22nd anti-imperialist camp of KNE
Thousands of young communists from all over Greece participated in the 22nd Anti-imperialist camp of KNE, which this year was held in Crete (near the city of Chania) and was combined with the dynamic and mass response of KNE against the imperialist war and Greece’s involvement in it. So an important moment of the camp was when the members and friends of KNE carried out (on the morning of Saturday 6/7) a large demonstration outside the US-NATO air-force and naval base at Suda, which is playing an important role in the military plans of the imperialists in the Mediterranean. Speaking to the demonstrators who in essence had surrounded the huge military base, Thodoris Chionis, Secretary of the Central Council of KNE, stressed : “With these specific acts, the youth of the working class and popular families, struggle against the imperialist plans which in the next phase might target them in a much more direct way”. He noted that, at the same time they are breaking the youth with badly paid work and unemployment, they are involving them in the imperialist plans. He called in parallel for the simultaneous organization of the struggle, for the disengagement form the imperialist organizations, to struggle with the slogan “No land, no water for the murderers of the peoples”.
On their return to the camping site, the youth of KNE passed through the centre of the city of Chania, where they demonstrated with anti-capitalist slogans, with slogans supporting the political line of the KKE, against the imperialist war.
The Political Speech of Dimitris Koutsoumpas
On the afternoon of Saturday (7/7) the GS of the CC of the KKE, Dimitris Koutsoumpas, spoke to the young communists and noted amongst other things:
“The choice of the Communist Youth of Greece to organize the 22nd anti-imperialist camp here in Chania, at the Suda base is absolutely justified by the international developments, especially the developments in our region, the Eastern Mediterranean, the Middle East. It would be no exaggeration to say that the situation in the region “smells of gunpowder”.
The imperialist intervention in Syria through the support provided for so-called anti-regime forces by the USA, NATO and the EU, the threats against Iran, the recent developments in Egypt, where the confrontation of sections of the bourgeois class are interwoven with the aims of the imperialist centres over the control of the region, demonstrate that this assessment is correct.
The contradictions in the region are centred on who, which state, which section of capital, which imperialist power and alliance will take control of the natural resources, the energy routes of oil and natural gas (…)
The participation of the Greek governments in these plans serves the interests of Greek capital in order for it to acquire a share from the division of the markets, from the plundering at the expense of the peoples (…)
The capitalist system, particularly today when it is in its highest and final stage, imperialism, cannot offer anything positive for the workers, for the peoples, apart from the intensity of class exploitation, oppression, naked barbarity, economic crises and wars.
All this bears witness a great truth for the peoples all over the world: that capitalist crises and imperialist wars go together.
This is the reason why the following demands acquire great importance today:
The Suda base and all NATO bases in the country must be closed now.
The Greek soldiers must return home form the imperialist missions abroad.
The involvement of the country in imperialist interventions and plans must cease.
The military cooperation and joint exercises with Israel must stop immediately.
This is why today the slogan “The people and especially the youth must not shed their blood for the interests of capital and the exploiters” acquires great significance.
And this is not safeguarded by the participation of Greece in the imperialist organizations, the EU and NATO, which is accepted by all the other parties, ND, SYRIZA and the Nazi “Golden Dawn”. (…)
It is not safeguarded by the so-called “multi-level foreign policy” of SYRIZA, which is just the same, as in any case is demonstrated by the meetings of its leader with the President of Israel, Peres, the reports in the “New York Times”, that “SYRIZA can save Greece”, because “it does not have an anti-US political line”, as it is “a pro-US party.”
The people and the youth have one choice: To end the system which inevitably gives rise to exploitation, crises and wars. To overthrow capitalism and construct the new socialist society.
D. Koutsoumpas referred to the development of the capitalist crisis in Greece, to the problems which the youth is experiencing, who come from the working class-popular strata, as well as to the aim of the bourgeois class to realign the political scene and to the political proposal of the KKE. So he noted amongst other things that:
The “progress” of ND or SYRIZA, which in turn also defend the sacred cows of the system, entrepreunership, “healthy” as they call it, the social cohesion of the EU, fostering the realism of submission, saying that socialism is something very far away, and therefore the people have no reason to fight for it. They must choose the lesser evil, the best manager of the capitalist barbarity and the EU. That they must sit in the corner or in the best instance struggle for the one or the other government to be elected. So that they can see the well-known work of the ‘new saviours and great disappointments”, which some governments always have the leading role, but the director and producer are capital and its power. We say clearly: The “New Greece” is not the Greece of Mr. Samaras, nor is it the Greece of Mr. Tsipras which is made up of old and damaged ingredients. The new Greece will be the Greece of socialism-communism(…)
This is what is needed today and the young people must be mobilized in this struggle, strengthening the KKE and KNE, the People’s Alliance so that country can be freed and so that the workers can be the real masters. Freed from capitalist ownership, from the parasites and the exploiters. The youth will acquire experience, optimism, hope, in this struggle. They will place obstacles, they will face the difficulties without bewilderment, with greater courage, solidarity, collectivity.
In any case this is also the essential and main thing in the Party’s programme. The struggle for socialism, the socialist revolution.
This is not merely a general vision for the KKE and KNE, a general declaration, an unattainable dream. It is the basic aim of its existence and struggle. It is the only alternative solution to the capitalist barbarity.
Socialism is more timely and necessary than ever. The necessity and realism of socialism is based on scientific methods through the analysis of contemporary capitalism.(…)
Today on the basis of the enormous experience we have all accumulated we must take a step forwards,
Today when the false promises, high sounding words, false hopes are increasingly fraying both from the traditional parties of the coalition government (ND-PASOK and previously the Democratic Left), and also from the new rising stars of SYRIZA of the “governmental left”.
Now that the “serpent’s egg” of Nazism, i.e. ‘Golden Dawn”, has broken its shell, bred by the capitalist system of corruption, decay and organized crime there is only one way:
To put a brake, to put an end once an for all to the system that breeds poverty, unemployment, exploitation, oppression, repression, fascism that breeds anti-people measures for the people and fills the coffers of the few.
To pave the way for the real power of the people. In this power the monopolies, the wealth will be in their own hands; they will break the bonds of the EU with their disengagement from it as well as from every kind of predatory alliance; they will be able to carry out central and scientific planning of the economy for the satisfaction of all the contemporary needs of the people; they will exercise workers’ and people’s control from the bottom up”.
Multifaceted political and cultural programme
During their stay at the camping the thousands of young communists, who camped in tents, held many political and cultural events. On Friday afternoon (5/7) they organised a discussion about the developments in the region of the Eastern Mediterranean, the sharpening of the imperialist competition and the tasks of the communists with the participation of cadres of KNE and the Youth of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP).
A lesson for an unwavering attitude to life
It is worth mentioning the visit of the school students of KNE to a place where communists and other militants had been tortured. On Friday afternoon, at the event in the prison of Itzedin the school students, the members and the friends of KNE, who participated in the 22nd anti-imperialist camp of KNE, saw the history of the hard struggles of our people, where the communists have been the leading force, coming to life in front of their eyes.
The old castle, which was built by the Ottomans, was transformed by the bourgeois governments already in 1920s as well as in the period of civil war to a place of martyrdom for thousands of communists. The slogans “9 decades of struggle and sacrifice the KKE has always been at the front line” – “the communists have never bent, neither in exile, nor in prison” echoed in the yard of the prison which was surrounded by heavy iron doors and windows with bars. Two veteran communists who had been imprisoned in Itzedin attended the event and spoke to young people.
The young people of KNE, departing from Chania, will meet again in the struggles starting with the demonstrations of the All-workers’ Militant Front (PAME) which have been scheduled to take place throughout the country on 11th July.
Video –
Demonstration of KNE outside the US-NATO military base in Suda
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Speech of Dimitris Koutsoumpas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI2e2b1eqgk
Demonstration of KNE in Chania
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Visit of the school students of KNE to the prison of Itzedin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
e-mail:cpg@int.kke.gr