Report of the CC of KKE to the 16th Congress
Dear
guests, comrades and delegates
We
welcome you at the session of our 16th Congress
The
presence of so many communist, labour and progressive parties fills us with
honour and responsibility.
We
have the obligation, and the capability as well, to continue to the issue of
peoples’ common action. Against imperialistic aggression and pseudo-peace under
the threat of weapons. It is not enough to blame poverty, famine, alliteration.
The suppression of minorities, the wealth concentration, the capitalist use of
new technologies. The corruption dominant in the network of nutrition. War and
military intervention, the militarisation of EU. Condemnation and wishful
thinking never change a thing. We must line up the strong coalition of the
people, of the workers, of the communist and labour parties, of the
anti-imperialist radical forces, of all who fight so that every people have the
right to decide for their present and future, for the development of their
society.
To
line up the coalition of the people who fight the fatalism and the idea that
that «nothing can be done because is a reality».
We
welcome the delegates of the political parties. The friends and the allies and
the political confrontations.
We
salute the comrades, delegates and guests who have been with us many years,
each one represents a valuable part in the party’s history. Their presence
today confirm the importance of the principle of continuing of experience of
the continuing of generations.
Comrades,
The thousands of party members who took part in the pre - Congress
process have authorised us to deal in yet greater depth with the elaboration of
the party’s political proposition for the formation of the Front. They have
sent us here with the demanding mandate to take decisions and to work out
binding guidelines based on the fresh experience acquired for a full scale
strengthening and development of the Party, so that it will be able to cope
with the serious and urgent tasks set even since the 15th Congress.
We have reached this point thanks to the persistent efforts we have all
made to deal with the consequences which the overthrow of the international
correlation of forces had for our party and the people’s movement.
We are here thanks to the strength drawn from the heroic history of our
Party, from its inestimable contribution to the working class and the people.
Last November marked the 82nd anniversary of the foundation of our
party. This remains an event of very great importance for the history of our
country. Contrary to the predictions that our party would dissolve itself and
die out, this has stood firm for so many years, alive and fighting, always side
by side with the people, a party truly patriotic, uncompromising with
imperialism, fighting for peace and national independence, steadily
internationalist. Nothing can change in the least our unshakeable conviction to
the socialist and communist perspective as both a historical necessity and
possibility. As stressed in the Declaration honouring the 80th
anniversary of our Party, «human history is a process of continuous progress
that also entails regression and temporary abatement. However, the course from
‘the realm of necessity’ to the ‘realm of freedom’ is a natural law».
We stood firm and on our feet and thus we are in a position today to
take the best decisions, in a spirit of full responsibility.
The proceedings of the 16th Congress are beginning from a
hopeful starting point: The Theses of the Central Committee were adopted by the
Party members in Party Base Organisations assemblies. Also approved were the
Report on Activity since 1996 and the Central Committee action, containing a
critical and self - critical assessment of its work. The party members in their
overwhelming majority agree, not in a general and abstract way, with the
party’s strategy but rather with the steps, means, methods and prerequisites
demanded for action to form the Anti-imperialist Antimonopoly Democratic Front
(AADF). Reaching the agreement has not been an easy and irresponsible course.
It has come from new experience next to the long and well - tried experience of
the party under conditions involving unusual, unprecedented and, to a certain
degree, sudden changes in all aspects of struggle.
The Theses’ approval has been preceded by a full - scale debate accompanied
by proposals to improve them, critical comments and recommendations regarding
the work done by cadres and Party bodies. The debate focused on the AADF, the
mass struggles, especially labour and trade union movement, the rallying and
close co-operation of forces regarding topical problems and fronts of the day,
the internationalisation of the struggle and the course taken by the world
communist movement. Elaboration of the issues concerning people’s power and
people’s economy drew the attention of the assemblies and especially the
district conferences. Concern was expressed to a significant degree as to how
the Party Base organisations, the cells of the party, would participate more
actively, not just by expressing opinions but also by their action in
fulfilling the party’s basic political tasks. Thoughts and remarks were
expressed with regard to the work done by cadres, particularly as to the
content and methods of guidance and to the lax way the implementation of
decisions is monitored. There is already a wealth of material in the minutes of
conferences which should be studied in great detail by the party bodies and by
the new CC, so that it may be put to good use after the Congress as well.
There were serious concerns, thoughts and critical comments and
recommendations coming from all those with whom we collaborated in struggles,
elections or fields of action. The dialogue with the people will not end on the
17th of this month. It will become more complete and fertile, as it
will continue throughout all levels in the party, from the central part to
grassroots, everywhere. We have a great responsibility to consolidate joint
action and co-operation there and wherever the prerequisites have already been
created for us to proceed to a more persistent opening to the whole of Greek
society with activities and initiatives for struggle, meeting with those who
are willing especially those, due to our fault or theirs, we have not managed
to co-ordinate our joint steps.
The assessment of
activities report is positive. We must confront our delays, omissions and
weaknesses so that we can fulfil the task of rallying forces during a period of
expression of various shifts in the country’s social and political life.
Ever since 1918, the path taken by our party has never been strewn with
roses. Nor will it be in the years to come. In the first years after the
dictatorship up to the mid - eighties, KKE acted under relatively better
conditions. Even at that time, however, things were not simple or easy. The
Party had at the same time to face a new set of difficulties created by the
illusions fostered by the PASOK policies. PASOK undertook the management of the
fate of capitalism during a relatively favourable stage for the system, when
the latter was willing, under the pressure of class struggle, to grant some
concessions and manoeuvres contributing to a relative and / or real
improvements of the living standards. Under such conditions, the viewpoints
that radical changes were possible gradually, with no break with the ruling
class, were reinforced.
Since the start of the latest 25 year period, the scene began to change
in international scale. For the bourgeois governance, the need to give up
Keynesian management of the system, with extensive state capitalist ownership
of industry, transport, telecommunications and the financial sector and the
tourism and with the policy of granting broad scale allowances implemented
mainly in Europe, ripened gradually.
Social democracy proved to be capable to run the system, accelerating,
after the victory of the counterrevolution, the implementation of the policies
of neoliberal management: With the privatization of productive and other
enterprises of large accumulated capital. With the reinforcement of
commercialisation in the sectors of education, health care, welfare and
insurance. The reactionary restructuring of the labour market aiming at the
reduction of the price of labour force. The class character of their policies,
identifying themselves with the policies of classical conservative parties and
campaigning to slander socialism.
Today we are witnessing the abolition of people’s and democratic gains.
We are living the period of modern capitalist restructuring and barbarian
imperialist aggressiveness. In spite of difficulties and adversities, our party
remains a force of counter - stream action and rallying.
The prevailing stream of today does not include the bourgeois social and
political forces alone or those, which usually, due to their class position are
prone to compromise. The overall conservative turn towards neoliberal
governance is misleading certain left and communist forces too, which adopt the
logic of co - governance, giving up anti - monopoly, anti - capitalist
objectives and causes. Unfortunately, it became broader and larger, as it was
joined one way or another by forces, which, in previous decades, had made anti
- imperialist, democratic proclamations. On the ground of the overthrow of labour
relations and the International Law as shaped during the post war years, a climate
of disappointment and demoralisation has grown, dragging along thousands of
fighters. To our opinion, most of them are not lost nor do we consider them
lost for the cause of the Front.
There are signs of recovery
possibility of the movement
There are significant examples and indications that argue in favour of a
recovery of the movement. Positive processes are to be seen, while others seem
to be ripening, especially in the working people strata. In Greece, it has not
been possible to push through the so much desired consensus, for which the
oligarchy and the EU apparatus, PASOK and ND assiduously worked, with the help
and tolerance of forces having abandoned the class struggle, like the
Coalition. Important struggles were waged conveying massage outside our country
as well. These were not run - of - the - mill struggles. The clash went deeper,
the forms of struggle were more acute and common action was developed against
the leadership of most parties. If not for these struggles, the situation would
be worse today. The neoliberal measures would have advanced in a much more
accelerated pace.
The government proceeded to make an unprecedented attack slandering
them, using all its apparatus to intimidate, persecute and to crush the
struggles. In certain cases, the New Democracy party may have shown tolerance
initially when the struggles broke out, but when it saw their meaning and
content it openly denounced them. The Coalition may have issued declarations of
solidarity, but, at the crucial moment, it denounced the forms of struggle used
because they disturbed the tranquillity of consensus. The role of the employers
is well known: They literally tried to crush the strikers and militants using
the apparatus or repression but also the threat of unemployment.
Judicial persecution of thousands of farmers, workers, pupils and
teachers, the use of force and intimidation are undeniable evidence of an
upswing in the struggles. The revision of the Constitution is aiming at
immobilising the people’s movement and at removing any formal obstacle to the
abolition of popular gains. It is certain that the people will take conscience
that this legality concerns the selected few and their class interests.
During these years, our Party has with the Anti-imperialist, Antimonopoly
Democratic Front (AADF) as its point of initiatives to rally people in large
and intensive fronts for struggle and during electoral contests, without
requiring a previous agreement on general strategy.
We took significant initiatives both to co-ordinate joint action amongst
communist and labour parties and to rally anti-imperialist forces around the
objective of co-ordinated activities in labour struggles and in the movement
against the new NATO doctrine. We supported international proposals and efforts.
We met with new forces and acquired greater maturity as regards the cause of
the Front.
The fact that changes are ripening and that there is fermentation is
clear from the fact that there are plans and scenarios on the table to reshape
the political landscape without disrupting the process of capitalist
restructuring and the participation of
From one point of view, these developments help to separate the soonest
possible the wheat from the chaff. The phenomenon of using groupings as
obstacles will not stop, it will continue in various forms as the movement
grows and as KKE alliance policy meets with fertile ground in the needs and
experience of the people.
Developments confirm the party’s political line regarding direct opposition
and the perspective of global conflict with the capitalist restructuring and
imperialist associations. Regarding the character of EU as an interstate
capitalist association, the role of NATO. They conform that the bourgeois
modernisation moves carried out in Greece, some of which have been implementing
in other European countries many years ago, have one and only objective: To
increase the system’s efficiency in attacking people’s rights, serving the
monopoly capital.
With that line and not the one demanded by our opponents, fermentation
was facilitated. Our political line may not be to the liking and interest for
the forces of big capital, but it is a political line, a political proposal
that is cohesive and specific, with clear positions and without contradictions
that would lead to an impasse. What is, of course, important is to become a cause
of the broader popular masses.
Imperialism is strong, yet
not omnipotent.
The correlation of forces
is negative, yet not immutable.
Assessing the developments in Greece, international events, trends,
economic and social facts, the very documents of imperialist agencies and
foundations over the years, we drew the conclusion that both internationally
and in our region conditions are developing for a sudden exacerbation of all contradictions
in the international capitalist system and of the phenomena of corruption and
stagnation. There are objective
conditions bearing a more generalised crisis that will also eventually shape
objective elements of a nation wide crisis in one or more countries, sooner in
some, later in others.
If only we take a close look at
the dissent expressed in the EU summit in Nice. Is it by any chance that the
strong imperialist countries claimed and succeeding in becoming the supreme
authority because they had in mind the European Peoples’ prosperity? Certainly
not. Is it that the weaker countries, including
In our country too,
state monopoly capitalism has entered a phase of exacerbation of
contradictions. This exacerbation is more intense and in-depth because of the
dependent and subordinate position of
It is clear that although
At the beginning of the nineties, difficulties began to arise with
regard to the reproduction of social capital in most EU member states. Of
course, these difficulties vary from one country to another and the crisis does
not appear in an synchronised way in all EU member states but this does not
disprove the general trend. The state of the Greek economy is negatively
influenced by developments both in the EU and the
Imperialism is strong today, as it has regained ground that had lost.
However, we have the unshakeable conviction that things will not evolve in the
same way in the immediate future. We wouldn’t be communists, we wouldn’t be
Marxists if we did not consider developments in their entirety, if we didn’t
see the contrasts and contradictions that govern and mark the imperialist
system even more intensely today.
All those who claim that «we are experiencing a reality today that we
must not ignore» are telling half the truth out of either self interest or
compromise. The reality is evolving and changing; the balance o forces is not
immutable; the capitalist system is not omnipotent and eternal. The policy of
the Communist Party can not be defined by current developments alone, but also
on the basis of the entire course taken by things, with the indispensable
intervention of the factor of the people.
In spite of the short term run possibilities provided by the export of
capital and the means that the capitalist power has in order to intervene to
the depth and the intensity of the crisis, it cannot overcome the crises and
their consequences. Capitalist cruelty and aggressiveness are not proof of
strength alone but also indicate the inability to cope with the sudden
exacerbation of the bunch of the contrasts and contradictions, which are
inherent in the evolution of the imperialist system.
It is not accidental that the most responsible economic and political
headquarters of imperialism are increasingly debating the eventuality of
humanity facing a global crisis. The impact of the crisis today cannot be
mitigated by standard procedures or some variations thereof, because of the
concentration of the higher level of both concentration of production and
socialisation of labour, on the one hand, and the concentration of the social
wealth in all the more fewer hands, on the other. Contradictions and rivalries
amongst the various regional centres of imperialism and rivalries within those
centres are growing more savage and, thus, imperialism is growing more
dangerous. Contradictions may seem stronger in regard to the capital, flow but
in reality the essence lies in the sphere of production, the source of
capitalist profit and monopoly superprofit, where surplus value is produced.
Various shades of capitalist management and a pro - monopoly policy are being
sought with a view to somehow regulate the extent and depth of the crisis.
The need for a profound change to be made is ripening, incubating the
possibility of a general counteroffensive. The speed with which this will
become a reality will depend on the progress of the labour and, more generally,
the people’s movement in each country on the national level and on the progress
of international co-ordination and co-operation.
The matter is not for our estimates to coincide as regards when the
contradictions will manifest themselves but rather for us to perceive trends and do whatever we can so that positive
processes, regroupings and the large social and revolutionary movements will
manifest themselves as soon as possible and so that we shall be ready for
sudden developments and not merely follow events.
It is not enough for us to do the obvious, to stand at the side of the
people on a daily basis, in the midst of the problems and struggles. What is
important is for the positive processes to be accelerated and the
presuppositions shaped for a general counteroffensive to pave the way for
radical changes in our country with regard to power and to the general
orientation of the country towards international developments.
We are not starting from scratch, nor are we speaking of a new
beginning. There is a base and ground which to proceed more intensely, at a
much faster pace, we and our allies, those we have today and those who soon
will join the common struggle.
A
Powerful KKE and the People’s Front
For the Party
During the open events, conferences and discussions held with people
from outside the party and with those who co-operate with us, we frequently
heard a view frankly expressed, which surprised us, because it was showing that
not only we, members of the party, consider that one of the strongest
presuppositions to build the front is the reinforcement of KKE.
It is obvious that neither our friends nor, all the more, we ourselves,
can give this correct observation the meaning that a powerful KKE should
precede the advancement of the Front. It is rather a single process, which
means that we must see which practical intensive action we shall take so that KKE
can make its great contribution to this cause, which concerns the people more
broadly.
The concept of a powerful KKE is not a simple one limited to current
needs and identified with the usual criteria put forth by bourgeois parties,
the political forces whose ambitions extend only as far as certain reforms that
do not threaten the present state of affairs.
A Powerful KKE
A
powerful KKE must have a strong and steady organisation first and foremost in
the workplace, with continuous growth and renewal of its ranks. The working
class with a strong KKE, will be more able to effectively cope - along with its
allies - with both domestic and international reactionary forces that want the
people to be subjugated and
KKE
must be capable of advancing the strategically important cause of the AADF.
We
must have the capacity to make forecasts and to be prepared to for quick
readjustments and alternation of priorities and forms of struggle.
KKE
must be a party that can contribute decisively to a change in the spiritual and
social atmosphere so that the people understand that they possess the force to
impose their rights. The necessity of socialism, for the ideas of social
emancipation and internationalist solidarity must become a broader conviction.
We must make our capacity
of taking the correct decisions, correspond to the highest possible degree with
the effectiveness of our action.
Although
our party has shown progress in elaborating and developing and developing its
strategy under the present conditions, it does not show proportionate results
and a steady crystallisation of basic factors and features such as: Growth and
renewal of its ranks, construction of the party in the workplace, increasing
circulation of Rizospastis and deeper ties with the broader popular masses.
While, with its action and initiatives, it has managed to win a high degree of
authority, considering the conditions prevailing, and while the circle of
allies and the possibilities for co-operation are growing broader, it has not
managed to contribute to an upswing in popular organisation and initiative, to
register its influence in, for example, elections.
Once,
in difficult conditions again, a few vanguard communists could mobilise
proportionally more people than today. Of course, the problem is also connected
to the objective evolution of affairs and to factors which make it difficult to
develop political consciousness. We must not, however, hide our subjective
weaknesses and some organisational laxity in our work as a whole.
The
Communist Party is not revolutionary simply because it has a revolutionary
goal. A high degree of capability of organising the popular masses, a lively
and rich internal functioning and a more active participation of all party
members in the shaping of its policy and in implementing its decisions is also
required.
What
kind of problem is this? Why did we not manage to have a greater effectiveness
under these conditions? We consider that the answer should be sought in three
main factors connected with our work:
1. The connection between strategy
and tactics is weak in our daily action, in the creation of prerequisites of
construction of the Front, is weak.
2. We failed to pay the necessary attention and to stress the study,
development and perspective of forms and methods of leadership, mass action and
propaganda that correspond to the character of the Party’s political tasks and
goals, so as to enhance the action of Party members and their participation in
the implementation of decisions.
3. Despite whatever progress we have made, systematic work is not being
carried out with cadres so that they will improve their ideological an
political level, acquire theoretical knowledge and our methodology and broaden
their experience so that they can respond to today’s increased demands.
The problem of
understanding the relation between tactics and strategy
We
are falling short in our daily action as regards the interdependent
relationship between tactics and strategy under conditions in which the
anti-imperialist, antimonopoly struggle has a stronger anti-capitalist
character and the solution to the people’s opposition to monopoly capital and
imperialist is inextricably linked to the issue of power to the transition to
socialism. We have not managed to have our practical action throughout the
party literally subjugated to the task of creation of the preconditions to
construct the Front.
How is this problem expressed:
§
A single and stable
orientation in orientation in our political and mass action in the working
class, that is, in the leading force in the people’s struggle has not yet been
achieved. While we are facing new problems with the strategy of contemporary capitalist restructuring and with
imperialist aggressiveness, we are working under the burden of the experiences,
view and methods that corresponded to previous phases.
§
There is the phenomenon of
adherence to the partial or specific instead of meeting the need to highlight
and fight in the general direction of rallying forces on the basis of
opposition to monopoly capital and imperialist policy.
§
Phenomena that are equally
erroneous also appear in our action, but the opposite way: The general
direction is highlighted, as it must be, but without being founded in action
around anti-imperialist, antimonopoly objectives and demands that contribute to
make it understood.
One should not underestimate the needs for our propaganda, for our
proposal to be founded in the severity of the specific problems existing in
each sphere, as each is manifested in its own particular way. We must not
ignore that which has ripened in the consciousness of the working people, but
we cannot keep sticking to that which has been understood or that we think it
has been.
We know the reasons that lead the working people to make demands that are
limited or defensive ones compared to those that were put forth and that
ripened ten or fifteen years ago. Rarely highlighted today are the problems of
health and safety in the workplace, although our country has a record number of
labour accidents and vocational diseases. Likewise, there is little projection
of demands for democracy in the workplace and for the equal treatment and
emancipation of women or of topical demands for the education of the working
people children, for modern free health care , for the protection of
environment. . Even the economic demands of the working people move on a very
low level. This, however, does not mean that we are free of the obligation to
highlight the contemporary demands of the working people and to show the possibilities
that exist today for them to live better and the real reasons why they are
being condemned to a deterioration in their living and working conditions.
The conclusion that can be drawn is that the other path of development
for Greek society and the need for the power of the monopolies to be overturned
should not be projected only during pre election periods or at peak moments of
the struggle, but on a daily basis too and during periods when mass activity is less intense. Such times
offer the opportunity for experience to settle and for the next offensive to be
prepared.
Under today’s conclusions with capitalist aggressiveness greater and the
correlation of forces negative, our inability to dialectically link tactics to
strategy has impacted on the trade union struggles themselves, narrowing their
effectiveness. The problem cannot be solved through barren debate on whether to
stress the immediate of the more general, the local, sectional or whatever. We
are not choosing the one part to the detriment of the other; the problem lies
in raising our ideological and political level, in acquiring broader knowledge,
in being able to connect tactics to strategy and, in the final analysis, to
join theory and practice. The prerequisite for these is knowledge of the
program and of our strategy but also good knowledge of every problem, its
nature and depth, so as to succeed in connecting tactics to strategy in a
thorough and concrete way.
The problem of the forms
and methods of leadership, inner party life and operation. Increased personal
responsibility of party members in elaborating implementing and promoting
decisions.
Everyone’s active participation in shaping decisions constitutes a basic
precondition for enhancing action and individual responsibility. It is a
problem of leadership, of the manner in which leadership is carried out and of
the preparation for conferences and discussions so that these will be lively,
will bring up issues to be resolved and increase participation in thought and action.
We must confront the mentality of routine, standardisation, generalisation and
fragmentation.
We have not achieved this yet experience has accumulated; therefore we
can improve our work in giving guidelines.
The CC considers that we must focus our attention on certain more
specific issues which could improve orientation and raise the assimilation of
Party strategy into practical work to higher level.
First: We must acquire a single view as to how we can contribute to overcoming
the serious obstacles which arise from the consensus and compromise prevailing
in the leaderships of the labour and trade union but also of the middle strata
the farmers. In conjunction with the more general development in the economy
and in labour relations, this attitude of the leaderships increases the
tendency towards withdrawal from unions and from organised union life. There
must not be one single member of the party that is not active member of his or
her union. We must place particular importance on and make our own contribution
so that the working class undertake their responsibilities, that is, to become
a vanguard force in initiatives to develop militant forms of social alliance
with other popular strata in whose interest it is to fight back against the
monopolies and monopoly capital in general.
Comprehension of the strategy of social alliance must be gained in
practice, in Party action, in every party Base Organisation. The work that
preceded the Congress showed that there are mistaken views and, in the main, a
lack of knowledge as to which are the driving forces behind the struggle and
the Front, what the common basis is and how existing differences can be dealt
with.
Based on the experience we have, we must work in a more conscientious
and programmed way to boost the Party’s leading role in the labour movement,
particularly in the trade unions and in united class trade union struggles. We
must deal decisively with the fragmented, piecemeal action, the narrowing on
the horizons of social movements and the view that each movement is autonomous
and separate. The problems of education, and health care, the inequality of
women and youth, the exploitation of foreign workers, free time and recreation,
food provision, culture, sport and environment must become causes for struggle
by the working class and its allies. The same is true as far as the causes
increasing the spread of drug addiction, social criminality, racism and
chauvinism. Imperialist policy, military interventions and war, the redivision
of spoils, countries being robbed of their wealth, the shrinking of democracy
and the offensive of intimidation as regards the right to strike and of the
class struggle are issues of daily fight back for the working people. Opposition, to the monopolies and
imperialism must pervade all social movements without, of course, them losing
their autonomy, particularity or specificity.
§
We must provide for
continuity in the elaboration of the planned framework for struggle contained
in the Theses, which have already been enriched with comments and proposals.
The Program framework for struggle:- provides the popular movement with
anti-imperialist, antimonopoly objectives on the basis of contemporary needs
and makes it easier to understand why a people’s economy is necessary. It
corresponds to the vanguard role of the working class in Greek society and to
the common interests with its allies.
It substantiates the reasons why farmers with small and medium - sized
holdings and other petty bourgeois strata, entrepreneurs with SMEs and other
social movements (of youth, women, the movement against imperialism and war and
military interventions, for democratic freedoms, culture, sport and every
movement that touches on important aspects of our people’s problems) have an interest in meeting in a united
struggle with common goals with the working class.
Makes possible to maintain a steady general direction in the struggle
and for the appropriate ranking and priorities to be made set according to
conditions, particularities and current events.
Gives the maturity level of social movements the ability to be taken
into account, without welcoming the tendency not to demand, to compromise, to
the management of the unemployment and the crisis.
We
shall work jointly in this process with the forces we are co-operating with and
with those we are looking forward to co-operate with taking into account all
the processes and explorations under way.
Throughout
the Party on all levels from the CC all the way to the PBOs, we must acquire
closer and more direct ties to the working class and its organisations in both
the workplace an the neighbourhood. To same holds roe young people in the work
place at school and at home. We must disseminate broader and convincing
communist propaganda and enlightenment on a higher level through the
popularisation of the Party’s Theses, Program and its political proposal for
the Front. We must stop downgrading political work in the working class and
amongst youth to the level of the mass movement’s current needs. Today, the
situation is much riper to transmit our ideology to the working class.
It
is impossible to change situations that are more or less fixed in the minds of
the people’s masses without clashing sharply with opportunism and reformism,
with reactionary ideology, nationalism and chauvinism, the cosmopolitanism of
capital.
We
must increase our contribution to the organisation of working people into
unions, in conjunction with the reinforcement of their militant orientation.
Greater contribution to rallying and to the co-ordination of action with forms
helping to draw closer working people to the struggle and the trade union
action. The strengthening of the role of the Workers’ Militant Front (PAME) and
the broadening its action and its ties with the trade unions and working people
constitute the militant unifying response to the state of affairs prevailing
today in the labour and trade union movement and to the difficulties
encountered by the working people due to employers’ intimidation. Let us open
yet wider our thoughts towards new forms of action and organisation to embrace
large segments of the working class that today are being pushed outside the
ranks of the trade union movement, partly because of the new labour relations,
such as the unemployed, the uninsured and foreign workers. We must establish
ways to communicate with both working and jobless women and with women working
in the unofficial «gray» economy, who are up against addition obstacles
hindering them from a class consciousness and from understanding the need for
organised action.
The
CC proposes to the Congress to adopt the resolution of organising a national
conference concerning the work of the Party in the working class and the trade
union movement.
Second: Without any
postponement or invocation of any objective difficulty that there may exist, we
must urgently fill our party life with content that is spirited and rich, so
that it will correspond to the complexity of our political tasks. We can and we
must use more dynamic simple forms of leaderships that will ensure speed in the
briefing of PBOs and in reacting to important events. We shall thus put an end
to routine laxity and delayed reaction. This will depend to a large extent on
the quality of our leadership, on the action of the CC, on the guiding bodies,
especially on the level of regional, city and prefectural committees.
The
most basic and main thing is to ensure that all party members, all PBOs take an
active part in promoting the tasks of building the Front, of strengthening the
party in the working class movement and in building the Party.
Meetings
of Party bodies and PBO assemblies must evolve into lively and militant
sessions where action plans are drafted reflecting a deeper concern as to how,
with what tactics, priorities, methods and choices and with which line of
ideological confrontation the greatest rallying of forces can be achieved.
The
benchmark by which the work of every PBO is measured is whether its action in
its own field contributes to an upswing in the organising of the popular masses
to the struggle, the dissemination of communist ideas and values and to our
ability to work with broader forces that may have disagreements with us but
nevertheless feel concern and seek joint action.
The criterion for our performance consists of how we
contribute to and facilitate the development of popular initiative an self -
mobilisation. Only if we succeed in this can we speak
of the existence of a strong mass movement and of possibilities existing for
the class struggle to be intensified.
From
the aforementioned, it can be concluded that we have special tasks regarding
the content of our ideological work, the utilisation of Party publications and
material, first and foremost, «Rizospastis» and KOMEP (Communist Review) which
contribute to a fuller merging of orientation and experience and to our
attainment of a unified level of knowledge and experience so that all arrows
hit the same target. We must carry out dynamic ideological work in many forms
but also with a system of individual self - education linked to the needs and
prospects of the struggle.
Both
the CC and the leading and consulting bodies, cities, towns and prefectures
must at every stage have a full picture of the developments and problems that
regard the economy and the working people, development opportunities, the
action taken by the ruling quarters, the people’s concerns and the processes
under way. The picture must also include the consequences of international
developments from the participation and incorporation of the country in the
regional and international imperialist division and in imperialist agencies.
Knowledge of reality cannot be acquired just once and for all, since it is
subject to the law of evolution and reorganisation. This level of consciousness
and of the study of reality has now matured within us an we can attain it. This
will make it possible to better elaborate and specify our strategic tasks in
every sphere or area and to set the right priorities and escalation for our
goals. The specific tasks of the organisation stem from the general ones and it
is in this light that we must lead, debate and decide.
The in - depth study and creative generalisation of
our experience from political and mass action, from the progress of the class
struggle, from the struggles in general and from the rallying of political
forces must be implemented on a daily basis, must become a standard may to
work. This should also include international experience from
the labour movement, from the people’s struggles and from the alliance policy
of the labour movement in the capitalist world.
In
this framework, «Rizospastis» and «KOMEP» can also help with news, articles and
surveys. One must also take advantage of the form of conferences and seminars.
POBs’ information must be substantial and though all available means.
Our
first priority is to learn from positive experiences but also from our
mistakes, to be able to answer the question of why a decision remained on
theory, why we failed to have the necessary results. It does not suffice to
study the experience on the realm of responsibility of each organisation, of
each body. However valuable that may be, it inevitably suffers from being
limited. It is necessary to generalise and pass on the collective experience so
that each Party body, organisation and member will have a much broader horizon
of experience, knowledge and conclusions.
We
must systematically use the experience and observations of those with whom we
cooperate, of fellow fighters, of all those who wish to take action together
with Communists. We shall mention another must, since it regards an issue in
which we have not attained a satisfactory level: We must choose the fullest
ways to communicate with, to hold a dialogue with friends and Party followers
with those with whom we co-operate in order to constantly expand our influence,
to stabilise and expand the circle of fighters with whom we debate and exchange
views, while, at the same time, take action together.
Renewal
of the Party ranks
On
the ground of rise of the people’s struggle and self action the fast
development of our party ranks will be achieved with the inclusion of the most
capable fighters, by planned, programmed and constantly checked work. Even
today there are forces around us capable of and suitable for constituting the
new blood of our party. They are not few, however, our conscious and programmed
action in this field is at a very low level and formal, the duty of party
building is lost among the daily routine and the current problems. Consequently,
even today there exist prerequisites for the development and improvement of the
Party’s social composition, even today we must proceed to the recruitment of
fighters who want to be not simply friends and followers but communists, with
the duties and rights provided by the honourable title of party member. In the
ranks of the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE) there are already comrades who can
acquire the title of party member, a question that we must give due
consideration to, in relation to what has been done by party organisations on this
issue, so far.
KKE, KNE and the youth
movement
The
organisation of KNE vindicated completely the Party’s expectations, expressed
in the 15th congress. It has been strengthened tangibly, it has
multiplied, it has played a vanguard role in the struggles of youth for the
problems of work and education, while it has had considerable activity on other
fronts such as the movement against imperialist war, against drugs, in the
field of culture. The political activity of KKE and its political directions
provided a serious potential to the KNE members and cadres to intensify their
action for the solution of problems of Youth, for the development of their
contacts with youth.
However,
we find ourselves at a stage which from a certain point of view can be considered
critical. The assistance provided by us to KNE, so far, is not enough.
Especially now that the organisation is developing at a fast pace. It is no
longer permissible for us to continue in this manner, in other words to give a
general, formal political and ideological assistance with the customary
participation of the party representative in meetings or vice versa, with the
participation of KNE members in party procedures and activities. These things
are needed too, but they are insufficient in today’s conditions.
The
party cadres and members and above all the constituted party organs are duty
bound to bend more over the complex problems, objectively confronted by KNE, in
its activity among the youth, so that our assistance is meaningful. It is first
of all a party duty to convey, to transmit to the KNE members the Party’s long
experience and history, to contribute to their communist education in a rich
and attractive manner. The history of our Party, of our people, concerns youth
in a broader sense.
The
new C.C. must set up appropriate staffs, co-operate with non-party people who
have a good knowledge of youth problems, the psychology and contemporary
orientations of the young generation, so that it elaborates positions and
proposals in some fields, where, today, it falls considerably short. It
concerns fields of a more general importance which, however, are of interest to
the young generation, such as questions of social policy, science and research,
new technologies, culture and sports, leisure time which is non-existent even
for childhood.
The
main and basic question is the Party to acquire direct and closer ties and
bonds with the young generation and not only through the activity by KNE, which
certainly has its own independent responsibility for action towards the
development of a strong youth movement, for the participation of youth to the
People’s Front.
In
today’s conditions when the disengagement and pessimism among the middle ages
is spread, the Party’s action must combine the social-class criteria with the
criteria of age. Today’s young generation is the one who, in the coming years,
would be called upon to take big decisions and make some hard choices. From the
present time, therefore, it is determined what will take place tomorrow, how soon
there will be proceedings and positive developments, as far as the people is
concerned, in favour of the alternative road of development of Greek society.
The policy of appointing and developing cadres is a
question of critical importance
Lately
new cadres have been elevated through activity and in hard battles, while older
and tested cadres made efforts for improving their efficiency. The new CC, the
leading organs must pass into a high level of staff plan for the development
and appointment of cadres; so that at the next congress there is a sufficient
number of new cadres who will give greater impetus to the Party’s activity. We
will succeed in this task only if the whole of the Party’s forces makes the
policy of cadre appointment its own aim , as well as the critical examination
and control of their work on the basis of the general, unified criteria we have
set.
As
far as the cadre policy is concerned the kind of logic implied in the saying
«the beast of carriage wakes up the cart driver» is not applicable. Basic
element of the planning is the recording of the specific needs especially in
fields of work where we currently have deficiencies, such as: new cadres from
the working class, from fronts of struggle of strategic importance. Cadres for
ideological work, for propaganda, scientific work and research. Women cadres
for all fields of activity, the organisation work, work in the mass movement,
in the ideological field.
Whereas
in our documents we have worked out the basic criteria for the appointment and
evaluation of cadres, in practice we deviate from their application.
The
conclusion is that the control of cadre work in the Party must become more
substantial, must be based on the real results of his/her work and not on some
superficial aspects. The cadre himself/herself seeks control, criticism,
because only then one can pinpoint on time the weak aspects of one’s work.
The
necessary prerequisites, faith in the working class cause, struggle for
socialism and communism, application of the Party’s principles and rules of
operation, participation in the struggle, one’s ties and bonds with the working
class and the popular masses, do not automatically constitute sufficient
conditions for one to meet one’s big duties. KKE cadres confront complex
problems, they are exposed to all traps and weapons of the class enemy, who
correctly estimates that the attack upon the Party from outside may bring some
results to the degree it finds support by a number of its cadres.
The
CC and the leading bodies, at least to the level of Prefecture Committees, must
include cadres who have absorbed the party policy, have a complete picture and
knowledge of duties and at the same time are specialised in their field of
responsibility. They must possess a sense of responsibility that they must be
supported by the assistance and utilisation of party members, but non party
people, as well, who possess special knowledge and experience. Permanent staffs
of work must be set up, so that the leading work is supported by the deeper study
of issues. The indispensable specialisation in a field of work must not lead to
detachment from general duties, must not end in one-sidedness which leads to
bow to the special, to the local, to singularity. The specialised knowledge,
the scientific work and studies, are necessary not as an end to themselves but
in order to serve the upsurge of class struggle, the rallying of forces, in
order to overcome off handiness and focus only on practical issues.
The
cadres are duty bound to secure the best possible conditions so that all
opinions are heard, no matter how different they are. It does not concern a
simple personal democratic right. The exposition of all views, their critical
examination, the documented rejection of them, secures that before decisions binding
on all are taken, all aspects have been examined, all experiences and proposals
have been utilised. Such a process cultivates a feeling of self confidence that
the decisions are correct, they correspond to reality. The party cadres have
the responsibility of securing the suitable conditions for such a process.
The
rejected views and proposals must not be forgotten, be thrown in a waste
basket. Perhaps some of them, in the course of struggle, prove their usefulness
or even correctness. This is ascertained immediately through united action on
the basis of decisions approved by the majority.
It
is required of every cadre to recognise the need for political and ideological
education; however the cadre needs to be assisted by the system of self-education,
party schools, lectures for the deepening of his/her knowledge, his/her
constant renewal in modern conditions. The personal capacity and willingness
for contribution to the common cause is not enough. It is demanded of a cadre
to capture the capacity for the correct orientation of Party organisations, the
capacity to convince and draw into action broader forces, capacity in the
implementation of decisions, in the mobilisation of all available forces.
The personal improvement is not an end in itself but rather a precondition for
the cadre to be able to influence the collective improvement.
A
capable cadre is required above all to be a capable organiser; in a few words, to
be able to orientate correctly those he/she lgives guidance and counsel, to
contribute to the appointment of new cadres, to have as many sided as possible
capacities so as to be able to work efficiently in various fields of work. To be able to distinguish the main, the basic, to be able to delve into
the field of his/her responsibility; to be able to see the view put forward by
life, to see the mistake, the weakness, on time. To feel responsible for the
whole course of work. To express openly his/her opinion in the party organs, in
the bodies he/she participates, aiming at assisting the decision making, the
correction of mistakes that to his/her estimation are committed. To listen to
and study the views and critical remarks expressed.
Even
then all these talents are not sufficient if the cadre does not contribute in
promoting communist education and discipline by his/her personal example, based
on the knowledge of the party’s policy and the conscientious application of the
principles of constitution independently of personal views, at the high level
of ideological and political vigilance.
From
the Party’s experience it is concluded that on some occasions of systematic,
long standing disagreements, which lead to changes of political and ideological
orientations, the cadre consider the rules of party operation as stifling and
compelling; in these cases often coexist changes to political and ideological
orientations. In such conditions they may end in a choice of open confrontation
with the Party, even open polemics, a fact that unavoidably leads to their
expulsion, but not before all margins have been exhausted so that nobody be
lost for the Party.
The
departure from the Party as a result of personal choice or as a result of
expulsion for concrete unconstitutional and anti-party activities, does not
relieve the cadres who held responsible positions for many years, from the
moral obligation to respect the struggles of the Party, the hard efforts made
by members today.
FOR THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST ANTI-MONOPOLY DEMOCRATIC
FRONT
The
central question put by the Theses of the 16th congress refer to the
indispensability of building a Front of alliance and co-operation of social and
political forces, social-political personalities, which will organise the
people’s fight for the daily people’s problems, will convince the majority of
the people that it is worth making sacrifices for, that they can struggle with
the aim of winning the people’s power, having as a main feature the
socialisation of the country’s natural resources and the basic concentrated
means of production, the workers’ social control. The people’s power will
organise the people’s economy - the material base - for social welfare, the
liberation and political independence of the country from the imperialist order
of things.
We use the term people’s front or people’s alliance in
order to show the movement’s character, the need to win not simply the
confidence of the majority of the people, but to contribute to the popular
forces coming to the fore. For claiming power, confronting actively the local
and international reaction which will not remain indifferent faced with the
danger of losing the country’s control.
From
the moment we speak of an alliance we are quite clear that no agreement can
exist on all issues, not only for political reasons, but because the social
forces do not have fully identical interests. They have differences besides the
common interest for struggle. Forces with contradictions among them will
participate in the Front, as is the case between the working class and petty
bourgeois strata, between forces with different level of consciousness,
experience, ideological and political views. All these forces can agree on the
need to confront the interests of monopolies, of imperialism.
Lately,
in the pre-congress period much ink has been used, crocodile tears have been
shed because allegedly KKE has been violating the decisions of the 15th
Congress, has abandoned its theory and has tumbled in a proposal of an alliance
which puts as a condition agreement with KKE on all matters, even the question
of the dictatorship of the proletariat. KKE has been criticised in a demagogic
way that instead of uniting the working class, it divides it putting forward a
rallying line which does not correspond to reality. That for the sake of
socialist revolution it renounces the struggle for the people’s daily problems.
They reached the point of accusing KKE for having departed from today’s fields
of struggle, those people who had accused KKE as the instigator of all big
mobilisations of workers, peasants, the youth.
Of
course these demagogic and absolutely false theories are not directed at the
party and KNE members, but they are rather directed at an audience which
becomes sensitive to our proposal, is moved by the idea of the People’s Front,
is concerned in a joint or parallel direction with us. From a certain point of
view this attack gives us the opportunity for the real proposal of KKE to be
heard more broadly and authentically.
The
critical question is not whether an alliance is needed. The question is on what
base it must be built, for what purpose, what the necessary level of agreement
is, what differences are prohibitive for its setting up, what differences may
remain and how they will be solved in the course of events. A critical question
is also the forms of organisation and struggle of the Front, its composition,
its mode of operation.
We
refer to an alliance with political aims, with an alternative program, which
has in its centre the question of power and in this way it provides an answer
to the big, pressing problems of the people. There is no party, political
movement, there is no proposal for political alliance, which does not have as a
point of reference, whether it admits it openly or not, the question of power.
Besides this is the essential difference between parties and mass
organisations.
The
bourgeois parties resort to the policy of alliances in order to maintain
today’s power and to render inactive the popular factor. The petty bourgeois
parties and political movements which move on a line of confrontation with the
neo-liberal policy without adopting, as yet, changes in a anti-monopoly,
anti-imperialist direction, face two alternatives: either to incline towards
the defence of the present system, to limit themselves to a logic of managing
the system, or to fight against it, organising the struggle against the
pro-monopoly policy, against the interests of monopoly capital. Either to take
part in the management of the system, or to turn their back to it and to chart
a course towards radical and not superficial changes at the level of power, to
the benefit of the people.
KKE
since its foundation to the present time has always counted very seriously on
the unity of action of the working class, of the people on the basis of the
problems and needs, knowing in particular that the ruling class and its parties
want the working people neither united nor concerned with urgent problems.
That’s why we had and still have vanguard participation in the mass struggles,
we fight for the revival of trade union activity, we support the All Workers
Militant Front (PAME), we are interested about the movements of peasantry and
small business, self employed people, about the revival of the activity of
their organisations, but for the formulation of a militant pole in the other
movements of petty bourgeois strata.
For
this reason we must support every form of people’s organisation with even
greater sense of responsibility, as well as every initiative which unites in
the struggle even when the demands and the aims claimed refer to limited
aspects, are narrow, defensive. For this reason we worked and are still working
persistently to bring about the widest possible rallying to the struggle
against imperialist war, the military interventions, the rapid deployment
forces, the abolition of democratic and social liberties.
Nowhere
and never, however, much more today that we live a period of the greatest
capitalist offensiveness and barbarism, the struggles will give a solution on
their own, if a strong social-political alliance is not formed, having a political
plan for radical changes, changes at the level of power.
The
argument about action of the people on the basis of problems of each particular
sector is an alibi, a smoke-screen in order to hide the real views which
support a line of alliance closely related to, if it doesn’t converge on most
points with, the concept of centre-left, which is a form of managing the
system, already tested on the backs of the peoples of Europe. The unity on the
individual problem strengthens the tendency of splitting the efforts, it does
not unite; it separates the working people in pigeon holes. It may move popular
masses which do not have a developed experience or are not conscious of the
weapons and the strength they possess. This phenomenon is explainable. When, however,
it is projected as a substitute for the anti-imperialist, anti-monopoly
alliance, it serves to the system, to the neo-liberal acquiescence and
especially to social democracy; it assists the New Democracy Party (ND) in its
efforts to appear socially attractive.
The
16th Congress with its decisions will give to the people documents
even more concrete and clear, without mincing words. Of course, it is not
possible for all problems of tomorrow to be solved today, it is not possible to
draw detailed plans, because in such a case they will be just theory. Today KKE
answers correctly the question of what the Front is and which direction it will
have to move to. The dynamics of developments will give us answers to those
questions and different views whose solution has not matured yet. Besides we do
not consider that we, on our own, will study and confront all questions; we
discuss issues and tomorrow we will discuss more with allies, with those who in
the course of struggle will come close to us.
KKE
makes it clear that the Front will express and rally in organised action
working class movements, those of the small and medium size peasantry, petty
bourgeois strata who are suppressed by the activity of monopolies. It will
rally political forces who want to resist and to act in an anti-monopoly,
anti-imperialist direction, social movements expressing the demands of youth,
women, movements against the imperialist order of things, against NATO and war,
against the European military forces, movements for democracy, culture,
education, health, the environment; every movement or action which wants to
contribute to the course in this direction, through the particular problems it
puts forward.
From
a certain point of view it is an unprecedented form of alliance for our
country, in contemporary conditions, as it involves social and political
organisations and mass movements. The forces which will set up the Front with a
nation-wide programmatic framework of struggle, maintain their autonomy. The
Front must not «digest», must not «amalgamate» political and social forces; in
such a case it will be nothing but a multi-tendencies party without any
dynamics and perspective. Besides we have had enough experience as to how
alliances transformed into party formations, were developed and finally ended.
The
most basic differences among the forces of the Front will concern the question:
what will happen at the level of power following the radical overthrow of the
correlation of forces? This does not mean that there won’t be differences on
other questions of tactics and strategy.
How will the issue of differences be solved:
With
the contest of ideas within the ranks of the Front, by taking care so that this
contest does not prevent joint action, does not endanger the achieved level of
agreement on the general direction. The differences will not be solved only at
the level of discussions between the leaderships of political forces and social
movements, but in the course of struggles, as well, with the assistance also of
the correlation of power which will be formulated in society. Compromises are
necessary and permissible provided they do not lead the people’s movement
backwards, do not lead to retreat and fall back, in the face of pressures and
divisive actions by the establishment, in favour of participating in or
supporting the governmental management. Compromises are necessary, in
conditions of temporary retreat, in order to prepare the ground for the next
offensive attempt, the new phase of counterattack.
The
Front itself will be subject to internal changes and changes in its relations
with society, under the dynamics of developments, depending on whether it goes
through the period of low or high tide. The progress of the struggle will bring
realignments at the political level, consequently the tendency will logically
be that new forces will enter the Front, new forces will approach it. The
contrary, however, can not be excluded beforehand; some forces may be unable or
unwilling to go forward to the final rift.
Some
comrades, in the pre-congress discussion, expressed concern that by the term
people’s power we slip into the logic of the two stages. Other comrades
considered that the logic of stages is connected with our estimation for the
possibility for a government of anti-monopoly, anti-imperialist forces to be
pushed forward on the basis of national Parliament.
There
is neither such intention nor such a danger, since our positions formulated by
the 15th Congress, are clear and do not permit misinterpretations.
Of course, it can be understood in this way by broader popular forces who wish
overthrows to take place gradually through reforms, in an evolutionary process,
or it can be understood thus by popular forces who believe that capitalism is
invincible. Such misinterpretations and illusions can not be avoided; the
question, however, is what we really say in the program and the «Theses» which
we are discussing in our congress.
As
early as the middle of the eighties and specifically after the 12th
Congress we had concluded, on the basis of developments, that there can not
exist a transitional stage between capitalism and socialism, which will solve
in favour of the working people the contradiction with monopolies, with
imperialism. Already since the 15th Congress we got hold of the
thread of those thoughts and elaboration, taking into account at the same time,
the significant changes taken place meanwhile.
From
the moment the Front is built in an anti-monopoly, anti-imperialist direction
it is logical to project a positive position as to what kind of power is
needed. This power can not be ambiguous, either it will serve monopolies and
imperialism or it will distinctly be in full opposition to them.
The
anti-imperialist, anti-monopoly struggle is connected with and incorporated into
the struggle against capitalism, more organically than in the past. Though it
does not necessarily lead to socialism, it contributes to the creation of
conditions, since by its nature it involves conflicts that undermine the
foundations of capitalist society, whose economic base is the monopoly. For
this reason the Front must be open to the dynamics of developments within the
country itself, and to international developments, as well.
In
conditions of a revolutionary situation it can assume the features of a
revolutionary front which fights in order to overthrow the power of monopolies,
with readiness and the capacity to interchange all forms of struggle. Within
this struggle, with the experience and decisiveness of the people’s majority,
new people’s institutions are set up which can reach the level of a
revolutionary government. This government with the victorious outcome of the
struggle will complete and consolidate its features as a socialist power of the
working class and its allies.
The
struggle for the people’s power will go through many phases and fluctuations.
The depth and the extend of changes at the level of power are determined, in
every phase or turn of the movement, by the correlation of forces, by the
dynamics of developments. We can not exclude the possibility for a sudden
decrease of the power of bourgeois parties to occur, much as it seems that such
developments are not favoured today. In other words their prestige and
influence among the people could drop suddenly, without the existence of
conditions of a national crisis, of a revolutionary situation; that would raise
the possibility to formulate a government of anti-monopoly, anti-imperialist
forces on the basis of parliament.
The
Front must have a direction and foresight as to how to act in such an
eventuality, of the appointment of a government of anti-monopoly,
anti-imperialist forces. It must utilise such a possibility, secure the maximum
mobilisation of the people, support and check the government so that it charts
political choices which meet the intensified problems of the people, accelerate
the procedures for a more drastic change of the correlation of forces.
People’s power - People’s economy
The
people’s power in our concept is a socialist power. However, we do not put as a
condition for the setting up of the Front, agreement on the question of
socialism, of the dictatorship of the proletariat. We estimate that the term
people’s power can provide a general unifying idea, and every component of the
Front will maintain its own concept for its character and content. In every
case the concept of the people’s power must include features which distinguish
it from the dictatorship of monopolies and convince the people that the
struggle is worthy of sacrifices.
Which features and qualities can secure this
diversity:
The
fact that it will be a power expressing exclusively the interests of the
working class and its allies, it will have as its main feature the instituting
of a people’s economy, the social ownership, worker’s social control. It will
promote policy independent of the international imperialist organisations, and
will free itself of the formal commitments to them. The people’s power will
already have the consent of the people to such a choice, since its programme
can not be implemented inside the walls of the EU and NATO. Besides, the EU
itself determines that the member states do not have the right to dispute the
capitalist restructuring. Moreover they have to support it in every possible
way, by economic, political and suppressive means. NATO not only does not allow
to the member states any margin for manoeuvres, even when it concerns the
question of borders, national sovereignty, but on the contrary, demands full
participation in the policy of border changing, war and terrorism against the
peoples.
We
do not have any illusions that it is easy for a single country on its own to
fully confront the encirclement and the reaction that will arise from its
attempt to ignore and break up its commitments. However, we can not agree with
those who support the view that
We
believe that
The
confrontation with and breaking away from the international imperialist
organisations, will unavoidably be caused and will be expressed, above all, in
the field of economy, but as well in the country’s policy in the Balkans, in
the region, in its defence doctrine which has been transformed into an
offensive one, today.
The
people’s power will be compelled by reality itself to put in full motion the
country’s resources and to utilise all of the country’s development sources; to
secure employment, the improvement of people’s life, of health and education,
the protection of the social and natural environment. It is impossible for any
step forward to be taken, even more so for the pro-people’s development to
proceed, if a central nation-wide economic management apparatus is not
formulated, for the utilisation of the country’s resources, the development sources
and capabilities. The tool for such an apparatus will be the state nation-wide
planning adapted to regional, branch, inter-branch level, aiming also at
enabling the country to utilise, from the first moment, every possible positive
international economic co-operation.
It
is impossible to materialise a planned total development for the majority, of
the people, when the basic and concentrated means of production and the
country’s productive wealth are in the hands of monopolies, the international
monopolies.
Consequently
an indispensable condition is the socialisation of resources, of the
concentrated means of production. The socialised sector will be extended in
comparison with what was required in the past, since monopoly capital has
passed on a higher degree of concentration and penetration, not only at the
production level but also in commerce, in the social sector, in education and
health, in tourism. The latter is a significant source of income for our
country, besides the role it plays in the people’s quality of life. We do not
support the full, total nation-wide scale socialisation. We support that next
to the socialised sector of the people’s economy the productive co-operatives
of the small and medium peasantry, small business people, especially those who operate
in the manufacturing branches, where there is very small concentration will
operate. The incorporation of these popular strata in co-operatives, with
the experience acquired under the pressure from monopolies, will be conceived
as a beneficial choice, since it facilitates their concentration, the securing
of their rights, the rise of their productivity, the improvement of products
and their distribution.
In
this way the alliance of the working class with the poor peasantry and small business
people will be strengthened, the distribution of consumer goods, without the
known profiteering on the basis of modern needs, will be secured.
In
the people’s economy we include: Energy. Telecommunications. Mines. Water
supply. Transport. The basic branches of manufacturing, and means of
production. The banking system, the system of concentration, distribution,
management of economic and material sources. Foreign trade , the concentrated
network of domestic trade. The sector of people’s housing. The basic and
applied research. The democratic information of the people.
The
central nation-wide economic management apparatus may operate with a real
ambition for efficiency, capacity to overcome the hurdles it will come across
on a national and international level, to the degree it secures in practice
the active participation of working people in the social and workers’ control,
democracy in the work place. It aims at the extended satisfaction of the
people’s needs, the extended reproduction, the country’s security and defence,
the international co-operation and international people’s solidarity.
Central
planning protects local production, secures the proportions of
production-distribution, promotes bilateral agreements between states, research
for the application of the achievements of science and technology in the sector
of production and reproduction of labour force.
It
develops the means of production, the productivity of labour, the vertical
interconnection of manufacturing and agricultural production, decentralisation,
protection against floods and earthquakes, the environment.
How
the Front will be formed as soon as possible
It
is a fact that the setting up of the Front is an absolutely immediate need, or
we would rather say that the people would struggle from better positions had it
already been realised. However, it is neither the first time nor is it likely
to be the last that we ascertain a discrepancy between indispensability and
immediate possibility. The timing of setting up the Front is not our own
exclusive responsibility; more general prerequisites are required for it, such
as the revitalisation of the workers’ trade union movement and other basic
movements, the final commitment to it by significant forces active today. Some
of them are still under the influence of other parties, which in some way have
a «dual soul», whilst they see things clearly, can not free themselves of the
illusion that it is possible for the leaderships of their parties to change
course.
In
any case we are not at the same point with the period of the 15th
congress, when the first elaboration of our political position took place.
Today we are in a position to talk about the Front not only as a theory, but
also possessing the experience of rallying people, of co-operation affected in
various fronts of struggle. It is positive that a debate has commenced. Much
work is still needed make a broader discussion on the question, so that the
setting up of the Front has a firm base and consequently the required
credibility and dynamic. At the same time we must have the greatest possible
vigilance, because it is possible for things to change unexpectedly.
Without
delaying the systematic work for the Front’s establishment, we can find a way
to develop co-operation in particular fronts and rallying, provided, of course,
these oppose, the dominant choices of pro-monopoly, imperialist policy. The
co-operation and alliances around specific anti-imperialist demands and aims do
not constitute the Front, as yet, however, they may constitute fields of
rallying and testing, may become the streams, the torrents which will lead to
the Front itself.
The
formulation of particular fronts of struggle with a socio-political character
of action, provides the possibility not to lose valuable joint action, wherever
there is agreement, so as to try in practice how far we can broaden the
coalition to the Front itself. In this way forces are concentrated, without
taking the risk - under the anxiety of its quick establishment - to transform
the Front into an alliance glued together in an opportunist manner; it is,
therefore, exposed from the very start to the danger of splitting and
ineffectiveness.
With
the particular fronts of struggle and co-operation around anti-imperialist,
anti-monopoly aims concerning acute problems, we accelerate proceedings towards
the Front, without waiting passively for conditions to mature as a whole. The
particular fronts of struggle may rally even broader forces from the point of
view of participation in them of forces which want to act in the specific
issue, without necessarily having achieved a total strategy of opposition to
monopolies, imperialism and its unions.
Such
rallying fronts do exist, are being built, or can be pushed forward to the big
fields of battle which are already developing. We consider that some fronts of
struggle can be strengthened even more, distinguish themselves, constitute
seeds of the Front, streams, torrents towards it. If we want to accelerate the
proceedings we consider that all of us must immediately move on the following
basic fields, on which depends the rise of all political movements and their
deeper politicisation-radicalisation:
1. Rallying against
capitalist restructuring in the workers’ trade union movement, using as a
starting point what already has been gained by the All workers Militant Front,
which is supported not only by KKE but other political forces and formations.
Mainly, however, it expresses the mood of the class forces in the trade union
movement. The capitalist restructuring of the economy,
industrial relations, social policy, the privatisation and the struggle against
imperialist interventions, as well, against the country’s criminal
participation are absolutely in the order of the current situation. An integral
part of the struggle must be the issues of inequality and dual suppression of
women, the problems of working youth, the acute problem of nutrition, the use
of new technologies, the confrontation of intensified environmental problems,
the country’s shielding against earthquakes. The life conditions of working
people, the very intense problem of leisure time, of rest and recreation.
We
must give all our forces to the struggle against capitalist restructuring, make
our contribution so that desirable forms of social alliance are born and
supported among the working class, the petty bourgeois strata of towns and the
small and medium peasantry. The worker-peasant alliance
performed miracles in many of the earth’s regions during the 20th
century; in our country, as well, it assisted in winning many gains. Today it
must march even further, be extended by the inclusion of other petty bourgeois
strata of the urban centres and areas. By joint action with other social
movements, of youth and women, the area of education, culture, environment, the
movement against drugs.
4. We have to contribute to
the mobilisation of forces from the working class, the youth, from all
movements, from the people of art and culture, so that the intellectual and
cultural atmosphere in our country starts changing. Today the frontal
confrontation is needed with the phenomena of decay and corruption, the logic
of fatalism and defeatism, individualism, the buying out of consciences, the
submission of conscience, nationalism and racism, chauvinism and
anti-communism. A climate needs to be created which will support the values of
collective, organised action, of social and internationalist solidarity, of
people’s initiative; the faith must be cultivated that when the people really
want they can achieve anything.
5. There is an immediate need
for us to develop to forms of co-ordination and co-operation with anti-monopoly
anti-imperialist, radical progressive forces at a regional and international
level, having as the starting point the joint workers’ struggle against NATO,
the militarised EU, against the apparatuses of terror and suppression. The
international dimension of the Greek struggle must be present in all every of
its aspects and expressions. As far as we are concerned we will proceed faster
in our effort to formulate more discernibly the joint action between the
workers’ and communist parties and more broadly among anti-imperialist
movements.
FOR SOCIALISM
As far as it depends on us we will continue to
search for the reason of the overthrow of existing socialism and the victory of
counterrevolution. The criticism levelled at the CC that it did not try to open
a broader debate among the Greek society about the real reasons, is correct; we
did not shed sufficient light on the achievements and contribution of
socialism. We left gaps which were exploited by those who wished to get rid of
socialism. Unfortunately these are not the only ones who distort reality. Those
also who fall into the trap of easy and superficial explanation of events, have
their share of responsibility. We must, however, be fully aware that it is not
possible for us, KKE on our own, to provide full answers if all the communist
parties, Marxist scientists, above all those who lived through the building of
socialism, had a first hand knowledge of events, do not engage themselves
seriously with this task.
We
will provide continuity of this process having as a starting point the
estimations and speculations for the factors which determine the overthrow,
adopted by the National Conference held on 15th-16th
July, 1995. There are some basic estimations which must be studied again by
party members, because without criteria and a compass the deeper and more
complete answers will not be pinpointed. We focus on the most characteristic:
• The system of
internal contradictions in socialism was overlooked, giving rise to negative
consequences which were reflected at the economic, social and political level.
Lenin’s basic theoretical thoughts, in accordance to which, socialism is not
free of contradictions and disagreements and that when these are ignored they
assume the character of conflict, were underestimated. The process of
unification of socialist society was overestimated and turned into an absolute,
resulting in the non-detection and confrontation of discrepancies and discords,
serious problems, to the degree required by the conditions.
• The creative
evolution was delayed and likely so the development and enrichment of theory by
the experience of socialist building and the action of revolutionary forces.
Gradually the leading, vanguard role of the party was lost and in parallel the
party control was weakened and finally disappeared; likewise the party
organisations and cadres were detached from the broad popular masses.
We
need to study deeper the issues of socialist economy, the state, democracy. We
will not, however, draw conclusions and lessons, we will not develop our
thoughts in the modern conditions if we ignore the fact that socialism was
built in conditions of imperialist encirclement, of constant confrontation with
capitalism. We must not ignore the lessons extracted by the policy of export of
counterrevolution developed in the form of Perestroika and the mottos for
renewal and reconstruction. It is of importance to us not to overlook that a
counterrevolutionary policy manages to win the consent or tolerance of broad
popular masses. The very close relation of opportunism with the creation of the
conditions for the prevailing of the counterrevolution.
We
are of the opinion that some views expressed about socialism or the
developments in the countries which have been attempting to build socialism in
modern conditions, irrespective of whether they include correct underscores and
concerns, exhibit a tendency of simplification in the face of the complex
problems of socialist building.
We
will continue our efforts for clarifying the questions of socialism, not only
by looking at yesterday but by studying the modern developments, as well. Not
only ourselves will come out of this process as winners, more militant and
capable, but the people as well.
The
Communist Party as a conscious section of the working class, expressing the
interests of other working people, is different from the parties representing
the other social classes its character, mission, ideology and organisational
principles. We oppose the capitalist system, we act for the organisation and
revolutionisation of broad working people masses, we struggle for the militant
solidarity among peoples, for the building of a socialist, a communist society.
For this reason we are active and consistent in the people’s daily struggles,
the struggle for peace, social democratic rights, national independence, the
right of every people to be able to determine its present and future. In the
past our Party was confronted with complex problems, whether the movement was
on the upsurge or in a phase of temporary retreat or abatement; the same also
applies today and will apply in future. Every step taken forward will add new
duties and responsibilities.
Let
the debate begin bearing the feeling of high responsibility. Although it is
known, we may repeat it here: During the century that passed, all the gains of
the working class bore the seal of communist participation, in the social,
patriotic and class struggles.
The
struggle against monopolies and imperialism, the fight to overthrow capitalism
requires sacrifices. However these sacrifices cannot compare to those made by
the people on the altar of big capital.
The
CC of KKE December 2000.
e-mail:cpg@int.kke.gr