of the Party and the KNE, to be at the forefront of the struggle so that the workers do not pay the price of the crisis again.



The direction and the slogan are not enough for that. We need to specialize the objectives and frameworks of the struggle, to identify a plan at each place, to deploy our forces in a good and correct order, to plan and control the main sectors that we have prioritized.



We need to work our tactics on how to deal with the efforts of the state and the government, on the forms of struggle, but also how to address other social democratic and opportunist forces, as well as the far-right - fascists, who all intervene and will intervene even more so in the near future. All of them will seek, as they always do at critical times, to take the upper hand of the people's movement.



Already after Labor Day, we have the first samples, which to some extent refer to the well-known old tactics of disorientation, a mixing of provocation, shallow and non-substantial content of slogans, and influence on the instinct of a general resistance and disposition to protest.



We must have the necessary flexibility for successful interventions, where also other forces may have taken the initiative, sharpening the struggle on the content. Particularly in the middle strata and the youth, the ground for sectional, so-called original, online and other painless forms of struggle, both in content and form, is developing, such as those made by various groups in some squares, thinking that this is how they will regain their lost prestige after a long period of awkwardness, without even raising the issue of the existence and increase of public spaces that will meet the needs of the people and the youth in their free time, for entertainment, sports, and rest. On the other hand, the government's repression mechanisms are ready for the intensification of state repression.



Of course, not everything is set up and designed in advance, as it sometimes appears to be. The Party and the KNE have the responsibility to guide on the basis of our experience and action, directing any spontaneous and even shallow protest to a conscious voluntary mass organization of the struggle, through various forms of struggle committees, coordinating committees, committees of hygiene and security, organizing mobilizations in sectors, workplaces, and neighborhoods.



* * *



We aim that the initiatives of the communists in every field will step on existing possibilities, to rally and mobilize many organizations around demands that will open up new ways so that more and more workers rally and act.



There are important issues, such as income for all (unemployment benefits, emergency grants to the self-employed, redundancies, unemployment, labor rights, etc.); health and welfare for all with the strengthening of the public health system, health centers, and local health units, hiring school nurses, taking health measures in the workplace, staff recruitment, requisition of the private sector, opening of closed units, etc. ; exemption from electricity, water, and telephone debts during the quarantine months; no to any auction of the first property, business premises, and work tools; no to any account seizure, debt write-off; environmental issues, such as the problem with landfills that has emerged in Western Athens, etc.



We do not put these issues forward in a detached way but integrated into the anti-capitalist - anti-monopoly struggle, in direct combination with demanding measures so that the capital pays the price and not the people. Through e.g. the abolition of the various tax exemptions of large entrepreneurs, their greater taxation and the exemption of the popular strata, the refusal to accept and pay the state debt that was not created by the people, the withdrawal from the NATO plans that cost us 4 billion euros every year, etc. Such demands lead to individual and more general ruptures, pave the way for the disengagement from NATO and the EU, for the people to really come to power and construct a new socialist-communist society.



* * *



The Greek people trust us, appreciate the consistency, stability, prestige, responsibility, organization, and militancy of the KKE. Following closely the developments, we can take the lead in organizing mobilizations, utilizing the experience of the quarantine that has highlighted initiatives, through timely action and having a central direction but also developing any local or sectoral initiative from below.



Because we know that, as the restrictions and the extraordinary and special conditions form preconditions for the wider popular forces to rally temporarily behind the state and the respective government at the beginning, they also form preconditions for greater readiness and rallying for the Party line, greater vigilance and ingenuity in the forms and ways of action and organization of the people's struggle within the forces of the revolutionary vanguard.



But all this is not always stable and static. It is constantly changing. The popular forces as soon as the first phase of awkwardness and insecurity passes by, begin to worry, protest more massively, seek for ways of expressing dissatisfaction towards a state and a government that are constantly taking measures to squeeze their income and their rights overall.



So in this phase, the action of the vanguard must raise to a higher level. It must not fade, be in a rut, get entrapped into the daily struggle to make ends meet. The conditions of the broader bourgeois legitimacy and the resumption of the usual recovery of individual bourgeois liberties, and the lifting of restrictions involve the risk of complacency, and greater preoccupation with personal, family, or professional issues, which are to some extent rightful and understandable. However, all this should in no way lead to the relaxation of quick reflexes and the suspension or slowing down of the action of pioneering workers, intellectuals and scientists, women and young people of the popular strata, cadres and members of the KKE and the KNE.



Each and one of us must not allow this to happen. We need to be even stronger and at the forefront on the path of duty, to defend health, life, and the rights of the Greek people and the Greek youth.

https://inter.kke.gr/en/articles/We-are ... the-Party/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

User avatar
blindpig
Posts: 10592
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 5:44 pm
Location: Turtle Island
Contact:

Re: Greece and the KKE

Post by blindpig » Tue Aug 04, 2020 1:09 pm

We remain strong – we go on the counterattack with the KKE for Socialism

A loud, dynamic message that the youth is not silenced, that under unprecedented conditions, it can take a stand and fight for its contemporary rights was sent by The 29th Anti-Imperialist Weekend of the KNE that took place 18-19 July in the Stomio area of Larissa.

Image

Throughout the camping weekend and the events that were held, the exemplary organization of the Anti-imperialist Weekend was demonstrated. The KNE organizations had taken all the necessary health measures based on scientists’ recommendations, ahead of time, in order to hold the two-day event safely under the unprecedented conditions of the pandemic. For this reason, a specially-equipped and staffed medical center was set up at the campsite, where campers had their temperatures taken continuously and measures were taken to maintain the necessary distancing during all of the weekend, etc.

The highlight of the weekend was the political gathering with speaker Dimitris Koutsoumpas, General Secretary of the CC of the KKE, who among other things, highlighted the following:

“This year’s Anti-imperialist Weekend takes place at a time when the people and the youth of our country are undergoing new, extremely difficult trials, proof that capitalism is a system that cannot be ‘cured’.

The contradictions created by this system are incurable. The thousands of people who took to the streets in the United States and in other countries of the world prove that popular outbursts of rage are ahead of us. Nothing remains static forever. What seems unshakeable today will be shaken tomorrow by the titanic struggle of the people. Our action today can create cracks in the rotten exploitative system, preparing the working class for the great and decisive confrontation.

The days when the victims of exploitation will break their chains are coming. The victorious outcome of this battle is judged today, in the tough daily struggle. We tirelessly continue this effort, to become an “all-weather” Party. The KNE to play its leading role at the side of the KKE.

From here in Stomio, where the principles of collectivity, of conscious discipline, of determination and creative militancy of the thousands of KNE members who gave their all for the success of this two-day event, shine once again; we say it clearly: We will succeed!”

On Saturday 18/7 a section of the campers suddenly mobilized outside the Greek Air force Base in Larissa, where the drones of the American Air Force operate in the wider region of the Eastern Mediterranean. In this way, but also with other events during the Two-Day event, the KNE demonstrated its opposition to the transformation of Greece into a base for the assassins of NATO and the USA, in favor of disengagement of the country from imperialist designs and organizations.

An event entitled “The struggle of the youth against the war cries and the alliances of the capitalists in the Eastern Mediterranean” was also held during the two-day event, at which Elisaios Vagenas, member of the CC of the KKE and Head of the International Section of the CC of the KKE spoke, while messages were read from EDON and the Communist Youth of Turkey. A seminar was held for university students, with Loukas Anastasopoulos as speaker, member of the Ideological Committee of the CC of the KKE, on the topic: “On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Lenin’s birth, we discuss: Confidence in the bourgeois state or in the power of the people?”

Numerous cultural events, musical tributes, concerts, sports tournaments, etc, were also held at the camp. The small friends of the KNE had their own special presence once again in the children’s camp with a corresponding program of cultural and sports activities, games and more.

Image

https://inter.kke.gr/en/articles/We-rem ... Socialism/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

Post Reply