Once again, the government and the police attempted to use riot police and tear gas to protect the system’s lackeys—the fascist rally held on 1 November in Neo Heraklio, a municipality in north-west Athens.
This attempt was opposed by a massive anti-war and anti-fascist mobilization organized by dozens of unions and mass organizations in northwest Athens, under the slogan “No sacrifices for their profits and wars! We fight fascism and the system that gives rise to it!”
A large crowd of workers and local residents, as well as school and university students, turned out in force, chanting slogans such as “You are the world’s decay; block the fascists in every neighbourhood.”
Dimitris Koutsoumbas, GS of the CC of the KKE, participated in the demonstration and made the following statement to the media: “Today, the people of Nea Ionia, Metamorfosi, Neo Heraklio and Nea Filadelfia have taken to the streets to send a message of resistance against the government’s policies of war and involvement in it, high prices, anti-popular measures, and measures to suppress the popular movement. It sends a resounding message against the fascists who have crawled out of their holes once again and are trying to re-enter the country’s political life—against these Nazi criminals, whom the people will once again marginalize, forcing them to hide back in their holes. We take to the streets to fight every day, every hour. We are preparing for the major nationwide workers’ rally and strike on 25 November, and all the intermediate actions set by the mass, organized workers’ and popular movement.”
In a statement, the north-west Athens Regional Committee of the KKE denounces “the government’s unacceptable stance, which once again used riot police and tear gas to protect the fascists. The New Democracy government, with its stance today, confirms that its policy of military involvement and war preparation, which it actively pursues, goes hand in hand with the actions of various fascist groups operating with state support. They are deeply mistaken. The labour movement has the power and can send the fascists back to their holes.”
Furthermore, the statement salutes those who “protested against the consequences of the involvement in the war, the suffocating daily reality shaped by high prices, insufficient wages, sky-high rents, and the explosive situation in schools and healthcare facilities. The people of the region strongly protested against the fascists, who are the lackeys of the system, and who have once again crawled out of their holes to oppose the just demands of the people and the youth.”
In conclusion, it states that “we are intensifying the struggle against the system and those who serve it, preparing for the major nationwide general strike on 25 November and the commemoration of the 53rd anniversary of the Polytechnic Uprising.”
