Cyprus: a country still divided by Imperialism

Special to RY

This piece was originally published in People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper. 

A small island in the eastern Mediterranean, at the crossroads of the Middle East and Europe, Cyprus is victim to imperialist antagonisms in the region. It is a situation that has led to 37% of its territory being occupied by Turkey since 1974.

This division contributes to making Cyprus an “unsinkable aircraft carrier,” as shown by the occupation of 4% of the territory by more than 4000 British forces which are stationed there. To add to the complexity of the case, oil deposits have been discovered recently off the coasts of Lebanon and Israel and Cyprus, which reinforces the geostrategic interest of the island.

The Polytechnic lives! From Athens to Montreal, the student struggle continues

Adrien Welsh

Last Sunday, November 20th, the Ligue de la jeunesse communiste du Québec participated along with the Greek Workers’ Association of Québec in activities commemorating the 43rd anniversary of Athens’ Polytechnic popular uprising that contributed to the end of the military dictatorship that ruled Greece between 1967 and 1974 with the full support of the USA and NATO.

Greek young communists ‘combatively marching for a socialist tomorrow’

Delegates and observers at the Communist Youth of Greece's
11th Congress, December 2014

By Adrien Welsh

From the 19th to the 21st of December, the Young Communist League of Canada attended the 11th Congress of the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE), held under the slogan “Pioneer youth of KKE (Communist Party of Greece), combatively marching for a socialist tomorrow, without crises, wars or exploitation.” It was an occasion to reinforce the ties between our organizations and increase collaboration based on the principles of proletarian internationalism.

Among European countries, Greece is certainly the most ravaged by the current crisis of capitalism. After two memorandums imposed by the Troika (European Union - IMF - World Bank), the unemployment rate totals 60% among youth, and yet, this has not been enough. In 2014, a restructuring plan forced the loss of almost 500 000 jobs in the public sector. Hospitals and schools are closing and the population now relies on help from the Red Cross and other humanitarian associations to provide them with the medical care they need. As for education, with the quality of the public system declining, parents are turning towards private schools, with Greece having the highest enrolment in private schools of any country in the EU.

In these conditions, a new political alignment is developing with the rise of two forces aimed at safeguarding the system.

Anniversary today of the Great October Socialist Revolution

Editorial Board,
Rizospastis - Greece

Ninety-six years ago today, the Great October Socialist Revolution took place. It was the most momentous event in the 20th century. It paved the way for the development of a higher level of social evolution, in the form of socialism, with a view to the classless communist society. It embodied the dreams and hopes of the "damned of the Earth" to storm heaven on earth. Red October became a base and a launchpad for the operation of an enormous effort of resistance by millions of ordinary working people, to abolish class exploitation. It was the creation of the organized political struggle of the popular masses led by the working class, which in turn was led by the Communist Party, that confirmed humanity had entered a new historical era. The revolution showed, from the early 20th century onward, that capitalism is historically obsolete as socioeconomic system and can not drive social change towards progress, so it needs to replaced by its gravediggers.

Festival Odigitis calls for struggle, denounces Golden Dawn

International Bureau,
Rebel Youth Magazine

Odigitis is the newspaper of the Communist Youth of Greece, or KNE. Each year, for almost forty years, the newspaper has celebrated a massive festival in Athens.

This year's festival came to an exciting peak of entertainment and politics this past Saturday, with a massive rally at the central area of Tritsis Park, in a working class neighbourhood of Athens.

The workers in the “Greek Steelworks” plant destroyed the plans of the employer and continue fighting using other forms of struggle.

Aspropyrgos, Steelworks plant, Monday 30/7, 9:05 a.m.

The Greek steelworkers entered the main gate of the plant to work following a 9-month strike (272 days). They conducted a rally, lifted their fists and held carnations in their hands. They implemented the decision of their 20th General Assembly, which took place on Saturday. The assembly stated that they will resume work and continue their struggle using other forms.

Thus, they once again destroyed the plans of the industrialist Manesis, who made it clear that he wished for the degradation of the strike and the dismantling of the trade union. In this he was fully supported by the government, which put at the industrialist’s service the state repression machine.

The strikers, along with all the members of the trade union board of the “Greek Steelworks” headed by the president of the trade union Giorgos Sifonios, entered the gate in a coordinated and organized manner as true winners of the 9-month strike.

Prior to this the employer posed outrageous offensive demands, using the riot police forces. He demanded that the workers entered the factory one by one, showing to the police their identity cards and wait for the permission of the employer to enter the territory of the factory. The decisiveness of the steelworkers forced the employer to yield.

The riot police forces as well as the remaining police forces were withdrawn and the workers entered the factory on their own and headed to their posts applauded and cheered by those present: “this 9-month strike will not be forgotten”, “The steel is hardened by blood and sweat, the steelworkers will not surrender”, “struggle, rupture, overthrow, the steelworkers lead the way”.

The proposal to suspend the strike and continue fighting by using other forms of struggle was posed unanimously by the board of the trade union. It was presented by the president of the board, Giorgos Sifonios and adopted by the vast majority of the assembly.

The report stated:

“272 days ago, when Manesis blackmailed us forcing us to choose either a 5 hour workday or 180 dismissals we held an assembly and unanimously decided to go on strike. We did what every honest worker who esteems himself and his class should do. None of us could foretell then that we set upon a struggle that would come to be one of the brightest of the labour movement of our country and internationally, that would become a benchmark. (…) In conclusion, we would never have managed this, if we did not tame our fear, if we did not fight unitary and decisively.

Our action was rich. We organized 20 General Assemblies of the Union, where we collectively assessed the situation and decided upon our next steps. Alongside the trade union board we formed committees helping to lift the level of organization, the safeguarding, the propaganda and the solidarity. All the members of our families participated in the struggle, both women and children. We addressed the working class, the toiling people and asked them to support our struggle. We fueled an unprecedented solidarity movement from every corner of Greece and from many countries worldwide. We organized more than 50 activities, meetings, concerts, book presentations, activities for children and women in front of the plant. We celebrated together Christmas, the New Year’s Eve, Carnival and Easter. Through our struggle we became “one family”, as workers should be. Thousands of workers came to the gates of the “Greek Steelworks” factory, young people, pensioners, pupils, students, workers from all over the world. Our strike became a school of class education and awakening. Our struggle crossed the gates of the “Greek Steelworks” factory and reached the whole world. We addressed tens of factories in Attica and other cities. All over Greece as well as in tens of cities abroad there were held hundreds of meetings and solidarity actions. We initiated the organization of a series of solidarity strikes in the broader region of the plant, Thriasio, in Attica, in Volos (the region of the other two plants of the group of “Greek Steelworks”) in order to better organize the resistance of the workers at workplaces. Our strike inspired workers, youth and students to struggle. We have received hundreds of touching solidarity letters sent to us by pupils. Poems and songs were written about us and it is certain that much more will be written in the future. People will read about our struggle, they will discuss it and sing about it years to come.

Its rich experience and conclusions will be used in future struggles. This is why its input is vast. There are people that are well-meaning and others that are prejudiced who raise the question: “What is the outcome of this struggle?”, “What have steelworkers gained, since their demands were not satisfied?”. We say: “The answer is simple”. No past struggle nor future ones had or will have guaranteed results, there can be no impeccable calculation of the odds. There are no such struggles in life. They merely exist such in the minds of the bureaucrats, those who have settled those who are scared and those who compromise.

The outcome of a struggle is not judged merely by the material gains. There are struggles resulting in much more than those, since they pave the way for the next steps, for the next struggles of the working class as a whole. They significantly contribute to the general awakening, to the repulse of terrorism, they become benchmarks. Such is the strike of the steelworkers and we should evaluate it as such. This is how all the workers think of it and this is why they have considered us already as winners.

What have we achieved through our struggle? Our struggle put in the forefront the strength and the value of the united class struggle, the greatness and the strength of workers’ solidarity. It showed the merits and the good traditions of the labour and people’s movements of our country, as well as the steel, disciplined, vanguard characteristics of industrial workers. It tamed the fear, the audacity of the employers, it stroke a blow against fatalism and moaning. It caused a severe blow to the so-called realism, the compromised stance of the employer-led and government trade unionism, to the so called social dialogue. It demonstrated vividly who produce the wealth and who steal it.

At the gate of the “Greek Steelworks” factory the clash of the two opposing classes, of the two opposing worlds and civilizations was vividly demonstrated. On the one hand the class of Manesis, with its government, its state and judicial system, its means of propaganda and its people in trade unions. On the other hand the steelworkers, their class, the solidarity and support of the class labour movement and its allies.

None of our opponents nor Manesis, nor the government, nor the employer-led and government trade unionism expected us to be as strong. They underestimated us, they thought we were inferior, frightened, submissive and they have been totally proven wrong. They also tried to discredit the efforts of thousands of workers to support our struggle materially by saying that “we get paid to strike”. They tried to name bribing the workers’ solidarity offers, collected from the meager means of the working class in order for us and our families to be able to withstand. They failed, because our great struggle cannot be slandered. We have prevailed, such is our conclusion! We have prevailed because we were right and united. They did not manage to divide us, no matter how hard they have tried, because we worked based on the principle “one for all, all for one”. Because we fought and at the same time safeguarded our struggle.

It has been proven in the best way who produces the wealth and whose hands hold the power, “without us no cog can turn”…

We have achieved something that 9 months ago would have seemed unbelievable. Workers went on strike for 9 month in order for their colleagues not to be laid off. The laid off workers went on strike for 9 months in order to be reinstated at work. That has never happened before. Finally, the opponent did not manage to beat us and was forced to shed the mask of “democracy and dialogue, to shed the sheepskin” and show his real face, the face of a tyrant, of an enemy of the workers. They were forced to put aside all the pretexts and resort to their final weapon, the repressive mechanisms. Today this weapon exceeds our forces.

All the state apparatus, the government, the parties of the capital, the class judicial system, the mass media, tens of riot police forces’ buses, tens of police cars and hundreds of secret police officers were coordinated in order to protect their boss, Manesis and to strike a blow against their enemies, the workers strikers. They assaulted us who feed them with our sweat all these years.

Manesis will soon bring back to the table the demands to change the working hours and the salaries that are defined by our collective agreement. He has withdrawn them temporarily due to the strike. The opponent knows this. They know that the struggle will not stop along with the strike. He takes measures in order to face us in the time to come.

We can deal with the new situation as we have dealt with the rest of the hard turns of our struggle. United, collectively and led by the board of our trade union. The opponent tries to prevent this in order to act freely in the future. Taking into account the new situation and the need to continue struggling in an organized and coordinated manner the board of the trade union proposes the suspension of this form of struggle.

We return to work by our own decision and will, in an organized, coordinated manner, holding our heads high. We rely on our tested trade union and continue by using different forms of struggle. We will continue fighting for the satisfaction of our demands. In order our 40 dismissed colleagues to be immediately rehired and the rest of our colleagues to be reinstated in due course. Until then no other people apart from our dismissed colleagues should be hired. All together the board, the women’s committee, the committee of dismissed colleagues we continue fighting around issues concerning the loans of our colleagues from banks, our unpaid bills, our problems to have access to medicines, healthcare services and more. We are vigilant and ready to react immediately and to struggle, in case the employer demands once again a change in the working hours and salaries. We will use all our means in order to investigate the reported existence of radioactive materials which use the “Greek Steelworks” as was revealed recently in Volos plant of “Greek Steelworks”. We will use all legal means in order to solve these issues.

We thank from the bottom of our hearts all the workers in Greece and all over the world who for 9 months supported our struggle morally and materially. We would especially like to thank PAME (All Workers’ Militant Front) that helped us throughout our struggle, day and night, and will continue supporting us in the future. It supported in practice all our decisions and initiatives, it spread the message of the heroic steelworkers all over Greece and across the world. This is why the opponent slanders it and fights it on a daily basis.

It turned out that we became the vanguard of the struggle. But we are not flying into clouds, since we understand that a small fraction of the working class, as we are, cannot fight all the state apparatus and drastically change the situation, if all the working class will not follow the path of the steelworkers, if the overall political balance of forces in the working class movement does not change.

Dear Colleagues,

Already, our struggle has made a great contribution. Our children will hold their heads high and will be proud that their fathers and mothers fulfilled their duty. They did not surrender; they disregarded the intimidation and threats of the employer. They did not bow their head down and struggled for a better future for their children. The next generations will admire our struggle and talk about it, it will inspire them as an example. We return to work with our head held high and continue fighting for the satisfaction of our demands, using other forms of struggle.

Long live the heroic struggle of the steelworkers!

Long live the working class!

Long live the workers’ solidarity!

The struggle will continue till the final victory!”

In its statement the Executive Secretariat of PAME underlines that: “the seeds that the steelworkers have planted will blossom in future struggles that will spring in the time to come, as a new storm of anti-labour measures is approaching. Each moment of this nine month struggle was an important lesson for the working class, it enabled it to come up to useful conclusions concerning class struggle.

It taught heroism and self-sacrifice! It showed the nature of class solidarity! It revealed the content of the multi-level confrontation! It showcased the necessity of the organized struggle! It revealed the unceasing struggle between capital and waged labour. The struggle of the steelworkers temporarily stopped the implementation of the general plans of the industrialists. The strike begun at a time when in the drawers of a series of factories lay orders to impose employment by rotation with flexible shifts and other general measures. It proved that only class struggle, confrontation with the employers, the government and the imperialist organizations can lead to such struggle. The struggle of steelworkers challenged the so called realism of the employer-led and government trade unionism. In these conditions it pressed employer-led Federations and Labour centres to call for strikes and work stoppages. We are proud of the steelworkers and those who supported them. The fist that they held high for nine months represents the strength of the forthcoming struggles. The General Assembly of the steelworkers’ trade union deemed that the time has come to conclude this great strike.

Those who pretended to be fighters and who tried to extinguish the radical spirit in the workers’ consciousness tried all this time to find blemishes in the strike, they tried to isolate and slander the steelworkers’ trade union. Now they try to present themselves as Christ’s prophets and critics. However, the struggle is not a clock that ticks and tells you what will become in the next second.

The struggle of the steelworkers showed that when the working class decides to stand tall, the cogs of exploitation cease to turn. When the furnace remains cold, each and every Manesis becomes “a null”. The struggle showed the incessant and hidden power of the workers that is revealed when they believe in their strength and decide to start a confrontation. Life itself has placed this struggle amongst the bright and hard class battles. It is a pebble in the incessant struggle of workers against their exploiters” concludes PAME’s statement.

The Greek election: an intense manipulation of the people

Rebel Youth presents this graphic on the latest Greek elections to illustrate the percentage of the votes but also to show how the supposed clear dividing line 'for or against the memorandum' is actually a misleading dichotomy (in this case placing the ultra-right and the KKE together).

The CC of the KKE met on 18th June 2012 and discussed the first assessment of the results of the elections on the 17th of June as well as the developments after the elections. The position of the CC will be discussed in the Party Base Organisations, the organizations of KNE, in meetings with supporters, friends and people who work alongside the party in order to gather opinions and suggestions. The CC will conclude its assessment after gathering the views, the suggestions, the observations regarding both elections (May-June) which will also set the immediate tasks of the party.

Why don`t the Communists just link forces with the Radical Left Coalition?

Members and friends of the 'party that forgot to die' (see below) at a public meeting of the KKE


J. Boyden

The political assessment of the Communist Party of Greece (which we posted here today) deserves some introduction for our readers in Canada. Afterall, as Greece heads towards Sunday elections, all eyes seem to suddenly be turned to the volatile situation in the Hellenic Republic.

UPDATE: View the election results in graphic form and read the assessment of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece.

Progressive-minded people in Canada are optimistic. After years of hard struggle with countless general strikes and mass rallies, maybe these elections will hand a victory to political parties that identify with the left? Maybe they will demonstrate a different direction from austerity and economic crisis to the world?

There is also a certain renewed anxiety in the voices of the ruling class.  “We cannot have a Greek election determining the future of the global economy. That’s not fair to anybody,” Canadian Prime Minister Steven Harper said recently. Today, Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney referenced Greece and the European situation to warn of more mass unemployment and 'recession` over here.

For the working people of the world, and the capitalist class, it seems the stakes are high.

In this context over the year and especially the past month, a bit of a fluster has blown-up among some voices about the best strategy for the Greek people. Rebel Youth (and People`s Voice newspaper) have a long record of reporting the news and analysis of the Greek Communist Youth, as well as the Communist Party of Greece, the KKE. But now, many left-minded intellectuals in Canada are also discovering the alphabet soup of Greek political party acronyms and especially the KKE and the self-titled Coalition of the Radical Left or SYRIZA.

The SYRIZA coalition, whose name is a pun on 'to the roots', is lead by the Synaspismós party.  Synaspismós also grew out of a coalition founded by the KKE many years ago, but from which the Communists quit in the early 1990s.

That break was not a light decision.

The communist change in strategy came about during a moment of intense debate over ideology, strategy and fundamental questions -- is a communist party necessary in the post-Soviet world? What is it`s role? Who should it work with? What should the left`s attitude be to the new European Union? The conclusions of Synaspismós were, more or less, opportunist and they put a bitter energy into attacking the conclusions of KKE.

For Synaspismós, a Leninist-style communist party was not just a bad idea -- it was a profoundly wrong and anti-democratic direction. The Soviet experience had been a profound failure; their view of socialism was, more or less, social democracy. Synaspismos drew up political alliances on the 'left' on the basis of being pro-European Union. The ideological framework of imperialism was now outdated, they said. Not surprisingly, the stance of Synaspismós towards NATO was not so clear or consistent either.

To most on the left here in Canada, however, it seemed an abstract debate. Some saw it mainly as particular to that country. If people were aware of the Greek political scene, they knew that main social democratic party was PASOK, with whom the Canadian New Democratic Party shared common membership in the Socialist International.  The bad guys were New Democracy, who were like the Conservative Party of Canada. And the really bad guys were LAOS, the ultra-right or fascists.

Nobody batted and eyelid (other than a few voices like the YCL) when the president of the NDP, Brian Topp, traveled to Greece for a conference of the Socialist International last summer and reported back through a Globe and Mail editorial that guys with PASOK were doing a darn good job managing a little country that got itself into a real big mess.

Now, this summer, things look very different.

Canada seems, much more clearly, to be linked hand-in-hand with Greece and Europe in the macabre international dance of global capitalism. In Greece, PASOK is politically discredited. It pursued what are now obvious pro-monopoly capitalist policies that helped further kick that country into social, political and economic crisis. SYRIZA has basically replaced PASOK in the polls. SYRIZA made its strongest showing ever in elections last month.

So did the ultra-right and fascists, re-branded as the Golden Dawn party.

Perhaps it is forgivable that in this context of rising fascist forces in Greece, the spectators on the bleachers over here are starting to cheer for a team effort. Some voices in Canada have even gone as far issuing instructions to the KKE about how to proceed -- and why they should join forces again with SYRIZA to form a government. Never mind that, at least in the latest round of elections, this is numerically impossible given the total seats the two parties have in the Parliament of the Hellenes.

Although not a Canadian, the psychoanalyst and self-professed Marxist Slavoj Žižek is growing in popularity among many progressive thinkers at English-speaking and French-language universities in Quebec and the rest of Canada. His recent comments about this topic speaking at a recent SYRIZA event have been quoted fairly widely:

''Your pseudo-radical critics'' he told the audience, ''are telling you that the situation is not yet right for the true social change. That if you take power now, you will just help the system, making it more efficient. This is, if I understand it correctly, what KKE, which is basically the party of the people who are still alive because they forgot to die, are telling you.''

These comments are particularly nasty given how many hundreds of thousands of Greek Communists have been assassinated, executed, massacred, raped, mutated and tortured, over the past century fighting against fascism and for democracy in that country. (Žižek is, of course, notorious for these kind of cheap anti-communist shots -- he also likes to target the Communist Party of Cuba -- but that deserves another article).

How do the Greek communists respond to all this?

Why don`t they want to go in with SYRIZA and 'take power,' as Žižek challenges?

The KKE`s view comes from their assesment of the current juncture and what role SYRIZA is playing. In an interview just after the last Greek election, the head of KKE`s International department told a Turkish newspaper that:

The result demonstrates that [the ruling class] are seeking to make an effort to give the two-party system a face-lift. [...] The bourgeois class, in order to maintain its power seeks to get rid of or give secondary roles to the most worn-out parties and political figures. It is preparing a restructuring of the political scene, due to the political damage the basic bourgeois parties have suffered, the social-democratic PASOK and the conservative New Democracy. There is an attempt to form a centre-right pole around New Democracy and a centre-left pole around the social-democratic SYRIZA. [...] SYRIZA has been chosen by a part of the bourgeoisie which sees it as the basic force in a government that will do the “dirty work” of the capitalist crisis, that will manage a possible bankruptcy.

As if to confirm this picture, last Wednesday the President of SYRIZA, Alexis Tsipras, presented a 'letter of credentials' to an official from the US embassy and met with ambassadors and diplomats from the G20 member states at a ceremonial meeting.

The leader of the Radical Left re-stated his parties opposition to the Greek bail-out or Memorandum. Yet he also indicated SYRIZA`s support for the European Union (EU) and the Euro. He even went as far as calling for Turkey to join the EU and took the time, in front of this particular audience, to denounce the socialist experience of the USSR.

As the KKE`s newspaper Rizospastis put it:

The meeting of SYRIZA’s President with the ambassadors of the G20 countries gave us a reminder of the recent past, specifically it reminds us of the former [PASOK] Prime Minister Giorgos Papandreou [...] The same slogans regarding “a new multi-facetted peaceful foreign policy”, the same references to “international initiatives for the democratization of the system of international relations” and the need to “upgrade the role of the UN.” And at the same time, no mention of NATO [...] Mr Tsipras’ silence concerning the continuing intervention against Syria was astounding. [...] As if the use of US [Air and Naval] base at Souda [in Crete] is not part of the plans regarding this intervention, and the use more generally of the ports, the airspace, and the sea of our country. [...] But Mr Tsipras did not omit to mention that he would play a leading role in a “nuclear-free Middle East”, pointing to Iran’s nuclear programme, which is in any case the pretext which will be used by the USA and Israel to justify a possible military attack against Iran, a new war. Not a word about the nuclear weapons Israel already possesses!

What reveals SYRIZA`s political positioning in the class struggle, the Greek communists say, is that parties demands. And it is not just that SYRIZA is soft on peace and NATO, but also that the coalition is fully committed to Greek membership of the EU and the single currency.

UPDATE: Read post-election analysis and more about the support SYRIZA recieved from sections of the capitalist class.

The SYRIZA strategy around the EU is outlined in more detail here by Kenny Coyle, who writes:

On May 10, when Tsipras was first attempting to put a government coalition together, he sent a letter to European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso. He wrote: "We need to re-examine the whole framework of existing strategy if the threat to social stability and cohesion in Greece, and the stability of the whole eurozone, is not to be threatened. "The common future of European peoples is threatened by those catastrophic choices. We deeply believe that this crisis is European, and therefore the solution lies at a European level." Tsipras's approach takes as one of its fundamental concerns stability of the eurozone and removes the initiative from the hands of a mobilised and militant Greek people only to file it in the in-tray of the Eurocrats.

It also holds that Greece will never get the boot from that happy family, and therefore EU membership is a bargaining chip to renegotiate the deal. Time will show if that is the case -- but the Greek communists think there is a strong case that they are dangerously wrong.

In the view of the KKE, any government formed after the Sunday elections out of the current balance of forces will not only fail to halt the deterioration of the situation for working people, but will actually be forced to escalate the attack; instead, the people must take the matter into his own hands, the KKE says, outlining a programme for social transformation as we reprinted here and summarized below.

• for the immediate future, organize the struggle of the workers, the poor farmers, the lower-middle popular strata against the anti-people measures which will be taken by the government (whether centre-right or centre-left);

• through this struggle, forces will be liberated from bourgeois ideology and a social alliance will be formed that will pose the question of power.

• disengagement from the EU and unilateral cancellation of the debt; 

• socialization of the concentrated means of production, the people’s producer cooperatives, nationwide planning;

• full utilization of the production potential of the country, with working class and people’s control which will operate from the bottom up

The KKE sees the election as an important opportunity to broadcast this message of a comprehensive political proposal highlighting the need for working class-people’s power and economy. Having elected members of parliament on the inside also strengthens that process.

What about the allegations that the communists in Greece are a bunch of narrow-minded sectarians? To this the KKE replies:

How is it possible for the KKE to rally hundreds of thousands of people in Greece, with the line of class struggle, if the party is sectarian? How is it possible, for example, for the All-workers’ Militant Front (PAME) to rally dozens of first-level trade unions, sectoral federations, and labour centres which represent hundreds of thousands of workers?

We should note here that PAME, as the class-oriented pole in the labour and trade union movement rallies 8 sectoral federations, 13 labour centres, hundreds of first-level and sectoral unions, with 850,000 members. In addition, PAME also operates in trade unions where the class-oriented forces are not in the majority. [...]

How is it possible for the Panhellenic Anti-monopoly rally of the self-employed (PASEVE) to organize thousands of self-employed people, who understand the need to come into conflict with the monopolies? How is it possible for thousands of poor farmers, through their farmer’s associations and their committees, to be inspired by the struggle of the All-farmers Militant Rally (PASY) against the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy? How is it possible for women and thousands of students, who belong to the working class and popular strata to enter the struggle in the framework of the demands and the initiatives of the Federation of Greek Women (OGE) and the Students’ Front of Struggle (MAS)? The members and cadres of the KKE play a leading role in all these socio-political organizations without hiding their identity.

Many of these arguments are repeated and elaborated in an article by the KKE here as well as an article we posted here.

Some, if not most, of the enthusiasm about the KKE joining hands with a left formation like SYRIZA comes from honest misunderstanding and unfamiliarity with the circumstances in Greece. Although those who do it no doubt have lots of fun, plotting the future of the revolution in various countries from the safety of an urban coffee shop in Canada, or blogging it from your basement, runs the risk that your conclusions most likely will not be grounded in the objective political reality, hundreds of thousands of miles away.

This is just one reason why the YCL strives to go in the direction of working class internationalism. While reserving our own opinion, we listen very closely to the view point of comrades around the world about the situation in their own countries.  And by expressing solidarity, it is in the sense of being united in a global struggle -- as Marx said, 'workers of the world unite!'

Other voices that critique the KKE, however, are no doubt grinding an ideological axe. In this, they are not just against that far away party, but are also trying to call out the views of the communist movement in Canada on the revolutionary process, no matter the many differences between of our situations (and therefore conclusions). But perhaps it is no surprise that those particular voices are deeply taken by SYRIZA, a force that the Greek communists see as, more or less, opportunists and renegades of socialism.

The road to a people`s Greece

Members of the Communist Party of Greece at an rally last week

The Greek bourgeois Establishment sees this weekend's electoral battle as an opportunity to give itself a facelift.

This is because the traditional governing parties are in decay. The right-wing New Democracy has absorbed a smaller right-wing party, the Democratic Alliance, and MPs from the nationalist Popular Orthodox Rally and is seeking to promote itself as a "centre-right pole."

But on the centre-left, the previously dominant Panhellenic Socialist Movement (Pasok) has been decimated and its position is being taken by the Coalition of the Radical Left (Syriza).

Syriza is made up of forces that left the Communist Party (KKE) in the splits of 1968 and 1991 and "divorced" themselves from the communist movement.

Many of these forces are characterised by their support for the imperialist European Union. There are also Maoist and Trotskyite groups and forces which have come to Syriza, chiefly from within Pasok.

Syriza says it is struggling for a "left government" which will relieve the very serious problems faced by the Greek people but without coming into conflict with the EU or Nato, and while keeping Greece in the eurozone.

It was no accident that the Greek federation of industrialists was in favour of a government with Syriza's participation.

New elections called in Greece

The Assessment of the KKE regarding the revealing procedure-fraud of the exploratory mandates, which were part of the general plan for the mass manipulation and the disarmament of the people with the focus on the next elections

A huge rally for the KKE in Athens, May 16th

This is the reason why the KKE, when it was asked before the elections what it would do in case it received the exploratory mandate, clarified honestly and boldly before the people (without caring about the cost it would have regarding votes) that it WOULD immediately return the mandate. The KKE clarified that it will not participate in a government of bourgeois management that objectively entails an anti-people way out from the crisis. It is very well aware of the position and the practice of other parties, that none of the proposed governments, either those in favour of “negotiation” or those in favour of the “amendment” and a new Memorandum can solve the acute problems, even approach the needs of the people. This is the content of the historical responsibility, regarding which SYRIZA denounces us. We reply to them by commenting that they are demon-strating a historically irresponsible stance in relation to the people.

Capitalist lifeboats will come `at some point`...

The IMF reports that Greek incomes have dropped by about 10 per cent since 2010, hours worked have dropped by 7 per cent, and unemployment (especially youth unemployment) is skyrocketing. That isn't good enough for Greece's lenders, who are looking to the Greek government to engineer a further direct assault on the country's minimum wage, labour standards, pensions and collective bargaining with the aim of imposing a substantial further drop in income. Manufacturing output in Greece has dropped by 50 per cent; tourism by 10 per cent. By further impoverishing the working people of Greece, the country's lenders are hoping to engineer a more “competitive” economy that will return, at some point, to growth.

Source: The Globe and Mail, Monday May 14 2012

PAME (Greece) -- Workers' counter-attack magazine

Open publication - Free publishing - More april

What is included in the Greek austerity measures? What should the people do?

The austerity measures demanded by the EC, the IMF and the European Central Bank (the so-called troika) equal about 7 per cent of gross domestic product over three years. The cutbacks would see 15,000 government jobs disappear this year and tens times that many by 2015. The minimum wage would fall by 22 per cent, though first-time workers would see the wage fall by 32 per cent. Pensions, pharmaceuticals and the military would all be cut back.

Konstantinos Katsigiannis, the Athens lawyer who is president of the Hellenic-Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said he supports the austerity programs ... “The back of the entitlement mentality has to be broken,” he said.  (!!!)

From The Globe and Mail


The President (and the ruling coalition) are common extortionists... The Communist Party of Greeks calls urgently to make your work place, every agency, every department, every university, technical colleges and school  into a castle, a fortress impregnable... to overthrow the government. 

Put aside the traitors, and compromised redeemed labour leaders, afraid to fight the capitalist bosses, the unions, associations, clubs, everywhere, from the bottom upwards to reverse this negative correlation of forces...

From the KKE website

CP of Greece, Article of the International Relations Section of the CC of the KKE in relation to the statements of the international Media on the murderous attack on the large demonstration of PAME

The people’s-labour movement has the strength to face the provocateur mechanisms of the bourgeois system

http://inter.kke.gr , mailto: cpg@int.kke.gr

The murderous attack unleashed by anarcho-fascist groups against the enormous rally which was organized by the class-oriented trade unions, rallied in the All-workers’ Militant Front (PAME) in opposition to the new anti-people measures of the government, made the news on a global scale. Nevertheless, there were many attempts by the bourgeois media to distort the facts.

Indeed in this effort they use as arguments fabrications and lie drawn from the opportunist forces and the Trotskyist websites.

As is well-known on the 19-20 October hundreds of thousands of workers participated in the big strike mobilisation, in which the class-oriented trade unions of PAME played the leading role, together with other forces of the social alliance (MAS,PASEVE,PASY,OGE). The success of the 1^st day of the strike and the massive demonstration in the central square of Athens, outside Parliament, where PAME was predominant, sent a strong message to the government, the EU, capital: No sacrifice for the plutocracy! The workers are not responsible for the capitalist crisis! The fight for goals of struggle which are connected to the contemporary needs, in rupture with the capitalist system, the concentration of forces for the people’s power and economy!

The fake-incidents, the “hide and seek” with the riot police, the damage to shops and buildings, which small provocateur groups organized, could not extinguish the message of the huge popular demonstration of PAME. Certain international media, in an attempt to mislead the workers in their countries spoke of an attack and attempt of the demonstrators to occupy the parliament. Something which of course had no relation to reality.

On the 2^nd day the forces of capital sought to suppress the strong political message of the workers. PAME had announced the encirclement of the Parliament for the time when the anti-worker measures were to be discussed and voted on by article with a roll call vote, at the request of the KKE. For this reason they mobilised and unleashed in a planned way organized groups with specific instructions and anarcho-fascists who with Molotov cocktails, stones, and other weapons which are used by the police, such as teargas and stun grenades, attempted to disperse the majestic rally of the workers and people in Syntagma and especially the part where PAME was concentrated. The assault took place on the edges of the demonstration and had as a result the injury of 80 PAME demonstrators and the death of the construction worker-trade unionist of PAME, Dimitris Kotzaridis. Nevertheless, their goal, which was to disperse the rally of PAME, to intimidate and suppress the working class and popular torrent for counterattack which came onto the streets for the 48 hr general strike, failed! The forces of the protection of the rally successfully repelled the murderous assault! 

(Picture. The hooded ones, the mechanisms set up by the bourgeois system against the labour-popular movement, attempted to disperse this enormous demonstration) 

(Picture: the deceased Dimitris Kotzaridis, construction worker, trade unionist of PAME. The suffocating atmosphere which was caused by the use of smoke bombs and fire extinguishers by the provocateurs against demonstrators had as a result the tragic death of Dimitris Kotzaridis. The demonstrator felt dizzy and collapsed. His comrades took hold of him and carried out first aid procedures and moved him out of Syntagma Square. “The suffocation from the teargas could have led to respiratory failure and constitute a cause of death.” Ilias Sioras, cardiologist and President of the union of workers in “Evanggelismos” hospital denounced to the media. “the final findings will be made by the investigation of the coroners.” Concluded Ilias Sioras.) 

(Picture: The attack of the provocateurs against the protection teams of PAME) 

(Picture: PAME demonstrator injured by stones. At least 80 demonstrators were injured, mainly by stones and broken marble which the provocateurs threw into the crowd of the demonstrators) 

(Picture: Protection team of PAME repelled the assault of the provocateur mechanisms) 

(Picture: the head of the demonstration of PAME. Solid protection everywhere) 

(Picture: The image of PAME’s demonstration after the murderous attack of the provocateurs) 

(Picture. The forces of PAME have withdrawn from Syntagma to Omonoia. A picture the moment the news of the death of the trade unionist of PAME, when a minute’s silence was observed)

Certain international bourgeois media sought to present the aforementioned incidents as a conflict between two ideological-political currents inside the people’s movement. This approach has nothing to do with reality since in Greece it is well-known that these groups which appear under the cover of the black colour, the hood, “anarchism” are organized and staffed by the forces of the bourgeois system and include everything from organized hooligans of football teams, to hired thugs from night clubs, members of neo-Nazi organizations and forces of security services. There is a lot of evidence from the recent past (photographs and videos) that show the relations of these groups with the mechanisms of the system. They are murderous groups which serve the bourgeois system and have no relation with the people’s movement. They are unleashed by the system itself in order to organize provocations (like the burning of the bank on 5/5/2010 where three employees died) and provide a pretext to the security forces so as to use the equipment they possess in order to disperse the mass people’s demonstrations.

Even more dangerous and dirty is the slander that PAME protected the parliament from the protesters, an allegation reproduced by bourgeois and opportunist mass media - domestic and international ones. This dirty allegation seeks to portrait PAME as a support of the bourgeois system and the KKE as a “systemic force”, as a party of the bourgeois system. It emanates from those forces which praise the “spontaneous” movement and present it in opposition to the organized class-oriented workers’ movement. It is they who misleadingly identify the revolution and the people’s uprising with the burning of rubbish bins and the breaking of shop windows and not with the organized political struggle of the workers’ movement which has roots in the factories, in workplaces, in people’s neighbourhoods and will dispute the bourgeois power leading to a conflict with the imperialist organizations of NATO and the EU, to the establishment of people’s power. The KKE and PAME do not need any “credentials” for their militancy which the bourgeois media hand over to the hooded provocateurs, to the anarcho-fascist groups. Our history and activity has the appreciation of hundred of thousands of working people who take part in the people’s demonstrations, of millions of workers who appreciate the consistent, unwavering struggle of our party, the firmness of its goals for the overthrow of the capitalist barbarity and the militancy of its members and cadre in the places where they work and live. This slander that PAME allegedly “protected the bourgeois parliament from the rebels” has nothing to do with reality and moreover it seeks to conceal the truth, namely the fact that PAME managed, thanks to its strong vigilance, to defend the demonstration and prevent the plans for its dissolution.

As we say in Greece “lies have short legs”… On Friday morning hundreds of cadre and members of the KKE, numerous forces of the class-oriented movement visited many workplaces informing the working people and preparing new mobilizations. This mass political work among the people which will continue on a daily basis constitutes a decisive response to every kind of anarcho-fascist, to the police informers, to the bourgeois state, to the government and the parties of capital, the opportunist formations.

21/10/2011

Last Updated on Friday, 21 October 2011 17:42