On Saturday 15 June, the Union of Workers at the Port of Piraeus (ENEDEP) mobilised to stop the Israel-bound container ship MSC ALTAIR from docking at the Greek port. The vessel was carrying war materials, destined to rain destruction on Gaza. Thanks to the blockade staying strong, the ship was forced to reroute towards Italy, landing a blow on Israel’s war machine that sets an example to workers of the world!

As with the war in Ukraine, different communist parties around the world have taken different and even opposite positions regarding the current Israeli bloodbath in Gaza after the 7 October Hamas attack. The stance of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) is one of principled support for the struggle of the Palestinian people, far removed from other communist parties, which have succumbed to the pressure of bourgeois public opinion. However, there are several aspects of the KKE position on Palestine/Israel we disagree with, and which we think are at odds with a genuine communist position. 

Since the collapse of SYRIZA in Greece’s general election back in June, the party leadership has been captured by a populist shipping magnate. This is an ignominious but fitting ending for a party that once inspired hope among millions of workers, only to see those hopes dashed by the betrayals of the party leadership. New local elections have confirmed the party’s collapse. But while SYRIZA may be dead as a vehicle for the discontent and anger of the Greek working class, we are seeing that anger expressed in massive abstention, and to SYRIZA’s left, in the rising vote of the Communist Party (KKE).

Last August, the Minister of Labour Adonis Georgiadis outlined the New Democracy government's new bill on labour and insurance issues, which will shred the most fundamental remaining protections for workers. In the words of the minister himself: “our goal is to make working relations more honest between us [i.e., workers and the bosses]”, explaining that much of what the bill codifies is already happening, informally. He put his intentions explicitly: to give intensifying exploitation of the working class full weight of the law.

The recent Greek elections on 25 June saw SYRIZA take a hammering, with leader Alexis Tsipras announcing his resignation today. SYRIZA’s collapse has granted victory to the right-wing New Democracy. Coupled with the reentry of a fascist party into parliament, this has caused many on the left to claim that Greek society is shifting to the right, and is even threatened with the rise of fascism. This is a superficial conclusion that ignores the main trend: a surge in abstention, and disillusionment with the institutions of bourgeois democracy.

Dominating news headlines around the world presently is the huge search and rescue operation underway to retrieve a handful of wealthy tourists, including a British billionaire who went missing in the Atlantic on a submarine adventure to explore the shipwreck of the Titanic. Meanwhile, there is a conspiracy of silence in the international media over the details coming out about the drowning of 700 migrants in the Mediterranean last week – the direct result of a willful, callous neglect of human life.

The result of the May 21 national election saw victory for the traditional party of the Greek ruling class, New Democracy (ND), and a crushing defeat for SYRIZA, the main party of the left over the last decade. 

Greek society has been deeply shocked by the deadly train collision at Tempi on the evening of 28 February that killed at least 57 mostly young people. The grief has turned to anger against a government that is trying to deflect from its own culpability and that of the capitalist class. The working class burst onto the scene with a general strike on 8 March. We publish below the English translation of the leaflet distributed by the comrades of the Greek section of the IMT at that strike.

Since the evening of 28 February, Greek society has been rocked by the deadliest railway accident in the history of the country, and one of the worst in European and world history. This terrible event, resulting from the negligence of the government and private rail operators, has provoked a huge outpouring of anger and protest, as well as strike action by railway workers and other sectors. A 24-hour general public sector strike has been announced for tomorrow (8 March). The tragedy has further ratcheted up the class struggle in Greece, which was already roaring back to life.

The stinking wiretapping scandal in Greece – which is now also known as the ‘Greek Watergate’ – has deepened the contradictions and political impasse of the right-wing New Democracy government, and of the capitalist bourgeois establishment at large. This, in turn, reflects the general economic and socio-political impasse of Greek capitalism, and the broader historical crisis of world capitalism.

The following are some conclusions from the 24-hour general strike that took place in Greece on Wednesday. Our Greek comrades argue for the necessity of an immediate and well-prepared escalation of the struggle. Originally written on 9 November and published at www.marxismos.com.

A recent wiretapping scandal has highlighted the advanced rottenness of the Greek ruling class and its government. Described as the ‘Greek Watergate’, it is alleged that a long list of journalists and opposition politicians had their phones bugged by the state. Coupled with high inflation, which is

Following the brutal attack by the government and the police against the students of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the comrades of the Greek section of the International Marxist Tendency released the following statement.

The French Revolution initiated a decades-long phase of bourgeois revolutions across Europe and beyond that raised the flags of democracy, national liberation, and civil rights against the injustices of the feudal system. These political convulsions prepared the ground for the international ascendancy of the capitalist system in the nineteenth century. Yet in most countries, the democratic promises of the bourgeois revolution remained largely unfulfilled. The Greek war of independence that began over 200 years ago was no exception.

On Wednesday 6 April, hundreds of thousands of workers from all over Greece responded to the call of the General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE) and the Civil Servants' Confederation (ADEDY) to join a 24-hour general strike. Tens of thousands of workers, along with unemployed citizens and youth, participated in strike rallies organised in over 70 cities.