Large strike demonstrations took place in Syntagma Square, downtown Athens, in the morning of Wednesday, as well as in the afternoon, during the voting of the omnibus bill in the Parliament.
The Unions have declared Thursday 10 June a 24-hour nationwide strike, as a protest against the governmental draft bill which aims to take the labour conditions back to the Middle Ages.
In face of the recent Israeli airstrikes in Gaza strip and the escalation of aggression against Palestinians, the General Secretary of the CC of the KKE Dimitris Koutsoumbas made the following statement (here in Greek):
The class unions organized multi-faceted strike events throughout the country in spite of the ND government decision to move May Day on Tuesday. Thousands of people, workers, young men and women gathered today in Syntagma Square, Athens, in a demonstration organized by dozens of unions that participate in the ranks of the All-Workers’ Militant Front (PAME), thus sending a powerful message against the anti-labour policies of the government.
"The Armenian people were one of the great and tragic victims of Turkish nationalism and imperialist competitions of the First World War period. 106 years later we remember and honor the victims of the Armenian Genocide.
The communist leader refers to the current political situation in Greece, the policy of New Democracy (ND) government during the Pandemic, Greece's Left political forces and the stance of the KKE.
Below, you can read a translated version of the interview:
“The incidents in Washington DC and the planned invasion of far-right, reactionary forces in the Capitol, cannot be solely explained by Trump's idiosyncrasy. It is the mirror of a society in deep decay, a world of massive competitions, realignments in the correlation of power, crises and impasses, whose consequences are paid by the people and which are now becoming more apparent, even in the most powerful capitalist country in the world.
Koutsoumbas strongly denounced the policies of the government during the pandemic, adding that the measures announced aim at strengthening the capital at the expense of the workers and people's rights. The KKE General Secretary pointed out that ND, opposition party SYRIZA and all the other bourgeois parties in the parliament are "strategically aligned" in the same policy, despite minor differences.
In Athens, the General Secretary of the CC of the KKE Dimitris Koutsoumbas made the following statement:
Grigoropoulos had been murdered by special police officer Epaminondas Korkoneas on December 6, 2008. Korkoneas had been convicted to life sentense. However, in 2019, a court reduced his term to just 13 years and, on the basis of the new legal code introduced by the then SYRIZA government, he was ultimately released from prison on July 2019!
Alongside the lockdown, as the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) mentions, the government has committed crimes against the people's health and safety in order to serve the interests of the capital in a number of industry branches.
More specifically, the statement of Dimitris Koutsoumbas is as follows:
In Athens' Syntagma Square, thousands of protesters demanded protection measures for the people's lifes and rights, including the shielding of hospitals and the public health system, the need for hiring more teachers and cleaning staff in public schools, cheap and safe public transport, policies against unemployment and dismissals, collective agreements and strengthening of the labor rights.
In a unanimous ruling, Greek justice ruled that Golden Dawn was a criminal organization "wearing the cloak of a political party," in accordance with the indictment in the case.
The court also found the defendant Golden Dawn member, Giorgos Roupakias, guilty of all charges for the murder of anti-fascist musician Pavlos Fyssas and another 15 defendants in the case guilty of acting as accomplices, while acquitting two due to reasonable doubt.
Under the major slogan “Socialism, for us to breathe freely, for life to win”, the three-day events of the 46th KNE-Odigitis festival at the University Campus of Zografou in Athens concluded with a speech by the General Secretary of the CC of the KKE Dimitris Koutsoumbas and a concert dedicated to composer Thanos Mikroutsikos.
Recently, the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) celebrated the 100th anniversary of its foundation, while a few weeks earlier it held its 13th congress, under difficult conditions. The CC of the KKE in its message to the 13th Congress of TKP noted, among other things:
