Issues of Party strategy regarding the Anti-imperialist Anti-monopoly Democratic Front and socialism
During the pre-Congress discussion, some people stressed that the CC was right to raise the issue of upgrading political action on the need to fight for socialism, and that this is the key to our strategy. The view was expressed that attention should be paid to ensure that demonstrating the need and realistic prospect of socialism does not outflank the issue of formation of the Front, through forces that do not agree with us on the question of socialism.
The issue was discussed exhaustively at the 15th and 16th congresses, which concluded in decisions that are certainly valid.
The political proposal regarding the Anti-imperialist Anti-monopoly Democratic Front is clear and specific. It does not aim to deceive anyone or to use the Front as a Trojan horse with regard to its allies. The KKE, when establishing a common framework of action, does not lay down as a condition any agreement regarding socialism or its programme position that there is no intermediate authority between the bourgeois political power and socialism. Consequently it does not oblige the other forces in the alliance to adopt forms for winning socialist power in Greece, or the laws of building socialism.
Our proposal for the Front took into consideration that this alliance objectively expresses a broader social base, the interests of the majority of the people. The Front is composed of social and political forces that are disparate from the viewpoint of social status and ideological and political stance, but who nevertheless agree on the need to demand another path of development for Greek society, in opposition to the interests of the monopolies, and of the imperialist associations. The correlation of forces, the social class structure, and the overall conditions prevailing in the country were also considered, as was the fact that the people must be prepared ideologically, politically and organisationally and that specific objective revolutionary conditions are required in order that the issue of socialist power and the passage to socialism can be placed on the agenda. Under these conditions, differences will be resolved on the basis of the correlation of forces: that is, when the working class and the other popular strata, convinced by their own experience, decide to take a qualitative, revolutionary leap forward, in radical opposition to the capitalist system.
For the formation of the Front, common action on the major and timely problems of the people is not sufficient. There must also be some level of agreement with programme directions and goals of struggle that have internal coherence and hierarchy in an anti-monopoly anti-imperialist direction. The Front tells the people that it is necessary for the interests of the exploited, oppressed popular forces to be established at the level of power, integrally linked with drastic change and the overthrow of the balance of forces, and that the bourgeois parties must relinquish the reins of governance. But this is not enough either. The Front must have a proposal for the people at the level of power too. Besides, there is no political force or alliance indifferent to the question of political power, irrespective of the nature of this power and the interests it expresses.
The Party has expressed a general idea on the question of power that could function in a unifying way, as long as it contains basic directions that set it apart from power today and the variations in its management. The participants in the Front could also be accommodated under the umbrella of this idea.
It contains the idea of power to the people; its incentive and goal is to establish the peoples' economy, to ensure the people's well being, better satisfaction of their modern material and cultural-intellectual needs, expanded reproduction, the resources needed for the security and defence of the country, international popular solidarity, the common struggle against the imperialist associations and war.
One issue must be made clear. No substantial step forward can be taken to open the road to development for the people, as long as monopoly capital and its agents dominate the economy and sectors of strategic importance. No step forward can be taken to the benefit of the people's interests as long as Greece is entrapped in the imperialist commitments of interstate associations.
The prerequisite for the people's prosperity is for the basic and concentrated means of production, resources and sectors of strategic importance to be socialised, and to become the property of the people. The socialised sector will be extended, since monopoly capital has passed to a higher degree of concentration and penetration not only in the realm of production but also in trade, in the social domain, in education, health and tourism.
Existing and ever more acute needs are taken into account: in social housing, in the construction of public works having to do with the management of water and the environment, as well as works to protect the country from floods and earthquakes; there is a need for the development of general and basic research, and to ensure the people access to democratic information.
The weight and significance are calculated of the interests of owners of small and medium-sized farms, and of the popular urban strata who are self-employed in small and medium-sized enterprises. This is why the need is put forward of creating production cooperatives in the agrarian economy and in manufacturing sectors, where the level of concentration is small. Such a choice is in the people's favour, because it facilitates their concentration, ensures their interests, increases their productivity and product quality, and helps in sales and transport.
Another prerequisite is to have an independent policy, disengaged from the choices of the EU and NATO, and to promote international alliances that are in country's best interests and based on mutual benefit. The international adverse correlation of forces is taken into account, as is the fact that other peoples too will demand gains, and that not only is the policy of capital internationalised, but the class struggle as well, and that every change in one country or the other in favour of popular movements will mark new opportunities for other peoples.
The Front will not move on a "green light" from the state, the parties in power, their allies or the monopolies. The class and political adversary, domestic and foreign, will not give up the effort to raise obstacles before the Front is formed. The adversary will interfere continually in its course, trying to take advantage of its internal difficulties. At every phase it will be necessary to ensure constant preparedness to confront the modern mechanisms of state oppression and violence, the statutory framework of the EU and NATO, the policy of both the "stick" and the "carrot", and the adversary's effort to split the Front or assimilate it.
Various assessments will appear within the Front not only on the issue of power, but on its entire course of action, since it will be an alliance of different political forces and social movements. Within the social forces of the Front, apart from the common interest, differences will be manifested that stem from their specific social class affiliation.
Consequently, at turning points in the movement, the discussion will arise of "what compromise" or "what compromises", according to developments in Greece and internationally. The course of the Front will be accompanied by the expansion and realignment of forces.
The KKE, on its part and based on its experience, will ensure that differences do not hinder the common line of action and the development of the Front; that they do not threaten whatever has been gained in common, but also that compromises do not take place that weaken the movement and permit the adversary to gain ground and to split our ranks.
Fighting to build the Anti-imperialist Anti-monopoly Democratic Front, fighting for it to keep growing and getting stronger, the Party maintains at the same time its own ideological, political and organisational independence. This self-evident right is recognised by our allies.
The KKE constantly and consistently promotes the policy of alliances and, at the same time, openly places its Programme before the people and their allies, in which it argues for the necessity and timeliness of the socialist transformation. It sets forth its views and thoughts on how it sees the means of approach and the prerequisites for the passage to socialism. The issue is of concern to all those whose interests lie in the continued cooperation of the working class with its allies within the context of building socialism.
The KKE Programme notes that under conditions of the culmination of the class struggle and the revolutionary rise of the movement, when the revolutionary process will have objectively begun, a government may result that expresses the power of the people without general elections. This government will be identified with or separated by some formal distance from the power of the working class and its allies.
Under conditions of class confrontation and the great decline in the influence of the bourgeois parties and their allies, a government may result of anti-imperialist anti-monopoly forces, based in the parliament, without the conditions existing for the revolutionary passage. This government, irrespective of its radical declarations and the sincerity of its intentions, which the Party has no reason to dispute in advance, will have to meet the acute demands and vital needs of the people. Planning solutions for the people, based on its commitments, it will be obliged to push things forward. The period of time it will have to do this will not be long, under conditions of counterattack by the oligarchy of wealth and its parties, and by international imperialist associations. If it fails and is overthrown, owing to the correlation of forces or to subjective factors or both, the labour and popular movement more generally, the radical forces must be able to adjust. They must not abandon the goal. They must regroup and once again be in a position of counterattack on the road of struggle for political power.
The Party's programme commitments, its responsibilities for the formation and then the development of the Front oblige it:
The issue was discussed exhaustively at the 15th and 16th congresses, which concluded in decisions that are certainly valid.
The political proposal regarding the Anti-imperialist Anti-monopoly Democratic Front is clear and specific. It does not aim to deceive anyone or to use the Front as a Trojan horse with regard to its allies. The KKE, when establishing a common framework of action, does not lay down as a condition any agreement regarding socialism or its programme position that there is no intermediate authority between the bourgeois political power and socialism. Consequently it does not oblige the other forces in the alliance to adopt forms for winning socialist power in Greece, or the laws of building socialism.
Our proposal for the Front took into consideration that this alliance objectively expresses a broader social base, the interests of the majority of the people. The Front is composed of social and political forces that are disparate from the viewpoint of social status and ideological and political stance, but who nevertheless agree on the need to demand another path of development for Greek society, in opposition to the interests of the monopolies, and of the imperialist associations. The correlation of forces, the social class structure, and the overall conditions prevailing in the country were also considered, as was the fact that the people must be prepared ideologically, politically and organisationally and that specific objective revolutionary conditions are required in order that the issue of socialist power and the passage to socialism can be placed on the agenda. Under these conditions, differences will be resolved on the basis of the correlation of forces: that is, when the working class and the other popular strata, convinced by their own experience, decide to take a qualitative, revolutionary leap forward, in radical opposition to the capitalist system.
For the formation of the Front, common action on the major and timely problems of the people is not sufficient. There must also be some level of agreement with programme directions and goals of struggle that have internal coherence and hierarchy in an anti-monopoly anti-imperialist direction. The Front tells the people that it is necessary for the interests of the exploited, oppressed popular forces to be established at the level of power, integrally linked with drastic change and the overthrow of the balance of forces, and that the bourgeois parties must relinquish the reins of governance. But this is not enough either. The Front must have a proposal for the people at the level of power too. Besides, there is no political force or alliance indifferent to the question of political power, irrespective of the nature of this power and the interests it expresses.
The Party has expressed a general idea on the question of power that could function in a unifying way, as long as it contains basic directions that set it apart from power today and the variations in its management. The participants in the Front could also be accommodated under the umbrella of this idea.
It contains the idea of power to the people; its incentive and goal is to establish the peoples' economy, to ensure the people's well being, better satisfaction of their modern material and cultural-intellectual needs, expanded reproduction, the resources needed for the security and defence of the country, international popular solidarity, the common struggle against the imperialist associations and war.
One issue must be made clear. No substantial step forward can be taken to open the road to development for the people, as long as monopoly capital and its agents dominate the economy and sectors of strategic importance. No step forward can be taken to the benefit of the people's interests as long as Greece is entrapped in the imperialist commitments of interstate associations.
The prerequisite for the people's prosperity is for the basic and concentrated means of production, resources and sectors of strategic importance to be socialised, and to become the property of the people. The socialised sector will be extended, since monopoly capital has passed to a higher degree of concentration and penetration not only in the realm of production but also in trade, in the social domain, in education, health and tourism.
Existing and ever more acute needs are taken into account: in social housing, in the construction of public works having to do with the management of water and the environment, as well as works to protect the country from floods and earthquakes; there is a need for the development of general and basic research, and to ensure the people access to democratic information.
The weight and significance are calculated of the interests of owners of small and medium-sized farms, and of the popular urban strata who are self-employed in small and medium-sized enterprises. This is why the need is put forward of creating production cooperatives in the agrarian economy and in manufacturing sectors, where the level of concentration is small. Such a choice is in the people's favour, because it facilitates their concentration, ensures their interests, increases their productivity and product quality, and helps in sales and transport.
Another prerequisite is to have an independent policy, disengaged from the choices of the EU and NATO, and to promote international alliances that are in country's best interests and based on mutual benefit. The international adverse correlation of forces is taken into account, as is the fact that other peoples too will demand gains, and that not only is the policy of capital internationalised, but the class struggle as well, and that every change in one country or the other in favour of popular movements will mark new opportunities for other peoples.
The Front will not move on a "green light" from the state, the parties in power, their allies or the monopolies. The class and political adversary, domestic and foreign, will not give up the effort to raise obstacles before the Front is formed. The adversary will interfere continually in its course, trying to take advantage of its internal difficulties. At every phase it will be necessary to ensure constant preparedness to confront the modern mechanisms of state oppression and violence, the statutory framework of the EU and NATO, the policy of both the "stick" and the "carrot", and the adversary's effort to split the Front or assimilate it.
Various assessments will appear within the Front not only on the issue of power, but on its entire course of action, since it will be an alliance of different political forces and social movements. Within the social forces of the Front, apart from the common interest, differences will be manifested that stem from their specific social class affiliation.
Consequently, at turning points in the movement, the discussion will arise of "what compromise" or "what compromises", according to developments in Greece and internationally. The course of the Front will be accompanied by the expansion and realignment of forces.
The KKE, on its part and based on its experience, will ensure that differences do not hinder the common line of action and the development of the Front; that they do not threaten whatever has been gained in common, but also that compromises do not take place that weaken the movement and permit the adversary to gain ground and to split our ranks.
Fighting to build the Anti-imperialist Anti-monopoly Democratic Front, fighting for it to keep growing and getting stronger, the Party maintains at the same time its own ideological, political and organisational independence. This self-evident right is recognised by our allies.
The KKE constantly and consistently promotes the policy of alliances and, at the same time, openly places its Programme before the people and their allies, in which it argues for the necessity and timeliness of the socialist transformation. It sets forth its views and thoughts on how it sees the means of approach and the prerequisites for the passage to socialism. The issue is of concern to all those whose interests lie in the continued cooperation of the working class with its allies within the context of building socialism.
The KKE Programme notes that under conditions of the culmination of the class struggle and the revolutionary rise of the movement, when the revolutionary process will have objectively begun, a government may result that expresses the power of the people without general elections. This government will be identified with or separated by some formal distance from the power of the working class and its allies.
Under conditions of class confrontation and the great decline in the influence of the bourgeois parties and their allies, a government may result of anti-imperialist anti-monopoly forces, based in the parliament, without the conditions existing for the revolutionary passage. This government, irrespective of its radical declarations and the sincerity of its intentions, which the Party has no reason to dispute in advance, will have to meet the acute demands and vital needs of the people. Planning solutions for the people, based on its commitments, it will be obliged to push things forward. The period of time it will have to do this will not be long, under conditions of counterattack by the oligarchy of wealth and its parties, and by international imperialist associations. If it fails and is overthrown, owing to the correlation of forces or to subjective factors or both, the labour and popular movement more generally, the radical forces must be able to adjust. They must not abandon the goal. They must regroup and once again be in a position of counterattack on the road of struggle for political power.
The Party's programme commitments, its responsibilities for the formation and then the development of the Front oblige it:
- To systematically watch and study developments in Greek capitalism, in the social class structure, in the working class and the other popular strata. To take into account that Greek capitalism is in its final stage of development, at the state monopoly level, in an intermediate position, dependent on the international imperialist system. That the contemporary anti-imperialist anti-monopoly struggle, compared to previous years, is more closely associated with and an organic part of the struggle to overthrow capitalism.
- To study more systematically the experience of our movement in Greece, and international experience and developments.
- To contribute as much as possible to developing and enriching our theory of the solution to the problem of power, of the passage to socialism and its building in Greece. After the victory of the counterrevolution, it had to make its own contribution to revitalising the vision of socialism that was stained by anti-socialist propaganda, but also by the mistakes that led to its reversal. This is not an academic future issue. It also concerns today, because imperialist barbarity is seeking to legalise its choices, with the argument that there is no other system of social justice and social equality, that socialism "collapsed" and "failed", and all the other arguments and fictions that it uses.
e-mail:cpg@int.kke.gr
