60 years of the Magazine of EEDYE

Thursday, June 21, 2018

The Greek Committee for International Détente and Peace (EEDYE) honors this year the
completion of 60 years since the first release of its magazine “ROADS OF PEACE” on May
9, 1958. From then until today, “ROADS OF PEACE” are an important "tool" in the development of the anti-war and anti-imperialist struggle.
The 60th anniversary of our Peace Magazine coincides with the Great Anti-fascist
Victory of the Peoples, the crushing of the fascist powers, with countless sacrifices
of the peoples, with the Soviet Union and its people at the forefront, giving 20
million victims.
The strengthening of the anti-war anti-imperialist movement, which as an integral
part of the workers-popular movement having since then its own presence in the
struggles of our people, brought to maturity the creation of the EEDYE’s magazine.
“ROADS OF PEACE” were released on May 9, 1958, in difficult times, in the aftermath
of the guns that executed Nikiforidis and his comrades in the years of prison and
exile for thousands of fighters during the cold-war hysteria of imperialism, with
Greece joining NATO and the military bases being spread across the country.
Thousands of working class intellectuals and workers, such as Ritsos, Varnalis and
many others, thousands of young people, have rallied through the lines of EEDYE in
the manifestations and the Peace Marches, from the 1st forbidden Marathon march
of GrigorisLambrakis and his companions, in 1963, as the newer era. “ROADS OF
PEACE” accompanied fighters in a period when even the public reading of this magazine
was not an easy task.
The release of the “ROADS OF PEACE” was interrupted in 1967, due to the military
dictatorship that disbanded EEDYE, as well as other mass organizations that were at
the side of our people in the previous period.
In the post-dictatorship period, EEDYE, with its reestablishment - on May 16, 1975
- is undergoing a new phase of rebuilding its forces and works again with its Peace
Committees. It approaches workers, broad popular strata embracing the goals of
the fight of the anti-war-anti-imperialist movement. A new development cycle opens.
In April 1977, the magazine “ROADS OF PEACE” is being released again and its
release gradually increases.
In the covers of the magazine constantly figure actions, slogans against imperialist
interventions and wars, against the presence of foreign militarybases in Greece and
nuclear weapons, against Greece's participation in NATO and the EU, against the
strategic choices of the capital and its political forces that serve its interests. A stable
element of the “ROADS OF PEACE” is the internationalist solidarity with the struggling
peoples, refugees and immigrants, the overthrow of all those who have been
applauding imperialism and imperialist associations.
Despite the painful, for the peoples, upheavals of 1989 -'91, EEDYE stood upright
at the forefront of the anti-imperialist - anti-war struggle. She steadily marked
her opposition and highlighted that the ENEMY IS ONE, IMPERIALISM. EEDYE
was not fooled by the new strategy, the update, the new dogma of NATO. In
the important tasks undertaken by EEDYE at the World Peace Council (WPC),
the "Roads of Peace" constituted the voice, the pillar of the anti-imperialist
anti-war movement. In contrast to other "peace movements" and their prints,
which attempted to turn the people's struggle into painless channels, EEDYE
and its magazine, “ROADS OF PEACE” made strong resistance, held upright
forces against the attempt to subdue people to imperialism.

In their many years, the “ROADS OF PEACE” marched along with the workers'-
popular movement. Its pages captured the conditions that each time prevailed,
the operation and action of EEDYE, of WPC, and the Peace Committees
nationwide. It is a valuable source of knowledge, both for the anti-imperialist
struggle in Greece and internationally, offering experience for the needs of
the struggle today, when the horizon is being shaded by the heavy clouds of
sharp contradictions-rivalries and imperialist wars. Through the pages of the
magazine, is setting down the decisive and consistent collision of the EEDYE
against the anti-people policy of the ND and PASOK governments that have incorporated
our country into NATO and the EU, have preserved and strengthened
Euro-Atlantic bases, and are also responsible for the involvement of Greece in imperialist
wars.
Under today's conditions, with SYRIZA-ANEL's co-government to escalate its unpopular
policy and give its turn to the co-operation of Greece with US-NATO-EU,
the "Roads of Peace" with articles, analyses, etc. underlined and highlight the inextricable
link between the policy that crashes the working class and at the same
time under the pretext of "geostrategic upgrading", turns Greece into a hub of
energy and transport in the interest of monopolies. The magazine is steadily being
improved, spreading to the people through the systematic opening of EEDYE Committees.
The “ROADS OF PEACE” counteract the complacency plan and the “multicolored"
calls for "national unity", in other words the submission of the people to the objectives
of capital inside and outside the country. They also contribute to EEDYE's effort
to highlight the realism of resistance, the struggle to close the Bases and military
headquarters, the disengagement of Greece from NATO and the European Union.
EEDYE celebrates this 60th anniversary of “ROADS OF PEACE” magazine with a
series of activities: Campaign to increase the circulation, subscription of new subscribers,
thematic meetings - Peace Committees discussions throughout this year.
Through these interrelated activities, we strive to achieve the following goals:
- To make the "Roads of Peace" as broadly known as possible, with particular
emphasis on youth, the history of the magazine and its contribution to the struggles
of the anti-imperialist-anti-war movement
- To highlight, among other things, its cultural character with the cooperation of
important journalists, artists and intellectuals, as well as the amateur creativity of
the fighters who participated in and participate in movement and its action.
- To highlight key aspects of the conflict both in Greece and the character, direction
and action of the movement
- To intensify the use of the magazine in the whole operation and action of the
Peace Committees nationwide, i.e. to read, to be discussed, to be an organic element
in the anti-imperialist anti-war movement, the peak in the conflict, the peak in the
rallying of the fighting forces in the fight against the Greek involvement in imperialist
designs and wars.
We honor the anniversary of the Great Victory of the Peoples. We honor the 60th
anniversary of the “ROADS OF PEACE” magazine, holding even higher the flag of
the anti-imperialist struggle against capital, the involvement of Greece in the imperialist
plans and its transformation into a vast base of wars against the peoples.
We shall continue and strengthen our struggles.
9/5/2018