Dear comrades,

We are indignant to hear that the mass strike rally held in Thessaloniki was brutally attacked by the police, resulting in the unjustified arrests of 8 of the protesters, among them two members of the CC of KKE and a member of the Central Council of KNE. In this attack, one of the CC members was severely injured and hospitalised. 

Tens of thousands of people demonstrated throughout Greece on the 6th of April, responding to the call of PAME and other mass organisations. The 24-hour nationwide strike was a response to high prices and the military involvement of Greece in the war in Ukraine, as a member of NATO. The strike was an important step in escalating the struggle of the labour and popular movement. For this very reason, the bourgeoisie of Greece and its political representatives decided to attack the working class and its vanguard party, KKE. 

The working people of Greece, just like the working people throughout the world, are going through a process of impoverishment, as a result of the crisis that capitalism is going through. Bourgeoisies are putting the burden of this crisis on the shoulders of the workers. It is time for the toiling masses to put an end to this oppression and raise their voices against it. This is exactly what the working class in Greece is doing. 

On the other hand, the struggle in Ukraine between the bourgeoisies of Western capitalist powers and Russian capitalism has a deepening effect on the aforementioned crisis. Western imperialism and NATO is trying to use this as an opportunity to consolidate its strength and overcome the crisis of hegemony that imperialism has been going through in recent years. 

As a member of this war machine, the reactionary Greek government is fully backing the NATO plans in Eastern Europe and is making Greece a part of these plans. But the workers in this country are heroically resisting this development. 

Because of this two-sided resistance, the workers in Greece and KKE as their vanguard, have become a target for the government. But the workers’-people’s movement will not back down, just like it was evident when they pressurised the government and the 8 militants were released the following day. 

The people of Greece and the people of Turkey, have to continue their historical friendship and raise the common struggle against the bourgeois classes of their countries as well as the struggle against imperialism and its war machine, NATO. 

The Communist Party of Turkey declares its solidarity with the workers’-people’s movement in Greece and with KKE. We will not back down!

Communist Party of Turkey

Central Committee

8.4.2022