European Communist Initiative- Statement for the 99th Anniversary of the 1917 Great October Socialist Revolution

Statement of the Secretariat of the European Communist Initiative for the 99th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution- Socialism is necessary and timely.

99 years ago, 7 November 1917, the Great October Socialist Revolution triumphed. We honor the memory of the Paris Commune. We honor and we are inspired by Marx, Engels, Lenin who guided the workers´ struggle for the socialist future documenting scientifically how to reach that goal.

What does the Great October mean for us, living in the 21st century?

Joseph V. Stalin- The October Revolution and the Tactics of the Russian Communists (1924)

The October Revolution and the Tactics of the Russian Communists.

By Joseph V. Stalin.

Source:Problems of Leninism, by J.V. Stalin, 

Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1976, p. 117.

Republished from Marxists Internet Archives.

Three circumstances of an external nature determined the comparative ease with which the proletarian revolution in Russia succeeded in breaking the chains of imperialism and thus overthrowing the rule of the bourgeoisie.

Firstly, the circumstance that the October Revolution began in a period of desperate struggle between the two principal imperialist groups, the Anglo-French and the Austro-German; at a time when, engaged in mortal struggle between themselves, these two groups had neither the time nor the means to devote serious attention to the struggle against the October Revolution. This circumstance was of tremendous importance for the October Revolution; for it enabled it to take advantage of the fierce conflicts within the imperialist world to strengthen and organize its own forces.

OBAMA NOT WELCOME IN GREECE- Demonstration against the visit of US President to take place in Athens on November 15th

Peace, Workers, Students, Women's Associations and Unions against the visit of the U.S. President Barack Obama in Greece. 

Info from 'Rizospastis', 6/11/2016.

OBAMA IS NOT WELCOME - NO PARTICIPATIΟN OF GREECE IN THE IMPERIALIST PLANS AND WARS.

With the slogan "Obama is not welcome in Greece- No participation of Greece in the imperialist plans and wars" numerous unions and associations of the labour-peoples' movement in Greece call for a massive demonstration on Tuesday 15th November in Omonia square, Athens. Among the participants are the Greek Committtee for International Detente and Peace (EEDYE), workers' unions, associations of self-employed and women, students unions and others.

KKE: Statement regarding the government's cabinet reshuffle

Regarding the cabinet reshuffle of the Tsipras' government, the Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) issued the following statement. 

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

"Except from its communicative character, the reshuffle of the SYRIZA-ANEL government aims in creating a (governmental) form which, with bigger stability and as little as possible "wobbling", will implement completely the antipeople restructures and the committments of the 3rd memorandum.

The pursuit of blaming some persons and manipulations for the antipeople measures, which caused a generalized popular indignation and anger (e.g. social security issue), must not hide the total governmental responsibility and policy which these specific persons consistently served.

"This is a dissolution in mass": Statement by the Communist Party, Turkey about the jailings of the pro-Kurdish MPs

The Communist Party - Turkey released a statement about the recent jailings of the pro-Kurdish MPs. The statement underscores the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government has to keep attacking to sustain its dissolving power.

This is a dissolution in mass.

In today’s statement made by the Prime Ministry and directed to foreign press on the ongoing operation against several MPs of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), it was clear the Turkish government was trying to find a pretext for this operation. According to the statement, their being taken into custody like that was a normal procedure since they did not appear in court to give testimony!

Decision of the CC of the KKE on the developments around the Cyprus Issue and the position of the KKE

Decision of the CC of the KKE on the developments around the Cyprus Issue and the position of the KKE / Source: inter.kke.gr.

The CC of the KKE met and examined the overall developments on the Cyprus issue through the prism of the new facts. It came to the following decision:

The Communist Party of Greece follows, studies and takes a responsible position on the Cyprus problem. It has made a significant contribution to the denunciation of the Turkish invasion-occupation, to highlighting the international character of the problem, to expressing internationalist solidarity with the working class and popular strata of Cyprus, the Greek-Cypriots and Turkish-Cypriots, Armenians, Maronites and Latins.

The KKE fights against the negative, for the peoples, plans that are unfolding in the framework of the antagonisms of the bourgeois classes of Greece, Turkey and Cyprus, as well as the in the context of the negative and dangerous role played historically and still being played today by the USA, Britain, NATO and the EU as regards the resolution of the Cyprus problem.

Interview with the member of the CC of KKE Thanasis Pafilis: The Cyprus Issue, AKEL and the positions of KKE

Interview of Thanasis Pafilis, member of the CC of the KKE, and parliamentary representative of the party to the MEGAONE news outlet in Cyprus- "Cyprus, united, independent, with its people sovereign".

Source: inter.kke.gr.

1. Is the KKE not concerned about the fact that its decision could negatively affect AKEL, with which it has special relations, and indeed in a period where the process of the resolution of the Cyprus Issue, which is also supported by AKEL, is being called into issue by various sides?

The stance of the KKE is rooted in its deep internationalist solidarity with the working class and popular strata of Cyprus, the Greek-Cypriots and Turkish-Cypriots, Armenians,  Maronites and Latins, and is opposed to the monopoly interests that are promoting a new dichotomous plan so that they can gain control of the natural resources without any impediments. The leadership of AKEL has made its choices and its agreement with the framework of the government and President, a framework supported by the USA and the EU and especially Britain, is mistaken, without prospects and is leading the Cypriot people into great hazards.

KKE: On the developments regarding the "Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA)" between the EU and Canada and the stance of the SYRIZA-ANEL government

Statement of the KKE delegation to the European Parliament.

The complications - due to conflicts within the EU – concerning the ratification of the «Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA)» between the EU and Canada which was scheduled for the 27/10/2016 does not mean that the peoples can rest easy. These conflicts have nothing to do with people's interests. They express instead violent contradictions among various monopolies, on the basis of their own interests and plans.

KKE General Secretary Dimitris Koutsoumbas' remarks after the meeting with President Prokopis Pavlopoulos

Dimitris Koutsoumbas: The Greek people must be vigilant about developments in the region.

Source: 902.gr/ Ιn Defense of Communism.

Today, Wednesday 2 November, the General Secretary of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) Dimitris Koutsoumbas met with the President of the Hellenic Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos, regarding the developments on the Cyprus Issue, as well as about the positions of KKE on the developments in the broader region.

After the meeting, Dimitris Koutsoumbas made the following statement to journalists:

"I informed Mr.President of the Republic about the developments in the region and the positions of the KKE. The sharpening of the contradictions, the antagonisms, the military conflicts and the accumulation of military weapons and forces throughout the region, from central and eastern Europe, the Black Sea, the Aegean Sea and the Middle East do not bode positive steps and issues for the people and especially for the Greek people.

Golden Dawn Trial: The murderous attack against the members of KKE and PAME was planned and organized

Sotiris Poulikogiannis testifies in the court during the trial of the Nazi Golden Dawn (Monday, 31/10/2016)

Special to In Defense of Communism.
Info from 'Rizospastis' (1/11/2016) and news services.

In a revealing testimony on Monday, at the trial of the Nazi 'Golden Dawn' party in Athens, the president of the Metalworkers Trade Union of Attica Sotiris Poulikogiannis, who was among the victims of a murderous attack on September 2013, provided to the court some very interesting facts. Poulikogiannis spoke about the viciousness of the attack, the organized and planned character of the ambush and he revealed the relations between the Golden Dawn and large contractors of the dockyards in Perama. The communist trade unionist said that Golden Dawn is a criminal organisation because of her Nazi ideology and character and he refered to historical examples about the role and the activity of Nazism.

Greece's SYRIZA-ANEL "left" government undertakes a more active role in NATO's imperialist plans

The SYRIZA-ANEL coalition government of Greece is moving towards a more active participation in NATO's imperialist plans. It is characteristic that last Wednesday, the Greek parliament ratified a memorandum of understanding on the Joint Electronic Warfare Core Staff (JEWCS), aimed at supporting the planning and execution of NATO’s operations. 

The bourgeois parties (SYRIZA, New Democracy, Independent Greeks-ANEL, PASOK, Potami, Center Union) voted in favor of the memorandum, while the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) was the only party which voted against it, rejecting and denouncing the involvement of the country in the imperialist plans of NATO. 

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?

Olga Benário Prestes (1908-1942)

Olga Benário Prestes is an extraordinary- but not broadly known- case of a Brazilian communist hero. Olga was born in Munich, Germany as Olga Gutmann Benário, to a Jewish family. At the age of 15, In 1923, she joined the Communist Youth International and in 1928 she helped her husband and comrade Otto Braun's escape from Moabit prison. She went to Czechoslovakia and from there, reunited with Braun, to Moscow. As an active figure of the Communist Youth International, Olga undertakes several missions; in one of these she was briefly arrested in Britain accussed as a spy. 

In 1934 she was tasked with helping the return to Brazil of Luís Carlos Prestes, the leader of the Communist Party of Brazil, to whom she was assigned as a bodyguard. In order to accomplish this mission, false papers were created stating that they were a Portuguese married couple. After a failed insurrection in November 1935, Benário and her husband went into hiding, and after barely escaping a police raid at Ipanema, they were both eventually arrested in January 1936, during the harsh anti-communist campaign declared after dictator Getúlio Vargas had proclaimed martial law and was already plotting the 1937 coup that would eventually lead to the institution of the fascist-like Estado Novo régime.

Shameful anticommunist discrimination against young scholar in Bavaria, Germany

"The Bolshevism"...
Nazi anti-communist propapanda
poster of 1930s.  

Kerem Schamberger, the spokesperson of the German Communist Party (DKP)- Munich was declared inadmissable in scholarly job at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Bavaria. 

Source: International Communist Press, 29 October 2016.

El Diario.es reported that Kerem Schamberger, the spokesperson of the German Communist Party (DKP)-Munich, was not able to start his job in the German Ludwig Maximilian University because of his membership of DKP, although being legal, has been under the vigilance of the Federal Office of Protection of the Constitution (Verfassungsschutz), which categorizes the party as an extremist one.

This case of Kerem Schamberger reveals that demonization and intimidation of the communists continue in Germany. The doctorate programs in the country are being based on labour contracts, which include both research and teaching at the university. Schamberger, who studied communication at German Ludwig Maximilian University, was supposed to start his doctoral studies on October 1st but could not yet, because since July the university awaits the approval of the German internal intelligence service.

Various contributions at the 18th International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties

Contribution by various parties to the 18th International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties held in Hanoi, Vietnam:

Speech by Giorgos Marinos, KKE Politburo member, at the 18th International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties

"Capitalist crisis and imperialist offensive-Strategy and Tactics of the Communist and Workers Parties in the struggle for peace, workers' and people's rights, for socialism." - Speech by Giorgos Marinos, member of the Political Bureau of the CC of KKE at the 18th International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties. 

Source: inter.kke.gr.

Dear comrades,

The Communist Party of Greece salutes the 18th International Meeting of the Communist and Workers Parties and warmly thanks the CP of Vietnam for its hospitality.

Our party has expressed its internationalist solidarity and has stood for many decades at the side of the Vietnamese people in their struggle against French and Japanese colonialism, against the imperialist intervention and crimes of the USA.

The glorious victory of the working class, of the people of Vietnam under the leadership of the Communist Party and its leader comrade Ho Chi Minh was a great victory of international significance and demonstrated that when the people are determined, well organized and armed, they can defeat the strongest opponents-dynasts and break the shackles of exploitation and oppression.

The history of the communist movement is full of heroic pages and is a valuable source for study and the drawing of conclusions that will lend strength to the communists so that they can meet the challenge of the complex conditions of the class struggle, fighting for the overthrow of capitalist exploitation and the construction of socialism-communism.

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.

Truth and Lies about Socialism: On the 60th anniversary of the counterrevolutionary events in Hungary 1956

On the 60th anniversary of the 

counterrevolutionary events in Hungary 1956.

Below you can find extracts from the publication of the CC of KNE “Truth and Lies about Socialism” (Synchroni Epohi 2012) in relation to the counterrevolutionary events that took place in Hungary in 1956.

THE COUNTERREVOLUTIONARY EVENTS IN EASTERN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.

"In autumn 1956, Hungary announced its withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact, but Soviet troops invaded the country and suppressed the uprising."

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".

Political event by KKE in Edinburgh: "The current political situation and the viewpoint of the Greek Communist Party"

The KKE Party Branch of Britain organises a political event in Edinburgh, Scotland on Sunday, October 30th. The event's title is: "The current political situation and the viewpoint of the Greek Communist Party" and will take place at 3 pm local time, at David Hume Tower building, room 4.18. 

The 18th International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties (IMCWP) to be held in Hanoi, 28-30 October 2016

The 18th of the International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties (IMCWP) is scheduled to be held at Hanoi between 28-30 October, hosted by Communist Party of Vietnam. 

The theme of the meeting is: “Capitalist crisis and imperialist offensive - Strategy and tactics of the Communist and Workers’ Parties in the struggle for peace, workers’ and peoples’ rights, socialism.”

The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) will participate in the International Meeting with a delegation which includes Giorgos Marinos, member of the Political Bureau of the CC, Eliseos Vagenas, member of the CC and responsible of the Partry's International Relations Department and Danae Helmi, collaborator of the Int. Relations Department of the CC of KKE. 

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.