Greek labour leader prosecuted for showing solidarity with the Palestinian people

Image via the KKE

The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) reports that the Greek state and bourgeois justice system are attempting to send a clear message: that the struggle against genocide in Gaza constitutes a “criminal offence”, marking a new stage in the ongoing effort to criminalize solidarity with the heroic Palestinian people.

Markos Bekris, president of the Piraeus Labour Centre, cadre of the KKE and president of the Container Handling Workers’ Union at the COSCO docks in the port of Piraeus (ENEDEP), is being dragged before the courts for participating in a landmark mobilization organized by his union one year ago. During that mobilization, dockworkers prevented the loading of a container carrying bullets onto a ship bound for Israel, declaring that they would not allow the port of Piraeus to serve as a staging ground for a war.

M. Bekris’ prosecution comes just days after his return from Palestine, where he took part in a solidarity mission organized by the All Workers’ Militant Front (PAME) to the West Bank. There, he conveyed a message of solidarity, while Palestinian workers and trade unionists expressed their gratitude for mobilizations like those in Piraeus. It is evident that this genuine act of internationalist solidarity has provoked the reflexes of the state and the government, which —within the framework of their strategic alliance with the murderous state of Israel— are resorting to baseless accusations to justify his prosecution.

The case against Markos Bekris has sparked strong reactions across Greece, with dozens of trade unions and mass organizations expressing their solidarity and demanding that all charges be dropped.

Expressions of internationalist solidarity with the struggle of the dockworkers and M. Bekris, as well as the condemnation of the prosecution, are expected to extend far beyond Greece’s borders. In this spirit, the International Relations Section of the Central Committee of the KKE calls upon the Communist and Workers’ Parties around the world to express their solidarity.