The mass rally of the KKE Organizations of Larissa sent a message of organization and struggle so that the working class and the people do not accept any more sacrifices for the imperialists’ trade and military wars. The main speaker was the GS of the CC of the KKE, Dimitris Koutsoumbas, who stated, among other things, that:

“Now is the time to intensify the struggle so that the working class and the people do not accept any more sacrifices for the imperialists’ trade and military wars, for capitalist growth, and for the coming crises of capital that are looming internationally. We cannot accept any sacrifice for the new objective of capital in the EU and in our country: the transition to a war economy and armament (…)

We also want to denounce the unacceptable decision of the bourgeois judiciary to condemn 7 militants, workers and students —among them a member of the CC of the KKE and a member of the Bureau of the CC of KNE, who is now the Secretary of the Thessaly Region Organization—and to impose prison sentences for their participation in a symbolic protest against the transfer of dangerous NATO military material to the port of Thessaloniki, shortly after the start of the war in Ukraine.

They are deeply mistaken if they think that such actions will stop the struggle against their wars and plans! Bear this in mind: The KKE and KNE will not be intimidated! (…)

We make it clear: The exploiters of the people's sweat and the people themselves have nothing in common, neither in conditions of imperialist peace nor in conditions of imperialist war. The workers are not on the same side as their bosses. We do not make ‘sacrifices together’. Never and nowhere have they made sacrifices together, neither in the capitalist crisis, nor in the pandemic, nor in capitalist growth. (…)

Here in Thessaly, however, the imprint of the country’s involvement in imperialist plans and wars is strong. It is here that we see what we broadly call the ‘transformation of the country into an endless NATO military base’. From the land and the sea, from the Thessalian soil, troops, ships, planes, and equipment pass through and are sent to the war fronts in Ukraine and the Middle East, based on the agreements signed by the current and previous governments. (…)

We believe that the people of Larissa, and of the entire region, regardless of who they voted for in the last elections, are concerned and worried about the above situation.

Because more and more people now are now disputing the government’s well-known narrative that turning the region into a US-NATO base will supposedly bring security and growth! They realize that the people are paying the price in several ways.

Firstly, they live with the constant danger of becoming targets and victims of military retaliation by NATO’s adversaries. The exercises for mock attack runs on US-NATO facilities, which were reportedly carried out by the opposing imperialist centres, are indicative of this. The targets are not only military installations but also war-supporting infrastructure and military industry facilities, as the war in Ukraine has shown. (…)

What is needed today is the unification of all the seedbeds of resistance, all individual demands. The struggle must take on a deeper, anti-capitalist content in order to reach its goal, the overthrow of this barbaric system of exploitation. (…) We need a working-class and popular movement that is emancipated from the state, the employers and their mechanisms, from the illusions of an allegedly incorruptible or ‘less unjust’ capitalism. (…)

This world, which is in flames, torn apart by crises, contradictions and deadlocks, is a further proof of what the KKE has consistently emphasized. That the organization of the economy with the aim of maximizing the profits of the capitalists only leads to wars, crimes, exploitation, and injustice. It is utopian to still believe that this system can be corrected. (…) The overthrow of this decayed system, the struggle for socialism, the KKE’s proposal for a way out, is the necessity of our time”.

21.05.2025