Who is to blame for Greece's disastrous wildfires?

Firefighters in Greece battle wildfires northeast of Athens for a third day trying to prevent a blaze that scorched thousands of hectares of pine forest from spreading further. The fire near Athens started in Kalamos, a coastal holiday spot some 45 km (30 miles) northeast of the capital, and spread to three more towns, damaging dozens of homes. A state of emergency was declared in the area.

On Monday 14 August, firefighters battled more than 90 forest fires across Greece, an outbreak fed by dry winds and hot weather that saw blazes burning near Athens, in the Peloponnese, and on the Ionian islands of Zakynthos and Kefalonia.

ΚΚΕ: Both SYRIZA and New Democracy share responsibility for their policies over forest protection, land commercialization, privatization of firefighting services.

Bertolt Brecht- Five Difficulties in Writing the Truth

Five Difficulties in Writing the Truth (1935).

 

By Bertolt Brecht.

Nowadays, anyone who wishes to combat lies and ignorance and to write the truth must overcome at least five difficulties. He must have the courage to write the truth when truth is everywhere opposed; the keenness to recognize it, although it is everywhere concealed; the skill to manipulate it as a weapon; the judgment to select those in whose hands it will be effective; and the cunning to spread the truth among such persons. These are formidable problems for writers living under Fascism, but they exist also for those writers who have fled or been exiled; they exist even for writers working in countries where civil liberty prevails.

KKE: Denounces Trump's provocative threats, expresses solidarity with the Venezuelan people

Regarding the provocative threats of U.S. President Donald Trump against Venezuela, the Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece issued the following statement:

"The KKE denounces the provocative threats of the president of the USA Donald Trump about the capability of a military attack against Venezuela. It (the KKE) expresses its internationalist solidarity to the working class and the popular strata of Venezuela. The developments in this country is a matter of her people, who are the only power that can give solution to the sharpened problems in the country, towards the road of overthrow and abolition of the basis which creates unemployment, poverty, the capitalist exploitation.

Communist Party of Italy - Contribution to the scientific conference in honor of the 100 years since the October Revolution

Communist Party of Italy.

Contribution at the Scientific Conference in honor 
of the 100 years since the October Revolution.

Leningrad, August 10-13, 2017.

A hundred years ago scientific socialism became reality. Until then, Marxism had only been theorized within the First International and applied to the class struggle in conditions of bourgeois domination; after that, it became reality for a short while, during the Paris Commune, showing that the proletarian revolution was not only possible, but even necessary. With the October Revolution, Marxism is applied to building Socialism, as the first step in the construction of the Communist society.

Party of Communists USA (PCUSA) - The October Revolution: A Beacon for Americans Today

The October Revolution: A Beacon for Americans Today.

Contribution of the Party of Communists, USA (PCUSA) at the Scientific Conference in honor of the 100 years since the October Revolution.

Leningrad, August 10-13, 2017.

This year we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the socialist revolution in Russia. It was the first time that the working class anywhere in the world was able to seize and hold power. The revolution grew out of the conditions of imperialism and the First World War. Russia had been ruled by a tsar, or emperor, making it one of the most reactionary regimes in Europe.

International conference honoring the centennial of the October Revolution began in Leningrad

The works of the international scientific conference honoring the 100 years since the 1917 October Revolution began on Friday in St.Petersburg (Leningrad), Russia. 

The subject of the conference, which is hosted by the Russian Communist Workers Party (RCWP), is "the Centennial of the Great October Socialist Revolution. Lessons and tasks for the contemporary communists", while numerous communist and workers parties from all over the world are participating.

The Communist Party of Greece is represented by the member of its Political Bureau Giorgos Marinos and Elissaios Vagenas, member of the Central Commitee and head of the international relations section of the CC.

"Our co-workers are executed in cold blood": PAME denounces new occupational murders in Greece

"Our co-workers are executed in cold blood" points out a recent statement issued by the Executive Secretariat of the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) in Greece, regarding the new occupational "accidents" in the country. 

It must be noted that on August 1st, two workers were killed and two were severely injured during work inside a biological waste treatment shaft in the town of Skala, in Laconia, Peloponnese. A 51-year old worker was cleaning the shaft when he started having breathing problems and called for help. A 37-year old Greek rushed to his assistance and jumped in the pit but he also felt unwell. Two more men, a 66-year old and a 22-year old who jumped in the pit also suffered from respiratory problems. Furthermore, two firemen and one policeman who participated in the efforts to save the men were also treated for breathing problems.

Corbyn denies to condemn imperialist interference in Venezuela

Once an opportunist, always an opportunist. The leader of Britain's Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn declined to take a firm and clear position about the developments in Venezuela. Instead, he condemned "violence done by all sides", thus calling for dialogue to end civil unrest.

Speaking after an event in Crawley, West Sussex, Corbyn sounded more like the Pope who wishes "the end of violence". “I’m very sad at the lives that have been lost in Venezuela” he said. “The people who have died – either those on the streets or security forces that have been attacked by people on the street – all of those lives are terrible for the loss of them” he said.

Trump the Warmonger: U.S. imperialists escalate provocations against North Korea

In a move that escalates the dangerous situation in the Korean peninsula, U.S. President Donald Trump added fuel to the fire on Tuesday, cautioning North Korea that they “will be met with fire, fury and frankly power, the likes of which the world has never seen before.”

The tensions between the US and North Korea were exacerbated by the adoption of a new round of sanctions by the UN Security Council last week. Apart from trading verbal punches, both parties are flexing military muscle as well. In response to two test-fires of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) by North Korea last month, the US and South Korea repeatedly fired surface-to-surface missiles into neutral waters close to North Korea.

V.I. Lenin writes about Engels: "A great fighter and teacher of the proletariat!"

  By Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.

 

Written in autumn 1895, First published in 1896 in the miscellany Rabotnik, No. 1-2.

Source: V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, 4th English Edition, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1972 via Marxists Internet Archives.

What a torch of reason ceased to burn, 

What a heart has ceased to beat!

On August 5 (new style), 1895, Frederick Engels died in London. After his friend Karl Marx (who died in 1883), Engels was the finest scholar and teacher of the modern proletariat in the whole civilised world. From the time that fate brought Karl Marx and Frederick Engels together, the two friends devoted their life’s work to a common cause. And so to understand what Frederick Engels has done for the proletariat, one must have a clear idea of the significance of Marx’s teaching and work for the development of the contemporary working-class movement. 

Z. Zigedy- Ruminations on the JFK Assassination

Ruminations on the JFK Assassination.

By Zoltan Zigedy*.

I found four good reasons to revisit the John F. Kennedy assassination.

First, I have finished reading the 2017 Antonio Veciana memoir, Trained to Kill. Gaeton Fonzi, one of the most thorough and honest assassination investigators always maintained that Veciana, a Cuban anti-Fidel CIA asset, and Sylvia Odio, another member of an anti-Communist organization, were the keys to unlocking the CIA, Oswald, assassination nexus.

KKE: Statement on the 72 years since the imperialist crime in Hiroshima and Nagasaki

On the occasion of the 72 years since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) issued the following statement:

"This year marks the 72nd anniversary since the U.S. imperialist crime in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, an act which did not serve any military need against the- already defeated- Japan, but the intimidation of the people, of the Soviet Union and the then rising socialist system and communist movement. Thousands of people lost their lives from the dropping of the atomic bombs, while thousands continue dying every year as a result of radioactivity's consequences. 

TRUTH AND LIES ABOUT SOCIALISM - Dictatorship of the Proletariat: A Higher form of Democracy

TRUTH AND LIES ABOUT SOCIALISM: 

ON THE SOCIALIST POWER.

Central Council of the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE).

Published by Synchroni Epochi, 2013.

Click here to read the book in pdf.

PART II: THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT: A HIGHER FORM OF DEMOCRACY.

The leap that takes place during the socialist construction, i.e. during the transition from capitalism to communism, is qualitatively higher than any previous one, since communist relations, as non-exploitative, cannot be formed in capitalism. The political revolution is the precondition for these new relations to be imposed and dominate, i.e. the conquest of power by the working class and the establishment of its own state, the dictatorship of the proletariat. 

This is a basic difference in the transition to the communist socioeconomic formation in relation with the previous. In the framework of the transition from an exploitative socioeconomic formation to another, the new relations could be developed and dominate first in the confines of the previous socioeconomic formation and then, as the last part of this process, the class that was the bearer of the new relations struggled for and took power. This happened for example in relation to capitalism. 

The Reality About Venezuela: Five myths debunked

During the last months, the bourgeois mainstream media- as well as various sources throughout the internet- have circulated numerous lies and inaccuracies about the situation in Venezuela. Within this framework of half truths and counteless inaccurcies, someone can read the most outrageous things about the Latin American country. After all, the imperialist centers and their collaborators in the mass media are experts in how to mislead and manipulate public opinion, by sowing misinformation and distorting reality.

Here, we will refer to five major lies (really blatant ones) about Venezuela and the turbulent political situation in the country and we will try to restore the truth.

Anti-communist persecutions in Russia will not pass - Solidarity with Alexander Batov

Anti-Communism is a weapon of the capitalist system – It will not pass!

We, 26 Communist Youth Organizations from all over the world, sign the following resolution:

We condemn the arrest and detention of comrade Alexander Batov, a member of the Secretariat of the CC of the Communist Workers' Party of Russia and representative of the Revolutionary Communist Youth Union (bolsheviks) (also known as RKSMb) at the National Preparatory Committee of Russia for the 19th World Festival of Youth and Students.