On 29/5, the GS of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), Dimitris Koutsoumbas, spoke at a meeting attended by all the KKE candidates in Attica, Party cadres and other militants who joined forces with the Party in the elections. He called for a further strengthening of the KKE in the new parliamentary elections to be held on 25 June.
“The optimistic message of these elections —without, of course, overlooking the overall negative correlation of forces— is the significant strengthening of the KKE, which won 7.23%, 427,000 votes, and 26 MPs, taking third place in Attica again, this time achieving double-digit percentages in the working class–popular neighborhoods and an increase in all regions nationwide”, noted the GS of the CC of KKE.
D. Koutsoumbas referred to the anti-popular government agenda of New Democracy, which, based on the new electoral law that will be in force in the June elections, can secure a government majority in parliament with a smaller electoral percentage. He raised the question of who will truly be in opposition against the anti-popular policy of New Democracy, since SYRIZA and PASOK “agree on the strategic choices of capital and the EU”. “People should have no illusions. Besides, experience now confirms that social democracy in all its versions, whether in the form of PASOK or in the form of SYRIZA, not only cannot provide an answer from the point of view of the people’s interests, but is constantly an important mainstay for anti-popular policies”, stated D. Koutsoumbas.
“This has also been proven by the course of their government: When they passed memoranda one after the other; when they put forward new anti-popular measures; when they formed a coalition government with the right —PASOK did so twice with ND and SYRIZA with ANEL; when prominent figures of the right-wing joined their lists; when they supported all directions of the EU, NATO and so much more. This was proven by their compatible programmes presented during the pre-election period, which serve the same strategic goals and their common choices.
After all, that is why the discussion that took place before 21 May revolved around the potential composition and coalitions of the next government and of course not around what it would implement and for whom.
That is why PASOK was open to form a coalition government either with ND or SYRIZA. And today it is again making itself available, based on its cadres’ statements, in the case that ND fails to form a single-party government.
It is this policy that leads to disappointment and to the conservative turn of a part of the people, to the conviction that there is no alternative. It is this policy that, eventually painted the map blue (TN: the party colour of New Democracy) in the recent elections.
SYRIZA and PASOK will in fact take over the “ministries of the opposition” in the next anti-popular government of New Democracy.
Now they are asking for the people’s support so that the New Democracy government is not omnipotent.
We respond that no bourgeois government, no matter how many MPs it has, is omnipotent when faced with a labour–popular movement, with a strong communist party!
And in this country there is the Communist Party of Greece, which received 7.23% in the May elections and can emerge stronger in the next ones.
A strong KKE means a strong labour movement and strong people to put obstacles and delay anti-popular plans, even to achieve some gains.”
On the “fall of the left”
The GS of the CC of the KKE referred to the post-election analyses, which, while acknowledging the significant electoral rise of the KKE, refer to the “great fall of the left”.
“We respond in the same way as the leftists, the progressive people who turned their backs on them and supported the KKE. The KKE struggled in practice against the policies of Mitsotakis’ government and its forces do not add up to those who voted for dozens of its anti-popular laws.
You cannot add up those who broke the bans placed under the pretext of the pandemic with those who backed them and said that they would supposedly “settle accounts later”.
You cannot add up those who voted against the dangerous NATO enlargement with those who voted for it and applauded Zelenksiy and the Nazis of the Azov Battalion in the Greek Parliament.
You cannot add up those who fought to prevent workplaces from being turned into “special economic zones” with no rights for workers with those who voted for the laws of A. Georgiades, resulting today in one dead and two crippled workers in the Perama Ship Repair Zone. That is the real content of the growth promised by New Democracy and supported by the other parties. Once again, profits are drenched in the workers’ blood!
It is telling that a large part of the Collective Labour Agreement of workers in the Perama Ship Repair Zone concerns health and safety measures. Neither the SYRIZA government nor the ND government put this collective agreement into effect.
You cannot add up those who struggled against fascism and Golden Dawn with those who claim that the voters of Golden Dawn are misled people, aiming to lure their votes, like Tsipras, Konstantopoulou [TN: former SYRIZA MP and Speaker of the Parliament, now head of the party called Plefsi Eleftherias (2.89%)] and Varoufakis [TN: former SYRIZA minister and now head of the MeRA25 party (2.63%)].”
The only vote that matters is the one casted in favour of the KKE
D. Koutsoumbas stressed that “the main issue on 25 June will be the strengthening of the KKE; the only party that with consistency, stability and militancy can be a real militant opposition to the New Democracy government and the strategy it will implement.
This has been confirmed all the past years by its action in parliament and, above all, by its struggle on the side of the people and the youth.
That is why the KKE must now be further strengthened.
Even by workers who previously did not take the step to vote for it but may now change their minds.
Because the KKE:
- Is the only party that is a consistent opponent of this policy, because faced with the dilemma “the profits of the few or the lives of the many?” clearly answers “the lives of the many against the profits of the few”.
- Is the only party that is in conflict with the system, the EU, the business groups that the other parties serve.
- Is the only party that is not bound by the system and is, therefore, the only choice against it.
- Is the only party that struggles to change the negative correlation of forces, that has a programme of power–governance which declares that the people must take their fate in their own hands and that they must not pin their hopes on would-be saviours.
Today, everyone needs to think and find the answer to the following questions:
- Who will struggle for collective labour agreements at workplaces, factories, offices and companies when the employers are asking the workers to make more sacrifices?
- Who will struggle in the neighbourhoods when popular families risk losing their homes to the vultures of funds and banks?
- Who will confront the government when it asks for new sacrifices to shift the burdens of a possible new crisis onto the people in order to save the business groups and the banks once again?
- Who will confront the new wave of austerity and further cuts in social spending in the field of education, health and welfare in the name of primary surpluses?
- Who will struggle at the roadblocks at the side of the toiling farmers and the self-employed tradesmen fighting for their survival?
- Who will struggle at the side of artists and intellectuals, i.e. art workers struggling for the cultural uplift of the country, for the great steps forward?
- Who will prevent the reactionary plans of New Democracy, for example the constitutional revision concerning Article 16, when even during the pre-election period SYRIZA and PASOK are open to such a possibility?
- Who will be at the forefront of the struggle against the establishment of private universities and the further commercialization of health care etc.?
- Who will oppose the imperialist involvement in Ukraine at the side of NATO that is taking on new and dangerous dimensions, with the victims being once again our people and the youth?
- Who will oppose the new dangerous developments that are being cooked up concerning Greek-Turkish relations, under the umbrella of the USA and NATO and at the expense of our sovereign rights?
- Who will be at the forefront of the struggle to pave the way for the people to become the protagonists of the developments, to take power, with a crystal clear pro-workers and pro-people programme based on central scientific planning of the economy and services, and the direct participation and workers’–people’s control, in a new society that will overthrow the current decay and barbarity?
The answer to all the above is obvious: the KKE and its MPs.
The more KKE MPs, the stronger the struggles that we all have to fight together.
We have taken a step forward, think what will happen if we take a leap forward.
Let’s go for it. We can do it!
We continue in a dynamic way. We are not complacent with what we have achieved so far.
We know that many more people are now turning their attention to and put their trust in the KKE. We must live up to their expectations.
Let’s fight this battle with realism and optimism so that on 26 June the KKE and the people will emerge even stronger.
Hope lies in a strong KKE!”
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