The KKE’s two-day event for immigrants in Athens was a success

The two-day of political and cultural events for Greek and immigrant workers, which was organized by the Attica Party Organization of the KKE, was held with a large participation in Fix Park in Patissia, one of the working class neighbourhoods of Athens with a high concentration of immigrants.

The events included a rich programme of discussions, film screenings, concerts, with participation of many musical and dance groups, theatrical performances with the participation of many immigrants in their preparation and staging. Many foreign and Greek workers filled the events in the park.

The two-day event climaxed on Sunday with the speech of Dimitris Gontikas, member of the PB of the CC of the KKE.

Dimitris Gontikas noted amongst other things:

“The slogan of this year’s event “Profits covered in the blood of the workers, in Manolada and Greece as a whole” (Manolada is the village where employers shot and seriously injured land workers who were on strike for pay they were owed, working in wretched conditions) very aptly describes and exposes the root of the barbarity which Greek and foreign workers are experiencing today. It is the capitalist ownership which has grown enormously into vast monopoly groups, the exploitation which is becoming more and more cruel in order to maintain this ownership.

Work for a piece of bread with the scourge of the dismissal or the scourge of submission, for work from dawn to dusk.

But the slogan also expresses something deeper. That this system, which is based on and supports tooth and claw the private ownership of the few and the profits from the exploitation of the work of the many, is in full opposition to the needs of those who really produce, the workers, to the needs of society, it has no future (…)

(..)The foreign workers, immigrants and refugees, are not responsible for these problems, as is being provocatively and dirtily propagandized by the fascists of “Golden Dawn”.

Those who exploit human labour are hostile to the Greek worker himself and the foreign worker. “Golden Dawn” is precisely the voice, the long arm of the exploiters who find these misanthropic theories convenient. We were right when we said that the attacks against the immigrants were, apart from anything else, preparation, training so that it could carry out a more open attack against the labour and people’s movement. Today it is being exposed as the long arm of the employers, that it is supported and used by strong financial interests. They must not be tolerated by anyone. They must be isolated and fought against (..)

Finally, the slogan of this two-day event meeting of friendship and fraternity, demonstrates something else as well, something much more powerful and hopeful. That the owners of the means of production, of the factories, the supermarkets, the ships, the banks are obsolete for society, because they live parasitically. They contribute nothing. They are predators, robbers, exploiters. The only criterion for them is the profit. They determine production on this basis, what they will produce, how much and under what conditions.”

The member of the PB of the CC of the KKE concluded. “The real owners are the only ones that can take society out of the crisis and set the entire productive machine in motion. We are talking about those who really produce, the workers and employees, together with the scientific specialised labour force. This is the contemporary working class.”