The Parties express their support and solidarity to the militants, including two members of the CC of the KKE and a member of the Central Council of KNE, who were beaten, injured and arrested following the unprovoked attack by police forces on the day of nationwide strike on April 6th in Thessaloniki.
Read some of the statements:
Communist Party of Albania
Charge d'Affaires for International Relations, Gjon Bruçi.
Tirana, April 8, 2022.
Dear comrades,
We are indignant to hear that the mass strike rally held in Thessaloniki was brutally attacked by the police, resulting in the unjustified arrests of 8 of the protesters, among them two members of the CC of KKE and a member of the Central Council of KNE. In this attack, one of the CC members was severely injured and hospitalised.
Tens of thousands of people demonstrated throughout Greece on the 6th of April, responding to the call of PAME and other mass organisations. The 24-hour nationwide strike was a response to high prices and the military involvement of Greece in the war in Ukraine, as a member of NATO. The strike was an important step in escalating the struggle of the labour and popular movement. For this very reason, the bourgeoisie of Greece and its political representatives decided to attack the working class and its vanguard party, KKE.
The working people of Greece, just like the working people throughout the world, are going through a process of impoverishment, as a result of the crisis that capitalism is going through. Bourgeoisies are putting the burden of this crisis on the shoulders of the workers. It is time for the toiling masses to put an end to this oppression and raise their voices against it. This is exactly what the working class in Greece is doing.
On the other hand, the struggle in Ukraine between the bourgeoisies of Western capitalist powers and Russian capitalism has a deepening effect on the aforementioned crisis. Western imperialism and NATO is trying to use this as an opportunity to consolidate its strength and overcome the crisis of hegemony that imperialism has been going through in recent years.
As a member of this war machine, the reactionary Greek government is fully backing the NATO plans in Eastern Europe and is making Greece a part of these plans. But the workers in this country are heroically resisting this development.
Because of this two-sided resistance, the workers in Greece and KKE as their vanguard, have become a target for the government. But the workers’-people’s movement will not back down, just like it was evident when they pressurised the government and the 8 militants were released the following day.
The people of Greece and the people of Turkey, have to continue their historical friendship and raise the common struggle against the bourgeois classes of their countries as well as the struggle against imperialism and its war machine, NATO.
The Communist Party of Turkey declares its solidarity with the workers’-people’s movement in Greece and with KKE. We will not back down!
Communist Party of Turkey
Central Committee
8.4.2022.
Communist Party of Sweden (SKP)
The Communist Party of Sweden expresses its solidarity with our comrades in the Communist Party of Greece, who have been violently arrested by the police, due to their principled struggle against the participation of Greece in the escalation of the war in the Ukraine.
In particular, we condemn the barbaric actions of the police, causing such injuries to one of the arrested communists that he was taken to a hospital, where he was then handcuffed to his wheelchair.
The protests in the port of Thessaloniki, where the communists and unionists clashed with police, have been directed against the efforts to turn the port into a transportation hub for NATO military transports. It honors the Greek communists that they have taken the lead in the struggle against this development and we express our full support for the actions and struggle of the communists and working people in Greece.
All solidarity to the Greek communists and workers!
The International Section of the Communist Party of Sweden.
Workers' Party of Ireland
SOLIDARITY WITH THE KKE AND KNE
8 April 2022
Dear comrades,
The Workers Party of Ireland condemns the violent and unprovoked attack by police forces in Thessaloniki during the mass strike rally on 6 April 2022, as those on strike were protesting in the Port of Thessaloniki, where a NATO ship had berthed in order to transfer military equipment to Eastern Europe.
This vicious attack was followed by the unjustified arrest of 8 protesters, among them two members of the Central Committee of the KKE - one of whom was severely injured and hospitalized - and a member of the Central Council of ΚΝΕ. A journalist of “Rizospastis”, the daily newspaper–organ of the CC of the KKE, was also attacked.
The bourgeois Greek government is fighting to promote the policy of escalating the involvement of Greece in the dangerous imperialist plans of NATO–US–EU and the imperialist war with Russia that is being waged in Ukraine. In Ireland, the government together with the bourgeois and social-democratic parties continue to adopt positions which favour the plans of the USA, NATO and the EU and their intervention in the region.
The WPI stands with its Greek comrades in the KKE and KNE and condemns the suppression of legitimate protests against this imperialist war and demands an immediate end to arrests and provocative charges.
Long live socialist internationalism!
Solidarity with the KKE and KNE!
Strengthen the class struggle against the imperialist plans of the USA, NATO and the EU!
No to imperialist war!
No to NATO!
In comradely solidarity,
Ted Tynan, President
Gerry Grainger, International Secretary
On behalf of the
Central Executive Committee
Workers Party of Ireland.
German Communist Party
To the Communist Party of Greece
Dear comrades!
The German Communist Party is in solidarity with the strikers in Greece who took part in a nationwide strike on Wednesday against price increases, for wage increases and collective labour agreements. Leading these actions was the trade union PAME, the Communist Party of Greece and the Communist Youth Organisation KNE were in the forefront of these actions.
In Thessaloniki there were attacks by the police on the strikers, who were also protesting against Greece's participation in the NATO war policy. We strongly protest against the repressions against the KKE and the KNE, against the arrest of eight activists, including members of the KKE and the KNE, at the strike rally in the port of Thessaloniki, where NATO equipment is being loaded. They now face trial after their release.
Our party is also fighting against price increases that are pushing more and more people into poverty in Germany as well. We have therefore launched a campaign for a freeze on energy prices and demand the socialisation of energy companies.
We also demand an end to all support for the Ukrainian regime, the lifting of the sanctions, which are contrary to international law, and the withdrawal of the FRG from the NATO war alliance, which has been militarily encircling the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China for decades.
The German Communist Party declares its solidarity with the KKE of the KNE and all strikers in Greece and demands the immediate termination of the proceedings against the eight activists.
With communist greetings
Renate Koppe
International Secretary.
Communist Party of Luxembourg
To the Central Committee of the KKE,
the Central Council of the KNE
and the editorial board of »Rizospastis«
Dear comrades
We have learned with great indignation about the violence against strikers and demonstrators in Thessaloniki on Thursday and have taken note of the arrest of eight protesters.
On behalf of the CC of the KPL and the editorial board of the communist daily »Zeitung vum Lëtzebuerger Vollek«, I convey to you, the comrades of the KKE, the KNE and the editorial board of »Rizospastis« our full and unrestricted solidarity. We wish comrade Efthimis Dimakis a speedy recovery from his injuries.
We condemn any violence against people expressing their demand for peace. We strongly reject the presumption of putting comrades of the KKE and the KNE and other peace activists on trial for demonstrating for peace and demand the immediate termination of the trials.
With communist greetings
Ali Ruckert
President of the KPL
and Editor-in-Chief of the "Zeitung vum Lëtzebuerger Vollek".
Communist Party of Mexico (Partido Comunista Mexicano)
El Partido Comunista de México expresa su total solidaridad al Partido Comunista de Grecia-KKE, a la Juventud Comunista de Grecia-KNE, y a las fuerzas clasistas y radicales del sindicalismo y del movimiento popular que han realizado una exitosa huelga general el 6 de Abril, y que han enfrentado la represión en Tesalónica al protestar contra la maquinaria de guerra de la OTAN.
La clase obrera de Grecia con su Partido Comunista al frente están confrontando con determinación la guerra imperialista desde el primer momento, así como las implicaciones del gobierno de Grecia en ella. Condenando a ambos bandos del imperialismo que disputan sus intereses y sosteniendo con firmeza los intereses de los trabajadores de todos los países.
Actuando en interés de la clase obrera, del pueblo de Grecia y de los pueblos del Mundo, el KKE y la KNE, junto a muchos partidos comunistas en el planeta alza su fuerza contra la intención de una guerra generalizada detrás de la cual están los intereses de los monopolios, del capital. Por ello también saludamos la decisión del KKE de no participar en la sesión del Parlamento de Grecia donde se le dio voz al premier ucraniano Zelensky acompañado de los fascistas de Azov.
Repudiamos las agresiones contra huelguistas, periodistas, y miembros del CC del KKE y la KNE en Tesalónica. Su sacrificio y dignidad son un ejemplo que se levanta para enfrentar militantemente a la guerra. Es un ejemplo que se multiplicará por qué a las palabras, las posiciones de principios van unidos los hechos y las acciones.
Condenamos al gobierno de Grecia por tales actos represivos. En relación a los comunistas procesados por las acciones contra la guerra que serán llevados a juicio el 15 de Junio expresamos que ese día estaremos en la Embajada de Grecia manifestando nuestra solidaridad con ellos y condenando al gobierno griego que muestra su carácter reaccionario, anticomunista y militarista.
¡Proletarios de todos los países, uníos!
El Comité Central del Partido Comunista de México.
Communists of Catalonia
Solidaridad con los camaradas del KKE represaliados
Estimados camaradas,
desde Comunistas de Cataluña queremos expresar nuestra máxima solidaridad con los dos camaradas miembros del comité central del KKE, el camarada del Consejo Central de la KNE y el periodista de Rizospastis.
La represión por parte del estado griego la podemos encuadrar en la ola represiva que se está viviendo en elconjunto de Europa, con la excusa de la guerra en Ucrania y el histerismo de guerra imperante, vulnerándose todas las garantías democráticas que la misma Europa dice defender.
En esta ola represiva, los y las comunistas somos una de los principales objetivos y la violencia expresada contra los camaradas del KKE es una buena muestra de esto.
A pesar de esto, esta represión es totalmente fútil, no nos van a amedrentar en nuestra lucha por la conquista de los derechos de la clase trabajadora y en contra el imperialismo y sus guerras devastadoras.
Queremos mandar de nuevo nuestro apoyo a los luchadores represaliados, sus familias y seres allegados, así como a todos los camaradas del KKE y la KNE.
¡Arriba los que luchan!
Secretaría de Relaciones Internacionales
Comunistas de Cataluña.
Communist Front (Italy) - Fronte Comunista
On April 6, in the port of Thessaloniki, the police violently and without any justification attacked the protesters participating in the mass strike called against imperialist war, the sending of weapons to Ukraine and the growing involvement of Greece in the warmongering plans of the US-EU-NATO imperialist bloc. A member of the CC of the KKE was seriously injured. The police violence was followed by the equally unjustified arrest of 8 demonstrators, including two members of the CC of the Party, a member of the Central Council of KNE and a journalist of the party newspaper “Rizozpastis”, who was also injured.
The arrested comrades were released on April 7, thanks to the pressure of the workers’ and popular movement, but remain indicted for heavy charges, ranging from resistance and violence against public officials to damage to foreign property. The trial was set for June 15th.
Once again, the bourgeois state responds with violence, repression and legal persecution to the just protest of the workers against the ever more direct involvement of our countries in the imperialist war in Ukraine. The consequences of the clash between great powers, fought on the skin of the peoples of all the parties to the conflict, are already extremely severe for workers in terms of generalized rise in prices and rates, in particular for transport, energy and basic goods, of increased unemployment because of the closure of many companies due to sanctioning hysteria, of general worsening of the economic cycle, which has clearly entered a phase of stagflation and recession. Furthermore, the increase in military spending and the frenzied supply of armaments to Ukraine, in addition to pushing the end of the conflict further and further away, are causing a surge in public debt that the imperialist bourgeoisie clearly intends to make the working class and the popular strata pay for, through increased taxation and further cuts in essential services, such as healthcare and education.
The current climate of witch hunt is absolutely intolerable, as well as the public lynching of anyone who tries to objectively analyze the situation in disagreement with the disinformation of the pounding bourgeois propaganda and with war censorship, which prevent any opposing opinion and even remove the Pope’s words from news. The attack is inadmissible on cultural values which are World heritage of humanity; such a barbaric fury has precedents only in the burning of books by Nazis and in the iconoclasm of religious fundamentalism.
In this situation, the Communist Front (Italy) has chosen its battlefield: against any oligarchic regime, any bourgeois government, any imperialist state, we stand alongside the workers and the peoples, for the overthrow of capitalism which is the true cause of all wars, for the establishment of workers’ power, for socialism-communism which sole can insure peace, freedom and justice.
In this spirit we express our militant internationalist solidarity with the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE) and the comrades unjustly hit by bourgeois violence and repression. We call to intensify the mobilization to block the war plans of US-EU-NATO with joint actions of struggle for the unilateral exit of our countries from NATO and the EU.
FREEDOM FOR THE ARRESTED GREEK COMRADES!
NOT EVEN A EURO, NOT EVEN A SOLDIER FOR NATO WARS!
OUT OF NATO! NATO OUT OF OUR COUNTRIES! PROLETARIANS ALL OVER THE WORLD, UNITE!
Rome, April 7, 2022.
COMMUNIST FRONT (ITALY)
The Political Bureau of the Central Committee.
Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV)
Communist Party, Italy
Dear Comrades,
The Political Bureau and the Central Committee of the Communist Party (CP-Italy) wish to express their deepest and most intense solidarity with your Party over the brutal beatings carried out by the Greek police against comrades of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), some of whom are now in serious condition.
Episodes like this show us how the EU and NATO are at the heart of an authoritarian shift of epochal proportions, at the service of the Western financial oligopolies who have planned a third world war to maintain their firm control over the world.
Please accept these few lines inspired by the most sincere spirit of proletarian internationalism and internationalist effort against the imperialist war aimed at the subjugation of peoples.
Comradely.
Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF)
Moscow, April 8, 2022
To the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece
Dear comrades!
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation expresses its solidarity and support to the Communist Party of Greece and the Communist Youth Organization and sharply condemns actions violence undertaken by the police against the participants of the demonstration dated 6 April of this year.
The CPRF considers as totally unacceptable and shameful the detention along with serious physical abuse of peaceful KKE demonstrators coming up with patriotic slogans against country’s involvement in NATO plans for a full-scale war with Russia on the territory of Ukraine.
We demand an immediate end of the prosecution of protesters detained along with removal of all unsubstantiated charges against them.
Shame on Greece’s ruling authority, trampling all democratic rights and freedoms of the people!
Comradely,
CPRF CC Presidium.
Party of Labour of Austria (PdA)
Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan
In the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece
Dear comrades!
The Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan expresses solidarity with the Communist Party of Greece and the Communist Youth of Greece and protests against the detention on April 6 during the general strike of eight KPG and KMG activists, and the beating of two members, including a journalist of the newspaper "Rizospastis". This is a manifestation of real terror and repression on the part of the bourgeois state during the anti-imperialist rally in Thessaloniki, when members of the KKE and KMG openly opposed NATO and dragging their country into an imperialist war.
Moreover, we are outraged that on June 15, activists beaten and arrested during a peaceful rally will also appear before the court only because they showed their internationalist position. All the more absurd are the accusations of disobedience to the police, an attempt to release a detainee, damage to someone else's property and violence against officials.
The fact that all the charges are fabricated also follows from the fact that the police initially accused the arrested comrades of violating the law on weapons and rocket launchers, as well as on the use of weapons, which were then hastily withdrawn because of their absurdity. This is a clear attempt to unleash real repression against members of the Communist Party of Greece and its youth organization.
These shameful facts show the desire of the ruling class to crack down on the Communists, who are the only ones who consistently defend the interests of workers against the advance of capital in Greece and lead the workers' movement. It is not for nothing that this case occurred during the general strike. This is also aimed at breaking the resistance of the people, including against the country's involvement in the imperialist war.
The Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan condemns the repression of the Greek government of the New Democracy party, demands the abandonment of plans for the trial of communists and peaceful demonstrators, the investigation and punishment of the guilty police officers who showed violence against the participants of the action against the use of Greek ports by NATO warships!
We are together with the Greek Communists in their struggle for the rights of workers, for socialism!
Political Council of the Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan
Зарегистрировано в ЦА СДК 8 апреля 2022 года за номером ЦА-0408
solidnet.org
