"With the workers of all countries for a world without exploitation, wars and refugees."This was the slogan of this year's militant mobilizations, which were organized by the All-workers Militant Front (PAME) in 78 Greek cities for Workers' Mayday. PAME's mass and militant rally in Athens was held in Syntagma sq. outside the Parliament building, which was followed by a march to the US embassy. In this way, thousands demonstrated against the new anti-people measures that the "left" government of SYRIZA-ANEL is bringing on behalf of capital, as well as against imperialist war.

At the same time, the strike rally of May 1st constituted a step to escalate the preparations for the general strike in the public and private sector, which has been called for the 17th of May, contributing to the readiness of the workers for a direct strike response in the instance the government brings the new raft of anti-people measures to Parliament earlier.

A large delegation of the CC of the KKE, headed by the GS of the CC of the party, Dimitris Koutsoumpas, attended the rally in Athens.

The rally opened with Brecht's one act play "Job creation", which was presented by members of PAME's theatre group. This specific one act play belongs to the work "Fear and Misery of the Third Reich". Next, the Palestinian Ambassador, Marwan Emil Toubassi, addressed a message of greetings. The demonstrators expressed their solidarity with the 1,500 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails, who are on hunger strike in protest about the unacceptable and inhuman conditions of their detention. We demand their release. They denounced the existence of political prisoners in Israel and demanded that a delegation of PAME and the WFTU be allowed to visit the Israeli prisoners to meet with a delegation of the hunger strikers.

The main speech was delivered by Giorgos Perros, cadre of PAME, who referred to the anti-people political line of the SYRIZA-ANEL government, to the immediate demands of the working class of Greece and to the organization and regrouping of the struggle both against the danger of imperialist war and to the need for the workers not to shed their blood for capitalist profits, not to become the cannon fodder of the imperialists. He ended the speech by saying that:"The struggles of the working class in each period are the only ones that can place the exploiters in a difficult position and dispute their dominance and power. Because the working class can abolish capitalist slavery and also build a new society without them and their parasitism. This is what the exploiters all over the world are afraid of."

During the strike rally, the declaration of trade unions and trade unionists against imperialist war, signed by dozens of trade union organizations from all over the world, as well as a plethora of trade union organizations from Greece, was read out.

The strike rally ended with a rendition of the "Internationale". Later, the demonstrators marched militantly to the US embassy, stopping outside the Hilton hotel, where the negotiations were held and continue to be held between the SYRIZA-ANEL coalition government and the representatives of the Quartet.

Dimitris Koutsoumpas, the GS of the CC of the KKE, participated in the strike rally of PAME in Athens and made the following the statement to the Mass Media:

"May Day 2017 must constitute a real beginning of new large dynamic workers'-people's struggles for the movement's regroupment, in order to take back everything they stole from us during the crisis period, to cancel all the antiworker antipeople laws, to unilaterally disengage our country from the EU and NATO predatory alliances, to unilaterally cancel this debt and of course to pave the way for the socialization of the organization of production, of the services, of the whole economy with a centrally scientifically elaborated plan. So that our people's prosperity really exists, against wars, with peace, with the working class, the people in power. This path can- and must- be opened from today on, every day, every hour. This is the  KKE's call  to the people". 

02.05.2017