On the Major Success of the 38th Festival KNE-Odigitis

18/9/2012

The 38th Festival of KNE (Communist Youth of Greece) and Odigitis (the journal of KNE) has been successfully completed . The events were held all over Greece in the previous months and came to a climax at the central three-day event 13-15 September in the Tritsis Park in the mainly working class and popular western neighbourhoods of Athens. The chief element this year was the mass participation of the youth, school students, university students, unemployed and workers. There was a higher participation of workers and unemployed of every age group.

The 38th Festival of KNE-Odigitis with the slogan “"Help him who has risen to revolt… you must prepare to take command now” was a decisive answer to the mechanisms of the system, which through slanders and other underhand methods have tried to place a wall between the KKE and KNE and the youth. It demonstrates that despite and in opposition to the climate of disappointment and blind indignation there are preconditions for the people’s emancipation to be expressed more dynamically and decisively, the organization and counterattack of the workers and youth against capital, the EU, and the parties which serve them, for the radical overthrow.

The KKE salutes the members and cadres of KNE, its friends, who with a spirit of self-sacrifice worked to organize and host the hundreds of multi-facetted events of the 38th Festival of KNE-Odigitis and carried out important mass work amongst the youth. The KKE salutes the hundreds of artists who with their participation contributed to the success of the Festival, highlighting it as a unique political and cultural event which is embraced by the youth and people. This year the Festival was again the event which gathered together the largest number of established and amateur artists compared to any other festival or event in Greece.

A. Papariga: Struggle for relief measures on the road of counterattack and rupture

The political dimension of the Festival climaxed with the central speech of the GS of the CC of the KKE, cde A. Papariga. Before this the Secretary of the Central Council of KNE, Theodoris Chionis, made a brief address especially to the youth from the working class and popular strata for them to trust the KKE and mobilise alongside it in its struggle.

A strong KKE in the people and in the Parliament, in the factories and sectors, can provide great impetus to the people’s counterattack, and be a starting point for a victorious course.

The shocks experienced by the bourgeois political system, with the electoral disaster in May of ND and PASOK, have been temporarily covered up by the three-party government of ND-PASOK-Democratic Left.

But the elections mainly showed that the monopolies, EU, as well as in a series of countries, as in Greece, possess other instruments, that they have not exhausted the temporary transitional solutions, with the aim of giving the system a facelift. These instruments, as long as the people do not decide to get rid of them, will be used against them.

The GS of the CC of the KKE stressed the following amongst other things in relation to SYRIZA: “ the new bipolar system which will be comprised of the centre-right/right and on the other side SYRIZA, which today has developed into a social-democratic party, maintaining many characteristics of classic opportunism, which is the most cunning tool for the corruption of the labour movement and its allies.

Is it accidental that today SYRIZA has rallied around it those sections of the middle strata, every apologist and certain stooges of the power, who benefited from the strategy of PASOK and the EU funds, who submitted to or tolerated the corruption and buying off, who threw themselves into the hunt for private profit?” wondered Aleka Papariga.

She continued: “of course SYRIZA was voted for by unemployed people, by desperate poor people. But the strategy of SYRIZA is not determined by the poor people but by its choice to act exclusively in the framework of capitalism, to support the capitalist economy. Its policy is influenced by the labour aristocracy and middle strata.

The governmental left will not change the general political line or strike a blow against the rotten political system. No government, no matter if it is called left, communist, even revolutionary, will respect its proclamations if the means of production and the wealth are in the hands of monopolies, if the people do not have the ownership and the state power in their hands.”

 This “enough is enough” must acquire a real political content, the one that corresponds to the needs of the people and the movement. It should turn against the dominance of the monopolies in economy.

 It is not enough, even if it is necessary, to fight merely for measures that relieve the poor people. Even if the people’s solidarity is of great importance, it is not enough to fight on behalf of the indebted households, and the families which cannot pay their rent, water, electricity. We will struggle for these but we will do nothing if we don’t choose the path of rupture and overthrow.

 The immense power of the people must be released from the chains of the intimidating dilemmas, anticommunism, the state and employers’ intimidation and authoritarianism. There is a need to change the balance of forces in favour of people’s interests.”

The General Secretary of the CC of the KKE referred to the international experience: “there is no country, there is no movement that moved forward to gains and achievements after the reduction of the forces and the influence of the communist party. There is the experience from Chile –taking into consideration the differences-, the experience from Revolution of the Carnations, the experience from the participation of communist parties in bourgeois government in France and Italy.

Latin America also provides us plenty of examples about the fact that the counterrevolution hinders even reforms which do not overthrow the power of monopolies in the economy. There is a great deal of experience in our country as well and even more valuable experience in Europe as well as beyond Europe.

I remind you the response of SYRIZA to the proposal which the KKE addresses to the people for workers’ and people’s power. They claim that this solution will come in the Second Coming, i.e. never. This position itself shows what SYRIZA is”, said Aleka Papariga in conclusion.

The multifaceted international impact of the festival

23 youth communist and anti-imperialist youth organisations from all over the world participated in the festival KNE-ODIGITIS. These are the following:

World Federation of Democratic Youth, Communist Youth of Venezuela, Youth of the Workers’ Party of Belgium (COMAC), Communist Youth of Bulgaria, Communist Youth of Georgia, Young Communists of Denmark, Collectives of Young Communists (Spain), Communist Youth of Spain, Front of Communist Youth (Italy), EDON (Cyprus), Progressive Movement of Cypriot Students, Youth of the movement Marcha Patriotica (Colombia), Union of the Democratic Youth of Lebanon, Youth of the CP of Pakistan, Youth of the Party of the People of Palestine, Young People from the General Union of Palestinian Workers, Youth of the People’s Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Communist Youth of Portugal, Youth of Turkish Communist Party, Revolutionary Communist Youth (Sweden), Leninist Communist Youth of Russian Federation, Revolutionary Communist Youth League of Russia (Bolsheviks), Union of Young Communists of Yugoslavia (Serbia).

In addition, on Friday 14/9 KNE organized an international seminar, with the participation of the international representatives, at the headquarters of the CC of the KKE in Perissos. The subject of the seminar was “capitalist crisis, inter-imperialist contradictions and war. The prospect and the duties of the anti-imperialist struggle”. Elisseos Vagenas, member of the CC of the KKE and responsible of the International Section of the CC made the introductory speech and a message of greetings was made by Dimitris Palmyris, President of WFDY.