46 years since the military dictatorship of the 21st April

The GS of the CC of the KKE, Dimitris Koutsoumpas, spoke at the event of the Attica Party Organization which took place on Monday 22nd April with the theme “46 years since the military dictatorship of the 21st of April”.

The event was held in the Eleftheria Park in Athens which was jam-packed with people.

The GS of the CC of the KKE stressed amongst other things in his speech:

“At today’s event of the Attica Party Organization in Eleftheria Park the former EAT-ESA [ military police] base, we honour the militants of the anti-dictatorship struggle, the communists and other militants who were murdered, tortured, imprisoned, sent to places of exile, we honour the communists of the illegal organizations of the KKE and KNE, of the other organizations of the people’s and youth movement (…)

A party capable of acting in conditions of parliamentary democracy without losing sight of the main thing, its objective, but it is also capable of acting in conditions when the developments will bring the people and the labour movement face to face with the mechanisms of state repression and violence, with the mechanisms that restrict its activity, with the strengthening of anti-communism.”

When the forces of the Party of the European Left and opportunism support the partition of Cyprus

In the framework of the discussion of Turkey’s progress report, regarding the Cypriot question in the European Parliament last week, the Green group, represented by Daniel Cohn-Bendit, denounced the EU because it did not pressure Cyprus for re-unification. And so he tabled an amendment which demanded that the President of the European Council “invite two observers to represent the Turkish-Cypriot community in the European Parliament, in light of the next European parliamentary elections in 2014” In essence he posed the de facto partition of Cyprus. The amendment was rejected with 412 votes against (amongst them the 2 MEPs of the KKE) and 135 in favour, amongst them leading officials of the Party of the European Left such as Jean-Luc Melenchon and Younous Omarjee from France as well as the MEP of the German Die Linke party, Jurgen Klute, demonstrating in practice who supports the de facto participation of Cyprus through the recognition of the fake state and the application of pressure for a new “Annan Plan”.

Announcement for May Day 2013

STRIKE DEMONSTRATION

MAY 1st

SYNTAGMA Sq. 10.30a.m.

The uprisings of Chicago workers show the path of struggle against the modern slavery.

Working men and women, unemployed, youth

You have to turn the strike of May Day into a day of militant demand and manifestation of your indignation and anger. You must strenghten the lines of the trade unions; you have to enter the collective struggles having faith in your right. We must say no to today’s sweatshops, to today’s slavery. We have to say that “we will not become slaves of the 21st century”. 

May Day is a day of struggle! It is a day of international solidarity dyed with the blood of Chicago workers, of the countless sacrifices and of the working class heroes who fell in the uprisings of the class struggle. It is a day that the workers all over the world show their fists, their strength against their exploiters. It is a day that the modern demands of workers for decent life are projected, demands for relief of the working family of the barbaric measures of the monopolies and their political staff.

The rights and the achievements of workers were not given free by the exploiters, the governments and the parliaments. They were achieved through hard struggles.

We strike! May Day is a strike.

To the workers in the RENAULT factory in France

Dear colleagues,

The management of Renault is GUILTY for the suicide of your colleague in the Renault factory, on Monday April 22, early in the morning. But, the capitalist system is the cause that led your colleague to despair and commit a suicide. Because capitalism has in its DNA the exploitation of man by man, it survives by the exploitation.

Our experience by the brutal measures and the development of the capitalist crisis in our country proves that the wage cuts, the attack in the collective contracts, the unemployment, the reductions in pensions and allowances, and the abolition of labor achievements have the result the monopolies to win and the workers and people to loose.

In the case of Renault, are also confirmed the responsibilities of the employers’ trade unionism which signed with the management the “competitiveness pact”, increasing the working time and “freezing” the wages.

Dear colleagues,

On behalf of PAME, which rallies the class-oriented trade union movement of Greece, please transfer the warmest condolences of the working men and women of our country to the family of your colleague.

We will not become slaves of the 21st century.

The uprising of Chicago workers, the Paris Commune and the October Revolution show us the path.

We turn our back to the bureaucrats trade unionists, we join the class-oriented forces in every workplace and we struggle against the exploitation. The working class must become the master of the wealth that it produces.

THE EXECUTIVE SECRETARIAT

PAME

Capitalist Crisis and Sea Transport

The course of sea transport is mainly determined by global economic conditions, the development of the capitalist crisis and the course of world trade. The synchronized capitalist crisis of over-accumulation manifested also in sea transport.

The capitalists’ worries are focused on the following factors:

The questions arising from the development of the capitalist crisis in Eurozone, U.S.A., Japan and the other capitalist countries.

Whether growth in world trade leading countries, such as China, India, Brazil and others, will continue at the same rate.

The fact that a large number of ships have been added and tonnage has increased within the period from 2003 until 2013, resulting in a capacity surplus which exceeds the increase of demand in sea transport.

2. Thedevelopmentoffreightmarket

In the period from September 2003 until July 2008, an increase of ship-owners’ freight and profits was observed, which resulted in the over-accumulation of immense capital through the increase of the maritime workers’ exploitation rate. This is a period of record-high profits, as indicated by the typical example of capsize ships (ships above 150,000 long tons DWT) which in May 2008 reached a daily freight rate of 214,000 dollars.

Ship-owners made enormous fortunes of billions of dollars. Greek ship-owners are included in the world’s richest capitalists. It is a fact that the manifestation of the capitalist crisis affects the freight market’s course from 2009 until this day. In 2012, freight rates decreased and reached the last decade’s lowest level.

In conclusion, we may assert that the capitalist crisis and the capacity oversupply of dry bulk cargo, container and tank ships continue to exert strong pressure on freight rates, something which, according to competent shipbrokers and ship-owners, will continue also in 2013.

Message of greetings to the 19th Congress of the KKE by the FARC-EP

KKE

Immediate response of the communists and the working class

“Greek and foreign workers united” “profits bathed in the blood of the workers in all Greece and Manolada” “The law is what is right for the workers” were the slogans shouted by the Greek and foreign workers in the centre of Nea Manolada as well as in Athens, Thessalonica, Giannena, after the call of the KKE, denouncing the murderous attack that was unleashed by the big strawberry farmers of Nea Manolada on 17/4, in response to the obvious demand of the immigrants to be paid for their hard work.

The communists, who for many years have been at the side of the immigrant workers, participated in the demonstration of the KKE in Nea Manolada alongside many agricultural workers. “This situation cannot go on, as the evil committed in Manolada and the wider region by the big business men in strawberry production and their thugs has gone on too long” stressed Dimitris Tzavaras, member of the CC of the KKE and secretary of the Pelopponese region of the party, at the demonstration “the attack against the immigrant agricultural workers is an attack on the whole working class, its movement, its vanguard. The immigrant agricultural workers of Manolada are a section of the Greek working class, so they are with us and we with them. While against us we have the capitalists and their thugs, and all those who provide support and toleration (state, mechanisms, political forces). The stance of each person regarding this issue tells us about their quality, about what interests they serve.” Dimitris Tzavaras noted.

PAME condemns the brutal, savage attack against immigrant workers in Manolada

PAME condemns the brutal, savage attack against the immigrant farm workers who demanded to be paid for their work.

In Manolada, a small community near Patras, in south west Greece, are located big plantations of strawberries. The landowners gain great profits by using immigrant workers in the fields, without collective contracts, no health care, no health and safety regulations, NO RIGHTS.

This situation is based on the state’s and the employers’ daily terrorization to the workers. The state does not give documents to the immigrant workers and keeps them afraid of deportation in daily basis, and the employers exploit this, so as to break any demands of the workers.

This is the law of the capital. It is the law of the jungle, where both Greek and immigrant workers are exploited for the profits of the capitalists. When the 200 immigrant farm workers demanded their accrued wages of six months, the employers took out their guns and shot in cold blood more than 20 workers.

The trade union cadre of SYRIZA apply the laws of the Memorandum

35% reduction in wages has signed the administrations of the Federation of Port Employees of Greece and the Trade Union of Dock Workers of Piraeus.

35% reduction in wages, according to the laws of Memorandum, and reversals in the total labor rights of the workers (employees and dock workers) are provided by the Collective Labor Contracts that the governmental and employers’ trade unionism has agreed together with the trade union cadres of SYRIZA in the administrations of the Federation of Port Employees of Greece and the Trade Union of Dock Workers of Piraeus with the administration of the Organization of Piraeus Port.

The president and managing director of the Organization of Piraeus Port congratulated the governmental and employers’ trade unionism and the trade union cadres of SYRIZA on their consent for the signing of the new Collective Labor Contract. The organization is in a status of “labor peace” since 2010, despite the wage cuts and the leave of 530 workers without hiring even one worker!

PAME

THESES OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF GREECE FOR THE 19TH CONGRESS

Click to read the Theses of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece for the 19th Congress. 

There is also explained what the term People's Alliance stands for.