«Labor Day illuminates the path of class struggle, the only “right side of history” for the people, since it is this struggle that drives the wheel of history forward. Apart from being a day of remembrance and honor for the working class, the creator of social wealth and the driving force of social progress, Labor Day is a day of struggle and new goals which—especially in today's conditions of war, crisis, poverty, and exploitation—lights the way to a new society, a socialist-communist one.
The sacrifice of workers in Chicago in 1886, in Thessaloniki in May 1936, of the 200 communists executed in Kaisariani on May Day 1944, the countless sacrifices of workers around the world against the exploitation of man by man show that the struggle for the liberation of the working class from wage slavery is the path to the liberation of humanity as a whole from capitalist bonds,» emphasizes the KKE in its statement on Labor Day 2022.
«It seems increasingly clear that capitalism is the main culprit behind all the crimes committed against the people, one after another,» the statement notes, adding that «imperialist war, together with the poison of nationalism that divides the working class, and the skyrocketing prices, the anti-popular management of the pandemic that continues to leave its tragic mark, the removal of decades of achievements, are not “natural phenomena” or a “deviation from normality”, as they want to present them.».
«All of the above,» explains the KKE, «is capitalist “normality” itself, especially at a time when the contradictions of the system are intensifying and no form of management can find a solution to its accumulated impasses. They demonstrate the historical limits of the exploitative system.
The outbreak of war in Ukraine, which formally began with the Russian invasion, but had been in preparation for years by the opposing imperialist camps—the Euro-NATO camp on one side and Russia and its allies on the other—is the most typical expression of capitalist competition.
«The New Democracy government, continuing the policy of its predecessors, is actively participating in imperialist plans within the framework of the alliance with the US-NATO-EU,» says the KKE, pointing out, among other things, that «Our country's involvement in the imperialist war concerns the geostrategic upgrading of the bourgeoisie in the region. The transformation of our country into a NATO base puts the people “in the lion's mouth” for the sake of dividing up the spoils and markets. The oft-repeated argument that “this is how sovereign rights are protected against Turkish expansionism” has long since been discredited, since at the same time the US, NATO, and the EU, for the sake of NATO cohesion, are promoting solutions for “joint exploitation” in the Aegean, Cyprus, and the Eastern Mediterranean under Euro-Atlantic supervision.
The KKE states that «the rivalries responsible for the outbreak of imperialist wars are precisely the same ones that contribute to the surge in energy prices and other basic necessities, both globally and in our country.».
He points out that «the austerity measures, which are crushing the people's income, also prove the following: that capitalist development, which the government and all the bourgeois parties have as their “banner”, can never be fair. The “war” against workers« and popular income is the price workers pay for this growth, proving that the vicious circle of the capitalist economy, »crisis-growth», only adds new burdens.".
The KKE stresses that «this year's May Day could be the starting point for an escalation of the struggle.
–For wage increases, a minimum wage of at least €825, and the signing of sectoral and company agreements with increases above inflation.
–For the abolition of anti-labor laws and unpaid overtime, for the cancellation of the anti-labor arsenal that criminalizes trade union activity and the right to strike.
–To reinstate the principle of the most favorable contract, three-year contracts, and mandatory Sunday holidays.
The KKE stresses that «now is the time for workers to come to the fore dynamically for all their contemporary needs» and notes that «there is no “fair”, “pro-people” or “progressive” management of capitalist barbarism, as promoted in our country by the New Democracy, SYRIZA, KINAL, MERA25, and Greek Solution parties.».
It emphasizes, among other things, that the struggle of workers «can be effective and create conditions for recovery when it is not trapped in the alternative scenarios of bourgeois management, when it targets the strategy and power of capital, the rotten bourgeois state, and imperialist alliances.».
«The KKE addresses the working class of our country with confidence. It is the class that, due to its position, can unite the popular strata, which today are suffocating within the confines of the capitalist system. The KKE is making a special call to strengthen the working-class and popular struggle against imperialist wars and Greece's involvement in them, in any way or under any pretext,» the statement said.
«The way forward today lies in the organized struggle to rebuild the movement, to defend the rights of working people, in solidarity with the Communist Party of Greece.
The current system can only be overthrown and replaced by a superior social system, socialism-communism, where social ownership of the means of production, scientific central planning to meet the needs of the people, workers' control and participation in all organs of power, can lead to the prosperity of the people, peace and the progress of humanity.
Socialism is the future! Long live Labor Day!» concludes the KKE announcement.
G.M.
