Thousands of people attented a large political event during the third- and last- day of the 42nd KNE-Odigitis festival in Athens. The major speaker was the General Secretary of the CC of KKE Dimitris Koutsoumbas.
Other speakers included the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Sitaram Yetsury who delivered "red" revolutionary salutes on behalf of his country's communists and Nikos Abatielos, Secretary of the Central Council of KNE, who stressed that "our festival is a picture from the beautiful world for which our Party struggles".
In his speech, apart from the contemporary political, social and economic issues, the GS of the Communist Party of Greece Dimitris Koutsoumbas refered also to the Party's 100th anniversary in 1918. He said, among other things:
During his stay in Athens, the General Secretary of the CC of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)Sitaram Yechury visited the KNE-Odigitis festival which takes place these days in Greece's capital.
Secretary Yechury paid a visit to the main exhibition of the festival- which is dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the Democratic Army of Greece (DSE)- where he was welcomed by Giorgos Marinos, member of the Political Bureau of the CC of the KKE.
The CPI (Marxist) leader also visited the international sector of the Festival.
BEIJING -- The Dalai Lama' s recent terrorist-sympathizing remarks have again shocked the world, and provided for those in the West who used to exchange backing him for selfish political gains a chance to see the monk's true colors.
The fugitive Tibetan religious leader is now in France for a six-day visit "to promote Tibetan culture, language and ecological protection," as he has claimed.
While traveling in the European country, he urged talks with the Islamic State extremists, saying talks are "the only way" to end bloodshed in Syria and Iraq without explaining how that is possible.
KEY REMARKS BY ARMY GENERAL RAUL CASTRO RUZ, PRESIDENT OF THE STATE COUNCIL AND THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS OF THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA, AT THE 17TH SUMMIT OF THE NON-ALIGNED MOVEMENT
MARGARITA ISLAND, VENEZUELA, SEPTEMBER 17, 2016
Esteemed comrade Nicolás Maduro Moros, constitutional President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Heads of State and Government,
Photo from the large forest fire in northern Euboea, last August.
According
to the portal 902.gr, the European Union denied to use solidarity and
regional funds in order to compensate the- affected by extensive
forest fire- residents and retsina producers in northern Euboea,
Greece. Replying to a question by the EU Parliament delegation of the
Communist Party of Greece (KKE), the EU tries to downgrade the
importance of the damage created by the wildfires. Additionally, from
the answer of the EU becomes clear that the Greek government, which
bares huge responsibilities for cuts in public spending including in
firefighting
equipment and personnel,
didn't claim any compensation for the victims of the wildfire.
Below,
you can read the question submitted by the KKE MEP Konstantinos
Papadakis and the reply provided on behalf of the EU by commissioner
Ms.Corina Crețu.
Regarding the speech of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras at the 71st UN General Assembly- and his remarks on the refugee crisis- the Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece issued the following statement:
"The Prime Minister not only didn't find a word to say about the real causes and those responsible for the wars and the refugee crisis in our region, but, furthermore, he justified the violation of the refugees' rights and of the Geneva Convention by adopting the arguments of the imperialist staffs about the "maintaining of social cohesion" and "public safety".
However, the refuge isn't a natural phenomenon; it is caused by the imperialist war, the antagonisms between the powerful ones, the poverty that capitalist exploitation creates.
During the night between September 14 and 15, Abdelssalam Eldanf was killed while he was on strike with other workers in front of the GLS logistic plant in Piacenza. He was crushed by a truck that was trying to force the picket line. According to the workers, the truck driver was ordered to break the picket line by the Chief of Staff at the plant.
A strike had been called against the company contracted to run the plant, the SEAM. The company had fired 37 temporary workers, as well as a group of workers organized with the USB base union, who were actively leading struggles on the workplace. SEAM had previously agreed to re-hire 13 of the workers, but it suddenly rejected the agreement. Therefore, the workers immediately went on strike and blocked the exit of trucks from the plant.
Marx explains this question most thoroughly in his Critique of the Gotha Programme (letter to Bracke, May 5, 1875, which was not published until 1891 when it was printed in Neue Zeit, vol. IX, 1, and which has appeared in Russian in a special edition). The polemical part of this remarkable work, which contains a criticism of Lassalleanism, has, so to speak, overshadowed its positive part, namely, the analysis of the connection between the development of communism and the withering away of the state.
1. Presentation of the Question by Marx
From a superficial comparison of Marx's letter to Bracke of May 5, 1875, with Engels' letter to Bebel of March 28, 1875, which we examined above, it might appear that Marx was much more of a "champion of the state" than Engels, and that the difference of opinion between the two writers on the question of the state was very considerable.
The General Secretary of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) Dimitris Koutsoumbas visited the Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF) on Wednesday and Thursday, where he attended a press conference. The General Secretary delivered an introductory speech and then he answered to the questions of the press.
In his speech c.Koutsoumbas accused the SYRIZA-ANEL government and the EU for their antipeople policies as well as the New Democracy opposition and the other bourgeois parties. The General Secretary refered to the contemporary political and socio-economic issues, from government's attack against labour rights to various racist, anti-refugee incidents in the country.
Here are some basic parts of c.Koutsoumbas speech:
It was on 17 September 1982 when one of the most talented Greek composers of his generation passed away. After suffering several strokes Manos Loizos died in a Moscow hospital. He was 45 years old. Loizos wasn't just an extraordinary songwriter and composer; he was a member of the Communist Party of Greece and an outspoken critic of the Greek military Junta.
A self-taught musician with an inherent talent, Manos Loizos was born on 22 October 1937 to Cypriot parents in Alexandria, Egypt. He moved to Athens at the age of 17 in order to study pharmacology but soon he gave up his studies- his passion was music. His first recordings were made in 1963 and by the mid-70s he was one of Greece's most popular composers. His songs touched the hearts of the working class people and many of them became symbols of the anti-dictatorship struggle in the 1970s.
Loizos collaborated with the most talented lyricists of his era, including his close lifelong friend Lefteris Papadopoulos, Fondas Ladis, Yannis Negrepontis, Manolis Rasoulis. Loizos' last disc was the "Letters to my wife" containing lyrics by the legendary Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet, translated in Greek language by the giant of Greek poetry, Yannis Ritsos.
Being a versatile musician, Manos Loizos wrote some of the most memorable Greek political songs, as well as some extaordinary melodies of the so-called "Laiko" (Greek popular songs) music genre. Some of the most significant Greek singers, being in their first steps as young performers, became broadly known through their collaboration with Manos Loizos, including Haris Alexiou, George Dalaras, Vasilis Papakonstantinou, Dimitra Galani, etc.
Below we choosed and present five of Manos Loizos' most memorable songs:
1. "Pagose i tsiminiera" (The chimney got cold). Lyrics: Fondas Ladis. Performed by George Dalaras, 1976. The song refers to workers' strike.
The chimney is cold
and outside the gate
the factory workers are debating
The day has grown bright,
with frostbitten lips
they take up the banners and set out
Five trucks they sent out,
at the waning of the moon,
and they came back full of strike breakers.
[Still] filled they went away again:
"Nobody will get through
we had better all go away as emigrants!"
A month has passed,
the machines are rusting
and the children suffer cold and hunger;
in the streets of Athens
workers are handing out fliers
asking for support.
2. "Che". Lyrics: Manos Loizos. Performed live by Manos Loizos. Song dedicated to the legendary Ernesto Che Guevara.
A photo of yours came also to me
A photo of yours, from abroad
One of those that students use to hold
One of those that the informer rips
One of those that students sling
In their heart
Che Guevara
Close the window
Lock the doors
I'm trembling of fear for the man
with the boots
What does he want and walking by the shadows
What does he want and asking for you
What does he want and looking towards our house
Every Night
Che Guevara
So many roses
burned by the snow
Ah, that Spring
bleeds me.
3. "The accordion". Lyrics: Yannis Negrepontis. Performed by Manos Loizos. An antifascist song.
In my old neighbourhood I had a friend
who knew and was playing the accordion
when he sang, he was like the sun
fires in his hands were ignited by the accordion
But one dark night, like every other night
he kept look-outs, playing the accordion
fascist vans stood next to the pen
and a gunfire stopped the accordion
The already started slogan always comes back to me
whenever I hear again an accordion
and it has, like a stamp, marked my life
'fascism will not pass!'
4. "Tritos Pagkosmios" (Third World War). Lyrics: Yannis Negrepontis. Performed by Vasilis Papakonstantinou. A masterpiece song describing in simple lyrics how monopoly capitalism works, showing the exploitation of the working class from the Capital.
Peter, Johan and Franz
they worked in a factory, making tanks
Peter, Johan and Franz
they became inseparable by making tanks
Peter, Johan and Franz
they worked for Brown, for Fisser for Kraft
Brown, Fisser and Kraft
they became inseparable by making trusts
Peter, Johan and Franz
they were unconcerned, always working in tanks
they never read Marx
they had no idea about trusts and crashes
Brown, Fisser and Kraft
seperated into Brown, Fisser and Kraft
Brown, Fisser and Kraft
they supposedly became enemies, they destroyed the trust
And before learning what Marx said
they were taken as soldiers, they went to fight
Peter, Johan and Franz
they fell like heroes, under the tanks
Brown, Fisser and Kraft
they thought and found that it's the fault of Marx
Brown, Fisser and Kraft
they joined again, they made a trust.
5. "Zeibekiko tis Evdokias" (Evdokia's zeibekiko). Famous instrumental written for the 1971 Greek film "Evdokias".
On the ocassion of the European Union Summit in Bratislava, Slovakia, the Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) issued the following statement:
"The contrasts within the EU do not concern the peoples' rights, but the fight about how every state will protect it's own monopolies, especially under conditions when the economic capitalist crisis hasn't been overcome and the forecasts about the economy in the EU and Eurozone are even more ominous.
Besides, while they are fighting about the management mixture (policy) and the future of the EU/Eurozone, they - both social democratic and neoliberal governments - jointly crush the working-peoples' rights and co-decide the more active EU involvement in wars and interventions, within the framework of her antagonism with other imperialist centers.
