Hate, Bigotry, Racism: The 'Jihadists' of the Greek Orthodox Church

SPECIAL TO IN DEFENSE OF COMMUNISM.

This is not a post about religion and faith. Historical materialism, as it has been analyzed in the works of Marx, Engels, Lenin and others, represents our perspective on the “opium of the people”. However, this article focuses on the Greek Orthodox Church as an institution and her high ranking representatives. Before going to our major issue, let us remind the following: a) according to article 3.1 of the Constitution of Greece (Hellenic Republic) “the prevailing religion in Greece is that of the Eastern Orthodox Church of Christ”, b) the Church of Greece is, in fact, an institution tied to the bourgeois Greek state, as long as priests (of all ranks) are civil servants and their salaries are paid from the State. c) the Church of Greece, with an estate of billion euros, is largely benefited by a series of tax exemptions.

The reactionary and regressive role of the Church of Greece through history is, more or less, known. Since the formation of the independent Greek state in 1830, the Orthodox Church has been always part of the establishment- from the Ottoman rule to the formation of the Kingdom of Greece and from the 1940s Nazi occupation to the 1967-1974 military dictatorship, the leadership of the Greek Orthodox Church played its role as a staunch ally of the established order. 

"Viva Hellas! Viva KKE!"- The execution of Nikos Ploumbidis

It was in the dawn of August 14, 1954, in the area of Dafni in Athens, when the bourgeois Greek state murdered a courageous communist: He was Nikos Ploumbidis, member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (KKE). 

The following day, the newspapers were writing: "He was executed while cheering for KKE, facing with absolute composure the bullets of the firing squad" while "he denied to have his eyes tied over" during the execution. Just a few seconds before gunfire he shouted: "Viva Hellas! Viva KKE!". It was another murder by the reactionary, post-war bourgeois Greek government and its imperialist allies. Two years earlier, Nikos Beloyannis and his comrades had been executed. 

Ploumbidis was born in 1902 in Langadia, Arcadia in Peloponnese. He was a teacher by profession. From a very young age he developed his activity within the working class movement, thus becoming a KKE member in 1926. In 1938 he became a member of the Central Committee and later member of the Political Bureau. 

Declaration of the CC of the KKE: On the 70th anniversary of the Democratic Army of Greece 1946-1949

Athens, February 2016

We are inspired and learn from the 100-year history of the KKE, from the 3-year epic of the DSE.

The CC of the KKE, the entire party and KNE, honours the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the democratic Army of Greece (DSE).

1946 was a year of important developments directly connected to the creation of the DSE, such as:

The 2nd Plenum of the CC of the KKE (12-15 February 1946), which began exactly a year after of the signing of the Varkiza Agreement (12th of February 1945).The 2nd Plenum, even if in a contradictory way, was the one that decided to conduct the armed struggle.

The attack of a group of partisans on the gendarmerie station of Litohoro, on the night of the 30th and early in the morning of the 31st of March 1946, took place on the eve of the parliamentary elections.

The remorse of a dissident: Alexander Zinoviev on Stalin and the dissolution of the USSR

SPECIAL TO IN DEFENSE OF COMMUNISM.

Alexander Zinoviev (1922-2006) was a Russian philosopher, sociologist, mathematician and writer. He is an extraordinary case of a dissident in the Soviet Union who later apologized for his anti-sovietism and anti-stalinism. In his youth, in 1939, he was arrested for allegedly involved in a plot to assassinate Joseph Stalin. As a head and professor of the Logic Department at Moscow State University, Zinoviev acquired a dissident reputation. In 1978 he left the Soviet Union - he lived in Western Europe until 1999. 

Having the opportunity to live both the socialist system in the USSR and Western Europe's capitalism, Zinoviev made a u-turn in his thoughts after the counterrevolutionary events in the Soviet Union (1989-1991). He profoundly regreted for his previous anti-soviet stance and even asked from the Russian people to forgive him for that. 

He wrote in one of his books: 

Gracias, compañero Fidel!

GRACIAS, COMPANERO FIDEL CASTRO!

"Life was better under Communism" says the majority of Russians, Romanians and Eastern Germans

SPECIAL TO IN DEFENSE OF COMMUNISM.

First of all, let us say that the proper phrase is "under Socialism". During the 20th century, the Soviet Union and the socialist countries of Eastern Europe were in the process of socialist construction. According to the Marxist-Leninist theory, "Socialism" consist the first stage (phase) of Communism. 

Having said the above, let's go to the core issue. The people who have lived both under Socialism and Capitalism give their answer to the various bourgeois and petty bourgeois unhistorical slanders. Various polls in former Socialist countries prove that the majority of people, in Russia and Eastern Europe, think that life was better before the counter-revolutions and the restoration of Capitalism. Under Socialism their major problems had been solved: Free education, free healthcare for all, social security, jobs, free vacation and holidays for everyone, etc. The restoration of Capitalism brought an unprecedented barbarity in almost every sector of public life: Social inequalities, unemployment, privatization of major public sectors from healthcare to education, etc. 

On March 2016, a survey conducted by the All-Russia Public Opinion Center (VTsIOM) showed that: 

Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels- Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848) Part III "Socialist and Communist Literature"

Manifesto of the Communist Party.

By Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

First Published: February 1848.

Source: Marx/Engels Selected Works, Vol. One, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1969, pp. 98-137.

III. SOCIALIST AND COMMUNIST LITERATURE.

1. REACTIONARY SOCIALISM.

A. Feudal Socialism.

Owing to their historical position, it became the vocation of the aristocracies of France and England to write pamphlets against modern bourgeois society. In the French Revolution of July 1830, and in the English reform agitation, these aristocracies again succumbed to the hateful upstart. Thenceforth, a serious political struggle was altogether out of the question. A literary battle alone remained possible. But even in the domain of literature the old cries of the restoration period had become impossible.*

Olympic Games and Fascism- The Olympic Deceit of the ‘Divine Baron’ Pierre de Coubertin

Olympism and Fascism.

By Ljubodrag Simonović.

Source: Excerpt from the book “The Olympic Deceit of the ‘Divine Baron’ – Pierre de Coubertin”. 

Posters: Vanja Zakanji.

As early as 1929, at the time of the great recession, “father” of the modern Olympic Games Pierre de Coubertin expressed his inclination towards authoritarian regimes, namely his discontent with the inefficiency of the capitalist system in its dealing with the working class :

"First of all, it was necessary to establish the International Olympic Committee with its basic rights, that should have been acknowledged by all the nations. This was not easy, because the Constitution of the Committee was opposed to the ideas of the time. It discarded the principle of delegation, so dear to our parliamentary democracies - the principle which, having done some great good, seems to be less efficient every day". (1)

It should also be noted that Coubertin was cordially accepted and his works published in fascist Germany, in spite of being "a great French patriot", a fact important at the time of German revanchism. Theodor Lewald, the president of the Organizing Committee of the Berlin Olympics, wrote of Coubertin at the end of his Introduction to "Olympische Erinnerungen", published in Berlin in 1938:

"He understood and enthusiastically saluted the development of the

new Germany under her Great Führer". (2)

KKE: The "debt regulation" of Greece will be accompanied by new anti-people measures

Regarding Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' message about Greece's debt, the Press Office of the CC of KKE issued the following statement:

"In his unhistorical references, Mr.Tsipras "forgets" to say that the regulation of the debt and the post-war reconstruction of Germany wasn't aimed at it's people prosperity, but, on one hand, it was aimed at the deterrence of the increasing influence of the Soviet Union and the Socialist system- a plan which, among other things, included the utilisation of numerous former members of the Nazi regime- and, on the other hand, to the capitalist recovery of Germany.

Today, the regulation of the Greek debt, which has been agreed by the SYRIZA-ANEL government, will be accompanied by new memorandums of austerity and anti-people measures, for the benefit of the recovery of capitalist profits, while the debt will be paid by those who didn't create it, the people".

(Translation: In Defense of Communism).

Hitler's descendants: Trump supporters, White supremacists and Greek neo-Nazis

Special to In Defense of Communism.

In our post titled “Golden Dawn's Neo-Nazis's admiration for Donald Trump” (April 6) we had described the public admiration that known members of the Greek fascist organisation had expressed for the US Presidential candidate Donald Trump. There is plenty of evidence which shows a connection between far-right, fascist and racist groups in the two sides of the Atlantic; more specifically between American White supremacists and Greek neo-Nazis.

Before going to the ties of Golden Dawn's Nazis with US fascist groups, lets go back to June 2015 when 59 year-old John Russel Houser opened fire at a movie theater in Lafayette, Louisiana. Two women, aged 21 and 33, were killed as a result of this. According to police investigation, Houser had a history of far-right ideas, being a member of the ultra-conservative Tea Party and an admirer of Adolf Hitler and Timothy McVeigh. A research on the web unveiled that, in one of his comments, Houser had praised Golden Dawn. Here is the part of his reference to the Greek nazi-criminal group:

Communist Party, Turkey (KP): Letter to the Peoples of the World - Down with Imperialism!

LETTER FROM TURKEY TO THE PEOPLES OF THE WORLD.

Source: http://www.kp.org.tr

The Central Committee of Communist Party, Turkey (KP) released a declaration for the peoples of the world in the aftermath of the July 15 coup attempt in Turkey:

"We witnessed an attempted coup in Turkey on the night of July 15. Despite its oddnesses, obscurities and uncertainties about the actors behind it, this was a genuine coup attempt.

That Fethullah Gülen was behind the coup and that Fethullah Gülen has deep ties with the U.S. administration are facts. Additionally, there were more than a few traces of Pentagon and CIA behind the coup attempt.

The failure of this attempted coup is to the benefit of our people. If the coup had succeeded, the working people already burdened with all the imaginable problems laid on them by the capitalist system would have had to face heavier and more destructive conditions. One needs to keep in mind that the coup plotters have a pro-NATO and Islamist orientation and they have been serving the international monopolies for decades.