Contribution of KKE to the international communist seminar organized by WP of Belgium
Contribution by Dimos Koumpouris member of CC of KKE (CPG)
The role and the historical task of the working class
The role and the historical task of the working class have been major issues of political and ideological dispute. The reason is that the position towards this crucial issue relates with the orientation and the perspective of the struggle; it determines the answer to the question whether the capitalist mode of production and therefore the exploitation of man by man should be continued or whether the overthrow of capitalism and the transition to socialism should proceed.
The role of the working class and its historical task is determined by objective criteria.
First of all it is determined by its position in the given system of social production as a class being exploited by the capital; by its relation to the means of production as a class which, having no means of production of its own, is forced to sell its labor power in order to live. It is determined also by its executive role in the social organization of labor as well as by its share in the social wealth, namely its wage and salary that ensure its maintenance.
The Marxist-Leninist criteria mentioned above also apply nowadays and consist the answer to the attempts of the bourgeois and opportunists supporters of capitalism to restrict, eliminate or break the unity of the working class under the pretext of the changes caused by the development of science, technology and productive forces.
The communists study the new conditions and take into consideration the consequences of the revolution in science and technique.
Nevertheless the productive forces are being developed on the specific basis of the capitalist relations of production, as it happened in the past, in the Industry Revolution in 19th century.
This determining factor has not changed, it exists also today and it will do so in the future. From this point of view the theories that regard capitalism either as a post-industrial society either as the society of knowledge, either as the casino capitalism etc are guided by expediency.
The system remains as it was in the past: the highest stage of capitalism, imperialism.
“This ultimate goal is determined by the character of modern bourgeois society and by the trend of its development. The principal specific feature of this society is commodity production based on capitalist production relations, under which the most important and major part of the means of production and exchange of commodities belongs to a numerically small class of persons while the vast majority of the population is made up of proletarians and semi-proletarians, who, owing to their economic position, are compelled permanently or periodically to sell their labor-power, i.e., to hire themselves out to the capitalists and to create by their labor the incomes of the upper classes of society”. [1]
Of course there is diversity within the ranks of the working class and its surroundings; there are differences according to the different professions, the income and the economic situation in general but this does not change the trend for the increase of the wage-labor, the process of the increase of the working class and the strengthening of its role.
Furthermore the capital’s growth and the expansion of the capitalist relations of production leads to the displacement of small- and medium-scale farmers and intensifies the trend of proletarianization of the middle class strata.
In Greece this trend is proved by concrete elements and despite the difficulties caused by the statistics, we can argue that in the period 1981-1986 the working class has been increased by 810,000 in absolute numbers and by 51,6% in percentage.
In 1996 the working class represented 55% of the active population participating by almost 93% in the wage labor. Approximately 80% of the working class has been gathered in urban areas.
38% of the working class works in the industrial sector, 13,8% in the trade, 13% in the healthcare system , 8% in the welfare system in general, etc.
These tendencies have grown the following years, especially in the trade sector and the tourism-alimentation sector where big accumulation and concentration of capital took place. Likewise in the agriculture sector where thousands of immigrants work as land workers.
Except from the manufacturing branch, the industry sector also includes the branches of transport, energy and telecommunications that the bourgeois statistics attribute to the service sector.
In those branches the process of capitalist restructuring, the deregulation of markets and the process of privatisations, have led to a reduction of the workplaces in the formerly state-owned enterprises –“common interest enterprises”– and to the expansion of the private, monopoly capital that employs thousands of workers and youth mainly in part-time jobs.
These developments suggest that the exploitation of the labor force is being increased, the accumulation of capital results to deterioration of the working people’s living standard and the capital-labor contradiction is being sharpened.
The features that affirm the vanguard, leading character of the proletariat appear clearer.
Due to the factual developments the fundamental these of the Communist Manifesto also applies nowadays: “of all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class. The other classes decay and finally disappear in the face of Modern Industry; the proletariat is its special and essential product”.[2]
The interest of the working class as the main productive force, that produces the wealth appropriated by the capitalists, is to fight for the abolition of exploitation and the establishment of new socialist relations of production based on the socialisation of the means of production.
In addition, the concentration of the working class consists an advantage giving way to new possibilities for its organisation, despite the obstacles put in the united action by the “new” labor relations: the flexible forms of employment, the fragmentation of the general collective labor contracts, the individual labor agreements.
There is an imperative need for the communists to study these developments as well as for the class forces in the labor movement to adjust their tactics in order for the class struggle to be developed in terms of the current developments.
The issue of the revolutionary subject has been an important one for the ideological-political struggle between the communist forces and the social-democratic, opportunistic ones
This question has come into surface lately, with the appearance of the various “social forums”. In these formations petty bourgeois forces participate, even bourgeois ones. They underrate or deny the struggle at national level as the main frame of the struggle. They tend to substitute the notion of the class with the “multitudes”. This is why they are used as vehicle for the dissolution of the communist identity into ambiguous formations of the “left”.
The slogans they promote, such as “people before profits” or “another world is possible” do not go beyond the boundaries of capitalism. At the same time, the leading forces in them slander the socialism of the 20th century that despite the deviations, the mistakes and the delays that led to its overthrow has had a valuable historical contribution.
These forces cannot be the revolutionary subject, also because of their objective position.
About the strategy and tactics of KKE
In the programme of KKE which was adopted in the 15th congress in 1996 it is mentioned that:
“The Greek people will be delivered from the bonds and effects of capitalist exploitation and of imperialist oppression and dependence when the working class and their allies bring about the socialist revolution and proceed to building socialism and communism. In our time, the time of the transition from capitalism to socialism, the struggle between the classes is directed toward the resolution of the primary contradiction between capital and labor. The revolutionary change in Greece will be socialist. The driving force of the socialist revolution will be the working class as the leading force, the semi-proletarians, poor farmers and the most oppressed urban petty bourgeois strata of the people.”
Our party follows a specific policy concerning the alliance with other forces that proceeds through the attempt to build the Anti-imperialist Anti-monopoly Democratic Front. This Front will be based on a wide social range and expresses the interests of the big majority of the people that experience the consequences of the monopolies’, multinational companies’ action and the participation of the country in the imperialist organisations.
The strength of the front – the social and political alliance– lies in the leading role of the working class and its party, in the alliance with the social strata (medium-sized farmers, self-employed in urban centres) that struggle in anti-imperialist direction.
These strategic directions determine the stance, the tactic, and the decisions of the communists in the labor movement, in the struggle against the process of capitalist restructuring, against capital’s strategy.
The line of anti-imperialist, antimonopoly struggle contributes to the concentration of forces, to the organisation of the resistance against the policies of the liberal and social-democratic governments, against EU, NATO and the other imperialist organisations; against the capitals’ attack in general.
This struggle is not restricted to demands concerning better conditions for the selling of the labor power. It is the way for changing the balance of forces that, under certain conditions, could approach the transition to socialism.
According to this line that relates to the solution to the issue of power the communists are trying to politicize the struggle of the masses.
They promote a frame of demands that meet the contemporary needs of the working class and the popular strata and oppose the capital’s strategy
Some examples:
First, the decisions of the EU and the policy of the governments of ND (liberal party) and PASOK (social-democrat party) support the deregulation of sectors like those of energy and telecommunications as well as the privatisation of state-owned enterprises.
At this point there is a dispute between the theses of the KKE and those of all other parties, including the opportunist party SYNASPISMOS.
All other political forces accept the idea of deregulation and privatisation. Especially the social-democrats and the opportunists speak of partial privatisation and “state control” spreading confusion and illusions.
The communists struggle against the deregulation and privatisation but not from the point of view of the past. This means that we struggle against privatisation but we do not defend state-owned enterprises as means of the capitalist development.
In our opinion privatized state enterprises or even state-owned enterprises, operating under the conditions of “liberalization and competition”, regulated by “private economic criteria” cannot serve the interests and the needs of the people.
The answer to liberalization and privatization should be the struggle aiming at the socialization of sectors and enterprises of strategic importance for the economy and the establishment of exclusively public enterprises (energy, telecommunications etc) responding to the needs of the working people in general as well as of the workers running these enterprises.
Our experience teach us that in that way we can develop a powerful resistance to the attacks and at the same time project demands that correspond to the needs of the workers connected with our proposal for an alternative solution against the capital’s strategy. By this it will be possible to lead the workers be more resolute in their demands.
Allow me to give you another example. The EU and the bourgeois governments suppress workers’ rights, generalize part-time work and make constant reference to the so-called flexibility and security. In practice, these measures lead to the generalization of flexible forms of employment as well as to an intensified exploitation of the labor force.
How do we answer to these challenges having in mind the need to keep open the perspective and to escalate the struggle?
We concentrate our action in order to create a front against the flexible forms of employment, the underemployment, the working time regulation and the undermining of the Collective Labor Agreements.
We highlight and demand: full-time and stable job, establishment of the 35-hour week, i.e. 7-hour day and 5-day week, 6-hour day for the heavy or unhealthy jobs, high wages taking into account the increase of the wealth produced by the workers as well as the increase of the labor productivity.
This direction for the struggle helps to regroup and organise forces, to develop a movement that struggles for a entire package of progressive demands while at the same time puts on the agenda the need for deep, radical changes of the society in a progressive direction. This is in our opinion absolutely important since the need to ensure work for all requires a popular socialist economy and central planning.
It is exactly this point of view which leads our party to fight at the same time for an exclusively free public education and health care system and for the abolition of business activity in general.
We fight for an exclusively public social security system for all.
In this direction KKE takes action in order to increase its influence in factories and enterprises through the general action of the party’s branch organizations and trough the part’s cells in the enterprises trying at the same to establish new as much as possible.
About the struggle of the communists within the labor movement
We consider as a highly important issue the tactic of communists within the trade union movement of the working class.
We believe that this issue should be discussed and we would like to contribute to it exposing our experiences and thoughts.
Within the labor movement there can be found many political and trade union forces with different ideological and political bases. This is another issue that needs further examination.
In Greece there are two General Confederations of Workers. One is GSEE (General Confederation of Greek Workers) and represents the workers in the private sector and in the former enterprises “of general interest”. The other one is ADEDY (Supreme Administration of Greek Civil Servants Trade Unions) and represents the workers in the public administration.
Nowadays, we cannot continue the approach of previous years to refer to traditional reformist forces who denied the revolutionary process and were in favour of certain administrative reforms.
Nowadays, these forces are incorporated in the strategy and the aspirations of the capital and, furthermore, they constitute a key factor that supports the imperialist unions and the “EU one-way street” policies.
The reformist forces are a key factor in the constellation of forces that support capitalism, an entire mechanism that incorporates the working class in the logic of class cooperation and corrupts people’s conscience.
Since the beginning of the 90’s these forces, the forces of the trade unionism controlled by the bosses, the New Democracy party, the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) and the opportunist Coalition of the Left of the Movements and Ecology (SYN), upheld in various ways the basic directive lines of the EU, supported the capitalist restructuring, the privatizations, the attack against the labor and social security rights, as well as the austerity policy.
These forces are trying to limit the workers' demands promoting "feasible" and "realistic" solutions in order to serve the interests of the capitalists.
In order to achieve these goals these forces don’t hesitate to make use of tacticism and machinations. Some time, they call on struggles under the pressure of the workers and the labor movement and make use of various means in order to control the trade union movement and even to alter the correlation of forces.
The communists are in constant confrontation with these forces. In Greece the clash of the two respective lines within the trade union movement is revealed every day.
KKE supports PAME, the All Workers’ Militant Front. PAME is a correlation of federations, labor centers, trade unions, struggle initiative committees, single trade unionists and workers fighting in a class direction around a set of demands that challenges the capitalists, the imperialist unions and any policy that is against people’s interests.
The forces affiliated to PAME do not abstain from their duties as members of the confederations nor the other structures of the trade union movement.
They participate in these structures, free of any compromise, actively participating in the debates and promoting their demands. However, the key aspect of PAME is the processed proposal regarding the problems of the working class and popular families, the problems of the Greek people and the immigrants.
PAME uses in its activity all forms of struggle: protests, manifestations, strikes, sit-ins.
Recently, from November 2007 till May 2008, many important struggles were organised against the new bill of the government regarding the national security system. This bill provided a general increase in the retirement ages, an increase in the retirement ages of working mothers with dependent children, a reduction of the pensions, severe reduction of the list of heavy and hazardous occupations etc.
The forces of PAME were in the front line giving class orientation to all these struggles, as well as to those conducted for the Collective Agreements. At this point is needed to recall the fact that the majority of the General Confederation’s leadership was approving a similar law as the one passed by the social-democrat PASOK in 2002 attacking the insurance rights of the working class.
At the same time the General Confederation along with the bosses were signing the National Collective Labor Agreement giving a 1 euro increase per day on the minimum wage of 29 euros an on the minimum salary of 657 euros.
PAME fought in several ways (manifestations, strikes, sit-ins etc) with the participation of thousands of workers.
It is of particular importance the fact that there was a very high percentage of workers who went on strike in the private sector, in the branch of constructions, metal, food, textile, trade, pharmaceuticals, private health care centres etc in ghettos where the bosses threat, blackmail and make use of many other means against the working class in order to terrorise them and break their strikes.
The overwhelming majority of the workers in the private sector who went on strike, participated in the rallies of PAME, while in the rallies organised by the trade unionism controlled by the bosses and the government that had the support of the mass media, participated mainly the petty bourgeoisie (lawyers, doctors etc.) and employees in the public sector.
Nevertheless, the superiority of the class movement is not only indicated by the number of workers that take part in it, but by its components as well. It is demonstrated in the organisation of the movement, in the preparation of the strikes, in the thousands of meetings held before the strike, in the visits in work places, in the conversations with workers in factories and companies and in the picketing during the strike in order to protect workers’ right to struggle.
This superiority is clear also in the framework of demands that meet the needs of today’s workers including lowering of the retirement age to 55 for women and to 60 for men and five years less for people working in heavy or unhealthy occupations, retirement after 30 years of work with no age limit, an exclusively public and free health care system, a minimum salary of 1,400 euros and baseline pension of 1,120 euros.
The struggle of the class movement collides with this policy in its whole as it does not serve the benefit of the people. It highlights the fact that the implemented measures that lead to the overthrow of social, security and labor rights, to privatizations and to the commercialisation of the health and welfare sector and of the education, are core stones of the general capitalist restructuring actually under way.
EU and the liberal and social-democrat forces that promote the liberalisation, push forward these restructurings. They are aiming to foster the capitalist competivity and concurrence and to boost the super-profits. Therefore, they lower the price of the working force and intensify the exploitation.
The forces of PAME that struggle against this policy intend to overcome the low degree of organisation of the working class in the trade unions, by organising mainly young people, women, workers in flexible forms of employment and immigrants.
The supporters of PAME strive to se up different forms of collective action and organization such as struggle initiative committees, trade union committees or other, in order to create branch unions in all work places.
They are aiming at overthrowing today’s correlation of forces in favour of the working class, which is the condition for the entire reorganisation of the labor movement.
Furthermore we would like to stress the importance of the contribution of PAME in the labor movement regarding the development of internationalism, the promotion of solidarity between workers for the benefit of the entire working class and of the peoples facing the threats and the intervention of the imperialists, in favour of the Cuban Revolution, of the Palestinian, Iraqi and of other peoples.
KKE and PAME support the WFTU and the current efforts under way aiming at its reorganisation and activation as well as at the reinforcement of its class orientation.
We note with satisfaction that after the 15th Congress of the WFTU in Havana these developments have been followed by new affiliations of a number of trade unions and by many coordinated activities in all continents.
We consider that the strengthening of the WFTU is a task that has to be undertaken by the communist parties because the emergence of an class pole in the international trade union movement is an indispensable element in the struggle against capitalism, the governmental policy that hits the rights of the people, against the leadership of the Free Trade Unions and of the European Confederation which are aligned with and subjected to the plutocracy and imperialism.
In our opinion, the joint action of the communist and workers’ parties regarding the problems of the working class will strengthen the class struggle.
Some initiatives regarding this issue may be for example the following:
To continue the campaign demanding a referendum and the condemnation of the Euro Treaty that is aiming at a more reactionary EU.
To develop joint actions against the Lisbon strategy, the Bolkestein directive and the relative decisions taken by the European Court. Actions against the EU antiterrorist laws etc
To develop joint action demanding stable full-time employment, 7-hour day and 5-day week and 6-hour day for the heavy and unhealthy occupations, public social security for all, lowering of the retirement age, exclusively public and free for all health care and education.
To take initiatives for the rights of the young workers, the women and the immigrants.
To continue and to develop new joint actions against the multinational companies that have laid their tentacles in several countries.
The communist parties have an important task to fulfil. We are confident that this discussion and the joint action will go on for the benefit of the working class and the development of the class struggle.
We thank you and we wish you great success on the seminar.
May 2008
[1]V.I. Lenin, Materials relating to the revision of the Party Programme, Draft of revised Programme, June 1917
[2] Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the Communist Manifesto
e-mail:cpg@int.kke.gr