Decisions of the Nationwide Party Conference on: “The Work of the Party in the Working Class and the Trade Union Movement„

A FRAMEWORK FOR JOINT ACTION FOR THE SOCIAL ALLIANCE OF THE WORKING CLASS WITH POOR FARMERS AND THE SELF-EMPLOYED

A. REGROUPING OF THE WORKERS’ TRADE UNION MOVEMENT AND THE BASIC DUTIES OF THE PARTY

1.

The Nationwide Conference emphasised that the urgent and timely duty of regrouping the workers’ and people’s movement has arisen from the developments themselves. In essence, it can be expressed as follows: To raise the level of consciousness, organisation and struggle of the working class to the level of the contemporary demands of the class struggle which has at its core the necessity and possibility of socialism-communism, the only realistic answer to the capitalist economic crisis, to exploitation and repression, to imperialist barbarism. (18^th Congress).

This struggle demands that the Party and the class pole of the trade union movement be in the position to take up militant positions against the aggressive strategy of capital and its state against the working class and its movement in order to dynamically achieve the satisfaction of the contemporary and basic needs of the working people, with combined mass struggles of defence and attack, leading to a conflict with the interests of the monopolies and their power, with an overturning in the balance of forces on a social and political level, with a plan for and the prospect of people’s power.

A line of struggle which is in accordance with the Decisions of the 18^th Congress which emphasizes: “Today, it is even more vital and imperative for the viewpoint to gain ground that the struggle around heightening problems, the struggle against the repercussions of the crisis, the struggle against new anti-worker, anti-people measures must develop into a struggle against the power of the monopolies and their imperialist unions.”

Capitalist restructuring and the economic crisis did great damage to workers’ achievements, causing upheavals which led the broad workers and popular masses to conditions of utter, permanent poverty. Young people, women, low-income people, unskilled labourers have been hit the hardest, while the expropriation of large sections of the self-employed and farmers with small landholdings is accelerating. The situation will deteriorate even more with the government’s newly-promoted administrative reform by the name of “Kallikratis” which aims at the adaptation of regional and local bodies of the bourgeois state to the contemporary needs of capital. The program the PASOK government put forward for facing the crisis is certain to have even heavier and deeper consequences on the life, the rights, and the freedoms of the people, and an even greater and deeper plundering of the working classes, the wealth-producing resources of the country. Unemployment, part-time, flexible work and poverty will become permanent features and will reach even greater levels. All the contradictions will sharpen, first of all, the contradiction capital-labour. The phase of recovery leads to a new concentration of capital, to the increase in the degree of exploitation, to unevenness and to the acceleration of restructuring at a regional and international level. The stage of recovery when and as it appears, on the one hand will not improve the position of the working class and specific sections of the middle strata. On the other hand, it will lead to a new crisis. As our Party has demonstrated, there is no ‘people-friendly’ way out of the capitalist economic crisis as long as the causes that give rise to it are not dealt with.

The capitalist economic crisis is at the same time a period of the acquisition of political experience and revolutionary energy as the historical limitations of the capitalist mode of production are exposed, revealing its deeply reactionary, dangerous and parasitic character.

For the working class and the broad popular masses and primarily for the future of their children it has become a matter of life and death for them to grasp the necessity of the struggle for the overthrow of the power of the monopolies, for another road of development that has at its centre the contemporary, comprehensive needs of the working class, of the popular masses, that promotes even economic development.

The implementation of new anti-worker, anti-people measures that the PASOK government is pushing through in the name of the crisis and the deficit, under the flag of a new, more just administration and distribution of the national income, a “new” model of development e.g. will bring to the surface mass, militant reactions and political agitation as well as new difficulties. The class struggle will sharpen. The workers mobilisations around STAGE programmes in the Public Sector, around labour contracts, and mainly the strike mobilisations during this period with PAME at the forefront provide proof of the aforementioned assessments. PASOK is certain to do everything it can to strike at and undermine the movement even further. It is renewing itself as a vehicle for dangerous anti-communism. Especially with the support of its forces in the mass movement (GSEE, ADEDY, etc.) and its buying out by the EU, it will attempt to entrap worker and popular forces with new reformist delusions of “social dialogue” and its deliberations and social-democratic theories regarding the adjustments of and humanizing of the capitalist system. The front against reformism must be strengthened.

All these reasons make the regrouping of the workers-people’s movement an urgent necessity in order for it to reach the necessary level of ideological and political confrontation with the central line of struggle being: Development for the people and not for the monopolies.

2.

The essence of the regrouping is the preparation and organisation of the working class and its allies for a decisive confrontation with the monopolies, for the overthrow of their power. In other words, the duty of better organisation or improvement in the level of the trade union struggle of the working class pre-dominates. It is our own plan for a way out of the vicious cycle of capitalist economic crises, with the elimination of the causes which give rise to them. For this reason, the duties and conditions for its promotion are at a high level.

The first and basic condition that must be met for the regrouping is: The improvement of the ability of the Party and the class-oriented movement to link up with the broad workers’ and popular masses, to contribute to the participation of new working masses, women, youth, into the organised struggle. To organise their action, their alliances and at the same time to work at a deeper level in order for them to comprehend the need for the struggle for power. For the struggle of the workers’ movement to be linked more directly and more closely to the question of power. A struggle for a change of the class in power and not a change in parties. It expresses the readiness of the Party to respond to the new demands that arise for new, more complex, tougher battles, under whatever conditions. It constitutes at the same time a condition for the building of a popular alliance, that is, the Anti-Monopoly, Anti-imperialist Democratic Front (AADF) and the struggle for people’s power.

A Second condition is the mass organising of the trade union movement and the change in the balance of forces within its ranks, where the strength and influence of the reformist, opportunist forces is powerful. It demands a systematic effort, a sharpening of the struggle with the goal to bankrupt and defeat these concepts, consistent action in order to increase the influence of the Party within the ranks of the working class and trade union movement and to strengthen the forces of the class pole.

A Third condition is to deal with the delays in the adaptation of the structure of the trade union movement to the changes that are taking place in the productive framework.

A Fourth condition is the overcoming of the delays in the building of powerful mass Party and KNE Organisations in large workplaces, in branches and industrial zones, which have been caused firstly by ideological and political inadequacies, but is also related to the gaps in organisational policies in the assignments of forces, cadres, members, and Party Base Organisations.

A Fifth Condition is the fully developed line concerning rallying of forces and the joint action of the working class with the self-employed, small businesses and small-medium farmers.

A Sixth Condition is the reinforcement of the internationalist character of the struggle of the working class and its movement.

Objective difficulties exist and under no condition should they be underestimated, however: The shameful condition that exists in the trade union movement with the responsibility of the compromised majority, the consequences of the upheaval in working relations, unemployment, the united strategy of the monopolies under conditions of a general retreat of the movement, the long-lasting effect of the victory of counter-revolution, the situation in the workers’ movement in Europe and more generally on a worldwide level, the long-term political divisiveness and buying off of important sections of the working class. Capitalist restructuring, especially in labour relations, caused new difficulties for the trade union movement and the struggles of the working class, they sharpened even more the lack of correspondence between the structure of the trade union movement in relation to the changes between branches and sectors of the economy that have occurred. It has reinforced the tendency for a concentration of the working class without however seriously affecting its comparatively low degree of trade union concentration. The low degree of trade union organisation and the inclusion in the ranks of the working class of new forces as a rule under flexible labour relations, created a complex new situation.

This fact, in combination with an intensified adherence to and incorporation of reformist and opportunist trade union leaders in the strategy of capital and the EU, demands more rapid changes and adaptations from the side of the class pole in the trade union movement.

The formation of a series of branch union organisations is first of all, a very positive step. It does much to combat sectionalism yet it is not enough if their activity is not part of a uniform anti-monopoly policy by branch, by area and they do not wage a resolute battle with the compromised and sold-out union leaderships. Without this, they can easily focus only on partial, local, sectional battles or become inactive.

The capability of the vanguard to predict, to study and to grapple with class consciousness and decisiveness facing the machinations of the class enemy at all levels, especially where the working class works, lives, and is concentrated must be assessed. The Party’s experience is rich and instructive revealing that under adverse conditions, difficulties and negative relations can be overcome or the prerequisites can be created for their reversal as things progress.

3.

The Conference judges that the basic inhibitive subjective factor in promoting the strategy and tactic of the Party has to do with the separation of the economic struggle from the political struggle. This is true both in our daily action as a Party as a whole, and in the movement, in combination with the reduced participation of all the forces in the struggle or the difficulty of including more forces as well as incorporating the reserve forces that exist.

The problem is expressed in practice by the view or the practice that the sharpening of economic problems is a factor that shapes or can shape class political consciousness. That the struggle around the heightened economic problems by itself automatically creates the conditions for political experience and the pre-requisites for the continual and steady improvement in the position of the working class and the development of its movement. That the intensity of the economic struggles and the fight against the existent governmental policies lead automatically to the heightening of political consciousness and the political struggle.

The economic problems, more generally the problems concerning living conditions and labour for the working class definitely constitute the base of its struggles and mobilisation and this struggle must be ceaselessly carried out at the branch level and in every company, and must be based on the most accurate knowledge of the conditions that exist in each specific workplace. As much as this struggle is sharpened, even if it takes on the highest possible forms, it does not automatically lead to class consciousness.

The struggle of the working class will always be limited and without prospects if it is not carried out in a way that combines all forms of struggle – ideological, political, economic; if the struggle does submit itself to the concentration and preparation of the working class for victory at the level of state-power, for the abolition of the power of the monopolies and the exploitation of man by man.

Deeper ideological and political work is absolutely necessary in order to expose the mechanisms of exploitation and especially the conditions for their abolition. The struggle of the working class for wages, for work conditions, for social security and other rights, etc., is a struggle that concerns the terms for negotiation the selling of its labour power. It is without question a necessary struggle and must be unceasingly carried out, yet it is always restricted as it deals with only one side of capitalist relations, the economic and political strategy of capital and of the state. It is a struggle for the protection of the working class against the exploitative mania of employers. It is a school of comprehending what class exploitation means and how it transpires. The position of the working class will not change no matter how many victories it achieves. It can improve at some level its living conditions temporarily but it does not change in the slightest its productive relations which are those of exploitation, dependence on capital, a relation of wage slavery. The law of state capital concentration excludes any lessening of the degree of exploitation of labour that threatens the concentration of social capital; the boss always remains a boss. Under today’s conditions where international imperialism in Europe and in Greece has exhausted all the possibilities that it had vis a vis concessions such as in the period following WWII or in the first years after 1974 in Greece, under conditions where all of the basic gains of the working class are overturned the one after the other the position of the working class as a whole will continue to deteriorate as long as it is not clear that the essence and the goal of the class struggle is the abolition of capitalist relations, as long as the delusions claiming it is possible to achieve a better management of capitalism and to satisfy basic needs and for there to be direct fundamental solutions under capitalism are not destroyed.

The heightened battle with reformist and opportunist ideas that are constantly being readjusted and their final bankruptcy is one of the basic conditions for class consciousness, while delusions of Parliamentary solutions are only one expression of these concepts. When, for example, we speak of the politicisation of the struggle it should be clear what content we are giving it. It does not simply concern only opposition and the expression of discontent towards the existing bourgeois party government or governmental cooperation within the framework of bourgeois management. Politicisation, the political struggle, must contribute to the realisation of a solution for the basic problem which is the problem of state-power. Overthrow at the level of state-power is and must be a goal and the core of the class struggle, independently if deeper agreement exists as to what socialist revolution means or when and how it will be carried out.

In addition, it must be understood that the contemporary needs of the working class do not depend only on the salary or wage level. The realisation that an inseparable part of the struggle is the specialisation of our policies on women, the youth, young couples, for the needs of families, have been unjustifiably set back. Steps have been taken, but they are not consistent and they do not mobilise broad sections of the working class, the broad masses of women and youth.

Activity based only on experience and disjointed efforts, as militant and persistent as they are, by the leading bodies of the Party Base Orgs, are not enough to overcome the gaps that have been detected.

The dialectical relation between economics and politics demands systematic, ongoing theoretical work in order to enrich our ideological-political front with lively, contemporary examples and assessments, as well as with facts acquired from observing the class enemy and how it defends its positions, how it manoeuvres, how it influences popular psychology. Many times we speak or we work without taking into account this factor, that is, how the opponent works and often our propaganda seems pre-packaged. The relation between economics and politics must constitute today the foundation of ideological work in the Party and around it, something that contributes, among other things, to the deeper understanding of the conclusions on socialist construction.

4.

The activity of the Party as the vanguard of the working class is not the same as trade union activity, nor is it simply a matter of supporting the unions. Its main mission is the political and organisational preparation of the forces of the working class for gaining power. This mission is secured only by continual ideological work first of all within the ranks of the Party, in order to reinforce its precise role within the ranks of the working class. To unite and educate the working class around this prospect. The organisation of the working class within trade unions to some extent expresses this progress. The surest indicator is the increase in the organisational strength of the Party, and of KNE, the adoption of the ideas of socialism-communism. The increase in the strength of the Party, the mobilising around it, within the Base Orgs, of new working class forces and their planned mobilisation are the most decisive factors for setting the popular and workers’ masses in motion so that they can gain consciousness of their class interests. Conscientiously fulfilling this duty can aid the Party to further its leadership role in the trade unions, to have an effect on their orientation, their mass character, the way in which they function and make decisions, with respect of course for their independence.

B. CONTEMPORARY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE STRUCTURE OF THE GREEK ECONOMY AND THE NECESSITY FOR RAPID ADAPTATIONS IN THE STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION OF THE TRADE UNION MOVEMENT

Branch-based organisation of occupations

In the economy as whole, salaried employees are 2.922.114 and the economically active population 4.531.914. A steady increase in salaried work has been recorded.

The branches of Commerce, Construction, Transportation, Energy, and Finance record an increase in employment, while there is a tendency towards shrinkage in Manufacturing and an even greater reduction in Agriculture – Livestock Farming. The trend represented by salaried labour is basically the same in those branches, with the exception of the agricultural sector.

An important increase is presented by the branch of scientific technical activities (i.e. law and accounting firms, technical studies offices, companies/institutes doing applied research) that provide independent administrative and directive services in different branches of industry and commerce. Today this branch concentrates an important number of university graduates that work for low salaries, in executive roles with flexible forms of labour and intensive mobility.

Based on today’s statistics for employment distribution the most mass branches are those of Commerce, Manufacturing (as a whole), Construction, Education, Tourism, Scientific Services, and Health-Welfare.

In decline are the branches of Manufacturing, the Garment and Textile Industry, Clothing, Leather, Wood industries. In contrast note the dynamic rise in the Food and Beverage Industry, Pharmaceuticals, Oil Refineries.

These specific developments have an effect on the lack of homogeny at the heart of the working class.

An important difference in the average yearly income between branches in the higher zone (Refineries, Electrical Energy, Sea Transport) and the lower zone (Retail Commerce, Construction, Waste Management, Clothing-Leather).

In addition, an important difference has been recorded in officially reported lower and higher monthly salaries in Electrical Energy, in Tourism and in branches of Manufacturing

On the organisation of forces and a plan of action

The prioritising of the organisation of forces must correspond to the criteria of the greatest concentration of the working class (as much in branches as in large companies – monopoly groups in the strategically important sectors of economic activity, in dynamic branches with rapid development, as well as in branches that have weak development and where a rapid sharpening of the class struggle is predicted. We must also take into account labour relations and the conditions that exist in each branch.

Planning must be focused at the branch level, utilising as much as possible the territorial-geographical aspects (i.e. industrial zones where many branches co-exist) and the company-based (i.e. a high concentration of the working class in large production units, commercial chains.)

In combination with the above, at the same time we must undertake a study of the situation in the trade unions by branch so based on this we can determine the necessary changes and adaptations in trade union organisation and structure and party building with greater accuracy.

In addition, we must plan Party building and organisation of forces much better based on the companies that exist by branch.

It is a duty of the Party to make a study of the composition of the working class in Greece and to systematically monitor the changes that are taking place.

C. PLAN OF ACTION

1.

A basic duty is for the other road of development to be at the heart of the struggle, the struggle against the monopolies, for people’s power.

The political struggle for the realisation of the need for another road of development which has the totality of the contemporary needs of the working class and the popular strata and the pre-requisites for their fulfilment at the forefront becomes a priority in the activity of communist forces, in the working class at place of work and in neighbourhoods, in schools and universities, and is reflected in the politicisation of the class’s trade union movement. The struggle against the monopolies and against imperialism and their dominance, and not just one struggle against this or that boss, of one union or another, for one problem or another, takes centre stage in the struggle; the struggle for socialism.

We are thus entering a higher phase of organising and militant recruiting of Communist and Young Communist forces, supporters and friends of the Party, with the keystone being the projection and popularisation of the basic idea of people’s power and a people’s economy within the ranks of the working class and also widely to the people both at their workplaces and in residential areas. We do not intend to convey this idea simply as a slogan, but as a systematic revelation of what a centrally planned development of the economy with the concentrated means of production socialised could be like. As a purposeful ideological counter-attack where worker-employees and workers more generally will comprehend the radical difference, the possibilities that exist with the choice of another road of development clashing with the monopolies and the imperialist alliances. We sharpen the ideological struggle at all levels. We put at the centre of discussion and the struggle the goal of a people’s economy. Development for the people and not for the monopolies.

A planned proportional development of production based on domestic capabilities, in a way that, in less time, with less active human labour and, at the same time, with full utilisation of the labour force in order to produce more products, of better quality with the equivalent conditions for their distribution so that the highest level of satisfaction of human material and cultural needs can be guaranteed. Perfection of production and services based on the highest technology, with continual development of research and its application in production. The elimination of every kind of regional inequality, disproportional development in the different branches and sectors of the economy. Battling against and wiping out any form of unemployment, open or disguised, care for people with special needs, inclusion of all those who can offer something to social work. Care for immigrants who live in our country.

At the centre of the people’s economy, that is, socialism is a high level of education and work specialisation, a high level of health and cultural development, an increase in free time or in other words, non-working time; the protection of the social and natural environment, the liberation and equality of women. The prerequisites to be put in place so that no young person is forced to work before they complete their compulsory 12-year education, either after the 12-year period in public schools for work specialisation or in university. Before they finish school, or training school, or university, every young man and woman will know that they will find work, that they will have earned the right to be employed.

The strike force or the heavy “artillery” is and should be ideological work. We must become more competent in the battle of ideas. As is quite aptly emphasised in the repost by the CC at the 18^th Congress:

“The struggle of ideas must permeate practical action and in certain circumstances to become a priority within special broad campaigns and organised efforts of open dialogue at the base, first of all with salaried workers using the ideal forms of organisation to draw them in, in workplaces and residential areas, by branch and sector. The battle of ideas is a basic pre-requisite to organise the working and popular masses. The ideological counterattack plays more than ever before an organisational role in the awakening of the broad masses, most of all the worker-employees, salaried employees, the newest generation of the working class, the youth. Related demands concern the farmers’ movement, especially the small-medium farmers and generally the self-employed. (Report by the CC, 18^th Congress, pg. 13).

In order for the ideological struggle to be carried out effectively it must be linked up with the experience of the working people, with the goal of transforming this experience into a political, anti-monopoly, anti-imperialist position. It must be consciously applied throughout the Party in all its aspects and to take on priority in planning activities, which will be reflected in the mass movement. The arming of cadres and especially the members of Party Groups working in the Trade Unions on all the levels is one of the primary duties of the guiding organs. The search for the most effective forms of discussion and propaganda in the workplaces also takes on special importance.

PASO and NED agree on and promote the directives of the “EURO Strategy -2020”, which constitutes a continuation of the “Lisbon Strategy”. They promote the complete abolition of workers’ gains and rights, in order to ensure the competitiveness of the monopoly amalgamations.

Witnessing capitalism as it rots, the PASO government along with opportunist forces, project the idea of a modern and healthy capitalism. The adaptations of state-monopoly reforms based on the contemporary needs of capital are projected as a new so-called adjustment of markets, as a redistribution of wealth, as a replacement of the “social state”, de-centralisation and more.

They juxtapose the idea of “socialism of the 21^st century” or “socialism with democracy”, or “socialism with national colours” against the ideas of scientific socialism and socialism that we knew. All these theories lead to and support the continuation of capitalism.

We must promote more forcefully the values of the working class: collectivity, solidarity, class responsibility and a class stance, offering oneself to the struggle and sacrifices. To take on the battle with defeatism, compromise, with theories concerning respect towards bourgeois institutions and values. History, the traditions and contribution of the Party are weapons that must never lose their value.

In the armory of the class enemy there is a special place for the theory of “non-violence” in the resolution of social questions. It is a theory and a practice that disarms the workers’ movement against organised state and employer violence and terror, against the dictatorship of the monopolies.

The “movements of the broken shop-window” and “terrorist actions” are not caused by the development of the class struggle but by the intervention of imperialist centres and mechanisms, in order for them to provide an alibi for the expansion of state repression and terror, in order to undermine the workers’ and youth movements or to act as provocateurs.

The various ultra-leftist and anarchist-anti authority groups may use revolutionary phraseology but they do not acknowledge the vanguard role of the working class, nor the need for the existence of its political vanguard, they do not accept the need to prepare the subjective factor. The fake revolutionary theories and acts of individual terrorism, that certain groups adopt, do not undermine capitalism; they actually help it by defaming genuine revolutionary ideas in the eyes of the masses. They help it by keeping the masses far away from the revolutionary struggle and in this way they support capitalism. The glorification of and the subjugation before the spontaneous action of the masses, the so-called autonomy of movements, of “new movements”, on the part of reformists, of opportunists of every shade, of anarchist and anti-authority groupings, aim at cutting off sections of the working class and the youth from the revolutionary struggle, and hinder their mobilisation around the strategy of KKE. These forces do not offer an alternative proposal for power which benefits the working class and the majority of the people along with an corresponding form of action for such a purpose; they lead the way in the slandering of the socialism that we knew, they adopt all of the anti-communist slander and mud-throwing of the bourgeois class and imperialism.

A front is needed against the bourgeois and opportunist theories that negate the character and the role of the working class (e.g. there is no ‘working class’ today because the number of manual labourers and factory workers has been reduced, or, even if the working class exists it is not a force for overthrow), in order to negate the class interpretation of problems as well as the necessity for KKE’s existence.

The class struggle and the conscious waging of the struggle will give rise inevitably to new forms of struggle that come in direct and immediate conflict with the mechanisms of violence and repression of the system. The workers’ movement must be armed with its own theoretical and political experience and to be ready to utilise all the forms of class struggle. The discussion and the popularisation of the positions of the Party on socialism will give a new dynamic to the work of the Party and the prospects for the movement.

2.

The struggle for a change in the balance of forces in the workers’ trade union movement. The role of reformism and opportunism within the workers’ movement. PAME and its role in the development of the trade union movement and the responsibilities of the Party.

Union election battles are determined by the daily work and action in the trade unions, in the movement, with continual efforts at making the unions more mass-oriented and drawing new forces into the organised struggle.

The change in the balance of forces will come about by work from the bottom up, through the development of direct links with the base, with the workers in their workplaces, in the Union Locals mainly with the organisation and mobilisation of new forces in the class struggle and the strengthening of the class pole. The strike on 17/12/09 confirmed this conclusion drawn from experience and opened new roads. Tens of unions that do not belong to PAME took decisions on the strike. In this way the results of the elections will also be improved.

The change in the balance of forces is linked to: the liberation of forces from the influence of the dominant ideology and politics of reformist and opportunist viewpoints, from the influence of employers and the state, drawing new forces that today are far away from the trade unions and the struggle into union organisations. With mobilisation and unity within the ranks of the working class along a class line of struggle, with the overthrow of capital and the imperialist unions (EU, NATO), with the political forces that support the exploitative system, in total with the forces of the “EU one-way road” and its supporters in the trade union movement. With the mass rallying and the unity of the working class in a direction of struggle and a road of development that has as its basic criteria the needs of the working class and popular strata.

Today, there are over 3,700 unions in the private and public sector that constitute about 30% of the total labour force. In the private sector this percentage is even lower, while an even smaller percentage votes.

Great masses of worker-employees, especially young workers, women as well as the great majority of immigrants are distant from trade union activity. Beyond the setbacks in the structuring of the trade union movement and the extensive intervention by employers, we need to look more closely at some issues that concern our own work in the union locals. The major weight is placed on the preparations for elections and the efforts at electing representatives and boards in the union. While this is an important process, it distracts from and remains separate from the main duty of the communists which is the organisation of the working class by all possible means, unity within its ranks, occupying itself with all the problems that concern the life of the working class family, dealing with the problems of the youth and of women with the active participation of their members in the function and action of the union bodies, the unceasing education of the working class on its historic mission. Many Communist Organisations do not have contact with many union bodies; they do not know of any nor do they monitor their activity.

There are union bodies that have achieved a satisfactory level of operation based around this necessity. This however is not the rule. Disjoint work predominates where certain members of union administrations assume most of the responsibility. Forces from voting lists, supporters, as well as many workers are not utilised in the daily action of the unions. The members as a whole are not leading and active members of unions.

a.

The Party forces that work within the ranks of PAME must take a leading role so that PAME can move forward in decisive counterattack, combining widespread work in workplaces, union bodies, residential areas for the rallying and unity within the ranks of the working class, with the primary focus being the needs of the working class and popular strata and an especially developed plan for the youth and a more powerful confrontation, war, with the forces of government and employer trade unionism at all levels – ideological, political, organisational, international relations.

New channels of communication must be established with those workers who are suffering, who are searching for solutions, who find themselves trapped, unorganised or whose needs are not expressed by the yellow trade union leaderships. Experience shows that wherever methodically planned work is carried out in this direction new prospects are opened up. We must become bolder and to go on, wherever the conditions are ripe, to overthrow bankrupt leaderships, in union locals or the creation of new locals or their inclusion into branch union bodies.

The forces of the class pole must gain the ability to develop more highly effective work in the coordination of forces and struggles by area, by branch, by city, in the massing of forces that are troubled by recent developments and are on a course of seriously doubting the compromised trade union majorities. This tendency needs to be constantly broadened and strengthened.

PAME today can give new life to the functioning and the orientation of the forces that join its ranks (class-oriented unions, Federations, Labour Centres, Trade unionists, etc.), to avoid delays and bureaucratic phenomena in their organising action. This can contribute to the strengthening of their struggle, the reinforcing of their ability to gather and mobilise forces.

The question for PAME is to achieve even more dynamic rates in the inclusion of new union locals, the creation of new locals either directly or within Federations or Workers’ Centres that are in the ranks of PAME, to develop in particular its influence where today it is in the minority in the private or public sector.

A subject of special orientation for PAME forces is the contact with factory and company union bodies. We know what the general situation is. It has been proven that it is possible to open up paths of contact with working men and women or even yet to have an impact on trade unionists and union administration.

PAME has 10 years of contribution and activity under its belt and is in a position today to move on to a higher level of intervention, to enrich its methods of work, especially in the arming of union cadres, in the exchange of experience through nationwide meetings by branch, by area. To extend its action and its effect even more deeply in workplaces, within the union bodies where it already has forces or independently to gain new positions, new forces, for PAME to dominate in the workers’ trade union movement and to show itself as a dynamic pole drawing forces together.

This course is inseparable from the struggle to reinforce the ideological and political positions of KKE within the ranks of the working class and the union bodies, to develop Party forces in large workplaces and branches.

B.

Strengthening of branch union bodies by district and area. Continuation of the creation of new branch union bodies – more intensively, better developed and planned. The goal is to change in the very structure of the trade union movement both in the private and public sectors with the organisation of workers in unified unions independently of their specialisation, working relations, with strong resistance to employer and state terror, to manipulation, with a special effort at the organisation of immigrants and the combating of racist viewpoints.

Within this framework we must orientate ourselves more specifically to new forces in branches with young people, in contemporary branches of the economy that are being developed.

The class union branches or other unions must develop a direct, permanent, consistent relationship with the youth that are studying in schools of every type (general, night school, technical university, some university schools). We need to overcome any delays that might exist with well-advanced measures.

We must become bolder in forms of organisation in situations where there are a series of categories of workers who are not covered by union organisations or where there is a quick transfer from job to job. We could, for example, have dealt better with the problems that arose for the STAGE workers if we had dealt in a timely manner and more comprehensively, especially with the splintering tendency and to a great degree, sectional character of the union organisation of public employees.

C.

To radically change the situation in the functioning of the unions, the Federations, the Labour Centres, especially in union locals, wherever class forces are in the majority and also where they are in the minority.

A change in the functioning and activity of the union bodies is connected to the continuous improvement of their internal functioning, the continual concern of the unions to raise the consciousness of their members along with their educational and cultural level. It is connected to changes in the way in which we monitor and deal with the machinations and intervening mechanism used by political opponents with the goal of assimilating and manipulating working class and popular strata. Within such a framework of functioning, supporters and friends of the Party should be made use of in a planned way.

These issues are not resolved through the elections and the pursuit only of electing representatives or the majority of the leadership. It requires a permanent, rich program of activities based on the needs and problems of working people, the most general of each branch and each workplace, not only occupying ourselves with the problems that break out here and there but permanent attention to the needs of the whole family, from the needs of the children to those of elderly parents. Constant provision of information and enlightenment, solidarity with other branches or peoples that are suffering. Increased activity around the burning issues of the movement and the struggle. The development of educational and cultural work is inexcusably undervalued. The art exhibit organised by the Union Locals in the Shipbuilding Zone is one positive experience which helps in binding the unions with neighbourhoods.

The situation in general, the phenomena of decay in the trade union movement, and the capitalist crisis have created many new difficulties but at the same time, also possibilities for unity of the working class at a higher level. The effort to revitalise the action of the union bodies is not easy, but on the contrary quite complex. However, it is the only way to go and we must fight to achieve it.

We must take on the weaknesses, entrenched concepts and habits. The Central Committee, Party Organisations, Party Base Organisations, Party Groups working in the trade union movement must all assume their own responsibility for these weaknesses.

The Party Base Orgs and Party Groups working in the unions must control the action of Party members and KNE members more specifically and regularly and not merely the action of elected representatives. Substantial monitoring by the Party’s guiding organs and help are needed in order for them to deal effectively with their task and not just carry out administrative transference of duties. The vanguard and active work in the union bodies and in workplaces is a necessary route for the development of broad ties with working people, for their organisation in the class struggle, the steeling and the education of the working class in the disciplined class struggle. It is about goals and duties that can not be fulfilled by the standard methods of disjoint work, with the concentration of action being carried out by certain cadres.

It is unacceptable that even some of the most basic traditions in the functioning of union bodies have been abandoned such as gathering dues from union members.

d.

The development and education of young trade union cadres. It is a continual process and it requires a plan in every branch of Party Organisations. Forces exist and new ones will continually arise if we work within the masses of the working class with trust and patience. We must combat tendencies of relaxing our efforts or being satisfied with partial gains or working for years with the same cadres.

The goals and duties that arise from the regrouping of the workers’ movement and the revitalisation of the trade union movement obliges us to give greater attention to elevating and helping our cadres in the Unions. We need many decisive, better equipped cadres who hold knowledge ranging from labour law to the principles governing the function of the capitalist economy, generally with the theory and practical carrying out of the class struggle. With strong values and high militant morale, they are lively examples in their work areas, with strong abilities in collective functioning and the capacity to set more and more forces in motion.

The guiding organs take on greater responsibilities. Greater help, more fundamental and demanding systems of check-up, greater strictness towards given phenomena of irresponsibility, relaxation of efforts and negative behaviour towards workers or members of the unions.

E.

One more important factor that gives impulse to the struggle for the regrouping and the change in the balance of forces is the tighter connection of PAME to pensioners’ organisations. Party Groups working in the pensioner movement should better orientate their action and the content of their demands to the direction of the class pole.

Certain social problems can constitute the highlight of the struggle such as issues of Healthcare, even Education for their grandchildren, for indispensable social infrastructure and services in residential areas, to increase their solidarity in struggles. Pensioner organisations can serve as a binding link between the Unions and neighbourhoods.

We have the responsibility to orientate and to support the pensioner organisations both centrally and locally.

F.

One decisive link for substantial changes in the guidance and assistance to trade union cadres is the positive function of Party Groups assigned to unions at all of the levels and especially in the union local organisations.

“The Party Groups working in trade unions at all levels should discuss and monitor our action, that of our elected comrades in mass organisations and of the members. Only in that way can we solve the problems and not by taking hasty actions or hindering the process of politicisation. We must overcome the tendency of makeshift actions, amateur guidance by Party Groups. Planned work does not only mean planned actions but planned content. That is, not just how many rallies and picket lines, but how we can steadily convey as many demands and ideas possible to the movement, fundamentally and not typically. Our programming must be far-sighted; we cannot stand down just because we are talking about a long-term goal. Our programming should not be undone but should adapt itself to the developments, to make use of the developments for the long-term program.”

3.

For depth, stability and dynamism to develop an anti-monopoly line of rallying forces and struggle. The unity of the working class against capital and its state to be promoted. Direction and measures.

The theoretical, economic and political framework of the EU and its parties that support the “EU one-way road” claiming that the reinforcement of competitiveness of the economy at a European and national level and the support of entrepreneurship create jobs and the prerequisites for people’s prosperity, have no scientific base and has been totally disproved by the recent developments. The rule is production only for profit, the extraction of surplus value, the support of the monopolies, parasitism, and reaction all along the line.

For this reason the position of the working class, on the contrary, has worsened on the whole. The terms of reproduction of workers’ power have been dramatically deteiorated while the degree of its exploitation has increased.

Better conditions for unity in the ranks of the working class at a higher level have been created at the same time, just as a series of differences between different sections of the working class have been reduced or neutralised, those that were more intense in the previous period. These differences were lessened due to the changes in salary, insurance, and working rights, such as in the former state-owned enterprises and mainly with the newly employed. A series of factors that play a very serious role in the inclusion of sections of the working class that have the best working conditions and salaries are slowly retreating. However, due to unemployment and lack of insurance coverage new problems are created in its ranks.

In every case, capitalist exploitation objectively constitutes the base for the unity of the working class, against capital, against its state and the repressive mechanisms that are reinforced at a European and national level.

It demands however conscious and planned work for the development of a unified trade union struggle and for a higher level of massing forces, struggles and gains based on the unified and common interests of the working class, independently of branch, area, specialisation, nationality. A sharpened ideological front against those viewpoints and forces that consciously cultivate splintering, sectionalism, and submission.

It is the road towards class consciousness and linking up with the struggle for peoples’ power, socialism.

Practical steps in this direction are:

• To consolidate in activity a uniform coherent framework of struggle that will include the basic contemporary needs of working class families and the specific branch-based needs and the prerequisites for their satisfaction taking into account at every turn the particular issues of women and the youth. The demand for permanent steady work with rights and salaries with dignity must be put forward in every central axis of struggle.

This framework becomes the subject of critical collective discussion, of rallying in every struggle in every place of work. A unified line of struggle must be formed as a starting point for coordinated struggles, prospects, confrontations and overthrows. To what extent a particular problem will be prioritised at one time or another depending on its urgency and its relevance to the time period is an issue of experience. To the extent to which these goals are adopted by the union bodies, by the workers, they will objectively lead to conflict with the monopolies, with the strategy of capitalist reforms with the very same capitalist system, independently of the degree to which they are understood.

• The rise in the spirit of solidarity takes on decisive importance. Each struggle, each problem, and also each success in a branch, in a workplace must become a subject of importance for all sections of the working class, in all of the branches. Not with typical announcements but by spreading the news and discussing it in every workplace.

It is one more element that helps in the organisation, the politicisation, the class unity of the working class in the fight against narrow-minded thinking, against the logic that every union local or branch is struggling only for itself.

• The key however to a radical shift in the negative state of things is the strengthening of the anti-monopoly line of struggle, the organisation of forces and the struggle by branch at an inter-branch level and within the industrial zones.

It demands a very specific and well-worked out plan by branch, a concentration of forces with stability and patience, centrally at the regional, city, and prefecture level.

Forces exist and new vanguard forces from the ranks of the working class can be gathered as long as that orientation becomes an uncompromising goal.

It is a road that will take us through continual struggles and clashes with sectional viewpoints, with the interests of the trade union bureaucracy, ideological-political conflicts between the class trade union movement and the forces of reformism and opportunism.

Yesterday, that duty presented more difficulties, today it is more relevant because a specific amount of experience has been accumulated by the class forces but also more widely among working people in every branch of production and services.

4.

The Social Alliance

The regrouping of the workers’ movement, its range, and its effectiveness are inextricably linked with the weakening of the allies of monopoly capital and the strengthening of the allies of the working class.

Breaking down the influence of the bourgeois class among self-employed workers, and small-medium farmers is part of the class struggle.

The working class in this area has its own politics, which must be thoroughly understood in order to win it over by the work of the Party and its experience. This requires well-planned conscious activity on the part of the Party in order for the alliance to be promoted, the common struggle based on shared interests and goals. It is a difficult issue; there are objective difficulties arising from the relation that certain strata have to the individual ownership of the means of production. The issue is for the necessity of social alliances to be understood, and for gross underestimations and incorrect concepts to be overcome.

• Branch-based around the common struggle against the monopolies
• Based on common social problems.
• Through joint actions between the All-Workers’ Militant Front (PAME), the Pan-Hellenic Militant Rally of Self-Employed and Small Tradesman (PASEBE), the All-Farmers’ Militant Rally (PASY).

The joint framework of struggle that was shaped by the Conference constitutes the base for an overall improvement and stabilisation of the orientation of action.

5.

Forms of struggle

The forms of struggle are an important part of the class struggle; they play an important role in the organisation and mobilisation of the working class, its militant education, its political maturation and in the effectiveness of its struggle for both the partial and general interests of the class. The clever use of a variety of forms of struggle in combination with well-worked out positions, demands and slogans, with the ideal content at each stage of the struggle can provide great momentum to the regrouping of the workers’ movement.

A basic element of the rich experience of the Party and the movement is that the forms of struggle are not pre-formulated and entrenched and the use of one or another form of struggle requires exceedingly well-thought out preparation. The evolution and development of the class struggle creates and will create a variety of forms of struggle. We must avoid adhering only to certain forms of struggle.

Engaging in a broad, long-term effort to enlighten and inform workers at their workplaces lays the groundwork and can fuel dynamic forms of struggle. If the idea is solidly established within our ranks that the basic point of the struggle is the increase in the political experience of the working class, its organisation, the strengthening of the mass character of the struggle and the preparation of the class to lay claim to power then it will be easy to develop more widespread agitation that will foment militant spirit; the groundwork for sharpened forms of struggle will be created.

• The level of consciousness, prejudices, and fears should be correctly assessed always with the goal of raising the level of conscious struggle. Dedicated work in this direction in combination with the creative development of demands, slogans and positions and the participation of working people in all these processes can lead to effective, lively forms of struggle with a variety of forms. We recently experienced a rich example of this with the strike on 17/12/09.

• The strategy and the tactics of the class enemy should be carefully studied, from the level of employers up until the top executives, their uncompromising class stance, their consistency in activities, their manoeuvring. A corresponding tactic should be developed to deal with them. To the extent that this is successful, conditions can be created which can spark a variety of forms of struggles.

If we correctly follow the developments at this point, we will enrich the forms of struggle and their dynamism.

We do not view any form of struggle as the absolute and we are preparing ourselves for all forms of struggle, even the highest.

The line of overthrow, of disobedience, demands forms of struggle that will consolidate this line. The workers’ movement must be trained in order to pass from a defensive to an aggressive struggle or to better combine defence with attack as well as combined goals of struggle. In particular, the movement should have its attention permanently fixed on the machinations of the ruling class, of imperialism and to fight back against their repressive mechanisms that are continuously modernised and supplemented.

6.

A focus on youth

The regrouping of the workers’ and popular movement and the prospect for its struggle mean that the youth, the new generation of the working class must enter the struggle in a more dynamic fashion.

We have opened up roads and results have been noted. In total, however, this orientation had gaps, it was not unified and we are moving forward with disjointed measures.

There is no correspondence between our planning and the strategy of capital and its political representatives both in party organisations by branch and at in the class-oriented unions.

The core of the machinations of the class enemy is to cut the new generation of the working class of from the class struggle, its traditions and its prospects.

In fact, they are laying the groundwork for this from their very first steps, in kindergarten.

They intend to shape a working class submissive to the contemporary needs of capital and the fluctuations in its profits. They desire a new labour market, as they say, that will ensure them of a cheap labour force, with no restrictions on the extent of its exploitation.

Greed, rot, and the barbarism of capitalism in all of their glory.

A turn towards work with the youth means the class-oriented trade union movement must erect a front of struggle and literally declare war against these plans.

The working class must defend the rights of its children from the moment they are born and to take measures for their militant education in order for them to be included in the class struggle with the ambition that they will struggle even harder to complete the work their parents started.

With vanguard work, communists and class forces can pull both parents and their children into the common struggle The future of the children of the working class cannot be guaranteed through individual efforts or by entrusting their care to their exploiters.

The slogan ‘life and work with rights’ is a realistic proposition in a society with guaranteed collective rights, genuine freedoms and the possibility of realising them within a people-friendly course of development. We must open up this struggle more boldly, so that its takes on a mass character.

We can promote this struggle from many sides. For example, focusing the struggle around the conditions experienced by children in their school life, in the struggle against drugs, the life and future of young couples, even on the issue of socialism and the decisive unmasking of anti-communism.

The most urgent task is for all the class-oriented unions to link up with their corresponding technical schools and the many specialised training schools in each branch and in each area. The same is true for the technical high schools, the technical university and many schools in the general university. The specific organisation and specialisation of forces is the main issue. As time passes, we will take substantial steps, we will lay the basis for permanent and steady work in this direction. We will develop our knowledge and positions on issues that concern the conditions in education, conditions of work, living conditions.

May 1^st 2010 will be dedicated to the youth and this work of linking up the union bodies with the youth that are working and studying must get underway.

A prospective goal must be that the class mass movement will have its own policies concerning issues of education and the youth, and the content, the conditions of education from nursery school up until general and technical university.

7.

Work among women

One criterion for the level of class consciousness and class responsibility is the struggle concerning the living conditions and problems of working women, working class women, their participation in the class struggle, and the class-oriented trade union movement.

It is one of the basic bulwarks against the policies of the monopolies and imperialism that view women as a cheap labour force, and also as a means by which labour power becomes even cheaper so they can channel feelings of fatalism, defeat, and fear within the ranks of the working class.

Work in this direction has not yet been consolidated within our forces in the class trade union movement.

It is characteristic that we could have not yet been able to start a militant movement against the abolition of the 5-year retirement age increase for women in the public sector as in previous years on the issue of the increase in retirement age and the withdrawal of positive gains in favour of women.

The explanation for weaknesses is found in the fact that our orientation has not yet been consolidated as one of the more general issues that mark and determine the progress and rise in the class struggle and class consciousness.

A consistent and fully developed orientation around the issues of women and the youth will prove decisive in the regrouping of the workers’ and popular movement. Elements of this steady orientation are a better development of positions around the problems such as education, the problems of young couples, retirement at age 55, the protection of maternity, working conditions, etc. The mistaken conception that promoting our work specifically for women and the youth is an issue only for some specific committees and not the Union Boards and membership.

In order to change this situation, a positive base must be created in the class movement. Closer cooperation is needed with the organised women’s movement.

8.

Immigrants

KKE considers immigrants to be an integral part of the working class and fights to strengthen the unity between Greek and immigrant workers.

Economic immigration and refugees must be dealt with as a problem for all of the working class and its movement. Immigrants can and should be a source of new forces for the regrouping of the people’s movement and not as a brake on the realisation of that goal. The mobilisation of immigrants into the line of overthrow of the monopolies is a basic condition and prerequisite, if we wish to speak with seriousness about positive steps in the regrouping of the movement.

To the extent that immigrants constitute a basic section of the Trade Unions, the problems of xenophobia and racism will be overcome. These problems are inherent in the capitalist system and are cultivated by the ruling class and its mechanisms, in order to poison the minds of workers and divide them, especially during periods of capitalist economic crisis.

Our work with immigrants up until now, despite the delays, has provided us with very positive steps and experience.

A great number of immigrants trust the Party and PAME. This development did not come about suddenly; it is the result of long years of effort and an unwavering stance that the Party and the class movement held from the very first years of the mass influx of immigrants in our country, putting into practice the principles of proletarian internationalism. This position has been appreciated by a large section of worker immigrants.

Despite this, the extent to which immigrants are organised in trade unions is exceptionally low, despite the efforts that have been made. An initial estimate shows that this number does not exceed 5%.

The branches where we developed greater activity among immigrants are the branches covered by the Garment, Textile, Leather and Construction Federations, utilising the positive balance of forces in these. A considerable number rely on the strength of the unions and the Federation. They trust us and consider us as a force to lean on in order to deal with the extreme problems that they are facing. In crucial battles to win back pay, against workplace violations and any type of struggles immigrants have led the way. One sore spot is that, especially in the construction trade unions, the level of promoting immigrant trade unionists to leadership positions is depressingly low in correspondence with the percentage of immigrants in the branch.

Based on the experience that we gained through our activity up until now, we must focus in the next period on the following issues:

Our work among immigrants must be developed in such a way that we convince and mobilise Greek and immigrant workers. This can only happen through steady work and patience in explaining to Greek workers the reasons immigrants have come to our country, by highlighting the common interests of Greek and foreign workers so that the racism and nationalism that are cultivated systematically and are increased during capitalist economic crises are fought back against. Experience has shown that wherever we persist and deal with the difficulties, such artificial divisions are overcome.

A precondition is that the immigrant issue be understood as a problem for the working class as a whole, especially by the supporters and contacts of the Party, as well as all those who join forces with us in the trade union movement.

Party Organisation and Party Groups in the Unions and Federations must strongly confront racist positions and stereotypes about immigrants within our ranks and among our supporters.

It is an urgent and immediate task for us to work systematically for the promotion of immigrants in trade union bodies. We must decisively fight back against the delays in recruiting immigrants especially when considering the bulk of their numbers.

We must take into consideration the changes that have come up again for a section of immigrants with the issue of provision of nationality and the right to vote in the local elections, that will be used by the government and employers in order to increase their level of manipulation, blackmailing, the division of immigrants into “privileged groups” and others not. The cultivation of false expectations will have an effect on all immigrants. It will intensify the illusions that exist in a large section of immigrants concerning the role of PASOK.

In particular, the acquisition of nationality through naturalisation will be used to attract immigrants to compromised, government-friendly unions, for the subjugation and terrorising of immigrants who will have to show that they are not dangerous to bosses’ and the bourgeois state’s interests.

We must intensify our awareness and boldly direct ourselves with our positions that correspond to the interests of all immigrants and do not discriminate between old and new ones, “legal” and “illegal” ones, that have at the core the legalisation of all immigrants that live and work in our country and the provision of equal rights that are not considered to be a privilege, the provision of political rights to the people who produce the wealth in a country.

It demands that we monitor even more closely and that we intervene in a timelier manner around the efforts developed by embassies of immigrants’ home countries to distance immigrants from the workers’ trade union movement and KKE.

It requires the intensification of the ideological-political front against the viewpoint of SYN-SYRIZA and the “anti-racist space” in the organisations they control. They aim to assimilate immigrants into bourgeois legality, to minimise class differences within their world-culture stance and “tolerance of difference”, the cultivation of ‘difference’, non-class approach, in full alignment with EU “anti-racism”.

Common action by branch with immigrants should not be restricted to working rights despite the fact that this constitutes a fundamental problem. It must be widened to include problems that concern their families, Education, Health Care, survival, racism, and the situation in their home countries. We need to take into consideration the different level of consciousness that are related to the level of capitalist development in their home countries and for us to act in an all-sided matter in the development of class consciousness.

It requires special work, even from school age with the children of immigrants who will become a section of the new generation of the working class. Work that will concern the content of and discrimination in education, and also unemployment, work relations, etc.

We must take a closer look at the organising of agricultural labourers and the means which will allow us to become more effective in our work. There are thousands of agricultural labourers who endure harsh forms of exploitation and the greatest percentage is unorganised. We need to examine more closely the forms of organising foreign workers and seasonal migrant labourers.

D. ISSUES OF PARTY BUILDING

These Combined Measures are Necessary:

• Forces must be assigned on a large scale for permanent assignment in specific areas in order to build Party Base Orgs and Communist Youth Base Orgs by branch generally or by branch in combination with areas of work. The inclusion and utilisation of active supporters.

• Such planning for the functioning of Party Base Orgs must be fully complied with which means continual ideological and political work in order to popularise the ideas and policy of the Party steadily within the circle of people based on the Party building plan. It demands continual study of the experience and the development of this planning and more fundamental control.

• The leading bodies must adapt their guidance in party building in the most practical manner. From the development of a specific plan of building in one or another branch, the direct participation of cadres in practical work, systematic study, monitoring and generalising of experience, the enrichment of methods of ideological and political work, the improvement in methods of guiding, improvement in and supplementation of the leadership body, etc. The plan for Party building is related to the situation we are creating, ideological-political education, the work we are developing, the forms of mass rallying we are creating, how the life of the union local can be improved. Today, a candidate for membership in KKE must overcome even more hurdles. Therefore, it is even more important to improve the quality of our own work. It is not enough to participate in a strike etc. in order for somebody to be a Party member.

• The Branch-based District Committees are a shock force and in order to play their role it is necessary for them to specialise their guidance by branch which means the concentration of forces, better assigning, deeper ideological, political and organisational development of a general line and tactic in the rallying and utilisation of forces.

E. The International and European Workers’ Trade Union Movement

The next item on the agenda is the need for a unified strategy for the class forces and their international coordination within the ranks of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU). The utilisation and deepening of proletarian internationalism, especially under conditions of international capitalist crisis where the forces of capital are becoming even more aggressive. The undertaking of specific militant initiatives in every country, because developing the class movement inside of a country is the initial precondition for the strengthening of the class movement on a global level. From this viewpoint, the 10-year presence of PAME in the global trade union arena is positive and most be continued, giving up until today an all-sided help to the WFTU forming a permanent and consistent orientation towards the Balkans, the former socialist countries and all over Europe.

The 16^th Congress of the WFTU will be held in 2011 in Athens. The Party and PAME have taken on serious responsibilities concerning this Congress. These responsibilities must be translated into the development of a more comprehensive plan of initiatives for the support of the action of the WFTU, but also the strengthening the bonds between class-oriented Federations with their corresponding branches in the WFTU. The basic orientation must be the position of the youth, immigrants and the new problems that are being created by the strategies of imperialism to put an end to the economic crisis and spark a recovery in the capitalist economy. A more specific plan must be developed based on these orientations.

7 March 2010

Nationwide KKE Conference