Dimitris Koutsoumbas: "Tsipras and SYRIZA are fighting to save the rotten and exploitative capitalist system"

Dimitris Koutsoumbas, General Secretary of Greece's Communist Party (KKE) unleashed a fierce attack against the SYRIZA government of Alexis Tsipras during a public speech on Sunday in Thessaloniki. Speaking at an open public party-organised event honoring the 80th anniversary of May 1936 workers uprising, Koutsoumbas included a well-pointed attack against the social-democratic reformism and hypocrisy of Prime Minister Tsipras and the SYRIZA-ANEL government. 

Among other things, the GS of the CC of KKE said the following:

"Lately, SYRIZA delivers 'courses' of leftism and radicalism, like Mr.Tsipras did recently in the Parliament by saying, speaking to our Party, that "in today's difficult circumstances, left and radical is not to fantasize a virtual society, which you know that, even if you fight for that, isn't easy to come, but to 'bleed' in order to crerate- even slowly but steadlily- the circumstances when changes for the protection of rights of many will be able to thrive"!!!

But our difference with SYRIZA isn't that we are fighting for another, 'victual' society as Tsipras says, each party with different way.

Thousands participated in Athens' 36th Marathon Peace Rally in memory of Lambrakis

Thousands people of every age took part in the 36th Marathon Peace Rally in Athens, organised by the Greek Committee for International Détente and Peace (EEDYE). The marathon march began from the town of Marathon in the early morning of Sunday and ended in front of the Defense Ministry. The participants walked through the Attica towns of Nea Makri, Rafina, Pikermi, Pallini and Agia Paraskevi, before reaching the building of the Ministry. 

The Marathon Peace Rally ended with a speech by Giorgos Lambrakis, Vice-President of EEDYE and son of assassinated politician and peace activist Grigoris Lambrakis, following with a music concert by Giorgos Sarris and his band. 

Below you can see some photos from the Peace Rally (Source: 902.gr).

CIA was behind the arrest of 'dangerous communist' Nelson Mandela, reveals former US spy

A former CIA agent has finally confirmed what the world has long suspected: the US agency was behind the arrest that put Nelson Mandela in prison for 27 years.

Two weeks before “unrepentant” 88-year-old Donald Rickard died, the CIA spy confessed to filmmaker John Irvin that his tip led to Mandela’s arrest, according to a report in the Sunday Times.

Rickard defended the arrest of South Africa’s most wanted man in 1962, which he says was necessary to capture “the world’s most dangerous communist outside of the Soviet Union.”

Rickard, who was officially working as US vice consul in the South African city of Durban at the time, said he learned Mandela was on his way to Natal, traveling between Johannesburg and Durban.

Thessaloniki: Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties from Balkan countries - The dangerous role of the EU and NATO in the Balkans

Being an iniatitive of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), the Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties from Balkan countries takes place today, Sunday 15 May, in Thessaloniki. The topic of the meeting is "The dangerous role of the EU and NATO in the Balkans, the monopoly antagonisms which bring the imperialist war, refugees, nationalism and the response of the people". An introductory speech was delivered by the General Secretary of KKE Dimitris Koutsoumbas while the KKE Member of the European Parliament Sotiris Zarianopoulos welcomed the foreign delegations on behalf of the Communist Party's local organisation which hosts the meeting.

Communist Youth of Greece (KNE): Statement on the decision of Athens Municipality to grant space for neo-Nazi gathering

In a statement issued today, the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE) condemns the decision of the Municipality of Athens to grant a city park ("Gendarmerie Grove"/Alsos Horofilakis) for a gathering by the neo-Nazi 'Golden Dawn' party's youth wing:

"The decision of the Municipality of Athens to grant space at "Gendamerie Grove" to Golden Dawn for the organisation of the "Festival of Greek Youth" legalizes it's criminal activity. They give space to the Nazis in order to pour their racist and fascist poison.

If the Golden Dawn's Nazis want to organise a gathering, let them go to one of their leader's 10 properties; he is the richest political party leader.

The positions of Golden Dawn are positions which support the interests of the rich oligarchy and for that they are hostile towards the young people of the poor families. Golden Dawn, like a mastiff, serves the rotten and corrupt capitalist system which tortures the majority for the enrichment of the few.

KKE: Large political and cultural event to be held on Sunday 15 May in Thessaloniki

On the 80th anniversary of the 1936 workers' uprising, the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) organises a large political and cultural event in the country's second largest city, Thessaloniki. The event- honoring the dead workers of the May 1936 Thessaloniki strikes- will take place on Sunday May 15th afternoon (19:30 local hour) at the city's ancient Roman market. 

The major speaker will be the Party's General Secretary Dimitris Koutsoumbas. 

The event will include a concert comprised of songs composed by Mikis Theodorakis based on Yannis Ritsos' poetic masterpiece "Epitaphios". 

José Reinaldo (Partido Comunista do Brasil): "Coup opens a new phase of the political struggle in Brazil"

Source: Solidnet.org

The legislative-judicial-mediatic coup d’etat in Brazil is going on. On April 17, under authoritarian and farcical driving, the House of Representatives approved the admissibility of impeachment proceedings against the President of the Republic. In the coming days, the Senate welcome the decision, by simple majority, authorize the opening of the procedure and immediately result in expulsion for up to 180 days of President Dilma Rousseff from the post to which she was democratically elected, with 54 million votes.

By José Reinaldo Carvalho (*).

In few months, the Senate will took the predicable final decision, converted to the Court, under the Presidency of the Supreme Court. The traced and executed script in both congressional houses showed so far that there is a game of marked cards and the exercise of a relentless power of the majority made up of reactionary parties. There are not worth logic, rationality or the truth of the facts. It is an abominable counterfeit trial, led by disgusting politicians. A ritual used to give a false constitutionality to something that is already decided. . A judgment made as an expression of a coup, which does not take into account consistent legal criteria.

In recent days, another throw into unbelievable coup plot, aimed at medium-term future: the request of the Attorney General to the Supreme Court to investigate President Dilma Rousseff and former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for "obstruction operation Lava Jato[1]". Invested of Torquemada powers, the attorney general has denounced Lula as "head of a criminal organization" in the operation of the so-called "petrolão[2]".

€600,000 for Hitler's political descendants: How the EU funds Neo-Nazi Parties

Here's another prove of how Imperialist institutions, instruments of the European bourgeoise, promote fascism and nazism. We republish here an article appeared on EurActiv (27 April 2016) which reveals that the EU gave 600,000 euros to the so-called 'Alliance for Peace and Freedom' (AFP)- member of which is the prosecuted for criminal activities Greek Neo-Nazi party of 'Golden Dawn'.

European Parliament funding of neo-Nazi conference rings alarm bells.

 By Daniel Mützel.

The far-right Alliance for Peace and Freedom (APF) party has received EU-funding to the tune of €600,000, highlighting the ease with which neo-fascist groups have access to European Parliament financing. EurActiv Germany reports.

“It is a terrible and disturbing state of affairs that we are helping to finance such activities,” Swedish MEP Marita Ulvskog told EurActiv.de, in relation to a financing scandal uncovered by the Expo Foundation. Expo, a Swedish anti-racism magazine, reported that the Parliament had granted €400,000 to a foundation linked to the APF and a further €197,625 in funding that will be used to organise a neo-Nazi meeting in Stockholm this summer.

"Europe's Day" or "People's Antifascist Victory"? KKE's intervention in the European Parliament

Information from 'Rizospastis', 11 May 2016.

On the anniversary of the Peoples' Great Antifascist Victory of May 9th, the European Parliament organised unhistorical "celebrations" about the "Day of the European Union" accompanied with a lot of anticommunism. That happened within the frame of EU's provocative effort to re-write History, to erase from people's memory, especially of the youth, the great achievements of the working class in Socialism, the irreplaceable achievements of the first socialist state in the world, of the Soviet Union and it's people, of the millions of communists who decisively contributed to the defeat of nazism and fascism.

The German social-democrat president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, managed, through using anticommunist slogans about "communist dictatorship", to show what bourgeoise and the politicians who serve her, fear most...

A response to the distortion of the historical truth and anticommunism of the EU was issued by KKE's MEPs. Addressing the plenary session of the Europarliament, KKE MEP Sotiris Zarianopoulos said the following:

European Communist Initiative: Announcement on the 9th of May - The day of the antifascist victory of the peoples

Source: Initiative of Communist & Workers' Parties.

Long live the antifascist victory of the peoples!

The Great Patriotic war of the Soviet people against the Nazi Germany, which was promoted as being invincible at the time, and its allies in Europe ended with the crushing and unconditional surrender of fascism. The 9th of May is the day that signals the end of the 2nd World War in Europe. The Red Army, by raising the red flag with the hammer and sickle over the Reichstag, completed a great people’s victory against fascism.

Fascism was created and supported by the capitalist system itself as a naked and reactionary form of bourgeois management for the protection of capitalist exploitation. The main factor of the fighting capacity and endurance of the Soviet Union was its socialist character, the planned economy, the fact that the people held power in their own hands.

Armed national liberation movements emerged at the side of the USSR in many European countries, movements which acted under the leadership of the communist and workers parties. The communist and workers parties themselves paid a high price in blood in order to crush fascism.

9th of May: Honoring People's Antifascist Victory!

Спасибо! (Thank you) - Veterans of the Red Army.

By Nikos Mottas.

9^th May 1945: The day when the Red flag with sickle and hammer was raised thriumphantly over the Reichstag in Berlin. The day when Nazi Germany surrended unconditionally to the Red Army, marking a great victory of humanity over fascism. The 9^th May is, without doubt, one of the brightest dates in human history, a glorious day for the first Socialist state, for the Soviet Union and it's people.

On this day, we pay tribute to all those heroes, men and women, who gave their own lives on the battlefields. We remember all those heroes who fought against the monster of Fascism. From the bottom of our heart we express our gratitude to the fighters of the Soviet Army, to the communist and anti-fascist partisans in Europe who led the liberation struggles against the Nazis. We remember and honor all those men and women, of every age, who maintained a heroic stance against the firing squads of the fascists. 

Greek Parliament ratifies barbaric law on Social Security - KKE: The governmental policy destroys people's lives for the sake of monopolies

KKE MP Thanasis Pafilis.

In Defense of Communism © Report.

With the votes of governmental majority (SYRIZA-ANEL) the Greek Parliament approved on early Monday the monstrous law on social security and tax system. The legislation- combined of 166 articles- passed with the 153 votes of SYRIZA and ANEL (Independent Greeks), while 143 MPs voted against. A total of 296 legislators participated in the roll call vote held Sunday night; four were absent.

The "law-guillotine" sparked fierce reactions from labor and trade unions. The All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) organised a massive rally in Syntagma Square where thousands of working people expressed their condemnation for the governmental policy. 

In their speeches, the KKE MPs denounced the barbaric measures of Tsipras' government. Refering to the SYRIZA-ANEL government, the General Secretary of KKE Dimitris Koutsoumbas said among other things:

"Once more you prove that you are very good students of the previous governments, "capable" successors of the most reactive (situation) this country has lived through the neoliberal management of New Democracy, as well as the most rotten and corrupt PASOK's Social Democracy offered". 

[...]

Aleka Papariga fires at SYRIZA government: "You are the pillars of the rotten capitalist system"

Speaking at the Greek Parliament on Saturday, Communist Party's former General Secretary and current MP, Aleka Papariga unleashed an attack against the SYRIZA-ANEL government. "SYRIZA is the most recessive, conciliatory and degenerated thing appeared in the course of class-struggle" said Papariga in her speech during the discussion for the anti-people law on Social Security.

The former GS of KKE attacked Tsipras' government by saying: "you are the pillars of the rotten capitalist system". She stressed out that SYRIZA deceived the people with big lies, including false arguments such as that "the EU can become a union for the working people" or that, within the frame of capitalism, "another world is possible".

Aleka Papariga mentioned that SYRIZA has revealed it's true face and underlined that the government can only convince the people by using lies and deception.

Margot Honecker (1927-2016)

"I not only consider myself one — I am a communist. Loyalty is probably not the appropriate term.  Marxism-Leninism is an ideology, a method of investigation to understand the world, the laws according to which it moves, so you can orient yourself in the world. Some believe in a divine will, others in a predetermined fate. We communists are materialists. We follow a scientific outlook, which assumes that the society and everything that arises in it are the work of human beings. Exploitation and oppression are neither divinely ordained, nor are these evils acceptable. We have to fight for a humane, fair, peaceful world, and today that is more urgent than ever. We must refuse to allow that people perish from war, hunger and disease, and that natural resources and the livelihood of the people be depleted or destroyed by ruthless capitalist exploitation, solely for profit. If humanity is to have a future, the power of the banks and corporations must be broken. They will not give up their power voluntarily".

- Interview to the Athenian and Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA), 5 November 2015.

Margot Honecker,
German Democratic Republic (GDR) politician, wife of Erich Honecker, died on Friday 6 May 2016 at 89.

Capitalists' terrorism against strikers in Greece- Reaction by Labor Unions

In Defense of Communism © Report.

Info from 902.gr.

On the occasion of the 48-hour General Strike against the anti-people law of the SYRIZA-ANEL government, major employers in Greece have tried to terrorize workers by using any possible means. In a statement issued on Friday (first day of the strike), PAME condemns the "employers terrorism and the repression orgy against the nationwide strike". In Athens, dozens of striking builders were persecuted and brought to the police, while Greek shipowners tried to terrorize dockworkers in Piraeus and the port of Volos. 

PAME points out: "We demand from the government to release now all the trade unionists and to stop the environment of terror. Terrorism will not pass. Everyone in the Strike. Everyone in the struggle. Everyone in the demonstrations".

"Take back the law-guillotine": Thousands participated in Greece's General Strike mobilizations (Photos+Video)

Thousands of workers, self-employed professionals, unemployed people, students, pensioners participated in the strike demonstrations organised by PAME (All-Workers Militant Front) across Greece. With a massive rally in central Athens, people of every age expressed their indignation for the government's plan to completely destroy social security. Starting at Omonia Square, the militant demonstration marched towards the Parliament at Syntagma Square.

PAME organises another two nationwide strike demonstrations on Saturday (7/5) evening and on Sunday (8/5) morning. Bellow you can see video and photos from today's rally in Athens (source: KKE).

Everyone in the streets! 48-hour massive strike in Greece in response to government's barbaric law on Social Security

       

Spot by PAME.

The All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) calls the working people, the youth, the unemployed ones, the self-employed professionals to the 48-hour strike, on 6 and 7 of May, against the new governmental law on social security and taxation.

PAME organises rallies in all over the country on Friday 6th May. Most significantly:

In Athens, Omonia Square at 11.00 am.

In Thessaloniki, Venizelos' statue at 11.00 am.

"The time for the fight has come. Everyone in the streets! Everyone in the strike demonstrations".

KKE: "The SYRIZA-ANEL government surpassed the limits of political degradation; They fear people's anger and indignation"

In a statement regarding the Greek government's decision to submit the anti-people law proposal on social security to the Parliament during the upcoming weekend, the General Secretary of KKE D.Koutsoumbas said the following:

"The SYRIZA-ANEL government fears people's anger and indignation. They surpass every limit of political degradation. They suddenly arranged the voting of the anti-people package laws on Social Security, taxation and the additional measures they have agreed with the Quartet, during the weekend. 

That consists an act of overt authoritarianism, of enmity against the working-peoples movement and of all-around support to large employers. This (act) is proof that every such government, no matter how it appears, implements anti-people policies and resorts to actions that aim to manipulate the movement and our people. 

It also proves that the recovery, the debt's adjustment, the new 'success story', in Tsipras' way this time, and also every other thing the government is promising in order to 'sweeten the pill' of anti-people agreements with the institutions-ravens, have as a prerequisite only new barbaric measures for the people, without expiring date. 

Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV): Against fascism, class-appeasement and corruption! The option is Socialism!

In a published statement the Communist Party of Venezuela (Partido Comunista de Venezuela) expresses its greetings to the workers of Venezuela and the world on the occassion of the International Workers Day. 

Among other things, PCV's statement points out: "As it happens historically, the working class and peoples of the world bear on their shoulders the burden of the crisis of the capitalist system in its imperialist phase, while the governments of the hegemonic powers, mainly the United States and the European Union, continue their offensive against the people and national liberation processes. Monopoly capital and the governments and institutions seek to serve out of the crisis of the system with more violence and greater social injustice. The class contradictions have been sharpened in all over the  world, including particularly in Latin America".

The PCV accusses US Imperialism- as well as their collaborators in Latin American countries- for trying to restore the power of the monopolies, by supporting the implementation of neoliberal policies. For these plans, reformist petty-bourgeois parties have been a useful tool.

Statement of Solidarity to the upcoming 48hour General Strike in Greece

Source: PAME.

Solidarity With the Working Class of Greece.

Solidarity with the 48hour General Strike Against the new Anti-Workers Measures.

Promoted by Business Groups, European Union, IMF and the Greek Government.

The Trade Union organizations who sign this Resolution, we express our solidarity to the working class of Greece and the 48hour General Strike that is being prepared, after the initiative of PAME, against the new Anti-Workers Measures that are being promoted by the Business Groups, European Union, IMF and the Greek Government.

Ulysses' Gaze (1995)

    

A memorable scene from Theo Angelopoulos' acclaimed film Ulysses' Gaze (1995), starring Harvey Keitel, Erland Josephson and Maia Morgenstern. In memory of the extraordinary actor Thanasis Veggos (1927-2011) who plays the taxi driver in the above scene.  

Shameful distortion of Nazim Hikmet's lyrics from car manufacturer company - Response from Turkey's Komünist Parti (KP)

Communist Party, Turkey (KP) came out strongly against an OPEL company ad using and distorting Nazım Hikmet's lyrics.

Source: International Communist Press, 3rd May 2016.

The CC of the Communist Party, Turkey (KP) released a statement protesting the OPEL company and the YKY publications for their abusement of communist poet Nazım Hikmet's legacy.

"...Our communist poet's legacy cannot be accounted in banks or kept in safe boxes. That legacy can only be saved forever with the reason and the labour of the communists..." wrote the statement.

An advertisement of OPEL distorting Nazım's lyrics was published on one of the best selling newspaper Hürriyet of Turkey today. Immediately after that, KP  claimed the legacy of the internationally recognised communist poet. Similarly, in the 2002 after the YKY publication company had declared material rights over Nazım Hikmet's works, the communists had objected strongly and had published Nazım's works as the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP).

Workers' Day celebrated in Cuba: Thousands of people marched in Havana (VIDEO)

    Source: Granma.

In the presence of Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba and president of the Councils of State and Ministers, May Day celebrations began in Havana’s Plaza de la Revolución José Martí.

Also participating in the march were members of the Party Political Bureau, Party Central Committee and Secretariat, as well as the Councils of State and Ministers, participants in the attacks on the Moncada Garrison; Granma expeditionaries; decorated Heroes and Heroines of the Republic of Cuba; outstanding workers; and family members of the victims of the Barbados attack, among other guests.

The 1936 “Bloody May” in Greece

Left: Mother mourns her murdered son; Right: Workers rally in Thessaloniki.

The 1936 “Bloody May” in Greece.

By Nikos Mottas.

May 1936: A milestone in the history of the Greek working movement. The country was in the midst of unprecedented moments of militant upheaval. Large-scale strikes, began on April, gradually took the characteristics of peoples' revolt which had to face the barbarity of the fascist Metaxas government.

The center of the demonstrations was Thessaloniki where, since March, strikes in various sectors had been erupted due to the miserable conditions of labor. On April 29, the tobacco workers declared an indefinite strike demanding, among other things, better wages. Their mobilizations created a wave of solidarity and revolt across Greece. Until the Workers' Day of 1936, the strikes had been spread in other cities, from Serres to Volos and from Karditsa to Athens. By May 7^th, the strike had already spread in all over the country, with the participation of thousands of workers. The government of Premier Metaxas- a government of violence and terrorism- had one major aim: the dissolution of the strikes with any means.