The KKE (Communist Party of Greece) issued the following declaration for May 9, the day of the anti-fascist victory of the peoples:
“Every human being who loves freedom owes to the Red Army more than he will be able to pay in a lifetime!” (Ernest Hemingway).
We honor May 9th, recorded in history as the day that the Second World War ended and as the day of the great anti-fascist victory of the peoples. There are those that try to falsify history, so that the peoples and the younger generations in particular forget the anti-fascist victory and the historical lessons drawn from it.
We honor all those who struggled, who sacrificed themselves, all those who acted in every way against the Nazi-fascist imperialist “Axis” of Germany, Italy, and Japan and their allies. We honor the activity of the Communist parties that led the national-liberation and anti-fascist movements.
We are proud of our party, the KKE, and of its 100 years of life and activity. The KKE was the soul, the life-blood and guide of the the heroic struggle of our people, of EAM (National Liberation Front), ELAS (Greek People’s Liberation Army), of EPON (Unified National Youth Organization) and of the rest of the Organizations that took part in EAM, giving its best sons and daughters to the struggle for the liberation from the Nazi conquerors, for a better life.
The Second World War, like the First World War, was a result of the great aggravation of the contradictions and rivalries between capitalist states for the division of the world. The existence of the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) was a decisive factor that accentuated even more the inter-imperialist contradictions. The common goal of all capitalist states, fascist or not, was to crush the first workers’ state in the world, the USSR.
Today, 73 years after the end of the Second World War , imperialist rivalries are again sharpening all around the world, in our region in particular, focusing on the wealth-producing resources and the routes for energy transportation. The tens of local and regional wars, at the expense of the peoples who have mourned thousands of victims, refugees and migrants are the proof. It is confirmed that when the contradictions of the monopolies for the control of markets and profits cannot be resolved with “trade wars”, anti-people measures, with fragile compromises in the framework of an imperialist “peace”, then they are resolved with imperialist war. The peoples must be vigilant, must reinforce their solidarity, their common struggle. The dangers of a more generalized war are increasing, a war that will also involve Greece.
The SYRIZA-ANEL government has grave responsibilities because it is dragging the country even deeper into this massacre, in the interests of the big national capital, following the politics of the previous anti-people governments of ND (neo-liberals) and PASOK (social-democrats). This government has transformed our country into a bridgehead for NATO. It has proceeded to the upgrade and expansion of NATO and US military bases in Greece. It takes part in the struggle to share the “loot”.
The contribution of the Soviet Union in the anti-fascist victory and to the crushing of Nazism-fascism was transcendental. The Soviets had more than 20 million casualties, while the countries that were on the winning side of the First World War had given substantial help to Nazi Germany, aiming to use it as a battering ram against the Soviet Union.
The victorious battles of the Red Army demonstrated the superiority of the socialist system, of worker’s power, the advantages of the socialization of the means of production and of the central planning of economy. Due to these advantages the Soviet Union was able to transform into an important economical power and create a battle-ready people’s army.
This is the history, written in the blood of the peoples, that they are trying to “rewrite”, particularly after the victory of the counter-revolution in the former socialist countries.
The European Union leads the falsification of history: it has established May 9 as “Day of Europe” and simultaneously promotes anti-communism, the identification of communism with fascism. The Communist Parties and the communist symbols have been prohibited in a series of countries, militants are persecuted while the Nazis, the forces of the SS are being restored.
In this game of forgery, the government of SYRIZA-ANEL takes part. They identify on purpose and with no respect for history the anniversary of the anti-fascist vctory with the “Day of the EU”. It is trying to convince the people that not only the imperialist alliance of the EU is the only way, but also that it can be improved with negotiations and return to its so-called “good, original roots”.
The history of the anti-fascist victory of the peoples, of WWII as a whole, demonstrates in an absolute and undistorted way that Nazism-fascism is born from and bred by the capitalist system. The fascist – Nazist parties came into power with the support of the monopolies. It is confirmed that only the working-class and people’s movement, a strong social alliance that aims for workers’ power can deal with and uproot fascism, isolate the Nazi Golden Dawn and its criminal activity in the workplaces and in the neighborhoods. It has demonstrated that the struggle for sovereignty, against foreign invasion and occupation is integrally linked with the struggle for change in favor of the people, with workers’ power, so that the causes that give birth to wars are abolished.
The great anti-fascist victory inspires the peoples and teaches them to have faith in their own power. This is the power they can and have to try today in order for them to be rid of the continuous “memorandums” [austerity policies imposed by the EU], from poverty, unemployment; so that Greece is disentangled from imperialist wars and from NATO and the EU; so that all foreign military bases are removed from our country.
We are inspired by and we learn from the great anti-fascist victory. We are convinced that the 21st century will be a century of new uprisings and of new socialist revolutions. We continue with the unwavering conviction that socialism is necessary, it is the only response to today’s barbarism. We steadfastly continue in the front lines, with the working class and the people, against imperialist war, against the system that produces it, for the definite victory of the peoples.
