No sacrifices for the imperialists’ wars – Greece out of the war
- The KKE calls on the working class, the people and the youth to remain vigilant and to take militant action. Let the alarm be sounded everywhere. Let opposition to the imperialist war and to our country’s dangerous involvement in it be expressed and strengthened. Our country must not become a target for reprisals. The people and their children must not be made to bear the consequences of war. The “national interest” invoked by the government and its mouthpieces to justify Greece’s participation in the war is a false pretext. It has nothing to do with the real interests of the workers and the people, nor with the protection of the country’s sovereign rights. It is connected to the participation of Greek capital in the division of the spoils of war. No sacrifice for the profits of the capitalists and their allies, no sacrifice for the redivision of the world, which is always drawn with the blood of the peoples.
- The recent military attack by the US and Israel against Iran, whose victims are the Iranian people —including small children— has nothing to do with the ridiculous and unfounded pretexts invoked by the imperialists. After all, those who speak about “democracy in Iran” and the need to “destroy its nuclear programme” are the very same forces that support authoritarian and theocratic regimes, such as those in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, the jihadists in Syria, and the Taliban in Afghanistan, while at the same time expanding their own nuclear arsenal. The same or similar pretexts were used by US–NATO imperialism to justify military interventions and long-term imperialist wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya and elsewhere, with the situation today being even worse for the peoples of those countries. Their real aim is to control oil and other natural resources, energy and trade routes across the wider region, in the context of rivalry with China, which maintains strategic relations with Iran as part of the Chinese “New Silk Road”. This is the plan for the “New Middle East”, in the context of which the genocide of the Palestinian people continues, Gaza is being turned into a US–Israeli protectorate, and the people of Lebanon are being massacred.
- The US plan serves the “living space” strategy aimed at maintaining its leading position in the international imperialist system. The intervention in Venezuela, the threats against Cuba, and the attempt to annex Greenland, among other actions, are all part of this strategy. The struggle for supremacy in the international capitalist system between the US and China, which is manifesting itself across an ever-widening field of confrontation, involves alternating diplomatic and military means, “trade wars”, attempts to draw forces away from the opposing camp, and so on. Once again, it is confirmed that “war is the continuation of politics by other, military means”, shattering the illusions of those who speak of “a return to politics and diplomacy, to international law” as a means of resolving differences. International law, which was shaped under different circumstances with the decisive intervention of the Soviet Union and the socialist system, has been repeatedly flouted, and the representatives of the imperialist centres invoke it only when it serves their interests.
- A qualitative element in these developments is Iran’s large-scale retaliation against US and allied infrastructure in neighbouring countries. In this context, British bases in Cyprus and US bases in Greece are becoming targets of retaliation. The danger of war breaking out and spreading is more than real, at a time when the imperialist war in Ukraine has been raging for more than four years and the number of war zones and fronts in the wider region and around the world continues to multiply. The possibility that these fronts may converge and become even more synchronized confirms the assessment of the Political Resolution of the 22nd Congress of the KKE that “for the first time since the Second World War, we are so close to an imperialist Third World War”.
- Greece is actively involved in the war, under the responsibility of the New Democracy government and the other Euro-Atlantic parties. It adopts the pretexts used to justify military aggression against Iran, turns the country into a springboard for war through US military bases in Greece, and places its armed forces at the service of the US, NATO, and Israel. The government’s argument that Greece is not involved in the war because no direct attacks on Iran are being launched from US military bases on our territory is false and misleading. Souda and other US bases in Greece play an enhanced and active role in preparing and supporting attacks in various ways, including the gathering and transport of personnel, the supply and transport of military equipment, the berthing of warships and their equipping with missiles, telecommunications, etc. Similar facilities are provided by other countries, such as Spain, which the social-democratic parties present as an example of “non-involvement”. Those, particularly within the compliant opposition parties, who speak of a “different role” for the bases —one that is supposedly non-aggressive and non-military— are telling blatant lies and simply seek to conceal the fact that the governments of New Democracy, PASOK, and SYRIZA have all put their stamp on the establishment and expansion of US bases in Greece.
- Equally misleading and shameless is the government’s claim that the dispatch of aircraft and frigates to Cyprus was intended for the “protection of Cypriot Hellenism” and constitutes a “defensive act”. This claim is refuted by the fact that, for years, Greek armed forces have been stationed in Saudi Arabia and in the Red Sea to protect the interests of shipowners and energy companies, while a few days after the deployment to Cyprus the government announced that it would also provide military assistance to Bulgaria. The military resources sent to Cyprus are not intended to protect the Cypriot people, but to defend British bases and US infrastructure in Paphos and to provide assistance to the state of Israel. They form part of the plan to NATO-ize the island, which presents those responsible for the Turkish invasion and occupation as “protectors” of Cyprus and poses grave dangers for the Cypriot people. At the same time, this provides a pretext for the reinforcement of Turkish military forces in the occupied territories. Step by step, divisive solutions for Cyprus are being promoted under the NATO umbrella. The plan is to promote Cyprus as an “unsinkable aircraft carrier”, while monopoly groups set their sights on the region’s energy reserves.
- The country’s involvement in the dangerous plans of the US–NATO–EU–Israel has become a “way of life” for the Greek bourgeoisie and Greek capitalism. It confirms that military engagement and business go hand in hand. This is what lies behind the so-called geostrategic enhancement of the country. In reality, it represents a strengthening of the position and profitability of Greek capital. In order for business groups to strengthen their standing on the energy map, Greece must become deeply embroiled in the energy wars and military conflicts. In order for Greek shipowners to profit from the soaring freight rates generated by every conflict, seafarers are forced to risk their lives. In order for the war industries and construction groups to secure lucrative contracts, weapons systems are sent to Ukraine and the army is deployed to Gaza.
- At the same time that sections of capital are sharpening their knives, workers and popular households will be called upon to pay for the consequences of military involvement and the dominant policy through higher prices for energy and other consumer goods, as well as through intensified exploitation to complete orders or to cover losses, particularly in sectors that may be severely affected, such as tourism. Workers are even exposed to risks to their own lives, as in the case of seafarers who are sent to war zones and pressured by shipowners to sign statements —essentially death warrants— declaring that they are doing so voluntarily. The government’s assurances, already speaking of “imported inflation”, that it will provide support if necessary are completely worthless. The government is not facing some “external problem”; it is complicit in supporting the US–Israel intervention, even acting as its standard-bearer. It bears responsibility, together with previous governments, for participation in the US–EU–Russia energy war; for dependence on extremely expensive LNG; for abandoning domestic energy resources such as lignite; and for handing them over to monopolies such as Chevron. It is also responsible for promoting tourism as the engine of the economy, a sector particularly vulnerable in conditions of military conflict. The support measures it promises amount to the familiar crumbs of various benefits, which in practice subsidize price increases, while the deployment of the frigate in the Red Sea alone costs half a million euros a day.
- The people must show neither confidence in nor tolerance towards the New Democracy government and the other political forces that support the government’s strategic choices. A typical example of their alignment is the way they rushed to provide alibis and echo the government’s mockery regarding the NATO mission in Cyprus. Together, the government and the systemic opposition, through their different but complementary roles, are fostering illusions that within the framework of strategic alliances with the US and Israel and amid fierce imperialist competition, there can somehow be a “pro-peace” policy and the rule of “international law”. All of them support the skyrocketing of military spending and the transformation of the European economy into a war economy, in the name of the EU achieving “autonomy” and playing a more active role in developments.
- The workers and the people must now intensify their struggle for Greece’s exit from the war and its disentanglement from imperialist plans, for disengagement from NATO and the EU, so that the people can be masters in their own land, forging relations with other peoples on the basis of mutual benefit and solidarity.
- Workers must not bear the cost of military involvement. VAT on widely consumed goods and excise duty on electricity should be abolished, and price caps must be imposed. Lignite-fired power plants should be reactivated and the energy exchange must be abolished. Sanctions against Russia, which are driving up the cost of natural gas, must be lifted. Substantial wage increases and the full and effective restoration of collective bargaining agreements are essential.
- The Souda base and all US–NATO bases, which serve as launching pads for war and magnets for retaliation, must be closed. The Patriot missile battery must be withdrawn from Saudi Arabia and the frigate deployed in the Red Sea must return. Every warship and military unit sent on imperialist missions abroad must be brought back. The strategic agreement with the US and Israel must be denounced, and the government must not deploy military forces to Gaza.
- Solidarity must be strengthened with the peoples of Iran, Palestine, Lebanon, Cuba, Venezuela, Ukraine, and Russia, and with all peoples who are victims of imperialist barbarity. The unanimous decision of the Greek Parliament to recognize the Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital within the 1967 borders, must be implemented. The barbaric US-imposed imperialist blockade of Cuba must end immediately, and Cuba must be removed from the US’s despicable list of “state sponsors of terrorism”.
- The new EU Migration and Asylum Pact, which turns our country into a warehouse for human souls, must be abolished. The Geneva Convention on Refugees must be fully applied, granting asylum to those fleeing Iran and other war zones and providing all necessary protection, as has been done for refugees from Ukraine. Rescue, not refoulement —so that the criminal shipwrecks in the Mediterranean and the Aegean are brought to an end.
History teaches us that whenever our people have come under a “foreign flag”, and whenever they have supported the plans of the bourgeoisie in their role as henchmen of “powerful allies”, they have suffered great disasters. Today, the people must reject any form of bourgeois plans presented as “national goals”. They must defend their own independent interests and claim what is rightfully theirs. The people’s struggle for their own homeland, the struggle to defend their lives, their families, their homes, and to meet their needs, is a struggle for a different future, free from the power of capital, which has no homeland: its only allegiance is to exploitation and profit, pursued wherever possible.
The concern and fear about what war and the country’s involvement in it may bring —feelings that are entirely justified for every person today— must not be allowed to turn into a wait-and-see attitude. The current negative international correlation of forces is neither immutable nor static. The impasses of the capitalist system are intensifying, and war leads to the destruction of productive forces. It is a characteristic expression of its decay and of its historically outdated limits.
The people, joining forces with the KKE, must raise the banner of counterattack, and militant defence of their interests, and embark on a struggle to the very end —until the final liberation from the system of poverty, wars and exploitation.
In a world that is burning and a system that is decaying, the people have the power to become the protagonists of developments, with the KKE at the forefront.