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Greek Communist Party (KKE) bombed after calling riots the work of foreign intelligence

by aen
A pedestrian passes a burned car outside the National Technical University in central Athens on Monday, Dec. 8, 2008. A slogan on the wall, reads 'public and free higher education' and is signed with the initials of the Greek Communist Party (KKE). Greek authorities have charged a 37-year-old police officer with murder over the shooting Saturday night of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos in Athens' volatile central Exarchia district. The incidents led to weekend riots across the country — with police holding overnight running battles and firing volleys of tear gas at rampaging youths who left parts of Athens' main shopping district gutted and looted.
(AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
kke.jpg
ΚΚΕ offices firebombed

The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) in Thessaloniki on Sunday issued a sharp condemnation over what it called an "organised plan linked to centres that have as their main target the organised labour and popular movement", following a series of attacks against KKE offices in the northern city.

Moreover, KKE underlined that "the attacks on the KKE's offices clearly reveal the powers hiding behind the masks, as well as their inspirers."

According to police, unknown perpetrators attacked KKE offices in Thessaloniki with firebombs and home-made incendiary devices in the early morning hours. Several garbage cans were also set on fire during the same period in the city's centre.



Caption: A file photo shows a scene from the disturbances in Thessaloniki on Monday, Dec. 8, 2008. ANA-MPA

http://www.ana-mpa.gr/anaweb/user/showplain?maindoc=7132249&maindocimg=7113837&service=96
by aen
aleka.papariga.kke.jpg

"The molotov cocktails (fire-bombs) and looting of the hooded individuals, whose steering center is linked with the state secret services and centers abroad, have absolutely no relationship with the mass rage of the pupils, the students, the people in general," Communist Party of Greece (KKE) leader Aleka Papariga stressed in an exclusive interview with ANA-MPA, adding that the recent events were exploited in order to turn attention away from and disorient the mass moblisations of the youth and the people against authoritatiranism and the anti-popular policy.

Papariga reiterated her harsh criticism of the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA), stressing that the KKE has fundamental differences with that party in strategy, ideology and policy.

On the prospect of early general elections, the KKE leader stressed that it would be just "a hole in the water" if the disgruntlement with ruling New Democracy turned into a vote for main opposition PASOK, while, to a question on whether the KKE would vote for the establishment of a parliamentary preliminary investigation committee on the Vatopedi Monastery-State land transactions affair, Papariga explained that if presumptive evidence of criminal responsibility arose, her party would back the establishment of such a committee.

Replying to questions, Papariga said that the state suppression and the hooded troublemakers "are from the same side". They are connected, mutually fuel each other and their target is to terrorise the working people and the youth, to confront the organised labor and popular movement, Papariga said.

She attributed the killing of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos in the Exarhia district of Athens by a police bullet on Saturday night to the result of escalating authoritarianism, reinforcement of the suppression mechanisms and their action, the network of reactionary laws and the "Euro-terror laws" created by the governments of ND and PASOK. "The molotov cocktails (fire-bombs) and looting of the hooded individuals, whose steering center is linked with the state secret services and centers abroad, had nothing to do whatsoever with the mass rage of the pupils, the students, the people in general. On the contrary, they were exploited in order to turn attention away from and disorient the mass moblisations of the youth and the people against authoritatiranism and the anti-popular policy. An effort was made, and is being made, by the government, and not only, to intensify the suppression measures," she said.

The KKE, with its positions and action, found itself opposite them. "We obstructed and cancelled certain plans. And we are vigilant," Papariga said, adding that the "mass-turnout strike rallies by PAME throughout Greece and the demonstrations of the pupils, with their mass turnout and safeguarding, proved that mass organized action can confront suppression and terrorism, they proved that 'the spontaneous' can be converted into 'the conscientious and organized', that it cannot ruin the plans of the mechanisms".

To another question, Papariga said that the scandals, the suppression, the threats and blackmail faced daily by the working people in their places of work were various sides of the anti-popular pollicy, and the result of the "Euro-one-way path" served by ND and PASOK, of the strategy that serves capital profit and competitiveness and aggravates the problems of the working class, the yough, the popular strata.

She said that the people's rage and indignation, which intensified and was manifested, prompted by the murder of the 15-year-old, was not enought to halt the negative developments for the people. Nor, she continued, could any results arise from some struggles that simply exert pressure.

Papariga said that the measures taken in recent years, and the "much worse" measures being planned, such as a 70-hour work-week, the report on separation of spare time into active and inactive that was voted by ND, PASOK and SYN (Coalition of the Left, Movements and Ecology) in the EU, which was a vital need to capital.

The movement, in its current state, cannot face those problems, she said, adding that a re-structure of the labor movement was necessary, given that only through organised struggle, a popular alliance against the policy and the parties that serve the interests of the monopolies, couldhave positive results for the people, and this was why strengthening of the KKE -- which with its strategy and action was formulating the terms and opening the road for the expression of the people's counter-attack -- was needed.

To another question, Papariga said that the KKE firmly believed that the working class of the cities and the peripery has the power to change things, provided that they acted and fought for their rights in very place of work, and created their own anti-monopoly alliance.

The working people should not be afraid. Those who should be afraid are the capital, the EU and its parties, she said, because the crisis was a crisis of the capitalism they serve. The working class have for years been paying the price for increasing the profits of capital, she said, adding that they have no reason to now to also pay the price of its (capital's) crisis. The people must make use of their experience. The parties that lied to them about Maastricht, about the EMU, are lying to them now as well, Papariga said.

Whether it is the bankers who are boosted, as proposed by the government, or the industrialists, as proposed by PASOK, the outcome for the people is one and the same. The outdated or administrative proposals put forward by SYN are not the solution. The young people, the popular strata, must permanently turn their back on their policies and dogmatisms. Only in that way will they be able to confront the worst that is yet to come, Papariga stressed.

Caption: Communist Party of Greece leader Aleka Papariga . ANA-MPA/Manolis Pakias

http://www.ana-mpa.gr/anaweb/user/showplain?maindoc=7126121&maindocimg=7124323&service=102
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