The Greek Committee for International Détente and Peace (EEDYE), the class-oriented trade unions and other popular organizations will hold mass anti-imperialist mobilizations on the 15^th of November in Athens and other Greek cities, on the occasion of the visit of the US President, Barack Obama, to Greece.

The Press Office of the CC of the KKE issued the following statement on the issue: 

The KKE calls on the working people, the youth, all Greek people to give a militant "welcome" to the outgoing President of the USA, Barack Obama, who visits our country in a period when the aggressive plans of NATO-USA-EU in our region are intensifying, with Greece's active participation and with huge dangers for the Greek people and other peoples of the region. They must participate in a mass way in the demonstrations organized by EEDYE, PAME and the other organizations of the labour-people’s movement, of the youth.

The SYRIZA-ANEL government is exposed to the Greek people, not only because it lays out "red carpets" and prepares to welcome the leader of an imperialist power, which is responsible for wars, interventions, deaths of civilians and successive waves of refugees, but also because it engages in mockery when it says that Obama's visit can allegedly benefit the Greek people, such as, for example, an American intervention regarding the settlement of the Greek debt. 

The reality is completely different. The visit of the President of the USA to Greece has as its focal point the further participation of our country in the dangerous plans of the imperialists in the wider region, from Syria, Iraq and Libya to the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea, within the framework of the competition with other imperialist powers, having at its epicenter the control of the natural resources, markets and routes of strategic importance.

The sharpening of the inter-imperialist contradictions and antagonisms is also manifested through the war which is underway in Syria, Iraq, Ukraine and can cause a real holocaust for the peoples of Europe and more generally. The aggressive imperialist policy of the USA will also continue under the new President Donald Trump, despite the tactical differences. As it would have continued, if Hillary Clinton had been elected to the presidency.  

The SYRIZA-ANEL government, with great eagerness and with the agreement of New Democracy and all the other parties, has supported until now all the NATO decisions which constitute an escalation of the competition with Russia and resemble preparations for war. The government supported the decisions of the NATO Defense Ministers Summit, provides Greek islands for the establishment of NATO bases, has legitimized NATO's presence in the Aegean under the pretext of confronting the refugee flows. While, at the same time, it conceals the fact that the de facto partition of Cyprus is being promoted through a new "Annan” style Plan.

The Euro-Atlantic orientation of the SYRIZA-ANEL government is camouflaged under the slogan of the "multidimensional foreign policy" as well as by the fact that the government tries to play the role of the mediator between rival imperialist centres (USA-EU-Russia), thus serving the aim of Greek capital to upgrade its position in the region.

From these developments, only new dangers can arise for the Greek people and the sovereign rights of the country. For that reason, the people must be in a state of militant readiness and vigilance. The people have now a lot of experience in order not to believe that the participation of Greece in the imperialist organizations and plans supposedly constitutes a factor for stability and peace. At a time when these organizations are responsible for the wars, the refugee flows, the support for the murderers of the "Islamic State", the redrawing of borders as well as for fostering Turkish provocativeness and aggression.

 The position which in essence says that all the above are justified if in exchange there is a U.S intervention on the debt relief issue, which will pave the way for the economy's recovery, is an unacceptable and dangerous position which must be rejected by the Greek people. 

This position hides the fact that the debt issue is also connected directly with the antagonisms between powerful capitalist centres (mainly USA-Germany) which are related to the situation in the Eurozone, on the basis of the difficulties that capitalist recovery is encountering. A rivalry which, of course, does not contest at all the anti-people measures, the restructurings which are being promoted at the expense of the people.

 The visit of Obama, during the anniversary of the Polytechnic uprising against the military dictatorship imposed with the support of the U.S. and NATO, is a provocation for the people and the youth. As an opposition party, years ago, SYRIZA used to delete the "U.S-backed" characterization before the word "Junta", while now, as a government it thanks the U.S.A for its intervention on the debt issue and the negotiation for the 3rd memorandum.

What is most provocative is that the SYRIZA-ANEL government, under the mantle of the "left", tries to exonerate and legitimize the U.S. political line, violating the historical memory and collective consciousness of the Greek people.

 Now, more than ever, a labour-people’s mobilization and international solidarity is needed against the imperialist plans and the involvement of Greece, against the system which creates crises, wars, poverty and refugees:

- For the closure of all NATO bases in Greece.

- To get NATO out of the Aegean.

- For the return home of the Greek military forces from NATO and EU missions.

- For the disengagement of Greece from NATO and EU, from all the imperialist organizations.

- Solidarity with the victims of the wars, in order to create humane spaces for temporary accommodation and safe transport to the destination countries.

- To abolish all the antilabour-antipeople laws of the memorandums, to recover the large economic losses of the popular strata, to pave the way for development in favor of the people, with the unilateral cancellation of the debt, socialization of the wealth produced by the people, with the working class, the people in power.

The people must not shed their blood for the interests and the competition of the imperialists".

ATHENS 12/11/2016                  PRESS OFFICE OF THE CC OF THE KKE