The demonstrators united their voices under the slogan “No to the imperialist war in Ukraine”. They demanded that our country's involvement should stop. They shouted that they will not accept that the people pay the price of the war, that they face high prices that erode the income of the working class and greater energy poverty.
Addressing the mass rally, D.
Koutsoumbas noted among other things that “Here, at Syntagma square,
there is one slogan being heard all over Athens and echoing across
Greece: ‘We do not choose a camp between thieves, we choose the camp of
the peoples’.
We are saying ‘No to the imperialist war’.
We demand that the involvement of our country should stop.
We do not accept that our people pay the price of the war.
This is the loudest ‘No to war’ that is continuing to be heard for more than a month now, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which we have strongly condemned from the very first moment.
We choose the camp of the peoples against NATO’s propaganda which forces the people to choose a camp between thieves only to acquit the USA, NATO, and the EU for their crimes over time but also for this criminal plan that has been put into effect in Eastern Europe for a decade now, against both the people of Ukraine and Russia.
We choose the camp of the peoples against the declarations of war made by the government, talking about peace in order to justify the imperialist war and Greece’s escalating participation and involvement in it.
We choose the camp of the peoples against the fake so-called national line and unity which aims at aligning the people with the US and NATO plans for the sake of enhancing the profits of the Greek monopolies to the detriment of the interests of the working class and the people.
We choose the camp of the peoples against anti-communism, the slandering of socialism that still haunts them, the silencing and distortion of the positions of the KKE that are a thorn in the side of the Euro-Atlantic propaganda. (…)
The Euro-Atlantic narrative, which uses the unacceptable Russian invasion as a pretext to whitewash the US-NATO crimes, cuts no ice with the Greek people.
It bothers them that large sections of the people, the youth, the scientists, and the artists do not respond to their war cries to align with one camp of thieves over the other.
Above all, it bothers them that there is a Communist Party in Greece, the KKE, which consistently over time, even in brighter periods of seeming peace, has been studying the developments, warning the people, and, most importantly, pointing to the only patriotic and internationalist way; the way of disentanglement from the warmongering plans and the disengagement from the imperialist alliances in which our country participates.
That is why they used their cobwebbed anti-communist arsenal to repeat the well-known absurdities. (…)
The things we have heard and read those past days…
Even that Putin seeks to revive the Soviet Union, as if the current capitalist, nationalist, and reactionary Russia bears any resemblance to the workers’ multinational state where dozens of peoples and ethnicities had been living in peace for decades. (…)
They fool no one! And if today they support the Ukrainian government and invite its president to address the parliament, it is not because they are concerned about the tragedy faced by the people of Ukraine but because they align with the US-NATO-EU camp, which supports the Zelenskyi government.
As if they are not aware that the Zelenskiy government is as much responsible as the Russian one for the tragedy befalling the Ukrainian people.
As if they are not aware that the Zelenskiy government has been supporting and including Nazi organizations. It persecutes and imprisons communists, it has outlawed the CP of Ukraine. (…)
All of those —government functionaries and their mouthpieces— who chastise the KKE for its stance are well aware of all of that!
Exactly like SYRIZA, KINAL, and MERA 25 that are very eager to take their seats to applaud Zelenskiy because all of them have a permanent place in the Euro-Atlantic camp.
However, this consistent stance of the KKE expresses true solidarity with the Ukrainian people, who are being severely tested by the imperialist war.
The staffs of the system attempt to identify anyone who says ‘no to war, solidarity with the people of Ukraine’, that is, anyone who does not align with NATO’s narrative, as pro-Russian. However, they will fail!
They will fall flat on their faces! They will leave with their tails between their legs due to their monstrous lies (…)
The war cannot be understood with the pretexts used by the one or the other side, the one or the other warring party, because we will be led to false conclusions.
The war can only be understood as the continuation of policy with other, violent means.
That is the criterion introduced by the greatest war theorist, Carl von Clausewitz, and adopted by Marxist intellectuals which can lead us to safe conclusions. (…)
Imperialist war is the continuation of both the domestic and foreign policy of each capitalist state; it is the continuation of the economic and state policy in times of peace.
War functions with the exact same ‘laws’ and ‘rules’ as capitalism in times of peace.
The same tendencies, the same powers are the ones urging war: The intensification of the exploitation of the working class, the competition among big business groups over the market shares, and the race for maximum percentage of profit are what drive peace and war.
As always, once again, the war in Ukraine has accelerated pre-existing plans. And they are no other than:
- The strategy of the green transition, firstly in the name of environmental protection, now in the name of independence from Russian gas, which the people are paying and will continue to pay dearly.
- Alternative supply plans, such as the extremely expensive US liquefied natural gas (LNG), with Greek shipowners playing a leading role in its transfer and preparing for a lucrative business.
- The monetary war, with the effort of Russia and China to establish energy transactions based on the Chinese yuan and to create a new international interbank transaction system.
All the above do not only result from war; they are also accelerated and strengthened through it.
All the above also answer to the so-called pacifists who argue that war is an absurdity of leaders, something alien to the capitalist function, for the sole reason to let the system that gives rise to wars off the hook (…)
The working class and the people can and must chart their own independent line, away from all bourgeois and imperialist plans, setting their own goals and plans so that they eventually turn their vision for a life without poverty and wars into reality (…)
Faced with the crucial question ‘what should our people do in war?’ the answer is one: to take their place in the struggle against the involvement of each country.
That is the choice placing the people on the right side of history, and not the choice to align with one imperialist camp over the other.
The right side of history is the struggle against war in all countries; the condemnation of the Russian military intervention but also of the USA, NATO, and the EU that fuel the war.
The struggle for the closure of all US-NATO military bases in our country.
So that no conscripts, officers, and junior officers are sent abroad.
The Armed Forces of the country have no business in participating in missions abroad. They have a duty to protect the borders and the territorial integrity of our country, our sovereign rights.
The right side of history is the struggle so that the people do not pay the price for the war! It is not their price to pay!
It is the struggle to impede the effort made by the big capital and the employers to silence us at the time that they drag us into the war!
At the same time that capital is rubbing its hands because it expects to benefit from the involvement, the working class and the people have a lot to lose. Both literally and figuratively!
Every time we were told to ‘stand united’, the working class would hit rock bottom so that the profits of capital would be maximized. They are doing the same now…
But now is our time!
It is time to defend our lives and our children from the deeper misery brought about by war and entanglement, high prices, and impoverishment.
Now is the time to hamper the aspiration of capital to intensify exploitation.
Now is the time for everyone to take their place on the side of the workers’ front, as the song says; so that ‘the people will not pay the price for the war’!
Now is the time to organize the struggle for:
-The protection of the people’s income,
-Measures to address high prices,
-Substantial relief from the exorbitant bills,
-The abolition of VAT on basic consumer goods,
-Debt relief,
-Salary increases and Collective Labour Agreements.
Now is the time to strengthen the organization and mobilization around the trade unions and the other mass organizations of the popular movement, the struggle committees in the neighbourhoods, the strike committees in the workplaces, in order to strengthen the voice of the workers.
And this voice must be heard even louder during the strike on 6 April, all around Greece!”
inter.kke.gr
