The Polytechnic uprise lives on!

- Under the responsibility of the New Democracy government and with the consent of the parties of the bourgeois opposition (of every shade and origin), Greece is being drawn deeper into the war plans of NATO, the US and the EU, at the expense of their competitors, Russia and China.

Under the government’s responsibility, weapons are being sent to Ukraine and the Zelenskiy regime, Israel was supported in its genocide of the Palestinian people and now the Trump-Netanyahu plan, which undermines the prospect of establishing an independent Palestinian state, is being promoted. In the interests of the bourgeoisie, the country is being turned into a launching pad for wars and a target for retaliation. No trust in the government or the parties involved in the war!

- Euro-Atlantic plans to transform Greece into an energy hub, in the context of Europe’s energy independence from Russian natural gas, are turning the country into a powder keg of competition.

Ukraine was also presented as an “energy hub”. Their plans have nothing to do with the people’s needs for cheap energy, safe infrastructure or environmental protection. The real winners are domestic and foreign energy giants, shipowners and large construction companies. The bourgeoisie’s objective for a “Greece - energy hub” is being served by the New Democracy government and was initiated by the SYRIZA-ANEL government under Tsipras.

Negative developments are underway in Greek-Turkish relations and the Cyprus issue, with the backing of the US and NATO. The goal of maintaining NATO cohesion is fueling unacceptable Turkish claims at the expense of the country’s sovereignty and sovereign rights, alongside plans for “joint exploitation” in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean.

Those who profit of these developments are energy companies and the bourgeoisie of Greece and Turkey. The victims will be the people. The energy wealth, which could serve the prosperity of the peoples, is being appropriated and distributed by the monopolies according to their interests. They will not hesitate to commit crimes against the peoples. In Cyprus, NATOization advances, while attempts are made to legitimize the results of the Turkish invasion and occupation.

- The war economy of the European Union —and beyond— is the prelude to a generalized imperialist conflict. A war economy means exploitation of the working class to exhaustion, intensified employer intimidation, criminalization of trade union activity and repression.

It means that what products of workers’ labour are used to slaughter other peoples, threatening the workers themselves. It entails cuts in health care, education and pensions to finance the wars of capital.

This policy is implemented by all kinds of bourgeois governments, whether liberal,  “centre-left”, far-right or allegedly “progressive”. The “rule of law” of the EU is constantly adapted to enforce the law of class injustice and wars, because that is what its purpose.

The KKE spearheaded the development of the anti-dictatorial struggle and its culmination in November 1973 at the Polytechnic uprise. It is proud of the members and cadres of the KKE and KNE, who stood firm together with other militants, in exile, in prisons and under torture.

Under the junta’s nose, operating in illegality, with courage and self-sacrifice, the KKE and KNE organized the struggle against the tide of compromise which sought to discourage the people from mobilizing with the refrain “the junta will not fall”. The Polytechnic uprising continues to inspire us as a symbol of new struggles and disobedience to the plans of capitalist power.

The seven-year dictatorship served the goals of capitalist power and its international allies, the US and NATO, with an iron fist. It confirmed that the intensity of anti-communism and the attack against the KKE was a harbinger of negative developments for the people.

“I will give you everything”, said dictator Papadopoulos, addressing Greek shipowners —and he did so at the expense of the rights of the Greek people. Economic and political power during the junta rested in the hands of the bourgeoisie. The coup leaders emerged from the bourgeois state and NATO. The junta was shaken by the Polytechnic uprising and finally collapsed after the Cyprus coup and the invasion of the island by NATO-member Turkey in 1974. It was proven then that Greece’s participation in NATO and its enhanced relations with the US meant insecurity and instability for the people.

That is why the trusted lieutenants of the system are nostalgic for the junta. The remnants of the criminal Nazi Golden Dawn party and other fascist and nationalist organizations, tolerated by the state, are attempting to reemerge from the margins to which the people have relegated them. They constitute a useful reserve force of the bosses against the people. They are the offspring of the policies of the imperialist EU and its governments, anti-communism, war preparations, intensified repression and racist policies against immigrants and refugees.

The KKE is putting all its energy into forging a nationwide coordinated movement of the working class and its allies —poor farmers, freelancers and the self-employed, with demands against their common enemy: the capitalist system.

Honouring the anti-dictatorial struggle of the people today means fighting to overthrow the dictatorship of capital, defending all the contemporary rights of the people and the youth, safeguarding popular freedoms, and opposing imperialist war and Greece’s involvement in it. The struggle for the just cause of the people is the struggle for socialism–communism: a society of real freedom, workers’ power and an economy that planned and developed to meet contemporary social and popular needs rather than the profits of the few.

Everyone to the mass anti-imperialist demonstrations on Monday 17 November to be held across the country!