Opening speech of the KKE at the foundation meeting of the European Communist Action

OPENING SPEECH OF THE KKE AT THE MEETING OF COMMUNIST PARTIES FOR THE FOUNDATION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNIST ACTION

ATHENS, SATURDAY 18 NOVEMBER 2023

Dear comrades, delegates of the Communist Parties present in Athens today for the foundation of the European Communist Action.

European Communist Action: KKE's Koutsoumbas addressed the founding meeting in Athens

The founding meeting of the European Communist Action was held at the headquarters of the Communist Party of Greece in Athens, on Saturday 18 November. 

Delegations from twelve Communist and Workers' Parties from Europe participated in the event: Labour Party of Austria (PdA), Communist Revolutionary Party of France (PCRF), Communist Party of Greece (KKE), Swiss Communist Party, Workers' Party of Ireland, Communist Party of the Workers of Spain (PCTE), Communist Front of Italy, New Communist Party of the Netherlands (NCPN), Union of Communists of Ukraine, Communist Party of Sweden (SKP), Communist Party of Turkey (TKP), Communist Workers' Party of Finland. 

Founding meeting of the European Communist Action to be held on Saturday 18/11 in Athens

A new regional cooperation organization by Communist and Workers' Parties of Europe, under the name "European Communist Action", is due to be founded on Saturday 18 November in Athens.

As "Rizospastis" daily reports, the founding meeting will be hosted by the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and the introductory speech is going to be delivered by the General Secretary of the CC of the KKE Dimitris Koutsoumbas.

KKE: Short answers to current ideological-political questions concerning the Israeli attack and massacre against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip

Article by the International Relations Section of the CC of the KKE

Short answers to current ideological-political questions concerning the Israeli attack and massacre against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip

From the first hours of the recent military attack of the Israeli state and the massacre against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, the KKE took a militant and principled position on the side of the Palestinian people and organized dozens of solidarity mobilizations. The communists led many workers’-people’s mobilizations all over Greece. 

Diamantis Mavrodoglou, Greek veteran communist and former KKE MP, dies at 99

Diamantis Mavrodoglou, an emblematic veteran of the Greek communist movement who served as an MP for the Communist Party (KKE) from 1977 to 1989, died on Tuesday aged 99. 

Born in 1924, Mavrodoglou participated in the Greek Resistance against the Axis Occupation during the Second World War, being a member of EPON (United Panhellenic Organization of Youth) and ELAS (Greek People's Liberation Army). He became a member of the KKE in 1944.

Joti Brar’s Tantrum About the Imperialist Pyramid

By Charles Andrews

The Institute for the Critical Study of Society (ICSS) has announced its video session for Nov. 5, 2023. Joti Brar will speak on “The Theory of the Imperialist Pyramid.” Fortunately, she has written an article on the same topic.

The ICSS’s advance announcement coyly identifies Brar as a member of the World Anti-Imperialist Platform. That she is. She is also a vice chair of the CPGB M-L and daughter of Harpal Brar, a founder of the group (be sure to include the “G” for Great Britain in order to avoid mistaking it for the CPB M-L).

D. Koutsoumbas: On the military conflict between Israel and Palestine and the developments in the region

By Dimitris Koutsoumbas*

Israel’s ground offensive on the Gaza Strip will trigger a general conflagration in the region, and more generally, on a global scale. This issue was rightly addressed by the recent plenary meeting of the CC of the KKE. The CC reaffirmed the public positions of the Party, as they were reflected in press releases of the Press Office, in the interventions of its MPs in the Greek and the European Parliaments, as well as its actions in the mass movement.

Α. The regional and international powers–capitalist states involved in the conflict in the Middle East 

KKE: Mitsotakis’ visit to Israel constitutes a provocation and complicity in the crime

The Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) issued the following statement on the visit of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ visit to Israel:

“At a time when the state of Israel is escalating its attacks against the Palestinian people, resulting in thousands of dead and wounded, the visit of Mr. Mitsotakis to Jerusalem and his meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu constitutes a provocation and complicity in the crime.

 

Intensification of the struggle to end the Israeli occupation – Solidarity with the Palestinian people - Disengagement of Greece from US-NATO plans

Intensification of the struggle to end the Israeli occupation – Solidarity with the Palestinian people - Disengagement of Greece from US-NATO plans

Right now in Palestine, in the Gaza Strip, yet another imperialist crime is being committed. The State of Israel and the far-right Netanyahu government in the form of a "national unity" government is carrying on the massacres of previous years, striking the people with its massive military machine, civilians, children, killing thousands.  It has imposed a total blockade, depriving the inhabitants of water, food, medicine, medical supplies and electricity, readying a land invasion and genocide.

Six communists were elected mayors in Greece's local elections — Significant reinforcement of the KKE

On 15/10/23 the 2nd round of local elections took place in Greece. Based on the result of both rounds, the lists supported by the KKE were voted for by thousands of popular forces, recording over 10% nationwide (from 6.86% in the 2019 regional elections).

A communist mayor was elected from the 1st round on the island of Ikaria, while the communist mayor in the country’s 3rd largest city, Patras, won over 41% in the first and 56% in the second round, and was therefore reelected. 

KKE: No involvement of Greece in the NATO-USA-Israel massacre in Gaza

The Press Office of the CC of the KKE issued the following statement on the deployment of the Greek frigate "Psara" in the Southeastern Mediterranean:

"The dispatch of the Greek frigate "Psara" —with a crew and security team of more than 200 people in total— to the South-Eastern Mediterranean, to join a NATO force operating in the region, is a very dangerous development, at a time when the conflict in the Middle East is a breath away from further escalation and a generalized military engagement.

 

Greece local elections: Significant reinforcement of the KKE in all regions and large municipalities

On 8 October 2023, the first round of the regional and municipal elections took place throughout Greece. 

 

The KKE participated in the elections in all 13 regions of the country, as well as in 262 municipalities, with the ballot paper under the name “People’s Rallying”. Based on the results, “People’s Rallying” gained over 10% in the 13 regions nationwide, up from 6.86% in the 2019 regional elections and 7.69% won by the KKE in the parliamentary elections last June.

 

KKE: "The Palestinian people have the right to defend their rights, need greater support and solidarity"

"The Palestinian people have the right to defend their rights and needs greater popular support", stresses out a statement issued by the Press Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), on the occasion of the recent military confrontation between the Israeli Armed Forces and Hamas.

The full statement, published in 902 portal, is the following:

Koutsoumbas: Join forces with the KKE in all struggles and in local elections!

The activity of the party organizations of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) throughout the country is culminating ahead of the municipal and regional elections that will take place on Sunday 8 October. The GS of the CC of the KKE, Dimitris Koutsoumbas, is participating in the pre-election rallies in many cities across the country, such as Thessaloniki, Lamia, Larissa, Nea Ionia (Athens), Nikaia (Piraeus), etc.

At the rally in the city of Larissa on Tuesday 3 October, he stated the following:

The KKE will continue raising the banner of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism

On 22/9, the delegations of Communist Youth and Anti-Imperialist Organizations that visited Athens in the framework of the 49th  KNE-Odigitis Festival had the opportunity to meet with a delegation of the CC of the KKE in order to be informed about the developments in Greece and the action of the KKE. 

 

Eliseos Vagenas, member of the CC of the KKE and head of the International Relations Section of the CC of the KKE, delivered a speech, which reads as follows:

SYRIZA hits rock bottom of political degeneration

Stefanos Kasselakis, SYRIZA's new leader

On 24/9/23, the second round for the election of the new president of SYRIZA took place. This party was the continuation of the “Coalition of the Left, the Movements and Ecology (SYN)”, consisting of a part of KKE cadres who, eroded by opportunism, the ideas of the counter-revolution and Gorbachev, left the KKE in 1989-1991 after their unsuccessful attempt to dissolve the Party. 

 

This section collaborated within the SYN framework with other opportunist forces that had broken away from the KKE in 1968 and embraced the Euro-communist current.

 

Comment of the KKE on the termination of the activity of the European Communist Initiative

Comment of the International Relations Section of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) on the termination of the activity of the European Communist Initiative:

Confusion...

The inevitable course towards the termination of the activity of the European Communist Initiative (ECI) has caused confusion among some of the forces participating in it.

KKE: Strike call against Mitsotakis government's new anti-labour steamroller

On Friday 15/09/23, the workers and the youth demonstrated in a mass protest in Syntagma square, determined not to allow their working and living conditions to be crushed under the iron heel of the laws of profit and exploitation.

The protest, organized by trade unions and mass organizations, turned into a call for a strike against the government’s anti-labour steamroller and into a condemnation of the recent crime against the people of Thessaly.

 

On the termination of the activity of the European Communist Initiative and the role of opportunism

By Nikos Mottas.

The erosive and undermining role of opportunism in the international communist movement has made its appearance again, this time by leading to the termination of the activity of the European Communist Initiative (INITIATIVE).

According to a statement by the Secretariat of the INITIATIVE, the “important ideological and political differences that have arisen over time and which have been aggravated since the outbreak of the war being waged between the USA-NATO-EU and capitalist Russia” were assessed during a last teleconference held on September 9.

KKE: The EU is an accomplice for the crime in Thessaly

In its statement of 12/9/23, on the occasion of the meeting between the Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, in Strasbourg, the Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) stressed the responsibility of the EU for the floods, since the latter has systematically rejected the expenditure on flood protection projects as ineligible.