Meeting of Communist Parties organised by the CP of Ukraine in Kiev on 2nd April 2008 under the title: “NATO expansion and security in Europe”

Speech delivered by D. Koutsoumbas, Member of the PB of KKE

Dear comrades,

Allow me first of all to thank you for inviting us to participate in this interesting meeting. I would also like to convey to all of you fraternal greetings from the CC of KKE, from all the cadres and members of the Party, the Greek communists, men and women, who haven’t stopped all these years struggling against the imperialist wars and invasions, against NATO and other imperialist organisations and unions, against the military bases and sending of troops for aggressive operations outside our country’s borders. We do consider the initiative taken by the CP of Ukraine of significant importance also because today begins the crucial NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania, where will be decided, among other issues, the new expansion of NATO.

Dear friends and comrades,

NATO is a political-military organization established during the Cold War period aiming at the creation of a military “wall” against the USSR and of a strong aggressive military machine as a counterweight to the increasing political and military influence of the USSR and the other socialist countries, after the Second World War in Central and Eastern Europe. It’s a machine ready to suppress popular movements which would possibly undermine the sovereignty of the bourgeois class in the corresponding countries. NATO had shown its barbarous face in Greece too, even when the USSR existed, by imposing a 7-year fascist dictatorship based on the plan “Prometheus”, as well as a lot of anti-democratic, criminal measures and provocations that our people has experienced for several decades. It is NATO to make accountable for the fact that half of Cyprus is under foreign occupation for the last 34 years. After the dissolution of the USSR, NATO has not changed, despite the attempt to convince so the peoples and especially the new countries with which is being expanded. It’s still a political-military machine that serves the anti-popular plans, suppresses the popular movements and got even worse since the “rival awe”, the world socialist system that constituted a major factor in defense of peace, friendship and solidarity among people, does not exist any more. At the same time, NATO takes over new “functions” on other parts of the planet. In accordance with the new doctrine adopted on 1999 regarding the official open aggressive strategy of “action out of zone” NATO deployed “preventive attacks” against peoples and countries that do not submit to the imperialist plans. The pretext was to “counter terrorism” for the alleged defense of minorities. This way NATO promotes further changes of borders, the creation of protectorates like Kosovo, expanding the bases of death.

This new NATO doctrine creates new dangerous treats for peace and security because:

• It’s a doctrine of open, without pretexts intervention in the internal affairs of other countries.
• It’s a doctrine that nullifies any sense of popular sovereignty, national independence, at least as they used to be considered in the frame of the international law in the 20th century.
• It’s the doctrine that gives up formally the principle of inviolability of borders and, as a consequence, includes a tendency of “shrinkage” or dismantling of countries that have a position of minor importance and dependence in the world imperialist system. In the Balkans for example, the main attempt of the imperialist countries is to create protectorates in order to reduce or eliminate any obstacles for investments under predatory terms in order to achieve overexploitation of the low paid workers and to strengthen the authoritarian measures against them. At the same time these forces use the leadership of these protectorates as a sort of “Trojan horse” for new interventions and active involvement in the imperialist game for the share of the “loot” and the spheres of influence, for the control of raw materials and the roads for the transport of energy, with the peoples to be always the victims.
• According to the new NATO doctrine, even the interventions in countries’ internal affairs, as long as the “human rights” are not “respected”, are now legalized.
• The military structure of NATO is now based on smaller and more flexible forces. It increases the control on national armies and at the same time promotes the creation of mercenary forces, based on professional hired soldiers, serving the imperialist expansive policy.
• According to this new doctrine, there is no a specific enemy in a specific place. The enemy might be anywhere so the limits of the operation’s responsibility are not concrete either.

Dear friends and comrades,

NATO offers no security to the peoples of its countries members. This argument, that has been used in Greece extensively, is contradicted by the reality. In fact, the famous article 5 of the Alliance that stipulates “solidarity” i.e. collective military action by the other allies in case of attack against a country member of NATO, has been activated only once in the history of NATO. That happened only when the USA urged their allies to back the imperialist attack against Afghanistan and Iraq, under the pretext of the asymmetrical threats and the attack on the twin towers in New York, starting the so-called anti-terrorist war. For example, the accession of Greece in NATO did not deter neither the Greek Turkish confrontation and the tragedy in Cyprus nor the continuous disputes and claims in the Aegean Sea, the armed conflict in Imia in 1996 or the allegations on “grey zones” in the Aegean Sea put forward by Turkey. The enormous military expanses that orientated the armed forces and the acquisition of armament according to the necessities of NATO and not for the safeguard of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country are also a result of this policy.

Comrades,

The main goal of the expansion of NATO towards east and south, to the Balkans, is to safeguard the interests of the bourgeois class in the countries where socialism was reversed as well as to counter the penetration and increasing influence of the rising capitalist power, Russia. It intends to incorporate in the Euro Atlantic war machine these countries and to diminish the political and military influence of Russia in these areas. At the same time, it tries to create a sense of uncertainty about the plans that concern the pipelines that Russia promotes in those areas which are competitive to the USA and the EU.

The development of the US “antimissile shield” in Poland and Czech Republic which by the way is fully backed by NATO, the rejection by NATO countries to ratify the reformed treaty on the tactical troops in Europe and the new military bases in Kosovo, Bulgaria and Romania, despite the NATO engagements to Russia in the past, are illustrative for the sharpening of this inter-imperialist competition. More and more is clear that the aim of the US and EU big business is to press Russia on the military field as well. The same occurs with the plans that have to do with the militarization of space. These plans concern the acquisition of such military supremacy that will allow USA and NATO to provoke a nuclear strike, without undergoing any consequences. They are constantly thinking on how to minimize the ability of Kremlin to negotiate on the international affairs.

These developments are tightly attached to the wide-scale inter-imperialist competition for the control of the markets, the sources of energy, and the roads of transfer, in order to achieve a better position in the imperialist “pyramid” of the world imperialist system, which is ruled by relations of interdependence between the countries based on the principles of the capitalist way of production. The bourgeois class of the former socialist countries is trying to gain great external support by promoting the integration to NATO. They believe that this way they will also gain political and financial benefits. At the same time, the bourgeois forces in these countries try to consolidate their positions against the resistance developed in the country’s interior, to keep away the danger for a powerful movement to emerge which, under the weigh of the horrible conditions for the people under capitalism, will raise the question of socialism.

Dear friends,

The integration into NATO is perceived as a vehicle for the integration into EU. The unified imperialist strategy is evident taking into account the parallel integration process of EU and NATO as well. The simultaneous expansion not only does not negate the internal imperialistic contradictions but in fact, it reproduces and strengthens them. It also strengthens the contradictions between leading powers and the other NATO members. The myth that NATO does not relate to the EU, which for some represents only an “economic union of the people” is long time ago not more credible.

In the joint statement of the recent meeting of 25 Communist and Worker’s Parties held in Athens (14th-15th March) it is mentioned: “the EEC and then the EU that followed was the choice of the leading powers and Western European monopoly capital. It promotes neo-liberal measures favouring the monopolies and the concentration and accumulation of capital. It cannot represent a genuine counterweight to the USA in favour of the people. With the Reform Treaty, new steps are being taken towards the configuration of the EU as an imperialist, economic, political and military block against the interests of the workers and the people.”

In any case for us it is clear that NATO and EU are unions serving the same class interests. EU often undertakes the “dirty work” of NATO, as it was proved in the case of the dissolution of Yugoslavia and now in the case of the declaration of independence of Kosovo. Both cases are a blatant violation of international law. Undoubtedly, there are partial differences and competition between EU and USA, although the EU is itself a “cruel player” that hand in hand with the USA, turns on against the people, against weaker targets. It struggles against the USA only for the loot sharing. The creation of the Euro-army, the next step of CFSP (Common Foreign and Security Policy) of the EU, and its close collaboration with the NATO that is provided from the outset, confirms this point in our view.

For that reason KKE is not only against the recognition of Kosovo’s independence but also against the deployment of the EU police force that will only reinforce the foreign occupation of this Serbian province. We demand from the Greek government to set an end to the involvement in these plans and to recall back all the Greek troops being deployed to serve the imperialist NATO operations. As it is said above, it is clear that the EU in no way can be considered a “counterweight” to the NATO and the USA. And this in spite of the well known statement that the “raison d’être” for EU is just to serve the security of people in Europe. NATO just like EU are unions created to serve the interests of the big capital. Their essence, their orientation and their role cannot be changed by a simple alternation of the standard conservative bourgeois political powers with others so-called “progressive”, “centre-left” orientated etc.

This was clearly proved by the active participation of the centre-left and the “socialist” governments e.g. in France, Italy and Greece during the NATO bombing against Yugoslavia in 1999. The same is true now with the recognition of Kosovo, the involvement in Afghanistan, Iran, Lebanon etc.

Of course we have heard the estimation, mainly by Russian sources, that if NATO was “fair” towards Russia, if Russia was allowed to play an important role, if the NATO- Russia Council (N.R.C.) was not restricted to issues of secondary importance and if Russia had an essential role in the immediate and long-range planning of NATO then there would not be any problem regarding security in Europe.

This estimation underestimates the big internal imperialistic contradictions that are being constantly sharpened. It is noteworthy that Russia that is already a member of the Security Council of the UN and of other international organisations as well, such as OSCE (Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe) was accepted in the group of the most powerful capitalist countries (G-8), yet the intensity of competition was not reduced at all.

So, we believe that the workers should not be under the delusion that ,if Russia collaborates more closely with the NATO and becomes organic part of the plans concerning the suppression of the popular movement even by acceding to the NATO , the role of NATO will change into positive for the peoples security.

Another part of the illusions has to do with the estimation, gaining ground lately, that the support of the EU, Russia and other rising powers in the international rivalry like China, India, Brazil etc, will immediately form a “multi-polar world” that will restrict the bellicose plans of NATO. In this way allegedly a peaceful and secure world is possible to exist, a “balance” will be achieved as it had been achieved after the Second World War with the existence of the USSR and the international socialist system.

One the one hand, these views are oblivious of the different social and class content of the USSR in comparison to the rising powers of today and on the other hand, they create a fake and “angelic” international environment that will be supposedly created . They deceive the people by saying that in this multi-polar world all problems will be solved peacefully through negotiations. In our opinion these views are misleading and hazardous as well.

Because it is well-known that in conditions of imperialism the spheres of influence and interests are being shared according to the power of the countries that take part in the sharing, according to their general economic, military and political power. This confrontation is proceeding sometimes normally with negotiations, in periods of peace, sometimes with hard and bloody wars. The true progressive powers cannot promote idealistic delusions to the workers regarding the intentions of the imperialists. We know by our own experience of the international communist movement how damaging proved to be in the past views in the CPSU and in other parties as well (also in ours), that allowed the development of utopian aspects that imperialism is possible to quit war, military means, sabotage and subversion.

Of course the popular movement in each country should not ignore the inter-imperialist contradictions. Also, it should not declare support for the one competitor and against the other. The internal imperialistic contradictions should be of course used since within the framework of imperialism they have an objective character, in order to create pre-conditions for the final victory of the popular movement taking into consideration that they lead as well to the enemy’s weakening. In our opinion the essential issue is not the “multi-polar conflict” of the imperialists but the development of the class, anti-imperialist struggle, the massive engagement of the people in the ranks of the working class and popular movement in each country, in each continent, world-wide.

In conclusion: we firmly believe that the existence and expansion of the NATO and the EU do not guarantee the security in Europe. People must react against the imperialist plans, organise and co-ordinate their action.

The duty of the Communist Parties is to stand in the front line of the anti-imperialist movement and contribute to the reorganisation and strengthening of the peace, anti-war, anti-NATO, anti-imperialist movement. We should raise an ideological and political front against the bourgeois propaganda regarding the so-called transformation of NATO into a collective security system. Also, we have to fight against the illusions promoted by the social- democrats, the “new-left” opportunist forces, which argue that a “peaceful”, “secure” and “multi-polar” world is possible without the dissolution of NATO, without the change of correlation of forces, the final reversal of the imperialism, the capital system in its whole. KKE steadily struggles all these years and will keep up struggling for the disengagement of our country from the imperialist chains, from the imperialist unions the EU and NATO.

The hope of the people for a secure and peaceful world is closely tightened to the popular struggle for the reversal of the imperialist plans, for the construction of a new society, free from the exploitation of man by man, a socialist-communist society.

Thank you and I wish you all to succeed your goals.