Mass and dynamic reaction of the KKE against the imperialist war in Libya

On Sunday afternoon, the 20th March 2011, the KKE organised mass demonstrations and placard protests in Athens and in dozens of Greek cities against the imperialist intervention in Libya and the involvement of the Greek government in the imperialist plans through the concession of military bases, warships and aircrafts.

The reaction of the KKE was immediate, right at the moment when the war operations of the imperialists began. The Press Office of the CC stressed in its statement on 19th March:

“The KKE denounces the military intervention in Libya, unleashed by international imperialism with the participation of Greece, headed by the EU imperialists, the butchers of France-Britain, with the support of the USA. This is the EU of “democracy and freedom”; this is the “free world”!

The pretext of the imperialists -and of G. Papandreou too- who claim that their interest is “humanitarian” is a shameful hypocrisy as they openly or secretly cooperate and deal with the authoritarian anti-people governments in Africa, Middle East and elsewhere. They have no legitimacy. Their interest has to do with the oil and the natural gas of Libya and not with the people of Libya whom they want to exploit by taking sides with the opposition, whereas they were all supporting Gaddafi till yesterday – including G. Papandreou.

The people of Libya are the only ones responsible for the solution of the immense problems they face. They do not need any wolves to protect them.

The Greek people must be in solidarity with the people of Libya. Those who attack Libya are the ones who have passed the burdens of the crisis on the workers’ shoulders, the ones who exploit the people with the memoranda, the privatisations, the abolition of the collective labour agreements, the starvation wages.

The American and NATO bases in Suda and Aktio must be closed immediately. The Greek military planes and ships must withdraw immediately from Libya.

March to the American Embassy and the Offices of the EU

On the afternoon of Sunday (20/3), the KKE held a large demonstration outside the Greek Parliament, in the central square of the Greek capital. Thanassis Paphilis, member of the CC of the KKE, Parliamentary spokesman and GS of the World Peace Council, spoke at the rally.” The Greek people and the peoples of the region and the entire planet must not be and are not naïve any more. They are aware and have a lot of experience. Petrol and natural gas, the control of the natural resources, the profits of the plutocracy and the monopolies were and are the reasons for the imperialist intervention”, he stressed.

And he further noted that “The murderers who attack Libya today are the same people who are murdering the rights of the workers in these countries, loading the burdens of the capitalist crisis on them. They are the same people who inflict unemployment on the youth, the very people who abolish collective bargaining agreements, who condemn the wealth producers, that is to say the workers, to starvation wages, who call on them to work until they die. They are the same people who ensure fabulous profits for the monopolies and the business groups.”

The rally was followed by a march to the offices of the EU delegation and to the American embassy. First stop was the offices if the European Union, where the statement of the Press Office of the CC of the KKE was posted on the door. The same happened at the French and British embassies.

Aleka Papariga, GS of the CC of the KKE, who participated in the rally of the party made the following statement to the media: “Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, now Libya- for the fourth time Greece, with the responsibility of the Greek government, is taking part in a serious crime. The crime of an unjust, dirty and imperialist war, with participation in a share of the petrol resources in return, with the result of intensifying the crisis and new torments for all the peoples of the region”.

The GS of the CC of the KKE in her letter to the President of the Greek parliament demanded the immediate calling of a full session of the Greek parliament and a discussion at the level of the party leaders, in relation to the involvement of Greece in the imperialist intervention in Libya.

Anti-imperialist mobilization outside the American Base

It should be noted that on Sunday a demonstration was held ( with a large turnout) outside the American base in Suda (Crete) by the Greek Committee for International Peace and Détente in cooperation with the All-workers’ Militant Front (PAME) and other anti-imperialist organizations. The representatives of anti-imperialist peace organizations from 11 countries from the Balkans and Middle East participated in the demonstration.

The demonstrators demanded the immediate cessation of the imperialist intervention and the closure of the American base.

Decision of the CC of the KKE concerning the developments in the region

On Sunday 20/3 the extensive decision of the CC of the KKE was published, in which the developments in the wider region are examined. In the introduction amongst other things the following points are noted:

“In our region (Balkans, Eastern Mediterranean, Middle East, North Africa, Caucasus) serious and dangerous developments are unfolding, which are characterized by the intensity of the contradictions between the imperialist powers and competition between the bourgeois classes, in a region which contains rich energy resources and constitutes a “transport route” for raw materials from Central Asia, the Caspian, the Middle East, both to the West and to the up and coming powers of Asia (China, India etc)

The strongest monopolies, imperialist unions and up and coming imperialist powers are entangled in a web of contradictions and struggle. Within the framework of the imperialist system, the bourgeois classes of the region seek “axes” of alliance, move into alliances and compromises, so that they benefit from the struggle for natural wealth and market shares.

These international “alliances”, which the imperialist powers and monopoly groups form, take into account the geopolitical position of each country, its position in the imperialist pyramid, and also the dynamics of its strength (economic, military, political). (…)

Often, the struggle which develops, goes beyond a “peaceful” political and diplomatic framework and continues with economic wars and wars of espionage, and even with military means, proving that “war is a continuation of politics by other (specifically violent) means”. Rivalries and cooperation between the capitalists are like the two inevitably opposite poles of a “magnet”.

In this struggle both the UN and NATO are utilised, the police and military forces of the EU, the military bases, the large naval fleets, while various pretexts are used, such as the “struggle against terrorism”, and the “defence of minorities”, the waves of immigration which are caused by the imperialist wars and interventions, the destitution and poverty which are given birth to by capitalism etc”

In its decision the CC of the KKE stresses that it is necessary to strengthen the anti-imperialist struggle in the region, in conjunction with the struggle for the overthrow of capitalism. Issues of the ideological-political struggle of the communist and workers movement in the region are also examined.

21/3/2011