Internationalist Meeting of CPs from Greece, Albania, FYROM

On 29^th of MAY the Regional Committee of Western Macedonia of the KKE organised an internationalist anti-imperialist event in the remote town of Kastoria, located near the borders of Greece to FYROM and Albania with the participation of delegations of the Communist Parties of the respective countries. The event expressed the common will of the communists in Greece, FYROM and Albania to contribute to the strengthening of the anti-imperialist struggle under the particularly complicated conditions created by the synchronised capitalist crisis and the intensification of the inter-imperialist contradictions.

Theodosis Konstantinidis, member of the PB of the CC of KKE delivered the main speech, while Muharrem Jafa GS of the Communist Party of Albania and Goran Nikle responsible for the Press Department of the CP of Macedonia (FYROM) delivered greeting messages. The delegation of the CP of Macedonia was headed by Tasefska Ntragitsa member of the CC.

Theodossis Konstadinidis in his talk underscored:

“We are following with great attention and concern the developments in the Balkans where the competition of the bourgeois classes strengthens while at the same time the Balkans are increasingly involved in the imperialist plans with the accession of the Western Balkans into the EU and the expansion of NATO in the region. The historical experience teaches us that the bourgeois class and the imperialist unions utilise existing minority issues or create others that do not exist in order to divide the peoples, to promote the policy of “divide and rule”.

As is well-known, in Greece there is a Muslim minority as well as the Slavophones. In the past our party struggled against the discriminations and continues to do so insofar as they appear. Nevertheless we would like to stress that the recognition of a “Macedonian, national minority” as well as of a “Turkish minority”, as the bourgeois classes and the nationalist circles of the neighbouring countries seek with the support of the imperialist mechanisms, will be one more step for the questioning of international treaties e.g. Treaty of Lausanne, and consequently something that will spark new tensions and possible wars.

The KKE addresses the working class and the peoples in the region and stresses that their interests are identified with the joint anti-imperialist- antimonopoly struggle, for the disengagement from the imperialist organisations, for the removal of foreign military bases and nuclear weapons, for the return of military forces from the imperialist missions and the integration of this struggle to the struggle for power. On this basis the peoples can live peacefully, creatively and utilise the natural resources which will be the property of the people for their own benefit, to satisfy their own needs.”

In his greeting Muharrem Jafa General Secretary of the Communist Party of Albania referred among others:

“The struggle and the efforts of the communists and the peoples in our country against imperialism, irredentism and nationalist propaganda, against expansionism and revisionism and in general against the enemies of socialism communism must be more effective and better coordinated”.

Goran Nikle responsible for the Press Office of the Communist Party of Macedonia stressed that the “discovery of new energy resources in Balkans and Eastern Mediterranean and the intensification of the exploitation by capital not only will not bring peace and stability in our region as the imperialists and their governments argue but on the contrary they will create new fiercer competition while at the same time the peoples will pay more for electric power, oil, natural gas since the significant energy resources in the region will be plundered by the domestic and foreign monopolies and business groups instead of being the people’s property”.

Nodas Stoltidis by PAME, Avraam Egres by PASY, Vasilis Karatzidis from the Peace Committee, Selimai Letim, an Albanian immigrant and the slavophones Greek communists Giorgos Nikolopoulos and Alekos Ouggrinos also intervened during the event.

The slavophone communists in particular referred to the persecutions and the repression that this section of the population had experienced for many decades noting that this repression had a class character and was intertwined with nationalist tensions and demands of the bourgeois classes in the various neighbouring Balkan states.

In addition, it was highlighted that the end of the persecutions, discriminations, etc is related to the presence and activity of KKE, with its contribution to the struggles of the workers, for the winning of the democratic rights of the people. The event ended with a militant anti-imperialist demonstration in the central streets of Kastoria.