Partial transcript of the speech by Greek PM, Alexis Tsipras, during Supreme Council of Greek-Turkish Cooperation, Smyrna

19:21 approx.:

I would like, in my turn, to warmly thank the Turkish PM, my friend Ahmed. As he himself said earlier, we have been meeting very frequently lately. [...] We have highlighted the significant prospects presented by energy cooperation and the great importance of paths for natural gas, of the TAP and TANAP pipelines, the great importance of our cooperation in Tourism [...] Of course, no one can ignore the fact that the future of Greek-Turkish relation goes through major challenges, such as coping with the great crises we are facing, and specifically the refugee crisis. [...] 

In order to obtain a better life, [refugees] become victims of traffickers and many of them lose their lives in the Aegean. So we, the two governments, me and Ahmed, are here today, so we can commonly declare that what is going on in our sea is a shame to our values and our civilization.

Greece, its "geography", and imperialist war

Greece: The birthplace of theater and Trojan horses

"Greece can offer military bases for logistical support or for naval maintenance in Suda [Crete] and elsewhere. Drones and aircraft can also operate from Greek military bases. You can also contribute with information as the refugee crisis offers the opportunity to collect data from interviewing these people, but also of using biometric data. If NATO decides to send military trainers in Iraq, Greece can participate. What is important is for Greece to utilize its geography. Imagine if the Cyprus issue is resolved. Then, Cyprus and Crete can become two mighty military bases"!!!

This what James Stavrides stated in his interview with "Vima" newspaper. Stavrides is Greek-American, a retired admiral of the U.S. Navy, a former Commander of NATO in Europe, and today, the Rector of the Fletcher Law and Diplomacy School at Tufts University, Boston. He thus gave a comprehensive picture of what the country's bourgeoisie, its governments, including that of SYRIZA-ANEL, are negotiating; how much deeper they plan to embroil the people in imperialist plans, aiming at the geostrategic upgrading of the local business groups, in order to claim a piece of the exploitation of resources and transportation avenues.

Comment of the KKE on the taxation of MP income

Using the government legislation [on taxing MP income] as an opportunity, the KKE reiterates its position for a drastic reduction of monetary compensation for Members of Parliament, for the abolition of a tax-free bracket for them, for the full abolition of MP pensions and other income related to the function of a Parliament member.

Instead of this, the government signs the slaughter of remaining labor rights and at the same time tries to dazzle and distract, by announcing a reduction of the wages of the MPs and other cadre of the government, while fully retaining parliamentary rights to monetary compensation, in an effort to make the new Memorandum more palatable.

902

Announcement of the KKE on the Third Memorandum the Government signed with the Institutions

The third Memorandum, agreed upon with the Institutions by the SYRIZA-ANEL government, and coming to the Parliament for approval, must face the greatest possible reaction on the part of workers and the entire people. It contains measures of such harshness and cruelty that no government in the past dared implement, fearing popular reaction. This is the great contribution of the SYRIZA government to the system. Using the fairytale of the "left government" and of the "Prime Minister who tried but was prevented", the government is moving ahead with the implementation of barbaric measures, that were permanent demands of big capital and of EU directives, and that demolish whatever was left standing of worker and people's rights.

The third Memorandum and its accompanying implementation laws include the continuation of all previous Memoranda and the commitment that anti-popular measures will be implemented to the letter. It contains new, painful measures on labor rights, insurance, the self-employed, small and middle farmers, making their survival even more difficult. At the same tie, it contains the implementation of measures aiming at the improvement of competitiveness and profitability of capital, the concentration of wealth into even fewer hands, through privatizations, OECD directives, the recapitalization of banks, the further liberalization of the energy market, the fund to which 50 billion euros worth of state property will be deposited.

Def Min P. Kamenos suggested creating a NATO base in the Aegean-Response of the KKE

Minister of Defense P. Kammenos announced that the SYRIZA-ANEL coalition government will propose the creation of a NATO base in the Aegean, a fact that involves the country even further in the dangerous imperialist plans of the wolf pack.

Speaking at an "Economist" conference, P. Kammenos noted that he will submit this proposal during his upcoming visit to the U.S.

Confirming that the elaboration of this proposal is at an advanced stage, he mentioned that there is a Ministry study that takes into account the Suda, Crete base and NATO needs. However, he did not reveal the island on which the proposed base will operate.

The excuse he gave for the creation of this new attack base in the NATO war machine was that with this base the "Alliance" will have direct knowledge of Turkey's behavior. Of course, through the previous years, the elevation of NATO to the status of an arbiter of Greek-Turkish differences not only did not prevent Turkish provocations, but legitimated Ankarra demands, as NATO does not recognize borders in the Aegean.

G. Marinos-Speech at Kiev, May Day 2015

The May 1 rally of communists and veterans of the antifascist war was held in the Ukrainian capital in an atmosphere of intense repression, provocation and police intimidation. The delegation of the KKE, comprised of G. Marinos, member of the PB of the CC of the KKE and Elisseos Vagenas, member of the CC and Responsible for the International Relations Section of the CC of the KKE, was in Kiev at the invitation of the CP Ukraine.

Speaking at the event, G. Marinos noted the following:

Dear comrades,

The CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), thousands of members and friends of the party and the Communist Youth (ΚΝΕ), thousands of workers, express their internationalist solidarity with the CP of Ukraine, with the communist men and women of your country and decisively denounce anticommunism, the wave of persecution that is being organized by the government, by the Ukrainian authorities.

We denounce the anticommunist law 2558 that was recently passed in the Ukrainian parliament and we demand its annulment.

A Response to Dialogos Media on allegations against the KKE concerning mining in Halkidiki

In a dialogue with Dialogos media, a site associated, among other things, with truth-out.org (and, it unfortunately appears, with Dimitris Kazakis' chauvinist-nationalist and intensely anti-communist groupuscule EPAM), I pointed out that, mysteriously, Michael Nevradakis's otherwise commendable piece on SYRIZA seemed to suffer from the same amnesiac symptoms as The Guardian and Foreign Policy regarding the very existence, for the past 97 years, of a left party in Greece called KKE. Mr. Nevradakis had somewhat surrealistically limited alternatives to SYRIZA that are not Golden Dawn to EPAM, which did not even participate in the 2015 elections, ANTARSYA, which received 0.64% of the vote,  and "Den Plirono" (I won't pay), which also did not participate in the elections, and which is a single-cause movement rather than a party.

The reader can judge on their own the civilities I received as a response to my query on the motivations of such oblivion (I was subsequently blocked as a nuisance), but this piece concerns a particular such civility, which different "left" groupuscules in Greece have been trying to circulate abroad, namely, that in Dialogos' words, the KKE "supports destructive mining activities", and is in fact an ally of Eldorado Gold and its Greek affiliate, Hellenic Gold. I promised a response, which will restrict itself purely to the cataloguing of a number of facts -- as always, substantiated by the relevant documentation. Any more serious engagement has been unfortunately preempted by the very obvious anti-communist animus of the website, though this is an animus whose barely rational character those of us familiar with EPAM's chief, Kazakis, are quite familiar with.

KKE Parliamentary question on Ukraine statements by Min. Kotzias

KKE MPs Giorgos Marinos, Liana Kanelli and Thanasis Pafilis have submitted the following Parliamentary question:

«During his recent visit to the USA, Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikos Kotzias stated, after meeting with American counterpart John Kerry (Washington, D.C, 20/4/2015), that he informed his American colleague of the "aid we provide to Ukraine at present."

This statement comes at a moment when:

- The Ukrainian Parliament has approved an anti-historical law that equates fascism and communism and uses this as a basis to obstruct the activity of communists and the propagation of communist ideas.

- Historically legitimated local fascists, belonging to the so-called Ukraine Liberation Army, through another law.

- Dmitro Yarosh, head of the Nazi organization "Right Sector", is appointed as consultant to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.

KKE "of the Interior"

In 1968, and in response to their interpretation of events in Czechoslovakia as a "Soviet invasion" during the party conference that took place in Budapest (KKE was banned in Greece and many of its members lived in exile), a number of the members of KKE expressed their disagreement with the party majority and left the party. They were joined by a number of party members living in Greece, and continuing party activity in a clandestine manner. 

Those who left KKE called their party "KKE of the Interior" (ΚΚΕ Εσωτερικού), suggesting that everyone who had stayed loyal to KKE was a member of a "KKE of the exterior", that is to say, a Soviet Union operative rather than a true Greek. To emphasize their point, their party emblem featured the Greek flag behind the hammer and sickle which was the emblem of the KKE.

Nicos Poulantzas, then living in Paris, France, became the most important intellectual voice of the "KKE of the Interior", whose orientation was, however paradoxically for a party that pointed at others as "suspiciously internationalist", Eurocommunist, and in line with Italian and Spanish Eurocommunism. Of course, the "internationalism" the KKE "of the Interior" rejected was socialist internationalism; the internationalism it upheld was the "internationalism" of the west European left.

Nikos Sofianos (KKE) on the Mayor of Athens' statement of support to Antonio Ledezma

Member of the Municipal Council of Athens --elected through the "Popular Alliance"-- and member of the Politbureau of the Central Committee of the KKE Nikos Sofianos criticized the political and selective motivation of the Mayor of Athens, who expressed his support to the Mayor of Caracas [Antonio Ledezma]. He is under arrest on charges of being involved in a coup against the government of the country.

Sofianos noted: "We consider mistaken the Mayor's, Mr. Kaminis's, choice to adopt the arguments of reactionary forces supported by the USA and by corporate interests in Venezuela. The Mayor of Caracas, whom the Mayor of Athens supported through a statement, is openly undermining the people of Venezuela. He is a protagonist of the Venezuela coup in 2002, and has been charged seven times for a number of offenses, including 2 charges on homicide. The Athens Mayor's position on the Mayor of Caracas arrest on D.A charges suggests that there is political and selective motivation". Sofianos also recalled to memory Kaminis's silence when the Israelis were leveling Gaza.

902, Trans. Lenin Reloaded.

On SYRIZA, NATO and the Middle East (Part I)

The people should be concerned with participation in interventions in the Middle East:

Government plans of "geopolitical upgrading"

The Coalition Government is exploiting the excuse of confronting Jihadists

Rizospastis, 1 March 2015

Translated by Lenin Reloaded

"Let us utilize the geopolitical dynamics of the country for the negotiating power of the government", said Alexis Tsipras at the SYRIZA Political Bureau meeting, foregrounding one of the goals of his government. This is a line he has been developing since early February, when, upon visiting Nicosia, Cyprus, he characterized Greece and Cyprus as "two important pillars of stability in the turbulent Southeast Mediterranean." He proposed, on the other hand, that Greece and Cyprus play the card of their geostrategic position in negotiations with their creditors: "The EU and the Eurozone are both amputated without Greece and Cyprus to their southeast ends, the borders that today, more than ever, must be stable and secure. Greece and Cyprus are pillars of stability and security in a geopolitically turbulent environment in the broader region. Those who do not understand this and are only making economic calculations will soon be proven wrong, because economists are fine, but if we rely only on them, we are in danger of leading Europe to a major disaster."

PAME: Greek Worker Solidarity for Turkish Workers

PAME supports the struggle of the Turkish Metal Workers 

PAME, which represents the class-oriented trade union movement of Greece, condemns the Turkish Government, which satisfies the demands of the industrialists by prohibiting the strike of the metalworkers who fight for the signing of a Collective Contract with better wages. 

On Wednesday, February 4 the trade union of the Metal Workers Birlesik Metal-Is is organizing a big protest demonstration defending the right of the workers to go on strike. Based on the principles of Internationalist Solidarity, PAME will join the demonstration with a delegation that will travel to Turkey. At the same time PAME will organise protests outside the Turkish Consulates in Greece 

We demand: 

Revoking of the Turkish government's decision to ban the strike 

Satisfaction of the demands of the metalworkers for signing collective agreements with better wages.

PAME Hellas, translation emended by Lenin Reloaded.

M. Papadopoulos-Negotiations at the Enemy Camp, Part II

A different path to the "frugal life" 

Whatever the outcome of the negotiations, it will not lead to a significant improvement of the position of the working class. The previous big "haircut" of sovereign debt in Greece (PSI) not only did not result in the economic relief of the people but it was accompanied by an escalation of anti-popular attack. This example helps make clear that a change in the management and the level of government debt does not automatically lead to any improvement of social policy or to an increase of popular income. 

As long as the goal of increasing monopoly profit remains, the sacrifice of social needs and rights will continue. Protecting the competitiveness of capital and the recovery of losses of the workers at the same time are not compatible goals. Capitalist development runs counter to popular welfare, whichever management of sovereign debt is chosen. 

M. Papadopoulos-Negotiations at the Enemy Camp, Part I

M. Papadopoulos*

Negotiations at the enemy camp 
Rizospastis [The Radical]: Organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece,
1 February 2015

"Substantial negotiations." This will be the slogan of the post-election trade in hope in the coming months. Both the coalition government of SYRIZA - ANEL and the major bourgeois media are promoting the meeting of the Minister of Finance Yannis Varoufakis with the President of Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, as the starting point of a marathon of negotiations that may lead to better days in Greece and in the EU at large. 

The ideological climate which promotes reduced expectations and demands, one which unfortunately prevails today among the wage earners, is exploited to reinforce the illusion that a "tough", "decisive" negotiation might lead to a shift of the bourgeois administration of the economy in the people's interest. There is an attempt to establish the idea that the large losses in the family income of the Greek lower classes during the crisis period are final, and that this is no longer the issue anyway; at the same time, what is projected as the only way out for future popular prosperity is the speedy return to higher rates of capitalist growth, to economic recovery and increased profits for monopoly groups. 

To expose the myth of hard bargaining that will allegedly lead to "development for all", wherein both monopolies and wage-earners and the self-employed "win", we must examine that myth's content.