Greece: The government is responsible for the attempt to intimidate and suppress the people
The attorney of the Court of First Instance, Haralambos Lakafosis, yesterday summoned the GS of the CC of the KKE, Aleka Papariga, and the parliamentary representative of the KKE and member of the CC, Spyros Chalvatzis, due to the accusations of the KKE concerning the involvement of official centres and staff with provocateur groups, which participated in the murderous attack on PAME’s demonstration last Thursday in Syntagma Square.
Last Friday Christos Papoutsis, Minister for Citizen Protection, made a statement that he had ordered an urgent investigation concerning the accusations of the KKE. He, as if he was completely shocked, said “if they are true, they confirm the existence of a parastate (…) and this would be an attempt to undermine democratic normality.” The Chief Attorney of the Court of First Instance, Eleni Raikou, assigned the conduct of a preliminary investigation to the attorney Har. Lakafosis, within the framework of which the GS of the CC of the KKE and the parliamentary representative of the party were summoned yesterday regarding the issue.
The written statement
In the meeting yesterday with the attorney, Aleka Papariga and Spyros Chalvatzis submitted the following written statement:
“In relation to the murderous assault against thousands of demonstrators who participated in the encirclement of the Parliament organized by PAME, on the second day of the general strike 19-20 October 2011, our party considers that it was a planned action by groups which operate under specific orders. It highlighted the responsibilities of the government concerning the attempt to intimidate, slander and suppress the labour and people’s movement.
It is the fixed position of our party that the ruling class and its political system in order to impede the people’s activity and to perpetuate the dominance of a handful of exploiters at the expense of the majority of the people, uses and utilises – together with the official state repression, employer intimidation in the workplace- mechanisms and methods of provocateurs and informers, to intimidate the people, to sow confusion and disillusionment regarding participation in the people’s struggles.
This political assessment concerning the relationship and interweaving of official centres and staff with provocateur groups, members of organized football “supporter’s” clubs, far-right elements etc which according to the needs of the moment wear the appropriate uniform (e.g. hooded ones) constitutes the consistent position of the KKE, the labour and popular movement and also of the majority of our people. It is supported by many years of domestic and foreign experience, and also a vast amount of revealing evidence and documents which have been publicised especially in recent years-when we have intense popular struggles against the anti-people political line- utilising modern technology.
The KKE’s newspaper “Rizospastis”, as well as other publications, has from time to time presented evidence, which confirm in the most indisputable way the relationship between official mechanisms of repression and provocateurs on specific orders, shortly before and during labour and popular mobilisations. A great deal of such evidence (photographs, postings on the internet etc) has been published after the murderous attack against the demonstrators who took part in the strike rally and encirclement of the Parliament on the 20th of October 2011 which is obviously known to the government and the system of justice. In addition, we have repeatedly and officially denounced, publishing relevant evidence, the infiltration of policeman under specific orders, disguised as demonstrators, in demonstrations and popular mobilisations.
Despite the abundance of related accusations, despite the large-scale installation of modern tools to monitor the people’s movement (e.g. surveillance cameras) by the state, both the governments of PASOK and ND, and the state mechanisms and institutions have not acted all these years to reveal these groups, a fact which confirms our unshakeable conviction concerning planned activity against the mobilisations of the people’s movement, and the interweaving of official mechanisms with provocateur groups. The government and the judicial system had and have all the means to investigate and uncover – if they so wish- the interconnections and activity of these groups.
Our party, which acts exclusively in a political way, naturally is not involved and will not be involved in this process. The KKE has contributed decisively and will continue to contribute to the highlighting and exposure to the people of the activity of these mechanisms, aiming at the vigilance and protection of the labour and people’s movement from all those who seek to manipulate and intimidate it.”