Dear Comrade George Perros,
The militant and committed leaders and members of PAME,
Distinguished participants coming from all around the world,

First of all, I would like to greet all of you with my deepest revolutionary feelings. I hope this congress will be  a further step in the struggle of PAME.

Dear comrades,

The 5th Congress of PAME is taking place in a historical period in terms of the class struggles in all over the world.
In this period, the effects of Covid-19 Pandemic, which has deeply influenced the whole world for more than two years, has gradually lessened. This two-year period has resulted in some economic, social and political consequences for the people and working class in every country. According to the officially declared numbers, 6.3 million people died due to the Covid-19 Pandemic and more than half a billion people were infected with the virus.

It has been the workers, laborers and the poor peoples of the world who have been most influenced by this period.
At the same time, the international Finance-Capitalists, multinationals and drug monopolies have increased their fortunes more and more in this period. The distribution of income and wealth has become even more inequitable.

Dear Comrades,
The imperialism, which is the highest stage and rotten form of capitalism, is taking a more aggressive stance against the working class, against the peoples of the world and the whole humanity. This period has once again revealed the fact that imperialism and capitalism have nothing to give the humanity other than death, hunger, poverty and unemployment. It has once again been clear during this period that it’s the workers, laborers and working class who ensure the continuation of the social life. This period has also proved the importance of public healthcare systems in all over the world.
Another important issue revealed by the same period is the treachery of yellow unionism.

Dear Comrades,
The counterrevolutionary front led by the US, which was defined by Ernesto Che Guevara as the archenemy of the humanity; continue to implement all kind of economic and military policies so that they can dominate the working class and the peoples of the world. These forces that also include the European Union and many other economic, military and espionage organizations are using their instruments like NATO, CIA, IMF, World Bank etc. in order to reach their goals.

For their dirty interests, for dominating the oil and other energy resources, they waged a lot of wars in the Middle East and Islamic Regions causing millions of deaths as well as paving the way for millions of innocent people  to become refugees.

They also prevent the peoples from deciding their own future by means of NATO in collaboration with the fascist forces as we witness in Ukraine today.
For many years, they have also been imposing economic and political sanctions and blockades against such
countries as Cuba, Venezuela and many others in Latin America, which are trying to implement their own independent policies. We see the same economic and political sanctions against Iran.
Today, Palestinian People are continuing their historical resistance against the occupying and massacrist policies of Zionist Israel which has no legitimacy and which is a guard dog safeguarding the oil and energy sources in the region on behalf of the US. At the same time, we witness the decisive resistance of Syrian People against the imperialist conspiracies.

Dear Comrades,
Coronavirus pandemic period has also resulted in some economic changes. In this period, online purchasing has increased exponentially. International monopolies have dominated the market in this sector. At the same time, teleworking has become a permanent type of employment. The capitalist class is making use of teleworking so that they can reduce the cost of labor force and increase their profits. Teleworking is an employment type that harms the collective and organized struggle of the working class. For this reason, struggling against this employment type should be on the agenda of World Class Oriented Union Movement.

Today, with the increasing of online purchasing, more and more people are working as self-employed couriers. This is also an employment type which is completely flexible, unlawful and against the current labor legislation. It’s also very important to put this employment type on our struggle agenda.

Dear Comrades,
I’d like to underline that the struggle of PAME is important not only for the working class of Greece but also for the international working class. PAME has made a great contribution for the strengthening of the World Federation of Trade Unions which is the class oriented organization of the working class in all over the world. Due to the nonstop contribution of PAME, the WFTU has become a more combative and organized structure in recent years.

As we all know, the struggle of working class has an international character. PAME has been showing the best examples of international solidarity among the workers in all over the world. The struggle of PAME also has a specific importance for the struggle of the working class in Turkey. It’s clear that the imperialist forces have been trying to hostilize the working peoples of Greece and Turkey against each other for many years by means of their instruments NATO and CIA. For this reason, it’s very important to develop the mutual solidarity between the working peoples of Greece and Turkey. The common struggle against the hostile imperialist policies will also strengthen the brotherhood of the peoples.

With this point of view, both Nakliyat-İş Union and PAME organized very important solidarity actions in  Turkey and Greece. The struggles of e-food and Yemeksepeti companies, both of which are subsidiaries of German-based Delivery Hero, became a common working class struggle. Comrades from PAME showed their concrete support with the working class of Turkey as they did the same thing for the working classes in other countries. PAME also organized some demonstrations in solidarity with Real Market workers and the workers in metal sector.

Likewise, we organized some actions in solidarity with the working class of Greece and its militant organization PAME. Demonstrations in solidarity with Cosco Dockworkers and the workers employed by Rivulus Eurodrip Company can be mentioned as examples. By means of these solidarity actions, working classes of both Greece and Turkey gained some achievements.

To conclude, I believe that PAME will succeed all the tasks to be put forward during the 5th Congress. I wish great success to the comrades from PAME in their new period.

Long live the unity of working class!
Long live the brotherhood of peoples!
Long live the international solidarity of working class!
Long live proletarian internationalism!
Long live PAME!

Thanks for listening to me.