With a large turnout and considerable interest, the event “From the heroic May of ’36 to today: A working-class hero is something to be!” took place on 4 May 2026 as part of the Exhibition of Historical and Archival Material organized by the Regional Committee of Central Macedonia of the KKE to mark the 90th anniversary of the workers’ uprising in May 1936 in Thessaloniki.
Ali Kemal Akgül, a cadre of the Communist Party of Turkey and member of the Executive Board of the Central Administration of the General Union of Health Sector Workers, participated in the event and delivered a greeting. Eliseos Vagenas, member of the Central Committee of the KKE and head of the International Relations Section of the Central Committee also attended.
The event was addressed by Petros Simadis, member of the Regional Committee of Central Macedonia. Referring extensively to the rich lessons drawn from the 90 years since the May Uprising in Thessaloniki, he stressed that part of the preparation for the great tasks facing the KKE involves studying the rich experience of our people’s struggles, the selfless contribution of communists to these struggles, the heroism of KKE members, as well as the weaknesses encountered along the way.
This was followed by a contribution from Markos Bekris, member of the CC of the KKE, dockworker, and president of the Piraeus Labour Centre. He traced the continuity of class struggles from the past to the present, referring to the major dockworkers’ strike on 6 February 2026, against imperialist plans that seek to turn workers into instruments of war. The strike that took place in 20 ports in seven countries —Italy, France, Turkey, Greece, Spain, Morocco, and Germany— and, as he emphasized, provided an answer to the crucial question of what kind of movement is needed today. “The strike helped deepen the confrontation, target the dominant policy itself, and challenge capitalist domination more intensely and in practice, regardless of who manages it. Because the issue is not who manages the system —the issue is the system itself. (…) Furthermore, this strike also demonstrated something very important: that the struggle against imperialist war is inseparable from the struggle for workers’ lives, for wage increases, for health and safety measures, and for public and free healthcare and education. Because those who want us today to be cheap and disposable workers in the workplace are the very same people who want us to become cannon fodder. These are not two separate issues. They are one and the same, and this was clearly expressed in the slogan: ‘Dockworkers do not work for war’.”
The event concluded with a greeting from Ali Kemal Akgül “on behalf of the Communist Party of Turkey, which, throughout more than a century of struggle, and despite being tested by coups, bans, and attacks, has not taken a single step backwards”, as he stressed. Among other things, he added: “On the anniversary of the glorious uprising of the Greek working class, I salute you on behalf of the working class of my country, within which I too participate in the trade union struggle as a healthcare worker. I salute the heroic uprising of May 1936, led by the tobacco workers under the guidance of the Communist Party of Greece —an uprising etched not only in the memory of a people, but also in the collective memory of the international working class (...) The existence of the Communist Parties of Turkey and Greece constitutes the greatest guarantee of the fraternity between the two peoples. There is no hostility among the workers of our countries, only a common struggle.”
