On 23 January 1976, the world lost Paul Robeson — an artist of towering ability and a man of rare moral courage. Fifty years on, Robeson’s life stands as a reminder that art can be a weapon against injustice, and that integrity, once chosen, can be carried through even the harshest storms of repression.
Robeson was many things at once, and all of them exceptional. He was born in 1898 in Princeton, New Jersey, the son of a formerly enslaved father whose life shaped his son’s unbreakable sense of dignity.
The Aegean reverberated this weekend with the defiant songs of struggle, as communists from Greece and Turkey joined forces in a powerful celebration of the centennial of Mikis Theodorakis.
More than a concert, the evening in Izmir (Smyrna) became a living manifesto: a declaration that music and revolution remain inseparable, and that the peoples of the region share a common fight against imperialism, war, and exploitation.
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) are commemorating the 100th birth anniversary of Mikis Theodorakis by organizing two concerts in Greece and Turkey, one in Chios (the composer's birthplace) and another in Izmir.
According to 902 portal, concerts have been scheduled on Friday 19 and Sunday 21 September 2025 in Chios and Karciyaka, Izmir respectively.
"If they cut off both hands, I will compose music anyway holding the pen in my teeth"
- Dmitri Shostakovich
It was 9 August 1975 - 50 years ago - when one of the 20th century's giants of music died. He was Dmitri Shostakovich, the great Soviet composer and pianist who left his indelible mark on Russian and international culture.
In a lengthy statement, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) pays farewell to Mikis Theodorakis, the world-renowned Greek composer who died on Thursday morning aged 96.
Statements concerning the death of Mikis were also issued by the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE), the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME), the National Union of Fighters of the National Resistance and the Democratic Army of Greece (PEAEA– DSE), Trade Unions and Associations.
Within a period of a few months Italy lost two significant artists, two great singers, two socially and politically conscious women.
The iconic "La Rossa" Milva died on 23 April 2021 while Raffaella Carrà, the talented singer, dancer, actress and TV presenter, passed away on June 5th, aged 78.
Raffaella Maria Roberta Pelloni, as her full name was, will be remembered as an energetic, overwhelming and ingenious personality who became one of Italy's most beloved artists in the second half of the 20th century.
John Lennon, the legendary English co-lead singer of The Beatles and one of the most popular songwriters of the 20th century, was murdered 40 years ago, on December 8th, 1980 in New York City.
A vocal opponent of the Vietnam War and a sharp critic of British government's crimes in Northern Ireland, Lennon expressed himself politically through some extraordinary songs. Among these are “Give Peace a Chance”, “Working Class Hero” and “Imagine”.
"Another one great songwriter saddenly passed away, leaving us with the richness of his work", points out a statement of the Communist Party of Greece(KKE) for the death of popular rock singer and songwriter Lavrentis Macheritsas.
The KKE statement continues: "Like all these years, from his beginning until the time he "left", he accompanied us with his music and songs and he will continue accompany us in our small and great moments. Grandson of the executed - in April 1948 - militant Lavrentis Macheritsas from Volos, he was dynamically participating in the movement, with his music being his weapon. We will always remember his participation in the Festivals of KNE. In the electoral battles of our Party, with his support statements as well as his active participation, such as in 2006 when he was elected city councillor at the Municipality of Athens with the KKE's list".
Events by KNE have been scheduled in numerous cities and towns across Greece during August and September. In the country's second largest city, Thessaloniki, the festivities will take place on 12-14th of September including a large political event addressed by the General Secretary of the KKE Dimitris Koutsoumbas.
The festival consists a very popular event and attracts thousands of people every year. The three-day festival includes multiple activities, including political debates, music concerts with the participation of portuguese and international artists and bands, various events on gastronomy, theatre, cinema, sporting activities, as well as a book and music fair.
It was the 9th of August 1975 - 43 years ago- when one of the 20th century's giants of music died. He was Dmitri Shostakovich, the great Soviet composer and pianist who left his indelible mark on Russian and international culture.
Born in Saint Petersburg in 1906, Shostakovich was a child of the Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917 from which he was deeply inspired. Throughout his life, he set his talent in the service of the people who were building the socialist society. For that he received numerous awards and decorations, both in the Soviet Union and abroad.
Celebrating 50 years since its foundation and under the slogan "It has been a long road so far. A difficult road!... A certain road…100 years of KKE – 50 years of the KNE Festival…now this road is yours to follow", the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE) organizes the 44th KNE-Odigitis festival.
Like every year, events will be organized by KNE in many cities and towns across Greece, ending with a three-day large festival in Athens on 20-22 September 2018. Following a tradition of the last 7 years, the KNE-Odigitis festival will take place at "Antonis Tritsis Park" in the district of Ilion in Athens.
One of Greece's most renowned contemporary composers, Thanos Mikroutsikos, will dedicate three concerts to the 100 years of the Communist Party of Greece. The concerts will take place in the country's three largest cities, Athens, Thessaloniki and Patras and will contain compositions from Mikroutsikos' 50 years career span.
The first concert will take place on Sunday 11th March at the indoor Olympic Hall in Galatsi, Athens, where the General Secretary of the CC of the KKE Dimitris Koutsoumbas will deliver a keynote speech. Thanos Mikroutsikos will be accompanied by singers Miltos Paschalidis, Rita Antonopoulou and Kostas Thomaidis.
On October 18, 2017, within the framework of various events organized by the KKE to mark the 100th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, a concert was held with the Symphonic Orchestra of the Greek Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) at the Megaron Music Hall with works by the Soviet composers Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev, and Aram Khachaturian. The ERT Orchestra was directed by internationally renowned orchestra conductor Alexander Myrat.
Mikis Theodorakis, 91, conducting his song "Arnisi" (Denial) at the end of an emotional concert at Panathenaic Stadium in Athens. An one-thousand-member choir, numerous musicians, soloists, opera singers, actors and 50,000 spectators paid tribute to Greece's legendary composer.
you left us and this is the first time I disagree with you".
- Mikis Theodorakis, 26/11/2016.
With the above laconic phrase published in his personal website the internationally-renowned Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis, 91, expressed his farewell to the emblematic Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro. Theodorakis, composer of numerous masterpieces such as Canto General (Poetry by Pablo Neruda), Axion Esti, Serpico and Zorba, whose musical genius made a decisive contribution to the cultural renaissance of postwar Greece, had the opportunity to meet with Fidel in Cuba and become a friend of the Cuban leader.
"A Composer of his great era" says the banner above the orchestra. Photo from the two-day event organised by the KKE in Athens.
In a two-day cultural event held at the Party's headquarters in Athens, the Attica Party Organisation of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) honoured the legendary Soviet composer and musician Dmitri Shostakovich. The event began with an introductory speech by Themis Gionis, member of the CC of KKE and also member of the Political Bureau of the KKE Attica Party Organisation, who among other things said:
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".
