Electoral Manifesto of the CC of KKE for the elections for the European Parliament,

There is another choice for the peoples of Europe
In the elections for the European Parliament of 13 June 2004, it is in the interests of workers and employees, the self-employed, people with small and medium-sized shops, businesses and farms, women and young people, intellectuals and artists to use their vote to take a stand against the anti-popular choices of the EU. To condemn the policy of violating rights, of militarisation, of war, of state violence and repression. To punish the EU, which tries to impose state protectorates, together with the USA: A few years ago it was Bosnia and Kosovo, lately we witnessed their stance towards Cyprus

The EU cannot be corrected. The only realistic choice for the people of Europe is the struggle for disengagement, the struggle to overthrow the EU.

We have experience. In our daily life there have been highly adverse, tragic results from the EU treaties that were implemented, for which the PASOK and ND governments bear the responsibility.

A Greece in which the people live prosperously, safely and in peace does not fit in with the principles and practices of the EU. We must not be afraid of the struggle against its choices, if we are to go forward.

The EU's hostile attitude toward the communist ideology, toward the contribution of the socialist system we knew in the 20th century, and toward every radical idea and practice has but one aim: to stop the people from struggling, to make them fatalistic and frightened and unable to think that there is another road to cooperation, common action and the unity of Europe, a road that is outside the EU and in confrontation with it.


The socialisation of the basic and centralised means of production and the subsoil and submarine wealth, along with the development of cooperatives are the essential prerequisites for a different type of social development that will benefit the people in Greece and in Europe.

Through their struggle, through their participation in the organisation of the Anti-imperialist Anti-monopoly Democratic Front, the working people will be better able to demand and win. They will be able to upset the correlation of forces, to claim power for the people and implement the policy of the people's economy.


This path leads to the overthrow of the reactionary structure of the EU. It is the only way to build a Europe of the working people, of equitable cooperation, with respect for every people's right to decide on its own socio-economic and political system.

In this way, the peoples of Europe and we, the Greek people, too will contribute to the global change in the correlation of forces at the expense of imperialism, poverty and oppression, at the expense of the forces of war.

The Europe of the working people, peace and socialism will reach out and offer equitable cooperation to countries and peoples that are suffering from imperialist oppression and exploitation. It will become the pole of anti-imperialist cooperation and struggle. It will be the countervailing force to war and violence.


We have met with tens of thousands of working men and women in anti-war demonstrations, in national, sectoral and local mobilizations for the popular rights, culminating in Nafplio and Thessaloniki in 2003. We met with millions of working people in Genoa, Paris, Brussels, Prague, Florence and elsewhere.

Wherever possible, we have acted together with other communist and left parties and progressive forces, each side retaining its own particular viewpoints.

In the European Parliament, we have made known the problems of concern to the workers, the peoples of Europe and other continents. Not once did we hesitate to go against the trend of "Euro-lust".

With its stance and in cooperation with forces and voices of critical opposition, the KKE has nourished the wave of workers' and popular struggles against manipulation, alienation and the buying out of consciences.


Forty-three years ago, the KKE, and EDA (*Unified Democratic Left, formation that existed during the years of clandestinity of KKE) before the dictatorship, stood up against what was then the EEC. It predicted what we are living today. It revealed that all that glitters is not gold. After 1981, when Greece became a full member of the EEC, the KKE hid nothing from the people. On the contrary, it developed initiatives and opened fronts of struggle in order, as much as possible, to address the adverse effects on the working class, and on people with small and medium-sized shops, businesses and farms.

Those who claim that the Greek people would be hungry and isolated without the EU, say this for just one reason: so that the capitalist profits of European businessmen are not affected. So that the Greek people are prevented from trying to follow their own road of development and social evolution. So that they will not object or hinder the robbery and the exploitation of foreign workers.

The EU is not an economic and political cooperation for the benefit of the peoples and of peace. It is a state alliance of capitalist countries to enhance big capital's share of the international capitalist market. The EU is not an alliance that applies a brake to US aggressiveness; rather they team up together against the working people, in competition with each other for primacy, for the distribution and re-distribution of markets and spheres of influence. The EU is in the interests of industrialists, bankers, shipowners and big merchants, all of whom gobble up community resources.


Public services, transportation, telecommunications, energy, the post office, banks, and the majority of ports have been deregulated, while privatization is going forward in the sectors of health, education and welfare. Injustice, inequality and social discrimination are growing.

Domestic manufacturing and agricultural production are being adjusted to meet the needs of competition in the EU market and of agreements with third countries, with the result that local sectors of production are dwindling. For example, the shipyards were doomed to decline, swelling the ranks of the unemployed, while quantity restrictions on agricultural produce, even to cover domestic needs, have led to the depopulation of many rural areas.

Scientific and technological research has become more concentrated than ever before in the hands of capital. It is used to step up class exploitation, to make the labour force cheaper.

Part-time and temporary work is become generalized, the retirement age is being raised, and pensions reduced. Unemployment is rising; it is higher among women and young people. The labour of women and young people is being used to bring down wages and social benefits even further.


With a new revision of the CAP but also with regulations for cotton, tobacco and oil, a new offensive is on the way to displace more holders of small and medium-sized farms. Agricultural output will be cut back further, as tobacco farming is heading towards abolition, while crops such as cotton, oil etc. will be reduced. To cover up the grave repercussions of these measures, a significant portion of subsidies will be converted into social assistance.

The four freedoms (movement of capital, persons, goods and services) ensure the invasion and establishment of European monopolies and the crushing of small businessmen and tradesmen. Thousands of small shops have closed; others are barely hanging on and being squeezed by double taxation and the deregulation of shop hours.

Under the new treaty, named as "European Constitution" in order to deceive the peoples, the prospects are even worse. A new, more dangerous forum is being created. The treaty legalizes military intervention, not only beyond the continent of Europe, but inside member-states as well, in the name of preventing terrorist threats. A new arms race is under way, state violence and oppression is increasing, exactly like the United States.

Reactionary community law is being reinforced, making it possible to impose common anti-popular policies, since it creates community machinery for repression purposes. The EU is taking further steps toward generalizing the repudiation of labour relations. Migration policy is becoming more barbarous. Provision is being made for social policy that will be expensive for the people and of low quality. The same is true of education and culture.


The recent enlargement of the EU with ten new countries took place on a more unequal basis than was the case with Greece. This proves the pseudo-democracy of the EU, which accepts within its ranks states that ban lawful activity by communist parties and raise insurmountable hurdles to political action, deprive people of the right to vote, and impose a regime of political discrimination on significant population groups who become "non-citizens" on the basis of their ethnic origin and language.

This proves that the so-called European acquis communautaire concerns only the vested interests and offers complete freedom to the forces of capital.

Even though the interests of the member-states are common, the creation of the European constitution is going ahead with difficulty because of conflicts among the members. New alliances are being formed in the EU, which is led by the hard core of powerful imperialist nations. Economic disparity is deepening.


The peoples have not forgotten the EU's leading role in the dissolution of Yugoslavia, since it gave the "green light" to the US invasion. Not only did the EU not stand in the way, it facilitated and legitimised the US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq. Its member-states, including Greece, have supported and continue to support military aggression by providing troops, military spy bases, and facilities in the air and at sea.

On the pretext of 11 September 2001 (when the twin towers in New York were hit) and 11 March 2004 (Madrid), the EU is going ahead with a new arms race; it is militarising public life with measures that are detrimental to the collective and individual rights and freedoms of the working people. Peoples, movements, and militant men and women are in danger of being compromised by evidence fabricated by the services of the EU and the USA.

After the reversals of the socialist system in Europe, the imperialism of the US, NATO and the EU is focusing its attack on the broader Middle East, the eastern Mediterranean, Cyprus, Greece, Turkey and the other Balkan states, the Aegean, the Black Sea, and the countries of the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea.

The EU supports the imperialist schemes of the US against Cuba and North Korea.

The conflicts between the EU and the USA over the distribution and redistribution of the booty harbours great dangers to the peoples of the region and to world peace.


People who talk about the large amounts of money handed out by the EU are telling lies. The Greek people have paid dearly for this money. Funds from the famous Community Support Frameworks (CSF) have been given mainly to serve the needs of capital in terms of infrastructure and transportation works. The EU sets compulsory terms for the allocation of these funds, demanding a more profound incorporation into the EU process. In fact, a significant percentage of these funds - more than 45% - is returned to European monopolies in the form of imports directly associated with the execution of projects under the CSF.

Large European corporations have been assigned to build most of the major projects in Greece. Local capital has also benefited, which has drained off the greater part of this money in subsidies. Of the funds allocated to create and modernise manufacturing plants, 90% was reaped by industrialists and 10% by cooperatives. Funds were used for dispensing favours, for propagandising EU policy and for manipulating consciences through programmes for the unemployed, temporary jobs, and so-called further education. Community and national funds from the state budget are used in the same anti-popular direction. The CSF programmes never include works that could satisfy the modern needs of the people, such as anti-seismic protection, flood control projects, forest fire prevention programmes and major irrigation projects.

During the previous period, money was given to farmers for structural changes, which led to the uprooting of a significant number of holders of small and medium-sized farms, thus reinforcing the trend to large-scale farm ownership. The subsidies given to farmers did not save either their income or domestic agricultural output from tough competition by imports.

The result is that the agricultural trade deficit has grown, livestock feed production has declined and nutritional dependence has increased, especially in products of doubtful quality including dioxins, meat tainted by mad cow disease, genetically modified foods, and foods full of synthetic hormones. As a result, the unemployment rate is also rising.


The KKE says YES to coordination and common action by communists, radical parties, and anti-imperialist forces that resist and fight against the choices and strategy of the EU and its treaties. It supports cooperation and common action on the basis of common goals of struggle and common directions, with simultaneous respect for the independence of each party.

The KKE deplores the EU decision to impose the formation of European political parties, using financial assistance as bait but requiring the commitment not to fight its decisions but to support them, and for these parties to limit themselves to painless criticism and opposition, without disputing that the EU is the only road.

These European parties support the anti-scientific and reactionary view that the national field of struggle and demands has been abolished.

The "European party of the Left" undermines the class struggle, cultivates the harmful viewpoint that there are no margins for gains and reversals at the level of the individual country. It hides the capitalist nature of the EU and whitewashes it. It promotes social consensus, compromise and incorporation


We are asking for votes from the workers and popular strata of the city and the village who are suffering. The votes of young people, women, and all those who are sorely tried by the policy of the EU and their governments. The votes of people of the left who resist and demand. We are asking for votes from those who may not believe in or may not agree with our position regarding disengagement and breaking with the system, but who understand that the KKE guarantees a consistent resistance and claims.

We can do it!

The KKE proposal is the only realistic one, because it reflects the people's interests. It will happen, as long as the people want it and act by leaving the ND and PASOK. So that the correlation of forces will change in their favour.

We are not alone. We are together with other peoples and we have common interests. Whenever the people so decide, they can do great things. We are with the peoples who resist, who dispute the EU with referendums, with NO to EMU and the euro, with NO to their countries' accession to the EU.

A vote for the KKE means:

•  Rallying together, effective policy of alliances in Greece and in Europe. Empower the movement today, an open window for positive prospects tomorrow. Unyielding, militant action in the European Parliament.
•  Militant demands in Greece and in Europe for goals and measures to relieve the lives of the working people and satisfy the modern needs of the working class and the popular strata.

A vote for the KKE is a vote against:

•  The choices of the EU, the White Book, Lisbon, Amsterdam and Helsinki, the Stability Pact, EMU and the euro. In defence of the rights of people all over the world. In the fight against the causes of poverty, hunger, disease, misery, social crime and the spread of narcotics.
•  Militarisation, state terrorism and oppression. Sending troops to wage imperialist wars. Changing frontiers and creating protectorate states, suspending collective and individual rights, enacting laws against terrorism, the European warrants, agreement of judicial concurrence with the US. Against racist migration policy.

Vote for the KKE means:

•  Contributing more to the organisation of a radical pole of communist, radical, anti-imperialist forces and movements in Europe, and parties of the left which have not compromised with European imperialism. Contributing more to international coordination and common action against the decisions and choices of the World Trade Organisation, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Imperialism is strong where the popular movement is weak, where resistance is feeble, where the alliance and common action of the anti-imperialist, anti-monopoly forces has not gone ahead.

With the will of the peoples, majorities will be created in every country to demand change at the level of power.

The forward movement of the people of Europe will have as starting point the resistance, disobedience and insubordination to the EU, and will finish in the disengagement of their countries from the EU, in its overthrow in the perspective of a Europe of peace and of socialism.


On 13 June, votes must be cast censuring the ND and PASOK. Together they approved all the anti-popular choices of the EU and express them, in order to ensure profits for the domestic and foreign plutocracy. They cannot and do not want to negotiate the interests of the working people. This is why they have systematically hidden the real content and aims served by decisions made in Brussels.

The two-faced Synaspismos must also be censured, which on the one hand supports the EU wholeheartedly and on the other protests at the consequences of implementing its policy. Its "Euro-lust" provokes people of the left and militant people.

Renewal and modernisation is whatever is in the interests of the people, whatever meets their modern needs, whatever gives them hope for a better future, with prosperity, security and rights for the people

WE SAY YES

To the rights of the working class and other working people, to people with shops and small businesses, to holders of small and medium-sized farms, women and young people, and the salaried intelligentsia.

•  To full-time and stable jobs for all, with wage and pension increases, with the establishment of the 35-hour week, i.e. 7-hour day and 5-day week. To the calculation of incomes of the working people on the basis of modern needs and profitability of capital and not on the basis of EMU targets and capitalist competitiveness.
•  To equal rights for foreign workers and their families.
•  To full employment for women and young people after completing their studies.
•  To comprehensive measures to protect the unemployed, to a policy of ensuring jobs for all. To unemployment benefits equal to real needs for as long as people are without jobs. Full rights to free public health and welfare. For social security stamps not to be lost when one is unemployed.
•  To measures and efforts to make the improvement of family life and the abolition of discrimination against women a cause for both sexes.
•  To family planning centres, to free state-run child care facilities, to centres for the creative engagement of infants and children.
•  To educational training in gender equality.
•  To the democratisation of information.
•  To the rights of the working people in enterprises that met privatisation.

• To public compulsory social security for all, which will include rights to pension, to health care services, and to the benefits and services of social welfare
•  To lowering the retirement age to 60 for men and to 55 for women, and five years less for people working in heavy or unhealthy occupations.
•  Social benefits in the field of health should be free. The contributions of workers to the health sector should be abolished. The state and the plutocracy should pay the costs. In this regard, small and medium-sized businesses should be strengthened.
•  Any private facilities that are suitable and operating today in the fields of health, welfare, rehabilitation, and services for persons with special needs should be made public. Business activity in these fields should be abolished.
•  All the personnel in the health and welfare system should be permanent, full-time and exclusively employed with decent salaries, working conditions and opportunities for professional advancement.
•  All today's freelance doctors should be absorbed into the public health system.
•  The protection of public health should be linked with protection of hygiene and safety in the workplace, environmental protection, sanitary foodstuffs, and the combating of narcotics and crime. All activities are the responsibility of the state, and require specialisation by region, gender and age.

We are fighting for:

•  A free public educational system based on a comprehensive 12-year general education for all, without class and racial discrimination, that will ensure the harmonious cultivation of all aspects of the human personality, and will provide general academic learning about nature and the society.
•  Free public post-secondary vocational schools. They should be a source of knowledge and training for young people and not a source of profits to businessmen.
•  An integrated system of higher education, without class barriers, the unscientific division of studies into cycles, and of institutions into categories. Cultured professionals should be trained with a high level of specialisation and professional ability, and degrees should be linked with the right to work.
•  Development of academic research, basic and applied, to produce new knowledge and serve the needs of the people, not to increase capitalist profits.
•  15% of the state budget should be allocated to education.

•  Cooperatives should be created and developed that will be different from what we have known so far. The economy and power of the people can guarantee their operation and mission.
•  Support for the demands of people with shops and small businesses and the self-employed as regards taxation and state funding for infrastructures, i.e. industrial parks, where light industries will be able to operate without creating environmental problems in residential areas.
•  A uniform 48-hour week, compulsory for all, with all shops, large and small, closed on Sundays and on three afternoons a week.

We are fighting for:

•  Support for agricultural development with the creation of productive cooperatives for holders of small and medium-sized farms and for the people generally.
•  Agricultural production that contributes to employment, helps the population remain in the countryside, and encourages the return to the country of those who were obliged to leave. Planning for the economy of the people is the prerequisite for success in this direction.
•  Addressing the nutritional problem with cheap and healthy products.
•  Development of livestock production to cover local needs.
•  A system of prices and subsidies that guarantees a viable income and favours the restructuring of agricultural production in the direction of animal husbandry. A significant increase in funding for infrastructure works. Free medical coverage for all residents of the countryside.

The KKE is working to:

•  Support and develop cultural and folk amateur creation and to disseminate it among the Greek people. This is a weapon against the corrosive imperialist ideology, against the culture of alienation and lethargy. It is power to create an attitude of resistance and opposition on all fronts of life and action.
•  Address the problems of artists, with provision of a decent living and favourable conditions for creative engagement with art.
•  Transfer of the centres and institutions for producing art and culture into the hands of the society with financing from public funds.
•  The cultural heritage and popular tradition, the popular culture and our language are part of the history and consciousness of the people. As such, we demand that they be promoted, but not as factors serving to increase profits.

The KKE urges:

•  Struggle for our country's sovereign rights, with special emphasis on the Aegean at this time.
•  Defence capability based on the people and the youth, on young people doing their military service, on officers and non-commissioned officers who refuse to tolerate the ceding of sovereign rights to the US, NATO and the EU.
•  No participation of Greek military forces in imperialist wars or occupation armies.
•  Resistance and struggle against the common European defence policy and against the European army.
•  Return of Greek troops and of all Greeks who are being used in imperialist occupation armies in the Balkans and Afghanistan. Greek soldiers should not be sent to Iraq.
•  Abolition of foreign bases from our country, and above all that of Souda.
•  A united, independent Cyprus without foreign bases and troops, bi-communal, bi-zonal federation, common homeland for Turkish-Cypriots and Greek-Cypriots without foreign "guarantors and protectors".
•  Solidarity and common struggle with the peoples of Cyprus, Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan. Solidarity with the peoples of the Balkans and of countries in which communist parties are banned.
•  We stand by the Turkish people and the Kurds, by the side of all those who are suffering. Solidarity with the peoples of Cuba and North Korea, with communists and all progressive people who are persecuted.

The Greek people and the peoples of Europe will live through much worse days unless they are delivered from the reasoning that Europe and NATO offer the only roads.

The prospect of a Greece with social prosperity and peace for its people is linked with its deliverance from the bonds of the EU, with disengagement that will become a reality when the Greek people so choose and decide. And this will happen sooner or later. Membership in Europe is not final or permanent.

The process may start in Greece, or perhaps in one or more other countries. What is important is for every people, every movement to contribute to this, to strengthen the centrifugal forces so that they can win, and overthrow the reactionary structure of the EU.

Another pole should start being formed, the pole of cooperation between countries and governments which, once disengaged from the EU, will build an entirely different cooperation in terms of form and content for the benefit of the peoples.

The argument that the EU could evolve into a Europe of the working people has proved to be an illusion. Those using this argument have ultimately been supporting the European imperialist pillar.

Anyone who today regards the prospect of disengagement with disbelief should not close the door on it. Because then they will be doomed to resist ineffectively.

All sectors in which there are capabilities and advantages will be developed in Greece, without commitments and limitations. Employment will increase; we will gain self-sufficiency wherever we can. We will cooperate with other European countries but with Arab and Balkan countries too, wherever we can, in the interests of all. We shall denounce military and other binding imperialist agreements. We shall acquire new allies, friends and collaborators.