PAME denounces the escalation of oppression by the French government

Source: PAME.

PAME denounces the Government of France, which escalates oppression and intimidation against the fighting people, by attempting to prohibit the realization of the workers’ demonstration of June 23. At the same time the French Government went on a violent evacuation of the IVRY Factory (waste incinerator, the largest in Europe).

Once again is proved that the governments, which are on the service of the Capital and the multinationals, socialdemocratic or liberal, they do not hesitate to go in restricting democratic rights and freedoms of workers, so as to serve their bosses. Similar experience have the workers of Greece, from the so called “left” Government of SYRIZA that responds to workers struggles with Riot Police and arrests of militants.

V.I.Lenin: "A United States of Europe, under capitalism, is either impossible or reactionary"

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin- On the Slogan for a United States of Europe.

Sotsial-Demokrat No. 44, August 23, 1915. Published according to the text in Sotsial-Demokrat. Source: Lenin Collected Works, Progress Publishers, [197[4]], Moscow, Volume 21, pages 339-343.

In No. 40 of Sotsial-Demokrat we reported that a conference of our-Party’s groups abroad had decided to defer the question of the “United States of Europe” slogan pending a discussion, in the press, on the economic aspect of the matter.

At our conference the debate on this question assumed a purely political character. Perhaps this was partly caused by the Central Committee’s Manifesto having formulated this slogan as a forthright political one (“the immediatepolitical slogan...”, as it says there); not only did it advance the slogan of a republican United States of Europe, but expressly emphasised that this slogan is meaningless and false “without the revolutionary overthrow of the German, Austrian and Russian monarchies”.

SYRIZA and New Democracy remain loyal to the interests of Greek industrialists

Both Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis addressed the annual meeting of the Federation of Greek Industries (SEV), assuring the Capitalists about their commitment to the anti-worker, anti-people policy. PM and SYRIZA leader Tsipras invited the industrialists in a "fruitful and constructive dialogue" ahead of the second evaluation of the 3rd memorandum which, among other things, includes collective redundancies and a new law that will restrict the right of the labour unions to decide mass strikes.

Mexico: Massive strike against anti-people reforms imposed by the Peña Nieto government

Source: Telesur.

Doctors' leaders have condemned the killing of at least eight people during a teacher’s protest last Sunday in the state of Oaxaca.

As protests led by the militant CNTE teachers' union in Mexico continue, the country's doctors are set to join in the job action, calling for a national strike on June 22 to protest a neoliberal reform to the health system imposed by President Enrique Peña Nieto.

The group #YoSoyMedico17, which is comprised of doctors, pediatricians, surgeons, anesthesiologists and nurses, has been joined by more than 200,000 physicians from 32 states in opposing the so-called Universal Health System reform by Peña Nieto. The medical professionals say the measure is a "disguised way of privatizing health in Mexico," and said doctors were not consulted on the reform, according to Animal Politico.

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.

Euro 2016: Nationalism and Fascism under the mask of Hooliganism

This year's UEFA European Championship, commonly known as Euro 2016, has been stained by the brutal violence and clashes between hooligans both inside and outside the stadiums. 

It is true that football (or 'soccer', for our american friends) has always been a privileged field for the development of hooliganism. It's mass, popular character, as well as the tension and passion that creates to fans has been the source of multiple violent outbreaks between overzealous supporters around the world.

Grover Furr- Evidence of Leon Trotsky’s Collaboration with Germany and Japan (Part I)

Grover Furr- Evidence of Leon Trotsky’s Collaboration with Germany and Japan.

Source: Cultural Logic, 2009.

“If an objective research project on the events of those years were to be done, free of ideological dogmas, then a great deal could change in our attitude towards those years and towards the personalities of that epoch. And so it would be a “bomb” that would cause some problems. . . .”

Col. Viktor Alksnis, 2000.

“. . . it is essential for historians to defend the foundation of their discipline: the supremacy of evidence. If their texts are fictions, as in some sense they are, being literary compositions, the raw material of these fictions is verifiable fact. Whether the Nazi gas ovens existed or not can be established by evidence. Because it has been so established, those who deny their existence are not writing history, whatever their narrative techniques.” – Eric Hobsbawm, 1994, p. 57.

“. . . we can demolish a myth only insofar as it rests on propositions which can be shown to be mistaken.” – ibid., p. 60.

The European Union and the crisis of capitalism-lessons from Greece

Source: inter.kke.gr.

On the 14/06/2016, The Workers Party of Ireland held an event in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on the topic:  «The European Union and the crisis of capitalism-lessons from Greece. A delegation of the KKE headed by Elisseos Vagenas, member of the CC and Responsible for the International Relations Section of the CC of the KKE had been invited to speak at the event. Below you can find his introductory intervention at the event.

Dear comrades and friends,

We are very pleased to be here today with you in Northern Ireland, at the invitation of the Workers’ Party of Ireland, in order to discuss the situation and developments in Greece, as well as the conclusions that the workers can draw from them.

Honoring Greek guerrilla leader and communist revolutionary Aris Velouchiotis

Today is the 71st anniversary of the death of the First Captain of the People's Army (ELAS) Aris Velouchiotis (1905-1945). Velouchiotis was a partisan, member of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and guerrilla leader during the Axis occupation in WW2. 

Aris, who was born in Lamia, central Greece in 1905, was a cadre of the Communist Party of Greece and at the decision of the party he undertook the formation of the People’s Army (ELAS) during the fascist occupation, the armed wing of the National Liberation Front (EAM).

Aris opposed the Varkiza Agreement, which disarmed ELAS, and returned to the mountains. In June 1945, his small armed group was surrounded in Mesounda (Arta) and killed by the bourgeois army, which desecrated their corpses, cutting off the heads of Aris and his comrades, which were hung in the central square in the town of Trikala. The then leadership of the party disowned him. 

However, after 1957, the KKE in essence gradually rehabilitated him, something that was confirmed by the decision to politically rehabilitate him during the discussion on the 2nd Volume of the History of the Party, 1949-1968, at the Nationwide Conference in 2011. On 9 October 2011, an event was held by the CC of the KKE for the presentation of the Decision of the Nationwide Conference concerning the official political rehabilitation of the first captain of ELAS, Aris Velouchiotis. A large delegation of the CC of the KKE headed by the then GS of the CC, Aleka Papariga, was present. Speaking at the rally, Telemachus Dimoulas, member of the PB of the CC of the KKE, made extensive reference to the essay on the history of the KKE approved by the National Conference of the KKE and the special decision concerning Aris Velouchiotis. "In the consciousness of the people, Aris Velouchiotis is identified with the heroic history of the KKE, the struggle for the overthrow of imperialist barbarity”. 

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. 

Fidel Castro- Che’s ideas are absolutely relevant today

Fidel Castro Ruz- Che’s ideas are absolutely relevant today.

Source: Guevaristas.org.

The following speech was given by Fidel Castro on 8 October 1987 at the main ceremony marking the twentieth anniversary of Guevara’s death. It was held at a newly completed electronics components factory in the city of Pinar del Río.

Nearly twenty years ago, on October 18, 1967, we met in the Plaza of the Revolution with a huge crown to honor Compañero Ernesto Che Guevara, Those were very bitter, very difficult days as when we received news of the developments in Vado del Yeso, in the Yuro Ravine, when news agencies reported Che had fallen in battle.

Greek government versus 'Resign' initiative: A phony and staged confrontation

Pro-EU protests in Athens; such protests
actually promote the existing anti-people
governmental policy.

COMMENTARY.

The stage is ready and the actors are well prepared. A internet-based initiative under the name "Paretitheite" (Resign) calls for a mass demonstration in front of the Greek Parliament, having one basic demand: the resignation of the SYRIZA-ANEL government. Their major argument is that the government cannot effectively manage the present situation. On the other side, the SYRIZA-ANEL government reacts to this initiative, accussing the major opposition party, New Democracy, as the instigator of the demonstration. This is the framework of a staged, fake confrontation.

The 'Resign' initiative promotes slogans such as the following: "No colours, no parties, no labor unions", "we ask for Greece's fast exit from the memorandum's phase", "the country's position in the eurozone is non-negotiable" etc. What they truly ask for is drastic cuts everywhere, more cuts of wages and pensions, lay offs in the public sector and privatization programs. Their political proposal is no different from the one of the government- a capitalist development with harsh anti-people measures. Like the SYRIZA-ANEL government, the 'Resign' movement promotes the EU and the eurozone. 

PM Tsipras praises Greek Shipowners, SYRIZA's love-affair with the big Capital goes on

In Defense of Communism, with info from 902.gr.

The Greek shipping industry is a global power in the maritime sector. In 2015, the Greek Merchant Navy controlled the world's largest merchant fleet in terms of tonnage. Shipowners from Greece epitomize the power of the Greek bourgeoisie- according to a 1975 law, they have at least 70 tax breaks (!), while their fortunes are estimated in billions of dollars. 

The Greek Prime Minister- and SYRIZA's leader- Alexis Tsipras choosed the Maritime exhibition "Posidonia 2016" in order to express his strong will to serve the interests of the shipping industry. Addressing the event in Athens, Tsipras called the ship-owning billionaires to "trust the government" and praised the Greek shipping capital for it's "plan" and "vision". In his effort to convince the shipping giants that his government is an ally of the bourgeois-class, Alexis Tsipras said: "We feel the need to convince the Greek shipowners to trust us as far as we try to reform the Greek economy".