Theses of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece

Introduction

The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) for 86 years (1918-2004) remains firm and steadfast in the service of the working class and the people. The KKE has been present in every struggle, either small or big; for the democratic rights of the working class, the problems of women and the youth, in the struggle against war and fascism, for national liberation and for democratic freedoms. The KKE has stood up against nationalism and chauvinism. It has confronted jingoism, racism, political and military dependence, the concession of sovereignty. It went against the participation of Greece in imperialist wars and interventions. It inspired and encouraged hundreds of thousands of working people, people of art and culture. It showed the extent of human strength, in resisting and sacrificing for the interests of the people. It made its own contribution to international mobilizations, to the solidarity of the peoples, to the solidarity between communist and workers parties.

The long history of the KKE, in combination with its accumulated international militant experience, the efforts it has made to study the course of history in depth, to learn from weaknesses and mistakes increases, under today's conditions, the expectations that the people have from the party as much as those that the party has from itself. Its friends, its followers and associates, all those who, regardless of their particular views, comprehend the direct relationship that the strengthening of the party has with the development of the people's struggle and gains, look towards the KKE with high expectations.

The KKE, more experienced, more mature and more strong in the course of the struggle, is called upon today to respond, with greater efficiency and ability, to the contemporary needs of the workers' and, more generally, the popular movement, under the new conditions of imperialist barbarism and aggressiveness; under conditions of retreat in the balance of forces following the victory of counter-revolution, especially in the socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

Following the internal party crisis and the split, the majority of the Central Committee (CC) that was elected at the 13th Congress led the Party to its 14th Congress (December 1991), which put forward the duty of rebuilding the party. The Congress specified the need to reverse the negative situation in which the KKE was. This situation was characterized by a reduction in membership, ideological, political and organizational disorganization with particularly severe consequences for the Communist Youth (KNE). The contribution of that Congress was to restore the ideological and political character of the Party.

The 15th Congress (1996) was a decisive turn-point, where the new Program and Constitution of the Party were developed and the political proposal for the establishment of the Anti-imperialist, Anti-Monopoly Democratic Front (AADF) was adopted. It demonstrated the character of our era, as well as the character of the revolution as a socialist one. At the 15th Congress, the foundations were laid for the strategy of the Party, on the basis of the systematic study of developments and changes in international and Greek reality. It reflected the effort to utilize, to some extent, the experience drawn from the struggle for socialism and its construction in the 20th century.

The 16th Congress (2000) developed further the programmatic directions and goals of the AADF. It went into the greatest possible analysis, under today's conditions, of the general characteristics of the people's rule and the people's economy.

The 17th Congress will not be limited exclusively to an assessment of the Party and CC activities since the previous Congress. It is necessary to generalize the experience of the reorganization that began at the 14th Congress and continued in the following years. To take a brave step towards the full-fledged strengthening of the Party, ideological, political, organizational. The discussion must not be limited to the positive aspects of the KKE. Our main interest is that the members of the Party, its friends, supporters and associates, help in bringing forth and studying, at a deeper level, the subjective deficiencies and weaknesses; to reveal what must be corrected and improved.

The course of rebuilding of the KKE and its rising course in the recent years, and even more after the 16th Congress, are irrefutable proof of the vitality of communist ideas.

The efforts of the enemy to marginalize the Party and deprive it of the stature it has earned in its historic course, have not borne fruit.

If, in 1989-1991 the KKE had been dissolved, if it had been liquidated into the Coalition of the Left and of Progress (Synaspismos), losing its autonomy if it had mutated into a party with social-democratic orientations, the loss would have been great for the popular movement and, more generally, for mass political action. This fact is widely recognized today by the popular masses, radicals, left-wing people and militants.

In the positive course of the Party, thousands of members and cadre, friends and supporters, as well as associates, progressive people with their own proposals and thoughts, have contributed. They have joined their action with that of the Party, supporting its initiatives regardless of their particular views

The valuable lesson for the Communist Party is that in periods of retreat and crisis in the communist movement, under conditions of imperialist counter-attack, the Party, in order to survive, must have steadfast faith in Marxist-Leninist ideology, in the principles and values of the movement, in socialism. It must be open to the critical and self-critical examination of its work. It must strive for the development of a contemporary theoretical analyses; it must be able to recognize every new tendency in a timely manner. With far-reaching vision, it must be able to foresee, to adapt and readapt itself when developments demand, without at any moment losing sight of the principal goal, the struggle for socialism with the prospect of communist society.

The permanent duty of ideological-political and organizational strengthening of the KKE is determined by the new needs as well as the new problems that have appeared in the process of the ascending course of the Party in the past 13 years. It is affected by the particular characteristics of our times, due to the multi-faceted consequences that capitalist restructuring brings to the lives of the working people, under conditions of victory of counter-revolution; under conditions where, objectively, the need for struggle and radical change at the level of political power becomes more urgent. The issue of the timeliness and the realistic possibility of socialism, of communist society, is brought forward.

Without underestimating the consequences of the change in the balance of forces, we must become more demanding of ourselves. We must become stricter so that not only do we consolidate and solidify what we achieved so far, but also that we move forward to a more dynamic phase of counter-attack and strengthening, at least to the extent that this depends upon us. We neither bow to the difficulties nor do we ignore them. We face our work with objectivity, without any subjective nihilism or beautification. We try to exhaust all possibilities that exist for the benefit of the popular movement.

The KKE, by its nature and character, must set forth vanguard goals. It must not restrict itself to the condemnation of human exploitation and injustice, of imperialist war and oppression, but must also show the way that the movement must follow in order to stand up against the forces of capital and conservatism, effectively and victoriously.

The strengthening of the KKE does not concern communists only. It is in the interest of all working people because such strengthening will have an immediate positive effect on the development of struggle, on their effectiveness and on the greatest possible social and political consolidation for building the AADF.

The developments in the world imperialist system, the position of Greece in this system and the domestic economic and political developments justify the policy of the Party; they impose us to take them under serious consideration when we set up duties that require the strengthening of the KKE.

It is our deep conviction that the KKE can move forward into a new phase of counter-attack. The 21st Century will be a century of regrouping of revolutionary forces, of repelling the attack of international capital. It will be a century of decisive counter-attack, a century of the new rise of the world revolutionary movement and a new series of social revolutions.