A Vast Crowd of People Attended the Election Rally of the KKE in Athens

Trust the KKE which they cannot subjugate

The GS of the CC of the KKE, Aleka Papariga, spoke at a large election rally in the centre of Athens on Wednesday, 2nd of May.

Aleka Papariga noted from the podium of the rally:

“Trust the KKE, in the face of the storm which has already been announced.

The working men and women, the poor employees, professionals and farmers, even if they did not participate in strikes and other mobilizations, can and must vote with their class and political instinct as the main criterion.

The participation of Greece in the EU has brought you the experience that the accession benefited the monopolies exclusively and was at the expense of the peoples.

All Europe has tried out the liberal and social-democratic parties, the coalition of liberal and social-democratic parties, coalition governments with mutated left and communist parties. You have seen centre-left coalition governments in France and Italy, unfortunately with communists inside, play an active role in the dismantling of Yugoslavia through war, blackmail and intimidation.

After the Maastricht Treaty which was voted for by all the parties with the KKE as the only exception, the plundering of popular gains in Europe began. They then found the opportunity to pass a treaty without the required popular resistance, as the labour movement was in retreat, while capitalist restoration in the socialist countries was underway. On this terrain, parties nostalgic for Hitler and fascism emerged, using the existing immigration problem as a pretext. A problem created by the EU and Greece, a country which supported the imperialist wars and the looting of the peoples.

The EU has played its own role in the emergence of such parties, as its official ideology today is the anti-historical equation of communism with fascism.

Only a very strong radical revolutionary labour movement with solid alliances can drive quasi-fascist and fascists views to the margins, so that they remain ridiculous little groups. No other proposal can deal with such phenomena in a substantial way, using just anti-fascist phraseology and curses.

We address all of you, whose interests are irreconcilable with interests of the monopolies. Try to find hope again by overwhelmingly strengthening the KKE at the ballot box. A strong KKE means a strong people. The KKE alone, before the clouds had even appeared on the horizon, predicted and issued warnings, when the other parties identified the EU with security and prosperity.”

Aleka Papariga referred to the positions formulated by the KKE on a series of issues, regarding which its assessments have been borne out by the developments. At the same time she characterised the proposal of a coalition government with the KKE in a “left government”, which is being promoted by the alliance of opportunist and social-democratic parties (SYN/SYRIZA), as a “bluff”. She noted that now when social-democracy, its basic party being PASOK, “cannot mislead using bluffs as in the past, a worthy successor has been found in the so-called renewed and repenting left, which has no problem in attacking the valuable historical experience of the 20th century, the class struggle, its perspective.” And she added: “It is obvious that a coalition with other borrowed votes has one precondition: that the KKE cancel positions based on the solid experience of the past and the bleak capitalist present. In this way we will become very useful to the system so that the people’s movement can be curtailed and so that this government will have its hands free to compromise with and submit to Brussels, Washington, and above all to carry out the well known U-turns in Greece. (…)

We are not going to play this game because we do not want to kill the hopes of the people” and added that “the conflict with the EU is the only way as is the conflict with the monopolies in Greece.”

The GS of the CC of the KKE noted that “There can be no positive renegotiation for the people in the EU. The changes and amendments which will occur will only be in favour of the bourgeois class and the business groups.”

Aleka Papariga referred to the need to strengthen the KKE in the forthcoming elections: “We have elaborated demands and immediate goals for today, right now. On unemployment and hiring, public social works, on the salvation of the social-security funds from complete bankruptcy, on the indebted households, on the collective agreements, on the poor professionals, craftsmen and shopkeepers, on the small farmers, on public healthcare, on the prevention of illnesses, welfare, overall on the major question of health and education, on school and university students, on professional training, on everything. We have elaborated many of these in the form of draft laws, of course we table them first of all in the struggles, in the movement. For this reason we ask for strength, great strength so that the struggle can be more effective (…)

She also underlined that “the dilemma “euro or drachma” is worthless. And with the euro and with the drachma, without a radical political change, a large section of the people will be fully bankrupted.”

The GS of the KKE tabled a series of rhetorical questions to the supporters of the so-called “left government”:

“What will they do against capital?

All the parties from ND to SYRIZA say to it that the struggle will take place only at one level, in the organs of the EU, the European Central Bank and the IMF

And we ask: Are there no opponents and exploiters of the people, are there no capitalist employers, monopolies, banks, ship-owners, big retailers and powerful middle-men, chains of large shops in the wholesale and retail trade, are there no big contractors and exporters?

Which one of the proposed governments will force the monopolies in all sectors to abolish the flexible working relations, the starvation wages, the individual labour contracts of the workers and employees intimidated by the prospect of unemployment? Who will impose the refund of the reserves of the social security funds, the funds of universities and technical institutes and of hospitals which were lost through the haircut, the savings of the bond-holders entrusted in state bonds?

How can they ensure that the small farmer will be rescued from expensive electricity bills, expensive fertilizers and expensive agricultural supplies in general? How can they guarantee that they will sell their produce and that they will have a decent income and at the same time that the working people as consumers will have cheap products?

We also ask all parties, especially the so called left which mumble about nationalizations: will you abolish the list with the mandatory privatizations, which are imposed not only by the loan agreement but chiefly by the Maastricht Treaty, which are a fundamental decisions and mandatory directives of the EU?

(…)

All of you , starting from ND, PASOK etc. , promise a social policy. But how can this policy be implemented without state funding of the social security funds and while the capitalist employers demand the reduction and even the abolition of the employers’ contributions?

What will you do against the decision of the ministerial council of Turkey to carry out exploration for hydrocarbons in the region between Rhodes and Kastellorizo and the Exclusive Economic Zone of Cyprus?

[…]

SYRIZA is currying favour with the monopolies, the business groups arguing that its party will support “healthy entrepreneurship”. Have you heard this term before or even on a daily basis? This term is being constantly repeated by ND and PASOK. The term “healthy entrepreneurship” refers to the hard core of the monopolies. Furthermore, it strikes directly against the small businesses.

They conceal from the Greek people, as much as they can, the fact that the capitalist investors, both Greek and foreign, do not invest in sectors that produce useful, cheap and quality products for the people but in sectors that yield easy profits. They will make investments with the workers as slaves, with the minimum possible staff, with temporary staff. The jobs will be less compared to the number of unemployed. Semi-employment, semi-unemployment, unemployment will become permanent.

They conceal from the Greek people that the capitalist enterprises, supported by the liberation of the movement of capital, commodities, manpower and services provided for by the Treaty of Maastricht, invest in Greece in order to accumulate capital and make investments and carry takeovers abroad, do not have any patriotic hesitation in closing down an enterprise in Greece and investing in Europe or outside of Europe.

A few days before the elections certain officials of SYRIZA when they are cornered by such questions answer that the state will make investments. Will they establish state-owned factories in all the industrial sectors? Will they then come into conflict with the EU? It would be inevitable in this instance. Why then do they not have a programme of confrontation with and departure from the EU?

What will they do with the “overflow” of imports of products that we can produce in Greece?

But let’s take a look at another serious issue that all the parties, all of them, do not bother to discuss in the pre-election campaign as if it does not concern the Greek people, the economy and the children of the Greek people.

What will they do in case of a war against Syria and Iran?

A few days before the elections all the other parties, even those vying for a mandate for one-party or coalition governments do not say a word about major issues that are developing rapidly and will develop immediately after the elections.

A dangerous confrontation is unfolding in our region (Balkans, Eastern Mediterranean, Middle East, Northern Africa, Caucasus) , in a region which contains 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 rapidly rising powers of Asia (China, India etc).

The strongest monopolies, imperialist unions and rising imperialist powers are entangled in a web of contradictions and confrontations .

We demand that :

• Any involvement of Greece to a possible imperialist war against Iran and Syria be prevented. The non-compliance with any “treaty obligation” that entails the direct or indirect involvement of our country.

• The base at Suda not be used and it be immediately closed.

• The return home of the Greek troops which are outside the borders.

• The cancellation of all the military exercises and the agreements of military cooperation with Israel.”

Aleka Papariga referred in detail to the political proposal of the KKE, the main axes of which are the workers’ people’s power, the socialisation of the wealth, the disengagement from the EU, the unilateral cancellation of the debt, the workers’ and people’s control from the bottom up.

In her reference to the electoral battle of the 6th of May she underlined that “even those who disagree with us do not call into question the fact that we are an experienced party. The KKE is an experienced party, it knows how to fight in all conditions. We have a great advantage. We recognise our shortcomings and weaknesses; we can and must become better and more effective. But we possess and maintain an irreplaceable advantage which is valuable in all phases and especially in conditions of the crisis when the pressure is multifaceted. They cannot subjugate us, they cannot buy us off, they cannot deceive us, and they cannot frighten us.

This KKE is what the people, what Greece needs today and this KKE must be strengthened.

[..]

A powerful KKE at the ballot box. We must rise up, altogether with the people. And if we are stronger, the people will be stronger against the offensive that will be launched against them in the following period (…) Every negotiator, whether right-wing or left-wing, will come away empty handed from the EU bodies in relation to the needs of the people. For that reason we must make steps forward so that we can develop a vision of the radical change that will come in Greece and other European countries”.

3/5/2012