50 years since May 1968: The crucial role of the working class

On the occasion of the 50 years since the events of May 1968 in France, the Organ of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) "Rizospastis" (26-27 May 2018) republished abstracts of an interview with Mitsos Katsianakos (1942-2003), member of the CC of the KKE, who as a young worker had participated actively in the events of 1968. The interview had been published on 17 May 1998. 

Chronicling the facts, Mitsos Katsianakos said to "Rizospastis": "The May of 1968 wasn't just a student uprising and nothing else. We certainly had a student uprising, which began before May, towards the end of April and early May of 1968. Until then we had chases and skirmishes between students and the police in Quarter Latin, at the large university outside of Sorbonne. We had night street fights, until the 10th of May. By that time-and it should be clear to all of us-no one was worried. No one could see that this May would be red, that this May would give a new dimension to the social and political life of France itself.

Thousands of workers joined PAME in strike demonstrations throughout Greece

Under the slogan "your development crushes our lives! Struggle, organization and counterattack is our choice!" thousands of workers, young men and women, unemployed and self-employed people, pensioners joined PAME in demonstrations throughout Greece on the occasion of the 24-hour nationwide strike. 

In Athens, the demonstrators gathered at Omonoia Square, marched through the city's central avenues and reached Syntagma Square, outside the Parliament where they protested the antipeople, antiworker policies of the SYRIZA-ANEL government.

Italian communist leader Marco Rizzo: "The only revolution is the communist one"

Commenting on the recent developments in Italy and the failure of the two major parties to form a coalition government, the General Secretary of the CC of the Communist Party, Italy (Partito Comunista) Marco Rizzo wrote on his personal twitter account the following:

"The governmental incident indicates who is in charge in Italy. The EU, IMF and NATO are able to choose ministers and not only. We, the communists, know that, as well as Di Maio and Salvini knew that. Forward to the battle against capitalist globalization. The only revolution is the communist one."

Ireland: The Communist Party welcomes the repeal of the anti-woman 8th Amendment

Statement by the Communist Party of Ireland.

26 May 2018.

The Communist Party of Ireland welcomes the vote of the Irish people to remove the anti-woman 8th Amendment of the Constitution. The result of 66 to 34, with a large turn-out, is a tribute to years of work and campaigning by many groups and individuals, and has little or nothing to do with the establishment parties. 

World Federation of Trade Unions: Abolition of all nuclear weapons everywhere!

The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), since the first years of its foundation, has had a clear and plain position against nuclear weapons. During all of its Congresses, decisions asking for the abolition of all nuclear weapons and of all countries have been voted.

Today, we are not only worried about USA’s withdrawal from Iran nuclear agreement but also about yesterday’s Trump unilateral refusal which canceled the scheduled meeting with DPR Korea’s leadership.

This position of the USA and their allies generates new dangers for the wider region and mankind as a whole. The USA, NATO and European Union aim at plundering Third World Countries’ natural resources, strengthening their spheres of influence and tracing new borders. The dangers for the World Peace are grave. The inter-imperialist antagonisms are constantly being exacerbated.

PAME denuncia la represión contra a los trabajadores del metro de Buenos Aires

Riot police forces at the Buenos Aires metro.

In a statement the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) denounces the violent repression of the police forces against the workers of the Buenos Aires metro. 

"The Municipality of Buenos Aires and the government of Argentina", writes the PAME statement, "responded to the just demands of the workers by using repression forces. In both Europe and Latin America the governments respond to the just demands of the working people with violence against the trade unionist organisation and activity". 

Joint Statement by Communist & Workers' Parties about June 24th elections in Turkey

As the communist and workers’ parties listed below, we condemn the Turkish government’s fait accompli in the strongest way possible, which prevented the Communist Party of Turkey from running for the elections on June 24th as one of the candidate parties.

We call on the people of Turkey for refusing to choose between one or another actor of the capitalist order. 

We invite you all to vote for the independent candidates of “This Social Order Must Change” Platform (Bu Düzen Değişmeli Platformu) and to raise the flag of socialism in and after the elections. Do not let the bourgeoisie to hold your future in their hands!

One gusano less: CIA-trained terrorist Luis Posada Carriles dies at 91

The most infamous terrorist in the Western Hemisphere, Luis Posada Carriles, died on May 23 in Miami, without paying his debts to justice or reparations to a single one of his victims.

The United States protected Posada Carriles until his final days, training him to plant bombs and carry out terrorist attacks against hundreds of Cubans.

According to a press statement by his lawyer, Posada Carriles died on the morning of May 23, at his Miramar home in South Florida. Although the cause of his death is still unknown, he was reported to be suffering from throat cancer.

Greek workers in the streets: Trade Unions call for National General Strike on May 30th

Under the slogan "Your development crushes our life! Struggle, organization and and counterattack", the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) calls the working people of Greece to participate actively in the 24-hour General Strike on Wednesday 30th of May. 

Labour Unions, students and womens' associations, peace committees and other groups of the class-based movement call for mass participation in the national strike. In Athens, the demonstrators will gather at Omonoia square at 10.30 am, while numerous strike rallies have been scheduled in many cities across Greece. 

The 20th IMCWP to be held in Athens on 23-25th November 2018

KKE headquarter offices in Athens.

The 20th International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties (IMCWP) will take place in Athens, Greece between 23 and 25 November 2018. 

The Meeting will be hosted by the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) at the Party's headquarters in Perissos under the subject "The contemporary working class and her alliance. The tasks of the policy of the vanguard- of the communist and workers' parties in the struggle against exploitation and imperialist wars, for the rights of the workers and people, for peace, for socialism".

Venezuelan Elections: Maduro triumphs, calls for dialogue with opposition parties

President Nicolas Maduro won the Venezuelan presidential elections Sunday, gaining a second presidential term for six years with more than 5.8 million votes, the National Electoral Council (CNE) announced Sunday night. 

With 92.6 percent of the votes counted, Maduro had 5.8 million votes, while his closest rival, former governor Henri Falcón getting 1.8 million votes, said CNE President Tibisay Lucena who added that in total, 8.6 million Venezuelans voted, out of an electoral registry of 20.5 million people.

Anticommunist hysteria in Poland: Police storms university conference on Marxism!

The Communist Party of Poland denounces political persecution launched by the Polish authorities expressed by the increasing attacks. 

The especially outrageous example happened on the 11th of May when police entered the conference about Marxism held in Szczecin University’s facilities in Pobierowo. The functionaries acting on demand of the prosecutor’s office were searching for evidence of “promoting totalitarian system”. This intrusion constituted a clear violation of the university’s autonomy and constitutional right for freedom of the scientific activity. Professor organizing the conference said that police intervention was “an attempt to intimidate the scientists and to entangle them into the political order that is entirely contradictory with values such as freedom of speech and scientific research”. He also stated that the basic citizen’s rights are endangered.

Greece: Communist-backed 'Panspoudastiki' retains 2nd position in student elections

PANSPOUDASTIKI is once again the second force in the universities (AEI) with 21,43 %and 9.516 votes and a powerful force in the Technological Educational Institutions (TEI) with 19,52 % and 2.800 votes.

The forces of PANSPOUDASTIKI, with new forces in the student unions, with thousands of votes nationwide and with determination, will continue to be in the frontline of the efforts to regroup the student movement, the day after the student elections, which took place in the majority of student unions on 16th of May 2018.

This year as well the student grouping that is supported by SYRIZA , "BLOKO", received a very low vote, 424 votes, 0.95% in the universities (AEI) and 142 votes 0,99% in the Technological Educational Institutions (TEI).

Joint Statement of Communist and Workers' Parties condemning the murderous attack of the Israeli army in Gaza [En, Es, Ar]

The Communist and Worker Parties decisively condemn the attack of the Israeli army in Palestine territories, in the Gaza Strip, that has caused a bloodbath, murdering in cold blood unarmed demonstrators, men, women, and children.

Tsipras' government: Accomplice to the murder of the Palestinian people in Gaza

The new massacre in Gaza, with the murder of over 60 people by the Israeli Armed Forces, bears the signature of two murderous governments: the one of Benjamin Netanyahu and the one of Donald Trump. Israel and the United States are the main culprits of this horrific crime.

However, there are accomplices to the crime. They are the so-called "allies" of the governments of Netanyahu and Trump. They can't hide their responsibilities for the slaughter of the Palestinian people. The European Union, for example, is trying to keep equal distances from both the predator and his victim by suggesting "self-restraint" to both sides. 

Communist Party of Israel: The massacre in Gaza will not halt the Palestinian people’s struggle for Freedom

The Communist Party of Israel (CPI) strongly condemns the crimes of the Israeli Occupation against the unarmed Palestinian protesters in the March of Return rally in Gaza; crimes that killed more than 50 person, including children and people with disabilities. This terrible massacre will not stop the legitimate struggle of the Palestinian people for its freedom, an ongoing struggle for the last 70 years.

Massacre in Gaza - Israeli forces kill at least 59 Palestinian protesters in Gaza, while the U.S. moves its embassy to Jerusalem

At least 59 Palestinians were killed on Monday, May 14, in the Gaza Strip and more than 2,400 others were wounded as the Israeli army fired live ammunition and tear gas at protesters assembled at five points along the border fence with Israel.

Monday’s demonstrations, held in the context of the opening of the US Embassy in Jerusalem, were the latest in seven weeks of protests calling for the right of return for Palestinian refugees to the areas they were forcibly expelled from in 1948. Since the protests began on March 30, Israeli forces have killed at least 90 Palestinians in the coastal enclave and wounded close to 10,500.

KKE strongly condemns U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital

In a statement regarding the official transfer of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece points out the following:

"The decision of the Trump government to open its new embassy in Jerusalem thus recognizing the city as the "capital" of Israel, portends new negative developments against the Palestinian people and all the people of the region.

KKE: Marxism as a factor in the shaping of sociopolitical processes in Greece

Marxist Theory as a factor in the shaping of sociopolitical processes in Greece: Some Conclusions drawn from the action of the KKE.

International Conference on Karl Marx’s “Capital” and its Impact on the development of the World Moscow, May 11 - 12, 2018

By Giorgos Magganas, 

representative of the Ideological Committee of the CC of the KKE.

The central work of Marxism, “Capital” is the foundation, the pedestal of a radically new worldview – Dialectical Materialism -  that, having assimilated the totality of intellectual achievement, shattered the limitations of the interpretations of the world, creating the theoretical preconditions that make changing it not only timely but realistic.

Communist and workers' parties condemn Ukrainian state's repression, stand in solidarity with the Communist Party of Ukraine

Various Communist and Workers' Parties around the world have expressed their condemnation of the repressive methods exercised by the Ukrainian authorities against the country's Communist Party. 

A total of 33 parties have signed a joint statement in which they denounce the recent raid of Ukrainian police forces in the offices of the Communist Party of Ukraine and its First Secretary Petro Symonenko. The statement is the following: 

PAME condemns Israel's new missile attack on Syria

In a statement, the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) condemns Israel's new missile attack on Syria, on Thursday, May 10th.

Israeli bombings in Syria aim Iran and are a dangerous escalation of imperialist competitions in the region while they are increasing the risk of generalizing the conflict.

16 years of Erdogan's rule in Turkey: Profits for capitalists, poverty for workers

16 years under the rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's AKP government stand for poverty and occupational murders for working people as capitalists enjoy Erdoğan's 'resurrection' model, writes soL international in an interesting report. 

As Turkey is heading to the polls for presidential and parliamentary elections, statistical data contradicts President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan‘s electoral manifesto and the rhetoric of ‘resurrection’ considering Turkey’s 16 years under the rule of his AKP party government.

Statement of the CC of the KKE for the 73 years since the Great Antifascist Victory

The Press Bureau of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece published the following announcement for the 9th of May, day of the Anti-fascist Victory of the Peoples’:

“Every human being who loves freedom owes to the Red Army more than he will be able to pay in a lifetime!” (E. Hemingway).

We honor May 9th, recorded in the History as the day that the 2nd World War ended and as the day of the Great Anti-fascist Victory of the Peoples’, at the expense of all those that try to falsify history, so that the peoples and the younger generations in particular forget the Anti-fascist Victory and the historical teachings that are drawn from it.

World Federation of Trade Unions: Long Live the May 9th Epopee!

Statement by the Secretariat of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU)

On May 9, 1945, in occupied Berlin by the Red Army, the Nazis signed their surrender to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, putting an end to World War II or the Great Patriotic War.

KKE denounces Ukrainian police's raids against the Communist Party and its leader

Petro Symonenko, First Secretary of the CC of CP of Ukraine.

The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) decisively condemns the provocative and violent raid of the Police Forces of Ukraine in the Office of the 1st Secretary of the CC of the CP of Ukraine, Petro Symonenko, in the Party's premises in Kiev, as well as in his home.

It is an unacceptable action incorporated in the anticommunist campaign, in the orgy of persecution and repression that the reactionary government has unleashed at the expense of the Communists of Ukraine, a government that is supported also by fascist forces and has the full support of the EU, the USA and of NATO. The fact that the raid in the Premises of the CP of Ukraine was organized in the eve of the anniversary of the Great Anti-fascist Victory of the Peoples, of the anniversary of the defeat of Nazism-fascism acts as a further provocation.

Xi Jinping praises Marxism while China deepens its capitalist transformation

Chinese President Xi Jinping has praised Karl Marx as "the greatest thinker of modern times," calling his theories a tool for China to "win the future", according to a recent report by Xinhua. 

President Xi gave a speech last Friday at the Great Hall of the People in central Beijing, during an event marking the bicentennial of Marx's birth in 1818 in Germany.

The most valuable and influential spiritual asset that Marx left us is the scientific theory named after him -- Marxism. Like a spectacular sunrise, the theory illuminated the path of humanity's exploration of the law of history, and humanity's search for their own liberation, Xi said.

European Communist Initiative: For the 200 years since the birth of Karl Marx

Statement of the Secretariat of the European Communist Initiative for the 200 years since the birth of Karl Marx.

"The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it”.

200 years ago, οn May 5th 1818, in the city of Trier of Prussia, the great revolutionary Karl Marx was born. Marx had a decisive contribution to the foundation of the revolutionary worldview of the working class as well to the economic, political and philosophical thought of humanity. He was connected with Friedrich Engels and with their decisive contribution they played a key role in the first revolutionary groups of Paris. He consistently fought against various petty bourgeois theories on socialism that were dominant in that period. Following his deportation to Brussels in 1845, he joined the “Communist League” along with Engels and participated in its 2nd Congress where they played a vital role in the adoption of revolutionary positions. Commissioned by the Congress they wrote the famous and unparalleled work “The Communist Manifesto”, which was published in February 1848.

Karl Marx's 200th birth anniversary: The man who changed the world forever

By Nikos Mottas.

"Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it." 

 

- Karl Marx, Theses on Feuerbach.

Two centuries have passed since the birth of the greatest thinker in the history of mankind. It was the 5th of May 1818 when Karl Heinrich Marx was born in Trier, Rhenish Prussia (present-day Germany). 

He was the man who tried not just to interpret the world, but to change it. The issue of how to change the world consisted the core of his remarkably unique theoretical work as well as his practical activity. The result was the scientific theory of the working class, for the overthrow of the capital's power and the establishment of the workers' power, the "dictatorship of the proletariat", the abolition of the exploitation of man by man and the ultimate transition from class societies to communism. 

KKE denounces European Parliament's interference in Venezuela's internal affairs

In a statement, the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) group at the EU Parliament denounces a recent resolution adopted by political groups regarding the upcoming elections in Venezuela:

"The KKE group at the European Parliament voted against the unacceptable and provocative common resolution of the European People's Party, Social Democrats and Liberals which, consisting another intervention in Venezuela's internal affairs, asks for the postponement of the upcoming elections in this country and the conduction of them under the rules set by the EU.

"Phony promises": Comment by the KKE on Tsipras' visit and speech in Lesvos

In a statement regarding the visit and speech of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in the island of Lesvos, the Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece made the following comment:

"In the midst of generalized outcry from the people and intense police presence, Mr Tsipras tried with hollow words of sympathy, phony promises and his familiar exploitation of the people movement's history, to conceal his tremendous responsibilities for the harsh reality that the people of the islands experience, especially of those in the borders, like Lesvos.

Tudeh Party of Iran calls all peace-seeking forces to mobilize against military conflict

In a statement, the Central Committee of the Tudeh Party of Iran highlights the danger of a military conflict with Iran is mounting and calls the peace-loving forces to mobilize against such a scenario.

Dear compatriots,

With the appointment of Mike Pompeo, the former director of the CIA, as the United States Secretary of State and John Bolton as the National Security Advisor of the Trump administration - both of them from the neo-con faction and radical warmongers in the United States - and then Mike Pompeo’s recent trip to the Middle East and his meetings with the Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Prime Minister of Israel, the tensions between the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia on the one hand, and the Islamic Republic of Iran on the other have taken extremely dangerous dimensions.

#MayDay: From Havana to Istanbul, millions of workers honored the 1st of May (Photos)

Millions of working class people, from Cuba to Turkey and from Japan to the United States, gathered in the streets to honor the 1st of May, the International Workers' Day, 132 years since the slaughter of the workers in Chicago:

Havana, Cuba

Following a tradition of the last decades, the largest and most impressive May Day rally is organized in the Cuban capital, with millions of people participating in the march across Havana, gathering at the city's Plaza de la Revolucion. 

#MayDay in Greece: Thousands joined PAME strike demonstrations across the country

Under the slogan "Against exploitation and the Imperialist war for the people's final victory", the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) organized militant demonstrations in Athens, Thessaloniki and other major cities on the occasion of the Workers' May Day.

In Athens, a large crowd gathered at Syntagma Square, in front of the Parliament building, sending a militant message of struggle against the continuous antipeople-antiworkers measures of the SYRIZA-ANEL government, as well as against the imperialist wars and Greece's participation in NATO-EU's plans. 

#MayDay: Watch Live the 1st of May strike demonstration in Athens [Live Streaming]