Tsipras and Erdogan, both enemies of the working class in Greece and Turkey

By Nikos Mottas. 

The visit of the Turkish President Erdogan in Greece has concluded. A lot of things were said in front of cameras and, certainly, even more behind closed doors. We could write about several conclusions regarding the undisputable upgrade of Ankara's assertions against Greece's sovereign rights, the unacceptable demand for the revision of the Treaty of Lausanne, the pretexts of President Erdogan regarding minorities, etc.

However, if we would like to summarize the very essense of Erdogan's visit, we must briefly- and clearly- point out the following:

• Both President Erdogan, as well as the Greek leadership, repeated in their public statements the (trite) wishes about “good neighborly relations”, “mutual respect”, “friendship” and “peace” between the two countries. All these are empty words, taking into account that within the framework of imperialism, within the framework of the NATO alliance – members of which are both countries – actual friendship and peace cannot exist. This is a given and multiple times proven in the passage of history truth. Therefore, with these words, Tsipras and Erdogan do not deceive each other, but they deceive together the Greek and Turkish people.

Condemn U.S. decision on Jerusalem: Statements by Communist and Workers Parties across the world

The recent decision of the U.S. Trump administration to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital city of the state of Israel has sparked outrage across the world. Israeli and Palestinian communist and left parties have denounced Trump's decision, while the Communist Party of Greece stated that the decision "adds fuel to the fire" to "burn" the perspective of a Palestinian state. Below, you can read announcements by various Communist and Workers Parties:

Communist Youth: Mass demonstration in Athens in solidarity with the Palestinian people

A strong message of solidarity with the Palestinian people and against the recent decision of the U.S. to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital was given by thousands of young people, members and friends of the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE) who demonstrated in downtown Athens on Friday afternoon. 

The protesters gathered at Propylaia and marched towards the U.S. Embassy, shouting slogans such as "Freedom to Palestine" and "Americans, murderers of the peoples". 

Statement by the KKE on the visit of Turkish President Erdogan in Greece: "People in both countries must be vigilant"

On the occasion of the official visit of the President of Turkey Rejep Tayyip Erdogan in Greece (7-8 December), the Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece issued the following statement:

"The visit of the President of Turkey T.Erdogan in our country did not confirm whatsoever the environment that the SYRIZA-ANEL government was uncourteously cultivating during the previous days by naming the visit as "historical". After all, it wouldn't be different, when only within 2017 the violations of the Greek airspace and maritime waters are thousands, while just before his visit, during an interview, the President of Turkey restored all the new provocations and assertions against the country, with the peak being the demand for the revise of the Treaty of Lausanne. 

Israeli and Palestinian communists denounce Trump's decision on Jerusalem

Israeli and Palestinian Communist Parties have reacted to U.S. President Donald Trump's provocative decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Below you can read statements by parties such as Hadash, the CP of Israel, the Palestinian CP and the Palestinian Peoples' Party.

Hadash / Communist Party of Israel (CPI)

According the official website of the Communist Party of Israel (CPI), the intention to transfer the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem "provoked reactions of outrage" among the ranks of the CPI, including the members from the Joint List of the Democracy Front for Peace and Equality (Hadash) in the parliamentary assembly of Israel, Knesset.

The KKE condemns Trump government's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital city

Regarding the announcement of U.S. President Donald Trump to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital city, the Press Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece issued the following statement of condemnation:

"The decision of the USA to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital shows the cynicism with which american imperialism actively participates in the crime that is being committed against the people of Palestine by Israel and its allies, primarily the USA, as well as the EU. The later, not only deepens constantly her relations with Israel, but also indentifies the perpetrator and the victim, proclaiming as "terrorism" the righteous struggle of the people of Palestine.

General Strike on December 14th in Greece - Workers to give a powerful response to SYRIZA government

Source: All-Workers Militant Front.

Last week in Greece, the working class witnessed a series of incidents that showed a strong escalation of state oppression and employers' intimidations against workers

The workers of supermarkets in Ioannina, the students and the workers of the Universities, outside the Ministry of Education, but also the protesters in the courts against the banks auctioning off peoples’ homes, were not the first to suffer persecutions, arrests, violent repression and tear gas.

The over 18 months unpaid workers of the super markets of Ioannina who struggle for their right to work and their salaries, the students who in the year 2017 literally demand a decent meal and the workers who protect their homes, were within a few hours targeted by the SYRIZA-ANEL government.

Paris: Evénement de la section française du KKE en l'honneur de la Révolution d'Octobre le 9 novembre

La section française du KKE (Parti Communiste de Grèce) vous invite a une commemoration du Centenaire de la Grande Socialiste Révolution d'Octobre 1917. L'événement sera assisté et adressé par le député de Thessalonique du KKE Yannis Delis.

Le Samedi 9 Novembre, 19h00,

 à Espace Ageca, 177 rue de Charonne, Paris 11.

KKE sends powerful message to Tsipras' government: "The right to strike is non-negotiable, don't dare to touch it!"

Regarding the SYRIZA-ANEL government's amendment about the right to strike- which provoked the militant response of Trade Unions and workers - the Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece issued the following statement:

"The SYRIZA-ANEL government broke any record of political impudence and nastiness, bringing, like a thief in the Parliament - and within an irrelevant law proposal in order to vote it quickly- an amendment in order to begin the rupture of the working class' biggest conquest, which is the right to strike. 

SYRIZA government withdraws anti-strike amendment after Trade Unions' militant reaction

Workers-Trade Unionists invade the Ministry
of Labour in Athens.

The SYRIZA-ANEL coalition government was forced after militant mobilization by PAME and Trade Unions to withdraw a shameful amendment on workers’ strike and other labour issues only hours after they were tabled in parliament. Earlier today (Tuesday), demonstrators supported by the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) invaded the Ministry of Labor in central Athens, as an act of protest against the antiworker-antipeople measures of the government.

The government's amendment proposes that for a union to go on strike, at least 50% plus one of active union members must agree. In fact, this measure is a step towards the restriction of the workers' right to strike and consists an escalation of the government-EU's attack against the labour movement.

Britain: 19 million people living below the line of poverty

Source: The New Worker.

Prime Minister Theresa May earlier this year claimed she was reaching out to families that were “just about managing” to get by. But there are millions more families now who are not managing at all, thanks to her policies.

According to a report released last week by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) there are now 3.4 million more households in Britain struggling to live on their income than there were in the year 2008—2009.

There are now just under 19 million people in Britain living below the ‘Minimum Income Standard’ (MIS), 11 million of whom are not managing but are sinking fast into a bottomless pit of debt and desperation.

European Communist Initiative: On the intensification of the militarization and aggressiveness of the EU

Statement by the Parties of the European Communist Initiative:

The EU, the NATO and the bourgeois governments of their member-states are engaged in an escalating arms race and in the development of military plans and preparations, which pose a serious danger for the peoples.

These developments reflect the contradictions among the governments within the EU and NATO as well as their contradictions with other imperialist centers and rival powers which are focused on the control of hydrocarbons and energy pipelines in the Middle East, in Northern Africa, in Eastern Mediterranean and other regions. 

Interview with Marco Rizzo, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Italy (PC)

The General Secretary of the Communist Party of Italy (Partito Comunista), Marco Rizzo, gave a very interesting interview to the International Communist Press:

ICP: Before starting, could you inform our readers about the discussions within the Italian Communist Movement that led to the founding of your party, the Communist Party of Italy?

Marco Rizzo: The ideological and political origins of our Party refer to the political area of ​​the legendary organizer of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) during the Resistance, Pietro Secchia, who was an opponent of Togliatti for what concerned its moderatism according to the "Italian Way to Socialism". This area kept living through the magazine Interstampa and the Marxist Cultural Centers, born in Italy during the ‘80s. This area was, in fact, the backbone of the struggle of the pro-Soviet opposition within the PCI and the establishment of the new party, Rifondazione Comunista, after the PCI dissolution in 1991.

Fidel Castro, ¡presente! Thousands gathered at the University of Havana to honour the Comandante

Thousands of people gathered at the University of Havana in order to pay their respect to Comadante Fidel Castro, on the one years since his death. Report from Granma International.

Once again the historic guerilla brought together a multitude of grateful youth. Once again he showed us the right way, with his index finger pointing to the future. In a cultural-political act at the University of Havana’s historic Grand Staircase – where he spoke to students on many occasions – the generation in which he placed all his trust, gathered one year after his passing, to show that Fidel has not left, and that today, he is more present than ever. 

Dimitris Koutsoumbas: "Socialism in the 20th century proved its superiority in comparison with capitalism"

The Secretary General of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece, Dimitris Koutsoumbas, delivered the central speech during the KKE's political and cultural event for the 100 years since the Great October Socialist Revolution that took place on Sunday 26th November in Athens / Source: inter.kke.gr. 

In his speech, the SG of the CC of KKE noted that “The October Revolution is neither an accident of history, nor a Bolshevik coup d’etat, as the capitalists declare and write, nor immature and early, as all kinds of apostates and oportunists-adventurists declare and write”  and added that “The October Revolution has been the climactic world-historic event of the 20th century that sounded the start of the era when the working class would become the protagonist of the developments and would push forward the wheel of history, taking over the power and organizing the new socialist-communist relations of production, reforming the whole society. (…) The October Revolution gave impulse to the international revolutionary movement and filled with optimism the struggle of the peoples around the world, accelerated the process for the founding of a series of communist parties. Our Party, is a product of the revolutionary flame of October. In a few days we will welcome year 2018, year of climax for the celebration of the 100 years of the honored and heroic Communist Party of Greece.”

Communist Party of Turkey (TKP): Tayyip Erdogan and his government must resign immediately!

The Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) has released a statement calling on Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan to resign immediately following the reports showing the engagement of family members of Erdogan in the transaction of millions of dollars to a foreign company via offshore bank accounts in the Isle of Man, soL international reports. 

The statement came on late November 28 just after Turkey's main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu showed some documents during a parliamentary speech, accusing Erdogan’s family of getting involved in the transaction of millions of dollars to a foreign company via offshore bank accounts in the tax haven Isle of Man.

"Imperialists Out of Greece!": The 18th Congress of EEDYE to be held on 2-3 December in Athens

Archive Photo: From an EEDYE rally.

The 18th Congress of the Greek Committee for International Detente and Peace (EEDYE) will take place on the 2nd and 3rd of December in Athens. The Congress will be hosted at the City Hall of Haidari, west of Athens. 

For the preparation of the Congress, local peace committees across the country held meetings, discussed and organised the future activities of the antiimperialist movement.

KKE: Protest outside the Polish embassy in Athens against anticommunist persecutions

With a protest outside the Polish embassy yesterday in Athens, members of the Communist Party of Greece expressed their condemnation of the anticommunist persecutions that take place in Poland. 

The delegation of the KKE, headed by the Member of the European Parliament Kostas Papadakis, delivered to the personnel of the embassy a statement in which the Party expresses its opposition to the persecutions.

Fidel Castro: Always Alive In Our Minds And Hearts

By Nikos Mottas.

A year has passed since the death of Cuban Revolution's historic leader, Fidel Castro Ruz. A real communist and internationalist who, through his life and action, put his stamp indelibly in the history of Cuba and Latin America. Fidel was a man whose name became synonymous to Freedom, Revolution and Dignity, leaving a valuable legacy to the international communist movement and the people of Cuba.

Comandante Castro's political legacy continues to inspire the Cuban people in the consistent struggle against the genocidal economic, commercial and financial blockade that the U.S. governments have imposed, as well as against the multiform attempts by imperialist centers in the USA and the EU to undermine socialist construction in Cuba. 

"The ice has been broken, the road is open": Massive participation at KKE's event for the 100 years of the Great October Socialist Revolution

With massive participation of people of every age, in a stadium filled with young communists, the KKE celebrated the 100 years since the October Socialist Revolution with a magnificent political and cultural event on Sunday in Athens. 

The event began with a speech by the General Secretary of the CC of the Party Dimitris Koutsoumbas and continued with a theatrical play dedicated to the 1917 October Revolution events. 

Thousands members, supporters and friends of the KKE and its youth wing, KNE, filled the Stadium of Peace and Friendship in Faliro, celebrating the epic revolution which inspired the people in all over the world and proved that capitalism is neither eternal nor undefeated. 

TKP's General Secretary Kemal Okuyan: "Shut down the NATO bases, withdraw from the alliance!"

Source: soL international.

The General Secretary of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP), soL columnist, Kemal Okuyan wrote an article on November 22 regarding the recent Turkey-NATO/U.S. row sparked with the appearance of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's name in a list of enemies on a poster at a NATO drill. 

"Your anti-NATO stance has not lasted even two days," yelled [Turkish journalist] Nihat Genç in his column on Odatv. He meant the nationalists who began to say "We are being entrapped, we are deviating from the West to Eurasia," just after they bullied the U.S. and NATO.   

Several times we have responded to the question, "What is nationalism?", but let us put it here again so that what we are going to say can be more apparent: