First of all and prior to proceeding to the main body of this speech I wanted to express the General Secretary’s gratitude for your invitation. Dimitris Kazakis personally and The United People’s Front (EPAM) as a whole are humbled and honored to be invited to become a part of this convention and join forces with likeminded people from all across Europe. Unfortunately, due to Mr. Kazakis’ heavy schedule he wasn’t in a position to actively participate in this convention himself but he wanted to thank you personally for the invitation. One of the most quoted remarks made from Karl Marx is the well known phrase regarding history. Heavily influenced by Hegel’s notion regarding history, Marx in his ‘The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon’ stated that "History repeats ... … [read more]

First of all, everything is in flux. Nothing is secure: nor the political preferences of society, neither the relationship of forces between the people and the special regime imposed by the troika despite the relieve they got from the electoral outcome. Then there is the acceleration of the political schedules. One event precipitates the next. The privatisation of the Agricultural Bank – which mortgaged 50% of the arable land – within only one day bears witness of this pace. Furthermore there is the total insufficiency of the new government and the entire political system in administering the crisis. To survive Samaras concentrates on attacking Syriza. Within this frame we have to put also the manifold increase of deadly attacks on migrants by the Nazi-fascists of Hrisi Avgi … [read more]

The government parties contested the elections under the slogan of "renegotiation of the memorandum". After the elections the prime minister - leader of Nea Dimokratia - stated that Greece will abide by its signature and they stopped speaking about renegotiation. Now they spend their efforts to collect 11.5 billions more from the people according to the troika instructions. In the left, SYRIZA failed to win but gained about 26%, the highest score for a left party since 1958. But its program was very conservative: they reject the idea of an independent development outside of the EU and the eurozone. They avoid to clear what and how they want to change. The communist party and the coalition of the extreme left lost in the 17/6 elections more than the half of the votes they gained at … [read more]

Q: The Syriza coalition is being transformed into a party. Isn’t there a danger that the left wing of Syriza in this way will be suppressed and marginalised? The electoral rules render this move virtually obligatory. The first gets a bonus of 50 seats – under the pre-condition that it is a party. So it is also a message to the people that we really intend to become the first and form a popular government if we sustain the enormous pressure put on us. We consider the transformation into a party nevertheless as a purely technical step without further political implications. Synaspismos [Euro communist right wing split from the Communist Party] anyway got the majority and there remains a kind of proportionate representation in the leadership also with the transformation into a … [read more]

The resolutions adopted by yesterday’s EU Summit put its stamp on the bankruptcy and the, now formal, transformation of Greece into a protectorate. The resolutions of this EU Summit include the permanent installation of the IMF-EU-ECB troika in Greece and, in reality, and the takeover of the government by the international "protectors". Seventy-one years after 28 October 1940, a new occupation is imposed on our country. The last remnants sense of popular sovereignty and national independence are reduced into ashes. The leaders of the Eurozone are ordering the immediate sell-out of Greece and they leave no doubt that our people will pay dearly, with permanent foreign control accompanied by extreme pauperization. The government of PASOK has lost any shame. After playing a walkon … [read more]

Big and small enterprises and shops ceased any activity during the general strike. Millions of working people took active part in the strike, both in the public and the private sector. It is now totally undisputed that this “government” of the IMF-EU-ECB troika’s lackeys has no more the slightest legitimacy. The general strike was a loud political statement by the Greek people: “The troika and its government must leave immediately”. Nothing less than that. The struggle goes on, the struggle shall further escalate! It is obvious that this government will not fall down by itself. It will not be obliged to resign under the pressure of the majority’s MPs, who pathetically keep offering their consensus, each time “for the last time”. The internal contradictions and quarrels … [read more]

A. The developments The EU finds itself in the heart of the crisis, wounded as never before. The diverging strategies and the explosion of the contradictions within the EU and the Eurozone (European Monetary Union) may lead the course of the “European integration adventure” to unanticipated consequences. While the integration formally advances, in reality it sheers off. The hegemonic role of German imperialism and the insolvable interconnection of the EU institutions with the most parasitic and rapacious financial capital reveal today more and more clearly the real nature of the EU: an absolutely anti-democratic, anti-social, aggressive, barbaric and cynical imperialist construction. The EU is internationally in the vanguard of the application of the harshest neoliberal policies … [read more]