STATEMENT OF THE BUREAU OF THE CC OF KNE:The 50th KNE-Odigitis Festival made history with a new participation record! Youthful message of hope and militant solidarity with the KKE!

The Festival celebrated its 50th anniversary this year and after hundreds of festival manifestations all over the country, it culminated in the four-day 18-19-20-21 September 2024 at the "Antonis Tritsis"Park in Athens. A historic journey that began 50 years ago and managed to build the country's largest political and cultural establishment, a regular encounter of the youth with progressive Art and the revolutionary political proposal of the KKE. That is why there is no other initiative that brings together so many artists and mobilises so many thousands of young people. Without sponsors and funders. With the voluntary contribution, the collective effort, the passion of thousands of members and friends of KNE. These elements make the KNE-Odigitis Festival so unique.

The Bureau of the Central Council of KNE salutes the members and cadres of the KKE and KNE who built our Festivals all over the country with their enthusiasm and selfless contribution working without regard to effort and time, in order to bring its call wherever the youth are. We salute the thousands of KKE and KNE sympathizers, the previous generations of KNE members who contributed in any possible way to the success of the Festival, multiplying our forces.

We join hands with the representatives of the 44 Communist and Anti-imperialist Youth Organizations, the trade union leaders from all over the world who took part in the main events of the Festival. Their presence in Greece and their support to our struggle give us strength to continue even more decisively.

We are very grateful to the artists, all those who worked with us and together we made tributes, concerts, art exhibitions, which stand among the cultural highlights of the year.

This great celebration brought together thousands of young people who are fighting for their rights in the work and education places and dream of living differently, more beautifully, more creatively, more humanly. All those who, together with the KKE, are the only real opposition, cornering the policies of the European Union, of the government of the New Democracy, of the other bourgeois parties. Especially this year, when the clouds of war are thickening, the Festival has been a resounding step of opposition to our country's involvement in two wars - in Ukraine and in the Middle East - and of internationalist solidarity with the heroic people of Palestine who are being massacred by the terrorist state of Israel.

The Festival was also a follow-up to the great workers' and youth mobilisations that preceded it and a starting point for the multiplication of the seedbeds of struggle, drawing inspiration from great struggles such as that of the workers of LARCO. We announce that part of the proceeds of the Festival will be donated as an offering to financially support the dismissed workers of LARCO. To continue their just struggle. To live with them the day when the working class will light the chimney of LARCO and operate all the industries for their benefit.

The events of the 50th KNE-Odigitis Festival and the record participation of the youth in them brought the motto of the Festival to life. It was confirmed that the strength and radiance of the Festival derives from the KKE's capacity to infuse youth concerns with the vision of the struggle for a just society, without exploitation of man by man, socialism-communism.

The large participation in the political rallies and debates of the Festivals, the wide distribution of the publications of " Synchroni Epochi " (the publishing house of the KKE), the active interest in the positions of the KKE, the presence of thousands of young people looking for answers for the present worrying for the future confirm that positive processes are underway in the consciousness of a significant part of the people and youth.

The 50th KNE-Odigitis Festival made history. Its image, with the flooded areas of the "Antonis Tritsis" Park by hundreds of thousands of people and youth, with the smiles of optimism and countless red flags, will accompany us in our great efforts to enhance the participation of youth in the movement, in the organised struggle and demand, for it to acquire radical characteristics. For the youthful impetus, the youthful questioning to meet with the revolutionary political proposal of the KKE, to acquire anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist content. To organise nationwide the great counter-offensive against the system of exploitation, crisis and wars, up to the revolutionary overthrow of the capitalist system, the establishment of a real workers' - people's power and government, which will lead in the building of a new society in Greece, without exploitation of man by man, of socialism-communism.

We are making history, we are changing the world - our future is socialism!