The c.g. of the Central Committee of the KKE Dimitris Koutsoubas spoke today Friday at a meeting in Malesina Fthiotidas, where, among other things, he mentioned the fatal accident in Tempi, the struggle of LARCO workers, but also the problems of the residents of the area.

“As far as we are concerned we will do everything so that anger and resentment become an unrelenting struggle against the real culprit. Because it is not the fault of the bad times, nor the bad country, it is the fault of capitalist profit and those who ruled this country,” he stressed.

“Now the rage becomes a struggle and so it must continue. A struggle, however, that will “take them and lift them” and their governments and their state, as a whole, their rotten and corrupt system. This must be settled in the thinking, but also in the action of each and every one” he added.

As he said, then “let the ND government and Mr. Mitsotakis not hope that he will avoid conviction, because it seems to be postponing the elections to May. Our people and youth don’t have such a short memory.”

“Precisely for this reason, let others not hope either, SYRIZA and PASOK, that they will get her clean. All of them are guilty, and let them now pretend to be ignorant. Because all of them, under the banner of the “liberation” policy, led step by step to reach today this prescribed crime. Therefore, let them not dream that they will get it clean. And that the election will act as a release valve for popular anger and resentment that has built up in recent years and is now being fueled by crime in Tempe,” he added.

Mr. Koutsoubas underlined that “for the KKE, on the contrary, the elections will be an opportunity for this discontent to acquire even more competitive, authentic and genuine radical characteristics. The strengthening of the KKE will be the best guarantee for this”.

“Today we must demand the ‘knife to the bone.’ To be held responsible, not to let this crime be covered up. Together, let’s fight and ensure that the children of the whole world always reach their destination, realize their dreams. To claim work, wages and rights that we can cover our needs with dignity. Safety at work and in the everyday life of our families. Yes, this can happen today, in 2023, and it will happen. We will take care of it, with our unrelenting action,” he said.

The c.g. of the Central Committee of the KKE pointed out in his speech that for years “the rulers and their parrots” in order to advance the policy of “liberation” and the privatization of the railways said that “the railways are loss-making”, that “the workers are fed by the state”, that “it must be privatized because the Greek taxpayer pays”, that “with the privatization of the railways, investments will be made and we will have safe trains with a cheap ticket”, that “development will come and jobs will be created”.

“About the same things were said and are still being said about LARCO: That “LARCO is loss-making, a barrel without a bottom”, that “the workers are ill-educated and well paid, they sit and get paid, live in its settlements and have refrigerators”, that “LARCO must be privatized to relieve the Greek taxpayer”, that “investors will modernize the outdated facilities, operate it with safety at work and respect for the environment”, that “growth will come with jobs”” he added.

He also said that, like now, when “with their policy we have come to count innocent victims, young children say that ‘the station master is to blame, it is a human error’, that ‘responsibility will be assigned and we will be next to the families of the victims’, that ‘ we will make radical changes so that there are no others”, they have been saying for so many years about the crimes at LARCO: “Human error. The employees have developed a culture of familiarity with the risk and do not observe the protection measures. Those responsible will be punished, “Let’s take measures to prevent it from happening again. We will support the victim’s family.”

“Indeed, they “stand so close” to the families of the victims that for LARCO they voted to give them up to 100,000 euros, that is, less than what an appointed (by themselves) “technocrat” gets in just one year! That’s how much they cost human life,” he noted.

As he mentioned, “both in the railways and in LARCO, to the employees’ complaints, they responded in the same way: To the railway workers, they answered that they were “slandering the company” and to the complaints of the LARCO employees, they said that “don’t talk about your problems, the company will be closed company””.

“In LARCO and in all workplace crimes, it’s easy for them to blame the victim, since he can no longer speak. And when they don’t succeed, they move the responsibility one step further: To the colleague, to the “LARCO station master”, to the head of the work station in any work and service. But “the voice of the dead is heard” through your own voice”.

And the KKE is unwaveringly here, by your side. To strengthen this voice, to carry it throughout Greece and abroad” said D. Koutsoubas and concluded:

“The slogan “this crime will not be forgotten, we will be the voice of all the dead” which can be heard these days all over Greece, applies in its entirety to the dead of LARCO.

We don’t forget and we don’t we will forget the 80 dead of LARCO, the hundreds of others who “ran away” from occupational diseases, the crippled. We will not forget the crime in Tempi, the crimes in every place of work, the crime in Mati, Mandra Attica, the earthquakes, the pandemic that Malesina also paid for with many deaths and with so many of our fellow human beings who inherited health problems”.

Also present were Kostas Paraskevas, member of the PG of the Central Committee of the KKE, Kostas Basdekis, member of the Central Committee and candidate for the parliament of Fthiotida.

The meeting was opened with an intervention by Panagiotis Politis, member of the Central Committee of the KKE, candidate for the parliament of Fthiotida and president of the Labor Union LARKO of Larymnas. Pavlos Orkopoulos, actor and candidate for Member of Parliament for the South Sector of Athens, delivered a greeting.