04/05/2026
1 May 2026 in Greece:Workers’ May Day – The Working Class Leads the Way!
No sacrifices for the profits and wars of capital
Statements
Thousands of people in Athens and dozens of other cities across Greece celebrated 1 May —a day symbolizing the struggle of workers worldwide to abolish the exploitation of man by man— with a mass strike, under the slogan of the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME): “We are marching on the path of the overthrow of the system against war and exploitation”.
Workers from dozens of industrial sectors and other fields, along with university students, the self-employed, and women took part in the strike rallies, expressing their opposition to the system of exploitation, poverty, barbarity and war.
At the mass strike rallies held in many cities across the country, demonstrators honoured the memory of those who gave their lives for the cause of the working class, the heroic workers’–people’s struggle, as well as the gains achieved by workers, won through bloodshed in the uncompromising struggle against the exploiters.
KNE video with footage from the large strike rally of PAME and the trade unions in Athens
“1 May 2026 – The struggle for the overthrow of the system is our duty to Chicago and Kaisariani,” stresses KNE in a video it prepared featuring characteristic footage from the large strike rally of PAME and the trade unions in Athens.
In the text accompanying the video, KNE states the following:
“Workers’ May Day 2026. Syntagma Square
140 years since May Day 1886 in Chicago, the flame has not gone out. It remains alive in the struggles of the workers all over the world.
From Chicago to Kaisariani in 1944, where 200 communists were led to the firing squad singing and defying death, History is written through sacrifices and unwavering struggle.
We stand on the shoulders of these giants. We take up the baton and march forward!
With our heads held high, with faith in the strength of our class, we continue the struggle for a life without exploitation, poverty and wars.
Workers' May Day is a pledge of struggle. It is the red baton passed from generation to generation of workers. It is the day that reminds us that the world can change — and it will change.
No sacrifice for their profits and their wars!
Long live Workers’ May Day!
Long live the world working class!
Long live the solidarity of the peoples!”
Mass political outreach campaign by KNE
In the days leading up to the Workers' May Day, KNE carried out a mass political outreach campaign and issued a statement under the slogan “Red Workers’ May Day – The Working Class Leads the Way!”. In this statement, KNE called on the youth to take part en masse and militantly in the strike rallies for Workers’ May Day, as well as in the School Students’ Festivals of KNE, noting the following:
“Workers’ May Day is the day of the working class of the whole world, that is, of the working people who, with their hands, minds and sweat, produce everything and set the world in motion; for this very reason, they have the power to change it. It is the day that teaches that the working people can challenge the world of exploitation and injustice; that they have the power to win a better life with contemporary rights.
This is what the workers of Chicago did 140 years ago.
1886. May Day in Chicago was the day of the historic strike, with the demand: “8 hours for rest, 8 hours for work and 8 hours for whatever each person wishes.” Everything had come to a standstill; the workers had flooded the city. Facing them, their exploiters demanded “blood now”, having on their side—then as now—the state and the police. “Hang them first and try them afterwards,” they said.
Yet, despite the gallows, the 8-hour day was won, while the flame of Chicago took root in the hearts of millions of people who continued to struggle for their rights: working hours, wages, education, healthcare, for a society without exploitation of man by man.
It is the exceptions to the rule that make the difference and write History!
1936. The workers of Thessaloniki go on strike over their daily wage. The government of the fascist Metaxas orders the Army to fire on the strikers. Conscripts refuse to obey and go over to the side of the workers! The mourning of the mother of the murdered worker Tasos Tousis would inspire the poet G. Ritsos to write the emblematic “Epitaphios”.
1944. The Nazi-fascists and the Greek collaborators chose International Workers’ Day to stand 200 communists before the wall at Kaisariani and execute them. Among them was Napoleon Soukatzidis, a cadre of the KKE and a trade unionist, who refused to let another prisoner be executed in his place.
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This year, in photographs published for the first time, we saw them walking proudly, singing before their execution, revealing the strength that stems from faith in what is just cause and in higher ideals.
We continue in their footsteps!
We draw inspiration from these great struggles, which give us lessons for life and show us the way. The more the system of exploitation teaches us that nothing changes and that only competition and individualism can “move you forward”, the more the history of our people teaches us that our strength lies in collective, organized struggle for the overthrow of the world of exploitation and wars.
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Workers’ May Day teaches that no right has ever been granted by the system of exploitation and the profits of the few, which are served by the state, governments, the European Union and NATO. To win our rights, we need to confront their barbaric policy. United and organized. Today through school-student councils; tomorrow through workers’ trade unions.
Two worlds are always in conflict
On the one hand, the world of exploitation of man by man.
This world has war and injustice in its DNA, as well as stench, scandals and clientelist dealings. Shipowners, big industrialists and bankers, together with their state and their governments, for the sake of their profits, “kill” us at Tempi and in “Violantas” of this world — a reference to the deadly explosion and fire at the Violanta biscuit factory in Trikala, where five women workers were killed — , and steal our lives so that they can live in luxury. Now, they are entangling our country in war, while at the same time profiting from high prices, the subsidies they pocket, and the harsh exploitation of workers. All of them call on us to become “cannon fodder” and to “pay the bill”. That is why they also make use of fascists, who hunt down the weak and hounded while standing to attention before the big bosses. They make education a matter of one’s wallet. The few are to pay and buy degrees and a future in private universities and colleges, while the many of us struggle to finish school, to enter public university with a thousand difficulties, to go through apprenticeship-drudgery, to be ground down at work without rights, and to beg in the hope that they might keep us on afterwards.
On the other hand, there is our own world: the world of the many, who can turn everything upside down if they believe in their power and join the struggle!
On 1 May, we proudly raise our fist alongside our class. Because, in order to win the life we deserve, we must challenge and take aim at the inhuman society of exploitation of man by man, capitalism. We must seek a way out beyond its limits. This is the path for us to win breathing space today and to live tomorrow as we truly deserve.
The KKE and KNE give all their strength to the struggle to build a different society: socialism–communism. In this society, science, technology and the wealth produced by the workers will belong to them and will ensure a higher standard of living. School students will enjoy a radically different education for all, the right to sports, culture and free time, everything that is denied to us today. The peoples will live in fraternity, without imperialist wars, poverty and fascism.
See you at the Workers’ May Day rallies and at the School Students’ Festivals of KNE.”