"NATO Killers Go Home": Trade Unions to raise their voice against imperialism in Thessaloniki

Large banner on the facade of the Thessaloniki
Labour Center calls for participation in the events.

The All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) continues the initiatives of common, unified workers’ struggle against NATO, against imperialism, its wars and interventions. After a series of international events, PAME is organizing a two-day event of Anti-War, Anti-Imperialist Action of Trade Unions of the Balkan and neighboring area.

Monday and Tuesday, June 19-20 were days of massive campaign in the workplaces against imperialism. Especially, as June 20 is the World Refugee Day, and Action Day of the European Regional Office of the WFTU in Solidarity with the Refugees, Against NATO and Imperialism. In this context there were visits to Refugee Camps and hosting facilities

PAME Executive Secretariat, on Monday, June 19, held a Press Conference to inform on the Program and aims of the 2 Day Anti-Imperialist Activities of PAME, the international support and its charter of demands. 

SYRIZA: The "left" servants of NATO

By Nikos Mottas*.

In the name of the so-called “geostrategic enhancement” doctrine of the country and following the path of the previous governments of New Democracy and PASOK, the SYRIZA-ANEL government has been proved NATO's "best student". Since its formation on January 2015, the governmental alliance between the social democratic SYRIZA and the nationalist ANEL party has aligned itself with the dangerous plans and goals of the imperialists.

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

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

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

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

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

Greek soldiers declare NATO forces "unwelcome"

THEY ARE NOT WELCOME!

With an open letter, soldiers from military camps in Evros and Thrace in Greece express their protest against the facilitations that Greece's Armed Forces provide to NATO's exercise "Noble Jump". 

More speficially, the soldiers denounce the SYRIZA-ANEL government for providing Greek "territory and waters" to NATO's forces and underline that the governmental policy consists "a provocation for the soldiers, who are children of the Greek people, especially after the reactions of soldiers and the popular movement which, for at least 20 days, with statements, demonstrations, reports and letters from Greece and Cyprus, have expressed their opposition to NATO".

Serbia to sue NATO over damages caused during the 1999 bombing

Belgrade in flames, March 1999.

According to Sputnik International, Serbia has launched a team of lawyers tasked with the preparation of a lawsuit against the imperialist alliance of NATO over the damage it caused to the country during the 1999 bombing. 

The team will include the best lawyers from Serbia, as well as from the EU, Russia, China and India and will be headed by prominent Serbian lawyer Srdjan Aleksic. "We want to bring to trial the NATO states that participated in the aggression against Yugoslavia. These are 20 states that directly or indirectly participated in it. The lawsuits will target directly each of these states," Aleksic told Sputnik Serbia.

Workers Against Imperialism: Large anti-NATO rally to be held in Thessaloniki, Greece on June 24th

"WITH THE WORKERS OF ALL COUNTRIES, FOR A WORLD WITHOUT EXPLOITATION, WARS AND REFUGEES".

Within the framework of the Two-day Balkan Anti-War and Anti-Imperialist Action of Trade Unions, which will take place in Thessaloniki on 24-25 June 2017, the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) calls for mass participation in a large anti-imperialist, anti-NATO rally that will be held in Greece's second largest city on Saturday 24th June. Numerous labor centers, workers' unions and branch trade unions from all over the country will gather in Thessaloniki, in order to participate in a demonstration outside the city's NATO headquarters (NRDC-GR) on the 24th of June. 

Statement of the CC of the KKE regarding the latest dangerous developments in the Middle East

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

In a statement regarding the latest developments in the Middle East, the Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) stresses the following:

"Yesterday's US bombings against forces of the Syrian army, combined with the diplomatic crisis in Qatar and today's attack in Iran's Parliament, consist a dangerous escalation of the imperialist interventions and competitions in the region of Eastern Mediterranean, the Middle East and the Persian Gulf.

Precisely these interventions of the USA-NATO-EU, in their antagonism with other powers in the broader region, such as Russia, are the ones which led to the dismemberment and destabilization of countries, the support of jihadist groups like ISIS, aiming at the control of the natural resources and energy routes of the region.

"You shall not pass!": KKE protesters blocked the road to NATO convoy in Greece

A human chain stood against a NATO convoy on Friday afternoon in northern Greece. Hundreds of KKE and KNE members blocked the road at the tolls of Polymilos in Egnatia motorway, close to the city of Kozani, thus denying the passage to a convoy of 22 NATO vehicles coming from Albania. 

Under the slogans "NATO killers go home" and "Neither soil nor water to the murderers of the people", the KKE protesters demanded the return of the convoy back to Albania. Among the participants in the human blockade were the KKE MEP Sotiris Zarianopoulos and Sakis Vardalis, KKE MP. 

KKE slams Tsipras' government: Greece must be disengaged from imperialist interventions and wars!

The Parliamentary Team of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) submitted a written question about Greece's disengagement from imperialist interventions and wars to the Ministers of Defence and Foreign Affairs. The text of the question is the following:

Source: Rizospastis / Translation: In Defense of Communism *.

"The decisions of the governments of ND and PASOK in the previous years, as well as the ones of the SYRIZA-ANEL government today, for the involvement of Greece in imperialist interventions and wars, have put and continue putting our people in great adventures and dangers.

KKE: PM Tsipras and his government are the "best students" of NATO

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

On the occasion of the NATO Summit in Brussels, the Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) issued the following statement:

"The Summit of NATO's leaders of states and governments took the baton from last year's Warsaw Summit and, despite individual contradictions, decided the escalation of its (NATO's) attack against the people, thus confirming the criminal role of this imperialist organisation.

The Summit decided:

"Yes to Peace- No to NATO": World Peace Council's events against NATO Summit in Brussels

Click to enlarge.

On the occasion of NATO's Summit on May 25 in Brussels, the World Peace Council (WPC) escalates its anti-imperialist initiatives with new events. More specifically: 

On Tuesday 23th May, represented by President Socorro Gomes and Executive Secretary Iraklis Tsavdaridis, the WPC will participate in an open anti-NATO event organised by the Belgian INTAL at the Meeting Hall "de Spiegelzaal" at De Markten, Oude Graanmarkt 5. 

On Wednesday 24th May, the WPC will organise a conference against NATO, under the slogan "Yes to Peace- No to NATO". Speeches will be delivered by WPC President Socorro Gomes and WPC Secretary General Thanasis Pafilis. At least 18 anti-imperialist movements across the world will participate in the conference which will be held at the Meeting Hall "Sleep Well Hostel", at Rue du Damier 23 in Brussels.

The WPC will participate at the Anti-NATO rally of INTAL and other organisations at 17:00 (local time) at Gare du Nord.

Communist Party of Greece: Criticism of certain contemporary opportunist views on the state

POSITION OF THE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS SECTION OF THE CC OF THE KKE AT THE 11th ANNUAL CONFERENCE "V.I.LENIN, THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION AND THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD".

Source: inter.kke.gr.

The importance and timeliness of Lenin's work on the state. 

100 years ago, a few months before the Great October Socialist Revolution and in particularly difficult and complex political conditions, V.I. Lenin wrote a fundamentally important work, "The State and Revolution", which, of course, was published for the first time after the October Revolution in 1918.

In this work, Lenin highlighted the essence and analyzed the class nature of the state: “The state is a product and a manifestation of the irreconcilability of class antagonisms. The state arises where, when and insofar as class antagonisms objectively cannot be reconciled. And, conversely, the existence of the state proves that the class antagonisms are irreconcilable.”[1]

KKE: Solidarity with the struggle of the Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails

Statement of the International Relations Section of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE).

The KKE expresses its solidarity with the struggle that thousands of Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails began on 17/4/2017 and demands their immediate release. 

The KKE in general expresses its full support with the struggle of the Palestinian people against the Israeli occupation that has been going on for decades with the responsibility also of the USA, EU, NATO. 

KKE: Close down the Souda U.S. Naval Base; Greece out of the imperialist plans and wars

In a statement regarding the recent air strikes of the USA in Syria, the Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) points out the following:

"The KKE denounces the attack of the USA against Syria with the use of missiles from american warships in the Mediterranean and expresses its solidarity to the much afflicted Syrian people.

The people know that the USA and their allies, which created criminal organisations like "Al Qaeda" and the "Islamic State", highlight and utilize pretenses in order to justify the interventions and the imperialist wars in Syria, Iraq, in the broader region of the Middle East and Northern Africa, which consists field of fierce antagonisms, with the people being the victims. They did the same in the past too.

An apologist of Imperialism: Slavoj Žižek and NATO's war in Yugoslavia

By Nikos Mottas.

He is regarded by many as one of the most important living philosophers. Slavoj Žižek, the Slovenian psychoanalytical philosopher who poses himself as a Hegelian Marxist is the embodiment of pseudo-left intellectuality. A few months ago Žižek had endorsed billionaire Donald Trump for the U.S. presidential elections. A few years ago, the same intellectual charlatan was publicly defending and promoting the opportunist rhetoric of SYRIZA's Alexis Tsipras thus being a kind of "intellectual mentor" for the then leader of Greece's opposition party.

In 2015, Žižek had suggested that the antidote to the deadlock of global capitalism was... the militarization of society. More specifically he was writing: "Democratically motivated grassroots movements are seemingly doomed to failure, so perhaps it’s best to break global capitalism’s vicious cycle through ‘militarization,’ which means suspending the power of self-regulating economies.” (Slavoj Zizek: In the Wake of Paris Attacks the Left Must Embrace Its Radical Western Roots, Nov.16, 2015.)

KKE slams PM Tsipras for visiting Ukraine

With a statement the Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) denounces the recent visit of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in Ukraine. More specifically, the statement says:

"Prime Minister Al. Tsipras choosed to visit Ukraine in a period when a regime has been imposed in this country through coup actions, with the support of the US, EU, NATO and with the utilization even of fascist groups. 

The visit coincided with the new sharpening (of the situation) in Southeast Ukraine, with the outbreak of a new bloodshed, under the primary responsibility of the current president P.Poroshenko and his reactionary government. He (Tsipras) visited Ukraine when the parody-trial for the prohibition of the Communist Party of Ukraine is in process, when soviet and antifascist monuments are taken down and the collaborators of the nazis are extolled to the youth as "patriots".

KKE: Greek and Turkish workers must fight together against the bourgeois classes

The Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) issued a statement regarding yesterday's violation of the Greek maritime borders by Turkish warships. More specifically, the statement says:

"The KKE denounces the violation of  the Greek maritime borders, in the area of Imia, by Turkish warships in the presence of the heads of the Turkish armed forces, which took place on Sunday 29th of January.

This action- 21 years after the Imia crisis- consists a dangerous development added to the successive violations of the Greek air and maritime space, the challenging of the Treaty of Lausanne which defines the Greek-Turkish borders, the threats which Ankara fired recently, after the decision of the Supreme Court for the non-extradition of the 8 Turkish military officers who asked for protection-asylum in our country.

Kostas Papadakis (KKE MEP)- No trust in any bourgeois government, any bourgeois class, any imperialist alliance

Source: inter.kke.gr.

Kostas Papadakis, member of the CC and MEP, in the introductory speech of the KKE at the international seminar of the KKE's delegation to the European Parliament stressed the following:

Dear comrades,

Our seminar today aims to shed light on contemporary, complex and serious (for the workers) developments, through the prism of  Leninist thought, as this was exemplified 100 years ago in the work "On the Slogan for a United States of Europe". With the utilization of other works that also analyze the constituent elements of imperialism, as the highest stage of capitalism.

Today, we see new inter-state unions next to the old ones, like NATO and the EU. Unions are emerging in Eurasia, Latin America, Asia that supposedly aim to unite the peoples and economic life of entire continents. The problems are serious, because apart from the mutated parties that bear the "communist" title and follow the social-democratic path, there are CPs that are trying, struggling but detach this development from its economic base and salute it, adopting the ideological construct of the so-called "multi-polar world".

The Turkish government escalates provocative rhetoric over Aegean- Comment by the Communist Party of Greece

Rejep Tayyip Erdogan.

Last Wednesday, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu referred to the eastern Aegean Imia islets as “Turkish soil.” Cavusoglu was responding in writing to a question tabled by a Turkish MP regarding the status of islands and islets in the Aegean.

“As long as the AKP is in power there will be no change in the legal and de facto status of islands in the Aegean,” noted Cavusoglu in his statement. 

Cavusoglu’s comments followed comments made by the leader of the Turkish Republican People's Party (CHP) Kemal Kilicdaroglu in which he accused Greece of occupying 18 islands in the Aegean.

The Greek Foreign Ministry described the comments by Cavusoglu as “irresponsible and provocative” and a violation of international law. In response, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Huseyin Muftuoglu reaffirmed Ankara’s stance. 

“Turkey’s position on her sovereignty over Kardak Rocks [the Turkish name for the Imia islets] is well known by the international community since 1996. There is no change in our policy in this regard.” said Muftuoglu.

KKE: The people must be ready and vigilant - Statement about foreign policy and the Cyprus Issue

Statement of the GS of the CC of the KKE about foreign policy and the Cyprus Issue.

The GS of the CC of the KKE, Dimitris Koutsoumbas, noted the following on 28/11/2016 in his statements on Foreign Policy and the Cyprus Issue:

“The KKE follows with concern the latest developments regarding both Greek-Turkish relations as well as the Cyprus Issue. The KKE expresses its opinion with responsibility and calls on the Greek people to be in a state of readiness and vigilance.

The major everyday problems which afflict our people are expected to worsen in the coming period, as a result of the second “evaluation” and the government's new agreements with its partners in the EU and IMF.