Workers, employees, self-employed, unemployed people, farmers, pensioners, young people and women from the popular families,
We call on you to support and decisively strengthen the KKE in the parliamentary elections.
You should think about the fact
that the day after the elections, whoever is in government, the EU and
the “permanent memoranda”, old and new measures that are demanded by
capital in order to make it more competitive in the global capitalist
market, will still be here and will continue to bleed the people.
The anti-people laws in their
entirety will still be in place. Laws which were voted for by all the
governments and which they are not going to abolish.
The unbearable debt will still
be here, which is recognized by ND-PASOK, SYRIZA and the other parties
that support the EU. They call on the people to pay for it. The people
who did not create it and do not owe anything.
The contradictions and squabbles
inside the Eurozone will be here. The squabbles that take place are
over the management of the deficits and debts which are created by the
capitalists and are repaid with the aim of increasing the capitalist
profits, the power of the strongest, always at the expense of the
people’s interests.
Above all, capital, the
monopolies, both domestic and foreign will be here. It is they that hold
the keys of the economy, the real power and will demand even more
privileges in any recovery phase, always at the expense of the people.
They will demand an even cheaper and more subjugated work force in order
to invest. Unemployment will be here, even if there are some
investments.
The power of capital will be
here, the state that consistently serves the interests of the monopolies
at the expense of the people and demarcates the role of each
government.
Irrespective of the course of
the negotiations with the Troika and the transition to the new phase of
supervision, the monopolies are demanding new anti-people measures, such
as the complete dismantlement of the social security system, new
reductions in salaries and the people’s income, privatizations, the
restriction of trade union activity. For this reason, there can be no
relief for the workers in the crisis or recovery phase without struggle,
without conflict with capital’s interests.
For this reason, the working
people need a powerful KKE the day after the elections in parliament,
everywhere, a force for the workers’ –people’s resistance and
counterattack.
It is the certain guarantee amid the uncertainty and insecurity that the working class and the people can rely on.
A powerful KKE, to pave
the way for the only solution in favour of the people, the unilateral
and complete cancellation of the debt, the disengagement from the EU and
NATO, the socialization of the monopolies, for the people’s prosperity,
with the working class and people at the helm of power, the socialist
perspective. The people need their own government, the government of
workers’-people’s power and the KKE will play a leading role in it. So
that the ideals and values of the people can become a reality, for a
society without the exploitation of man by man.
A powerful KKE, so that
the people are not tricked again by blackmail and illusions. Because
they will have to face governments of the one or other version of
bourgeois management, which not only do not guarantee the recovery of
the people’s enormous losses, but serve the same path that leads to
greater hazards and will try to deceive them with crumbs. The KKE will
play a leading role, inside and outside of parliament, so that there can
be a militant people’s opposition which can exert real pressure. This
is something that has not existed up until now, either due to hesitation
or illusions.
A powerful KKE, because
it is force that, without retreats and recantations, plays the leading
role in organizing the people’s struggle for the abolition of all the
memorandum-related legislation and the recovery of the people’s losses.
It consistently and selflessly struggles for the just cause of the
workers, employees, the rights of the youth, women, unemployed,
self-employed, poor farmers in order to organize the people’s
solidarity.
A powerful KKE, because
it fights against Greece’s participation in imperialist alliances and
wars that are taking place or being prepared in order to serve the
interests of the big business groups. It defends the country’s sovereign
rights, against NATO and the EU, against those that try to trick the
people by saying that these imperialist organizations will protect the
people’s sovereign rights, peace and security. It struggles for Greece’s
departure from NATO. It struggles so that Greece stops supporting and
participating in military interventions at the expense of the peoples.
A powerful KKE, so that
the labour-people’s movement can be revived, so that the people’s
social alliance against the monopolies and capitalism can be established
and strengthened. It struggles to isolate and defeat the fascist
ideology and activity of Nazi Golden Dawn.
Working men and women, young people, unemployed, pensioners,
In the face of the electoral battle, the ND-PASOK coalition government
and EU figures are again investing in alarmist talk and extortion in
order to trap the people and extract their consent for the continuation
of the anti-people political line. They invoke stability and the alleged
need not to once again endanger the sacrifices of the Greek people. The
intimidating dilemmas are not mainly aimed at its party-political
squabbles with SYRIZA. The government knows very well that SYRIZA does
not dispute the EU and the capitalist system. The extortions and
dilemmas are addressed, above all, to the people and they aim to ensure
the people’s submission to the same anti-people path and the new
torments that it will bring.
The government is lying when it claims
that the new anti-people measures can be prevented, if there is
political stability and the creditors are placated. This is because the
old and new anti-people measures are not just demands of the creditors.
These have been for many years directions of the EU, integral to the
strategy of big capital in Greece and Europe so that the labour force
becomes even cheaper. Such anti-people reforms are being carried out in
all the countries of the EU-eurozone by rightwing (e.g. Germany) or
social-democratic (e.g. France, Italy) governments.
For this reason as well, the government
and other centres of the establishment (Mass Media, Federation of Greek
Industrialists etc.) are constantly talking about “the need to continue
the reforms even if they do not demand it of us”. SYRIZA conceals this
reality from the people. The reforms that it proposes follow the
rationale of the EU and the businessmen.
SYRIZA is not an alternative solution
for the people. In its quest to win the elections, it has rapidly
completed its transformation into a party of bourgeois anti-people
management. It conceals the causes of the capitalist economic crisis and
exonerates the exploitative face of capitalism, the power of capital.
The leadership of SYRIZA not only
provides assurances to the creditors, the EU, the “markets” that it will
not act unilaterally, but it calls on them to trust and support a
SYRIZA government because it can better serve their interests (e.g. the
meetings with investment funds in the City of London). It has, even at
the level of slogans, abandoned the declarations about “annulling” and
“abolishing” the memorandum and the related legislation, about the
recovery of the people’s losses, the return of the 13th and 14th salaries, the 13th and 14th
pensions, the abolition of the heavy taxes. It does not call into
question the supervision mechanisms of the EU or the balanced budgets,
the European semesters, i.e. the “permanent memoranda” at the expense of
the people. In this framework, it is engaging in alliances with former
cadres, ministers and MPs of PASOK, the Democratic Left (Dimar) etc who
have supported the memoranda and anti-people measures.
At the same time, utilizing fake
“radical” rhetoric of opportunist forces inside it, especially of the
so-called “Left Platform”, SYRIZA is trying to trap leftwing people,
young workers who are concerned and have a militant political stance.
This is a repeat of the well-known tactics of social-democracy, of PASOK
in the past, which presents a “left tendency” that allegedly is
pressing the leadership but in reality provides it with a leftwing
alibi. In the same vein, the electoral alliances formed by Antarsya are
misleading. They point to certain struggle goals, like “the departure
from the euro”, without rupture with the economic framework that is
controlled by the power of capital today.
SYRIZA, particularly after the last two
years, has been demonstrated to be useful for capital in order to
undermine the labour-people’s movement. It is not just that it did not
utilize its high percentage to strengthen the people’s mobilizations,
but on the contrary it fostered the rationale of wait and see, of the
people consigning their fate to others, restricting the people’s
intervention to participating in elections and choosing which
government will implement the anti-people policies. This demonstrates
that it has no appetite for coming into conflict with the capitalist
interests in Greece and Europe. Life has demonstrated that the higher
the electoral percentage of SYRIZA is, the more this acts against the
workers’-people’s struggle.
Working men and women, young people, unemployed, pensioners,
It has become even more obvious in the
recent period that the argument between the government and SYRIZA is
focused on the “markets”, i.e. capital, in particular over which of the
two will gain its “favour”. They are seeking to undertake the role of
the more capable negotiator for the interests of capital and not for the
interests of the people. Both talk about a “national consensus”, which
means class-social peace, the subjugation of the people to the interests
of capital.
Their differences are related to the
management formula for capitalist development. They both prettify its
anti-people and class content. SYRIZA is demanding the relaxation of the
strict fiscal discipline, joining forces with France and Italy, which
are continuously taking measures against their peoples, in order to
exert greater pressure on Germany.
At the same time, however, both the
government and SYRIZA are concealing that any adjustment of the debt and
relaxation of fiscal discipline will not lead to the relief of the
people, but to the increase of the state support for local business
groups and investments. The lightening of the debt, either by the
proposal of ND or the proposal of SYRIZA will occur through an agreement
with the partners, and therefore will be accompanied by new anti-people
commitments, as happened in relation to the “haircut” of the PSI in
2012, and in other countries as well.
However, no change in the management
formula can cancel out the outbreak of the crisis or lead to capitalist
development in favour of the people. The examples of the USA and Japan
prove this.
Both the coalition government of
ND-PASOK and SYRIZA, despite their differences, deceive the people,
promising the same thing: that if the capitalist economy is
strengthened, the people will benefit. They are lying. Any form of
capitalist recovery will be based on the ruins of the workers’-people’s
rights, it will not provide decent work for the millions of unemployed.
The so-called “comparative” advantages for the reconstruction of the
country’s economy that are invoked by SYRIZA are related to the
potential for big business to achieve even greater profitability.
The recovery, even if it is achieved,
will be weak and will occur in a period of recession for the strong
capitalist countries and the indebtedness of states which presage a new
deeper crisis cycle. For this reason, capital is also insisting on
“national consensus”, which is not rejected by ND-PASOK or SYRIZA,
trapping the people inside the framework of capital’s interests. Their
quarrel is over who will have the upper hand.
Only crumbs from the new feast of
capital will reach the people. The government and SYRIZA are competing
and promising only crumbs for “extreme poverty’, which will arise from
the bleeding of the rest of the workers and will evaporate the following
day due to the anti-people measures as a whole. And both promote the
political line of the EU and capital, with measures of the kind that
“take from the poor in order to help the destitute” and which cost
capital nothing. They serve capital’s goal, which is that the basis for
salaries and pensions should be the minimum guaranteed income of
destitution.
One hands out “social dividends”, the other promises soup kitchens and the return of the 13th
pension only for the most destitute pensioners. Even SYRIZA’s proposal
for the minimum wage is an empty phrase, as it does not affect the
thousands of workers, particularly young workers, that work with
flexible labour relations and do not even receive the reduced minimum
wage. It is fostering, in essence, the well-known reactionary propaganda
about “privileged” and “non-privileged” workers that paves the way for
the majority of workers with better salaries to be attacked. In
addition, the increase of the minimum wage in many EU countries in a
detached way, without a return of the collective labour agreements, was
used to reduce the average wages.
We must not compromise with
crumbs. The contemporary needs of the people and their children must be a
criterion for their stance and struggle. A criterion must also be the
enormous possibilities that are provided by technology, science, the
development potential of the country in order to satisfy the people’s
needs, if all these things are placed at the service of the people.
Working men and women, young people, unemployed, pensioners,
We address ourselves to you,
understanding your desire to be free of the memoranda, the unjust
policies and anti-people governments. We feel your anxiety about the
future, your children, so that you can experience better days.
We trust the people and their strength.
The people have the strength and responsibility not to be passive or
deceived spectators of the anti-people attacks carried out by the
governments of the EU and capital. They can draw conclusions and prevent
a repeat of the anti-people two-party system of the past.
We must have a powerful KKE
everywhere, because it is the only real opponent of the monopolies,
their power, the EU of permanent memoranda, the anti-people governments.
There will be a government after the elections. In any case, there are
several that are willing- parties and formations of a limited shelf
life- to contribute to this. What is important for the people is that
there is a strong KKE so that the people themselves can be strong.
You know the KKE as a consistent,
unwavering force against every anti-worker-anti-people offensive. You
know what the KKE has done for 96 years and which was the only force of
the workers-people’s opposition, inside and outside of parliament over
the last three years since the 2012 elections.
Wherever you look, you
will see the contribution and impact of the communists’ struggle.
However, you know that the electoral reduction of the KKE had a negative
impact on the dynamism and mass character of the labour-people’s
movement. You know that despite all that, the KKE did not give up. It
supported employees, farmers, self-employed, pensioners, students,
school students for the right to health, social security, pensions,
education, the protection of income, and housing, the professional
premises of the self-employed and farmers from the usurious loans and
unbearable taxes. The KKE never told the people lies.
We address ourselves in particular to
those of you who justifiably think that the situation can not continue
like this, that “they must go”. We must reject today’s government by
rejecting the strategy of the EU and capital and not by choosing some
other government that will implement the same strategy, with some
differences that do not affect the people in a positive way. Everyone
should consider the following: in previous years one-party and coalition
governments came and went, extorting the popular vote sometimes through
fear of the “worst” or through illusions about the “lesser” evil. What
changed for the people? As long as a government manages the fortunes of
the people and the country, trapped inside the shackles of the EU and
the capitalist development path, which is obsolete and rotting, this
trap of the lesser evil will continuously lead to new anti-people
governments. The people must be freed from all the anti-people
governments and their political line, they themselves must take power.
The situation today-both in Greece and internationally- does not allow
for any time to be wasted.
We address ourselves to those of you who
feel radical, leftwing, progressive, who have experience and memory and
have taken part in struggles and today are looking to vote for SYRIZA,
with a heavy heart and little hope, on the basis of the rationale of the
“lesser evil”. Today, you can see more clearly that the leadership of
SYRIZA, with the credentials it provides to capital and the imperialist
organizations, is cutting every tie with the history of the people’s
movement. It is providing the opportunity for the most reactionary
forces to slander the militant traditions of our people. It is very
rapidly taking the place of social-democracy, and an even worse version
than before because capitalism’s situation is worse, and the situation
in the labour movement is also worse.
We address ourselves to you who do not
agree with the KKE on everything or have reservations about some of its
positions, but who understand that the KKE is the people’s consistent
support. Whatever has been won by the people was won through struggles,
with the KKE in the frontline. When the movement and the KKE were
weakened, the people were the losers.
Think about which force tomorrow will be next to the people in the frontline of the struggle for salaries, jobs, their rights.
The KKE calls on every concerned
young person, worker, pensioner everyone who has not compromised with
misery and defeatism to join forces with it.
It calls on them to vote for
the KKE and strengthen it everywhere. So that the people themselves
become stronger and so that the people’s resistance and struggle are
reinforced. So that the People’s Alliance against the monopolies and
capitalism is strengthened, so that we can pave the way for the prospect
of workers’-people’s power.
