Showing posts with label Greece. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Greece. Show all posts

Friday, February 18, 2022

70 years of Greece's NATO membership: A black anniversary

By Nikos Mottas.

The 18th February marks a black anniversary for the Greek people. It was 70 years ago, in 1952, when the Greek Parliament ratified Greece's accession in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the infamous imperialist alliance of NATO

This anniversary comes in a period when the imperialist competitions in Ukraine have reached a very critical stage and the clouds of a generalized military confrontation are gathering over the broader region. 

Wednesday, February 16, 2022

KKE votes against the new large armament programme, calls for Greece's disengagement from NATO-EU

On 15/2/22, the Plenary Session of the Greek Parliament approved the bill submitted by the Ministry of National Defence regarding the purchase of three French “Belharra” frigates and six “Rafale” jets (in addition to the already acquired eighteen ones). Right-wing ND, social-democratic KINAL/PASOK, and right-wing Elliniki Lysi (Greek Solution) voted in favour of the bill while social-democratic SYRIZA voted “present”.

This is another large armament programme integrated into the criminal USA–NATO–EU plans in which the local bourgeoisie is actively participating to enhance its role and business in the wider area while ND, SYRIZA, and the other bourgeois parties, despite their remarks on specific points, support its interests.

Monday, February 7, 2022

COSCO dockworkers in Piraeus defy police and threats, held 24-hour massive strike

“We will not yield to their intimidation, no worker shall stand alone, not a step back from the right to strike and the defence of our rights” is the message sent by the COSCO workers who are on strike at the Piraeus port in Greece

“The strike is extremely successful. Very few workers have gone to work, who will soon join us”, announced the administrative board of ENEDEP (Container Handling Workers’ Trade Union at the Piers of Piraeus).

Thursday, February 3, 2022

Dimitris Koutsoumbas: "Capitalist growth, by definition, is anti-popular in any management formula"

Capitalist growth, by definition, is anti-popular in any management formula, stressed Dimitris Koutsoumbas, the GS of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), speaking in Parliament on 02/02/22, noting that ND and SYRIZA with their “development” laws compete over how they will distribute billions of euros to the few by crushing the people.

Speaking about the new “development” law, he highlighted that the mockery must end and that the tale of capitalist development is the same old story that does not convince anyone. He added that growth is here, but wages —average and minimum— remain stagnant because capitalist growth is based on the intensification of the exploitation of workers.

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

KKE honors the victims of the Holocaust

With immense respect the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) honors the victims of the Holocaust, noted KKE MP Giannis Delis during a special session in the Parliament dedicated to the Memory of the Jewish Holocaust.

As Delis pointed out, the millions of dead Jews during the Second Imperialist World War, stand by the 20 million dead Soviet people, alongside the liberation movements of the people of Europe who fought against the occupiers, next to the victims of Kandanos, Kalavrita, Distomo, Kommeno, next to the executed fighters of Chaidari and Kesariani. 

Saturday, January 22, 2022

KKE on the dangerous tension between USA-NATO and Russia

Following the dangerous escalation in the relations between the Euro-Atlantic forces and Russia on the issue of Ukraine and Eastern Europe, the Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) issued a statement calling for Greece's disengagement from the dangerous US-NATO military plans. 

The full statement (here in Greek) reads:

The ineffective meeting of the US and Russian Foreign Ministers in Geneva, their inability to reach and agreement even on the subject of the talks, has been accompanied in the last 24 hours by tension in aggressive rhetoric and military moves by the US, NATO, EU and capitalist Russia. The confrontation in Ukraine, which in recent years has been consistently at the center of intra-imperialist competitions, is once again rekindling.

Thursday, January 20, 2022

KKE: Statement on government's celebrations for Rafale jets

The first six of 24 Rafale fighter aircraft acquired by the Hellenic Air Force from France arrived in Greece on Wednesday, landing at the Tanagra air base where the government organized a celebration attended by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

They took off from Istres in France and landed in Tanagra, where they joined the 332nd Squadron, after first flying over central Athens, escorted by two Mirage 2000-5 aircraft.

Wednesday, January 19, 2022

KKE and KNE expressed their solidarity with the people of Kazakhstan

On Wednesday morning, 19 January 2022, delegations of the KKE and KNE held a protest at the Embassy of Kazakhstan in Athens, expressing their solidarity with the fighting people of the Central Asian country, which was recently shaken by mass demonstrations.

“We denounce the bloody repression, the death toll, and the arrest of thousands of demonstrators”, stressed Lefteris Nikolaou-Alavanos, MEP of the KKE. 

Wednesday, January 5, 2022

Farewell to Greek militant communist Maria Sideri

Maria Sideri, an emblematic figure of the Greek communist movement, passed away at the age of 98. “With pride and respect we pay farewell to our comrade, Maria Demseri-Sideri who passed away full of days, having closed a long and full cycle or life, uninterrupted action and relentless struggles", underlines a statement issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE).

Maria Sideri was born in Kozani, northern Greece, in 1923. In 1943 she joined resistance youth organization EPON and took active part in all its activities against the Nazi occupation. Later she joined the KKE.

Wednesday, December 15, 2021

Paul Éluard: To the heroes of the Democratic Army of Greece

French communist poet Paul Éluard (1895-1952) was part of the delegation which visited  the strongholds of the communist-led Democratic Army of Greece (DSE) in Vitsi and Grammos mountains of northern Greece in June 1949. 

Back then, DSE was in the midst of a fierce battle against the National Army and its imperialist allies, namely the United States

At the end of his visit, Éluard dedicated the following message to the heroic fighters of the Democratic Army:

Friday, December 10, 2021

Greece: KKE slams Mitsotakis government's criminal handing of the pandemic

The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) has sharply criticised the policy of New Democracy government over Covid-19 pandemic, including the low vaccination rate and the dramatic situation in the public Health System.

In a comment issued on Thursday, the Press Bureau of the CC of the KKE points out:

“Instead of pointing their finger, the government and the Minister of Health should answer the critical questions:  

Wednesday, December 8, 2021

EAM: Notes on Greece's National Liberation Front

 By Nikos Mottas.

The 27th of September marked the 80th anniversary of the foundation of EAM, Greece's National Liberation Front, which played the leading role in the struggle against the country's Axis occupation. The major force behind the foundation, organization and activity of EAM was the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) which led the popular, anti-fascist struggle during the 1941-1944 period. 

Thursday, December 2, 2021

Greek-American resistance fighter Kostas Lekkas dies

Comrade Lekkas in his 100th birthday.
Kostas Lekkas, also known as Constantine "Gus" Lekas, a fighter of the Greek Resistance during World War II and a long-time member of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), died in New York aged 102.

Comrade Lekkas was born on 7 July 1919 in Elizabeth, New Jersey. At the age of one, alongside his mother and siblings, he moved to Greece, settling at a village in Peloponnese. His father stayed in New York in order to work for a period of time but he was later killed in a car accident.

Thursday, November 18, 2021

Greece: Massive anti-imperialist rallies in honor of the 1973 Polytechnic Uprising

Thousands of people took part in the annual rallies held in Athens, Thessaloniki and other major Greek cities by the Communist Party (KKE) and its youth wing (KNE) on Wednesday 17 November, in order to commemorate the 48th anniversary of the 1973 Polytechnic Uprising against the military Junta.

In Athens, the demonstrators marched peacefully through central streets of the Greek capital, shouted anti-imperialist slogans (
"Since the Polytechnic, the enemy remains the same: NATO, governments, capitalism") and ended outside the U.S. Embassy where they burned flags of NATO and the United States.

Wednesday, November 17, 2021

The KKE pays tribute to the 48th anniversary of the Athens Polytechnic Uprising

By Nikos Mottas.
 
"This year's celebration of the Polytechnic uprising can become another link in the workers-people's struggle for education and work with humane conditions, protection measures for the health and life of the people, free time, income for a dignified life, for the rejection of any anti-labor - anti-popular law, for the condemnation of any bourgeois party, which, with the whip or carrot, deprives the workers and their families of the wealth they produce", the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) emphasizes in its statement on the occasion of the 48th anniversary of the uprising of the Athens Polytechnic (read here the statement in Greek).

Friday, November 5, 2021

Demosthenes Ligdopoulos, Greece's first communist hero

 By Nikos Mottas.

Demosthenes Ligdopoulos was born in Athens, Greece in 1898. At the age of 18, in 1916, he was enrolled at the University as a mathematics student. On the same year, alongside his co-students Sp. Komiotis, Fr. Tzoulatis and Tzoumas brothers, he founded the “Socialist Youth” of Athens. Since then, the socialist ideas and the labor movement became an inseparable part of his life. The Great October Socialist Revolution in 1917 was an event that ignited the flame of Ligdopoulos' revolutionary thinking and activity.

Greece: Significant victory for COSCO dockworkers!

After seven days of strike, the dockworkers of COSCO at Piraeus Port in Greece came victorious, as the employers were forced to accept most of their demands. The good news were announced yesterday, Thursday 4/11, during a rally held by Trade Unions in Athens. 

According to information, after negotiations of the Ministry of Shipping with Piraeus bodies and company executives, there was a framework to satisfy the demands of the employees, while COSCO accepted the application of shift and increase of the post from four to six people, in the composition health and safety committee, while abolishing the counter-shift.

Monday, November 1, 2021

Museum in honor of communist guerrillas unveiled in Greece

“The KKE is the power of the people today, because it doesn't enter the fold of the false 'national arrangements', it does not obey the hostile for the people bourgeois plans”, pointed out Dimitris Koutsoumbas, General Secretary of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), during his speech in the northern Greek town of Nestorio on Sunday morning.

The speech was given on the occasion of the inauguration of a Museum-Memorial for  the communist guerrilla fighters of EAM-ELAS and the Democratic Army (DSE), who fought against the Axis occupation and during the Greek Civil War respectively. The Museum was a donation by Harisis Tsoutounis who provided a space “in memory of his militant parents”, as well as to “honor the struggle of EAM-ELAS and DSE, to which the people of the area contributed significantly”.

Friday, October 29, 2021

Workers Lives Matter: Solidarity with the struggle of Cosco workers in Greece

On Monday 25th October, 46 year-old dockworker Dimitris Daglis was killed at pier 2 at the Cosco-owned Piraeus Port Container Station, after he
was fatally hit by a crane bridge. 

"It's not the 'bad' moment. It is a result of the intensification of work, the lack of safety measures for our health and our integrity ", the Union of Container Workers at Piraeus Port (ENEDEP) underlined in its statement, declaring a strike in response to the tragic event. 

Tuesday, October 26, 2021

Worker killed at Cosco-owned Piraeus Port in Greece

A 46-year-old dockworker was killed on Monday afternoon at pier 2 at the Piraeus Container Station, when, under unclear circumstances, he was fatally hit by a crane bridge.

"It's not the 'bad' moment. It is a result of the intensification of work, the lack of safety measures for our health and our integrity ", the Union of Container Workers at Piraeus Port underlines in its statement, demanding 6-hour shifts, abolition of counter shifts, conversion of all contracts into full and Health and Safety Committees by employees.