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| 21 April 1967: Tanks parade in front of the Greek Parliament in Athens. |
The 21st of April is a black anniversary for Greece. It was April 21, 1967 when a group of far-right army officers led by Brigadier General Pattakos and Colonels Papadopoulos and Makarezos seized power after a coup d'etat. In the early morning of that day, tanks were already marching in central streets of Athens while small mobile units of the army were arresting politicians, government officials and prominent figures who were regarded as left-wing sympathies. The military dictatorship (Junta) lasted seven years, from 1967 to 1974.
KKE: Announcement for the military coup of April 21st.
Source: 902.gr / Translation: In Defense of Communism.
Today, 49 years after the military coup of April 21st 1967 we get taught, we honor the fighters, the victims of Junta. We honor the members and staff of KKE and KNE, all those who stood unbending in detention centers, in the EAT-ESA torture rooms, in prison and exile.
The military dictatorshop was supported by parts of the plutocracy, by centers of our country's bourgeoisie, by the USA, which is a proof that the bourgeoisie and its state can even support military and political coups in order to serve their interests, (to serve) the needs of the exploitative system.
Today, while Junta's nostalgics try to stand up, (while) the Nazi-criminal Golden Dawn pours its fascist, racist poison, the historic conclusions from Junta's imposition are of great importance, because they prove that the reactionary, fascist forces are born and feed from the capitalist system itself. That's why the confrontation of fascism and the defense of working-people's rights and conquests passes through the struggle for the overthrow of the system which generates poverty, exploitation and oppression.
The 1967 Colonels' Coup was imposed not only because it was the choice of the bourgeoisie to promote, through the overthrow of bourgeois democracy and legality, the anti-people plans, in order to overcome her own difficulties, but also because the people were unable to organise their struggle and prepare against her.
The KKE which, during the Dictatorship, in the midst of illegality and persecutions, reorganised its Party organisations. grew stronger, founded its Youth wing (KNE) and anti-dictatorship organisations, with its activities and the unwavering attitude of its members and staff, managed to inspire People's struggle against the Junta thus contributed decisively to the defeat of opportunism's views which wanted the compromise with Junta and its (political) disguises.
The strengthening and readiness of peoples movement, with the endurance and strengthening of KKE, is a crucial factor for the people who must be able to put their stamp on developments, for the redeployment of the working-peoples movement which must pass totally to counter-attack against the Capital and its authority, for a society without exploitation, poverty and wars.
Especially today- when, for the sake of profitability's shielding and Capital's recovery, the anti-people measures' "barrel" has no bottom- the KKE calls the working class, the unemployed, the self-employed, the poor farmers, the youth and women of popular families, to participate in the organisation of the struggle, for the invigoration of peoples alliance towards a direction of rupture and overthrow.
