The event of the Attica Party Organization of the KKE against imperialist war and Greece’s participation in it was held in Athens on 15/12. It was characterized by mass participation and a militant atmosphere.

The even was opened by a message of greetings from Yiannis Douniadakis, retired Rear Admiral. There then followed the speech of the GS of the CC of the KKE, Dimitris Koutsoumpas.

Ammar Bakdash, GS of the Syrian CP, Victor Tyulkin, First Secretary of the Russian Communist and Workers Party, and Kemal Okuyan, Secretary of the CC of the CP, Turkey, also spoke at the event.

The speech of the GS of the CC of the KKE, D.Koutsoumpas, was as follows:

SPEECH OF THE GS OF THE CC OF THE KKE DIMITRIS KOUTSOUMPAS AT THE RALLY OF THE ATTICA PARTY ORGANIZATION “WE STRENGTHEN THE STRUGGLE AGAINST IMPERIALIST WAR” ON TUESDAY 15TH DECEMBER

Friends, comrades

Today’s internationalist event of the Attica Party Organization of our party, with the participation of our comrades from Syria, Turkey, Russia, comes at a very complex and dangerous point in the international situation and sends a message of internationalist solidarity and struggle from Athens to the whole world.

The communists in Greece, Syria, Turkey and Russia, the communists all over the world can and must inform the workers about the dramatic international developments, to shed light on their causes, and also to organize the independent struggle of the working class, of the peoples against the causes that destroy their present and future.

Because the war, which has been raging in Syria for 5 years and has cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and driven millions of others from their homes, can not be isolated from the more general developments, from the imperialist aggressiveness against the peoples and from the competition.

They have told many lies over recent years in order to justify the imperialist interventions in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya and Syria.

Sometimes they mentioned “the rights of minorities”, other times “weapons of mass destruction” or that they are allegedly “combating terrorism”!

At the same time when the connections between the monstrous and murderous creation of the so-called “Islamic State” and its creators, the imperialists and their allies, are very well-known.

They did not hesitate, during this entire period, to claim that the reactionary monarchies of the Gulf countries were allegedly interested and concerned about “democratic rights in Syria”.

Now they are telling us that with the imperialist intervention in Syria they will be able to curtail the wave of refugees to Europe. They are once again telling lies.

The clearest evidence of what we are saying is the course of events itself, which demonstrates that the imperialist intervention and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the intervention in Libya, not only did not stop the movements of immigrants, but on the contrary, increased them.

They are selling “fool’s gold”, propagandistic slogans, organizing provocations, participating in providing military equipment to the murderers of IS, carrying out financial transactions with terrorism. We are talking about all those that are calling on our people and the other peoples, under various pretexts, to accept the participation of our countries in the imperialist war.

The bourgeois parties- both neo-liberal and social-democratic- as well as the opportunist parties, amongst them SYRIZA, a few years ago celebrated the so-called “Arab Spring”. They, along with Obama and Erdogan, Merkel and Hollande, eulogized the “indignados” of the squares of the “Arab Spring” in order to gain small gains for their parties here, closing their eyes to the winter that would come.

The KKE exposed the plans of the imperialists then, the plan for the so-called “Greater Middle East”, the interests of the bourgeois classes, the conflicts between the imperialist plans.

The KKE from the very first moment highlighted that capitalist barbarity, was the terrain on which the war in Syria unfolded. It also highlighted the organized attempt of the imperialist powers, the USA and the EU, and their allies in the region, Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, to intervene in Syria’s internal affairs.

These plans come into fierce opposition with the monopoly interests of other powers in the regions, such as those of Russia, China, and their regional allies.

The Russian military intervention in the region, as well as the downing of the Russian warplane by Turkey, is a clear sign of the further sharpening of the confrontation between the powers involved.

At this point we must stress that the cover provided by NATO to Turkey, with the agreement of the Greek government, regarding the shooting down of the Russian war plane is adding fuel to the fire of war.

Today the workers can draw more conclusions from the international developments.

They can acquire a deeper understanding of the reality and reject the pretexts of the various imperialist states.

We know their sirens’ song too well! They can not fool us with talk about “combating terrorism”, or allegedly being interested in “democratic rights”, or refugees and immigrants.

We are talking about the butchers of the USA, EU and NATO, who do not hesitate to use the murderers of the “Islamic State” in the Middle East and the fascist gangs in Ukraine for their plans and to advance their interests.

The aims of this intervention are centred on advancing the plan related to securing the access of US and European monopolies to the energy resources and the new energy deposits in the Eastern Mediterranean, the control of a large area, which constitutes a “passage” for trade and transport.

At the same time, it aims at the “reconstruction” of the bourgeois regimes in the region in order to ensure the most stable possible basis for the expansion of the monopoly groups into their markets.

It is also clear that Russia can not be treated as if it were the USSR, the socialist state, which existed until the end of the 1980s. At the same time, we know that the bourgeois class of Russia, one of the emerging capitalist powers in the world – which has inherited the Soviet-era nuclear arsenal and possesses up to date weapons systems- has its own interests, economic and geopolitical, in the region that have nothing to do with the real interests of its people or other peoples, but only serve those of the Russian monopolies.

Of course, these developments are related to the capitalist crisis, which has manifested itself in recent years in many countries, as well as with assessments that we might have a new even deeper synchronized crisis in the next period , as a number of countries are in recession or showing a reduction in the rate of capitalist growth.

Crises, uneven capitalist development are further sharpening the competition amongst the monopolies, the capitalist states, their imperialist alliances. Crisis and war are two sides of the same coin, of capitalist society.

Comrades and Friends,

All the developments demonstrate that capitalist, which is increasing the wealth of a handful of exploiters, at the same time creates crises, social problems, war, refugees, with painful consequences for millions of ordinary people.

All the signs show that we have a further sharpening of the fierce contradictions over the control of raw materials, the transport routes of commodities, the market shares, over the acquisition of geopolitical and military footholds in the region of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East.

No one can exclude the possibility of this confrontation spreading to other regions, such as the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Balkans, as well as even further away, from the South China Sea to the Arctic.

The workers must not be misled by pretexts about “international law”, about dealing with the “humanitarian crisis” and the “refugee-immigrant flows”, or about combating terrorism. They must not approve the imperialist plans.

The “armed hand” of the murderers, which strikes Paris, Beirut or Ankara and Moscow, or other countries tomorrow, has been formed, equipped, funded and trained by those that are now utilizing it to intervene in Syria, to reinforce authoritarianism, the repressive measures against the peoples, xenophobia and racism in Europe and the world.

The workers must reject the positions being promoted by bourgeois parties and mass media, and even by the fascists of Golden Dawn that allegedly “Europe is under attack”, that what is being waged is a “war of civilizations or religions” and that we must all “respond to this attack with a spirit of national (or European) unity.”

Those who have no objection to sending the children of our people to become cannon fodder in the inter-imperialist antagonisms and shed their blood for interests alien to theirs hide behind such bogus calls for “unity” . We are talking about the interests of the monopoly groups of the USA, EU and NATO and their allies, which are coming into conflict win the Eastern Mediterranean with the Russian and Chinese monopolies and their allies.

Dear comrades and friends,

The question arises: What can be done in these conditions? What should our people and the other peoples do?

To begin with, our people and the other peoples must turn their backs on the statements that say that the imperialists will come to an agreement in the end, or that in the end the UN will create a “great anti-terrorist alliance” which will impose order and security in Syria.

They must take the statements that after the criminal attack in Paris finally all the “great powers” can and must sit at the same table and plan a joint military operation against the jihadists with a pinch of salt.

The grandiose statements that something like this would be a “revival of the anti-fascist alliance” of the 2nd World War, which we read in various international media, are very misleading and have no relation with reality.

The harsh truth is that even if the foreign powers, which are involved in the war in Syria, reach a temporary agreement and we do not now enter a generalized conflict, this will be combined with anti-people plans at the expense of the Syrian people, who might experience the dismemberment of their country into “zones’ of control and protectorates - a false “peace” with the gun pointed at the people’s heads.

The pacifist appeals about “peace”, a “peaceful settlement”, the implementation of “International law” are also a dead-end.

Today “International Law” has become more reactionary and is implemented arbitrarily, as is apparent from the flexible interpretation of article 51 of the UN, as regards “self-defense”, which is being invoked by all those that are intervening militarily in Syria.

There are also the fairytales that claim that the governments can agree and place checks on greedy capital which causes the wars!

This is in the same category as the other joke that was put about earlier by SYRIZA and other opportunist parties, members of the “Party of the European Left” that they will place “people before profits”.

However profit is integral to capitalism, as are wars whether political, diplomatic, trade and economic or purely military.

In any case, we must not forget that war is the continuation of politics with other, specifically violent means.

So when the question arises about what we should do now, there can only be one answer.

No participation, no involvement of our country in the imperialist war. Disengagement from the imperialist plans and unions of NATO and the EU. Strengthening of the struggle to change our country’s direction, to place the economy and society on another basis, with workers’-people’s power, the socialization of the means of production, the scientifically and centrally planned utilization of the country’s productive potential.

Only this path can guarantee the complete disentanglement of the country from the imperialist plans and wars.

This path does not postpone the issue to the “second coming”, as certain people mistakenly accuse us of doing.

Because this path poses significant tasks for our party and others that will ripen inside the struggles of the people, through the increase of the organization and militancy and rise of the class struggle, the social alliance of the people.

Especially on the issue of war, as regards the workers, farmers, self-employed, students, unemployed and pensioners, the working class and people’s movement as a whole, the KKE advances specific goals of struggle, specific demands, such as:

No bases, ports, airports or other infrastructure must be used as launching pads for an imperialist war.

No participation of Greek armed forces in operations outside the country’s borders.

All Greek military forces that are on NATO and EU missions must return home immediately.

We struggle so that the people’s demand “No land, no water for the murderers of the people!” becomes a reality.

This struggle is inextricably connected with our effort to establish a People’s Alliance and with the struggle to change the class in power.

Friends and comrades,

The SYRIZA-ANEL government is lying to the people when it claims that we are an “island of stability in a sea of instability”. Its predecessors claimed something similar in previous years, that the euro would be a “safe haven” for our country in the context of the “storms of the global crisis.”

Today we all know how great a lie this was. And now, no “island of stability and security” can exist when our country and people are trapped inside the dangerous plans of NATO, the EU and USA. When the future of the people is determined by the tendency of the capitalists to increase their profits at all costs, in order to endure and expand their wealth in the framework of the fierce competition.

No one should sleep easy. The SYRIZA-ANEL government wants us asleep and generously devotes millions to NATO spending when there is not even one euro for health and education.

The SYRIZA-ANEL government bears enormous responsibilities because it has seized the baton from the previous governments of ND and PASOK, both in foreign and domestic policy, and is implementing a dangerous anti-people political line.

Behind the talk about a so-called multi-dimensional foreign policy and the attempts at geo-strategic enhancement, the government serves the interests of the Greek monopoly groups.

It declares its faith in the Euro-Atlantic unions that have led to so many torments for our people and country, to the loss of sovereign rights.

And so now it is providing territory, ports, airports and other infrastructure in the country for the imperialist unions of NATO and the EU so that they continue the imperialist interventions and wars. It is also reinforcing its military cooperation with Israel against the peoples of the region.

The government has been exposed by the unanimous decision of the EU’s council of defense ministers which, under the pretext of the murderous attack in Paris, activated article 42, paragraph 7 of the EU Treaty (Maastricht Treaty) that recognizes the fundamental role of NATO, i.e. the hegemonic role of the USA and provides for the provision of military assistance in the efforts to escalate and generalize the imperialist intervention in the Middle East and North Africa.

Our people must be on guard about the developments in Greco-Turkish relations, the “rewards” Turkey is seeking from the EU for regulating the problem of refugees and immigration, which are also related to the developments in the negotiations over the Cyprus question, as well as its permanent aims to establish forms of “joint sovereignty” in the Aegean, to expand the “Grey Zones” etc. The people must also be vigilant as regards all the other problems that exist in relation to Albania and FYROM and at any given moment can spark a more general conflagration.

For this reason, we underscore that this political line is hostile to the people. For this reason we insist that the people’s enemy is not just to be found abroad but also inside our own country, even if it presents itself with a “national” mantle.

The labour-people’s movement must focus on the external enemy as an invader, as well as on the class that is in power and in order to serve its interests leads the people to be massacred in imperialist wars, in cooperation with the rest of its “foreign” imperialist allies.

We can and must impede them!

The people’s struggle against our country’s participation in the imperialist intervention and war must be strengthened.

Our country’s armed forces must not be made available to serve the plans of the imperialists.

All the US-NATO bases must be closed now.

None of the country’s facilities or infrastructure should be provided as a launching pad for the attacks against Syria or other countries.

Our people must be vigilant, they must not accept any authoritarian measure at their expense in the name of “combating terrorism”.

The attack in Paris must not be used to take measures against the refugees and to trap them in our country.

Our people must isolate the Nazi criminal organization of the murderers of Golden Dawn that supports the imperialist military interventions and sows hatred against the peoples.

So that the people’s slogan becomes a reality: “No land, no water for the murderers of the peoples.”

To strengthen international solidarity with the peoples in struggle.

To strengthen the people’s struggle against the monopolies and capitalism, for disengagement from the imperialist unions of the EU and NATO, with workers’-people’s power.