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.

Aleka Papariga-On "the unity of the Left" and the KKE alliance politics

Aleka Papariga

From "The Alliance Politics of the KKE and the Critique to 'Left Unity'"

In Contemporary Right-Wing Opportunism, Publication of the CC of the KKE, Synchroni Epohi, Athens 2008.

The purpose of this article is to encode, as much as possible, the objective differences between these two propositions for an alliance [the alliance politics of the KKE and the notion of "Left Unity"]. Alliances, it should be understood, are not based on agreement on terms and slogans or general ideas, but on issues of strategic importance and orientation, on the issue of alternative power.

For the KKE, alliance politics is a permanent, not a conjunctural policy. We struggle to make it materialize, to foreground it and to popularize it, independently of the existence of the subjective preconditions for its materialization at the political level. For the KKE, the creation of an alliance is an issue of struggle, of developments in the correlation of forces, of radical reorderings within political and social consciousness, such that they can bring changes to the composition of the political landscape. Ultimately, the level of the movement will play a determining role in this all-important issue. Of course, we are not simply waiting for possibilities to drop on our hands like overripe fruit. We take initiatives, and first of all we foster dialogue within the people, with radical popular forces, with social agents acting in a positive direction; we follow developments, we try to assist positive trends.

Being Panayiotis Lafazanis: Honest, Reliable, Consistent Leader of the New New Left

Panayiotis Lafazanis, Interview with "Eleftheros Typos" [Free Press], 14 March 2015:

Q: You had stated last October that a SYRIZA government will "abolish the Memorandum and its implementation laws in one night, with one legal act, just as they were dictatorially imposed." What has changed, Mr. Minister, and you forgot about this statement? Was the raw reality stronger than the pre-election wishes of your party or do you think the government has backtracked in many of its commitments when faced with the lenders?

A: There is no statement of mine that we will abolish the Memorandum in one night; it only exists as a total distortion of what I have said at different times. Personally, I always underlined, indeed, that Memoranda and their implementation laws must be abolished by a government in which SYRIZA will participate not "dictatorially", but with normal parliamentary procedures, with respect to the Parliament and with a full observance of the Parliamentary Regulations and Constitution. The first act of our new government was to immediately stop the implementation of the Memorandum that was in process. The austerity measures and the taxes that the ND-PASOK government was about to implement were thrown in the garbage. Our commitment for full abolition of the Memoranda and their implementation laws is still wholly valid; and this commitment, despite the great post-election difficulties and the blatant blackmail from abroad, will be fully honored in the next few months. The full abolition of memoranda is a position equivalent to SYRIZA's identity and the precondition for a new, consistent, progressive, developmental course and prospect for the country.

Comment of the KKE on the intensification of the phenomenon of migration and the government-EU measures

August 19, 2015

In its comment on the intensification of the phenomenon of migration and the government-EU measures, the Press Office of the CC of the KKE notes:

"The KKE had warned, in a timely fashion, that the drama of thousands of persecuted and entrapped refugees and migrants flooding the country, especially the islands of the Aegean, cannot be dealt with through the patched-up measures of the SYRIZA-ANEL government, which, like the previous governments, is looking for "solutions" within the path of the EU migration policy.

The KKE calls on the worker and popular movement to take the lead, intensify its solidarity, isolate racist manifestations and the phenomena of exploitation of refugee needs. The movement should demand: the abolition of the rules of the Dublin and Schengen Treaties, the obtainment of obstacle-free and secure transport of refugees to EU member states, which are their real destination, the immediate hiring of necessary personnel for the services of first reception and refuge, the creation of human reception and hospitality spaces, the abolition of the participation of our country in the imperialist plans of the US-NATO-EU, the non participation in imperialist intervention in other countries, the disengagement from Euro-Atlantic organizations."

902

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.

What would the KKE do if it were in SYRIZA's place?

What would the KKE do if it were in SYRIZA's place?

Rizospastis, 19 July 2015

We often hear the following, well-intentioned question: "What would you have done if you were in the place of the SYRIZA government"?

The question is not illogical. But we must place it in the right perspective.

If we, the KKE, were in the "place" of SYRIZA, meaning the place of bourgeois management, the place of defending capitalist interests, in search of winning back profits, seeking to use the advantages conferred on capital by membership in the EU, the EZ and Euroatlantic alliances and NATO; if we were in the "place" of taking up a government that is a tool of the power of monopolies; if we were in the "place" of negotiating on behalf of Greek capitalism by sitting in the roundtables of the EU, the EZ and other imperialist organizations;

The poisonous politics of SYRIZA's Left Platform

"It is both them who are at fault!" SPD Poster, 1932.

The KKE has long argued that the role of the Left Platform is not at all, as it has pretended, to "radicalize" SYRIZA, or, in another of its formulations, to "pressure it to the Left", but rather to: a) bolster illusions that this is possible and even desirable for SYRIZA and the Left Platform itself; b) hence, prevent those who buy into the illusion from making a real left turn toward KKE; c) assist in the overall effort to create a fracture within the KKE -- hence regularly hosting and promoting those who have been expelled from the KKE in more recent years, including venomously anti-KKE initiatives like "Ergatikos Agwnas" (Labor Struggle), as well as other, increasingly anti-KKE formations like ANTARSYA, in a broad "more left than SYRIZA, but still anti-KKE" alliance.

PAME: We denounce the plans of the SYRIZA Government to attack the demonstrators using riot police forces

July 15, 2105 PAME demonstration

PAME salutes the thousands of workers, unemployed, pensioners, young workers and students, the women, the self employed and small farmers who took part massively at the demonstrations of PAME on July 15th, all over Greece. The demonstrations send a message of struggle, not disappointment, of militancy, not defeatism, against the new brutal measures of the 3rd Memorandum of the SYRIZA Government.

We denounce the upgraded provocation plan of the Government of SYRIZA, to use the oppression forces of the riot police, alongside with parastate mechanisms during the enormous demonstration of PAME in Athens, on July 15th. This was a plan that aimed to break the demonstration of PAME, to intimidate the workers and the popular strata.

The attack on PAME was planned

The Police attacks the PAME rally at the "Fix" juncture

The attack on PAME was planned

Rizospastis, Friday, 17 July 2015

The Tsipras government has been exposed following the police attack, on July 15, against the PAME rally. The attack took place as the Parliament was discussing the third Memorandum. Besides immediate experience, the collection of data regarding the attack leads to the conclusion that the attack was well planned. The police acted on a command plan and with the clear goal not only of emptying the area outside the Parliament, but of beating protesters far away from the Parliament. A characteristic example is the attack by police "Delta" teams, which took place at the "Fix" juncture, kilometers away from the Parliament, and at a time when the protesters were folding up their banners.

All the data leads to the same conclusion: well before the attack, groups of 6-7 members were spotted spread around the Syntagma plaza. At about 9 pm, i.e, at the time in which Parliament discussion was scheduled to start, a group placed near the Grand Britania hotel began throwing stones at police forces that were placed near the flower stores. As streets were empty of protesters, both toward Panepistimiou street, which was empty, and toward Georgiou street, which was empty as well,  the police opted to turn the initial small group of supposed anarchists toward the main body of the protest, using tear gas for that purpose. 

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.

Tsipras-Juncker Joint Statement

The joint statement:

President [of the European Commission] Jean-Claude Juncker and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had a telephone conversation today. They noted the progress achieved in the last few days in discussions between Greece and its partners on the question of the comprehensive lit of reforms required for the successful completion of the evaluation procedure.

There was special reference to the importance of reforms for the modernization of the pension system, so as to render it fair, fiscally sustainable and effective, in the direction of avoiding the impoverishment of the elderly. 

There was also a discussion on the need to have wage-related developments and the institutions of the labor market play a supportive role in the creation of jobs, in competitiveness and in social cohesion. Within this context, there was agreement on the role of a modern and effective system of collective bargaining, which must develop through broad discussion and fulfill the highest European standards.

The constructive talks must continue within the framework of the Brussels Group.

SKAI

The "legislative work" of the government and the stance of KKE

The legislative adjustments the government has so far submitted to parliament -- above all the two Acts of Legislative Content, one stipulating the looting of available public funds, the other the deletion of up to 100% of fines for tax violations, including those involved in smuggling, of the major corporate groups -- lie within the strict framework of fiscal austerity imposed by the EU and the IMF (i.e, the lenders), so that competitiveness and the profitability of monopoly groups, of big capital, are protected.

Through such legislation, the government maintains the entire anti-labor, anti-popular framework that has been set in place by the Memorandum-related implementation laws of previous governments.

These are legislative adjustments that lag behind even the electoral program announced by SYRIZA in Thessaloniki, hence cutting down even on the few breadcrumbs intended for those living in conditions of extreme poverty. Not only is there no relief for the people, but essentially, the people is told to forget recovering what it has lost. 

At the same time, the government continues to refuse to bring to Parliament the agreement it made with the lenders on February 20. It is obvious that on the one hand, it wishes to avoid the image that would be created were New Democracy and the other parties of the bourgeois political system to support the agreement, and on the other, to avoid having the people see the measures in store for them -- measures they 've already dubbed "mild austerity", in the interests of capitalist profit recovery.

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.

Adventures in errant Marxism

I conclude by saying that in 2015, after five years of a disastrous recession, where everyone is ultimately a victim  (there's only a handful of sharks who have profited from this crisis), the era in which the government of the Left was by definition opposed to the sphere of enterprise is over. If we get to the point where we will have development and an output cap of zero, then we can begin again to talk about the conflicting interests of capital and labor. For now, the two must join together.

Yanis Varoufakis

For the first time US and Israeli military forces will participate in the exercise of the Greek armed forces “Iniohos 2015”

The SYRIZA-ANEL government, operating in the same framework as the previous ND-PASOK government, is also taking further steps in the connection of the Greek armed forces with those of the USA and Israel.

So from Monday the 20th to Thursday the 30th April, the joint, medium-scale exercise “Iniohos 2015” will be conducted in combination with the Navy’s “Astrapi” exercise. The exercise provides for the conduct of complex aerial missions over the entire Athens FIR, with the participation of a large number of airforce-naval forces, as well as units of the army, while, for the first time, military forces from foreign counties, specifically Israel and the USA, will take part.

The SYRIZA infomercial

An infomercial is a shamefaced commercial, whose shamefacedness compels it to appear as presentation of "information" in order to sell a product more effectively. It is therefore a fusion of two genres of discourse that is at the same time a pseudo-fusion: the discourse of "information" is merely a carapace, whose purpose is to protect and reinforce the discourse of advertising.

Writing on politics, traditionally another genre of discourse than informercials, generally falls under two categories: journalistic writing, whose characteristic is the production of the illusion of a reporting "objectivity", and explicitly political writing, characterized by a more explicit foregrounding of the writer's own political principles and ideas. 

Marxist political writing is by its nature the most explicit of the subgenres of political writing: since Marxism is, among other things, a critique of the dominant ideology, ideological presuppositions, both on the side of the writer and on the side of that which the writer discusses and argues for or against, must be visible and consciously expressed.

My argument here is that a great deal of the writing that postures as political writing, and even --implicitly or explicitly-- affiliates itself with Marxist political writing these days is in fact an instance of the extension of the discourse of the infomercial in the arena of political expression. It is, additionally, that, at least when it comes to international writing on Greek politics, this is nowhere more frequent than in writing on SYRIZA, whether as a rising political force, or, since 25 January, as a government partner.

Announcement of the KKE on the unacceptable statements made in the USA by P. Kammenos

The Press Office of the Central Committee of the KKE has issued an announcement on the unacceptable and dangerous statements of the Minister of Defense, where it notes the following:

"The Minister of Defense of the SYRIZA-ANEL government, Panos Kammenos, has made a series of unacceptable and dangerous statements during his visit to the USA.

He attempted to present the proposition of sharing of the energy wealth of the Aegean sea and of the country more broadly with the United States as a panacea for the capitalist crisis. However, life has shown that energy issues, in capitalist conditions and in conditions of the intensification of intra-imperialist antagonisms, not only fail to secure prosperity but are in fact a "magnet" for conflicts and bloody contests, the "source" of the dismemberment of states and of other evils.

The government bears grave responsibility. The invitation to the USA to act as a transatlantic arbiter of the energy wealth of the country, and its presentation as a force guaranteeing stability, are a provocation to our people.

Experience has shown that "solutions" of this nature not only undermine sovereign rights but lead our people to new adventures, as has been shown by a series of developments in other countries, who are close allies of the USA in the region, like Georgia and Ukraine. The shared exploitation of resources, to which the Minister of Defense has invited the USA, relates to the "dinner fest" pursued by American energy monopolies along with local businessmen, on the backs of the working class and of other popular strata.

Equally dangerous are the Minister's statements regarding an extension of the united defense doctrine of Greece and Cyprus "with the participation of Israel, in combination with tighter co-operation with the USA." For they involve our country even further within intra-imperialist competition, while peace in the Aegean and the Mediterranean cannot be safeguarded by those responsible for scores of crimes on earth, those who continue to butcher the people of Palestine.

The Minister of Defense has offered once more to have the country support the aggressive plans of NATO and the USA, which are under preparation in the Middle East and Northern Africa with the excuse of "the war against Terror."

The above, as well as the hymns to the USA to which Mr. Kammenos has resorted, and his statement "fear not, Greece is not changing its course", constitute the guarantees offered by the SYRIZA-ANEL government to the USA. These statements come on the heels of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' visit to Moscow. They show the desire of the new government to use risky maneuvers in the geopolitical conflict of capitalist "mega powers", intending to guarantee the greatest possible benefits for the country's bourgeoisie. However, it is well known that "when buffalo fight in the swamp, the frogs pay for the fight." For this reason, the KKE position for disengagement from the imperialist alliances of NATO and the EU, for the unilateral cancellation of debt, for the socialization of economic instruments, of the wealth produced by the workers, under popular power, is necessary and timely. Under this orientation, the mineral wealth of the country, which is in fact the people's property, can be used with the criterion of the people's interest instead of being offered up or sold to monopolies."

902, trans. Lenin Reloaded

Addendum: P. Kammenos' statements to V. Nuland (in Greek)

SYRIZA's "Red Notebook" on Ukraine, 22/2/2014

The "Red Notebook" is a political and economic analysis website maintained by the "Red-Green network" of SYRIZA. Several of its authors also write in the main party newspaper "Avgi", and its theoretical influences include Trotskyism and Althusserianism (particularly via Poulantzas, probably the most central figure in the political orientation of this group). Some of the top SYRIZA cadre members it features are economists Euclid Tsakalotos (Deputy Min. of Int. Fin. Relations) Yannis Dragasakis (gov. Deputy leader) and John Milios, and intellectuals including Costas Douzinas and Aristeidis Baltas (Min. Ed.). The article that follows was published on the 22nd of February, after the first phase of the Maidan coup. The translation is mine.

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On the Ukraine Uprising

Simonida Argyrakou

The Left must understand the needs of poor strata and support their demands. On the other hand, it must also stand against imperialism -- both EU-USA and Russian imperialism.

Contemporary history involves several examples of social uprisings in which, whereas the causes of the problems are clearly of a class nature, their failure to express themselves in Left terms --whether because of the inability of people to complete their demands beyond the political change in personnel or because of the exploitation of popular rage by nationalists-- make some segments of the Left see the whole enterprise negatively.

"Avgi" on the NATO war on Yugoslavia: "Srebrenitsa", 9/7/2005

From KKE obstruction of NATO train missions to Yugoslavia

The following article was published in the newspaper "Avgi" (Αυγή) on the 9th of July 2005. At the time of the article's publication, SYN, the basic party "Avgi" expressed, had already become the main constituent party of SYRIZA, which was founded in 2004. Its author, Dionysis Gousetis, later abandoned SYN to become a candidate for the neoliberal party "Action-Liberal Alliance." Like many others, the article is no longer accessible in "Avgi's" newspaper archives, but it is hosted by a neoliberal site associated with Mr. Gouseti's later alliances, and both its original venue and the date of publication are clearly visible.

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What is a genocide? It is the most hideous of crimes: you kill the other exclusively on the basis of what they are. Srebrenitsa, 11 July 1995; ten years ago to the day; the first genocide in Europe after the Jewish and Roma Holocaust  in Hitler's hands; Srebrenitsa; 8,000 Muslims dead because they were Muslim; Srebrenitsa; a wound that remains open as long as those responsible remain unprosecuted; Srebrenitsa; the wound of civilized Europe.