On the occasion of the NATO summit that started on Tuesday in The Hague, very massive demonstrations took place in a number of cities in Greece. In Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras, Heraklion, Chania, Ioannina, Igoumenitsa, Xanthi, Trikala, Karditsa, Volos, Corfu, Samos and elsewhere, crowds of people filled the streets and squares to express their anger and indignation at the dangerous developments against the peoples of the world.
The demonstrations were called for 24/6, after an initiative of organizations and collectives in which the CPG(m-l) took the lead, in the context of the campaign against war and armaments.
In Athens thousands of people and youth gathered at Syntagma Square to denounce the dangerous developments in the wake of the recent US bombing of Iran and the ongoing massacre of the Palestinian people. The contradictions between the imperialists that are driving the peoples closer and closer to World War III, but also the participation of dependent Greece in the imperialists’ plans, which through the Souda base in Crete contributed to the bombing of Iran, mobilized thousands of demonstrators. The opening of bases from north to south and from east to west in our country, the facilities that the governments have been giving for years to the American imperialism, the targeting of our people by the strategic rival of the US, Russian imperialism, have enraged the people and the youth and taken them out on the streets to demonstrate.
Since the very beginning, the police presence was provocative. The government’s attempt to prevent the demonstration from taking place was evident. However, they were unable to prevent the mass of demonstrators who took to the streets and started the march towards the US embassy. The demonstrators throughout the march chanted slogans against the war and the armaments. When they reached the US embassy, despite the fact that it was guarded by police forces, the demonstrators defied the heavy police presence and chanted incessantly slogans against war and imperialism.
The CPG(m-l) and its students’ front organization, the Movements of Struggle, contributed decisively to the demonstration and had long been calling the people and the youth to the streets. Consequently, they assembled mass and militant blocks that marched towards the American embassy shouting slogans throughout the demonstration. They stressed the need to build an anti-war, anti-imperialist front of the peoples against the pro-war plans of the imperialists who want to re-divide the world. With proclamations and slogans, the CPG(m-l) and the Movements of Struggle denounced the involvement of the country in their dangerous plans, but also the dangers for the Greek people produced by the dependence of the country and the concessions of the governments for years to the American and European imperialists. They demonstrated their solidarity with the heroic Palestinian people who are fighting against the Zionist fascists and the imperialists and denounced the bombing of Tehran.
As the clouds of war gather over the planet, peoples should not remain observers to the developments. Imperialists’ pretentious declarations of peace convince no one! The peoples, the workers and the youth can and must leave their own mark to the developments. The youth, particularly, who are destined for the front lines of the battle, must in all countries of the world take the streets to demonstrate against the war and imperialism. Through its student associations and its unions, alongside the peoples and the workers, it can and must stop the war. Collectively as well as being organized, we can win and pave the path towards a society without exploitation, oppression, poverty or wars!