KKE: Solidarity with the people of Turkey against Erdoğan's authoritarianism

The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) released a text calling for solidarity against the authoritarianism of Erdoğan and Turkey's intervention in Syria.

International Communist Press, 10th April 2016.

The text which was calling for solidarity by signature, condemned Turkey's interventions in Syria and stated solidarity with the ones who are subject to prosecutions by the AKP government and President Erdoğan himself.

The full text and the initial signatories are as follows:

"AGAINST THE ANTIDEMOCRATIC POLICY OF LAW SUITS AND PROSECUTIONS IMPLEMENTED BY THE TURKISH GOVERNMENT AND PRESIDENT T. ERDOGAN.

Pablo Picasso — Why I became a Communist

By Pablo Picasso

My JOINING the Communist Party is a logical step in my life, my work and gives them their meaning. Through design and color, I have tried to penetrate deeper into a knowledge of the world and of men so that this knowledge might free us. In my own way I have always said what I considered most true, most just and best and, therefore, most beautiful. But during the oppression and the insurrection I felt that that was not enough, that I had to fight not only with painting but with my whole being. Previously, out of a sort of "innocence," I had not understood this. I have become a Communist because our party strives more than any other to know and to build the world, to make men clearer thinkers, more free and more happy. 

I have become a Communist because the Communists are the bravest in France, in the Soviet Union, as they are in my own country, Spain. I have never felt more free, more complete than since I joined. While I wait for the time when Spain can take me back again, the French Communist Party is a fatherland for me. In it I find again all my friends - the great scientists Paul Langevin and Frederick Joliot-Curie, the great writers Louis Aragon and Paul Eluard, and so many of the beautiful faces of the insurgents of Paris. I am again among my brothers.

October 1944.

A chronology of the 2011-2012 Greek Steelworkers strike (VIDEO)

         

Video by PAME.

A subtitled video about the 9 months-long strike of the Greek Steelworkers at Helliniki Halivourgia. November 2011, Greece is in the midst of a severe economic crisis. Many strikes in different sectors take place regularly. One of them will last nine months, attracting a wave of domestic and international solidarity. 

Denunciation of Golden Dawn's fascist anti-refugee gathering in Piraeus

Source: 902.gr

Translation: In Defense of Communism.

The local organisation of KKE in Piraeus condemns the fiesta staged by Golden Dawn and calls the working class and the people of the area to reject the fascists's new preaching of hate.

Golden Dawn members gathered outside the Municipal Theatre of Piraeus shouting "against the islamization" of the country, while an anti-fascist rally had been scheduled to take place just on the opposite Korais square. There were clashes between the Neo-Nazis and anarchists and a man from Golden Dawn's block- holding an iron bar- attacked a tv crew. Despite the intervention of police he avoided arrest.

The KKE organisation of Piraeus issued an announcement in which, among others, it states (we underline the most interesting points):

The New Worker- Leave the EU to save our steel

Leave the EU to save our steel.

Republished from "New Worker", the weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain.

SAJID Javid, the Business Secretary, has been running round like mad going to India to plead with the giant company Tata to go slowly with its process of selling off the last remaining working steel plants in Britain. He has been talking about a “responsible sales process”.

And the big steel unions have also been pleading to Tata not to go for a fire sale to asset strippers, who will cherry pick the lucrative bits and ditch the rest, leading quickly to the complete demise of the whole industry.

Che Guevara: “I came to communism because of Stalin”

By Nikos Mottas.

Originally published in atexnos.gr.

Translated from Greek.

Ernesto Che Guevara is undoubtedly a historical figure of the 20^th century's communist movement who attracts the interest of people from a vast range of political ideologies. The years followed his cowardly assassination in Bolivia, Che became a revolutionary symbol for a variety of marxist-oriented, leftist and progressive parties and organisations- from Trotskyists to militant leninists and from Social Democrats to anarcho-libertarians. A significant number of those who admire the argentine revolutionary identify themselves as “anti-stalinists”, hate and curse Stalin while they often refer to the so-called “crimes” of Stalin's era. What is a contradiction and an irony of history is the following: Che Guevara himself was an admirer of Joseph Stalin.

For Capital's sake: SYRIZA government sold Piraeus port to chinese shipping giant COSCO

Sources: Reuters & 902.gr.

The Greek government sealed on Friday the sale of its biggest port to chinese shipping giant COSCO Shipping Corporation, the second major privatization for the bailed out country since late last year.

China COSCO's chairman Xu Lirong, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and the head of Greece's privatization agency signed the 368.5 million euro ($419.43 million) contract in Athens. Under the deal, China Cosco will acquire 51 percent of Piraeus Port (OLP) for 280.5 million euros and the remaining 16 percent for 88 million, after five years once it concludes mandatory investments, which will amount to 350 million euros over the next decade.

Prime Minister and SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras said that the privatization of Piraeus port is the starting point for upcoming investments in the country. Mr.Tsipras defiantly argued that his government's major concern is the protection of the labour rights of the dockworkers- on the same time the chinese shipping giant already applies "galley-slave" conditions in Piraeus.  

Mikis Theodorakis- East Berlin 1987

          

Mikis Theodorakis, East Berlin 1987.

Open-air concert at Rosa Luxemburgplat.

Theodorakis sings himself three of his songs. The first one is from the collection 'Songs of Andreas' and the other two from the epic 'Romiosini' cycle of poems written by Yannis Ritsos. 

Communist Party of Ireland: Political Statement

Political statement.

National Executive Committee, Communist Party of Ireland.

6 April 2016.

At its regular meeting in early April the National Executive Committee of the Communist Party of Ireland evaluated the present political situation and the tasks facing both the communist and the wider working-class movement and progressive forces.

The CPI welcomes the massive turn-out of working people around the country to celebrate the 1916 Rising. Tens of thousands attended both the official government commemoration and the hundreds of locally organised community-sponsored events.

This was a very positive development, considering the decades of sustained criticism and attempts by the political establishment, the establishment media and a large section of academia to undermine and discredit the 1916 Rising as well as the long democratic struggle of the Irish people to achieve independence. Their campaign has failed, and the centenary celebrations have awakened renewed interest in the Rising, those who led it, their motivation, the goal that inspired them, and the legacy of the 1916 Proclamation’s vision of an independent Irish republic.

"Ludlow, Greek Americans in the Colorado coal war" - A documentary by Leonidas Vardaros

         

The trailer of the film.

It's title is "Ludlow, Greek Americans in the Colorado coal war". The documentary by Leonidas Vardaros made it's premiere on April 6, at Alkionis Theater in Athens. The documentary, which received an award at the 18th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, narrates the history of the 1913-14 clash between the United Mine Workers of America and the Coal companies under the leadership of John D.Rockefeller. The workers' descendants remind their fathers and grandfathers' struggle and the injustice they faced.

The class-struggle of 1913-14 led to the Ludlow massacre, on April 20, 1914 the cold-blooded murder of women and children and the assassination of three unionists, among them the leader of the Greek strikers Louis Tikas. 

"Take back the law-guillotine": Mass demonstrations as Greek public sector workers strike over social security disaster

With mass, militant demonstrations in Athens, Thessaloniki and all the major cities, public sector's workers sent their message to the co-coalition government. Thursday's 24-hour walkout called by public sector union ADEDY coincides with a review by lenders of Greece's compliance with terms of an international bailout agreed last year. 

Organised by the All-Militant Workers Front (PAME), the demonstration in central Athens took place in Omonia Square where thousands of workers expressed their condemnation for the government's draft law on social security- an anti-people law that destroys the social security system and any rights derive from it. 

KKE: Condemnation of anti-democratic actions by the authorities in Kazakhstan and Latvia

Source: inter.kke.gr.

Regarding the imprisonment of Vadim Kuramshin:

Vadim Kuramshin.

The Delegation of the KKE in the European Parliament, tabled a question to the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy is relation to the persecution in Kazakhstan. The question noted that:

Vadim Kuramshin has been in prison in Kazakhstan for the last 4 years since 2012, when he was condemned to 12 years imprisonment on false and fabricated charges. In reality, he was imprisoned for his activity against the violation of democratic rights and gains by the Kazakhstan regime. It was no accident that his arrest and imprisonment happened immediately after his participation in a OSCE event in Warsaw, where he talked about instances of torture in the prisons of Kazakhstan.

He himself has made accusations that he has been the victim of inhuman treatment in Kazakhstan's prisons.

The current bourgeois regime that emerged in Kazakhstan after the overthrow of socialism and the dissolution of the USSR is constantly showing its anti-democratic and anti-people character, violently and murderously suppressing labour struggles, banning the activity of the CP of Kazakhstan, imposing new anti-democratic laws to control and more strictly manipulate the trade unions and to reduce labour rights and gains, imprisoning defenders of democratic rights.

Robert Conquest's lies about Socialism, Stalin and the USSR - A presentation by Mario Sousa (VIDEO)

         

Source: ProletarianTV.

This presentation by Mario Sousa - less than an hour in duration - will change your view of history. "Most sane and educated people accept that there were serious human rights abuses in the Soviet Union, during the Stalin period." he says. The evidence is 'everywhere' - everyone says so, and there's no smoke without fire, after all. But what is the evidence? And where does it come from?

Golden Dawn Neo-Nazis' admiration for Donald Trump

Special to In Defense of Communism.

The republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has gained some new fans on the other side of the Atlantic. His offensive, openly racist rhetoric seems to charm the Neo-Nazi thugs of 'Golden Dawn'. That explains why the websites of the Greek criminal-fascist organisation include articles praising Trump ("a patriot and a nice guy" as they call him) and his anti-immigration, anti-muslim language. 

Commenting on Trump, Golden Dawn MP Panagiotaros said during a party's web discussion: "The latest thing he (Trump) said is "it is better to live one day as a lion than a hundred days as a sheep". And when they told him that these were the words of Mussolini, he replied "I don't care"... The guy doesn't mince his words". The same admiration for Trump can be found in articles published in the official site of Golden Dawn's Nazis. For example, we read the following: "The candidate for the republican nomination, Donald Trump, hasn't stop telling truths which exceedingly annoy the american-zionist establishment". On the same article, the author... congratulates Trump for "his courage". 

Pablo Neruda- Ode to Lenin

I

Lenin, to sing to you

I must say farewell to words:

I must write with trees, with wheels,

with plows, with cereals.

You’re concrete

as facts and earth.

There never was

a more earthly man

than V. Ulyanov.

The international economic crisis and the position of Greece - The theses of KKE

The international economic crisis  the position of Greece. 

The theses of KKE / By Eleni Bellou.

Source: International Communist Review, Issue 1, July 2014.

The international capitalist economy is going through a profound crisis characterized mainly by its extensive synchronization. It initially manifested itself in 2007 in the USA, in the construction sector, with the depreciation of capital in financial companies, due to the extensive circulation of investment derivatives in securitized precarious housing loans.

The danger of collapse of US financial giants -that hold powerful positions in the international market of money capital- caused a gradual and generalized large decrease of prices in the most important stock markets in the world. It was the “tip of the iceberg” in the manifestation of a generalized crisis of overproduction, overaccumulation of capital.

An optimistic version of the current data and assessments of the international economic organisations pinpoint 2010 as the year of the lowest point of recession. An increase of the number of unemployed by 25 million has already been registered and it is estimated that another 40 millions will be added by the end of the year. In 2009, the Gross World Product is expected to shrink by 1,7% according to the World Bank and by 2,75% according to the OECD. The latter estimates that the international trade will shrink by 13,2% in 2009.

The International Monetary Fund estimates the depreciation of money capital to 4,1 trillion dollars since the manifestation of the crisis.

Martin Luther King (1929-1968)

April 4, 1968- American-African Civil Rights Movement leader Martin Luther King, Jr was assassinated in Memphis, Tenneessee. Honoring Dr.King, we present below a video from his famous- "I Have a Dream"- speech.

       

Statistics of NATO's "peacekeeping operations"

Statistics of NATO's "peacekeeping operations".

Source: anti-nato.com.

Yugoslavia

• Dead – 5,700 people, including 400 children
• Wounded – nearly 7,000 civilians, 30% of them children
• Missing – 821 people
• Excess mortality as a result of deterioration of conditions of existence not estimated 

http://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/nato/Natbm200-01.htm

Patras municipality: Mass participation in the beginning of the 220km anti-unemployment marathon

The banner of the 220km march against
unemployment.

Latest news reports from the city of Patras refer to "mass participation" in the municipality's iniative to organise a 220km march to Athens having as a slogan "Jobs for everybody-Labour with rights". The march began at 9 am on Sunday at Georgiou square in the city-center. In the forefront of the march was the communist mayor of Patras, Kostas Peletidis, while hundreds of labour unions, women and youth associations, student organisations were following. 

The- marathon like- march will end in Athens' Syntagma Square on April 10 when a large demonstration will take place during the evening with the participation of hundreds labour unions and various associations from Attica.

The SYRIZA-ANEL government ratified the wretched bargain of the EU with Turkey's ruling class

         

(VIDEO from PAME's rally in support of the refugees in Athens)

Republished from inter.kke.gr.

On the 1^st of April 2016, the draft law related to the ratification of the European Union’s agreement with Turkey on the issue of refugees and immigrants was discussed and passed in the Greek parliament. All the reactionary EU decisions from September 2015 to its most recent Summit that have been co-signed to by the SYRIZA-ANEL government were integrated into Greek legislation in this way.

The European bourgeois states adjust- in a more reactionary direction- their legislation on asylum and regarding those who are entitled to international protection in line with these decisions. This is in complete contradiction to International Law regarding refugees, despite the hypocritical references to and invocations of the Geneva Convention.

RIZOSPASTIS Headlines (3/4/2016)

Sunday edition of "Rizospastis".

Organ of the CC of KKE.

3/4/2016.

- Escalation of people's activity in front of unpopular developments.

- Coalition government-Quartet: Anti-people escalation in the background of memorandums' update.

- D.Koutsoumbas: The working-peoples' movement to demand immediate measures for the refugees, against the EU decisions.

- Patras Municipality- March against unemployment: Today at 9 am the beginning from Patras.

Anti-communist hysteria reloaded: Polish authorities to take down 500 Soviet-Era monuments

Do the Polish authorities follow the pathway of the neo-fascist regime of Ukraine? Do they really think they can erase history just by taking down soviet monuments? Is it simply another episode of anti-communist hysteria?

This Red Army Memorial, in Skaryszewski Park in Warsaw, was removed by Polish officials in July. (Photo: masti/WikiCommons CC BY-SA 3.0).

The above questions came into mind when we read the following in atlasobscura: 

For months, Poland has embarked on a campaign to remove hundreds of Soviet-era monuments, much to the chagrin of Russia, who can do little more than sit on the sidelines and watch. 

Greek parliament discussion on draft law for the refugees- ΚΚΕ: "You ask from the murderer to solve the problem"

KKE's parliamentary rep., MP Thanasis Pafilis.

The fact that the SYRIZA-ANEL coalition government brings with fast-track procedure the draft law for the refugees- and on the same time adds more than 100 technical legislative issues- is unacceptable and serves other purposes said Thanasis Pafilis, the parliamentary representative of the Communist Party of Greece.

Refering to the causes of the refugee issue- taking into account that during their speeches the MPs of SYRIZA and New Democracy refered to various causes- Pafilis said that all of them voted and supported NATO's decision for a 'New Middle East' that was taken at the 2004 NATO summit in Istanbul. "When you signed the plan or when you supported it when it was submitted to the European Parliament, didn't you know what the outcome would be?" asked Pafilis. The KKE MP also added that only the Communist Party had then opposed these plans thus receiving-then- the accusations from the New Democracy, PASOK as well as from SYRIZA.

The 1956 counter-revolution in Hungary and the present-day anti-Communist Propaganda

The 1956 counter-revolution in Hungary and the present-day anti-Communist Propaganda

Source: International Communist Review, Issue 2, 2014.

In the years of 1989-90 a bourgeois counter-revolution took place in Hungary. Opportunist and revisionist forces inside the leadership of the former Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party (HSWP) made a bargain with capitalist circles of the USA and Germany and handed over the power to internal bourgeois counter-revolitionary forces. The Marxist wing inside the HSWP proved unable to defend the achievements of socialism. Later those who surrendered the socialism reorganised themselves into the Hungarian Socialist Party and joined the political system of capitalist Hungary. Neither can we neglect the role of the opportunist policy of the former leadership of the Soviet Union, that betrayed socialism.

The bourgeois forces which gained power in 1990 consider the 1956 their historical ideal. On this ideal is based the whole political and ideological system of capitalist Hungary. It also constitutes the main means of the present-day anti-communist propaganda.