Statement by the CP of Greece at the Seminar in Riga, Latvia

Dear friends and comrades:

On the occasion of this event, we would like to highlight several dangerous points underlying the attempts being made to vindicate Fascism and Nazism in recent years, following the overturning of Socialism in the countries of Eastern Europe and the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

You probably know the history of the Communist Party of Greece and what the Communists of Greece have gone through since we were founded in November of 1918. We have unbounded trust in the strength of the working class and the peoples, and we believe that today’s event can also make a small contribution to the workers social emancipation and liberation.

Immediately after Word War II, an unprecedented attempt to distort history was begun. Murderous imperialism tried to wipe out the traces of its crimes, the war, or at least to justify it. This attempt was done in practically every country. In Greece, the school books and history were silenced about the historical fact that it was the Communist Party of Greece that took the initiative to found and to guide the National Liberation Front (EAM) and the Greek People’s Liberation Army (ELAS) which was fighting the fascists all over Greece. Our younger generation in Greece are not being taught this history in the classrooms. But what is happening now in the Baltic countries that have joined the EU is unprecedented!

The rehabilitation of Nazism, with monuments being built to honour the local Nazi SS, with the agreement of the state authorities to this, the ban on the Communist parties, which played in key role in crushing Nazism, provokes our intense and righteous indignation. The prohibition of the symbols of USSR and of the Soviet Red Army – all of this is inconceivable, not just for us the Greek Communists, but even for the bourgeois of our country. These elements want to obliterate the past and the prospect of the future – socialism!

But who is behind this attempt?

In the book "The History of Latvia in the Twentieth Century", the Nazi concentration death camp that was located at Salaspils where thousands upon thousands of people were tortured and lost their lives, it is now characterized as only having been "a reformatory and labour camp" and also is now only described as an "expanded public prison", not a death camp!

As this book itself admits, it was funded by US authorities!

The European Union (EU), this imperialist union, has now proceeded to designate May 9^th, not as a "Day of Victory over Fascism" but now it is to be known as "The Day of Europe". Out of 365 days of the year the EU chose May 9^th? Judging by the events that were organized, it is a fact that these elements want to wipe out of the memory of this enormous struggle that was waged by the people of Europe with the tremendous contribution to this defeat of German Nazism by the people of the Soviet Union.

At the moment, the balance of power in Europe is tipped heavily against the working class. The regimes of Europe now know that unrest and turmoil in Europe is coming, therefore they are rapidly strengthening their many repressive mechanisms with arrests, because of the so called "war against terrorism". All of the above shows how correct were Marx, Engels and Lenin in their approach to the nature of a capitalist state.

Imperialism is concerning itself with wiping out the past, so as to safe guard its future. It fears the historical past, because today as well, it fears the power of the Working Class.

We shortened this excellent article for space reasons only.