KKE: We draw lessons and inspiration from the history of the labour and communist movement

In a climate of enthusiasm, the opening of the exhibition of Historical - Archival Material of the Attica Party Organization of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), entitled “The liberating - revolutionary 1944”, took place on Saturday 2 November.

The exhibition deals with the heroic action of the KKE under the conditions of the fascist occupation and during the liberation of Greece in 1944 by the partisan People’s Liberation Army (ELAS), which was led by the KKE, as well as with the action of the Party in conditions of revolutionary situation that was formed in the country at that time and in the subsequent conditions of the British imperialist intervention.

Memorials dedicated to communist guerrillas unveiled by the KKE in northern Greece

With two events held in the northern provinces of Florina and Kastoria on Sunday 27 October, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) unveiled two new memorials dedicated to the struggle of the Democratic Army of Greece, the communist-backed guerrilla army which fought against the bourgeois forces and their imperialist allies during the 1946-1949 Civil War.

Both events were attended by the General Secretary of the CC of the KKE Dimitris Koutsoumbas. 

 

The KKE commemorated the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Athens from the Nazis

Thousands of people participated in a mass rally, worthy of the historical 80th anniversary of the liberation of Athens from the Nazi occupiers, organized by the KKE on 12 October 2024.

With their presence in the places that were shaken during the liberation, workers, breadwinners, self-employed, women and young people participating in the rally, picked up the thread of history, sending a resounding and timely message that the people, holding their own flag high, can provide a way out of this system of wars and crises. The rally was at the same time a huge red demonstration against the imperialist war and our country's involvement in the criminal plans of the USA - EU - NATO and the murderous state of Israel.

Napoleon Soukatzidis and the 200 heroic Communists of Kaisariani

Still from the film "The Last Note" (2017)

 By Nikos Mottas

It was in the early hours of 1 May 1944 in occupied Athens when one of the most heroic pages of the Greek resistance was written. In retaliation for the killing of a German General, the Nazis proceeded to the mass execution of 200 communists at the eastern district of the Kaisariani. All of them were former political prisoners and exiles, members and sympathizers of the Communist Party (KKE).

A few days ago, on 27 April 1944, partisans of the Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS) had ambushed and killed German General Franz Krech and three Nazi officers in Laconia, Peloponnese. 

Lazaros Kyritsis, Greek communist resistance fighter, dies at 102

Lazaros Kyritsis, veteran member of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), guerrilla fighter and politician, died in Athens at the age of 102. Kyritsis was a member of the generation of communists who were persecuted, exiled and imprisoned by the bourgeois state in the post-war years.

In a statement published on 902 portal, the Central Committee of the KKE pays farewell to comrade Lazaros Kyritsis, calling him a “firm and unwavering communist, an unbending participant of the class struggle who stood for the people's rights, the high ideals of the struggle for the abolition of the exploitation of man by man, for socialism-communism”. 

EAM: Notes on Greece's National Liberation Front

 By Nikos Mottas.

The 27th of September marked the 80th anniversary of the foundation of EAM, Greece's National Liberation Front, which played the leading role in the struggle against the country's Axis occupation. The major force behind the foundation, organization and activity of EAM was the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) which led the popular, anti-fascist struggle during the 1941-1944 period. 

Greek-American resistance fighter Kostas Lekkas dies

Comrade Lekkas in his 100th birthday.

Kostas Lekkas, also known as Constantine "Gus" Lekas, a fighter of the Greek Resistance during World War II and a long-time member of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), died in New York aged 102.

Comrade Lekkas was born on 7 July 1919 in Elizabeth, New Jersey. At the age of one, alongside his mother and siblings, he moved to Greece, settling at a village in Peloponnese. His father stayed in New York in order to work for a period of time but he was later killed in a car accident.

Museum in honor of communist guerrillas unveiled in Greece

“The KKE is the power of the people today, because it doesn't enter the fold of the false 'national arrangements', it does not obey the hostile for the people bourgeois plans”, pointed out Dimitris Koutsoumbas, General Secretary of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), during his speech in the northern Greek town of Nestorio on Sunday morning.

The speech was given on the occasion of the inauguration of a Museum-Memorial for  the communist guerrilla fighters of EAM-ELAS and the Democratic Army (DSE), who fought against the Axis occupation and during the Greek Civil War respectively. The Museum was a donation by Harisis Tsoutounis who provided a space “in memory of his militant parents”, as well as to “honor the struggle of EAM-ELAS and DSE, to which the people of the area contributed significantly”.

Aris Velouchiotis: The soul of Greek Resistance

Today, June 16th, marks the 75th anniversary since the death of the iconic Greek communist guerrilla Aris Velouchiotis. A member of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and First Captain of the Greek People’s Liberation Army (ELAS) during World War Two, Velouchiotis is a leading personality of the Greek Resistance against the Axis occupation. 

Aris Velouchiotis, whose real name was Thanasis Klaras, Born in Lamia to a wealthy family on August 27, 1905, Aris studied at Larisa’s Averoff Agricultural School and worked briefly as an agronomist. 

Moving to Athens, he became a member of the Communist Youth (OKNE) in 1922 and a member of the KKE in 1925. Due to his radical, communist views he was sent to Kalpaki Disciplinary Platoon, an army camp where communist soldiers were imprisoned and tortured. 

Charilaos Florakis Remembered: The story of a Greek communist leader

By Nikos Mottas.

It was the 22nd of May 2005 when Charilaos Florakis, General Secretary of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) from 1972 to 1991, passed away at the age of 91. Florakis' life and activity, identified with the history and struggles of the KKE, was devoted to the ideals of marxism-leninism.

Born in 1914 in Paliozoglopi, a small village in Thessaly, Charilaos Florakis became a member of OKNE, the Communist Party’s Youth Wing, in 1929. As an OKNE member and later as a student and active worker at the so-called “TTT” (Posts, Telegraphs, Telephone Offices) he began his political activity, during a socially and politically turbulent period for Greece. 

Kyrgyzstan's Parliament attempts to restore the Nazi collaborationist "Turkestan Legion"

Turkestan Legion's fighters under the Nazi Wehrmacht flag.

In a statement issued by the International Relations Section of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), the Party strongly denounces the attempt by Kyrgyzstan's Parliament to restore a Nazi collaborationist legion. 

The so-called "Turkestan SS Legion" was the name for military units which fought in the Wehrmacht during World War II. 

The statement of the KKE is the following:

"The KKE condemns the attempt to restore a legion of the SS which fought against ELAS with the bill that was tabled in the Kyrgyzstan Parliament. 

28 October - "Oxi Day" anniversary: Statement by the Communist Party of Greece (KKE)

On the occasion of the 28th October 1940 (OXI day) anniversary in Greece, which marks the rejection the Greek people of Benito Mussolini's ultimatum and the beginning of the Greco-Italian War, the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) issued a statement, originally published on 902 portal. 

The statement reads:

The 28th of October 1940 and the subsequent struggle of the great majority of the Greek people, mainly through the lines of EAM-ELAS and the KKE, against the triple fascist occupation, consists a source of inspiration and lessons, especially today when the contradictions and the impasses in the global capitalist system generate, once again, the danger of generalized military conflicts. 

Thousands of young communists participated in the 28th anti-imperialist camp of KNE

KKE General Secretary Dimitris Koutsoumbas in
the political event in Karpenisi.

Thousands young men and women from every corner of Greece gathered between 12 and 14 of July, in Karpenisi, in Evrytania, in order to participate in the 28th anti-imperialist camp organized by the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE). 

The base for the camp was Kefalovriso, 3 km from the city of Karpenisi, a place which took its fame from the battle of August 1823 between the Greek revolutionaries and the Ottomans. 

Conclusions from KKE's armed struggle during WWII and from the struggle of DSE

Conclusions from KKE's armed struggle during WWII and from the struggle of DSE (Democratic Army of Greece), through the scope of the strategy of the international communist movement.

Speech by Eleni Bellou,

member of the PB of the CC of the KKE,

at the European Communist Initiative Meeting, Istanbul, 16-17/02/2019.

KKE event in honor of the 74th anniversary of the liberation of Athens by EAM-ELAS

The Attica Party Organisation of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) organizes on Saturday 13 October, at 6 pm, a political event in honor of the 74 years since the liberation of Athens by the ELAS resistance army. 

The event is going to take place at Korais Square and a keynote speech will be delivered by Louiza Razou, member of the Politburo of the CC of the KKE.

What will Greek Communists do in case of a war?

By Nikos Mottas.

The recent escalation of Turkish government's aggressiveness, within the framework of the broader sharpening of the intra-imperialist competitions in the region, gave the opportunity to far-right and fascist circles to propagandize their known nationalist “wet dreams”. An integral part of the nationalist, far-right propaganda was always the stance of the KKE (Greek Communist Party) in case of a war between Greece and Turkey.

Recycling their unhistorical, repulsive anticommunist theory about the supposed “traitorous KKE”, various fascists across Greece's political spectrum- including, of course, the criminals of the Nazi Golden Dawn- began spreading blatant lies and vulgarities.

“In case of Greece's engagement in a war with another country, the KKE has ordered its members to avoid fighting” was the title of a text which, a few days ago, had been republished in various bourgeois, far-right and not, news sites. Of course, this is a known tactic for the political descendants of Maniadakis [1], who are masters in throwing mud against the KKE in order to vilify the Party and the Communists.

50 years of Communist Youth of Greece - Declaration of the Central Council of KNE

Declaration of the Central Council for the course towards the 50 years of life and action of KNE

The 50-year course of KNE is the youthful storming of the future, 

for the new world, socialism-communism

Source: PDF version.

Greece: Communist mayor slams SYRIZA government, boycotts Tsipras' fiesta

KKE-backed mayor of Kesariani,
Ilias Stamelos.

ATHENS- In a symbolic gesture which carries a great message, the communist (KKE-backed) mayor of Kesariani, Ilias Stamelos, officially denied to participate in a governmental fiesta for the 75th anniversary of the country's most significant WW2 resistance movement, EAM (National Liberation Front). The government, along with the state television, ERT, are organising an event at the Kesariani Shooting Range (Skopeftirio)* on Sunday 2 October. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is scheduled to attend the event. 

In a letter addressed to the SYRIZA-ANEL government, mayor Stamelos points out the the city council's decision to deny any participation in October 2nd governmental event. Ilias Stamelos mentions that the heroic legacy of Kesariani's Shooting Range is in contrast with the governmental policy which attacks the rights of the working people. In his letter, among other things, the communist mayor writes:

"The policy exercised by the government is in total dissociation with the struggles and the claims of Kesariani's people and is directed against the Greek people in general. The SYRIZA-ANEL government has unleashed an attack against the rights and achievements of the people. It votes and applies memorandums of austerity, thus implementing a policy which crashes the people with taxes and reductions in wages and pensions, while on the same time it offers exemptions to the big capital". [...]

Declaration of the CC of the KKE: On the 70th anniversary of the Democratic Army of Greece 1946-1949

Athens, February 2016

We are inspired and learn from the 100-year history of the KKE, from the 3-year epic of the DSE.

The CC of the KKE, the entire party and KNE, honours the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the democratic Army of Greece (DSE).

1946 was a year of important developments directly connected to the creation of the DSE, such as:

The 2nd Plenum of the CC of the KKE (12-15 February 1946), which began exactly a year after of the signing of the Varkiza Agreement (12th of February 1945).The 2nd Plenum, even if in a contradictory way, was the one that decided to conduct the armed struggle.

The attack of a group of partisans on the gendarmerie station of Litohoro, on the night of the 30th and early in the morning of the 31st of March 1946, took place on the eve of the parliamentary elections.

Honoring Greek guerrilla leader and communist revolutionary Aris Velouchiotis

Today is the 71st anniversary of the death of the First Captain of the People's Army (ELAS) Aris Velouchiotis (1905-1945). Velouchiotis was a partisan, member of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and guerrilla leader during the Axis occupation in WW2. 

Aris, who was born in Lamia, central Greece in 1905, was a cadre of the Communist Party of Greece and at the decision of the party he undertook the formation of the People’s Army (ELAS) during the fascist occupation, the armed wing of the National Liberation Front (EAM).

Aris opposed the Varkiza Agreement, which disarmed ELAS, and returned to the mountains. In June 1945, his small armed group was surrounded in Mesounda (Arta) and killed by the bourgeois army, which desecrated their corpses, cutting off the heads of Aris and his comrades, which were hung in the central square in the town of Trikala. The then leadership of the party disowned him. 

However, after 1957, the KKE in essence gradually rehabilitated him, something that was confirmed by the decision to politically rehabilitate him during the discussion on the 2nd Volume of the History of the Party, 1949-1968, at the Nationwide Conference in 2011. On 9 October 2011, an event was held by the CC of the KKE for the presentation of the Decision of the Nationwide Conference concerning the official political rehabilitation of the first captain of ELAS, Aris Velouchiotis. A large delegation of the CC of the KKE headed by the then GS of the CC, Aleka Papariga, was present. Speaking at the rally, Telemachus Dimoulas, member of the PB of the CC of the KKE, made extensive reference to the essay on the history of the KKE approved by the National Conference of the KKE and the special decision concerning Aris Velouchiotis. "In the consciousness of the people, Aris Velouchiotis is identified with the heroic history of the KKE, the struggle for the overthrow of imperialist barbarity”.