The people and the working class of Greece struggle for the overthrow of imperialist brutality and subjugation
Communist Party of Greece (marxist-leninist)
The situation in Greece
The situation in Greece is critical both for the people and the working class. Because of the imperialist dependence of the country, its position in the EU and the Eurozone, its military-political dependence in NATO and its military-political role as a NATO-US springboard, the social and political developments in Greece cannot be seen apart from the developments in SE Mediterranean, the M. East., N. Africa, the Balkans and the quarrels inside the EU.
All contradictions and geo-political aims of the imperialist powers in the region, along with the special but critical issue of the future of the EU, are influencing all developments in our country, having in their background the world crisis. That is the reason that Greece is in the first page of the Media something that is proportionately greater than that of other countries similar to Greece (Portugal, Ireland).
The troika mechanism and its real targets
Starting after the October 2009 elections and the troika (IMF-EU-ECB) “salvation mechanism” of May 2010 there is in motion a rapidly escalating antipopular and antilabor policy that flattens all economic-labor-social rights of the people. The imperialist powers of the EU, mainly Germany and France, aided by the strong presence of the US through the IMF, and with the pretext of the great foreign debt imposed a deeper subjugation that takes the form of a protectorate.
This mechanism gives shark loans in 3-month installments in order to pay back a portion of the huge interests. This leads to greater debt. (In 2009 the debt was 120% of GDP and now approaches 160%). But the greatest imperialist profit is not the huge amounts of money that accumulate through this loan shark imposition. The main return that they take from the country is its total destruction of any productive base, the imposition of a medieval regime as far as the labor, social, economic and political rights of the people are concerned, and the sell-out and plunder of every resource and infrastructure this country has. Read more »
Danger of War Grows..U.S.-Israeli Assault on Iran Escalates
3 January 2012--the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) has ordered US warships out of the Strait of Hormuz, where nearly one-fourth of the global petroleum shipments pass every day. The US is maneuvering to cutoff Iranian exports while ensuring ongoing oil exports of neighboring countries. The EU says it will join the call for US sanctions on Iran, by the end of the month
by Larry Everest, Revolution
The danger of a U.S.-Israeli war on Iran is escalating rapidly. The U.S. and its allies are ramping up their all-around assault on Iran, including new crippling sanctions, and openly threatening to attack. Ground is being laid daily in the headlines and statements by politicians of every stripe in mainstream U.S. politics calling for aggression against Iran—all justified by unsubstantiated assertions that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons.
Whether or not Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons technology (and there is no proof they are), this U.S. imperialist narrative and framework is an outrageous effort to turn reality upside down—the reality of which of the clashing oppressive forces in the region is the dominant threatening oppressor and bully.
Iran is a non-nuclear, Third World country. The U.S. is the world’s most powerful nuclear weapons state—with over 4,000 warheads. It’s the only country to ever use nuclear weapons, killing 150,000-240,000 people in the 1945 bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan (with many more dying of the effects of radiation for years after). It’s the main backer of the one country in the Middle East that actually does have nuclear weapons—Israel.
Now the U.S. and its allies have launched a massive, all-around campaign of aggression against Iran in the name of stopping the spread of nuclear weapons. These weapons are horrible, and they should be banished from the earth. If the U.S. rulers were really against these tools of mass murder they’d insist everyone get rid of them—but they’re not. They and their media mouthpieces aren’t saying word one about getting rid of their nukes, or Israel’s nukes, or Britain or France’s nukes.
Instead, the U.S. and its allies are threatening war over the possibility that Iran could get a bomb, a war that would be terrible for the people of the world. In a 2006 statement, Kurt Gottfried, Chairman of the Union of Concerned Scientists, and emeritus professor of physics at Cornell University, said: “The [Bush] administration is reportedly considering using the B51-11 nuclear ‘bunker buster’ against an underground facility near Natanz, Iran. The use of such a weapon would create massive clouds of radioactive fallout that could spread far from the site of the attack, including to other nations. Even if used in remote, lightly populated areas, the number of casualties could range up to more than a hundred thousand, depending on the weapon yield and weather conditions.” And any attack by the U.S. and Israel on Iran would be military aggression to preserve their military dominance—including their nuclear monopoly—in the Middle East. There is absolutely no justice in anything the U.S. is doing in pursuit of this criminal goal.
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The last half of December saw a sharp spike in the U.S.-led assault on Iran’s Islamic Republic. On December 31, President Obama signed a defense authorization bill that included by far the harshest sanctions the U.S. and its allies have yet imposed on Iran. These new sanctions target Iran’s oil exports (which account for well over half of government revenues) for the first time, as well as its financial sector. (One provision calls for punishing foreign firms and banks which purchase Iranian oil, including through its central bank.) Read more »
Greece: How do you spell “technocrat”? F-A-S-C-I-S-T
By Mark Ames, CounterCurrents.org
The new Minister of Infrastructure, Makis "Hammer" Voridis in an earlier time
25 November, 2011
See the guy in the photo there, dangling an ax from his left hand? That’s Greece’s new “Minister of Infrastructure, Transport and Networks” Makis Voridis captured back in the 1980s, when he led a fascist student group called “Student Alternative” at the University of Athens law school. It’s 1985, and Minister Voridis, dressed like some Kajagoogoo Nazi, is caught on camera patrolling the campus with his fellow fascists, hunting for suspected leftist students to bash. Voridis was booted out of law school that year, and sued by Greece’s National Association of Students for taking part in violent attacks on non-fascist law students.
With all the propaganda we’ve been fed about Greece’s new “austerity” government being staffed by non-ideological “technocrats,” it may come as a surprise that fascists are now considered “technocrats” to the mainstream media and Western banking interests. Then again, history shows that fascists have always been favored by the 1-percenters to deliver the austerity medicine.
This rather disturbing definition of what counts as “non-ideological” or “technocratic” in 2011 is something most folks are trying hard to ignore, which might explain why there’s been almost nothing about how Greece’s new EU-imposed austerity government includes neo-Nazis from the LAOS Party (LAOS is the acronym for Greece’s fascist political party, not the Southeast Asian paradise).
Which brings me back to the new Minister of Infrastructure, Makis Voridis. Before he was an ax-wielding law student, Voridis led another fascist youth group that supported the jailed leader of Greece’s 1967 military coup. Greece has been down this fascism route before, all under the guise of saving the nation and complaints about alleged parliamentary weakness. In 1967, the military overthrew democracy, imposed a fascist junta, jailed and tortured suspected leftist dissidents, and ran the country into the ground until the junta was overthrown by popular protest in 1974. Read more »
17 November: Greece braces for large protest rally in Athens
17 November 1973, at the Polytechnic, Athens
16 November 2011, BBC–Greece is bracing for a large rally to mark the anniversary of the student uprising in 1973 that helped bring down the country’s military dictatorship.The march is expected to be joined by protesters against planned austerity measures, which Greece must implement to tackle its growing debt crisis.
Some 7,000 policemen are being deployed in Athens amid fears that the rally may turn violent.
It comes a day after Greece’s interim government won a confidence vote.
The governing coalition of Lucas Papademos had a huge majority – 255 MPs voted in favour, and 38 against.
The technocratic government must approve a new bailout package and commit to reforms in order to secure the next instalment of an international loan. Read more »
Festive Roman crowds cheer end of Berlusconi era
ROME (Reuters) – Thousands gathered in Rome to celebrate the political demise of Silvio Berlusconi on Saturday, whistling and shouting insults as the 75-year-old media magnate drove to hand in his resignation as prime minister.
In an atmosphere reminiscent of a football World Cup victory celebration, squares outside government buildings were packed with cheering crowds, singing and chanting as the curtain came down on Berlusconi’s scandal-hit government.
Police held back the crowds behind barriers outside Berlusconi’s private residence in central Rome and in front of the Quirinale Palace, the residence of the head of state, President Giorgio Napolitano.
A small orchestra played the Hallelujah chorus from Handel’s Messiah as the crowd waited for Berlusconi to appear and hand in his resignation. Read more »
Greek protesters call president “traitor”, halt parade
[In the midst of ever-growing crisis, national celebrations are widely seen as bourgeois extravagances undeserving of popular support. -- Frontlines ed.]
By George Georgiopoulos and Daniel Flynn, Reuters
ATHENS | Fri Oct 28, 2011
(Reuters) – Greeks protesting at austerity measures demanded by foreign lenders blocked a major national parade on Friday to commemorate Greek resistance in World War Two, shouting “traitors” at President Karolos Papoulias and other officials.
The protest in Thessaloniki was echoed at smaller parades across Greece, including in Athens where marchers held black ribbons. It showed the extent of anger at the higher taxes and wage cuts sought by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund in return for funds to avert a debt default.
The annual military parade in the northern city is one of the most symbolic events in Greece’s political calendar and commemorates the rejection of Italy’s ultimatum to surrender in 1940. It was the first time it had been cancelled. Read more »
Protests turn violent in central Athens
Police clashed with demonstrators during a protest rally marking a 24-hour general strike on Wednesday in Athens.
He’s 19: Economics student at the University of Athens, son of a taxi driver father and hospital food worker mother, part-time fitness instructor, despondent about his future, furious and frightened.
“My heart is beating so fast, I can hardly breathe.”
The stick in his hands seems such a feeble weapon of rage.
Sticks, stones, chunks of concrete, Molotov cocktails — this is the arsenal that some of Greece’s youth have brought to the barricades against a powerful state. A generation ago, their parents toppled a military junta. Protest is in their bones, a legacy. Read more »
Al Jazeera: African migrants in Europe speak out
Migrants all over Europe fight for their rights and try to improve their situation.
20 Sep 2011
What to do when you are mistreated as an African immigrant in Europe?
Hip hop artist K-Nel presents reports about migrants all over Europe who fight for their rights and try to improve their living conditions.
Sissoko Azoumane from Mali is the spokesman for a protest movement in Paris, that fights for papers for the undocumented migrants who have been living in France for years, contributing to the French economy. But a new law has eroded all of their hopes for papers.
Sorious Samura checks out how some migrants even clone identities in order to try to get a job.
Wahabou from Senegal survived a devastating fire that killed 20 people in an apartment where migrants were housed, and decides to do something about fire safety in Parisian buildings.
In Brescia, Italy, Africans unite to improve housing conditions when they get evicted as a result of anti-immigration sentiments.
Reuters reports September 3rd peaceful protests against a confident government in Greece
Greek TV, however, showed the police violence against the demonstration
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Reuters: Greek PM rules out snap polls, protesters are back
ATHENS | Sat Sep 3, 2011 9:31pm BST
(Reuters) – Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou on Saturday ruled out snap elections and said his government would succeed in bringing Greece out of the crisis by the end of his term in 2013.
Thousands of demonstrators returned to the central Athens for the first time after the summer to protest against unpopular austerity measures in exchange for more EU/IMF funds on the day the ruling socialist party met to mark its 37th anniversary.
“Citizens will judge us in 2013,” Papandreou told a party conference. “By then, we will have achieved bringing Greece out of the crisis and will have completed so many and important reforms.”
But three opinion polls published in Sunday newspapers showed the main conservative opposition New Democracy party had widened its lead by 0.6-5.1 percentage points over the Socialist government, which has seen its popularity wane as austerity bites. Read more »
Oil imperialists scrambling for mega-deals in the new Libya
[Of course, US and EU petrodollar imperialists have had a firm hold on Libyan resources for a number of years. But the end of Gaddafi will open the door for some to get into the lucrative holdings, or to expand those they already have--at the expense of others untied to the NTC. Here is the latest speculative prospecting among the petrobanks and petrocorporates. -- Frontlines ed.]
Unseemly Scrabble for Libya’s Post-Gaddafi Oil Assets Underway |
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| While NATO members, led by France, piously proclaimed at the onset of their military offensive in Libya that their concerns were solely humanitarian, a covert tussle to gain a commanding lead in developing the country’s energy riches in light of Colonel Gaddafi’s departure is well underway.The Libyan economy depends primarily upon revenues from the oil sector, which contribute about 95 percent of export earnings, 25 percent of GDP, and 80 percent of government revenue.
Prior to the outbreak of conflict, Libya was exporting about 1.3-1.4 million barrels per day from production estimated at roughly 1.79 million barrels per day, of which approximately 280,000 barrels per day were indigenously consumed. But analysts believe that with reconstruction Libya could soon be exporting 1.6 million barrels per day of high-quality, light crude. Read more » |
The grumpy diplomats of the rogue state of Israel
The Israeli ambassador to Spain, Raphael Schutz, has just finished his term in Madrid. In an op-ed in Haaretz’s Hebrew edition he summarized what he termed as a very dismal stay and seemed genuinely relieved to leave.
This kind of complaint seems now seems to be the standard farewell letter of all Israeli ambassadors in Western Europe. Schutz was preceded by the Israeli ambassador to London, Ron Prosor, on his way to his new posting at the United Nations in New York, complaining very much in the same tone about his inability to speak in campuses in the United Kingdom and whining about the overall hostile atmosphere. Before him the ambassador in Dublin expressed similar relief when he ended his term in office in Ireland.
All three grumblers were pathetic but the last one from Spain topped them all. Like his colleagues in Dublin and in London he blamed his dismal time on local and ancient anti-Semitism. His two friends in the other capitals were very vague about the source of the new anti-Semitism as both in British and Irish history it is difficult to single out, after medieval times, a particular period of anti-Semitism.
But the ambassador in Madrid without any hesitation laid the blame for his trials and tribulations on the fifteenth century Spanish Inquisition. Thus the people of Spain (his article was entitled “Why the Spanish hate us”) are anti-Israeli because they are either unable to accept their responsibility for the Inquisition or they still endorse it by other means in our times. Read more »
Starvation politics fuels growing resistance: “Greece to start austerity drive as nation seethes”
By George Georgiopoulos
June 5, 2011
ATHENS (Reuters) – Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou starts a campaign on Monday to secure a new international bailout by imposing years of austerity on a nation already seething over corruption and economic mismanagement.
Unease is growing within Papandreou’s ranks about the consequences of waves of budget cuts demanded under successive deals with the European Union and IMF — and this could turn into alarm after at least 80,000 Greeks crammed a central Athens square to vent their anger over the nation’s dire state.
As the government struggles to prevent Greece from defaulting on its debt, the Socialist cabinet will discuss informally on Monday the medium-term economic plan which will impose 6.4 billion euros ($9.37 billion) of extra austerity this year alone.
This is just the first stage of a drive to turn the plan, agreed on Friday with the EU and IMF as the price of a new financial rescue, into law. Read more »
Unsafe in Libya, Unwanted in Europe: Exiles of the Arab Spring
Thousands of desperate migrant workers have gathered near Calais
By Jerome Taylor
The Independent/UK
May 18, 2011
Asylum seekers fleeing Libya at 'Africa House', a refugee camp near Calais
In a derelict industrial complex to the east of Calais they shiver under their sodden blankets dreaming of a Europe that simply doesn’t exist. Seney Alema and his friends are the northernmost vanguard of a human wave that has swept across the continent as Nato’s bombs continue to pummel Libya.
While Europe has applauded the steady toppling of North Africa’s dictators, the continent has been unwelcoming to the thousands of people who have fled the region – the separate states bickering over who should take the responsibility for the refugees’ fates.
When the war against Muammar Gaddafi broke out earlier this year, people like Seney were trapped. European powers scrambled ships to evacuate their own nationals but sub-Saharan migrants, who did the kind of jobs Libyans simply didn’t want to do, were left to fend for themselves.
Related articles Libya’s oil chief ‘defects from Gaddafi regime and joins rebels’ Woman and child among 26 bodies ‘found in mass graves’ near Syrian city Mubarak’s wife freed after handing over £2.5m but may still face trial Search the
news archive for more stories As law and order broke down the beatings and robberies began. Some were press-ganged into
fighting the rebels, others simply disappeared. So thousands are now fleeing across the Mediterranean in barely sea-worthy
boats, hoping that somewhere like Britain will give them shelter. Read more »
Clashes in Greece as EU and IMF meet
ATHENS (Reuters) – A group of 150 hooded demonstrators attacked three policemen in an Athens hospital after a protester was seriously injured in an anti-austerity march on the first day of a visit by EU and IMF inspectors.
Police had fired several rounds of teargas earlier on Wednesday to disperse stone-throwing protesters as senior EU and IMF envoys began talks with the government on stepping up fiscal reforms needed to get the next slice of a bailout package.
“The hooded youths broke into the hospital manager’s office and beat up three policemen who were there investigating the protester’s injuries,” said a policeman who declined to be named. “Two policemen were slightly injured and one suffered more serious injuries to the head.” Read more »
