The Communist Party of Greece organised a mass event at the historic site of the Kaisariani Shooting Range, where 200 communists were executed by German occupation forces on the 1st of May 1944.
Communist Party of Greece honours 200 heroes
At the event, which had the theme “Reading the history of the world through small names,” Dimitris Koutsoumbas, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the KKE delivered a speech. Recently, photographs documenting the execution were found on e-bay and published. This historic find have deeply moved and shaken the Greek society, as well as communists throughout the world.
Koutsoumbas said that the event organised by KKE was a response to the dignity, courage, and pride with which the 200 communists walked to their death. He went on, “They demonstrated in a blatant manner the nakedness of the ahistorical theories of the two extremes, of the identification of communism with fascism. Of all these excesses that are invented by the well-paid staffs of Brussels and reproduced by governments, bourgeois parties, a portion of professors and well-paid parrots.”
“We honour all of them today, the heroes of our Party, of our class! Continuing the struggle they began, until its final vindication, with the great victory of our people.” “Those who were anxiously searching to identify some among the executed who did not belong to the KKE, so that - through the exception - they could hide the rule. Those who reached the height of absurdity to accuse the KKE of exploiting its own members and cadres, because it honours the ‘200’ and speaks about them! Of course, the communists' stance was patriotic. They fought in the mountains, in prisons, in illegality, against hunger and death, for liberation from the triple fascist occupation. At the same time, most of the bourgeoisie and its political representatives had either fled abroad or were collaborating with the occupiers, doing what they always do: Working and feasting on the suffering of the people! It was proven once again that the notorious "national unity" cannot exist in a class society. That patriotism is the right of the people!”
“Now is not the time to wait for something good to emerge from the imperialists' bargains and fragile truces, from the various new war formations that are being ‘cooked up’, with the New Democracy government even playing the role of ‘rabbit’. It is time for struggle and demand, so that the people do not pay for their profits and their war again! Close the American bases in our country! Return all troops that are outside the borders!”
“We are preparing for all the great battles that lie ahead. We are giving it our all, against the tide and the negative correlation, so that the wheel of history can turn. So that the windows to the future can open even wider, the ones that our 200 comrades opened with their sacrifice on the 1st of May 1944. Because, as the poet wrote: ‘If freedom does not walk in the footsteps of our blood, here they will kill us every day.’ But we answer them loudly, so that it can be heard from one end to the other throughout Greece: ‘Do not expect us to bend even for a moment, not even as the cypress bends in the dead of winter. For we have loved life very, very much’! That's why we are following in the footsteps of the "200"! And we will win!”
A concert, artistically curated by Giorgos Dalaras, followed the speech. Important performers took the stage: Fotini Velesiotou, Yannis Dionysiou, Pantelis Thalassinos, Violeta Ikari, Vangelis Korakakis, Natassa Bofiliou, Giota Nega, Giorgos Dalaras, Miltos Paschalidis, Aspasia Stratigou, Kostas Triantafyllidis, "Koinoi Thnitoi."