The great revolutionary change for which we are fighting requires us to be pioneers in enlightening and organizing our people’s struggle, so that they can escape the darkness of misinformation, misery, and fatalism. They must be imbued with a spirit of defiance and resistance, and have faith in their own strength. They must have no confidence in the New Democracy government or the other parties of the system.

This is why the actions of the thousands of KNE members and supporters are so important and praiseworthy. Together with the KKE, the forces of KNE take action and have achieved many great things, including the following:

- Blocking NATO's war convoys;

- Sparing no effort to take to the streets and fight for the rights of the Palestinian people;

- Distributing Rizospastis and Odigitis;

- Ensuring that the crime at Tempe and its real causes are not forgotten;

- Fighting for exclusively free, public healthcare and education;

- Standing alongside the workers defending their strikes outside factories and shipyards;

- Refusing to bow their heads while serving in the army and taking a stand against the imperialist wars in which our country is involved;

- Fighting against drugs and all forms of addiction;

- Struggling against Greece's participation in the imperialist plans and wars of the US-NATO-EU and Israel;

- Struggling to close the US-NATO bases in our country, which turn it into a target for reprisals and make it an aggressor against other peoples.

It is this capitalist system that breeds only war, poverty, and destitution for the people, while a handful of monopoly groups make billions in profits! We have the example of the war that has been waged for three years now in Ukraine, as well as the wars in the Middle East, Sudan, Libya, Kashmir and many other places. More conflicts are brewing in the Pacific or the Arctic and elsewhere. These wars are directed by the few to serve the interests of the few, the capitalists! The many pay for it with their blood, through the destruction of infrastructure, uprooting, refugees, high prices, etc.

In recent decades, we have witnessed a significant shift in the economic, political, and military correlation of forces. A key feature of the struggle at an international level is the challenge to the US and NATO-EU bloc supremacy within the international imperialist system. Opposing the Euro-Atlantic alliance is the emerging Eurasian alliance, comprising China, which is challenging the US for supremacy in the international capitalist system, and Russia, which remains the second strongest military power.

But how did we get here? How did China, whose economy was worth less than a third of the US’s 25 years ago, end up vying with the US for the titles of the world’s largest economy and of the strongest nation producing more billionaires?

This is because the capitalist system develops unevenly. This uneven development of capitalism leads to changes in the international imperialist system and intensifies contradictions at local, regional, and international levels. If these contradictions are not resolved through political means, they lead to war, which is the continuation of politics by other, violent means.

We are witnessing a surge in military preparations, with increased spending on military purposes not only in NATO and EU member states, but also more broadly across the globe. It’s not just a matter of financial resources being diverted from the people’s needs for healthcare, education, and other social services. It also brings about new anti-labour measures, as evidenced by the attempt to establish a 13-hour working day in Greece and other EU countries. This is similar to the Chinese ‘996’ model, i.e., working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week, which is informally applied by large employers in China, in violation of any formal labour legislation.

The world today is in turmoil, plagued by crises and dead ends. This provides ample evidence to support the KKE’s longstanding assertion that an economic system organized for the maximum profit of the capitalists can only lead to wars, crimes, exploitation, and injustice. It is utopian to still believe that this system can be improved.

Overthrowing this decayed system, struggling for socialism and the KKE’s proposal for a way out are a necessity of our times. This is realistic, first and foremost, because it serves the interests of the people and the working class.

The KKE is committed to taking on this responsibility until the end: the revolutionary overthrow of the exploitative, capitalist system of injustice and war.

A genuine workers’ and people’s power and government in Greece, which will construct a new society without the exploitation of man by man, socialism-communism.

For this society, it is worth fighting, no matter the sacrifices, with all our might!

We will continue on this path with even greater resolve!

* Excerpts from a speech delivered by Eliseos Vagenas, member of the CC of the KKE and head of the International Relations Section of the CC, at an event organized during the 34^th Anti-Imperialist Camp of the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE) on the theme: “With the peoples all the way to freedom, against the system of injustice and war”.