Some issues from the ideological political front
As the vehicle for developing theory and shaping policy, the KKE supports its fight in its proposals, in theory, in scientific research and in study. Through its example it should incite young people in particular to turn their attention to the major theoretical issues, and to the great value of science, which must be placed at the service of the people, and of the working people. It has the obligation to create opportunities for educated young communists to acquire Marxist theory. The interest exists, and can be further cultivated. Consequently, in our policy for developing and promoting cadres and in the allocation of their work, we must pay attention to utilising young comrades in the domain of theory and study.
At the same time, care should be taken to ensure contact with the more general issues of party action, and with the mass movement, so as to link theoretical work with the experience and needs of the movement, and not to be cut off from it.
Anti-communist and anti-socialist propaganda constitutes the basic front of bourgeois ideology and politics, in order to conceal the aggressive and purely class nature of capitalist restructurings. The front against the imperialist ideology must become more penetrating, more revealing, and more vivid, since this ideology has infiltrated the entire spectrum of social problems and interests, and even affects our way of life. Propaganda and enlightenment must touch deeply all those factors and views that reproduce and intensify the problem of alienation and assimilation.
The policy of ND and PASOK in their alternating roles offers a wealth of specific material that reveals the effort to entrap the popular masses. The ideological and political conflict with SYN, as an organised vehicle of opportunism, is necessary owing to the damaging role it plays in cultivating illusions and disorienting the militant forces in Greece and in international activities.
It is not enough for our propaganda to have a polemic, accusing character. What will be even more persuasive, attractive and effective is counteroffensive by promoting our position on the Front, by disseminating, elaborating and developing the theory of scientific socialism, by the profound and scientifically based revelation of the character, nature and laws that govern capitalism at its imperialist stage.
The Party must concentrate on four basic issues in its action in the fields of theory, study and research, always on the basis of changing social reality, and in touch with the needs of the struggle.
First: We must work out our views about socialism, continuing the effort to produce comprehensive conclusions about the causes of the reversal of the socialist regimes. The new CC will draw up a concrete programme and study forms of collective discussion of the processed data.
Second: Better study of the present situation in the working class and developments in its composition, and more thorough publicising of its historic mission in the cause of overthrowing capitalism and building socialism.
Third: Systematic study and deepening of our understanding on issues of strategy and tactics, utilising the party's historical experience, and taking into account the particular historical conditions within which they were shaped. This will become even easier with the publishing of the second volume of the History of the Party which will be subject to discussion and dialogue, both within the Party and more broadly.
Fourth: The systematic theoretical research, study and generalisation of experience on the subject of imperialism. Within this context, the position of Greece in the imperialist system, trends and developments will be studied more deeply. Issues related to the internationalisation of the class struggle and the international popular struggle more generally will be studied more thoroughly.
Immediately after the Congress, this effort will be placed on the proper foundation, with relatively long-term planning, but also with intermediate results: the better composition of the CC Sections and inter-section cooperation; utilisation of the Party's academic forces and KNE; development of collaboration with academics and intellectuals who are close to the Party or are interested in working with it on contemporary issues.
The main and basic thing is to begin planning the effort to educate Marxist scientists. At the same time, special weight must be given to improving the quality of our propaganda and enlightenment in terms of both form and content. Significant steps have been taken in this regard, so that there are well-founded expectations of something better.
Developments have certainly distinguished new forms of communication, and the role of images in broadcasting news and ideas.
Nothing should be underestimated. But one idea must be foremost: that the best form of propaganda is that which expresses the truth, which is combined with dialogue and rebuttal, and which attracts energetic mass participation. Images, music and art are also realms in which ideas are put forward and aesthetics are cultivated, play an educational role and influence people. But of greatest importance is reading, study and the written word.
"Rizospastis", COMEP (Communist Review), the Party's publications and their dissemination are the most significant weapons. If every single Party member does not acquire a different attitude to studying and reading, personal and collective, in the form of classes and self-teaching, the Party will not be able to cope with the complex tasks it must undertake.
The ideological front and its elaborations must show improved quality in their ideological and political rebuttal of opportunist views and theories.
Fighting imperialism with a weak, inadequately prepared front against opportunism is inconceivable, since this phenomenon is pre-eminently a product of the pressure exerted by imperialism on the labour and popular movement more generally.
Opportunism, as a hindrance to radicalisation, is not evaluated chiefly on the basis of the electoral influence of its representatives. It is utilised and supported by the system, irrespective of its own capabilities.
The basic timeless features of the tactics of opportunism are: its adaptability, dual language, opportunistic manoeuvres, creation of impressions, imitation, and attachment to theoretical and practical fictions that have sustained sharp blows since the early 20th century.
During a period in which the movement is declining, it supports without a qualm the bourgeois ideology, and the anti-communist, anti-socialist campaign in one way or another, as it did in Greece during the 1990s. During periods when the movement is preparing its counterattack, it does not hesitate to criticise the bourgeois parties, or to appear to be distancing itself from social democracy, while retaining social democracy constantly as its programme direction.
Its "anti-neoliberal" proposal is not only remote from, but is essentially in conflict with the anti-imperialist anti-monopoly direction. Its most basic feature is to detach politics from the economy, and to detach the solutions it proposes from the concrete reality shaped by capitalist restructurings. Its proposals express little more than a utopian nostalgia for the capitalist "welfare state" of the past. Its central idea is that it is possible to regulate the capitalist market, and to combine capitalist restructurings with a social policy in favour of the working people.
Its stance toward the EU is of decisive significance to the character of a party's programme, especially a party that preaches socialism. The one-way street of a party's policy shaped according to the logic of the EU refutes any declaration about radical policy on the national level, or about the dividing line with social democracy.
The Party's dispute with opportunism is also expressed on the question of what line and strategy is it feasible for the popular movement to have gains and successes that will not just improve its life temporarily, but provide optimism to go forward.
The realignment of forces, development of the Party ranks and building the KKE in the workplace and in sectors
In order for the Party to improve its subjective abilities and opportunities, it must: proceed more decisively, aptly and in a leading spirit, on the basis of its character and tasks, to regroup its forces, to complete the effort it has begun in recent years to achieve the planned development of its forces and to build the Party among the working class, and more generally in workplaces and in sectors.
Allocation of forces and recruitment policy with the appropriate orientation toward the working class and its alliances, toward young people and women, all of those go together, and can be combined.
The trend is for the growth of branch and regional organisations, for more BOs in workplaces, and more productive BOs on a territorial basis. A policy should be worked out, based on experience, to promote and develop working class cadres, among whom should be women and young people with a high level of political and theoretical training and militant action. Every BO should develop close ties with friends and followers, associates and working people who are interested in the KKE's positions. That is, it should have a broad environment with common action in the movement and in coalitions, which it keeps systematically informed and whose opinions and proposals it listens to. This is a dynamic that could and should play a significant role in action for the Front. The opportunity to increase the Party ranks will be provided by this dynamic.
The leadership work of the CC and all the bodies should be oriented toward work in each branch throughout the Party, up to the BO; toward work based on the aim of forming social alliances by branch and more generally; toward the better coordination of the productive and branch organisations, organisations by sector of the economy or of social policy with the geographical organisations; toward coordination of organisations that are active in the same broader geographic region, so that the work is combined on the basis of two criteria, the workplace and the home.
The replenishment of our ranks with new blood from the working class requires specific planning and steady, patient supervision. But, this is not enough. The necessary conditions must also be created through comprehensive political, ideological and mass work, so that the ground is prepared for programmed recruitment from the working class, and from the other strata of the people, such as owners of small and medium-sized enterprises, poor farmers and salaried professionals.
It requires, through political and ideological measures and mass action, an oriented and planned change in the balance of forces in union shops and mass organisations. In the labour movement in particular, the change in the balance of forces is linked with the attraction of broader forces to action, through increasing the membership and participation of the working people in making and implementing decisions.
The CC Theses provide the criteria by which this orientation will be achieved in conjunction with developments in the social class structure of the society.
What must be considered from now on: That the regrouping of forces which began a few years ago encountered various difficulties, either because its goal was not explained fully or because in some cases it took place without sufficient preparation. Where it did not do well, for which the CC is to blame, was where the problems that arose, or the experience that had resulted along the way were not studied. Interventions were not made to correct mistakes due largely to inexperience, or because they could not have been foreseen.
During the pre-Congress discussion thoughts were heard on the issue of regrouping, and whether its goals have been achieved. The discussion was influenced by mistakes in the implementation, by delays, and by the formal character it took on in some cases, with the result that experience was not correctly generalised. This is why we must examine where the problems arose and make changes and corrections wherever required.
It is not right for the Congress to bind Party Organisations regarding how they will proceed with and complete the regrouping, how they will correct or reassess individual aspects. The important things are the criteria and the necessity set out in the Theses. On this foundation, combined ideological and political action should be planned in the trade unions, labour organisation and in the coalitions.
The regrouping of forces may temporarily weaken some BOs, particularly those that are organised on exclusively geographical criteria. It may also cause problems of orientation on certain local fronts of struggle. Its dynamic, however, will bring about the required balance. Regrouping anticipates that the work of all BOs and local organisations will be based on the coherent and combined front of struggle among the working class and its allies, among young people and women. It anticipates an improvement in the orientation and content of action, so that the working class, its class movement and the social movements may develop multilateral work on many fronts, including economic, social, democratic and political issues, the problems of women and youth, culture, the environment, problems of education, health and social policy.
The mass organisations and movements with a specific object of action will gain new potential, to the degree that they feel the people's problems with which they are engaged as issues of common action with the labour movement and the fight of people with small and medium-sized enterprises in the countryside and the city.
At the same time, care should be taken to ensure contact with the more general issues of party action, and with the mass movement, so as to link theoretical work with the experience and needs of the movement, and not to be cut off from it.
Anti-communist and anti-socialist propaganda constitutes the basic front of bourgeois ideology and politics, in order to conceal the aggressive and purely class nature of capitalist restructurings. The front against the imperialist ideology must become more penetrating, more revealing, and more vivid, since this ideology has infiltrated the entire spectrum of social problems and interests, and even affects our way of life. Propaganda and enlightenment must touch deeply all those factors and views that reproduce and intensify the problem of alienation and assimilation.
The policy of ND and PASOK in their alternating roles offers a wealth of specific material that reveals the effort to entrap the popular masses. The ideological and political conflict with SYN, as an organised vehicle of opportunism, is necessary owing to the damaging role it plays in cultivating illusions and disorienting the militant forces in Greece and in international activities.
It is not enough for our propaganda to have a polemic, accusing character. What will be even more persuasive, attractive and effective is counteroffensive by promoting our position on the Front, by disseminating, elaborating and developing the theory of scientific socialism, by the profound and scientifically based revelation of the character, nature and laws that govern capitalism at its imperialist stage.
The Party must concentrate on four basic issues in its action in the fields of theory, study and research, always on the basis of changing social reality, and in touch with the needs of the struggle.
First: We must work out our views about socialism, continuing the effort to produce comprehensive conclusions about the causes of the reversal of the socialist regimes. The new CC will draw up a concrete programme and study forms of collective discussion of the processed data.
Second: Better study of the present situation in the working class and developments in its composition, and more thorough publicising of its historic mission in the cause of overthrowing capitalism and building socialism.
Third: Systematic study and deepening of our understanding on issues of strategy and tactics, utilising the party's historical experience, and taking into account the particular historical conditions within which they were shaped. This will become even easier with the publishing of the second volume of the History of the Party which will be subject to discussion and dialogue, both within the Party and more broadly.
Fourth: The systematic theoretical research, study and generalisation of experience on the subject of imperialism. Within this context, the position of Greece in the imperialist system, trends and developments will be studied more deeply. Issues related to the internationalisation of the class struggle and the international popular struggle more generally will be studied more thoroughly.
Immediately after the Congress, this effort will be placed on the proper foundation, with relatively long-term planning, but also with intermediate results: the better composition of the CC Sections and inter-section cooperation; utilisation of the Party's academic forces and KNE; development of collaboration with academics and intellectuals who are close to the Party or are interested in working with it on contemporary issues.
The main and basic thing is to begin planning the effort to educate Marxist scientists. At the same time, special weight must be given to improving the quality of our propaganda and enlightenment in terms of both form and content. Significant steps have been taken in this regard, so that there are well-founded expectations of something better.
Developments have certainly distinguished new forms of communication, and the role of images in broadcasting news and ideas.
Nothing should be underestimated. But one idea must be foremost: that the best form of propaganda is that which expresses the truth, which is combined with dialogue and rebuttal, and which attracts energetic mass participation. Images, music and art are also realms in which ideas are put forward and aesthetics are cultivated, play an educational role and influence people. But of greatest importance is reading, study and the written word.
"Rizospastis", COMEP (Communist Review), the Party's publications and their dissemination are the most significant weapons. If every single Party member does not acquire a different attitude to studying and reading, personal and collective, in the form of classes and self-teaching, the Party will not be able to cope with the complex tasks it must undertake.
The ideological front and its elaborations must show improved quality in their ideological and political rebuttal of opportunist views and theories.
Fighting imperialism with a weak, inadequately prepared front against opportunism is inconceivable, since this phenomenon is pre-eminently a product of the pressure exerted by imperialism on the labour and popular movement more generally.
Opportunism, as a hindrance to radicalisation, is not evaluated chiefly on the basis of the electoral influence of its representatives. It is utilised and supported by the system, irrespective of its own capabilities.
The basic timeless features of the tactics of opportunism are: its adaptability, dual language, opportunistic manoeuvres, creation of impressions, imitation, and attachment to theoretical and practical fictions that have sustained sharp blows since the early 20th century.
During a period in which the movement is declining, it supports without a qualm the bourgeois ideology, and the anti-communist, anti-socialist campaign in one way or another, as it did in Greece during the 1990s. During periods when the movement is preparing its counterattack, it does not hesitate to criticise the bourgeois parties, or to appear to be distancing itself from social democracy, while retaining social democracy constantly as its programme direction.
Its "anti-neoliberal" proposal is not only remote from, but is essentially in conflict with the anti-imperialist anti-monopoly direction. Its most basic feature is to detach politics from the economy, and to detach the solutions it proposes from the concrete reality shaped by capitalist restructurings. Its proposals express little more than a utopian nostalgia for the capitalist "welfare state" of the past. Its central idea is that it is possible to regulate the capitalist market, and to combine capitalist restructurings with a social policy in favour of the working people.
Its stance toward the EU is of decisive significance to the character of a party's programme, especially a party that preaches socialism. The one-way street of a party's policy shaped according to the logic of the EU refutes any declaration about radical policy on the national level, or about the dividing line with social democracy.
The Party's dispute with opportunism is also expressed on the question of what line and strategy is it feasible for the popular movement to have gains and successes that will not just improve its life temporarily, but provide optimism to go forward.
The realignment of forces, development of the Party ranks and building the KKE in the workplace and in sectors
In order for the Party to improve its subjective abilities and opportunities, it must: proceed more decisively, aptly and in a leading spirit, on the basis of its character and tasks, to regroup its forces, to complete the effort it has begun in recent years to achieve the planned development of its forces and to build the Party among the working class, and more generally in workplaces and in sectors.
Allocation of forces and recruitment policy with the appropriate orientation toward the working class and its alliances, toward young people and women, all of those go together, and can be combined.
The trend is for the growth of branch and regional organisations, for more BOs in workplaces, and more productive BOs on a territorial basis. A policy should be worked out, based on experience, to promote and develop working class cadres, among whom should be women and young people with a high level of political and theoretical training and militant action. Every BO should develop close ties with friends and followers, associates and working people who are interested in the KKE's positions. That is, it should have a broad environment with common action in the movement and in coalitions, which it keeps systematically informed and whose opinions and proposals it listens to. This is a dynamic that could and should play a significant role in action for the Front. The opportunity to increase the Party ranks will be provided by this dynamic.
The leadership work of the CC and all the bodies should be oriented toward work in each branch throughout the Party, up to the BO; toward work based on the aim of forming social alliances by branch and more generally; toward the better coordination of the productive and branch organisations, organisations by sector of the economy or of social policy with the geographical organisations; toward coordination of organisations that are active in the same broader geographic region, so that the work is combined on the basis of two criteria, the workplace and the home.
The replenishment of our ranks with new blood from the working class requires specific planning and steady, patient supervision. But, this is not enough. The necessary conditions must also be created through comprehensive political, ideological and mass work, so that the ground is prepared for programmed recruitment from the working class, and from the other strata of the people, such as owners of small and medium-sized enterprises, poor farmers and salaried professionals.
It requires, through political and ideological measures and mass action, an oriented and planned change in the balance of forces in union shops and mass organisations. In the labour movement in particular, the change in the balance of forces is linked with the attraction of broader forces to action, through increasing the membership and participation of the working people in making and implementing decisions.
The CC Theses provide the criteria by which this orientation will be achieved in conjunction with developments in the social class structure of the society.
What must be considered from now on: That the regrouping of forces which began a few years ago encountered various difficulties, either because its goal was not explained fully or because in some cases it took place without sufficient preparation. Where it did not do well, for which the CC is to blame, was where the problems that arose, or the experience that had resulted along the way were not studied. Interventions were not made to correct mistakes due largely to inexperience, or because they could not have been foreseen.
During the pre-Congress discussion thoughts were heard on the issue of regrouping, and whether its goals have been achieved. The discussion was influenced by mistakes in the implementation, by delays, and by the formal character it took on in some cases, with the result that experience was not correctly generalised. This is why we must examine where the problems arose and make changes and corrections wherever required.
It is not right for the Congress to bind Party Organisations regarding how they will proceed with and complete the regrouping, how they will correct or reassess individual aspects. The important things are the criteria and the necessity set out in the Theses. On this foundation, combined ideological and political action should be planned in the trade unions, labour organisation and in the coalitions.
The regrouping of forces may temporarily weaken some BOs, particularly those that are organised on exclusively geographical criteria. It may also cause problems of orientation on certain local fronts of struggle. Its dynamic, however, will bring about the required balance. Regrouping anticipates that the work of all BOs and local organisations will be based on the coherent and combined front of struggle among the working class and its allies, among young people and women. It anticipates an improvement in the orientation and content of action, so that the working class, its class movement and the social movements may develop multilateral work on many fronts, including economic, social, democratic and political issues, the problems of women and youth, culture, the environment, problems of education, health and social policy.
The mass organisations and movements with a specific object of action will gain new potential, to the degree that they feel the people's problems with which they are engaged as issues of common action with the labour movement and the fight of people with small and medium-sized enterprises in the countryside and the city.
e-mail:cpg@int.kke.gr
