On Tuesday 27th of February, the Attica Organization of the KKE held a large rally in Syntagma Sq., outside the Greek Parliament, with Dimitris Koutsoumpas, GS of the CC of the KKE, as its main speaker. He presented the positions of the party on the developments in the Balkans, Middle East, Greco-Turkish relations and the Cyprus Issue, after the escalation of the aggressiveness of Turkey.

Thousands of people of every age, members and friends, of the KKE and KNE, workers and employees, self-employed, unemployed, pensioners, young people, were present at the rally and march to the US embassy. This was a strong response to the complacency being cultivated by the SYRIZA-ANEL government regarding the situation, at the same time when this government has undertaken the role of being the flag-bearer for the NATO and EU plans in the Balkans, Aegean etc.

Together with them, in the front line, young conscripts who conveyed the message from the army camps: “The soldiers are the children of the people, they have no business outside the borders!”. One of them greeted the rally, while the Committee of the KKE for the armed forces and security forces had a special presence at the rally, with the presence of several soldiers and sailors, as well as retired officers.

Then, the GS of the CC of the KKE stepped up to the podium, addressing a call against imperialist war, the plans of NATO and the EU and Greece’s involvement in them. Dimitris Koutsoumpas refereed to the developments in Syria, denounced both the recent military intervention of Turkey, as well as Greece’s involvement in the war, through the provision of military infrastructure to the USA in Greece. He also referred to the provocativeness of Turkey in the Aegean and Cyprus, the dangerous developments in the Balkans and the NATO encirclement of Russia. He explained the positions of the KKE on the issue of FYROM, as well as the question of the stance of communists towards war as a a whole.

Amongst other things, he stressed in his speech that “The people’s struggle needs to be strengthened so that there is no Greek participation in the dangerous plans of the Americans and NATO. [...] Our people have nothing to separate them from the other peoples of the Balkans, from the neighbouring people of Turkey. For this reason, no one must be caught in the traps of nationalism, which poisons the peoples and hides the fact that the workers in all countries have the same opponent, their exploiters, the bourgeois and their rotten system.”

He mentioned that “The KKE is the only party that highlights the character of the war as the butcher of the peoples for the interests of the monopolies. [...] However, today the political line for the profitability and competitiveness of the monopolies intensifies the exploitation of the workers, which increases in conditions of crisis, where the imperialist police with a gun at the people’s heads prevails, so war is the continuation of politics by violent military means, with aim at conquering markets, spheres of influence, control of natural resources.”

The GS of the CC of the KKE stressed that “The communists, as always during their 100-year history, will play the leading role in the struggle for the defense of the territorial integrity, our sovereign rights, in order to crush any foreign invader who dares attack Greece. At the same time, however, we show no trust in any bourgeois government that carries out a war. No tolerance for the ruling class that participates in the war for the promotion of its own economic interests, making our people shed their blood,. We will seek to put them in the dustbin of history with our struggle, overthrow them, for the complete victory of the people, so that the result and prize of this struggle will be workers’, people’s power [...] Come and struggle all together against any aim to change the borders, the international treaties, which leads to the blood shedding of the peoples. Against nationalism, which wants to conceal the fact that the workers in Greece, in Turkey and in other countries today have the same enemy: the monopolies, capitalism, their governments and their imperialist alliances. We should reject the underhand calls concerning alleged “national unity”, i.e. the subjugation of the working class, the people to the plans of capital and the USA-NATO.”

At the end of his speech, he called on the people to join forces with the KKE because it is the only political party in Greek society that can lead the regroupment of the labour movement, the promotion of the alliance of the anti-capitalist/anti-monopoly forces. To lead the struggle against imperialist war, the interventions of NATO and the EU. So that the people can truly come to power and the country can be disentangled from the imperialist unions, to build the new socialist-communist society without unemployment, crises and wars.

There followed a march to the US embassy with slogans against the plans of the USA-NATO, EU, against imperialism and nationalism, as well as against the participation of Greece in the imperialist plans and organizations.

28.02.2018