On 15/2/22, the Plenary Session of the Greek Parliament approved the bill submitted by the Ministry of National Defence regarding the purchase of three French “Belharra” frigates and six “Rafale” jets (in addition to the already acquired eighteen ones). Right-wing ND, social-democratic KINAL/PASOK, and right-wing Elliniki Lysi (Greek Solution) voted in favour of the bill while social-democratic SYRIZA voted “present”.
This is another large armament programme integrated into the criminal USA–NATO–EU plans in which the local bourgeoisie is actively participating to enhance its role and business in the wider area while ND, SYRIZA, and the other bourgeois parties, despite their remarks on specific points, support its interests.
This is another large armament programme integrated into the criminal USA–NATO–EU plans in which the local bourgeoisie is actively participating to enhance its role and business in the wider area while ND, SYRIZA, and the other bourgeois parties, despite their remarks on specific points, support its interests.
The people will be once again called upon to pay these procurements both in terms of money, as they cost more than four billion euros, and in terms of their deeper involvement —with incalculable risks— in the ongoing competition which causes havoc to the wider area.
The KKE voted against and denounced the procurements. Its MPs highlighted that the exorbitant armaments that the people are burdened with are linked with NATO needs and not the protection of the borders and the sovereign rights of the country.
In response to the developments in Ukraine, the MPs of the KKE warned about the possibility of even a generalized war sooner or later, stressing the heavy responsibilities of all governments so far, which have turned the country into a US–NATO base and a magnet for attacks.
They called upon the people to clash with the policy of involvement in military plans leading them to the slaughterhouse of war, demanding that Greece should not be involved in the Ukraine front, that no Greek soldiers and officers should be found outside the country’s borders, that the US bases in Greece should be immediately closed, and that the country should be disengaged from all imperialist unions.
During his speech in Parliament, Dimitris Koutsoumbas, GS of the CC of the KKE, decried the involvement of the Greek ND government in NATO–US imperialist plans with the encirclement of Russia with military bases and the deployment of sections of the Greek armed forces to missions abroad. He also criticized SYRIZA, which stated that it agrees with the deployment of Greek armed forces abroad if the missions are carried out by the international unions in which the country participates. “What does this mean? That, for example, Greek soldiers can be deployed to the Sahel region if the mission is carried out by the European Army. Or that Greek soldiers can be deployed to Ukraine if the mission is carried out by NATO. Besides, this is what you were doing when in government. Now you confess it while in opposition”, stressed the GS of the CC of the KKE.
Referring to the confrontation between the USA–NATO–EU and Russia focusing on the developments in Ukraine, he noted that “interests foreign to the people's interests” are in conflict and added that “Under these circumstances, where there is a serious risk of the generalization of an imperialist war, the orientation of the workers’–people’s struggle in our country is of particular importance. The people must strengthen their faith in the power of class struggle, of the conflict with the policy of involvement in military actions and the plans of the bourgeoisie to lure the workers into the trap of supporting Greece’s participation in an imperialist war, either in the name of “obligations to our allies” or the need to defend the “sovereignty” of Ukraine or “democracy” against “authoritarian Putin”.
The working class, the Greek people must reject the dilemma of having to choose between one or the other side of an imperialist conflict, even if it is camouflaged with the religious doctrine of Orthodoxy or with “anti-fascism”, which, in this case, is nothing but a smokescreen.
We must chart an independent line, away from bourgeois–imperialist plans and based on the interests of the working class and the other popular strata of the country, which have nothing to do with the interests of all the above.
This is what the KKE has been doing, defending the interests of the Greek people and intensifying the struggle for the disengagement of Greece from NATO–EU imperialist plans, wars, and alliances, from the strategic alliance with the USA and France.
This is the line of conflict with those who lead the people to the slaughterhouse of war in the name of enhancing the interests of the bourgeoisie.”
Concluding his speech, D. Koutsoumbas stressed that “The position of the KKE to vote against the new armaments is a position in line with the needs of the Greek people, including their needs for the safeguarding of their borders, of their sovereign rights, of peace and security, of friendship and cooperation with all peoples of the region and the world.
We are voting against the “Rafale” jets and the “Belharra” frigates. We do not vote against the purchase of torpedoes.
The position of the KKE is a position that goes hand in hand with the struggle:
- For the disentanglement of the country from imperialist plans, for non-participation in NATO aggressive military exercises and the encirclement of Russia.
- Against the ratification of the new Greece–USA Agreement and any agreement that binds the people and the country to dangerous imperialist plans.
- For the immediate closure of the bases of death. For the disengagement from imperialist unions, with the people masters in our country.”
inter.kke.gr
