Information article of the International Relations Section of the CC about the 18th Congress
The 18th Congress of KKE
The 18th Congress of
KKE was held in
1. The action of the
party since the 17th Congress and its duties until the 19th Congress 2.
The theses of KKE on socialism.
In addition, it
elected the new Central Committee of the Party, that comprises of 77 members.
The inner-party
debate in the Party Base Organisations and the party pre-Congress
Conferences (in territories, cities and regional organisations), the 3-month
public debate in the pages of the daily newspaper “Rizospastis” , organ of the
CC of KKE as well as a special issue of the “Communist Review”, the theoretical
journal of the Party preceded the Congress. The debate has been oriented by the
“Theses” on both issues published early enough by the CC.
How was the
situation in the last years?
In order to
understand the duties discussed in the congress one should take into
consideration several issues concerning the positions and the action of KKE at
least over the 18 last years, the way they developed as well as some aspects of
the social-political situation in
The crisis of the
international communist movement, which manifested itself after the overthrow
of socialism and the dissolution of
Thanks to the
determination of the members and cadres of the Party who remained loyal to the
Marxist-Leninist ideology and the revolutionary role of the Party, the efforts
to diffuse KKE in SYNASPISMOS, had been prevented. KKE won this ideological and
political battle and started its ideological, political, and organisational
regroupment. All of them who hoped that KKE wounded by counterrevolution and
split would not be able to intervene in Greek political life and exceed the 3%
limit required in order to be represented in Parliament, have been disappointed.
In the elections after the split in
In the next few
years KKE has taken several particularly important political-ideological and
organisational steps. Thus, in 1993 it organised a special party Conference in
which it debated and drew conclusions about the character of the EU and the
stance of KKE towards this imperialist union. In 1995 followed the public
debate and Party conference that arrived at conclusions concerning the causes
of the overthrow of socialism and the restoration of capitalism in the
After the
counterrevolution KKE has made important efforts for the regroupment of the
labour movement. It opposed the notions of “consensus”, “social dialogue” and
“social peace” promoted in the labour movement by bourgeois, reformist and
opportunist political forces. Communists have promoted the line of class
struggle and collision, in order for the workers to achieve gains. Thus, they
preserved and gained new positions in trade unions, branch federations and
trade union centers which are part of the integrated (concerning its
organisation) Greek trade union movement that consists of the confederations of
the trade unions in private (GSEE) and public sector (ADEDY). However, the
struggle of the class oriented forces has been hindered by the leadership of
GSEE and ADEDY. KKE examined this situation in 1997, through a special
Conference on the labour movement. In 1999 PAME was organised on an initiative
of communists. Trade unions, branch federations and trade union centers that
recognise the class struggle participate in PAME. These forces work through an
independent multi-faceted activity for the coordination of their struggle, for
the interests of the working class, for the strengthening of the class unity
and the change of the correlation of forces in the trade union movement.
The 16th Congress
has specified the issues of the Front. The notions of People’s Economy and
Power were established as a goal uniting the forces that will build the
anti-imperialist, anti-monopoly, democratic Front. In addition, the Congress
clarified the content of these notions. For communists, this content is
identified with that of socialism. However, KKE does not regard the agreement
with socialism or with its perception about socialism as a prerequisite. It
seeks the agreement with the notion and the content of the terms “peoples
economy and “peoples power” that are based on the socialisation of the basic
means of production, the central planning and the workers control.
The 17th Congress
dealt with the question: “what party do we need nowadays?”. It directed the
party, organisational rearrangement in the workplaces and various sectors. In
addition, it approved a special resolution for the situation of the
international communist movement and the duties of KKE.
In the period
between the 17th and 18th Congress, KKE held two nationwide Conferences, which
focused on key-issues concerning the course of the Party, such as the work of
the Party among the women and young people.
At the same time KKE
has made an important effort to elaborate several issues concerning the history
of the communist movement. The statements of the CC on the 60th anniversary of
the Anti-fascist Victory, the 90th anniversary of the October Revolution and
KKE, the 60th anniversary of the Democratic Army of Greece have not been merely
some typical “anniversary” statements. On the contrary, they contributed to the
strengthening of the ideological political unity to the unfolding of multiform
events.
Furthermore, the
utilisation of the study-research work of the last 4 years on the issues of the
socialist construction in the
Some points
regarding the influence of KKE today
KKE has developed
important bonds with the working class in
These class oriented
trade union forces, as we mentioned, rally in PAME that constantly expands its
influence in new trade unions and exerts strong pressure on the “yellow”,
employer-led trade union leadership. PAME organizes strikes at enterprise,
branch and national level. It strengthens the struggle in order to repel the attack
launched by the government and the employers. A characteristic example is the
recent battle in the chain of stores under the trade name “JUMBO” due to the
dismissal of the communist trade-unionist.
The Communist Youth
of Greece (KNE), the political youth organization of KKE, has also very
important action within the youth movement for the politicization of the
youth’s struggle. This is more obvious among the students. In the elections
held in the students’ associations, PKS, the list supported by KNE, in 2007 was
supported by more than 23,7 thousands of students, as it got a 15,38% in the
Technological Education Institutes and a 15,97% of the votes in the
Universities all over the country.
In the local
elections in 2006, KKE had candidates in all 54 prefectures, as well as in all
major municipalities, covering 80% of the country. It elected 64 prefecture
council members (
In the parliamentary
elections in 2007, KKE occupied the 3rd position, receiving 583.818 votes and
8,15%, and elected 22 MPs.
Despite these
considerable successes since the 17th Congress until today, KKE has assessed in
its 18th Congress the weakness to advance the building of the Party, the low
pace of recruitment from the working class and the need for a more methodical
effort for an overall development of cadres from the working class and
especially women. However, this does not entail that the Party has not made any
progress. During the last 4 years the social and age composition of the Party
members improves slowly but steadily, at national and local level. The
organisational rearrangement of the Party Organisations on productive basis has
proceeded and has brought positive results by gathering and developing forces
according to work sectors and workplaces. A very important element is the
increase of the number of women party members by 4,5% as well as the renewal of
the party forces. A 37,2% of the party members joined the Party after the
crisis of the period 1990-1991. There is an increase of the PBOs in factories,
in various workplaces, of the branch organisations by 4% with a simultaneous
increase of the party members that joined them. There is also an increase of
the percentage of the employees of the private sector by 2,3%, of the
self-employed by 2,3% as well, and of the students by 1,9%. There’s been a
decrease of the number of party members who are pensioners and housewives.
The 18th Congress
has assessed that we should utilize and strengthen the positive elements.
Congress and
developments
It should be noted
that although the inter-party procedures (assemblies, conferences) objectively
absorbed valuable time, at the same time KKE was present at the struggles of
the workers, the youth, the peasants as well as the anti-imperialist struggle
that broke out in
The consequences of
the capitalist crisis are used by the liberal government of ND, by the
social-democratic PASOK but also by capitalist employer-led bodies so as to
ensure the unity and consensus in order to face the crisis, as the claim, “all
together”. These incentives, revealed by KKE, are absolutely false, misleading
and very dangerous and aim at the disarming of the labor movement and the
movement of the popular social forces; it’s a call for new sacrifices and
submission.
Equally dangerous
for the labor movement are the views put forward by various opportunists, such
as SYRIZA (a social-democrat medley in which the main force is SYNASPISMOS),
exonerating the capitalist system, presenting the issue of the crisis as a
result of the subjective choices of one or another bourgeois party, or as a
deviation of the supposedly healthy capitalist system.
The communist were
and still are the vanguard in the labor and trade union struggles so that the
workers won’t pay the crisis. At the same time, KKE has revealed the causes of
the capitalist crisis which are inherent in the exploitative character of the
society, raised the imperative need to popularise and increase the influence of
the Party policy, the importance of socialization, cooperative production,
national planning and workers’ control.
Of equal importance
was the political intervention of KKE during the outbreak of the youth, and
generally people’s indignation for the cold blood murder of the student in
This outbreak of the
youth’s indignation was described as “peoples uprising” especially by a
social-democrat oriented part of the bourgeois Press. On the other hand, SYRIZA
characterised the movement as an “uprising of the youth”. Τhere has also been
an attempt to mark the mobilisations of the youth through the comeback of
structured, “trained” groups calling themselves “anti-establishment movement”,
characterized by hoods and “blind violence” as well as by the use of Molotov
cocktails for the destruction and plundering of shop-windows, banks, public
buildings etc. In addition, they were characterised mainly by the absence of
political slogans, demands and goals of struggle and for being against all
forms of guidance and organisation.
Our Party
distinguished from the beginning the mass youth demonstrations from the action
of the so-called anti-establishment forces, groups engaged in anticommunism.
The massiveness and the politicization of the protected demonstrations of the
school students, the university students and the workers, organized by KKE, PAME
and the Coordinative of Struggle of Schools’ Unions might not have reached to
the TV screens of various Greek and foreign bourgeois-led television networks
(in which predominated the scenes of blind violence), left, though, an
important legacy for the political maturing of large section of the youth.
The communists were
also in the vanguard of the struggles of the small and medium scale peasants
that a few weeks before the 18th Congress of KKE preceded in road blocks. The
basic element of the movements was the mass participation of young peasants who
felt that their survival is threatened through the CAP that has been
implemented in
The members and
cadres of KKE and KNE were in the vanguard of the the anti-imperialist struggle
against the brutal Israeli attack on
The discussion and
the resolutions of the 18th Congress
This article does
not intend to substitute the study of the Documents of the Congress (Theses of
the CC, Reports of the CC, closing remarks and resolutions). We call all
Communist and Workers Parties, the communists from other countries, who are
interested in the developments in
We briefly refer
that the 18th Congress showed that there is a noticeable improvement concerning
the main duty set by the 17th Congress: the orientation of our work towards the
working class and young people. The conditions for targeted activity of the
Party among young people have improved. At the same time, KNE has also made
progress. We have developed our tactics concerning the mobilisations, the mass
movement nationwide in order to rally and mobilise the workers’ and people’s
masses around demands and goals of struggle, to strengthen the
anti-imperialist, anti-monopoly line and consciousness; to promote the struggle
for another path of development, for the people to realise that we need a
change at the level of state power and not the alternation of the two partners
or the coalition governments which manage the system. Nowadays KKE is more
capable of combining its tactics and strategy; it is more prepared to struggle
for its new duties arising from the outbreak of the global economic crisis and
against the efforts of the bourgeois political system to hinder the radicalisation
of the masses.
The discussion on
the socialist construction in the 20th century focusing mainly on the
The Report of the CC
in the 18th Congress mentions: “nowadays it is not possible for a communist
party to act effectively, to have a revolutionary strategy elaborated from a
scientific viewpoint, to provide answers to the big questions without utilising
the positive and negative experience of the socialist revolution and construction.
Those who gave up these principles before the counterrevolution, but also
afterwards in the name of “renewal”, have been led to an underestimation even
to a rejection of the struggle for socialism. This occurred in a period of
increased confusion regarding the causes for the capitalist restoration, a
period full of disappointment, reduced hopes and questions regarding the
feasibility of a true a way out. Socialism is not a vision; it is a goal to be
attained under specific preconditions. One of these is the preparation through
the daily struggle as well as the ideological-political vigilance of the
subjective factor, something that cannot be attained without drawing experience
from the socialist construction”.
International
movement
The 18th Congress confirmed
that KKE will steadily and more effectively continue co-operating with other
Communist and Workers’ parties on bilateral, regional and international level,
for the continuance of the international Meetings, common activities on the
basis of common resolutions, for the coordination of their activities, for the
strengthening of the anti-imperialist struggle, against the imperialist wars
and interventions, against poverty, hunger, for the environment.
KKE gives priority
to the development of bilateral relations, aiming at the strengthening of the
solidarity movement with the peoples in Latin America focusing on
KKE supports the
regional Meetings of the Communist Parties in the Balkans, the East
Mediterranean- Middle East and
KKE will make
efforts to increase the regional Meetings according to the developments and the
specific problems in order to strengthen the process of collective elaborations
and common efforts for the development of ideological political struggle
against the bourgeois, reformist and opportunist currents, new-fascist
activities, nationalism and chauvinism.
The Party will
continue its effort to promote common action around anti-monopoly and
anti-imperialist goals with those communist and workers’ movements with which
there are ideological differences, without waiving the right to critical
discussion of these differences.
As it is mentioned
in the document of the 18th Congress our reflection and activity focuses on the
fact that the international communist movement remains organisationally and
ideologically fragmented. As long as the situation does not improve, the danger
for a new backsliding increases. Already, in a series of countries the process
of de-characterization and mutation of the communist parties towards a
social-democratic orientation continued. In a period whereby the pressure for
denying the communist identity increases, the new wave of state anticommunism
grows into new dimensions, whereas the content of this new anticommunism is
being adopted also by the modern opportunist currents. The founding of the
“Party of the European Left” in the EU signaled the organic merging of modern
opportunist currents with the structures of the EU and the state mechanism of
the member-states.
Today it appears
even more demanding the need to speed up the processes of forming and shaping a
communist pole, a distinct, in other words, presence of communist and workers
parties, of communist forces that actively work in the direction of a united
revolutionary strategy of the international communist movement.
We do not share the
fears that such a collective effort may cancel the responsibility of each
Communist Party at the national level, nor that it would make more difficult
the general effort to coordinate communist and workers parties that have
differences amongst them in various anti-imperialist goals. The effort for a
united revolutionary strategy against the united strategy of imperialism can
strengthen and put forward even better the duties of each Communist Party in
its country and its responsibilities vis-à-vis the working class, and
generally the working people. We view such cooperation at a higher level to be
based on the equality of parties, the respect of their independence and the
particular views they may have.
It’s the
responsibility and right of every CP to study the theoretical issues of our
movement, the formulation of revolutionary strategy, to draw lessons from the
front of struggle with the bourgeois views, reformism and opportunism at an
international level, to prepare the Party and, generally, the class forces for
the ups and downs of class struggle, for the successes but also the defeats,
that occur, to provide scientific explanations, to take advantage of experience
in order to prepare for a new advance forward, to drawn gains, for the final
victory. At the same time, in our opinion every CP has also the responsibility
and right to brief, to make those studies common to the fraternal communist and
workers parties, to study their thoughts and views, in order, ultimately,
through collective work to achieve that all the hummers are hitting on the same
direction, in the struggle for changing the correlation of forces and overthrow
capitalism.
Our solidarity
towards all the communist parties is a fact, especially towards those that act
under harsh conditions. Our solidarity does not depend on the degree of our
agreement, but from the need, and with our assistance, to help them overcome
the specific problems that they face in their countries from state violence and
oppression, prosecutions and prohibitions, etc. When there is a critical
discussion of the various different views, in our opinion, it takes place for
reasons of solidarity, common worries about being able to correspond to today’s
increased needs at the national and international level. All of us anyway with
our actions and with our attitude exert influence, not only on the movement in
our country, but also on international developments, the international
movement.
Counterattack
KKE characterised
its 18th Congress, Congress of counterattack. This term refers to the
counterattack of the labour and popular movement against the anti-people’s
plans of the bourgeoisie; to the ideological political counterattack for the
organization of the working people in view of the crisis; to the establishment
of the Front and the prospect of the People’s economy and power, to the
prospect of socialism.
The discussion in
the 18th Congress and its resolutions make us stronger for our struggle.
e-mail:cpg@int.kke.gr