52nd Festival of KNE-Odigitis:Greetings Message by Thodoris Kotsantis at the main political rally

Friends,
Comrades,

The 52nd Festival of KNE–“Odigitis” is here, once again keeping its annual appointment. A deep breath of optimism. A window open to the sunshine!

We salute the comrades and friends of the KKE and KNE who worked for the success of the Festival throughout the country.

We salute the workers and young people of Attica who embraced its events, and particularly those of West Athens, who welcomed us to their neighbourhood once again this year. We are proud of the Festival’s contribution to the protection, maintenance and enhancement of Tritsis Park, and to defending it against business interests.

A park that, at this time every year, is transformed, filled with music and smiles, and illuminated by the great ideals of struggle and internationalist solidarity.

It is with particular joy that we welcome the delegations of thirty-one (31) Communist Youth and anti-imperialist organizations from around the world. We also welcome the trade unionists and dockworkers from Türkiye, Italy and France who are organizing a landmark strike on 30 October in more than 45 ports across Europe and the Mediterranean under the slogan: “We won’t work for war!”

Workers throughout the world have no interest whatsoever in shedding their blood for the wars and profits of the capitalists. The peoples of Greece and Türkiye, in particular, can live in fraternity, struggling against imperialist rivalries, war plans, the challenging of borders and the dangerous bargaining of their governments, the monopolies, NATO and the USA.

From this platform, too, we express our solidarity with all the peoples suffering from imperialist crimes and interventions.

With the proud people of Cuba, who are resisting the US blockade.

With the heroic people of Palestine, who are fighting for freedom.

Friends,

Many wonder what it is that makes the Festival of KNE stand out and bring together so many thousands of young men and women. Is it only the concerts, the exhibitions, its history, the artistic creation?

Above all, the Festival is a glimpse of a happy tomorrow. Because the Festival contains something of the society we want and are fighting for: a society of peace and work, culture and knowledge, genuine freedom, socialism–communism.

The Festival offers a different way of life. Here, we breathe a different air: the air of collectivity, comradeship and solidarity. Here, the person next to us is not an adversary, not a competitor; it is not a case of “everyone for themselves”. They are a comrade, a fellow fighter, a person with whom we share the same concerns, but also the same dreams for the future.

Could there be a more beautiful picture than this?

Perhaps the times we live in make this picture even more remarkable.

Because outside these gates there prevails a world that is becoming more difficult, more brutal and more irrational with each passing day.

A world that asks us to make do with less, with poverty, injustice and a “coffin culture”.

A world that has the capacity to produce enormous wealth, yet denies millions of people even the most basic necessities.

A world that chooses to manufacture ever more sophisticated weapons instead of ensuring modern and safe schools, hospitals, transport and infrastructure. A world with untold resources at its disposal, yet which tells us that “there is no money” when we demand decent wages, culture, sport and protection from natural disasters.

A world that hands out “opportunities” while taking away rights. That offers countless products for consumption while depriving young people of free time and of the genuine satisfaction of their real needs.

A world that promises “freedom” but suffocates young people who feel they can no longer bear to live in it. That constantly talks about skills while downgrading knowledge and critical thinking.

A world that supports the murderous state of Israel in exterminating 30,000 children, that allows employers to sow “Biolantas” across workplaces,¹ and then wonders why human life is valued so cheaply — on trains, in stadiums, schools and public squares, in interpersonal relations — more cheaply even than a sunbed on a beach.

And, above all, a world that spreads fear and insecurity but is incapable of offering hope.

This ageing capitalist world cannot be made presentable, no matter how many elixirs of youth or plasmapheresis treatments² it is given.

It cannot be fixed, no matter how many governments come and go.

It can only be overthrown. Through the organized struggle of the workers, the toiling farmers, the self-employed and the youth. With the KKE at the forefront.

In our time, this is what is modern, necessary and realistic.

What is irrational is to believe that today’s rotten, exploitative system is eternal, even as it reveals its contradictions and dead ends every single day. To accept that “this is just how life is”, when at the same time we can see that science, technology and the productive potential of the country could ensure a very different life.

And this is precisely what they want us to forget. To forget that the world can change. To forget that nothing in history has ever been eternal. To regard as natural what is actually the result of specific social relations. To believe that competition is part of human nature, that exploitation is a necessary evil, that war is a natural phenomenon, that workers must always make sacrifices and that the wealth they produce can never become their own.

Who are all those who call upon us to come to terms with this situation? To submit to barbarity? To renounce our humanity? To surrender?

And what will we choose to do?

The answer is given by the words of Brecht that we borrowed for this year’s Festival slogan:

“General, man has one defect: he can think!”

And that is why people will never stop seeking the causes and those responsible for the great problems they face, questioning the dominant policy and seeking a different life.

They will never stop asking: Who decides? Who gains? Who pays? Why is there so much wealth and so much poverty? Why does science advance by leaps and bounds while social needs are left behind? Why, at a time when we are told that we must make sacrifices for war, are some making fortunes out of it?

And when people begin to think, they also begin to see something else: that today’s world is not the only possible path. That what exists today will not exist forever...

This is the message of the Festival. A reminder that we can look beyond today’s difficult reality. We do not come here to forget the world that exists outside these gates. We come here to learn that there is also the world we want to build.

It is the world reflected in the eyes of the 200 communists of Kaisariani.

In the unsurpassed courage and endurance of the men and women fighters of the Democratic Army of Greece.

In the pioneering ideas and uncompromising struggle of the members of KNE.

In the courage of conscripts who raise their demands and take a stand against the war.

In the boldness of school students who shut the door on fascism and racism.

In the struggles of young people for their contemporary rights.

In organizing the people’s counter-attack for a society free from the exploitation of man by man.

And this is how hope grows stronger.

Not the false hope of waiting for some “saviour” to solve our problems.

Real hope emerges when we, the working class, the youth and the people, discover the strength we possess to change everything.

With the KKE at the forefront, for socialism!

Long live the 52nd Festival of KNE–“Odigitis”!

¹ “Biolantas” refers to the Biolanta biscuit factory in Trikala, where five women workers were killed in an explosion in January 2026.

² A reference to the recent death in Greece of a well-known singer, who suffered cardiac arrest while undergoing plasmapheresis at a private medical practice. The case brought renewed attention to the commercial promotion of medical procedures for purported “anti-ageing” or “detox” purposes.