Central pre-election rally of the KKE in Athens

Thousands of the people, especially young people sent a message of hope and optimism.

The KKE and “People’s Rally” issued a call to struggle, of hope and optimism, to all the people of Attiki from the massive central election rally that was held in the Pedion Areos square in Athens on the 3^rd of November 2010. The GS of the CC of the KKE, Aleka Papariga, Thanassis Paphilis, candidate for the regional prefecture of Attiki, member of the CC of the KKE and GS of the World Peace Council and Nikos Sophianos, Athens mayoral candidate, member of the PB of the CC of the KKE were the main speakers.

In her speech, the GS of the CC of the KKE stresses that the votes in the regional and local elections have a political character.

She referred to the affair of the parcels that were found containing explosive mechanisms and pointed out that “Since the blackmail concerning early general elections does not seem to be working, they hope that intimidation concerning destabilization will do the job. With the list of “People’s Rally” you will give a clear answer to those who do not hesitate to utilize whatever means they can in order to corrupt the consciousness of the people. These people need to be frightened on Monday morning not the people, who as the majority can acquire a leading role, can turn things upside down, if they have faith in their own strength.”

Aleka Papariga, in reference to the causes of the economic crisis noted “The crisis is not a Greek phenomenon, nor is it the product of corruption which the governments of PASOK and ND love to tell us in order to hide the real cause. It is a crisis which has occurred after the over-accumulation of capital, profits and commodities. The EU at its summit admitted that it expects a new wave of crises , and it is because of this that the member-states quarreled amongst themselves and tried to foist the burden of the crisis on each other – the bourgeois classes argued as to how the losses and profits of the crisis be shared amongst them. There was no argument concerning the lives of the people. They all agree on, both social democrats and liberals, the continued sacrifices of the people which have no end in sight.”

Referring to the role of social democracy and in particular of PASOK, which governs Greece today she stressed that this party “especially from the beginning of the 1990’s has become a force which supports the bourgeois political system and capitalism.”

The GS of the C of the KKE mentioned the scenarios concerning the emergence in Greece of a coalition government of the bourgeois parties and called on the people not to harbour any illusions about the motivations of these types of governments.

Aleka Papariga called on the workers to vote on the basis of the problems which they experience: “ There is no problem which troubles you that should not be at the forefront of your minds at the ballot box- concerning our salaries, wages, pensions, the shopping basket that we have to fill every day to live as humans, the situation in the education system and the problems in the health service, the pollution of the environment, the cost of water, electricity, telecommunications, the direct and indirect taxes which we pay, the problems of the welfare system- as well as the clear dangers that threaten us in the Aegean, the Balkans, in the Eastern Mediterranean.” She posed the question “Is it possible for workers, poor tradesmen and poor farmers to vote for the very same parties that the plutocracy votes for? Do they have the same aspirations and interests?”

In answer to the arguments that if the people do not vote for the governing PASOK party in the elections the country will slide into bankruptcy, she underlined that “ PASOK decided on the controlled bankruptcy which will heavy economic costs for the people after the elections. It is a fairytale that the defeat of PASOK will lead to the bankruptcy of the people. Quite the opposite. The worst possible bankruptcy is absolutely certain if PASOK remains strong and ND is strengthened. They must both lose.”

Aleka Papariga concluded her speech with the following “the struggles are not effective if they do not bring about a change in the balance of forces. The KKE has been vindicated. It knows how to organize the people. They cannot control it. It has an alliance policy.

The KKE has the will and the ability. Trust us. A vote for the KKE will be transformed into a dynamic force for the movement, it will not be returned to PASOK or ND.

Whoever still hopes that PASOK can become pro-people, whoever thinks that ND has learnt from its past, as it claims, we say to them categorically what we have said all the previous years: PASOK and ND will not change, you must change. Don’t hope for this any longer; don’t allow anymore time to be wasted.

The people can erect barriers against the new assault which is on the way, through its organization in every workplace, neighbourhood and place of education, through militant solidarity and with the deep realization that its interests are irreconcilable with the interests of capital.

We can overturn these anti-people policies, if we organize from now on the people’s resistance and counterattack. We must and can now change the balance of forces; we can cause a breach in the political system. We must strengthen our activity in order to open up a path of development which has as its core the satisfaction of the needs of the people, the path for popular power.”

4/11/2010