EU migration policy turns Greek islands into prisons for refugees — Statement by KKE

The Press Bureau of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) sharply criticized New Democracy (ND) government’s legislative act which introduces requisition of land and facilities for migration purposes. 

Stelios Petsas, the governmental spokesperson, announced on Monday that the current administration will issue a Legislative Act by which the state will be able to proceed with the requisition of public and private properties where new migrant camps (hotspots) will be constructed.

KKE slams Mitsotakis government's measures for the refugee-migration issue

In a statement published on 902 portal, the Press Bureau of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) comments on the recent measures announced by the right-wing government of New Democracy (ND) regarding the refugee-migration issue. 

"The measures announced by the ND government for the refugee issue strengthen even further the entrapment and repression to asylum seekers, as well as the suffering of the local Greek population. They cultivate and fuel racism and xenophobic reactions. They are dangerous measures for both the refugees and the Greek people" points out the statement. 

Human tragedy in Greece's Moria refugee camp — Statement by the KKE

A woman from Afghanistan and her child are the victims of the fire that broke out in a container in the refugee camp of Moria on the Greek island of Lesvos on Sunday afternoon. 

The State-run news agency AMNA reports that the body of the woman was transferred to the hospital in the city of Mytilene with a private car, while it was the refugees who retrieved the body of the child.

US anti-war activists: "Troops off the border! Solidarity with refugees and migrants!"

In a statement, the Tucson Anti-War Committee of Arizona condemns the decision of U.S. President Trump to authorize security troops to shoot against the migrants caravan from Central America. The Anti-War Committee demands the removal of U.S. troops from the border and the asylum granting to all refugees:

On October 29, President Trump ordered 5200 U.S. troops to the Mexican border in an attempted show of force with a caravan of refugees moving north from Honduras through Mexico. Trump has since threatened thousands more troops. The troop total could end up being more than the U.S. troops continuing the war in Afghanistan.

KKE: EU's Migration Summit was a "terrible bazaar" against refugees-immigrants

“A terrible bazaar against uprooted refugees and immigrants”; that is how the Communist Party of Greece characterizes the recent EU Migration Summit. In a statement, among other things, the KKE points out that “the dangerous decisions are summarized into more entrapment of refugees and immigrants in Greece, more repression, deportations and attack in the rights of immigrants and refugees, countries-”storehouses” of immigrants, greater penetration of european monopolies in third countries in the name of immigration limitation”.

World Refugee Day: PAME expresses its solidarity and support with the refugees

In a statement regarding the World Refugee Day, the Secretariat for Refugees and Immigrants of the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) expresses support and substantial solidarity with the refugees:

The sharpening of the competitions for business group profits, the exploitation and the imperialist interventions have resulted in millions of uprooted and persecuted people around the world, the increase in 2018 of arrivals of refugees in our country. Thousands of them are trapped under outrageous conditions, stacked in the Reception and Identification Centers.

PCPE: Don't be fooled by PSOE government's "good will" gestures on refugees

The Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain (PCPE) salutes the offer made by the Government to accept in the port of Valencia the ship “Aquarius”, which has more than 600 people on board, among them more than one hundred children and pregnant women as well, and has evidenced once again the reactionary nature of the European Union, unable to give a humanitarian response to the denial of the governments of Italy and Malta to allow the arrival of such ship to their coasts. 

"Phony promises": Comment by the KKE on Tsipras' visit and speech in Lesvos

In a statement regarding the visit and speech of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in the island of Lesvos, the Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece made the following comment:

"In the midst of generalized outcry from the people and intense police presence, Mr Tsipras tried with hollow words of sympathy, phony promises and his familiar exploitation of the people movement's history, to conceal his tremendous responsibilities for the harsh reality that the people of the islands experience, especially of those in the borders, like Lesvos.

Message to Netanyahu: Thousands rallied against refugees' deportation in Tel Aviv

Tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square on Saturday night, March 24, to protest against the government’s racist plan to deport African refugees and asylum seekers. The rally was organized by a coalition of Sudanese and Eritrean groups, along with the “Stop the Expulsion” movement, “Standing Together” and the group “South Tel Aviv against the Expulsion.” Several Communist and Hadash activists participated in the protest, among them MK Dov Khenin (Joint List), a resident of Tel Aviv.

Tragedy: At least 16 dead after migrant boat sinks in eastern Aegean - Statement by the Communist Party of Greece

Archive Photo.

Sixteen people, including at least five children, drowned earlier on Saturday when the small boat they were travelling on capsized near the island of Agathonisi, in eastern Aegean Sea. 

The nationality of the victims was not immediately known. The incident was thought to be the highest death toll of migrants trying to reach outlying Greek islands for months. 

Three people — two women and a man — managed to reach the coast and alert authorities to the boat sinking. The three told authorities they had been in a wooden boat carrying an estimated 21 people which sank, for reasons that were not immediately clear. 

Joke of the year: Erdogan will receive a.... "peace award"!

This could be, without doubt, the best joke of the year. According to a soL international report, the International Pediatric Association (IPA) announced on March 11 that it would give the ‘International Peace Award’ to Turkey’s warmongering President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for helping refugee children! 

The award came after the IPA officials visited the refugee camps in Turkey. Announcing the IPA decision, Kerem Hasanoğlu, the head of the association’s external relations department, said that the association decided to award Erdoğan for his government’s role in the services regarding the refugee children.

Statement of the KKE on International Migrants Day - بمناسبة اليوم العالمي للمهاجر

On the occasion of International Migrants Day, the KKE expresses its solidarity and support for the refugees and economic migrants living in our country, as well as Greek immigrants living and working abroad. It calls upon them to organize and struggle in the ranks of the class-oriented labour movement to join with the KKE:

- Defending and expanding their labour, social and democratic rights

KKE: "The 65.6 million refugees are victims of a system that brings war, horror and death"

Giant banners raised by the KKE at the
Acropolis, in support of the refugees, Oct. 2015.

In a statement regarding the World Refugee Day, the Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) points out the following:

"The 65.6 million refugees and domestically displaced people are not just a "humanitarian crisis". It is the tragic confirmation of the actual character of a system which, when it cannot give solutions to its contradictions by crushing peoples' rights, resorts to war sowing horror, death and refugees. The imperialist war crushes whatever imperialist peace leaves intact. 

The SYRIZA-ANEL government, which cultivates the myth of the supposedly humanitarian stance towards the refugees, isn't innocent. It is responsible for the entrapment of 62,000 refugees in (mainland) Greece and the double entrapment- under miserable conditions- in the islands. It brought the special NATO naval force in the Aegean, using the refugees and immigrants as a pretext. It gives 2.4% of the GDP, 4 billion euros every year- stealing from workers, unemployed, pensioners, young people- to the murderous NATO machine. 

Communist Youths in Thessaloniki: "Solidarity with the refugees. Our enemy is capitalism"

Singing the 'Internationale' with the fists raised.

In a political event held in Thessaloniki, Greece on Saturday afternoon, communist youth organisations from six countries (Greece, Turkey, Spain, Italy, Serbia and Germany) declared their internationalist solidarity to the refugees. The event was organised by the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE) and was attended by representatives of five communist youths:

The Socialist German Workers Youth; The Collective of Communist Youths - Spain ; The Young Communists Front - Italy; The League of Yugoslav Communist Youth- Serbia and the Communist Youth of Turkey.

KKE: Statement on the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

On the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) issued the following statement:

"Fifty-one years after the proclamation by the UN, with the decisive contribution of the Soviet Union, of the 21^st of March as the International Day against Racial Discrimination, the capitalist world, in the USA, the EU, in Greece, is showing more and more clearly its inhuman character against refugees and immigrants, to the victims of imperialist wars and capitalist exploitation.

Shocking conditions for refugees as winter cold and snow cover settled over Greece - Question by the KKE in the Parliament asking for immediate measures

Freezing temperatures and heavy snowfall are making life even harder for thousands of refugees living in limbo across Greece. Migration Policy Minister Yiannis Mouzalas admitted that the situation on the islands due to the sub-zero temperatures is not acceptable but suggested that the main reason for this is that locals have obstructed plans to expand reception facilities so migrants can be moved out of the hotspots, where some are housed in tents. 

"The UN Refugee Agency is today reiterating its call to accelerate the moving of asylum seekers from the Aegean islands to the Greek mainland," spokesman Adrian Edwards said last Friday in Geneva. "The need for better protection will become all the more acute this weekend when temperatures on the islands are expected to drop. We are worried."

KKE: Statement regarding PM Tsipras' remarks on the refugee-migrant crisis

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.

Hate, Bigotry, Racism: The 'Jihadists' of the Greek Orthodox Church

SPECIAL TO IN DEFENSE OF COMMUNISM.

This is not a post about religion and faith. Historical materialism, as it has been analyzed in the works of Marx, Engels, Lenin and others, represents our perspective on the “opium of the people”. However, this article focuses on the Greek Orthodox Church as an institution and her high ranking representatives. Before going to our major issue, let us remind the following: a) according to article 3.1 of the Constitution of Greece (Hellenic Republic) “the prevailing religion in Greece is that of the Eastern Orthodox Church of Christ”, b) the Church of Greece is, in fact, an institution tied to the bourgeois Greek state, as long as priests (of all ranks) are civil servants and their salaries are paid from the State. c) the Church of Greece, with an estate of billion euros, is largely benefited by a series of tax exemptions.

The reactionary and regressive role of the Church of Greece through history is, more or less, known. Since the formation of the independent Greek state in 1830, the Orthodox Church has been always part of the establishment- from the Ottoman rule to the formation of the Kingdom of Greece and from the 1940s Nazi occupation to the 1967-1974 military dictatorship, the leadership of the Greek Orthodox Church played its role as a staunch ally of the established order. 

Communist Party of Greece (KKE): Statement for the World Refugee Day

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

On the occasion of the World Refugee Day, the Press Office of the CC of KKE issued the following statement:

"The UN data for 2015- with the unprecedented number of 65.3 million refugees and domestically displaced people, 50% of which are children and 5.4 million people who became refugees for first time in 2015- is the mirror of a system which the only that has to offer is crises, poverty, wars, uprooting and refugees. The (the data) also show that if people do not put their own stamp, targeting the actual responsible, the monopolies and the imperialist war, the millions of the persecuted and uprooted people will be increasing every year.

What is the actual role of the NGOs in Greece's Refugee Crisis?

What is the role of the NGOs?

Source: Rizospastis / Translation: In Defense of Communism.

In Rizospastis' travelogue in refugee camps around the country, which started on May 29, there are shocking information about the entrapment, the miserable living conditions, the wounds that the war has left to thousands of people. This journalistic travelogue will continue in the following days, in an effort to highlight all the aspects of the refugee-immigration question. 

One aspect, for example, is what is happening with the so-called "Non-Governmental Organisations" (NGOs), which literally have the total control inside the refugee camps, operating as "state within the state". The government has left in their hands the infrastructures (which host refugees), while- along with the EU- provides to these NGOs financial aid of many million euros. Various organisations have taken control of all services. From the feeding sector to the entertainment of the refugee children. From Ellinikon to Ritsona, in Larisa and in Central Macedonia.