Greece: drop the outrageous charges against the KKE trade unionists! Solidarity with the activists!

The decision of the Third Misdemeanour Court of Thessaloniki to convict seven trade unionists from the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) and the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) for their actions on 6 April 2022 against the NATO war machine is, to say the least, unacceptable.

[Originally published in Greek at marxismos.com]

The suspended sentence that has been imposed on them is imprisonment for eight to 15 months. Among those convicted are two leading members of the KKE and the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE): Grigoris Kligkopoulos, member of the Central Committee of the KKE, and Andreas Korakis, member of the Central Committee of the KNE.

The ‘crime’ committed by the seven activists was to write anti-war slogans on British military vehicles that were to be sent to Ukraine via the port of Thessaloniki. In doing so, they were subjected to an unprovoked and violent attack by the police, who used dangerous holds that could have led to a crime like the murder of George Floyd in 2020 by US police officers, which sparked the Black Lives Matter movement!

This conviction is scandalous. The court overlooked the first charge of ‘damage to foreign property’ (i.e. of British military vehicles) and ruled instead on the charges of ‘assaulting public officials’, ‘disobedience', ‘bodily harm’ and ‘freeing a prisoner’. These charges were in fact fabricated by the police. The court also completely disregarded the videos and photographs proving that the police officers attacked unarmed activists without provocation and with excessive force.

This attack by the government and the bourgeois state against trade union activists is an attack against the labour movement as a whole. The court's conviction could be used in similar cases in the future. For this reason, the entire labour movement must demand that these sentences and the court's decision be overturned.

The Revolutionary Communist Organisation, the Greek section of the Revolutionary Communist International, stands with the seven KKE activists. The attack against them is an attack against the entire labour movement.

Hands off the trade union activists!

Withdraw the unacceptable sentences against them!

End Greece's involvement in the imperialist wars of NATO and its allies: in Ukraine, Palestine and on the Red Sea!

Organise to fight against imperialism and capitalism!