40th MARATHON PEACE MARCH

Tuesday, May 17, 2022

40th MARATHON PEACE MARCH
SUNDAY 22 MAY 2022
Start: 8.00 - Marathon Tomb
Finish and rally: 18.30 - Ministry of National Defense

Young men and women, workers, retirees,
The war in Ukraine is raging and there is no room for rest. The risk of its expansion is great.
Now we position ourselves in the struggle!
EEDYE invites you to participate massively in the 40th Peace Marathon March on Sunday, May 22, 2022, which this year coincides with the day of the assassination of Grigoris Lambrakis.
Let us respond decisively to the vulgar Euro-Atlantic propaganda, which seeks to align the people behind the interests of the imperialists, who are responsible for thousands of dead and wounded, for millions of refugees and uprooted.
We condemn the unacceptable invasion of Russia in Ukraine! It is an unjust imperialist war, in which the US, NATO and the EU on the one hand, and Russia on the other are fighting, with the Ukrainian, Russian and other peoples of the region paying the price. The Greek people must not enter into the pseudo-dilemma of choosing a bandit camp. Both the US, NATO and the EU, as well as Russia, have their own interests in the region, which are foreign and hostile to the needs and real interests of the peoples.
We are stepping up the fight to close all US-NATO bases now. To stop, to cancel any mission of military forces and military equipment outside the borders. No soldier, non-commissioned officer or officer should be sent to the imperialist missions.
Participation in the 40th Marathon March and in the initiatives of EEDYE throughout the country, in the context of the Pan-Hellenic Two-Day Anti-Imperialist Action, is the best way to honor in practice the struggle of Lambrakis, Nikiforidis, the thousands of fighters who fought against NATO, against the attachment of Greece to these murderous tools of capital against the peoples.
Workers, young men and women,
All in the 40th Peace Marathon! Let the struggle of the anti-war - anti-imperialist movement intensify even more!
The escalation of rivalries between the US and China for supremacy is the fuel that accumulated in the region and is accumulating even more with the war in Ukraine reinforcing the possibility of a generalized imperialist war. This is evidenced by the escalation of aggression, military spending in excess of $ 2.11 trillion and mammoth armaments, the accumulation of enormous firepower in a series of "hot spots" across the globe. In our region, in the Balkans, in the Eastern Mediterranean, the confrontation of the bourgeoisies is on the rise. NATO plans fuel Turkish aggression. Overflights and violations in the Aegean are increasing, the sovereignty of Greek islands is being questioned. In the Turkish "Blue Homeland" exercise "rehearsals" were held for the occupation of islands with the presence of the USA, while the Greek Minister of Defense stated that "it is not the best time to speak against Turkey in NATO", which is necessary to strengthen its Southeast wing, in the confrontation with the other imperialist centers.
The ND government, in the way of the previous governments, is escalating the anti-people’s attack. Anti-people’s politics has led to the spread of poverty and unemployment, crushing wages and pensions, plundering people's incomes with unbearable taxes and cost in basic necessities, in electricity, condemning popular families to energy poverty.
While the needs of the people are trampled, the profits of business groups are increasing, billions of euros are spent on armaments that has nothing to do with the security and defense of the country, but instead, serve the plans of the US, NATO and the EU, with Greece ranking first as a percentage of GDP among all NATO member states for armaments expenditure, under the responsibility of all governments.
Greece's involvement in the US, NATO and EU war plans also serves this anti-people’s policy, which is tailor-made for the interests and aspirations of business groups. The people have the power to clash, to shape with their struggle the conditions to get rid of their exploiters and their alliances and with the criterion of their own interests to pave the way for mutually beneficial cooperation with other peoples.
The government and the other Euro-Atlantic parties are lying and misleading the people when they claim that the Greek involvement in the war has the immediate goal of securing peace! Despite the differences, they pay tribute to the US, NATO and the EU. They fully agree with the dangerous decisions of the NATO Summit, which has been preparing since 2016 for the "first nuclear strike". They fully support the EU, which is strengthening its aggressive and dangerous Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP). They are united for the further attachment of Greece to the American-NATO plans. They were the parties that as governments sent Greek armed forces to imperialist missions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, the Persian Gulf and elsewhere and now they are sending to Mozambique, but also to Bulgaria, Poland, other countries of Eastern Europe! In order to align the people behind the interests of the business groups, which seek to upgrade their position in the distribution of booty, present as supposedly common the interests of the people with those of its exploiters.
SYRIZA as a government launched the "Strategic Dialogue with the USA and prepared the Greek-American Agreement on Bases by upgrading the bases in Souda, Larissa, Stefanovikio, Alexandroupolis, which has become a hub for the deployment of NATO forces. ND is implementing this extremely dangerous agreement and will bring it strengthened for ratification in the Parliament in the next period, adding new to the already existing bases throughout the country.
The involvement of our country not only does not protect the people, but on the contrary puts them at great risk. We call on the people to think: How does the transformation of Greece into a US-NATO base of war and a victim of retaliation contribute to peace? How did the sending of Greek armed forces and military equipment to the "Ukrainian front", to the dozens of missions of the USA, NATO, the EU against other peoples, contribute to peace? Their myths have collapsed.
Young men and women, workers, retirees,
The right is in our side. We are fighting the tyrants, the bandits-imperialists who drag people to the slaughterhouse of war. This is the right side of history, which corresponds to the interests of the peoples. This gives substantial content to the modern anti-imperialist - anti-war action. On this road we walk en masse in the 40th Peace Marathon. We strengthen our struggle, our international solidarity, by demanding:
• No to the imperialist war in Ukraine.
• Disengagement of Greece from imperialist plans and wars.
• No missions of military forces and military equipment abroad.
• No change in the borders and the treaties that define them.
• NO to the European Army and other EU war mechanisms.