51st anniversary of the Polytechnic Uprising

Just a few days before the 24-hour national general strike on 20 November, on 17 November events took place all over the country to commemorate the 51st  anniversary of the uprising of the students and workers of Athens against the junta.

On Sunday afternoon, the three-day events of the Polytechnic Uprising culminated in a mass demonstration that filled the centre of Athens, uniting militants of different generations and reviving the slogans and demands of the uprising. Thousands of people and youth marched under the banners of the KKE and KNE  to the US and then the Israeli embassies.

The GS of the CC of the KKE, Dimitris Koutsoumbas, who took part in the march, told the media that “The slogans of the Polytechnic Uprising for ‘Bread, Education, Freedom’ and ‘USA out, NATO out’ are relevant today. They reflect the daily struggles of the Greek people and youth for wage increases, for collective labour agreements, against high prices, against state repression and the violence of the government and its mechanisms. They reflect the struggle against the anti-educational policy of the government, for the abolition of all anti-labour and anti-people laws. They reflect the messages against the imperialist war, the US-EU-NATO alliance, for free Palestine. Fifty-one years later we are here and we continue!”.

“The Polytechnic is still alive. Greece out of the war”, demanded the banner of the young conscripts who took part in the march and were greeted with warm applause. The slogan “The conscripts are the children of the people, they have no job outside the borders” was heard again and again as the march approached its destination, with the demonstrators expressing the people’s solidarity with the conscripts who also courageously raise their voice against the massacre of the peoples and refuse to become part of the murderous action for the interests of the USA, NATO and the EU.

A special focus of this year’s demonstration was the solidarity with the Palestinian people who are being massacred by the murderous state of Israel and its allies. Thus, Palestinian flags flew alongside the red ones as workers, students and pensioners condemned the Greek government’s economic, political and military support for Israel. “The peoples of the world are shouting out loud, we stand with Palestine until freedom”, they chanted.

The chanting grew louder in front of the US and the Israeli embassies, with thousands of protesters uniting their voices against the murderers of the peoples and demanding: “No participation, no involvement, Greece out of the massacre”.

“The Polytechnic is still alive in the struggle to overthrow of the system of exploitation, poverty and wars!” read the banner of the Attica Party Organization at the head of the march, summing up the message of the militant commemoration.

In this way, the 106 years of life and action of the KKE were also honoured, as 17 November is the anniversary of the foundation of the KKE. “Struggle - rupture – overthrow, no submission to the dictatorship of capital”, a number of organizations wrote on their banners, highlighting that the democracy of the capitalists means repression and violence for the people. With a look to the future struggles, they also called for the general strike on 20 November.