Speech by the General Secretary of the CC, Aleka Paparhiga,at KKE-KNE Festival

21 September 2008

I’d like to welcome you to the Festival, which is being organised jointly this year by KKE and KNE, to honour the double anniversary: the Party’s 90th and KNE’s 40th.

We welcome delegations from 61 communist and workers’ parties and communist youth organisations who are celebrating with us, paying tribute to proletarian internationalism and internationalist solidarity. We are strengthening our solidarity with the communist parties and peoples who are fighting against imperialism and for socialism. We express the need for more concerted action and collaboration, and for the International Communist Movement to chart a united strategy.

We salute all the workers, artists and volunteers who, with enthusiasm, originality and passion, have built this Festival and have given it the special colour of a great double anniversary.

Throughout its history, even under the harshest conditions, KKE was never afraid of putting forward views that those in power persecuted and punished, even with the death penalty, but which the society was not yet ready to accept.

Political courage was required to denounce the Asia Minor Expedition at a time when the irredentist Great Idea ruled and divided victim peoples.

Of vital importance was the initiative of KKE which, even though it was dealt crushing blows by the Crown-Metaxas dictatorship, led the Resistance struggle, facing at the same time class attacks and provocations by quislings and British allies.

Children are not taught that from the first moment of the Italian-German occupation, the bourgeois political world maintained a different attitude from that of KKE. One segment of that world collaborated openly with the invader; another went to Egypt and prepared to hinder the complete victory of the Resistance forces at the level of power. They succeeded in taking advantage of the lack of a comprehensive strategy on the part of the movement and especially the Party. But that moment, when we could not meet responsibilities as we should have done, had nothing to do with betrayal or self-interest. If our mistake was not reckoning the actual correlation of forces and having illusions about the stance of the allies and the bourgeois political world, their choice was not a product of inexperience or error. In Cairo, Alexandria and London, they were all consistent with their class; they wanted to uproot the tree of the resistance, down to its last root.

And it was done with fire and the sword at the expense of those who took the road of resistance when the others were having a good time abroad.

Which is why this year, celebrating our 90th anniversary, we have paid special honour to the young partisan movement that was born after liberation and, until 1949, fought the battle of the Democratic Army, which was the highlight of the class struggle in Greece in the 20th century, an anti-imperialist and internationalist battle. On the one hand the armed mass struggle stood firm, but on the other the governments and machinery of the so-called right and liberal parties, who had the force of arms of US and British imperialism on their side, escalated the violence.

Let us consider the great significance of the Party’s bold and correct position in 1974, that the transition from a dictatorship to a bourgeois parliamentary republic took place after some give-and-take.

Let us recall the Party’s warning about the imperialist nature of the war in the Balkans in the early 1990s, when all the other political forces were complacently saying that humanity had embarked on the highway of democratisation, prosperity and peace.

We are proud because, in the most difficult period for the socialist system and the communist movement, when the “rats” – cadres and leaders – were “abandoning the sinking ship”, we talked about the victory of the counter-revolution. We defended the role and contribution of socialism in the 20th century, its historical necessity, and the fact that our era remains an age of the passage from capitalism to socialism.

In 1991, we did not merely rise to the occasion when we avoided voluntary dispersion, i.e. the self-dissolution of the Party in the then Coalition of the Left. It is significant that we maintained the historical continuity of KKE, and not a single day passed that we did not take part in daily struggles.

Although wounded, we were ready to fight, to enlighten and to take initiatives of struggle, since the treaty of Maastricht, which was approved by everybody except KKE, paved the way for the first barbarous measures of capitalist restructuring to pass into our lives.

At the appropriate moment, against the current, we proclaimed that the people not only should not be afraid of an unstable unpopular government, or an unstable unpopular political system, it should in fact seek to weaken and destabilise it further, always of course through the decisive blows of the labour and popular movement and with a view to the final counter-attack.

And was it not also important that KKE openly and clearly warned the people that they should not condemn solely the alternation of ND and PASOK, but should go further and fortify themselves against scenaria of reform of the political scene with a centre-right or centre-left government?

The conclusion can be drawn from our entire history: Never, on any occasion, under any conditions whatsoever, can there be justification for failing to ensure the party’s independent action, the existence of organised forces everywhere, wherever possible, at any cost in terms of sacrifices. On condition that we proceed with a thought-out strategy and tactics that do not mortgage the interests of the working class with temporary successes or with the failures and hardships of the struggle.

No political grouping, however radical it may be, can replace the role and contribution of the Communist Party organised above all in workplaces and sectors. The same is true for the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE). The instance of 1958 will not be repeated, when the Party Organisations were dissolved and dispersed into a broader left grouping. The independent ideological, political and organisational presence of KKE guarantees the formation and durability of the political alliance of the socio-political Anti-imperialist Anti-monopoly Democratic Front that we propose. Moreover, we recognise the right to independence for our allies as well.

One feature of KKE is that it operates like a kind of powerful drill that must bore ever deeper into the earth, to sow the seeds of newer, vanguard and unusual ideas, so that they may become an enormous tree that will abolish class exploitation, further social equality and equality between the sexes, and promote workers’ internationalism and the role of science in the service of the people.

We are not simply the Party that focuses its attention on the working people; we are the Party that sees in these people the leading force in the production of wealth and the leading force in the liberation of the society from exploitation of all kinds. In the majority of young people, we see tomorrow’s generation of the working class, the popular strata that will shoulder the burden of the great radical changes that will alter the world. We hope that they will have greater success than we did.

KKE lends weight and emphasis to daily struggles, to whatever torments and troubles the majority of the people. At the same time it has the characteristic feature that it tries – sometimes successfully and sometimes not – to fight for what is historically timely and necessary, irrespective of the correlations that prevail at any given historical moment. The bourgeoisie, the defeatists and opportunists of all types are only interested in changing the pawns on the chessboard of bourgeois governance.

Throughout our entire history, we have always represented the realism of militant indiscipline and disobedience to commands to submit and conform, and the realism of resistance and counter-attack against the so-called realism of conformity and intimidation, of bribery and favouritism. This stance is totally unrelated to the petty bourgeois impatience and opportunism of other forces.

KKE is not looking for new-fangled phrases, it will not change its scientific terms that represent specific content in contemporary reality as well. We are not looking hypocritically for innovations.

We are seeking to show what is the current task that corresponds to objective reality, to progress, and the need to solve its problems.

Realistic means what the people can do when they know how to use their power, when they risk changing the correlation instead of risking life under the burden of adverse correlations.

WHAT IS TIMELY AND REALISTIC TODAY

KKE replies to this question with its Programme, with the conclusions derived from the building of socialism, which combine projecting the superiority of the system with critical assessment of the mistakes made during the course of building it. This hurts the adversary, who has nothing new to say other than what he said from the first moment of the victory of the Great October Revolution. Whatever he may have said, he only meant one thing, and still does to this day, which is that he cannot accept dispute of capitalist ownership. This is the difference between us, let’s have our confrontation on this issue and let’s leave out the stuff about Stalin, Yalta and all the rest that we keep hearing about.

To the question of “how we can get out of the impasse” we reply with our proposal of a social and political alliance that takes into account the correlation of forces and the differences between the allies on the issue of socialism, with our proposals for resolving the problems that concern us today, with the struggle to impose some solutions today, even partial or temporary ones. But we don’t stop there, because today more than yesterday, the daily struggle must be directed to overthrowing the system, to the victory of people’s power and the people’s economy.

Regarding the cracks in the system by which the two parties alternate in power, we reply with the call to bring it to a full, total breakdown.

Regarding the efforts of the bourgeois class to bring back the derby of the two-party system or an intervening period of coalition centre-right or centre-left governments, we reply “carry on”, “you are weakening the bourgeois parties”, “don’t look for differences between the two”. The only essential difference between them is their egotism and the self-seeking competition over who will be at the helm of government. Deprive them of support from the left or right.

Have no confidence in the forces of opportunism that are trying to flatter the people and deceive them with so-called left governments, but with no intention of striking at the power of the monopolies in the economy.

The labour movement must be reorganised and regenerated with a class orientation. Give power to KKE, irrespective of whether or not you agree with us in all things, and make the popular movement stronger. Minds must be emancipated from the strategy of the monopolies and freed from any spirit of fear and defeatism towards the “one-way street” of Europe and US-NATO commitments.

The adversary is not all-powerful. It does not have the same weapons to manage the crisis in the same way today as it did in the past. The discussions taking place around the national, regional or global interstate management of capital movements in the money markets have not been effective, since there is great centralisation and concentration under the conditions of the deregulated market. It is possible that a simultaneous crisis will hit the strong capitalist countries, just as it is possible for an economic crisis to come first to Greece before the other Balkan economies. Then the offensive at the expense of the peoples will be even worse. We must be well prepared.

The bourgeois political system, monopoly capitalism, i.e. imperialism, long ago lost any opportunity and ability that it may have had to make some concessions that would lead to a relative and in some cases absolute improvement in the standard of living. Today the system has become more reactionary and barbarous, and will not turn back.

The most it can give to the unemployed young man or woman is a temporary and badly paid job in a Stage program for 5-9 months, a part-time job with some contractor who is in fact operating with no regulations for safeguarding health and safety on the job, and after making sure that the young man or woman bows and scrapes a thousand times to the boss, the party, the MP, the mayor and the prefect.

What can it give to a young couple? Slavery to mortgages, personal loans, holiday loans and vacation loans. On top of which they will hear advice from bankers telling them not to borrow unnecessarily. And then they will have to look for a place in child-care or a nursery school and will have to choose between the high fees of public day-care and the even higher ones of private care.

What can it offer the rural woman who can’t afford to grow anything because she and her husband were chased off their land? She makes jam in an effort to break the embargo of the department stores, and the farmer has three jobs trying to make ends meet, while they both work occasionally in large hotels under wretched conditions, trying to gather the 101 stamps needed to draw unemployment insurance.

What can it give the self-employed person, the small tradesman, when the lion’s share of the turnover goes to department stores?

What reply can it give to the lack of social infrastructures? The policy of “productiveness”. That is, you pay and pay again to get something. You want roads that don’t kill people? Pay tolls. You want a house with anti-seismic protection? Pay top prices per square metre. You want clean beaches that are environmentally landscaped? Then agree to have businessmen snatch them up for a song so that you can pay to get in, pay for a shower and pay for a lounge chair.

The culmination is the scandal of the large monasteries grabbing land and demanding lakes, on the basis of signatures of government ministers, and claiming titles that were granted to them 500 years ago and more!

What can this system and the parties in power give to a young person who wants to be educated? A school that empties the pockets of the parents and the minds of the youth. A bunch of so-called alternative educational solutions that you have to pay for and that provide downgraded vocational training to contemporary labour slaves.

What can it give to the working people who want to enjoy their retirement with serenity and security? The possibility of getting a few more euros in their pension if they work until they are 67, and why not 71? From then on, a solitary difficult life, or a dismal life in warehouses for the elderly that also cost money. Or you can ask the mayor to send you a badly paid or unpaid working woman on the “home help” programme just for a day.

The bourgeois class and the parties that serve it, the ND and PASOK, have taken and are still taking scandalous advantage of the Community Support Framework and of Programmes, mainly the experience of the European liberal and social-democratic parties, throwing around money that has been produced by the toil of the people in order to reinforce and extend the labour aristocracy. They bribe provocatively, handing out abundant kickbacks. They reward representatives of trade union organisations and political parties who consent or agree to consent. They show generosity to “ghost” NGOs, in order to create a stratum of the “comfortably numb” who propagandise subjugation, with left and conservative modernising slogans. They distribute money and privileges generously to certain upper segments of the middle classes, to organise the alliance of the bourgeois class and corrode consciences, to prevent the alliance of the anti-monopoly social forces.

Opportunism is supported generously and at the same time pressed in one or the other direction according to the needs of the moment, i.e. sometimes as a government crutch, and sometimes as a barrier in opposition to KKE and the labour movement. The louder the opposition cries of SYRIZA are heard, the more obvious it becomes that its proposal cannot address even the headache of the working people. Its proposals are a torn lifejacket.

The bourgeois class and their leaders do not hesitate to sacrifice even their own cadres who served the system for years if necessary to shake off the people’s rage and resentment. Scandals keep emerging and will continue to do so for as long as necessary to cultivate the deceptive view that if the thieves are removed, the power of the monopolies can become humane, social and pro-labour.

WHAT CAN KKE GIVE THE PEOPLE TODAY?

In principle, what the working people and the youth know very well is that we are constant and unwavering fighters on the side of the working class, the self-employed, poor farmers, young people, women and migrants. We inform them promptly, we can see and foresee and we warn them.

We are not afraid, we can endure hardships, we do not back down, we do not betray, we do not belie expectations.

We are not going to deceive anyone by saying that there are smart solutions without popular struggle, without the sacrifices of the people.

We give a social and political identity to our proposal for an alliance based on objective forces and not slogans, abstract visions or subjective self-descriptions.

The alliance that we are proposing is based on the common interests of the working class, the self-employed and poor farmers. Among these social forces we include the migrants who are working in our country, whether or not they have been legalised.

We particularise the alliance, with special programmes of action for young people and women who belong or will belong to these social forces in the future.

We consolidate and extend it to the level of a political alliance. Today this looks more difficult, but it is a matter of correlation. Correlations change with the will and action of the people. The sooner the popular forces are disengaged from defeatism and the influence of monopoly strategy, the faster changes will come in the configuration of political forces. These changes will be substantive and not just in form, as has happened in the past, when the ND replaced ERE, and PASOK the Enosi Kentro party. Under the weight of positive developments in the movement and in the minds of the people, it is possible that new political formations will arise that are oriented to a break with the monopolies, imperialism and the strategy of capital. Then our responsibility will be to respond. It is up to us to help, but it does not depend only on us.

The alliance is founded on the opposition to and break with the monopolies, and therefore with imperialism and the parties that serve them. We do not require agreement with socialism or identification with the ideology of KKE. We do, however, appreciate that the prospect of power to the people can constitute common grounds, so that the alliance can guarantee a change of direction, a different path of development in a pro-labour direction, in favour of the people, without the commitments imposed by the EU and NATO. One cannot serve two masters, we repeat; one serves either the people or the monopolies.

Some well-meaning people ask whether today, when the problems of the working people are becoming more acute, today when we feel a stifling dead end, perhaps it would be good for some parties or movements to agree on 3-4 basic problems and leave the rest for the future.

If the acute problems today were no more than 3-4 or even 5-6, then perhaps we would not be talking about stifling dead ends. And even if we singled out some problems arbitrarily, leaving many others out, would it, even then, be possible for an agreement to exist, for example, with PASOK or SYRIZA? There are no outstanding problems that are not the product of a general political line that is being charted now on all issues on a national and interstate level. There are problems of the working class, of self-employed persons, of farmers with small and medium-sized holdings. There is the problem related to the effects of the accumulation and concentration of capital, the problems of privatisations, market deregulation, the effects of EU and NATO commitments, and the US-Greek agreements that have repercussions in the political, military and economic fields and in the field of trade union and democratic freedoms.

What could we leave out?

An agreement of opposition is in essence an agreement on possible governance or, in our view, on political power. A government, whatever form it may take, is obliged to chart an overall strategy which, along general lines, answers the question of either with the monopolies or with the people, with imperialism or with the people. Greece will not become the Italy, France and Germany of lost hopes, with the participation and consent of KKE!

We do not rest complacently on our laurels; we are fighting even with today’s correlations. But resistance is not enough; opposing the way in which ND and PASOK rule is not enough. Confrontation with their strategy is required. A struggle is required at the top that could, under certain conditions, lead to victory at the level of power. This is the working class and the people’s one-way street.

A new political power of the people with the old relations of ownership is doomed to fail, doomed to betray.

The reasoning of the intermediary step, the logic of let’s take a step forward and then we can see, represents today a great danger that valuable time will be lost. In addition, the lesson of 1981 is not far off.

Take the first step today, with us, in common action, without anybody asking you to renounce your own particular views. Tomorrow things will be better.

From this podium, we remind you that the CC’s Theses for the 18th Congress will be published in October, and will examine two themes: the Party’s report and political developments, together with a new text containing conclusions from the building of socialism. We invite you to participate in the public dialogue that will take many forms, in Rizospastis and KOMEP, and in open meetings and rallies.

Our strength is our vanguard theory, our vanguard action!

Our strength and our weapon is the history of KKE and KNE, the experience and lessons learned from the history of the world workers’ and communist movement, the scientific examination of the course of building socialism in the 20th century!

Our strength is the certainty that the result will be a new burst of growth in the movement of the peoples, a new cycle of social upheavals and socialist revolutions. We won’t give up; we believe in the power and will of the people. We believe in youth!

Athens 21-9-2008
The Press Bureau of the CC of KKE