The three-day events of the 43rd festival of KNE were held in Athens (21-23/9/2017) with the participation of tens of thousands of people and youth sending a message of optimism and militancy, of rallying with the KKE.

Political discussions, concerts, theatrical performances, a children's playground and an enormous bookshop, as well as exhibitions like that on the historical course of the October Revolution etc. were attended in a mass way by workers and young people, who enjoyed themselves and at the same time learned about the positions of the KKE and KNE.30 communist and anti-imperialist youth organizations participated this year in the "International Section".

The political rally at the central stage of the Festival that was held on Saturday 23/9 was sensational. The main speech was delivered by Dimitris Koutsoumpas, GS of the CC of the KKE, who sent a militant message to the people to rise up, not to compromise with exploitation, to join forces with the KKE, for the regroupment of the labour movement and the formation of the Social Alliance, in the struggle for the abolition of the exploitation of man by man, for workers' power, for socialism.

"Friends and comrades,

The future is here! The future is here, at the 43rd festival of KNE and ODIGITIS, in this beautiful picture of the enlightened future world which all visitors can admire.

The future is here, in the Tritsi park, in the center of the western Attica, which has been transformed into a red city thanks to the volunteer work and will of our KNE’s members and friends.

You can see the future in the faces of the thousands of young people who are determined to fight for a life with modern rights to work, education, life,  sports and culture. That’s the origin of our slogan, “Youth does not bow its head, it attacks and struggles alongside the KKE!”

The young people’s hearts beat here these three days and this is a proof that  the festival –the unique political and cultural event for the youth- continues to be a meeting spot  a place for thousands of young people to explore and have fun. It enhances itself as the years pass.

The festival reminds us of the “Tree” one of Manos Loizos’ songs that we are going to listen to at the concert in a short while. It’s a tree that never bends, a tree that keeps growing with dozens of events in different cities, islands, neighborhoods and villages in our country.

This year, thousands of young people heard our message, that we have to take measures in order for the future to come in order for young people to take the place they deserve in the workers’ movement, in the social alliance which will crush the exploiters of the peoples.

The future is here! We honor the great October Socialist Revolution, the monumental  event of the 20th century  which paved the way 100 years ago. Now the working class and the peoples of the world can get prepared in order to make the 21st century the century of the final victory of the ‘new’ against the ‘old’, in order to make history and conquer the future of socialism and communism.

The future lies in the revolutionary, unique political  position of  the KKE .  Thanks to the tireless and vanguard work of the youth’s members and friends thousands of workers and young people get in touch with this position every day!

History isn’t over! Earth will finally turn into red! Red out of life! We believe in it! We fight for it every day! Our weapon is our 100-year history of the ΚΚΕ, its revolutionary program  and  the  resolutions of its 20th Congress.

Our Congress confirmed that our party is politically and ideologically united. It confirmed the decisiveness of our cadres and members of KNE and KKE   to make the KKE stronger, to make it more capable of  fighting for the regroupment of the labor movement. Make it more capable to build the social alliance in an anticapitalist, antimonopoly direction. Make it more capable of fighting against the imperialist wars,  for  workers’ power, for socialism.

The October Socialist Revolution paved the way 100 years ago in Russia.  As Lenin said “We have made the start. When, at what date and time, and the proletarians of which nation will complete this process is not important. The important thing is that the ice has been broken; the road is open, the way has been shown”.

Since these days of October, we passed definitively to the era of the overthrow of capitalism, to the era of socialist revolutions.  This happens independently of the setbacks, the new  difficulties in the correlation of class forces.

We ask young people to search, to ask, to learn about communists’ action. Also, to read and study about the days that shook the world, about the October Revolution and discover all that is hidden about USSR.

We ask young people to see beyond all the slander and falsification about Socialism that was built in the 20th century. We ask young people to wonder why anti-communism is so intense, why do they care that much every single day on the media, the radio, they even write books, organize events about socialism that, as they say, failed and collapsed?

Why do they insist to write and  talk about it? Why do the keep attacking a system that they like to call obsolete and inapplicable?

We recommend that young people read “Bolsheviks’ way to victory”. In 1914 the Party of the Bolsheviks had already (later on Communist Party) opposed betrayal of social democracy that supported Ist WW.

 Bolsheviks did not support bourgeois government. Nor that formed by the February Revolution of 1917, overthrowing the Czar. With the struggle of the Bolsheviks, it became possible for the poor peasants and soldiers to ally with the revolutionary vanguard of the working class.

Under these conditions, in October 1917 they made the socialist revolution. Under these conditions, they were theoretically, ideologically, organizationally prepared in the harsh class conflicts and won when conditions of revolutionary situation were created. In conditions when vast masses of workers, peasants, soldiers, turned their backs to the bourgeoisie that weakened and was defeated in the final confrontation.

The workers who produced the wealth became its owners.

The country came out of the imperialist war.

The 8 hour working day, social security, free healthcare, unemployment were established, unemployment was finally eliminated.

Millions of acres of landowners passed into the hands of the Soviets, of the workers and peasants.

General education became compulsory and free, illiteracy was abolished.

Women’s inequality was eliminated in family law, voting rights, the way for right to work, for  participation in  social action was opened.

All the nations of the multinational Russia of that time acquired the same rights.

The Soviet Union contributed decisively to smashing  the Nazi-fascist war machine with 20 million dead, with 1,700 cities and 70,000 villages destroyed by the troops of Hitler.

In this titanic struggle for socialism, Communist Parties in all countries, members, cadres, leaders in every country had a very important role.

Communists also had a huge contribution for the peoples, for the revolutionary movements in all countries. The  National Liberation Front (EAM), the Greek People’s Liberation Army (ELAS), the Democratic Army of Greece (DSE), were the heroic creations of the KKE in our country. As many times as our people accepted to fight, based on the revolutionary policy of the KKE, it had successes and victories.

The October Socialist Revolution, proved that capitalism is neither eternal nor invincible. A superior organization of the society can be built without exploitation of man by man.

Of course, never before in the history of mankind, has a more progressive, superior social system been established. Today's capitalism consolidated itself over feudalism as a new superior social system, over the centuries: Since 1400 it appeared, only in the 19th century, it fully developed its own characteristics.

Workers’ power emerged for the first time in the 19th century and lasted only 70 days in France, with the Paris Commune. The second time, comparatively more mature, with the October Revolution in 1917, it lasted about 70 years.

The third time in our century it will win definitely and irrevocably, and only so will humanity be saved from hunger, environmental destruction, exploitation, unemployment, wars.

We have studied and have drawn conclusions about the causes of the overthrow, except that we do not ignore the contribution of socialism, as the apologists of capitalism do.

A gradual slide into capitalist functions, with the so-called market socialism theory, weakening the social character of the product and central planning, led to the overthrow.

The 20th Congress of the CPSU in 1956 was a turning point, because by employing the  so-called personality cult, it adopted a series of opportunist positions, mainly on the issues of strategy of the communist movement, of international relations, and partly of the economy.  Perestroika in 1985 became the final vehicle of the counter-revolution

For the KKE, however, these 26 years that have passed, they have made even more categorical the timeliness of socialism - communism.

But what is even clearer is the truth of Mayakovsky’s verses that called us to unravel the future. "The future will not come by its’ own ... if we do not take measures too."

And the future is not behind us, it is not capitalism, it is the new world, socialism - communism.

Comrades and friends,

Lately, SYRIZA and Mr. Tsipras are more exposed, giving us lessons of defense of capitalism.

Sometimes employing "healthy entrepreneurship", sometimes "social economy" or "innovation and research", Mr. Tsipras performs well at what any seller does to meet the goals and get the bonus, in this specific case the renewal of the support of  capital.

He seeks to acquit a whole social system based on the exploitation of man by man, which is enshrined in countless anti-labor laws, which, of course, are implemented by healthy companies.

He tries to absolve a rotten system that has profit as the main motive. This motive applies even when states, governments in capitalism are tricking workers, telling them that there are also some supposedly non-profit companies, public utilities, NGOs and others.

Research and innovation are exploited to the benefit of capitalist accumulation, not to the satisfaction of the needs of the working class, the people.

Of course, we are not in 2015, nor in 2012. SYRIZA has completed its mutation into a bourgeois party and has already completed two and a half years of bourgeois management.

It can now turn to capital by advertising his government as the best “dealer” for businesses and investors, and can sometimes take off its left masque to reveal its real face as a servant of monopoly groups, of capitalist development.

Capitalist development, despite what SYRIZA says when talking to the people, cannot be fair. Because fair development in an unfair system cannot exist.

Examples are countless and more the recent is the shipwreck in Salamis. On the one side, they celebrate that Piraeus becomes an "entry gate", an international hub "and on the other, ships that are floating coffins destroy health and the environment, they deprive the people of Athens even of swimming in the Saronic Gulf.

That’s is their development.

Greece is  on fire, popular dwellings flood from the rains, everyone is afraid of a major earthquake.

Because their growth is motivated by profit rather than the protection of the life of the working class, the people.

The abolition of the Sunday holiday, the extension of the memorandum regulations for the Collective Labor Agreements, the essential legal establishment of the lock out, the liberalization of collective layoffs, the abolition of trade union rights, the attack against the right to strike through the facilitation of its outlawing and many other measures recently voted by the SYRIZA-ANEL government and also what it is preparing to vote with the 3rd assessment pave the way for capitalist development.

And all these anti-worker measures, independently of how SYRIZA baptizes them, are deeply class-based and unjust!

This is capitalism! In Greece and all over the world. Barbarity, unemployment, misery for the lives of the workers.

The  promises of New Democracy, which, of course, claims that, unlike SYRIZA, it knows and wants, and can better do the dirty work on behalf of the capital, function inside the same unjust class framework.
 
In fact, in order to overcome SYRIZA as for its anti-people character and also its devotion to the capital, it brings up against reactionary slogans like "parties out of the schools and universities", " parties and trade unions out of the workplaces".
It goes so far as to say that social inequalities stem from human nature by reproducing reactive theories drawn from the textbooks of the Nazi Mengele.

Both of them are particularly focused on the youth and  they pretend to worry for its future. Their hypocrisy has no limits.

SYRIZA's "fair development" and "sustainable growth” that will not leave anyone behind" of New Democracy the historically outdated capitalist growth that is accompanied by rising unemployment, especially among young people and women, that obliges youngsters from  a very young age  to experience the unfairness of unemployment, the unfairness of starvation wages, uninsured labor, non-payment,  impossibility to work  in their chosen profession, to experience the unfairness of immigration abroad. It’s the capitalist development that leaves behind the children of the workers’ people's family and their rights.

They avoid talking even about the minimum. That no one should be paid under 751 euros.

Comrades and friends,

In a society that that everywhere projects the principles  "your death is my life", "take care just of yourself" that "the capitalist system is invincible and the end of history and  whatever we do is in vain " we know there are youngsters, and there will be much more in the next few days, who are concerned.

They are angry because the system of exploitation deprives them of their rights and life and they fairly say that "something must happen, the situation must change". They wonder about how this can be done.

We address all these young people and say: "There is a solution! With the KKE on the way of the overthrow "! The youth is fed up with messiahs who "save them" every time, is fed up with lies that the governors say each time to become such, is fed up with promises.

SYRIZA and New Democracy, as well as the other parties only acknowledge  to the young generation the right to have no rights, to claim no rights. Both Mr. Tsipras and Mr. Mitsotakis talk continuously about the new generation, at the same time that they crush its life. Give them the answer now!

The time has come for action! KNE, the Youth Organization of the KKE, is here for you all! It has a clear struggle proposal, it has proposals and positions on all the issues that concern young people of the workers’ peoples’ families. However, in order for these proposals of KKE and KNE to take effect, they need your support, the struggle of all of us in the workplaces, the  centers of education,  the neighborhoods.

So let's all overcome the dirty propaganda of the system, the hesitations that everyone may have!

Each one of us counts in the big struggle that we have in front!

Every youngster organized in KNE means a great failure of the system to control the,, to neutralize their soul and body! It means that no one will be alone, to be exploited, to  be deceived.
But it also means much more ... Every youngster who decides to join KNE  in fact is  not just one, but thousands. The slogan "One for All and All for One" and all together for the most sacred aim, the abolition of exploitation of man by man is put into action. Every youngster organized in KNE is part of the collective struggle, of the effort to change our lives, to "make man a human”.

The fact of being organized multiplies the power of each and every one of us!

Think ... Would the great revolutionaries, whom we admire and honor this year – by devoting the festival to the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution - such as Lenin, Stalin and so many others - had made their thoughts come true without the conscious action, the organization of thousands and millions of people?

The people's struggle is all-powerful, and we communists have confidence, even when the opponent imagines itself omnipotent, even when the movement is not on the up.

So we say to every youngster something that has been repeatedly confirmed by historical experience: The struggle of the youth, of the people in our country is connected by a red thread with all the revolutions and uprisings that humanity has experienced, in order for the peoples to live better days.

We proceed with this course of the peoples to the final victory! With its ups and downs, with its turns and stops, and sometimes with huge leaps forward! But we do not hesitate; we are constantly trying to conquer knowledge, to understand developments and to make our own battle plan with only one purpose: "For the need to become history"!

The future will come! The new generation will live it!

This is undisputed. The question is whether the black future where the capitalists will continue having the power, crushing the rights of the workers and the youth, to make wars  shall continue  ... or the bright future, without exploitation of man from man, socialism – communism shall come earlier!

Our struggle is part of the struggle waged by the peoples of the world! And this is evidenced by the fact that today, among us, we have comrades, young communists from all over Europe, from Asia, Africa, and America.

We have comrades from Mexico, Palestine, Syria, Turkey and so many other countries that fight in very difficult circumstances. We also salute the representatives of the embassies present with us here at the festival: Palestine, Cuba, Venezuela, and Vietnam.

Our minds and our hearts are together with all the peoples that fight. We coordinate our action, and spot all together against the same aim, capitalism, imperialism, which crushes our rights all over the world.

Comrades and friends,

We address to those who are currently studying and making proper use of their experience. The experience that says that saviors are over, to those who have come to the conclusion that the lesser evil always leads to the greater evil.

We address to those who feel frustrated, cheated by SYRIZA, to those who instead of looking ahead, look back at their previous choices.

We say they shouldn’t have any confidence in New Democracy which tries to whitewash its anti-people policy, and once again asks for the support of the people for its turn of anti-people’s management, as SYRIZA succeeded New Democracy  two and a half years ago.

To have no confidence in PASOK and the other parties, which through the renaming of the center-left, with their historic support for the system, that they supported in the previous years, is attempted to be whitewashed by staff of the system.

Remember: Every new government will be worse than the previous one, because the system of exploitation itself becomes worse.

It is not a solution for the people and the youth, the constant rotation of parties and governments, which, when one fails, prepare each other to replace it and treat the people equally bad.

The hope, the way out for the working class is far and away from the bourgeois management where the bourgeois parties, sometimes one by one and sometimes in collaboration between them, carry out the anti-people policy.

The hope, the way out, to come along with the KKE.
In order to get rid of the causes of misery.
In order to overthrow and definitely abolish barbarity.

We invite you now, no matter what choices you made until yesterday, to come along with the  KKE. Here is your position, the position of the unemployed people, the workers, the employees, the self-employed farmers, professionals, scientists, the students, all the women of the popular families.
Now with the KKE, because it told the truth about SYRIZA.

It particularly warned those who felt that they were politically left-wing, they based their hopes on the "left for the first time ", to a bourgeois government that independently of its name, faces, phraseology did well the dirty work for the quartet, the EU, the NATO, the big capital.

Now with the KKE, because in the workers' people’s movement, it has the line of rupture and conflict with the capitalist system.

With the KKE for the movement that regroups its forces, it prepares for the conflict with the real enemy.
That is why it does not retreat, it does not stumble on the traps of social consensus, political instability, it does not ask for sacrifices for the recovery of the profits of the capitalists but for sacrifices in the class struggle that bring closer the perspective.

We call upon the working class, the youth, not to be trapped again by obstacles that are being prepared. Do not submit to the system and the EU plans for the new disposition of their political staff.

Now with the KKE, because its truly promising alliance policy is not in meetings and summit agreements, but in the alliance of all the oppressed, in the social alliance where workers can meet with poor farmers and the self-employed can meet, with their children and the women of the popular strata and together they walk in the way of the conflict in order for all of them to be in the power.

In this social alliance, the KKE, through the members and cadres of the Party and KNE, as well as any power in an anti-capitalist-antimonopoly direction, through its people, can find its place.

Now, along with the KKE to strengthen the workers’-popular readiness and struggle against imperialist war plans, the scenarios of border change, against the  involvement of any country in these plans. These plans serve the so-called "geostrategic upgrading" of SYRIZA, New Democracy and other bourgeois parties, which in essence is the upgrading of the Greek bourgeoisie in the region.

Along with the KKE for the final closure of the murderous military base of Souda. In order not to be transferred NATO nuclear warheads to Araxos base,  which is being visited by US military delegations, inspecting its infrastructure maintenance and modernization in order to host nuclear weapons in their premises.

Alongside the KKE, because the struggle against the imperialist war is inseparably linked to the struggle for workers’ power, which is the only that can guarantee disengagement from the EU and NATO's predatory alliances.

To make the slogan "neither earth nor water to the murderers of the peoples". For the people not to take place "under a foreign flag", not to spill its blood for interests that are not their own.

To isolate the Nazi criminal organization of the Golden Dawn killers, these henchmen of the bosses.

Those who deny and vote in the Parliament against the obvious, that the employee must be paid their wages, obviously because their ideal are the Nazi forced labor camps that offered for free slave-workers to the German and other monopolies.

Those who commit murderous attacks against PAME trade unionists, these henchmen of those who support military war operations that create refugees and immigrants who are then murdered by racist criminals of the Golden Dawn in the streets of our homeland, the leading henchmen that sow hatred, poison and discord in our people from the podium of the Parliament and leaving behind dead fighters such as Pavlos Fissas exactly 4 years ago.

That's why we shout once again: “Deeply understand what fascism is!  It won’t die by itself, smash it!

Friends,

We are addressing to all of you who, even though the prospect temporarily blurred before you, you never believed that capitalist barbarism was the end of the evolution of human society.

To all of you who are outrageous with raw anti-communism, with the methodical concealed anti-communism of the slander of socialism, but also with the anti-communism of  stupidity that lately has overwhelmed some people.

We invite you to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the October Socialist Revolution, to teach your children about the first attempt to make man a human, that you want your children to live in a society without unemployment, poverty and wars.

That’s the society for which the KKE fights. With the working class, the people in the power. This workers', peoples’ government is the rival awe of capitalist barbarism. Because with the socialization of means of production, central planning and workers’ control, it can meet modern needs of the working class, the people and their children.

Come with KKE because it never abandoned revolutionary struggle. It did not abandon socialism in the 20th century. it did not conceal that against the harsh dictatorship of the capital, there is only the "dictatorship of the proletariat", that is, the power of the working class that, together with its precious social allies constitute the vast popular majority, which is the only force capable of opening the way of the real freedom, peace, and satisfaction of great modern people's needs.

Remember: The KKE, at the crucial moment, the day the Kremlin's red flag came down in 1991, had the strength to summon the communists through "Rizospastis", saying: "Comrades, keep  the flag high! Hope is now in the struggle of the peoples "! We are proud of this.

We continue to keep up this red flag!

We continue on the road opened by the October Socialist Revolution. For the victory, Socialism - Communism.

The days that will re-shake the world will come. We take our measures for this!"