Mass demonstrations organized by Labour Unions to take place in Greece on October 17th

Source: PAME (All-Workers Militant Front).

On Monday 17th October: In Athens at Syntagma Square at 18.30, in Thessaloniki at 18.30 at Venizelos statue.

More than 400 trade union organizations, federations, labour centres, industrial unions, etc from all branches and sectors, all over Greece, we coordinate, demand and fight for the cancelation of all anti-workers laws and measures of the recent years. We fight for the signing of National Collective Agreement and sectoral Collective Contracts.

We demand the reestablishment and the signing of sectoral Collective Contracts, the recovering of all of our losses! No worker without the minimum wage! All in the struggle for full time steady jobs, with full rights, higher wages, pensions and social benefits!

Comment by KKE: Syriza's "Left" is the old, classic, sinful social democracy

On the occasion of Alexis Tsipras' speech at the congress of SYRIZA, the Press Office of the CC of KKE issued the following comment:

"Yesterday Mr.Tsipras tried to give a left, progressive wrapper to the invitation of submission he sends to the people, as well as to the total transformation of SYRIZA into a bourgeois social democratic party.

The "left" which undertakes duties and responsibilities for the management of the system has nothing to do with the militant traditions of our people. It is the old, classic, sinful social democracy, which the people has experienced for many years- and which is usually in line with its supposed enemy, the "neoliberalism"-in Greece and Europe, in order to jointly vote harsh antipeople measures and memorandums. This is the source of SYRIZA's openings to various "stars" of social democracy, both in Greece and abroad.

On the developments in Colombia and the peace agreement

On the developments in Colombia.

Οriginally published in 'Rizospastis', 9 October 2016.

Source: inter.kke.gr.

As is well-known, on Sunday 2 October, the peace agreement between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP) was put to a referendum. In the referendum, where only the 37% of the eligible voters participated, the agreement was rejected by a 50.2% vote.

The agreement was finalized after four years of negotiations that took place in Oslo and Havana and aimed at putting an end to the armed conflict which began in 1964, when FARC-CP was founded as a response to the attack of the bourgeois army against the rural population of the Marquetalia region (1). At the same time, it had been announced that talks will also be pursued with the country’s other significant guerrilla organization, the National Liberation Army (ELN).

US Trotskyism: Behind the Socialist Masquerade

Behind the Socialist Masquerade.

By Zoltan Zigedy / Source: Marxism-Leninism Today.

Ashley Smith recently wrote an essay (Anti-imperialism and the Syrian Revolution) ostensibly about Syria and imperialism but more properly understood as a rekindling and re-statement of anti-Communist “leftism.”

Smith, an ideologue of the International Socialist Organization, unveils his true target when he inveighs against the “Stalinists”: “Stalinist groups like the Workers World Party, Party for Socialism and Liberation, and Freedom Road Socialist Organization…”

Not content with these examples, Smith, in McCarthy-like fashion, feels the necessity to name further names. He sees the UK’s Stop the War coalition as also duped by the Stalinists, along with the US United National Anti-War Coalition (UNAC). Jill Stein of the Green Party and her Vice Presidential partner, Ajamu Baraka, are similarly infected with the “Stalinist” virus.

Mzwandile Makwayiba elected new President of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU)

The President of the South African National Education Health & Allied Workers Union (NEHAWU), Cde. Mzwandile Makwayiba elected President of the World Federation of Trade Unions during the recent 17th Congress of WFTU in Durban.

The Secretariat of NEHAWU issued a statement congratulating Cde.Makwayiba: 

The National Education Health & Allied Workers Union [NEHAWU] congratulates its President, Cde Mzwandile Makwayiba for being elected as President of the World Federation of Trade Unions [WFTU] at the 17th Congress held in Durban last week. Cde Makwayiba will be President for the next five years.

His election proves the confidence WFTU has in his leadership capacity and we as NEHAWU, are more than convinced that he will tackle his new responsibility with aplomb. We wish him well in his new duty to service the more than 78 million workers belonging to more than 210 trade union organizations, from 105 countries across all six inhabited continents.

ΚΚΕ: The Paris Agreement on the Climate provides new field of profitability for the monopolies, amid fierce competition

Source: inter.kke.gr.

The KKE delegation to the European Parliament voted against its ratification by the European Parliament.

The KKE delegation to the European Parliament voted against the ratification of the Paris Agreement on the "climate change" in the European Parliament plenary in Strasbourg, because it perpetuates the causes which cause environmental problems, the ones which the capitalist development path creates and exacerbates.

In its speech to justify its negative vote, the KKE delegation to the European Parliament stressed the following:

Thanasis Pafilis (KKE): "The capitalist way of development neither wants nor can give a better life to the people"

Source: 902.gr / Translation: In Defense of Communism.

The KKE's pre-electoral evaluation that the SYRIZA government will continue towards an even worse way than the previous governments and will bring a third memorandum has been proved, Thanasis Pafilis, member of the Central Committee and Parliamentary representative of KKE pointed out in a TV interview. Talking on "Skai" Television, Pafilis said that the only hope derives from the people who must take the streets and fight for their lives; he called the people to participate in the demonstrations that will be held on October 17th by hundreds of labor unions. 

When asked about the "left" character of the government, Pafilis mentioned that the people know that "Left and NATO" are not compatible, bringing as an example the offer, by the SYRIZA-ANEL government, of a new military base to NATO at Karpathos island. 

A left party, Thanasis Pafilis said, is not the one which crushes the working people, the self-employed and the poor farmers while it gives new privileges to those who have the power; the capital and the monopoly groups. The solution, Pafilis pointed out, is not New Democracy which poses as the original best manager of the bourgeois power.

Communist Party of India (Marxist): Another Murderous Attack by the RSS in Kerala

Press Statement by the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

October 10, 2016.

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:

The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly condemns the brutal murder of its Paduvilai Local Committee member, K Mohanan, by RSS hoodlums this morning. A group of heavily armed RSS goons entered the toddy shop where the 52 year old Mohanan was working and hacked him to death. There were around 30-40 sharp wounds inflicted on his body. This is the second murder of a CPI(M) worker in the Dharmadom constituency represented by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. Earlier, RSS workers had attacked a CPI(M) victory procession in the same constituency on the day of counting leading to the death of CPI(M) worker Ravindranath.

KKE General Secretary D.Koutsoumbas slams SYRIZA and New Democracy in Greek Parliament

Source: inter.kke.gr & 902.gr

An off-the-agenda Parliament debate at the level of the political leaders on the issue "the phenomena of corruption and vested interests, their influence on the institutional and political system and how to deal with them" was held on the 10th of October 2016 on the plenum of parliament. The discussion took place at the proposal of the Prime Minister, A. Tsipras, as it is a "convenient" issue of discussion for the bourgeois parties ("left", "centre" and "right"), which seek to hide their convergence in terms of serving the anti-people strategy of capital by accusing each other over issues of management, corruption and "ethics".

During his speech, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) Dimitris Koutsoumbas unleashed an attack against both the SYRIZA-ANEL government and the major opposition of New Democracy for their hypocritical "cockfight" . Among other things he said:

"Upon what are you going to constrast?

Pattakos: The death of an unrepentant fascist and criminal

Brigadier General Pattakos (left) with Colonel Papadopoulos.

 COMMENT:

One of the major participants in the 1967 military Coup d' etat in Greece, a hardline anticommunist and unrepentant fascist died on Sunday in Athens. His name was Stylianos Pattakos, a former Brigadier General who had a decisive role aside Colonel Georgios Papadopoulos in establishing a military Junta on April 21, 1967. 

The Associated Press reported:

ATHENS, Greece –  Stylianos Pattakos, the last survivor among the leaders of a 1967 coup that ruled Greece for seven years, has died at 103.

The state-run Athens News Agency reported that he died following a stroke Saturday. Pattakos was a brigadier general and commander of the armored forces stationed in Athens when he took a decisive part in the April 21, 1967, coup led by Col. George Papadopoulos.

He served as interior minister and, from 1971, as first deputy prime minister. He was later shunted aside by Papadopoulos who tried to liberalize the regime, which was ultimately halted by military hardliners. Pattakos was condemned to death in 1975 for his role in the coup, but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. He was discharged in 1990 for health reasons.

Cyprus Issue: The developments require the intensification of peoples' intervention

The developments require the intensification of peoples' intervention.

By Giorgos Marinos* / Source: inter.kke.gr.

The Cyprus Issue, under its present form, was caused by the Turkish invasion and occupation in July and August (Attila II) of 1974 and remains unsolved for 42 years.

During this historical period, many means of negotiations were used, multifaceted UN interventions, joint statements and many meetings between representatives of the Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot communities etc, but the problem still remains.

The Turkish insistence on the continuation of the occupation found supporters in powerful imperialist powers which, among other things, bare responsibility for the creation and perpetuation of the Cyprus Issue, such as the US, NATO, Britain and the EU in general.

Ernesto Che Guevara * Эрнесто Че Гевара * إرنستو "تشي" جيفارا

Ernesto Che Guevara- What a young Communist should be

What a young Communist should be.

Source: Guevaristas.org.

Below are excerpts of a speech given by Ernesto Che Guevara, one of the central leaders of the Cuban revolution, at a ceremony marking the second anniversary of the formation of the youth organization. It was first published in Obra Revolutionaria, Oct. 23, 1962. 

The Union of Young Communists, with different names and organizational forms, is almost as old as the revolution. At the beginning it emerged out of the Rebel Army – perhaps that’s where it also got its initial name [Association of Young Rebels]. But it was an organization linked to the army in order to introduce Cuba’s youth to the massive tasks of national defense, the most urgent problem at the time and the one requiring the most rapid solution….

Later, as the revolution was consolidated and we could finally talk about the new tasks ahead, Compañero Fidel proposed changing the name of the organization, a change of name that fully expresses a principle. The Union of Young Communists [Applause] has its face to the future. It is organized with the bright future of socialist society in mind….

The 17th World Trade Union Congress kicks off in South Africa

DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA- Hundreds of workers and employees from 111 countries of the 5 continents are in Durban, South Africa in order to participate to the 17th World Trade Union Congress, organized in the heroic land of South Africa. So far, according to the featured numbers, in the Congress are going to take part:

-1200 trade-union participants
-111 countries from the 5 continents
-340 women trade-unionists
-31% of the delegates are from the Public Sector and 69% are private employees.

The WFTU leadership would like to thank the South Africa working class as well as its militant trade unions for their great initiative to host a great trade union event like this. The 17th World Trade Union Congress is going to be a great democratic, open, internationalist and class-oriented trade union event .

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin- The State and Revolution (1917) Part VI "The Vulgarisation of Marxism by Opportunists"

The State and Revolution.

By Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.

First Published: 1918.

Source: V.I.Lenin, Collected Works, Volume 25, p.381-492.

The question of the relation of the state to the social revolution, and of the social revolution to the state, like the question of revolution generally, was given very little attention by the leading theoreticians and publicists of the Second International (1889-1914). But the most characteristic thing about the process of the gradual growth of opportunism that led to the collapse of the Second International in 1914 is the fact that even when these people were squarely faced with this question they tried to evade it or ignored it.

In general, it may be said that evasiveness over the question of the relation of the proletarian revolution to the state--an evasiveness which benefited and fostered opportunism--resulted in the distortion of Marxism and in its complete vulgarization.

To characterize this lamentable process, if only briefly, we shall take the most prominent theoreticians of Marxism: Plekhanov and Kautsky.

KKE delegation at the European Parliament slams EU and NATO for encouraging Turkey's aggressiveness

Addressing the Plenary of the European Parliament, yesterday in Strasburg, the KKE MEP Kostas Papadakis pointed out the issue of the Turkish government's provocations which raise assertions against the sovereign rights of Greece. As MEP Papadakis mentioned, the aggressiveness of Ankara is supported by the EU and NATO. He said:

"The statements of Erdogan regarding the challenge of the Treaty of Lausanne are especially dangerous, as well as those of the Turkish Republic Party which raise non-existent sovereignty issues for 16 Greek islands. They raise questions of grey zones and borders as a continuation of a stance that nobody can underestimate: the timeless provocation, the continuous violations of the Greek sea and airspace limits, the constant challenges against Cyprus, the dispute of the Exclusive Economic Zone. 

Lieutenant Katina Manitara

The elderly lady of the photo was one of those who yesterday participated in a large pensioners' demonstration against the austerity, antipeople measures of the Greek government. 

This woman, along with other retirees took the streets of Athens in order to assert their rights; the rights of their children and grandchildren. The Greek police "welcomed" this woman and the other pensioners with violence and tear gas. 

The name of the lady is Katina Manitara, a resistance fighter during the Nazi occupation of Greece. As a child, in the beginning of the fascist occupation, Katina was delivering secret messages "under the radar" of the italian police. At the age of 14 she witnessed her father's torture from Greek fascists. 

On May 1947, at 15 years old, she joined the heroic Democratic Army of Greece; the KKE-led guerrilla army which fought against the bourgeois military forces and their imperialist allies between 1946-1949. During the war, a bullet fragment stucked in her head where it still remains. At the age of 17, Katina Manitara graduates from the Military School of the Democratic Army with the rank of second lieutenant. 

This lady, Katina Manitara, consists a symbol of resistance, of courage and dignity. 

SYRIZA government's police forces fire tear gas at pensioners during protest in Athens- KKE: "The government showed its real face"

The police forces of Tsipras' SYRIZA government confronts
elderly people with tear gas/ Athens, 3.10.2016.

Once again, the supposedly "left"- actually social democratic- government of Alexis Tsipras shows it's real face. After imposing numerous harsh, antipeople-antiworkers measures, after signing a third memorandum of austerity and after cutting wages and pensions, the coalition government of SYRIZA decided to enforce law and order against the protesting pensioners! 

The pensioners who protested against the complete destruction of their lives got a response from the police forces of Mr.Tsipras' government. That response was the use of pepper spray and tear gas against older people! 

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". [...]

The banners of the Nazis deserve only one place: The dustbin of History

COMMENT:

The Golden Dawn flag waved by supporters of APOEL Nicosia during the football match against Olympiacos in Piraeus is a Nazi symbol. It is the symbol of a Nazi, fascist criminal organisation which tries to pose as a political party. It is a Nazi symbol because of Golden Dawn's Nazi ideology. 

The issue isn't a typical matter related to UEFA policies about political messages in football. It's more than that. The shameful gesture of APOEL fans to wave the flag of Nazis consists a political and social issue. The symbols of Nazism and fascism, the symbols of Golden Dawn, have no place in football stadiums. They have no place anywhere. 

KKE: Statement regarding Turkish President Erdogan’s remarks on the Treaty of Lausanne

The Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) issued the following statement regarding the remarks of the President of Turkey Tayip Erdogan on the Treaty of Lausanne:

"Erdogan’s statements are dangerous and provocative and are part of the systematic efforts of the Turkish leadership to dispute the Aegean islands and the borders and sovereign rights of Greece more generally, to raise the issue of “grey zones”.

The period when these statements were made was no accident, as the negotiations are intensifying around the “closure” of the Cyprus question, on the basis of two component states, while the bargaining over the refugee issue between Turkey and the EU is underway. With these specific statements, Turkey is objectively exerting pressure in order to settle these matters in an even more negative direction for the peoples.

Once again, the government and the other political forces have been exposed, which for many years have been reassuring the Greek people that the alliance between Greece and Turkey, in the framework of NATO, is an agent for the “peace and security in the region”, the moment when NATO not only does not subdue the aggressive designs of Turkey, but on the contrary foments and reinforces them.” 

Greek industrialists: "SYRIZA and New Democracy converge in their economic strategy"

Info taken from 'Rizospastis', 24/9/2016.

In it's latest weekly report, the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (the union of the Greek industrialists) admit that the SYRIZA government and the right-wing, conservative opposition of New Democracy have no fundamental differences in their strategy for the country's economy. "The development objective is common, the means are different" says the report of SEV* thus openly acknowledging the convergence between SYRIZA and New Democracy in their strategy to serve the antipeople, antiworkers objectives and priorities of the Greek capital.

The industrialists evaluate the interventions of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis at the Thessaloniki International Fair earlier this month as "positive", as long as both seem to be fully aligned to the demands of the domestic capital for competitiveness and recovery of profits. 

The downward spiral of European opportunism has no end

The downward spiral of European opportunism has no end.

Comment published on 'Rizospastis' (24/9/2016), 
Source: inter.kke.gr.

It is well-known that European capital and its union, the EU, have acquired for many years now its "leftwing chorus". Various parties are playing this role, parties that call themselves "progressive" and "leftwing" even some parties that keep a "communist" title, having for many decades now been assimilated into the opportunist, social-democratic current of "Eurocommunism". 

The latter, such as, for example the French Communist Party (PCF) have for many years been divorced from Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism, have even abandoned the historic symbols of the communist movement and in the name of the "left' have become the "tail" of social-democracy and also whitewash the capitalist system and the imperialist unions of the EU and NATO. However, they keep the "communist" name and in this way, apart from their misleading activity in their own countries, even participate in the International Meetings of the CPs, seeking to play a similar role. If we can judge from the events of the recent festival of "L'Humanite", the newspaper of the PCF, the downward spiral has no end.

Liars and Opportunists: SYRIZA's 180-degree shift on the privatization of Elliniko

ATHENS (28/9/2016)- Greece's parliament passed new reforms on Tuesday night to cut pension expenditure and transfer control of public utilities to a new asset fund. The reforms seek to unlock 2.8 billion euros ($3.14 billion) in financial loans as part of the country's latest bailout program. 

The reforms were passed by a narrow 152-141 majority vote in Greece's 300-seat parliament, after 152 parliamentary members of the ruling SYRIZA-Independent Greeks (ANEL) coalition approved the reform bill. Only one member of the coalition voted against the bill, along with all opposition members. KKE MPs voted against the anti-people package of laws- "It's about time for the Greek people to say: No more sacrifices for the profits of the few" stated in his speech the General Secretary of the CC of Communist Party of Greece Dimitris Koutsoumbas.