Thousands of people, including many young people, honoured the 52^nd anniversary of the Polytechnic uprising throughout the country over three days, through various events and wreath laying ceremonies, with the historic campus on Patission Street at the centre of the commemorations.

There was a large turnout at the KNE exhibition at the Polytechnic School, which connected visitors with the historical context of that era. It began by presenting the reasons why the military dictatorship was imposed, the economic measures taken by the junta in favour of capital and the deepening of its relationship with the US and NATO, at a time when the police and military apparatus of the bourgeois state stood against the people. It then highlighted the actions of the KKE and KNE, the conditions they had to face, the role of the illegal press, the brutality of the mechanisms of repression and the unyielding stance of the imprisoned communists. The exhibition continued into 1973, a time of resurgence of the workers’ and people’s struggles and the Polytechnic uprising, presenting a chronicle of the three days and conveying the message that "The flame of November will live forever. Organization and struggle for the overthrow. Education, work, peace, freedom".

On 17 November, thousands of people took part in anti-imperialist demonstrations on the streets of Athens and dozens of other cities in Greece.

In Athens, a vast red sea of anti-imperialist protesters from the KKE and KNE flooded the streets and sent the message that “the flame of November” will keep burning, that the organization and struggle to overthrow the dictatorship of capital will grow stronger.

The militant contingents of the KKE and KNE that arrived at the US embassy in Athens sent a clear message and a call to intensify the struggle against imperialist war and the involvement of our country, so that the people, the youth and the conscripts will not be forced to make sacrifices for the interests of the capitalists.

A large delegation from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece, led by the Secretary General of the Central Committee, Dimitris Koutsoumbas, attended the demonstration. In a statement to the media, he said: “Historical experience teaches us that the wheel of history only moves forward when the organized and determined people come to the fore. The messages of the Polytechnic are still relevant today. The messages of ‘Bread, Education, Freedom’, ‘US out - NATO out’, calling for disengagement from imperialist alliances, wars and interventions, remain valid”.

The slogan “Conscripts are the children of the people, they have no business outside the borders” was heard loud and clear, and warm applause accompanied the young conscripts who, for yet another year, were present at the Polytechnic march, while behind them followed the banners of the Panhellenic Federation of Retired Military Personnel and the Panhellenic Union of Retired Firefighters.

The thousands of people who protested in Athens with red flags bearing the hammer and sickle sent another message to the US and its new ambassador to Greece. Outside the US embassy, to the sounds of the march “Bandiera Rossa”, a giant banner was unfurled by the Attica Party Organization of the KKE bearing the words of the communist poet Yannis Ritsos: “Communism is the youth of the world, the freedom and beauty of the world”, giving a clear response to the US government’s “anti-communism week”. 

18.11.2025