Press statement for solidarity with KKE and PAME

Communist Party of Turkey (TKP)

 March 12, 2010, Taksim, Istanbul

http://int.tkp.org.tr/  , mailto:int@tkp.org.tr

We are familiar with these policies!

The toiling masses of Greece will overcome!

Greece is on fire… Pledging that the “country is going bankrupt”, the bosses declared war against toiling masses. The salaries of public employees have been cut with the approval of all bourgeois parties. Pensions have been frozen. It has been announced that employment in the public sector will be reduced. The price of almost everything has been raised. The bosses have been rolling their sleeves to usurp workers’ right of vacation with pay. All remaining subsidies to agriculture, which has been devastated by the European Union policies, have been repealed.

Bourgeois parties are trying to justify all of these policies by claiming “We have 300 billion euros of debt, we cannot stand on our foot otherwise”.

We are familiar with these policies! We are familiar with them due to the shameless tirades of Prime Minister Erdoğan claiming that “the crisis has just touched us slightly”. We know those who give a leg up to the bosses crying “we are heavily in debt”, while dragging the people into a hell of unemployment and poverty. We know very well those who get countries in debt!

The policies pursued by Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Turkey are pursued by the social democrat PASOK government in Greece. With the support of right-wing, liberal, racist parties…

Those who used to say “Look how Greece has developed after becoming a member of the European Union” just yesterday are now saying that “We are in a better shape”. The toiling masses of our country know better in what shape we are. But what they want to imply is something different: they believe that the crisis in Greece is increasing “the price” of our country at European and American capitals. They are no different from merchants yelling “My goods are better” at the market place.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreu does not leave Western capitals like our Prime Minister. He is constantly abroad trying to market what he has stolen from the pockets of his country’s toiling masses.  He says, “I have reduced wages, I do not pay pensions, I have increased the price of everything; please make me some more loans, and I will pay you back the interest rate whatever you deem appropriate”. What does the magnates of Germany France etc. say in response? “If you don’t have the money, sell your islands!”

Then, George leans towards the Americans, and the Americans says to him, “Let us hand you over to the IMF”. We know what IMF means very well. Is there anyone left on earth who does not know that IMF is an institution designed to enable imperialism to milk a country for years? And one step after, they would ask more Greek troops in Afghanistan, greater “cooperation” for setting the peoples of the Balkans, peoples of the Black Sea against each other. Because this is how the “friendship” of America works.

We see that the path of dishonorable, collaborationist bourgeois parties in Greece and the path of AKP in Turkey are the same. Papandreu and Erdoğan look alike very much as if they are carved out by the same master.  Both are enemies of the people; both suppose imperialism as his closest fellow.

But there is something different in our neighbor, something which our toiling masses have forgotten for long, but started to remember with the resistance of TEKEL workers: The Greek workers are organized.

George declared war, and Greek workers declared that they will not remain silent against his provocations. Greek workers have gone on strike for the fifth time since December. Daily life has stopped for the fifth time yesterday. They occupied Athens stock exchange first, then the Ministry of Finance, i.e. the sanctuaries of usurers. Poor peasants of Greece, who have been pushed to poverty by European Union’s agricultural policies, blockaded the roads. In sum, Greek workers, students, peasants prove that they are not an easy touch for the bourgeois government and its imperialist allies.

The toiling masses of Greece cannot be cowed into submission because they are organized. For that reason they can decisively resist to imperialism and capitalism. They cry out loud that they will not remain silent against those who try to usurp their rights.

The toiling masses of Greece demand their country to go out of EU, out of NATO; they demand all agreements with imperialism to be torn apart. For they know that a humanely, brotherly life can be established only in this manner.

The toiling masses of Greece do what TEKEL workers in our country do: they say, “We are right and we will overcome”. They prove that a people united can never be defeated.

On this occasion, we express our greetings and solidarity with the fraternal people of Greece. Hereby, we salute the vanguard of Greek workers, the Communist Party of Greece and PAME.

Hereby, we condemn the European Union, NATO, IMF and imperialism as a whole, which has dragged our country on the brink of a similar disaster. As our Greek brothers and sisters, we also demand all negotiations with the EU to stopped immediately, and all agreements with imperialist countries to be torn apart.

The toiling masses of Greece are not alone in their struggle!

United Greek people will overcome!