(The following article is from the May 16-31,  2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)

Report from the Greek Communist Party (KKE) on the deaths of three workers during the May 5 demonstrations in Athens

     The massive and protected demonstration of PAME on May 5 gave a dynamic response to the provocative action organised by several groups in order to disorient the people, to reduce the importance of the massive mobilization, to slander the KKE, to stop the dynamic of the struggles and intimidate the working people.

     In her speech in parliament, right after the announcement of the death of three people, KKE leader Aleka Papariga made the following statement:

     "The working people, who suffer an unprecedented attack, the worst after 1974, are able to distinguish the systematic political struggle for the defense of their rights to protest, a struggle that can take many forms according to the conditions at each time. They can clearly tell the difference between this struggle and every plan aiming at the subversion of the struggles, every provocative action that causes innocent victims and aids all those who want to slander the struggles.

     "People should not only defy the provocations, they should also take all the measures to protect their struggles which should start from the workplaces. They should hit where it hurts. The starting point of the battle must be the workplace and lead to a nationwide struggle.

     "I should also stress the following: stop putting the blame on the people. People are blamed for the crisis, for everything. The responsible organised people's movement cannot be blamed for actions planned backstage. This provocation will not pass. We will continue our struggles."

     Papariga also gave a resolute response to Georgios Karatzaferis, president of the nationalist party LAOS, who resorted to anti-communism and attacked the KKE during the debates.

     "When the march of PAME arrived at the parliament, there was a group of members of `Xrisi Avgi' (ultra-right nationalist group), the so-called the known-unknowns, who in 1994 set the Polytechnic School on fire, and they were saying `burn the parliament down'. We disarmed them, we denounced them, we marched with linked arms and not a single incident occurred while we were at Syntagma Square.

     "I do not know whether this group outside the parliament has blood ties, permanent or temporary with Mr. Karatzaferis. But honestly, Mr. Karatzaferis is playing the role of a provocateur in order to impose the anti-people measures."