Interview of Dimitris Koutsoumbas: Popular discontent can find a way out through the political proposal of KKE

Interview of the GS of the CC of KKE Dimitris Koutsoumbas on the ERT1 public television channel, on 24/10. Below are extended excerpts from the interview. Source: inter.kke.gr.

-        I read the following in “Rizospastis”: The day when the government begins the discussion with the “institutions” (Troika) about the new attack against working and trade union rights, SYRIZA and ND choose to squabble about their favourites and also about the misleading issue of corruption in order to hide their convergence on the antiworker measures. Is corruption a misleading issue? Can you explain this? Doesn't this issue objectively exist in our lives?

NATO Imperialists not welcome in Piraeus! KKE denounces the presense of US Navy flagship in Greek port

The presense of the United States 6th Fleet command and control ship USS Mount Whitney (LCC 20) and USS Mason, a US navy destroyer, in the port of Piraeus on October 24th has been strongly denounced by the KKE Piraeus Sectoral Organisation. In its announcement, the KKE calls the city's people to strengthen their struggle against the involvement of Greece in NATO's war plans. 

More specifically, the KKE Piraeus S.O. points out:

"They have the audacity to dock at the port of Piraeus, while the presense of NATO in the Black Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Aegean and the Mediterranean is enhanced, using for the last two sea areas the pretext of controlling the refugee flows which are caused and amplified by the imperialist wars and the dire consequences against the people.

US President Obama to visit Greece: When SYRIZA's social democracy "worships" the Imperialists

The President of the United States of America Barack Obama is scheduled to visit Athens in mid November, according to a statement issued by the White House.

President Obama will meet with the President of the Hellenic Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on 15 November, with the refugee crisis and economic reforms being at the top of the agenda. This will be the fourth official visit of a US President to Greece. The first American President to visit was Dwight Eisenhower in December of 1959, the second George Bush in July of 1991 and the third was Bill Clinton in November of 1999. 

According to the official statement issued by the White House "The President on November 15 will arrive in Greece, where he will see President Pavlopoulos, meet with Prime Minister Tsipras, and reaffirm our support for ongoing efforts to place the Greek economy on a path to sustainability and renewed prosperity. In the birthplace of democracy, the President will also reaffirm the resilience of democratic values, which have done so much to deliver peace and prosperity to Europe and the wider world. Additionally, the President will make clear our appreciation for the remarkable generosity shown by the Greek Government and people to refugees and migrants".

PAME: "Everyone in the struggle" - General Strike to take place on November 24th in Greece

"No waiting, no delay! We respond: General Strike on November 24th!" stresses a recent declaration of the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) which calls in struggle for the rights in labour and life, according to the needs of the working people.

The declaration PAME calls the workers, the self-employed, the youth and the pensioners of the country to give a militant response to the barbaric, antipeople measures of the SYRIZA-ANEL government. "We demand rights in our work and life, according to our era- the 21st century, our needs!" as PAME points out in its call for the strike. 

Vulgar anticommunist delirium from New Democracy's vice president Georgiadis

He is known for his far-right, nationalistic political views. A publisher, tv presenter and bookstore owner by profession, Adonis Georgiadis is the current vice president of the conservative party of "New Democracy".

He started his political career from the ultra-right, neofascist and xenophobic "Laos" party, under the leadership of Giorgos Karatzaferis. As a very frequent guest at TV political talk shows, Georgiadis never hide his vulgar, grotesque anticommunism. 

In a recent speech in the island of Chios, the VP of New Democracy unleashed another anticommunist delirium saying, among other things: "If you go to any place of the world, when you say that you are a communist you go to jail. In Greece, it's the opposite that happens".

Regarding Georgiadis' filthy remarks, the Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) issued the following comment:

Five years since the organized murderous attack against PAME rally in Athens

Article of the International Relations Section of the CC of the KKE in relation to the statements of the international Media on the murderous attack on the large demonstration of PAME.

26 October 2011.

Interview with Kostas Papadakis (KKE): "SYRIZA has been chosen by the bourgeois class to complete the dirty work..."

Special interview with Kostas Papadakis, member of the CC of the KKE and Member of the European Parliament.

International Communist Press, 17th October 2016.

ICP: After the 3rd memorandum in Greece, we are all witnessing anti-worker and anti-popular laws passing from the parliament. Is it possible to say that the people are getting more and more politicized and organized as their standard of living has been decreased into half?

Kostas Papadakis: The SYRIZA-ANEL government established its own memorandum, which was passed together with the votes of the "rightwing" and "centre" bourgeois parties (ND, PASOK, POTAMI), on the basis of the two previous memoranda. The memoranda are not just an agreement with the imperialist institutions, but the "programme" of the bourgeois class in order to return to profitability, reducing labour rights and the price of labour power.

The SYRIZA-ANEL government, taking harsh anti-worker measures, causes deep disillusionment amongst wide sections of the people. Amongst those who believed that the memoranda could allegedly be abolished via parliament and referenda.

KKE GS D.Koutsoumbas: "The Greek people must throw in the trash the lies and the propaganda of the government"

The General Secretary of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) Dimitris Koutsoumbas, who attended the large demonstration in Athens on Monday, made the following statement: 

"The Greek people must throw in the trash the lies and the propaganda of the government, the conclusions of the various alleged specialists, the pressure of the creditors, of the EU and the IMF and engrave its own way of struggle. General uprising everywhere, with the working class on the forefront, in alliance with the other popular strata, aiming against the monopolies and the capitalist way of development itself which brings poverty, crises, unemployment. There is no other solution, there is no other way out". 

Mass demonstrations organized by Labour Unions to take place in Greece on October 17th

Source: PAME (All-Workers Militant Front).

On Monday 17th October: In Athens at Syntagma Square at 18.30, in Thessaloniki at 18.30 at Venizelos statue.

More than 400 trade union organizations, federations, labour centres, industrial unions, etc from all branches and sectors, all over Greece, we coordinate, demand and fight for the cancelation of all anti-workers laws and measures of the recent years. We fight for the signing of National Collective Agreement and sectoral Collective Contracts.

We demand the reestablishment and the signing of sectoral Collective Contracts, the recovering of all of our losses! No worker without the minimum wage! All in the struggle for full time steady jobs, with full rights, higher wages, pensions and social benefits!

Comment by KKE: Syriza's "Left" is the old, classic, sinful social democracy

On the occasion of Alexis Tsipras' speech at the congress of SYRIZA, the Press Office of the CC of KKE issued the following comment:

"Yesterday Mr.Tsipras tried to give a left, progressive wrapper to the invitation of submission he sends to the people, as well as to the total transformation of SYRIZA into a bourgeois social democratic party.

The "left" which undertakes duties and responsibilities for the management of the system has nothing to do with the militant traditions of our people. It is the old, classic, sinful social democracy, which the people has experienced for many years- and which is usually in line with its supposed enemy, the "neoliberalism"-in Greece and Europe, in order to jointly vote harsh antipeople measures and memorandums. This is the source of SYRIZA's openings to various "stars" of social democracy, both in Greece and abroad.

Thanasis Pafilis (KKE): "The capitalist way of development neither wants nor can give a better life to the people"

Source: 902.gr / Translation: In Defense of Communism.

The KKE's pre-electoral evaluation that the SYRIZA government will continue towards an even worse way than the previous governments and will bring a third memorandum has been proved, Thanasis Pafilis, member of the Central Committee and Parliamentary representative of KKE pointed out in a TV interview. Talking on "Skai" Television, Pafilis said that the only hope derives from the people who must take the streets and fight for their lives; he called the people to participate in the demonstrations that will be held on October 17th by hundreds of labor unions. 

When asked about the "left" character of the government, Pafilis mentioned that the people know that "Left and NATO" are not compatible, bringing as an example the offer, by the SYRIZA-ANEL government, of a new military base to NATO at Karpathos island. 

A left party, Thanasis Pafilis said, is not the one which crushes the working people, the self-employed and the poor farmers while it gives new privileges to those who have the power; the capital and the monopoly groups. The solution, Pafilis pointed out, is not New Democracy which poses as the original best manager of the bourgeois power.

Pattakos: The death of an unrepentant fascist and criminal

Brigadier General Pattakos (left) with Colonel Papadopoulos.

 COMMENT:

One of the major participants in the 1967 military Coup d' etat in Greece, a hardline anticommunist and unrepentant fascist died on Sunday in Athens. His name was Stylianos Pattakos, a former Brigadier General who had a decisive role aside Colonel Georgios Papadopoulos in establishing a military Junta on April 21, 1967. 

The Associated Press reported:

ATHENS, Greece –  Stylianos Pattakos, the last survivor among the leaders of a 1967 coup that ruled Greece for seven years, has died at 103.

The state-run Athens News Agency reported that he died following a stroke Saturday. Pattakos was a brigadier general and commander of the armored forces stationed in Athens when he took a decisive part in the April 21, 1967, coup led by Col. George Papadopoulos.

He served as interior minister and, from 1971, as first deputy prime minister. He was later shunted aside by Papadopoulos who tried to liberalize the regime, which was ultimately halted by military hardliners. Pattakos was condemned to death in 1975 for his role in the coup, but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. He was discharged in 1990 for health reasons.

Cyprus Issue: The developments require the intensification of peoples' intervention

The developments require the intensification of peoples' intervention.

By Giorgos Marinos* / Source: inter.kke.gr.

The Cyprus Issue, under its present form, was caused by the Turkish invasion and occupation in July and August (Attila II) of 1974 and remains unsolved for 42 years.

During this historical period, many means of negotiations were used, multifaceted UN interventions, joint statements and many meetings between representatives of the Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot communities etc, but the problem still remains.

The Turkish insistence on the continuation of the occupation found supporters in powerful imperialist powers which, among other things, bare responsibility for the creation and perpetuation of the Cyprus Issue, such as the US, NATO, Britain and the EU in general.

SYRIZA government's police forces fire tear gas at pensioners during protest in Athens- KKE: "The government showed its real face"

The police forces of Tsipras' SYRIZA government confronts
elderly people with tear gas/ Athens, 3.10.2016.

Once again, the supposedly "left"- actually social democratic- government of Alexis Tsipras shows it's real face. After imposing numerous harsh, antipeople-antiworkers measures, after signing a third memorandum of austerity and after cutting wages and pensions, the coalition government of SYRIZA decided to enforce law and order against the protesting pensioners! 

The pensioners who protested against the complete destruction of their lives got a response from the police forces of Mr.Tsipras' government. That response was the use of pepper spray and tear gas against older people! 

Greece: Communist mayor slams SYRIZA government, boycotts Tsipras' fiesta

KKE-backed mayor of Kesariani,
Ilias Stamelos.

ATHENS- In a symbolic gesture which carries a great message, the communist (KKE-backed) mayor of Kesariani, Ilias Stamelos, officially denied to participate in a governmental fiesta for the 75th anniversary of the country's most significant WW2 resistance movement, EAM (National Liberation Front). The government, along with the state television, ERT, are organising an event at the Kesariani Shooting Range (Skopeftirio)* on Sunday 2 October. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is scheduled to attend the event. 

In a letter addressed to the SYRIZA-ANEL government, mayor Stamelos points out the the city council's decision to deny any participation in October 2nd governmental event. Ilias Stamelos mentions that the heroic legacy of Kesariani's Shooting Range is in contrast with the governmental policy which attacks the rights of the working people. In his letter, among other things, the communist mayor writes:

"The policy exercised by the government is in total dissociation with the struggles and the claims of Kesariani's people and is directed against the Greek people in general. The SYRIZA-ANEL government has unleashed an attack against the rights and achievements of the people. It votes and applies memorandums of austerity, thus implementing a policy which crashes the people with taxes and reductions in wages and pensions, while on the same time it offers exemptions to the big capital". [...]

KKE: Statement regarding Turkish President Erdogan’s remarks on the Treaty of Lausanne

The Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) issued the following statement regarding the remarks of the President of Turkey Tayip Erdogan on the Treaty of Lausanne:

"Erdogan’s statements are dangerous and provocative and are part of the systematic efforts of the Turkish leadership to dispute the Aegean islands and the borders and sovereign rights of Greece more generally, to raise the issue of “grey zones”.

The period when these statements were made was no accident, as the negotiations are intensifying around the “closure” of the Cyprus question, on the basis of two component states, while the bargaining over the refugee issue between Turkey and the EU is underway. With these specific statements, Turkey is objectively exerting pressure in order to settle these matters in an even more negative direction for the peoples.

Once again, the government and the other political forces have been exposed, which for many years have been reassuring the Greek people that the alliance between Greece and Turkey, in the framework of NATO, is an agent for the “peace and security in the region”, the moment when NATO not only does not subdue the aggressive designs of Turkey, but on the contrary foments and reinforces them.” 

Greek industrialists: "SYRIZA and New Democracy converge in their economic strategy"

Info taken from 'Rizospastis', 24/9/2016.

In it's latest weekly report, the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (the union of the Greek industrialists) admit that the SYRIZA government and the right-wing, conservative opposition of New Democracy have no fundamental differences in their strategy for the country's economy. "The development objective is common, the means are different" says the report of SEV* thus openly acknowledging the convergence between SYRIZA and New Democracy in their strategy to serve the antipeople, antiworkers objectives and priorities of the Greek capital.

The industrialists evaluate the interventions of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis at the Thessaloniki International Fair earlier this month as "positive", as long as both seem to be fully aligned to the demands of the domestic capital for competitiveness and recovery of profits. 

The downward spiral of European opportunism has no end

The downward spiral of European opportunism has no end.

Comment published on 'Rizospastis' (24/9/2016), 
Source: inter.kke.gr.

It is well-known that European capital and its union, the EU, have acquired for many years now its "leftwing chorus". Various parties are playing this role, parties that call themselves "progressive" and "leftwing" even some parties that keep a "communist" title, having for many decades now been assimilated into the opportunist, social-democratic current of "Eurocommunism". 

The latter, such as, for example the French Communist Party (PCF) have for many years been divorced from Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism, have even abandoned the historic symbols of the communist movement and in the name of the "left' have become the "tail" of social-democracy and also whitewash the capitalist system and the imperialist unions of the EU and NATO. However, they keep the "communist" name and in this way, apart from their misleading activity in their own countries, even participate in the International Meetings of the CPs, seeking to play a similar role. If we can judge from the events of the recent festival of "L'Humanite", the newspaper of the PCF, the downward spiral has no end.

Liars and Opportunists: SYRIZA's 180-degree shift on the privatization of Elliniko

ATHENS (28/9/2016)- Greece's parliament passed new reforms on Tuesday night to cut pension expenditure and transfer control of public utilities to a new asset fund. The reforms seek to unlock 2.8 billion euros ($3.14 billion) in financial loans as part of the country's latest bailout program. 

The reforms were passed by a narrow 152-141 majority vote in Greece's 300-seat parliament, after 152 parliamentary members of the ruling SYRIZA-Independent Greeks (ANEL) coalition approved the reform bill. Only one member of the coalition voted against the bill, along with all opposition members. KKE MPs voted against the anti-people package of laws- "It's about time for the Greek people to say: No more sacrifices for the profits of the few" stated in his speech the General Secretary of the CC of Communist Party of Greece Dimitris Koutsoumbas.

Speech of the General Secretary of KKE Dimitris Koutsoumbas at the 42nd KNE-Odigitis festival

The full speech of the General Secretary of the CC of KKE Dimitris Koutsoumbas at the 42nd KNE-Odigitis Festival, Saturday 24 September. Source: inter.kke.gr.

Dear friends,

Dear comrades,

The festival of KNE-Odigitis every year leaves its mark. With hundreds of events all around Greece and naturally with the actvities here, in the “Antonis Tritsis” park. If some people are wondering why the festival of KNE endured when all similar initiatives of other political organizations have unraveled over  time, the answer lies in the content of the festival.

Every year, thousands of young people meet, are entertained and discuss their worries and their dreams. With the contribution of renowned artists from every field, by  promoting amateur creativity, by getting to know the workers’- people’s culture and the artistic works of great communist and progressive creators that we have the responsibility to disseminate to the younger generations.