Contribution to the Lisbon meeting,

We thank the Portuguese comrades for undertaking this important initiative in front of the European Elections. Our Party was and always is open to initiatives promoting the coordination and cooperation on European level.

We have participated in many bilateral and multilateral initiatives taken by European Communist and workers’ parties, as well as in initiatives by parties and movements in face of EU summits. During the Greek presidency of the EU the movement “Action-Thessaloniki2003” organized -with the participation and support of our Party- big counter summits and demonstrations with international participation.

We would like to thank again the comrades that participated in these activities and in the manifestations of Thessaloniki, as well as for the solidarity expressed on several occasions with communists, unionists, anti-NATO fighters that faced persecutions for their struggle.

Our Party has have supported meetings of the parties of GUE/NGL, and broader ones around specific issues. We have welcomed the initiative taken by the Portuguese comrades last September in Almada, and we undertook the initiative last December to host in Athens a meeting on the issue of the “Constitutional Treaty”.

We had also proposed forms of cooperation like the periodical meeting of the international responsibles of the GUE/NGL parties. Unfortunately this had not been possible so far.

If more common initiatives of our Parties had taken place then today the discussion for the development of cooperation in face of the elections for the European Parliament would had had a more advanced starting point.

We reiterate our readiness to develop cooperation and joint initiatives on bilateral and multilateral levels. We can develop joint actions against the “Constitutional Treaty” of the EU: supporting information campaigns, actively supporting the “NO” in the countries that referenda will take place, organizing mobilizations against the "European Constitution" movements on May 9th, the day that marks the end of WWII and the victory of the people. In Greece that day will coincide with the culmination of the “Peace Olympics” campaign organized by the Greek peace movement, in the big International Marathon March.

We can develop common action around various fronts of struggle: for the workers’ rights, the democratic rights against authoritarianism, against Euroarmy and militarization of the EU, defending each people’ right to decide itself for the development path of its country

Our Parties can take initiatives and support actively the mobilizations scheduled for March 20 against the occupation of Iraq, against the new order and in solidarity with the people that resist imperialism. Our Party will also support initiatives against the US bases and NATO, like the manifestation against the NATO summit organized by TKP this month in Istanbul.

Taking into consideration and fully respecting the existing political and ideological divergences among our Parties, we are ready to contribute both to the formation of the next group in the European Parliament, as well as to the discussion for the proper forms of cooperation at the European level that will be based on mutual respect, equity and sovereignty of every party and will ensure the broadest possible unity and efficiency of action.

Our Party considers the coming elections for the European Parliament to be one more battlefield for the rejection of the reactionary neoliberal policies of the EU. It is important that the political forces which steered or tolerated these policies, have cultivated illusions and have done their utmost to cloak the class essence of the dominant choices of the EU suffer a mass defeat in the ballots.

We will use the electoral campaign to highlight the policy of our Party towards EU, as well as the work and activities of our 3 MEPs that consistently defended and promoted the popular interests, struggles and demands. We will try to take advantage of the experience we have gained in order to improve our effectiveness in the struggle against the EU measures, policies and treaties, projecting at the same time the necessity for another Europe.

Our conviction is that the break with the EU of Maastricht, of capital and of war is a condition for the perspective of a Europe of equitable cooperation, of social rights, prosperity and peace

This electoral campaign will provide one more opportunity to promote our political project the formation of the Anti-imperialist Anti-monopoly Democratic Front in our country.

Those elections will take place in a framework shaped by a vast anti-social offensive and the increasing imperialist aggressiveness. The inter-imperialist contradictions undergo a new phase of sharpening both between the two shores of the Atlantic as well as inside EU itself.

At the same time a new situation emerges in Europe characterized by the large-scale popular resistance, with the significant contribution of the communist, anti-imperialist forces and movements. This is due to the forces that withstood the pressures for submission, rejected the corruption of the “social dialogue” and the class collaboration, did not bow before the neoliberal “one-way” followed by both “center-right” and “center-left” governments.

The trend is one of increasingly acute social conflicts. New forms struggle & coordination have appeared, putting forward an advanced frame of demands:

•  We saw resistance growing against the imperialist wars on Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq. Against the legalization by the EU of the occupation of Iraq and the European participation in it, against NATO and foreign bases.
•  The workers’ mobilizations began to pass on the offensive: against privatisation of the social security asking fully public and free social security; substantial increase of salaries and pensions; decrease of the retirement age; demanding full time permanent job
•  We witnessed the growth of the resistance and struggles of poor and medium peasants against the destructive consequences of the limitations posed by CAP
•  Strong youth and students’ struggles took place, in defence of the public and free educational systems, rejecting the privatisation and the guidelines outlined in the Bologna and Prague summits concerning the highest education.
•  Solidarity actions in defence of workers and fighters prosecuted for their struggles multiply, challenging more and more the formal and shrinking bourgeois legal boundaries
•  There are movements that already challenge the reactionary draft of the «constitutional treaty», demand its withdrawal and call for its rejection.

It is a hopeful sign the fact that the legitimacy of EU wanes in the eyes of the people. The loud “NO” of the Swedish people to euro and EMU –which our party welcomed- in spite of the blackmails and pressures is a good illustration.

In our opinion, all these indicate that the pursuit for popular alternatives with a clear demarcation from social-democracy, now has a more advanced starting point. This endeavour has to correspond both to the level of the anti-popular offensive and of the popular struggles in order to meet the necessity of articulating these processes at the political level, and also express itself in the change of the balance of forces on national level.

As perhaps you already know, in Greece we are in front of early elections that will take place on March 7. The pre-electoral period is being characterized by an artificial acute polarization between PASOK and ND, that at the same time project aggressively strongly anti-popular measures.

The Greek oligarchy as well as the foreign factor –whose presence in the developments is strongly felt, especially that of the US- pursuit to preserve the “bipartisan” system strong. At the same time they prepare to adjusting it, also taking into consideration the “constitutional treaty” for the EU and the political system that derives from it.

The discussions around the "renewal of the political personnel», the future of the political system, the nature of the parties etc, reveal the pursuit to establishing a modern bipolar system under the form of "center-left"/"center-right".

We call upon people to reduce the influence of both 2 parties of PASOK and ND. This together with a parallel reinforcement of KKE inside and outside the parliament will accelerate the formation of the anti-imperialist, antimonopoly, democratic front.

Such a perspective runs against the different center-left/ center-right scenarios and presupposes the mass emancipation of popular forces from both ND and PASOK; this explains the frequent resort to anti-communism.

KKE faces with confidence the forthcoming elections, trusting the popular masses and the experience they have accumulated, and promoting a broad rallying of forces with which we have met in different fronts of struggle: more than 20% of the candidates in our lists are fighters beyond the ranks of KKE that cooperate with us