The events of the 49^th Festival of the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE) and its magazine, Odigitis, which took place in all major cities of Greece and concluded in the 3-day political and cultural events in Athens, were successfully completed on Saturday 23/9.

For 3 days, tens of thousands of people and youth attended political debates, concerts, exhibitions, theatrical plays and special children’s areas. The visitors also had the opportunity to meet and discuss with delegates from 29 Communist Youth Organizations from all over the world.

The political activities of the festival culminated in the speech of Dimitris Koutsoumbas, GS of the CC of the KKE, who noted, among other things, the following:

“We will be the ones ‘burning’ in the workplaces with indignation against the crimes committed by employers and anti-labour monstrosities, making participation in the trade unions even more massive, and organizing the struggle.(....)

There is a way out. There is hope. The path we must march on is there.  It is the path of the people that save the people, with the KKE at the forefront, for socialism, to live our most beautiful days; the days when the people and the youth will not be living on a pittance, but with everything they deserve. In a world where everything we are experiencing today will be nothing but the tragic but irreversible past of a system that weighs everything on the basis of the exploiters’ profit. The KKE is here to pave this way for the people to become masters in their own land. So that the people will hold the power and the wealth that they produce. So that the people and their children can live in security and enjoy their lives.  So that the toil of their labour is returned to them. We can achieve this, because we will be done and over with the parasites who live off the labour of the many, and the wealth will generously return to those who produce it. Come with us, let’s walk together on the path of overthrow in order to live our most beautiful days. (…)

It is the current that is strengthened, a current that is challenging the dominant policy and its class character, which all the parties of the capital and their governments served wholeheartedly. It is the willingness to seek a solution to today's problems through the organized struggle, the participation in the movement, the collective action. And this current will be strengthened as more people join forces with the KKE in all the battles to come.(…)

Because the KKE and KNE have an answer to ‘what is wrong’. Because we are not tied to the current rotten system, thus we can not only expose it, but above all fight it. Because we have a scientifically elaborated plan to get out of this impasse once and for all. Imagine how different things could have been if, instead of the current bourgeois state, we had another state, a genuine workers’ and people's state; another power that would plan and implement everything, not based on the profit of the few, the capitalists, but based on the needs of the many, the workers. (…)

Overall, we are dealing with a state that only serves capitalist profit and, as a result, is neither willing nor able to carry out a comprehensive development of urban planning and civil protection that really serves the contemporary needs of the people. On the contrary, the state is well able to plan and promote the important goals of the bourgeoisie, which are specifically expressed in each region: Let’s look at Thessaly, which is now flooded. This is a region-transit hub of commodities and energy. A region of NATO military bases. A region of major agri-food business groups. Let’s look at Rhodes and Corfu, which burned during the summer, are the ‘crown jewels’ of the tourist miracle that this year broke the record of 2019, but this record was based on the burnout of thousands of young people working during the tourist season. Let’s look at Alexandroupolis, the city where the flames reached the hospital and plays a leading role in the involvement of Greece in the imperialist massacre in Ukraine. (…)

Over the last three months, it became obvious that there is only one true opponent, against the ND government that returned full sail. And that one is the Communist Party of Greece. Because only the KKE and KNE can shoulder the responsibility of organizing the resistance and the counter-attack against the government’s anti-popular policy, which will be manifested with greater intensity, from now on, in all sectors, as it is already happening. (…)

Think of the anti-labour bill-monstrosity that they voted yesterday, incorporating an EU directive into the Greek law. They went so far as to call a ‘right’ the fact that in 2023, the workers have to look for a second and a third job, to work up until 13 hours a day, so as to ensure just their survival, and not a decent living whatsoever. They have granted the employers the right to hire people as hostages, and not as workers, with zero-hour contracts, without even being obliged to employ them, and therefore to pay them, for certain hours during a month. They voted for fines and imprisonment for those who stand against this working jungle and go on strike, calling their colleagues to do the same. But ND has traditionally been the party that serves the big businessmen and their interests of all sorts in this country. And as usual, it actually had the consensus of the compromised social democratic SYRIZA and PASOK. These parties went the extra mile to defend the anti-labour directive of the EU, which gives an accurate description of all the above, by basically saying that the directive is good, but the government misinterpreted it. As usual, they are the best at whitewashing the EU of the monopolies. (…)

These parties, just like New Democracy, had no problem instructing their representatives in the GSEE (General Confederation of Greek workers) and in other big trade union federations to obstruct and undermine the strike, not to allow any decisions on participation to be taken and, in the end, not to take any action at all. Of course, they failed, thanks to the presence and action of the KKE and of PAME (All Workers' Militant Front). Who came to the fore without wasting time, without sparing effort and sacrifice, so that all the workers could be informed and respond to this attack? The forces of the KKE who stepped forward to organize the strike of the day before yesterday and sent the message that the workers and the young generation do not intend to legitimize this monstrosity. (…)

All the recent great struggles as well as the electoral strengthening of the KKE are sending a message that every day more and more people are trying to find a way out from their problems by following the path of organized struggle, the path of questioning all anti-popular governments and the easy solutions that come ‘from above’. In this struggle, in the trade unions, in the student unions, in the organizations of the radical women’s movement, of the self-employed, there is a place for everyone. And, of course, by the side and within the ranks of the KKE and KNE. (…)

At the same time, the negotiating table for the dangerous NATO arrangements in Greek-Turkish relations is well and truly set. Mitsotakis didn’t say much after the meeting with Erdoğan, but we understood quite well where things are going regarding the country’s sovereign rights and the Cyprus issue. At the same time, the involvement of our country in the imperialist war, which is constantly escalating, only brings new dangers ahead. A lot is happening and will continue to happen. This situation poses a big question: what should be the attitude of each one of us, regardless of our previous decisions, about the important battle of the municipal and regional elections? (…)

In the remaining days we wage the struggle all together to take a step forward, to strengthen even more the current that disputes the dominant policy. Let’s make the parties of the system and their candidates, as well as all those who appear as supposedly ‘independent’ ones, lose even more votes. Let’s isolate the Nazi criminals, wherever they may dare to appear and ask for the vote of the people. Let’s reinforce even more the ballots of ‘People’s Rallying’, supported by the KKE in Municipalities and Regions. (…)

There is no other solution! Join forces with the KKE! We move forward, we pave the way for the new society of peace, of equality, of fraternity, of the abolition of exploitation of man by man; for socialism!”.

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25.09.2023