Showing posts with label Greece. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Greece. Show all posts

Thursday, August 10, 2017

"Our co-workers are executed in cold blood": PAME denounces new occupational murders in Greece

"Our co-workers are executed in cold blood" points out a recent statement issued by the Executive Secretariat of the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) in Greece, regarding the new occupational "accidents" in the country. 

It must be noted that on August 1st, two workers were killed and two were severely injured during work inside a biological waste treatment shaft in the town of Skala, in Laconia, Peloponnese. A 51-year old worker was cleaning the shaft when he started having breathing problems and called for help. A 37-year old Greek rushed to his assistance and jumped in the pit but he also felt unwell. Two more men, a 66-year old and a 22-year old who jumped in the pit also suffered from respiratory problems. Furthermore, two firemen and one policeman who participated in the efforts to save the men were also treated for breathing problems.

Sunday, August 6, 2017

KKE: Statement on the 72 years since the imperialist crime in Hiroshima and Nagasaki

On the occasion of the 72 years since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) issued the following statement:

"This year marks the 72nd anniversary since the U.S. imperialist crime in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, an act which did not serve any military need against the- already defeated- Japan, but the intimidation of the people, of the Soviet Union and the then rising socialist system and communist movement. Thousands of people lost their lives from the dropping of the atomic bombs, while thousands continue dying every year as a result of radioactivity's consequences. 

Thursday, August 3, 2017

TRUTH AND LIES ABOUT SOCIALISM - Dictatorship of the Proletariat: A Higher form of Democracy

TRUTH AND LIES ABOUT SOCIALISM: 
ON THE SOCIALIST POWER.
Central Council of the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE).
Published by Synchroni Epochi, 2013.

PART II: THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT: A HIGHER FORM OF DEMOCRACY.

The leap that takes place during the socialist construction, i.e. during the transition from capitalism to communism, is qualitatively higher than any previous one, since communist relations, as non-exploitative, cannot be formed in capitalism. The political revolution is the precondition for these new relations to be imposed and dominate, i.e. the conquest of power by the working class and the establishment of its own state, the dictatorship of the proletariat. 

This is a basic difference in the transition to the communist socioeconomic formation in relation with the previous. In the framework of the transition from an exploitative socioeconomic formation to another, the new relations could be developed and dominate first in the confines of the previous socioeconomic formation and then, as the last part of this process, the class that was the bearer of the new relations struggled for and took power. This happened for example in relation to capitalism. 

Sunday, July 30, 2017

TRUTH AND LIES ABOUT SOCIALISM - The phony dilemma: "Democracy" or Totalitarianism"?

TRUTH AND LIES ABOUT SOCIALISM: 
ON THE SOCIALIST POWER.
Central Council of the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE).
Published by Synchroni Epochi, 2013.

PART I: THE PHONY DILEMMA: "DEMOCRACY" OR TOTALITARIANISM"?

INTRODUCTION. 

A great part of anti-communist, anti-socialist propaganda focuses on the issue of the so called lack of “freedom and democracy” during the construction of the new society, of socialism-communism. The main focus of that attack is the revolutionary workers’ power, the state of the working class, the dictatorship of the proletariat, the role of the Communist Party. The capitalists cannot abide it; they tremble before the idea that the working class will emerge as the dominant class, and that they will be thrown into the dustbin of history. 

Monday, July 24, 2017

Tsipras-Varoufakis: Loyal servants of the capitalist system

By Nikos Mottas*

During the last few days we are witnessing a highly hypocritical “blame game” between Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis. In his latest book titled “Adults in the room”, Varoufakis tries to present himself as a “fighter” who resisted Europe's “deep establishment”.

In his “political thriller”, the ex-finance minister describes how the Tsipras government handled the negotiations with its creditors, outlining the role each government official played during that period. As for his former collaborator, Varoufakis writes among other things: Alexis Tsipras appears totally overwhelmed, unable to collide with his own consultants who were pro loan agreement, in some cases he was totally manipulated by the ‘internal’ and ‘external’ Troika”.

Saturday, July 22, 2017

Capitalism Kills: 353 occupational murders within 2 months in Turkey

How many dead workers are needed to increase the profitability of the monopolies? 

As soL international reports, according to Council of Workers’ Health and Safety (İSİG), at least 353 workers were killed in occupational murders in two months in Turkey

Reminding that the construction site of the third airport in İstanbul is notorious for occupational murders, the İSİG underlines, about the campaign which was announced inside the construction site of the airport, that the numbers reported by the Turkey’s Ministry of Labor and Social Security and several bureaucrats are dead wrong, and that roughly 20 thousand workers were killed by occupational murders in AKP’s rule.

National Strike: Tourism workers in Greece raised their voice against modern slavery

With militant demonstrations and picket lines in front of big hotels, the class unions held successfully the National Strike of Workers in Tourism, on Thursday, July 20. The Tourism workers in many cities all over Greece and especially in tourist areas like Corfu, Crete, Rhodes and more, went on strike.
The main strike rally took place in Athens, where the picket lines and the workers of many big hotels met. The strike had great success in hotels like the Metropolitan, Athens Hilton, Νovotel and Royal Olympic. The strike rally took place in front of the Ministry of Labour, protesting against the anti-workers legislation, especially for the young workers, students and apprentices. The rally also stopped in front of the National Union of Tourism, the association of tourism enterprises, where the unions wrote in red paint “Here are those who drink the workers’ blood”, and demanded National Collective Agreement, imposed to all tourism enterprises and hotels.

Monday, July 17, 2017

Anti-workers rage by SYRIZA's newspaper “Avgi” challenges the right to strike!

In an anti-workers delirium that even the right-wing, neoliberal press would envy, SYRIZA party's newspaper “Avgi” launched a vociferous attack against the working people's right to strike! In an article published on 28/6, the newspaper shamelessly attacked the striking mobilizations of the municipal sanitation workers by reproducing the most reactionary arguments of the bourgeois press. Trying to justify the anti-people, anti-worker policy of the SYRIZA coalition government, “Avgi” characterizes the strike as the “ultimate medium” (!) which, according to the newspaper, should not be used frequently by the workers.

Friday, July 14, 2017

Cyprus Issue: The KKE warns about the dangerous partition "solution" that is being promoted

Source: inter.kke.gr.

On July 11, 2017 a discussion of the leaders of the political parties was held in the Greek parliament regarding the developments in the Cyprus issue and the outcome of the negotiations in Geneva.

During the discussion, Dimitris Koutsoumbas, GS of the CC of KKE, underlined that the Cyprus issue is an international problem of invasion and occupation of the northern part of Cyprus by Turkey. It is a problem that bears the stamp of NATO intervention, of the general imperialist plans for the region.

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Greek tourism industry: Unpaid labour, starvation wages and huge profits for the monopoly groups

What lies behind the luxurious and idyllic facade of Greece's tourism industry? The answer is that tourism consists another field for monopolies' profitability, based on unpaid workers, layoffs, unsourced workers, starvation wages, lack of collective agreements etc. 

This is the actual meaning of "economic growth" that the SYRIZA-ANEL government, as well as the New Democracy and the other bourgeois parties, promote. 

Even if thousands of tourists arrive in Greece every day, hundreds of employees work daily to the tourism industry with humiliating salaries and exhausting shifts that last from dawn till dusk. The average - daily room rate on all 4-5-star hotels is equal to the salary of a waiter! In a tourist country like Greece, where 25 million of tourists are expected this summer, hotel workers cannot afford a decent vacation and relaxing period. This is Capitalism.

KKE politburo member G.Marinos in Venezuela: "We must walk on the steps of the October Revolution"

In the 15th Congress of the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) which took place between 22 and 25th of June in Caracas, the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) was represented by its Political Bureau member Giorgos Marinos and Dimitris Karagiannis, member of the international relations section of the CC and journalist in 'Rizospastis'. 

On June 21st, the PCV organised the 2nd International Ideological Seminar with the subject being "The timeliness of Lenin in the 100 years of the Great Socialist Revolution", in which 18 Communist and Workers Parties participated.

What follows is the speech by Giorgos Marinos, reproduced from inter.kke.gr:

Sunday, July 9, 2017

Dimitris Koutsoumbas at KNE anti-imperialist camp: "Our future is not capitalism; it is the new world, Socialism!"

KKE GS D. Koutsoumbas addressing young communists in Ioannina.
A large crowd of young communists, members and friends of the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE), attended a speech by the Secretary General of the Communist Party of Greece Dimitris Koutsoumbas, yesterday at the city of Ioannina in northern Greece. The speech by the KKE Secretary General marked the closing of the 26th anti-imperialist camp of KNE.

Tuesday, July 4, 2017

KKE Gen.Secretary D.Koutsoumbas: "People's struggle against capitalism is what brings hope"

Source: inter.kke.gr.

On July 3 2017, a pre-agenda discussion in Parliament was held at the level of the party leaders on the issue of the economy, at the request of the President of ND, K.Mitsotakis, on the occasion of the recent agreement in the Eurogroup regarding the completion of the second "review" of the Greek economy.

As was expected, the Prime minister A.Tsipras, the President of ND K.Mitsotakis and the leaders of the rest of the bourgeois parties attempted to use confrontational language in order to conceal their strategic convergence around the basic demands of capital, swapping accusations about who "undermines" the aims of capital and who serves them better.

In contrast, the GS of the CC of the KKE, D.Koutsoumpas, noted that the real hope for the working class and people is not to be found in the plans and negotiations of the capitalists. Dimitris Koutsoumpas underscored that the biggest memorandum is the capitalist development path itself. He noted that the fairy tales about "just development" in capitalism, which allegedly benefits both the monopolies and the people, are collapsing every day in the workplaces, where the harsh exploitation of the workers is realized.

PAME: We will not bleed for their profits in peace! We will not become flesh for their weapons in war!

The following text is the introduction speech, on behalf of the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME), at the Balkan Anti-Imperialist Trade Union Meeting which was held on June 25th in Thessaloniki, Greece. 
Dear Colleagues,
on behalf of the PAME Executive Secretariat, we welcome you to our today's meeting "With Workers From All Countries For A World Without Exploitation, Wars, Refugees"

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Tsipras' government dismisses 10,000 workers, promotes privatization in garbage collection

Sanitary workers protesting near the Acropolis
in Athens.
Why there are tones of garbage in the streets of Athens and other Greek major cities these days? The answer is because the SYRIZA-ANEL coalition government- within the framework of its anti-people, anti-workers policy and following the demands of the EU strategy- moves towards the dismissal of 10,000 sanitary workers, while it promotes the privatization of the garbage collection sector in municipalities. 
Greece's local authority staff union federation POE-OTA launched a protest last week, after a court ruled against the new extension to late 2017 of the short- term contracts of more than 10,000 people working in trash collection in municipalities throughout Greece.

On the dangerous and provocative remarks by New Democracy's Kyriakos Mitsotakis

Adopting the "arguments" of Golden Dawn's neo-Nazis, the president of the centre-right New Democracy (ND) party Kyriakos Mitsotakis made some dangerous and provocative remarks blaming the "Left" as the one responsible for "terrorism" in Greece. 

In an article published on 'politico.eu' under the title "Greece fears revival of far-left violence", Mitsotakis fully adopts the rhetoric of Golden Dawn's fascist thugs: “We are the only country [in Europe] that has domestic terrorism of the extreme left” said Mitsotakis who tried to downgrade the criminal activity of the Nazi Golden Dawn. 

Monday, June 26, 2017

KKE: Message of internationalist solidarity to the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV)

Source: inter.kke.gr.

Dear comrades,
The KKE expresses the warmest comradely greetings of the Greek communists to the 15th National Congress of the PCV .
Our parties all these years have developed very close, bilateral comradely relations of cooperation. We have met together in the efforts to overcome the difficulties, for the theoretical and ideological regroupment of the international communist movement, the reinforcement of Marxist-Leninist orientation in its ranks, for the creation and publication of the International Communist Review. We have waged battles together to defend the communist identity of the IMCWP and to preserve its communist characteristics. We have devoted significant forces to developing the anti-imperialist struggle and solidarity, to strengthening the international anti-imperialist organizations.

Patras' communist mayor Peletidis in the forefront of the popular struggle against unemployment

Back in March 2016, the communist (KKE-backed) mayor of the city of Patras Kostas Peletidis had initiated the Patras to Athens 220km march against unemployment.

This year, the mayor who is always by the side of the working class and the people of his city, undertook a similar initiative by organizing an anti-unemployment demonstration in order to raise the public awareness on the issue. 

On June 25 2017, a major demonstration was carried out in Patras at the initiative of the municipal authorities with the slogan "Work for all, Work with rights." The demonstrators began from Patras' city center and reached the Rio-Antirio bridge covering a distance of approximately 9km. 
 
Thousands of protesters sent a clear message for work, for measures to protect the unemployed and their families, for projects that the people need, for an increase of spending on social policy, for the satisfaction of the needs of the people today.

As the communist mayor of Patras, Kostas Peletidis, stressed: "We do not believe that with such actions we will overturn the wave of unemployment and poverty that are surrounding us, but we want our people to raise the level of their demands, to advance their just cause and project their needs that are just and realistic, to decisively target the real enemy, bourgeois politics and its power." 

The mobilization was supported by dozens of trade unions from the region.

With info from 902.gr & inter.kke.gr. 

Saturday, June 24, 2017

"Neither soil, nor water to the murderers of the people": Huge rally against NATO in Thessaloniki


"Neither soil, nor water to the murderers of the people" and "with the workers of all countries, for a world without exploitation, wars and refugees" were the major slogan of the massive anti-imperialist demonstration organised by the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) in Thessaloniki. Thousands of protesters of all ages, from all over Greece but also from abroad, joined their voices against imperialism, its wars and interventions. 

Friday, June 23, 2017

Tripartite Summit of Greece-Cyprus-Israel: Who will be benefited from this "strategic partnership"?

Source: inter.kke.gr.

Another link in the chain of plans and antagonisms that are dangerous for the peoples
On 15/6 the 3rd Greece-Israel High Level Cooperation Council and the Tripartite Summit of Greece-Cyprus-Israel were held in Thessaloniki with the participation of the Prime Ministers A. Tsipras and B. Netanyahu and the Cypriot President N. Anastasiades.
The discussions and decisions taken there reflect the government's goal regarding the geo-strategic enhancement of local business groups, the interconnection of capital from the three countries and the expansion of their joint business activity, mainly regarding energy resources and transport routes.