On 25 October, the Karditsa Regional Committee of the KKE organized an event with the title “Solidarity with the Island of the Revolution! Socialism: Necessary and Timely” which sparked keen interest, discussion and reflection.
Eliseos Vagenas, member of the CC of the KKE and head of its International Relations Section delivered a speech at the event.
Christina Bekiari, Secretary of the Karditsa Regional Committee of the KKE, opened the event and chaired the discussion.
The event took place just a few days before the crucial annual debate and vote at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly on the resolution calling for an end to the U.S. economic, commercial, and financial blockade against Cuba, which was held on 27 and 28 October this year.
El. Vagenas highlighted what it means for a country to be blockaded, especially by the world’s most powerful imperialist power. He referred to the shortages of fuel, food, and medicine, as well as the long list of hardships that U.S. imperialism has imposed on the heroic people of Cuba, and added:
“No international law can justify the crime the U.S. is committing against the people of Cuba (...) Emboldened by the developments in Venezuela earlier this year, the U.S. is escalating its barbaric and genocidal policy against Cuba, even going so far as to issue threats of a complete naval blockade of Cuba and even military imperialist intervention. Their aim is crystal clear! They make no secret of their intention to bring the heroic Cuban people to their knees by any means necessary—the same people who, six and a half decades ago, in 1959, led by Fidel, Che, and the other revolutionaries, decided to take their fate into their own hands, not only to overthrow an anti-popular, dictatorial regime like that of Batista, but to overthrow, through armed struggle, the very system of exploitation of man by man—capitalism—and to begin building a new socialist society, with the support of the Soviet Union and other socialist countries. This brought unprecedented achievements to the Cuban people.”
El. Vagenas referred to the KKE’s initiatives and actions of solidarity with the Cuban people aimed at lifting the criminal blockade, while also referring to the reforms approved by the Communist Party of Cuba and the country’s National Assembly, highlighting their dangerous dimensions for the achievements and the Revolution in Cuba.
During the speech and the discussion that followed, El. Vagenas referred to the KKE’s elaborations on the issues of socialism, based on the conclusions the KKE has drawn from the overthrow of socialism in the USSR.
In conclusion, he noted, among other things, that “the socialist revolutions of the 20th century gave a major impetus to social progress and advanced workers’ and people’s rights throughout the world. They resolved issues that capitalism neither wants nor is able to resolve,” he emphasized, while also pointing out that “the exploitative system today faces major dead ends, crises, and wars, and it cannot be reformed; it cannot become “just” and “humane”, as sinful social democracy claims. The only real alternative for the people is to overthrow capitalist barbarity and construct a new socialist-communist society.”
