The task of the ideological, political and organizational strengthening of the Party

What strengthening means in current conditions

18. The Party has to approach as closely as possible the meaning of being a revolutionary communist party in its character and its mission. This will take place within the conditions that were developed by counter-revolution's victory, capitalist restructuring strategy and the intervention and war mechanisms of imperialism; under conditions where the mechanisms of suppression, manipulation, buying off and corrosion have become stronger and reach further.

The KKE must gain the ability, to the greatest extent possible, to submit its action to the main and basic cause, the building of the AADF; to secure its independent presence and action with its focus on the realistic need for socialism. Retaining the ability to rally forces, which may have different ideas about socialism, but agree that the Front should struggle for people's power and a people's economy. To restore the socialist vision as the first step towards communist society, a vision which was wounded by the counter-revolutionary win, by the mistakes and the weaknesses during the first attempt to establish it, by slanderous and nihilistic imperialist propaganda; to achieve the readiness to constantly counter-attack bourgeois and petit-bourgeois ideas and way of thinking, as well as any form of opportunism.

The Party must be ready to confront every possible development in the struggle, as well as the consequences of international developments in Greece and in the region; to confront every attempt by the class enemy to deviate the KKE's policy from working class and workers' interests. To deal with every attempt to halt the movement's, the Party's or the vanguard forces' actions, in times in which imperialism labels as "terrorist" the struggle of the people and "terrorism" the struggle to change the power structure. The Party's actions have to bear in mind the situation in the region, especially the consequences that will derive from NATO's policy for the Mediterranean, the EU-NATO-USA choices in the Middle East and the region of the former USSR.

The KKE's actions should aim at the full preparation of the majority of the working class and the other popular strata, to contribute to taking advantage of every breach that appears in bourgeois policy under the weight of internal factors and external developments.

To make sure that in its ranks and cadres the "golden rule" for members from the working class applies, but also that there are women and young people who rise up in the ranks.

To always aim at further developing and improving collectiveness; at cadres' realization of their guiding roles, but also aim at increasing the personal responsibility every Party member for the course of the Party as well of the movement in general.

The negative consequences of life and work conditions will exist and affect social and political consciousness in the future. But they don't have a one-way effect. The excerberation of the contrasts and contradictions within the capitalist system will widen and strengthen intra-capitalist contradictions and therefore opposite potentials will develop, those of positive action and the search for alternative solutions.

As the highest guiding organ, the new CC has the primary responsibility to maintain the correct orientation and to determine the ways and means to materialize it.

Building the AADF: policies of cooperation and mobilization

19. The KKE must take concentrated measures and initiatives in order to reinforce its alliance policy at a national and international level.

The Party's main political proposal of building the AADF which aims at people's power and a people's economy, requires that all the forces engaged in this effort focus on this united duty, so that it will evolve into a convincing political proposal that can mobilise the great majority of the people at all levels. At the same time, specialization and adaptation to social composition in the Front is required, so that based on local and work branch problems, a uniform conscience can be created and the ability to generalise developed.The KKE puts forward its political proposal as it was developed at the 15th and the 16th Congresses and fights for its application. The proposal includes program guidelines and the demands and aims of struggle that correspond to people's contemporary needs and which give perspective to today's struggle.

This programmatic context will be enriched and readapted to the demands and the aims of struggle according to the evolution of the movement itself and the exacerbation of people's problems.

The KKE's tireless contribution to struggles, its solidarity to workers' demands derives from its humanistic communist ideology and principles. Nothing human has been alien and indifferent to communists. KKE gives practical value to the accumulated experience that a struggle, even if it leads to partial success, can stir courage and inspiration, and the will to continue. The struggle, even if it doesn't bring - in particular phases and timing - effective satisfaction of demands, offers valuable experience, teachings and precious conclusions to continue. No struggle is wasted; the only lost struggle is one struggle that has not been not fought.

Class struggle can lead to a relative improvement in workers' position and it can moderate the losses and the gravity of the problems for a certain period. But the inherent tensions in the capitalist system can't be negated. This can only be done by negating the system itself. Otherwise the workers' gain in one sector will be accompanied with a loss in others.

The accumulated experience of these years confirmed the KKE's assessment that the logic of compromise and pacification, of false public debate, not only does not provide solutions, but on the contrary paves the way for another round of attack against people's achievements. The so-called social dialogue always takes place under the condition that the working class simply bargains for what it will lose.

The mass people's movement to the degree that it doesn't dispute the ruling policy, to the extent that it doesn't resist the line of attack, to the extent that it does not lead to disengagement from ND and PASOK, loses its dynamic and becomes totally ineffective.

The current of disengagement from "one-way" policies, from political and ideological control by ND and PASOK, must become strengthened and stable. The KKE must become more powerful so that it can weaken to the greatest possible extent the compromising and opportunistic ideas that constitute serious obstacles to radicalization and lead to a reduction in demands.

The strategy of capital is coherent, no matter what tactics it employs or what special circumstances exist in each country. Therefore, only by total political confrontation will it be possible to create a qualitatively different organization of society and the economy.

On this ground the beneficial processes for radicalization will accelerate, difficulties will be overcome; the conditions will be ripe for the formation of the AADF.

Readiness to intervene in developments

20. Great readiness, vigilance and the ability to predict the future course of the Greek economy in combination with general developments in the region for the upcoming years are required.

The factors which favored capitalist growth in Greece in relation to the other countries of the Euro-zone are not permanent. On the contrary, they will diminish in the upcoming years, such as in the example of the investment potential in the Balkans, the investments through the 3rd EU Support Framework and the Olympic works projects, which have offered a relatively stable increase in public and private investments. EU broadening will increase the unevenness, intra-capitalist contradictions inside the EU as well as in the world market.

The next crisis is been prepared in the national economy and society with forms such as: the reduction of private consumption; working families are in great debt as a consequence of commercial and other loans; companies exist that are completely loan dependent; capitalist competition is leading to companies going bankrupt; there is a marked deterioration of the national debt and the trade balance in international transactions. One thing is for sure, that the Greek people will be in a worse position in the upcoming years.

The youth, the next generation, are in the worst situation and most importantly will be in the immediate future. Young people are starting to make their homes and families under much worse conditions.

The manifestations of the economic crisis are not necessarily deep enough to cause the accentuation of class conficts, which will lead to a situation where the working class will not tolerate any more of this form of power and the ruling class cannot rule as before. Economic crisis does not infer political crisis as well for the bourgeois political parties. Nevertheless, there are no impermeable boundaries between one economic crisis and the next, or between political discontent and the potential for deeper instability of the bourgeois political system.

Theoretical analysis and historical experience show that the phases of renewal and rise in capitalist production are unstable and anemic, when they follow shallow and short crises.

No variation in management can end the cycle of economic crises in Greece. The overcoming of the crisis will be temporary, as the crises are an integral part of capitalism itself.

The KKE and the vanguard forces must be ready to utilize every small or big crack in the political system, in order to accelerate political development.

KKE's responsibility to the workers' movement and the working class' alliance policy

21. The first objective of the Party still is its contribution in developing political conscience within the working class. This depends mostly on the increase in the Party's ideological and political influence within the ranks of the working class. At the same time, the KKE must put emphasis on advancing the social alliance between the working class and other popular strata; small business owners, merchants and the self-employed in urban and rural areas. It is important to develop initiatives of communication and common action with that section of the small-middle class that is closer to the working class, i.e the self-employed without any other personnel.

Much work must be done inside the Party and on a wider scale, so that the Party's and the working class' responsibility in building this social alliance is fully understood.

The new CC and the guiding cadres are responsible for enriching and advancing theoretical knowledge and combining it harmoniously with generalized practical experience; to maintain a close watch on the advances in building the social alliance based on joint demands and a united direction

We must overcome cases of ignorance and prejudice or miscomprehension among our members concerning the character and nature of the women's issue; to reinforce the importance of special work in this area.

Political and mass action within the working class and other wageworkers, the actions towards building working class' alliances is a united duty of all Party cadres and PPBO's, no matter what their general activity or their economic activity is in their area of responsibility..

The forces and especially the cadres for work in the working class should be organized in such a way that the following criteria are met:

•  The working class is concentrated by work sector and geographically.
•  There is a focus on strategically important sectors of economic activity e.g. energy, transportation.
•  There is concentration of workers in every sector which are in big companies with minimum dispersion by sector e.g. oil refineries.
•  There is concern for the potential of rapidly developing sectors such as telecommunications and computers, mass media etc. There is as well forethought for the sectors that although declining, still have a large percentage of wageworkers, such as leather and garment industries.
•  There is thought for the degree of exploitation, the working conditions and the work relations in every sector.

The new CC should construct a plan of specialized action in certain categories of wageworkers, such as those who work in Public Administration, and especially those who because of the nature of their work in the ministries are under the direct influence of ruling politics.

At the same time we must take into consideration the fact that:

40% of the country's workforce (employed and unemployed) is concentrated in Attica. Second comes central Macedonia with 16, 5%. Thessaly, the Peloponese, East Macedonia - Thrace and Crete have 5-6.5%.

The Party's National Conference that took place after the 16th Congress had developed a general plan for an infrastructure that would help in the work within the working class. This infrastructure was not put in place throughout the whole structure of the Party and where it was materialized it functioned insufficiently and then ceased to function. The CC should have persisted in supervising the implementation of this decision. Applying this scheme is an immediate and timely duty.

The worker committees can constitute an important element of the infrastructure, along with the Regional and City Committees, Prefecture Committees and the Branches in the large cities. These committees do not substitute for the cadres' and the PBO's responsibilities. They take on specific coordination and planning duties based on the specialized needs and gaps and they help to enrich the role of the cadres.

The CC should develop guidelines and design actions by branch and economic sector on a long-term scale with intermediate waypoints of check and evaluation; also with extra measures that would enforce planning, so that the Party's actions will cover the objectives.

It is vital that the CC guarantee that Pan-Hellenic conferences take place in order to evaluate experiences and developments and to organize a collective study of the duties for action as well as the alliance policy at branch or inter-branch levels where necessary based on the connections between branches. This experience and wealth of information must also reach the PBO's, the Party's friends, supporters and cooperating forces so that the Party's dynamic intervention in the workers' and trade union movement will be strengthened.

To ensure the formation of Party workgroups by sector of economic activity, at the CC level, giving immediate priority to telecommunications, energy, finance and transport.

Cooperation between workers' committees and other party sectors such as Education, Health, Women's Equality and the corresponding sections and cadres of KNE must be established as a style of work.

An integral part of the Party's work in the working class at all levels is special work with women, youth, pensioners, people with special needs and foreign workers. The activity among all workers and employees must have a united direction in its content and form of struggle, independently of whether they work in the public sector, in the financial sector, in privatized ex-public companies, independently of form of employment (permanent, temporary, seasonal, part-time etc.).

The KKE works concentratedly, with no deviation, in order that the temporary employees, the under-employed and the land laborers join the trade unions and struggle along with the rest of the workers. The first prerequisite is the formation of unified demands as well as displays of solidarity.

The 16th Congress and the National Party Conference for the Party's work in the working class put forward as a main goal the restructuring of Party forces and cadres. They set the goal of forming new PBO's based on work branches, small business owners and merchants, as well as employees in Education, Local Administration, so that the main goal, strengthening the Party's activity in the working class, would be achieved and the focus on this primary duty would improve.

Generally the restructuring helped this orientation. However, problems appeared where it was just typically applied and the respective PBO's duties weren't comprehensively worked on. The pre-Congress conferences of PBO's, City and Regional Committees must discuss the results from the restructuring. They should generalize the experience, consider what should be changed or corrected. The Congress will gather these conclusions and will develop more comprehensive guidelines.

In recent years, due to the internal Party crisis and the loss of some Party forces, as well as due to the consequences from capitalist restructuring, the PBO's composition does not accord with the composition of the workers in their area of responsibility. In several PBOs, especially the at the residence places, as well as in rural areas, the age of the members does not help in developing multifaceted action and especially directed towards younger ages.

Therefore, there is the need for cadres and members to specialize in the problems of their work branches and their area of responsibility, independently of their own experience and occupation. The social and age composition, with the present facts, cannot define the content of the intervention. The gaps and the difficulties must be confronted in two basic ways: Having comprehensive knowledge of all problems and making use of the Party's friends' and collaborators' valuable contribution. All these can contribute to developing the Party forces by planned participation in mass action and rallying of forces.

Contemporary popular needs must be the focal point of the Party's activity in the working class and its movement

22. Activity in the working class, as well as in other popular strata, has as its starting point the problems of employment and unemployment, the terms under which we sell our labor power and working conditions, especially the issue of protecting one's health in the workplace, labor accidents, occupational diseases. All these however, must be integrally connected to the totality of the living conditions of workers' families. The issues of health, education, environment, culture and sports, issues of youth, women's equality, free time, entertainment, democracy, foreign policy, international relations, issues of war and peace, and international solidarity must be included as well. As long as the workers don't pose demands based on their contemporary needs and profit-making; as long as they submit to slogans of competitiveness and convergence, the class enemy will continue to take from them, and give them less and less.

The activity around the problems of National Resistance fighters and The Democratic Army of Greece, Political Refugees and Greek emigrants must continue and escalate.

The current propaganda needs should not push aside the need to promote the Party's Program and its proposal for the character and the outcome of the Front's struggle.

Action to confront and change the negative situation and the balance of forces in the workers' trade union movement.

23. One of the most basic duties of the Party is to act in order to change as much as possible the negative situation which reigns in the workers' trade union movement. Class-oriented trade unions, class-oriented federations, class-oriented central trade union associations must pre-dominate. From this point of view, it will be possible to efficiently confront the EU's buying off mechanisms that are developed through the trade union leadership and cadres and function within the logic of incorporation and submission to capitalist state unification. The new trade union movement structure which was decided at the last GSEE (General Confederation of Greece's Workers) convention, serves the logic of retreat, of disarming the movement and moving away from a class orientation.

Considering the present facts, the only realistic way is for the PAME (All Workers Militant Front) to be supported by as many workers and employees as possible, no matter what trade union they are in. It should become the main rallying force and the voice that expresses their interests, solidarity and struggle. This is also the way to form, on all levels, a powerful class-oriented trade union movement that will generally produce positive interconnections.

The experience that comes from PAME's activity is positive. An important new element is the declaration and realization of strikes, the widening of the field of activity on large issues; intervention in issues of labor accidents, environment, democracy, and of course the rise of its role in international trade unionist activities. The effort to organize its work at local and branch levels, in workplaces and businesses, with local and branch secretariats is another important process.

Communists participating in PAME through their trade unions and action committees, through workers' mobilization and cooperation, are obligated to preserve and reinforce its movement character, its character as a front of struggle for the trade unions, labor centers federations and trade-unionist cadres. They should act to broaden its influence to new trade unions and struggle committees. To preserve its autonomous intervention, as well as its activity among trade union movement cadres.

They should contribute so that PAME becomes a vanguard force of workers and employees, of the class-oriented workers' movement. A force that takes initiative in forming social alliances with the corresponding organizations and gathering of forces in the area of small business owners and merchants, small and medium farmers and agricultural laborers, youth and women's movements, with other democratic and social movements.

Agricultural laborers, seasonal employees, permanent wageworkers in the agricultural economy.

24. During the years 1998 - 2003 there was an increase in wageworkers, permanent and seasonal workers in the agricultural economy by 41%. The number of permanent wageworkers remains very small compared to the corresponding EU figure. It is a fact that land exploitation is dispersed throughout the country and most of the workers are foreign, thus their organization in trade unions is very difficult. In sum, there are very few workers who earn their main income from land labor and the majority of these are foreign workers.

The organization of temporary agricultural laborers in trade unions is also difficult. These workers are greater in number than the permanent ones, but they don't have a fixed area of activity during the year. A number of them come from neighboring countries for the duration of their work and then leave for their country again.

The PBO's have to deal with this issue, design its solution with immediate and long-term planning.

Immigrants

25. Immigrants reach 762,000, according to the 2001 census. 416,000 of them are men and 346,000 are women. They are 7% of the country's total population. 80% of them are living in urban centers and the rest in rural areas. Those reported as "employed" are 400,000. These are registered as economic immigrants and the rest are illegal. Today immigrants total one million. They contribute to the formation of the GNP with their work, yet they are victims of oppression and super-exploitation through "black labor" mechanisms (work without even basic insurance and with extremely low pay).

The countries they come from are Albania (57.5%), Bulgaria (4.6%), Georgia (3%), Romania (2.9%), Russia (2.3%), Ukraine (1.8%), Poland (1.7%), Pakistan (1.7%), Egypt (1%), Armenia (1%), India (0.9%), Iraq (0.9%), The Philippines (0.8%), Moldavia (0.7%), and Syria (0.7%).

With the KKE's and the class movement's contribution there has been an effort to organize immigrants in trade unions and communities, so that they can participate in the struggle. In many work sectors there have been moves for common action with Greek workers and there has been resistance to nationalist and racist phenomena.

Nevertheless progress has not been satisfactory. Every delay compared to the needs which exist leaves room for the bourgeois class and their mechanisms to act divisively. The EU policy of closed borders, police records and restrictions in providing asylum, will strengthen autocracy and brutality against immigrants. In conditions where unemployment and insecurity is heightening, where nationalism - openly expressed or not - is rising, there is ground for racist incidents to take place in other areas such as sports; the bloody events at the Greece - Albania football game are a case in point. Racist and ultra-right nationalist organizations like "Chrysi Aygi" (Golden Dawn) take advantage of the underlying nationalism and stir it to the surface.

Racism and nationalism are promoted as important tools for capitalism in its domination and oppression. Cosmopolitanism is combined with encouragement and support of nationalism. Nationalism and racism support capital's cosmopolitanism.

The KKE considers immigrants to be an inseparable part of our country's workforce and part of the world's working class.

During the next period, utilizing the steps that have been taken so far and general experience, attention must be focused on the following fronts of struggle:

•  Organization and activation of immigrants in trade unions, their elevation in the ranks of the movement
•  Providing them help to deal with the mechanisms of manipulation, prosecution and oppression as well as prostitution network activity. Help for the immigrants and their families to adapt to Greek conditions.
•  Legalization of immigrants and their families who are in Greece. Simplification of the work and residence permit procedure.
•  Negation of the measures that deny them their rights.
•  Equal rights to work, Social Security, public free Health - Welfare and Education, sports and Culture.
•  Measures for learning the Greek language and the education of their children.

The Party's activity concerning the self-employed without any personnel in urban and rural areas.

26. Along with their assistants in family businesses they reach almost one million. Most of them are employed in the agricultural economy. The self-employed in cities are 300,000. Their majority is in the transport and trade sectors, especially retail, namely where capital's concentration is slow.

The Party's political proposal for the AADF and the Party's Program must become an object of systematic processing and action, with their heightened problems as a point of reference. They are able to understand how close their interests are with those of the working class, since they don't have any biased opinions towards the working class and they don't exploit a workforce. In reality, a large number of them are former workers and employees, wageworkers in general, who are out of production due to unemployment, employees without the assurance of permanent work.

They can take the movement further in general; give relevant stability and the ability to confront the bourgeois class and parties maneuvers. They can help in incorporating the self-employed with personnel, to help deal with their hesitation and their prejudice, their fears of a socialist organization of society and socialization of the basic means of production.

The self-employed with personnel

27. According to recent statistical data, businesses with personnel up to 3 people are 315,000. They are mainly in the food industry, professions related to construction (plumbers, electricians, construction maintenance, carpenters etc.) and car repairs.

The Party's work in this social stratum is complicated. There are difficulties due to their "double personality": On the one hand they face the consequences of monopolies' infiltration in all economic sectors. On the other, they adopt a certain psychology and conscience given the fact that they exploit a workforce. Inside this stratum there are differences and individualities. A small portion can survive; can even have a share of monopoly profit by acting as monopoly satellites, taking subcontractor jobs from monopolies. The larger number though, experiences and will continue to experience in the future great pressure, with even catastrophic results.

Until now, the Party's activity in this area has been insufficient. It is focused mainly on defending some immediate demands in the framework of the trade union movement. Comprehensive ideological and political work must be developed, together with the struggle around current problems. The capitalist system's basic tendencies must be exposed, capital concentration and the pushing aside of a large number of medium and small strata.

The new CC must develop an integrated plan of intervention and proceed to an improved, comprehensive development of positions for the self-employed. The importance of the creation of the people's cooperative in the framework of the people's economy must be brought forward. The long-term interests that emerge from socialization, programming and planning in state, regional, branch and inter-branch levels for these popular strata must be brought up.

Actions to improve and change the balance of forces in the petit-bourgeois strata are not easy. The entrapment mechanisms, the parties' of power and the state's interventions are very powerful. The struggle to change the balance of forces and develop mass action corresponds directly to the development of a vanguard pole of business owners and merchants; a pole that will act in the movement's ranks., but will rally in autonomous action the most consistent and vanguard forces; a pole that will contribute to heightening the confrontation and to take gathering of forces to a higher level.

Medium-small producers in the agricultural economy.

28. The agricultural struggles that have developed in recent years were of the most important since the fall of the Junta. The KKE, with its central political interventions, has made an effort to show that the country's agricultural problem is directly connected to the progress of capitalization in the agricultural economy, which is being pushed forward through restructuring.

The Party proposed a common action policy for the farmers' movement along with those agricultural forces and trade union cadres who were willing to develop organized forms of struggle around current issues.

Common action, however, was not combined properly with the Party's broader independent political and ideological work. The Party's Program and proposal for the AADF were not projected within the context of this struggle. The New Democracy Party mostly took advantage of these struggles for its own benefit, while a large section of the agricultural population is still entrapped in PASOK.

The action and effectiveness of the Party's work is hindered due to the fact that this part of the population has aged. The government grants don't make it easier since they give false hope while they don't stop the process of capitalization,

The agricultural rally that formed in the movement didn't manage to maintain its influence among the rural class, mainly because its central systematic intervention is weak and circumstantial, but also because it was not supported by the planned action of local cadres.

The fact that the great majority of agricultural associations are inert and are losing their mass base represents another significant obstacle.

The Local Committees and the rural Party Base Organizations should, as their main objective, deeply examine and attempt to understand the changes in the rural economy and the duties that these changes bring. They must give importance to the rally against the CAP, the WTO and their reforms; they must project the KKE's political proposal. The struggle must broaden taking into account all the problems that the general policy has brought about, e.g. that rural areas are losing population, that the remaining population is aged. Empowering the agricultural rally and bringing it to the vanguard pole of the medium-small rural class is a matter that demands a solution. Its activity must be broadened, along with that of all the vanguard rural organizations to include women's and youth's issues.

Common action with PAME and with other social movements must be deeply cultivated. This depends on the actions and the correct orientation of the communists as well.

The objective is the common action of the medium-small farmers in an association which, according to the population makeup of the area, will spread to the limits of the municipalities, or even the greater geographical territories. This association will function democratically having farmers' interests as a guideline.

Communists have to actively participate in rural associations and, through experience drawn from middle-small rural class activity, cultivate the grounds for understanding the importance and the role of the productive people's cooperative that the KKE defends in the framework of the people's economy.

Farmers, though they are employers of rural wageworkers, mainly foreigners, must realize that it is of a greater and common interest to organize agricultural workers towards a solution of, not only working problems, but the rest of their problems too, which are rural class problems as well. This orientation, in order to affect the most vanguard elements in the rural class, must be an integral part of the PBO's in the rural areas.

The working class' policy of alliance with the medium and small rural class is timely, despite the fact that the latter is bound to reduce in numbers more and more under capitalism. Nevertheless, in our country's present situation this reduction will be slower. Our activity that is developing today is also important, so that every one from the rural class who passes into the working class would have accepted, to the extent that it is possible, the influence of common action and of social alliance.

Working Women

29. According to the statistics presented in the last 2 census counts (1991 and 2001), the percentage of women as a section of the entire workforce has increased by 40% over this 10 year period, compared with an increase of 8.5% amongst men. The amount of women in work has reached 50% of the total number of women. Out of the total of working women, 63.5% are salaried, 18.9% are self-employed and 14.2% are assistants in family-run businesses.

The largest section of salaried women is employed in retail (16%), in education (15.4%), in manufacturing (13.1%), in healthcare (10.5%), in public administration-defense-social security (10.4%) in hotels and restaurants (8%).

Female labor constitutes a majority of the workforce in education, healthcare, social security offices and in the following industries; manufacturing, bottling, clothing, leather and textiles.

Amongst women the rates of unemployment and semi-employment are double that of men. Working women in comparison with their male counterparts are present in greater numbers in the higher levels of education and in lesser numbers in the lower levels of education.

Out of the number of unsalaried women, the largest section (60%) are assistants in family-run businesses, this is particularly the case in agricultural production. In addition, 44% of self-employed women are employed in the agricultural sector. Along with the 250,000 women farmers they are particularly targeted by the politics of the bourgeois parties.

The new CC must formulate a specific plan of mass political activity orientated to these workplaces within the framework of our more general work in the working class.

For this effort concerning specific work among women to progress and not simply remain on paper, as has been the case until now, there needs to be a change in attitude amongst cadre and leading bodies of the party in relation to this important political responsibility. Women along with young people bear the brunt of the generalization of flexible working conditions and the management of unemployment through various training programs which include temporary part-time work, a trick that actually intensifies the forms of exploitation and oppression.

The new CC must seriously take into consideration the absence of free-time amongst women, because it is women who bear the largest burden of duties in the family, even when they are in employment. This contributes further to the difficulty women have in expressing their radicalism and desire for action in practice.

The development of the influence of the party in the working class includes as an integral part political and ideological work amongst women, especially concerning the issue of political alliances.

The availability of women's mass organizations which oppose the politics of the ruling class is important. They contribute to the understanding of the women question, through coordinating the activity of women regardless of their job, age, circumstances etc.

However, the struggle which has developed concerning women's problems does not yet have the necessary support of party organizations and Base Orgs, which need to systematically project in a mass political way the demands and problems that women face, and to conduct systematic educational work amongst the people generally on the questions of women's liberation and equality. A very small number of women cadre shows a willingness to work specifically amongst women. And when they do, it is limited to interest in the mass women's organizations and lacks a comprehensive intervention amongst women in all the fronts of struggle.

In conclusion, a new impetus is needed to tackle this urgent problem. An immediate aim must be the planned development of leading groups in sectors of the economy where women have the most concentrated presence; in the bottling industry, in manufacturing, textiles etc. and also in the areas of education and healthcare. Activity must be based on both social and democratic demands.

Young People

30. Young people experience with particular intensity the results of capitalist restructuring. Specific examples of this are; their integration into the process of production is difficult and unstable, they are the primary victims of unemployment and under-employment due to the new relations in the workplace. The changes in the educational system sharpen class differentiations and lead to the degradation of education. Schools and universities exist at uneven levels which will drive a large section of young people, due to their class background and more generally their family income, into a contemporary form of illiteracy.

Young people are the particular target of a clear ideological campaign aimed and manipulating them and incorporating them, so that they become the contemporary stereotypes of capital. Children especially, who from the first years of their life face an assault aimed at snuffing out the embryonic radicalism which characterizes those from younger age-groups. This assault is elaborate and multi-layered and is grafted mainly into books, school courses, radio, TV and the new technologies. Its intervention is amazingly strong in the system of games and "fun", in "leisure-time", in recreation, with serious repercussions on the entire basis of thought, behavior, emotions and aesthetics of young people. Young people have already been influenced by the ideological messages of individualism, commercialization, competitiveness, and the cosmopolitanism of capital.

The above problems are intensified as young people today enter production later and mature in a more difficult way. This submission and integration to capital is a huge danger for the new generation and importantly for the future of the movement.

These negative impacts on the psychology, behavior and orientations of a large section of young people follows from the fact that they have grown up under the conditions of the victory of counter-revolution, the retreat of the people's movements, and the related outbreak of collaborationism and defeatism.

The mixed moods of doubt and compromise are on display clearly. The militant activities of young people which take place today are spasmodic in character, and do not have consistency. They are influenced by the notion that struggle is futile. The influence of racist and nationalist ideas is also present, which must not be underestimated. Where young people have shown their concern in a massive way is over the problems of imperialist war and other democratic issues.

At the same time, while they display skepticism concerning the role of the parties in power, in the end they still remain trapped in them. An important section of young people widens this criticism to all political parties, a fact which actually aggravates their entrapment. Amongst an even larger section today, the view has formed, from their own experiences, and also from the echoes of struggles that have happened that they live in a system that marginalizes them, a fact which is not acceptable to them.

Nevertheless all these tendencies have not taken on a permanent character, they have not yet changed in their dynamics.

The recent years have been marked by some positive tendencies in relation to KKE, from a section of young people which is not negligible. They show an interest in listening to the positions of the Party. Nevertheless to the extent that this discrete section of young people is thirsty for resistance and is attracted to the politics of disobedience, insubordination and a break with the system, so it is also exposed to a systematic and many-sided attempt to prevent it from coming into contact with a class analysis of reality, with KKE and the labor movement, and to be diffused into petit-bourgeois and anarcho-liberal viewpoints and practices.

KNE, alongside the Party, took part in and contributed to the anti-imperialist and anti-war struggles, against authoritarianism, and for democratic, labor, educational and more general social rights. The influence of the party and KNE amongst young people has strengthened in comparison to the retreats which marked the first part of the 1990's. KNE has made important steps in the development of its ranks, the maturation of its cadre force, which has been entirely renewed. It finds itself in a period of development, which brings to the surface new problems and new demands, as much for the Party and particularly for the CC, as for the relevant leading bodies of KNE.

The duties of the Party in relation to KNE and young people more generally.

31. The main problem which was highlighted at the 16th Congress has not yet been tackled. That is to say that the view still remains amongst the leading bodies and cadre of the party that KNE has the main responsibility for the youth movement. This in practice has led to the restricting of the responsibility of the Party. The problems of young people and the youth movement today are the responsibility of the Party above all, without meaning that KNE's responsibilities are to be downplayed.

The new CC needs to formulate initiatives to open up the party to younger age-groups, to develop a youth movement which at its centre deals with basic problems of work, education, culture and sport. A movement which is against capitalist restructuring, imperialist war, for democratic freedoms, concerned with the problem of drugs and the factors which encourage the selling out of consciousness, anti-communism, and the defamation of the values of struggle.

The KKE needs broadly and energetically to disseminate its program, ideology and political proposal for an AADF and specifically the role of young people in it. To project these things so that young people understand the need for joint activity and alliances with the working class and the other popular strata. It is the responsibility of the CC to begin an effort to specialize Party cadre as well as from KNE for specific youth work. The new area where KNE and the Party lag behind is in activity on the issues of sport, culture and the new technologies. The CC must make sure that in all leading bodies there is systematic follow-up especially in providing comradely help to members of KKE who work in KNE.

The new CC must make sure, without exception, that the previous decision for coordinated work in the various sectors, particularly in the trade union movement, EBE, agriculture, women's liberation, economics, and local government and in the areas of education, sport and culture be implemented. One concrete measure is that it should be the duty for the cadre of the CC and its sections to work amongst young people, in order to raise the level of collectivity and effectiveness in their functioning.

The new CC must orient all its bodies to raise the level of its work in KNE, to make sure that the strategy of the Party is assimilated, for the purpose of communist education, and in order to acquaint members of KNE with the theory of scientific socialism, the history of the Party, the international communist movement and through the example of the cadre and members of the Party.

The new CC must elaborate a plan for the ideological and political education of the cadre of KNE, so that a strong educated current be developed that will permeate the internal life of KNE, with the related positive repercussions and effects in the area of young people. This ideological and political education needs to help KNE meet the requirements of today's ideological struggle against the different bourgeois and petit-bourgeois currents which are present in the areas of education. To help KNE in the realization of its aims to become a strong mass organization, and its members to acquire an understanding of their duties, so that they are convinced of their importance and of their own individual responsibility for the fulfillment of these common goals and so that the tendency for a style of work limited to campaigns be overcome.

The new CC must ensure that leading bodies of the party are imbued with a greater sense of responsibility for the enormous question of the lively and creative functioning of the Base orgs of KNE, which need to be interesting and attractive.

Even though the functioning of Base Orgs has improved problems still remain. Many of these are due to the absence of free-time especially for school students, and also for university students, and to the difficulty that these age-groups have in understanding organizational life correctly and the correct management of their time.

All the members of the leading bodies of the Party and the cadre who are selected for work in the mass organizations and in the movement must understand and have contact with new generation and its problems, concerns and particular characteristics. It is not acceptable for a cadre of the party, irrespective of age, who does not try to acquire these skills and capabilities

Each cadre must feel personal responsibility for the development of the cadre of KNE, for the problems of their lives, their education, their political and educational training, and for the level of their cultural development.

There needs to be concern and assistance to help new members of KNE meet their educational requirements and to help them learn how to individually struggle against the objective obstacles which they face daily.

The activity of the Party must be weighted towards young workers, the unemployed, the children of working-class families, who experience sharper problems and have a relatively better basis to understand the necessity of organized struggle and a rupture with the politics of the ruling class. Specific care must be taken to work in the technical schools and in vocational training.

This weight must be placed on the workplace base orgs with the goal of multiplying them and developing them. The neighborhood Base Orgs must mainly be orientated in a planned way towards young workers. The problems of young couples and of young people preparing to start a family also need to be an area for the party in coordination with KNE.

For the working class composition of the party to be more easily realized , the composition of the neighborhood Base Orgs needs to be studied and the experience of the party needs to be utilized, that is to say that working members of KNE should be transferred to workplace Base Orgs.

The deployment of forces in this way will initially create difficulties in the work of each district and neighborhood. In the end it will prove to be very positive for the strengthening of the work of KNE amongst young workers and will breathe life and strength into the overall work of KNE.

The activity among school students and university students also needs to acquire a clear class character. In each sector there needs to be greater specialization in the work of the cadre in order to open a systematic political, ideological and more general educational front amongst students, specifically concerned with the commercialization of education; where everything will become subject to commercialization and competition, in regard not only to the cost but also to the ideas which will predominate. So that the student youth of KNE put forward the question of Marxist education generally and in the particular subject which they are studying.

This orientation is part of the assistance so that they view things from the standpoint of a militant communist scientist. Particular planning is required for members and cadre of KNE who are taking postgraduate degrees.

The penetration of businesses in higher education, the clear goals of their common interests, that is to say the commercialization and subordination of research to profit are the biggest dangers for the education of students, but also for their political orientation and more general development.

The difficulties are multiplying, because in these areas important sections of the country's scientific resources have been integrated. Other difficulties arise from the fact that today's situation offers economic incentives and pressure and the hope of advancement.

The creation of a pole of resistance in the universities and polytechnics is an urgent issue. There is a need to systematically popularize the political proposal of KKE and the role of the educational movement in the creation of the AADF.

It is proposed to the 17th Congress to decide whether to call a national party conference with the theme, the work of the party amongst young people and its assistance to KNE.

Scientists-Intellectuals

32. The new CC must consider the mass rallying of forces amongst salaried scientists, the large majority of whom face very intense problems which worsens their situation.

A special issue is the development of links of cooperation between the Party and scientists who wish to offer themselves in the service of the people's struggles, to the question of the creation of the front or agree with certain questions which the Party struggles on and is concerned with. This is also true amongst artists and intellectuals who are resisting and have the inclination to support the people's struggles, and contribute to generally raising the level of militancy.

In the last 15 years, the activity of the Party has been inadequate and spasmodic in the field of scientists who work in university institutions and in other sectors. Until now some importance has been given to the economic and trade union problems of scientists without a more general consideration for their contemporary problems and their role in social and political struggles and on economic and socio-political questions.

They are faced with new problems, for example the restructuring of education and research aimed at their commercialization, the more general restructuring of science, intellectual production, research and scientific resources. This difficulty beyond subjective weaknesses is objective and related to the class orientation of science.

In accordance with such conditions, a large part of the scientific strength of the country which is dependent on salaried employment or with other forms of employment is invited to support today's system and its priorities. An important section has developed with specific relationships to the interests of the employers and with EU mechanisms and the management of EU funding. Experience shows that the questions of science and research are interrelated and weighted to the promotion of political cooperation, in comparison with the possibility of cooperation on political and social questions which the movements and rallying of forces are concerned with. Ideological differences intrude more in scientific research and study.

An even larger section of the scientific force of the country, independent of political orientation, find it difficult to marry their scientific understanding with communist ideology and Marxist methodology, even when they look upon the Party in a friendly way and hold a progressive position in relation to the popular strata.. The cases of the corruption of consciousness and selling out are many in this country. The possession of scientific insight and capabilities is not in and of itself a passport to a progressive and radical position and that they will utilize the achievements of science in the interests of the people.

It is the responsibility of the new CC to elaborate a collective worked-out framework of research activity with allied scientists. This will contribute to a dialogue and debate and be connected to the needs of the Party and the movement. This program must be elaborated under the guidance of the CC and with the contribution of all its sections and with intersectional coordination to establish a series of issues for study, through the study and the use of the scientific work of our allies, doctoral studies, postgraduate studies and specialist scientific and technical studies and through the creation of an infrastructure of bibliographies, statistical studies and research.

A similar infrastructure must be formed with similar communication and common action amongst the intelligentsia.

In the midst of this activity, the Party will make sure, as is necessary, that the progressive work it produces will strengthen its role amongst the progressive intelligentsia.

The activity of the Party in the mass organizations.

33. An unshakeable, immoveable aim of the cadre and members of the Party must be the creation of a united movement with anti-imperialist and anti-monopoly goals of struggle, which in the end will develop into an overall anti-imperialist and anti-monopoly direction, liberated from the logic of there only being one way, independent of the forces of the employers, capital more generally and its political parties.

The achievement of an anti-imperialist and anti-monopoly direction, the adoption of an alternative political solution in the movement, will be a united effort. It will arise out of the accumulation of political experience amongst the popular masses, and significantly they will be liberated from their entrapment in the parties of power, the deliverance, as much as is possible under the conditions of capitalism, from reformist illusions and from the impact of opportunism.

If some progressive steps have been taken in our activity in the mass organizations, we have not yet attained the necessary ability to be at once immersed in the masses and at the same time develop our role as their vanguard.

To some extent attacks against the party accusing it of being divisive in cases where it refused to legitimize the corrupt activity of the ruling parties, of the forces of social democracy, were rejected; as in the case of the mobilizations against the war in Iraq etc.

There is progress in the activity of communists in the ranks of the mass movement and mass organizations and in the rallying of forces and initiatives which have been developed on immediate issues.

There also coexist many negative phenomena of clumsiness in the activity of the Party, on the question of opposing the activity of the government and employers common mechanisms, with the result that the mass nature and correct political orientation of the rallying of forces is not protected. Or the opposite; we lose ourselves in the masses, and submit to this negative tendency under the weight of the unfavorable balance of forces.

One step that needs to be taken to confront this weakness is for there to be a very serious effort in the party to study and generalize experience so that it is a resource for every member.

The confrontation between forces who operate in the interests of capital or who have accommodated themselves fatalistically with the current situation and radical forces is clear in the ranks of the mass movement, in the core of these organizations or between different organizations who operate in the same sphere and on the same subject.

This confrontation must be sharpened still further if the level of activity is to be increased. Or it will be unsafe and corruptible. The ideological and political confrontation in the ranks of the movement must be guided by the needs of the people today, the struggle for specific goals and based in the construction of the people's front. Through such a struggle, when it is carried out meticulously and on each occasion takes every factor into consideration and the concrete conditions, which can lead either to entrapment or to the development of a militant anti-imperialist and anti-monopoly unity.

There are no formulas for every occasion, phase or moment for how political confrontations and the rallying of forces will be conducted, without one aspect of the struggle submerging the other. It is a question of maturity, a question of collective study, the consistent checking of results, so that mistakes and omissions can be quickly corrected. So that there be appropriate and creative compromises which help raise the level of the movement and so that is not paralyzed by the impact of the politics of the ruling class.

It must be ensured, as much as it is independent of the party, that each mass organization has its own internal life, its own program. That the participation and activity of its members is ensured. So that it has an independent life and that its independence helps it acquire an anti-imperialist and anti-monopoly direction.

The vanguard role of communists is recognized, when it adds to the lively functioning of the mass organizations their involved in, to their growth, to the creation of common campaigning activity. All communists who hold elected posts in mass organizations must have the good practice of accounting for themselves in front of their constituents, to listen to their opinions and criticisms, to be concerned with the renewal of the leading bodies of the mass organizations, to contribute to the multiplying of militants who hold public office.

The selection of young people and women is a specific responsibility which needs to come from party organizations in a planned way, with specific proposals for members to work in mass organizations, for their selection and to support them.

Elected communists who do not meet the responsibilities of those elected to mass organizations must be removed and there needs to be public criticism. Those elected to public office need to have a high level of vigilance, so that through their participation they safeguard the struggles concerning the problems of the people, and face down attempts to incorporate them, neutralize them or marginalize them.

The new CC needs to ensure, without exception, the constitutional activity of party groups. To check the activity of members and cadre so that they carry out their duties in the mass movement in a militant way, so that they are recognized as fighters in the front lines, as fighters for militant unity and the rallying of forces. The same mass movement can bring forward new forms of organization and struggle, new types of militant organizations, which better meet the demands of the moment. On top of such problems we need to have an open front to consider these things along with other militants.

Each viewpoint which considers the mass organization as substitute for the party, as appendices and mechanisms of it, needs to be opposed decisively. As well as views or practices, which in the name of independence of the mass movement, downplay the responsibility of communists to struggle in their ranks against incorporation, collaboration, retreat and illusions. The vanguard is recognized when its activity raises the people's participation and develops the initiatives of everyone.