Resolution of the 16th Congress: The Anti-imperialist Anti-monopoly Democratic Front

RESOLUTION OF THE 16^TH CONGRESS OF KKE

The Anti-imperialist Anti-monopoly Democratic Front

The 16^th Congress worked out KKE’s political proposal for the formation of the Anti-imperialist, Anti-monopoly Democratic Front of struggle (AADF) in greater detail, based on developments, thus responding to the legitimate questions and searchings that have concerned broader forces in our society.

KKE with its positions and proposals addressed to the working class, to the oppressed strata of the people in towns and villages, to young people and radical forces in our society, and indeed to all those who, irrespective of their current political or party affiliations and loyalties, can feel through the conditions in their own lives that something must change more deeply, and who are concerned and looking for a way out. KKE calls upon everybody we have met in struggles, as well as those who have not yet taken that step, but who could in the future meet with us and join together in common action to form a Popular Front against capitalist restructuring and the new imperialist world order, and to reverse policies that are against the people’s interests, to build a new Greece with rule by the people, a people’s economy, and social prosperity. Such a development would make our country a factor in the struggle for peace and cooperation in the region, in Europe and internationally that will defend and demand the right of every people to select their own road to social development, in opposition to the interests of imperialist organisations and associations.

The message of KKE’s 16^th Congress is that there are no impasses in the political and social life of the country. There is a solution. It is the path of the Front, the gathering together of forces in the struggle for rule by the people and for the people’s economy.

DEVELOPMENTS IN THE INTERNATIONAL IMPERIALIST SYSTEM

On the threshold of the 21^st century, international developments have been marked by the barbarous and inhuman imperialist undertaking to impose the ‘new world order’ all over the planet. Humankind is living through a bleak period, owing to imperialist aggressiveness, which is manifested in all its extent and depth in the economy, in labour relations, in social policy, in the political system, in the ideological and cultural field, in international relations, and in the environment.

The increasingly intense, open interventions and rivalry between the imperialist forces over division of the markets have led some countries to new bonds of dependence and submission, and to the appearance of new hotspots of tension and local wars. The relations between dominant and dependent nations in the imperialist system are becoming increasingly oppressive.

Monopoly activities are accompanied by an unprecedented offensive against the rights of the working people. New crueller conditions are being created to exploit the workforce through new employment systems, extensive privatisations, and the commercialisation of social security, health, education, sport and culture.

Productive forces are being harmed and downgraded, particularly human resources. Unemployment, hunger, poverty and destitution are increasing in leaps and bounds. The wave of migration is growing. Social crime and drug addiction, racism, chauvinism, and anti-communism are increasing at an alarming rate. Millions of people on earth are at the mercy of weather conditions, ecological and more general environmental disasters, without even the most elementary protection or the ability to defend themselves. Altogether, the reactionary nature of the imperialist superstructure is becoming increasingly obvious.

The contrast between the potential for social well-being opened up by progress in science and technology on the one hand, and their capitalist exploitation on the other, is becoming ever more manifest. At the same time, capitalism has given a special boost to those fields of science that it can profitably exploit economically, politically and ideologically. It is indifferent to or consciously neglects fields of science and their application that could improve people’s material and cultural living conditions.

The enormous belts of poverty and disease, the disparities in the transmission and application of technological achievements among the various countries and regions and within some countries are characteristic indications of the class nature of development, but also of a system that is growing old, and going through a profound crisis, a system in decay.

Imperialism may be more powerful today, as it has regained lost ground, but it is not invincible. We cannot overlook the correlation of forces, which is negative for the peoples. But this reality is evolving and changing. The correlation of forces is not immutable; the capitalist system is neither omnipotent nor eternal.

Capitalist barbarity and aggression are not proofs of power alone. They also constitute an indication of the inability to deal with a sudden worsening of all the conflicts and contradictions inherent in the evolution of the imperialist system.

There is a real possibility that humanity will experience a global crisis, since the socialisation of labour has advanced to a higher level on the one hand, and social wealth is concentrated in ever fewer hands on the other, as the conflicts and rivalry between the various regional centres of imperialism, and the competition within these centres are becoming increasingly fierce, while the classical prescriptions, or variations of them, for dealing with crisis phenomena are proving to be ineffective.

The existing objective conditions of a more general crisis will, along the way, shape the objective elements of a nationwide crisis in one or more countries, some earlier, some later.

The heightening of competition in the imperialist system, the increased militarisation, the multiple hotspots of war, and the new nuclear arms race that is being scheduled, all lead to the conclusion that the peoples must be vigilant, because the danger of a generalised conflict of global significance continues to exist and, from one point of view, is being reinforced.

CONFLICTS IN THE REGION AND IN EUROPE ARE BECOMING MORE ACUTE.

THE BALKAN POWDER KEG

Conflicts in Europe, the Balkans and the broader region of the Eastern Mediterranean, i.e. in our neighbourhood, appear to be more acute.

The disparity within the European Union is becoming deeper, and its effects are being felt more strongly in view of the forthcoming use of the euro and the institutional strengthening of its hard core.

An integral part of the European Union is the existence of ‘axes’ and ‘anti-axes’, which are upset and alternated according to the course of the conflicts between the leading imperialist forces, and are centred today on the discussion about its federal prospects. In reality, it is the logic of a European Union under the hegemony of a hard core, around which concentric circles will be created. The decisions made in Nice, France, constitute yet another step in creating the hard core of the leading EU forces that will decide on behalf of the others.

The powerful imperialist forces, headed by the US and with the EU bodies, are planning carefully and forming ‘alliances’ with the former socialist countries that are under their control, in order to encircle Russia and any other countries that want to demand a leading position in the imperialist system. They want to stabilise capitalism in Russia but without that country becoming a leading power in the imperialist system.

In the Balkan region, the imperialists’ main objective is to create protectorate states. The further splitting of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is being planned, and the effort to redraw borders continues. The Balkans remains a powder keg. The danger is growing, due to the fact that the Greek government remains a firm partner and assists the imperialist order in the region.

Also in the grip of imperialist plans and the rivalry between the leading powers are: the Palestinian issue, the Cyprus issue, and the process of Turkey’s accession to the European Union. With their eye on the large Turkish market and its geostrategic role, the imperialist forces are pushing for its accession to the European Union. The process of Cyprus’s membership in the EU is linked with the imposition of a confederate solution, which constitutes a form of partition, in conflict with U.N. resolutions.

Although the sharpened conflict between the imperialist forces and the dependent countries is not manifested in the same way everywhere, it can contribute to rallying the peoples together, and to building local or regional alliances against the imperialist associations. Conflicts are becoming more international as an ever larger number of countries have an objective interest in resisting and breaking with the international organisations and the arrangements they are trying to impose.

DEVELOPMENTS IN GREECE

Within this international and regional context, developments are also going forward in Greece. The basic plans for capitalist restructuring are being stepped up, and a new level of monopoly concentration and growth is being achieved. The working class is not benefited at all by these developments, nor are the poorer segments of the middle classes in the cities and countryside. The only winners are the country’s financial oligarchy, the international monopolies and the small group that shares in the squandering of community funds. The working class and other strata of the people live under conditions of increasing relative and absolute poverty.

State monopoly capitalism in Greece has entered a stage in which its contradictions are becoming more aggravated. This aggravation is growing in depth and intensity because of the dependent and subordinate position of Greece in the regional and international imperialist system, owing to its geostrategic position.

Greece is located in a region – the Balkans and the Mediterranean – in which the rivalries between the leading forces of the European Union and between the EU and the USA are manifested sharply. There is fierce competition in the movement of capital and commodities, as well as in the plundering of resources and in geostrategic control of the region. In recent years, the redrawing of borders has begun and continues.

NATO has become entrenched, not only in the classic form of nuclear weapons and spy bases, but also with military forces, to which the imperialist Euro-army can now be added. The fact that units of the Greek armed forces have joined the rapid deployment forces increases the risk of our country becoming involved in imperialist adventures.

The antagonism between Greece and Turkey existed earlier, but it has become much sharper today, since the ruling classes of both countries are trying to carve out a more important role in the distribution of the pie.

Imperialist forces and organisations are taking advantage of the economic and political plans and antagonisms between the dominant classes and the governments of Greece and Turkey in order to give the impression that they are helping settle the differences between the two countries. Their aim is to utilise them both in their plans to penetrate and expand into the Balkans and the Black Sea region. The agreements that have been reached undermine Greek sovereign rights in the Aegean, and are linked with imperialist plans to NATO-ise and Americanise that sea.

New rivalries have arisen and will become sharper along the way between the Greek ruling class and those of other Balkan countries, as they appear with their own particular ambitions and find themselves in close collaboration, but on terms of dependence, with the US or with other leading countries of the EU. Even though Greece plays a very active role in all the aggressive plans, it is not only the aggressor; it is also the victim of imperialist ambitions and rivalries.

The policy of ideological manipulation and repression is readjusted to the increased demands of capital and of imperialist organisations.

There is fertile ground in Greece for the appearance of stronger popular discontent, which could, under certain conditions, have a positive effect on the people’s rallying together and fighting back for deeper changes on the social and political level. There are visible positive processes taking place, while others are also being generated, especially among the working strata.

The fact that changes are becoming mature and processes are taking place can be seen by actions to reshape the political setting without disturbing the progress of capitalist restructuring or Greece’s participation in imperialism’s most aggressive plans. Apart from the alternation of its two main parties in government power, the ruling class also supports and encourages other movements to the «right» and «left», the purpose of which is to function as dikes to hold back the radicalisation of the people, and the policy of alliances that the people need today. The phenomenon of the «dikes» will not stop. It will reappear in various forms as long as the movement is becoming stronger, and as long as the building of the Front is going forward, responding to the needs and experience of the people.

Developments confirm our political position regarding the nature of the European Union as an interstate capitalist association, and regarding the role of NATO and the need for a head-on confrontation with the prospect of a total break with capitalist restructuring, and with capitalist associations. They confirm that the bourgeois modernisation taking place in Greece, some of which has been going on for years in other European countries as well, has just one goal: To make the system more effective in its attack against the peoples’ rights, and in the service of big capital.

In this context, the assessment of the 15^th Congress of KKE is confirmed more dynamically, i.e. that there are two roads opening up before Greece and its people: the road of adjustment, of incorporation into the imperialist world order, i.e. on the one hand, in one form or another, the road of the greatest and most rapacious exploitation of the working people; and on the other, the road of resisting and breaking with this policy: the road of the formation of the Anti-imperialist, Anti-monopoly Democratic Front of struggle, which serves the interests of the working class, the broad strata of people in the towns and countryside, in short, the majority of the people. The road that gives the people the opportunity to take their destiny, the course of the country, and the future of their children into their own hands.

It is the road of struggle to utilise the country’s existing, objective potential and resources, to provide a radically different outlook for the people, for rule by the people and a people’s economy; the road that brings the Greek people to the side of all peoples and forces whose interests lie in fighting against the monopolies and imperialism on a national and global scale. It is the road that creates the potential for the country’s socialist regeneration.

THE NATURE AND ORGANISATION OF THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST ANTI-MONOPOLY DEMOCRATIC FRONT

The AAD Front will be based on the social alliance between the working class and the petty bourgeois strata in towns and villages in their mutual interest and, overlooking their differences, in the fight against their common adversary, the monopolies and imperialism. It will be based on the dialectical relationship and interaction of social and political alliances. It will draw its strength mainly from the development of the class struggle, and from the processes and realignments this will bring on the social and political level. In turn, it will lend a new dynamic to the class struggle, to the movement for and process of change in the correlation of forces and their realignment.

Gathered within the ranks of the AADF will be heterogeneous social and political forces from the viewpoint of social status and ideological and political attitudes:

• Social movements of the working class, and the petty bourgeois strata of the town and countryside.
• Movements of youth and women, for education, health and social policy. Movements for trade union, democratic and civil liberties and rights, for the rights of migrants, for the environment. The anti-imperialist movement for peace, movements in the fields of culture, sport, research, science and the fight against narcotics.
• Political forces, groups and movements that uphold the need for the anti-imperialist anti-monopoly struggle, and the need for a different course of development for Greek society, in opposition to the interests of the monopolies and the imperialist associations. Also, social and political public figures, patriots, democrats, and progressive men and women who agree and want to act for the benefit of the people’s interests, and against the choices of the monopolies and imperialism.

In the formation of the AADF, it is not enough to have common action based on common or similar views of the great current problems, the defence line against the attack sustained by our people. There must also be a certain level of agreement on a general direction for solving problems, which will be expressed in a programme framework for the people’s economy and rule by the people.

The anti-imperialist anti-monopoly struggle, the action of the Front as a socio-political alliance, irrespective of the specific composition and form it may take, will move on an upward course. It may also zigzag, according to the correlation of forces, the quality and mass participation in the alliance, and the stability, consistency and ability to act that it will demonstrate.

Opposing trends may even appear within the ranks of the Front, vacillations at turning points or crises in the struggle, when maximum resoluteness and stability are required, when the need appears urgently to change the priorities of goals, demands and choices that will undermine the foundations of the capitalist system. Realignments and rearrangements will take place in the ranks of the Front, on the basis of the evolving social and political situation.

As a social and political alliance, it will utilise the element of reconciliation in all its actions, so as to achieve the maximum possible concentration of forces, as long as they do not stand in the way of the dynamics of events. KKE will exhaust all possibilities in order to prevent the alliance from being compromised and trapped in the splitting plans of the ruling class and in its desire to absorb as many forces as possible into the line of consent and management.

Any differences that arise on issues of tactics and strategy will be resolved through dialogue in action, through the conflict of views within the course of struggles, through the effect of the correlation of forces that will come into being in the society, through respect for the independence and the differing viewpoints held by each component of the Front.

KKE maintains its independence, a right it recognises for all the forces that make up the Front. The independence of KKE is not in conflict with its action in the Front. It does not eliminate the Party’s particular responsibility to maintain the unity and cohesion of the Front. On the contrary, it is a factor guaranteeing this effort.

The formation of the Anti-imperialist Anti-monopoly Democratic Front and its progress will be judged, and indeed to a decisive degree, by the course of the political influence and power of the Party, by its ability to rally forces, by the unity of the working class and their ability to fight in a vanguard way for their rights, and to apply the policy of alliances with petty bourgeois social strata and with young people.

There is an objective need and potential for a different course of development and evolution of Greek society, to benefit the majority of the people. KKE projects the policy of the formation of the AAD Front immediately, in order to contribute to developing the subjective factor and to creating the conditions that will put the people in power.

GREECE HAS ALL THE POTENTIAL FOR DEVELOPMENT OF THE PEOPLE’S ECONOMY -IT IS IN THE PEOPLE’S INTERESTS TO FIGHT FOR IT

Despite the disasters brought about by crises and the penetration of imported commodities owing to monopoly competition and unequal development, Greece possesses the material prerequisites to shape and develop a people’s economy.

It has a satisfactory level of centralisation of production and the means of production, as well as a commercial network and a certain level of development of modern technology. Above all, it has a large, experienced working class, with an improved level of education and skills, and a large pool of capable scientists and professionals.

It has important natural resources, such as significant reserves of the mineral wealth necessary to produce industrial and consumer products. It has comparative advantages in the production of high quality foodstuffs at low prices, which can ensure the satisfaction of the people’s needs and the demands of international trade. It has the potential to produce modern products, machinery, tools and appliances.

Capitalist industrialisation in the past and the new sectors of the economy today could provide the material prerequisites on which a significantly better life for the Greek people can be based, and for a people’s economy to develop in Greece, so as to consolidate international financial relations on the basis of mutual benefit.

A prerequisite for the development of the people’s economy is for resources and the basic, centralised means of production to pass into the ownership of the society, and for the financial domination of the monopolies and big capital ownership to be overthrown.

It is in the people’s interest to fight for this. Because the incentive and purpose of the people’s economy is the well-being of the people, indicators of which are: The development and implementation of the achievements of science and technology for the benefit of the working people. The level of education and vocational training, the level of health and cultural development, leisure time and ways to use it, and the protection of the social and physical environment. Equal access to work in the society for every woman and man capable of working constitutes a foundation of the people’s economy, a basic obligation and expression of rule by the people.

KKE believes that the foundations of the people’s economy and development are:

§         Social state ownership of the basic and centralised means of production which include:

Energy. Telecommunications. Mineral wealth, mines. The water supply. Transportation. The main sectors of manufacturing, such as the production of means of producing mass consumption products. The banking system, the system for gathering, channelling and managing financial and material resources. Foreign trade, the organised network for domestic trade. The field of housing for the people. Research. The provision of democratic information to the people.

§         Exclusively public, uniform, free systems of education, health, welfare and social security.

The socialised sector will be expanded, since monopoly capital has passed to a higher level of centralisation and penetration, not only in the field of production, but also in commerce, the social sector, education, health and tourism.

KKE does not support the total, universal and nationwide scale of socialisation. It argues that, alongside the socialised sector of the people’s economy, there will be a productive cooperative system for people with small and medium-sized farm holdings and businesses, especially those in manufacturing sectors where there is a very low degree of concentration.

The entry of these strata of the people into cooperatives, with the experience they have acquired under the pressure of the monopolies, will be understood as a profitable choice, since it will facilitate their centralisation, safeguard their interests, increase their productivity, improve products and their distribution.

Thus the alliance between the working class, poor farmers, and middle class strata will become stronger. It will ensure that there are consumer products on the market to satisfy modern needs, without the known profiteering and risks to health.

§         The central nationwide machinery for planning and managing the economy that will mobilise the socialised, centralised means of production, workforce, and resources will take advantage of every possible constructive economic international collaboration on the basis of mutual benefit.

The central nationwide machinery for planning and managing the economy will allocate the means of production, workforce, and resources, in order to satisfy the people’s needs better, to increase reproduction, and to provide the resources necessary for the security and defence of the country, and for international solidarity with the peoples.

It will develop the means of production, the productivity of labour, research, and the prompt and broad application of the achievements of science and technology both to production and to the sectors of the production and reproduction of the workforce. It will promote the vertical interconnection between agricultural output and manufacturing, decentralisation, protection against floods, fire, earthquakes, and human activity that is compatible with the environment. It will ensure the ratios of production and distribution.

It will promote interstate trade agreements and transactions, and agreements for the utilisation of know-how based on mutual benefit, while protecting domestic production and the domestic workforce from the unbridled activity of the monopolies on the international market.

The central national machinery for directing the economy will be able to operate efficiently and overcome the hurdles it encounters on the national and international level, to the degree that the active participation of the working people, social and labour control, and democracy in the workplace are secured in practice.

§         The people’s economy presupposes Greece’s political disengagement from international imperialist organisations, and deliverance from its formal commitments to them. Rule by the people will already have popular support for this choice, since its programme will not be realisable within the framework of the European Union or NATO.

Moreover, the EU itself stipulates that its member-states not only do not have the right to dispute capitalist restructuring, but that the opposite it true. They must support this restructuring in every way and by every means: economic, political and deterrent measures. NATO leaves no room for member-states to manoeuvre, even on issues such as frontiers and national sovereignty. On the contrary, it requires full participation in a policy for re-drawing borders, and for war and terrorism against peoples.

The confrontation and break with the international imperialist associations will inevitably be provoked and expressed in the sector of the economy, in Greece’s policy in the Balkans and the region, and in its defence policy, which has today become aggressive.

KKE cherishes no illusions that it will be easy for Greece by itself to deal fully with the encirclement and reaction that will result from its effort to ignore and sever its commitments. However, it cannot agree with those who assert that Greece will be alone.

KKE does not agree with utopian views which maintain that: Either changes take place simultaneously in all countries of the European Union and NATO, or else nothing can happen in one country or group of countries, small or large. For changes to take place on an international level, the labour and popular movement in every country must strike a blow against international capitalist organisations, take advantage of the contradictions, and reinforce centrifugal tendencies. The more countries resist firmly and consistently, and disengage themselves from the EU and NATO, the more feasible will be the demand for the dissolution of these organisations.

However, even under conditions in which the EU and NATO exist, a disengaged Greece will be able to cooperate and form alliances with other countries and forces that will derive mutual benefit from such collaboration. Positive changes will also take place elsewhere to one degree or another. Even today the trend to regional cooperation is becoming stronger.

In particular, the development of international commercial exchanges and relationships on the basis of mutual benefit will rest on Greece’s ability to produce high quality commodities at low prices. This ability can be realised with the utilisation of advantages such as climatic and geological conditions, the existence of raw materials, the advantageous geographical location, a skilled workforce, and more general experience. These advantages are radically different from the advantage that relies mainly on a poverty-stricken and undervalued workforce. Bilateral, multilateral and regional cooperation will be sought and promoted with neighbouring countries in the Mediterranean region, with Balkan and other European states, and more broadly, in accordance with developments and the correlation of forces. Developments of this kind in Greece and other countries as well, will damage the European Union and the international imperialist associations, while making a significant contribution to the international struggle.

KKE believes that a higher, socialist form of internationalisation in a group of countries, in Europe, in the world, will be able to go forward to the degree that an effort is made on the national level to come to a substantial break with the interstate capitalist organisations, to the degree that at the same time, local and regional cooperation will be set up in the economic, trade and cultural realms, and alliances formed against the leading imperialist forces. This will go forward and become reality to the degree that the labour movement of the people in each country gains the ability to weigh and utilise all the opportunities that may appear there for the passage to socialism and for breaks with the international system of imperialism.

THE FRONT STRUGGLES AND DEMANDS RULE BY THE PEOPLE

There can be no social and economic proposals and programmes for a radical way out for the benefit of the people unless there is also a political proposal at the level of rule. The necessity for the people’s economy will be revealed in life, to the degree that the people, of their own will and with their own struggle, impose radical upheavals at the level of rule.

The AAD Front must put forward among the people the idea that it is necessary and realistic for the interests of the oppressed popular forces to be imposed at the level of rule, a goal integrally linked with drastic change and the overthrow of the correlation of forces.

The Front puts forward a positive position as to what rule is required. This rule cannot afford to be standing in two different boats. Either it will serve the monopolies and imperialism, or it will be completely opposed to them and will serve the interests of the people. Of course, the struggle to rule will pass through many phases and fluctuations; it will depend on and be determined at each phase or shift of the movement by the correlation of forces and the dynamics of developments.

Today, the anti-imperialist, anti-monopoly struggle is more closely linked with and has become an organic part of the struggle against capitalism, since by its nature, it contains breaks that undermine the foundations of the capitalist society dominated by the monopolies. However, the struggle of the Front does not necessarily and inevitably lead to socialism.

The Anti-imperialist Anti-monopoly Democratic Front, under conditions of a revolutionary situation, could take on the features of a revolutionary front fighting to overthrow the rule of the monopolies, ready and able to alternate all forms of struggle. Within this struggle new popular institutions will come into being, which could reach the level of a revolutionary government. With the victorious outcome of this struggle, the features of this revolutionary government will be integrated and stabilised as rule by the working class and their allies, i.e. the dictatorship of the proletariat, which is the opposite of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and the monopolies.

Under conditions of class confrontation and a great decline in the influence of the bourgeois parties and their allies, and even though the conditions for radical social upheaval and revolutionary passage may not have come into being, a government may arise of the anti-imperialist, anti-monopoly forces based in Parliament. The Front must utilise this possibility, control the government, and support political choices in favour of the people’s interests. In this case, the government will soon be judged, in terms of the degree to which, armed with the maximum popular mobilisation, it will be able to deal with the opposition of the ruling class, in order to overthrow or offset it and contribute to the maturation and initiation of the revolutionary process.

The Front, from the beginning of its formation, must publicise a general idea about the problem of rule. KKE believes that the term «rule by the people» can function in a unifying way, as long as it contains basic ideas that separate this rule from the present form of rule and the different variations of administration.

Rule by the people is different in that it will express the interests of the working class and its allies. It will be in full opposition to the monopolies and imperialism. Its characteristic feature will be to create a people’s economy, social ownership, and social control by labour. It will advance the policy of independence from international imperialist organisations, and it will rid the country of formal commitments to them.

KKE believes that rule by the people is socialist rule, which can address and rid the people of the bonds of the monopolies, imperialist oppression and dependence. We do not however consider this position to be a condition for the creation of the Front, which will not be formed on the basis of any agreement about socialism. Every force taking part in the Front will retain its own viewpoint about the nature of rule.

Within the Front and outside it, the forces that comprise it will develop their own particular views on the nature and forms of rule, taking care that this does not stand in the way of common action, nor jeopardise the level of agreement achieved in the general direction of the struggle against the monopolies and imperialism.

HOW WE SHALL ARRIVE AT THE CREATION OF THE FRONT

The creation of the Front is an absolutely immediate need. But there is a lack of correspondence between this need and the immediate opportunity.

When the Front will be created is not the exclusive responsibility of KKE. Certain more general conditions are required, such as: the regeneration of the trade union movement and other basic movements, and the final decision by significant existing forces to join together in struggle. Some of them are still under the influence of other parties, and, although they can see things clearly, they have not yet been able to rid themselves of the illusion that it is possible for the leaderships of their parties to change course.

What can be done today is for partial fronts, alliances and collaborations to be promoted and developed, as long, of course, as they are opposed to the choices of pro-monopoly imperialist policy on a particular issue. Collaborations and alliances around specific anti-imperialist demands and goals may not constitute the Front, but they may constitute fields for rallying together and testing, and may become torrents and streams that will lead to the Front itself.

The creation of partial fronts of struggle of a socio-political nature will provide an opportunity to preserve valuable joint action wherever agreement exists, so that we can test in practice the extent to which we can expand the alliance as far as the Front. In this way forces are mustered without any danger that this great cause of the Front will become an alliance that has come together opportunistically, and therefore, from the very beginning, is subject to the danger of splitting and ineffectiveness. The processes leading to the Front will accelerate, without our having to wait passively for conditions as a whole to mature. The partial fronts of struggle can rally together broader forces, since forces that want to act on a particular issue can join these fronts without necessarily having acquired an overall strategy of opposing the monopolies and imperialism.

Such fronts exist, are being built or can become great fields of struggles that are already under way. To speed up processes, we must move immediately in specific, basic fields, on which the rise of all social movements and their profounder politicisation and radicalisation will be judged.

They include:

§           The alliance against capitalist restructuring, which has been in the forefront in the economy, labour relations and social policy, against privatisations, and elsewhere. We need to devote all our forces to the struggle against capitalist restructuring so that distinct forms of social alliance can be generated between the working class, petty bourgeois strata in the towns, and farmers with small and medium-sized holdings, through common action with the other social movements of youth and women, for education and health, for culture and the environment, and against narcotics.

§           A single front of struggle should be developed against the new NATO doctrine, against imperialist interventions, nuclear weapons, and the rapid deployment forces, the targets of which are people, movements, and the right to national and political independence.

§           It is necessary to support fronts of action in defence of democratic liberties, the right to strike and struggles, and the democratic struggle for civil liberties and solidarity.

§           We must contribute to mobilising forces from the working class, youth, and all movements, from among creative artists and cultural workers, so that the intellectual and cultural atmosphere in our country can begin to change. Today we need a head-on confrontation with the phenomena of decline and corruption, with the mentality of fatalism and defeatism, with individualism, with the buying out and subjugating of minds; and we need confrontation with nationalism, cosmopolitanism, racism, chauvinism and anti-communism.

§           There is an immediate need for us to proceed to forms of coordination and cooperation with anti-monopoly, anti-imperialist radical progressive forces on a regional and international level. The international dimension of the struggle must be present in its every aspect and expression. KKE will push forward its effort rapidly to make more distinguishable the common action between workers’ and communist movements, and at the same time with anti-imperialistic movements more broadly.

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The 16^th Congress of KKE presents assessments of the present situation in Greece and the world and its political proposal for the AAD Front to the Greek people, whom it calls to common action and struggle, in the unshakeable belief that the need for deep changes has matured, and the opportunity for general counter-attack is imminent.

Let us do whatever we can to assist the positive processes, realignments, and great social movements to manifest themselves as soon as possible, so that we are prepared for sudden developments rather than trailing behind events.

There are no impasses. There are impasses only where fatalism, fear, apathy, self-deception and confusion reign.

Being angry and indignant is not enough. The question is how anger and indignation are to be converted into a conscious choice to undertake the popular resistance and counter-attack that lead to the way out and a positive prospect.

there is a solution

This solution is in the hands of the working class and the most oppressed strata of the people. It is a matter of political choice. Each person must decide, as quickly as possible. And the decision to be made by workers, farmers, petty tradesmen, young people, women, pensioners, intellectuals and artists must now be: TO BE MORE ACTIVE IN THE STRUGGLE TO BUILD THE FRONT, IN THE STRUGGLE FOR RULE BY THE PEOPLE AND THE PEOPLE’S ECONOMY, AND FOR THE SOCIALIST REGENERATION OF GREECE.

DECEMBER 2000