The KKE is marching to its 19th Congress…
ARTICLE OF THE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS SECTION OF THE CC OF THE KKE
The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) will hold its 19th Congress on the 11-14 of April in Athens. The preparations for the Congress are in their final phase.
In a 4-month period the communists were able to discuss the activity of the party over the previous period, the tasks of the KKE for the following period and the party’s new draft Programme and its new draft Statutes.
For this reason, the CC published the “Theses”, which contained these documents and on the basis of which the pre-congress dialogue was held.
Our party, in an effort for the theses, concerns and tasks posed by the communists of Greece to become known beyond the country’s borders, has translated the entire text of the “Theses” into 5 languages: English, Arabic, Spanish, Russian and German,. Messages of greetings are arriving from Communist and Workers’ and other parties from all over the world which you can find here in their original form.
The discussion was held both in the assemblies of the party base organizations, in the conferences of the sectoral organizations as well as in the regional organizations which elected delegates to the Congress.
At the same time, a public pre-congress dialogue was held in the pages of “Rizospastis”, the daily paper and organ of the CC of the KKE, with the publication of hundreds of articles written by members, cadres and friends of the KKE.
In addition the party organizations organized dozens of rallies all over the country, where the “Theses” were presented to the workers. As is well-known, the KKE overcame the rationale of intermediate stages and determined the character of the revolution as being socialist in the Programme approved by the 15th Congress in 1996. It posed the resolution of the central contradiction between capital and labour, because it is precisely this contradiction that imposes the character of our era, the era of the transition from capitalism to socialism, as the material pre-conditions for socialist construction have matured.
This basic position of the KKE is confirmed in the new draft Programme, which will be discussed and approved by the 19th Congress. However, the KKE seeks to integrate both the decision of the 18th Congress, which enriches the party’s view on socialism, as well as the conclusions of the Nationwide Conference which examined the history of the KKE in the period 1949-1968.
Thus, the 15th Congress, utilizing the level which had
been acquired, determined the line of the Antimonopoly-Anti-imperialist-
Today the Theses of the CC for the 19th Congress enrich this direction and determine the People’s Alliance, which has a clear anti-monopoly anti-capitalist orientation – as contemporary capitalism is monopoly capitalism- and promotes rupture with the imperialist unions, struggling against the imperialist war and participation in it, as the rallying line and line of struggle.
“The People’s Alliance, expresses the interests of the working class, the semi-proletarians, the poor self-employed and farmers in the struggle against the monopolies and capitalist ownership, against the assimilation of the country in the imperialist unions. Its struggle is directed towards the conquest of the working class- people’s power. For the KKE the new power is identified with working class power, the socialist power which scientific socialism defined as the dictatorship of the proletariat, which is the very opposite of the dictatorship of the bourgeois class, the bourgeois state.” Thus the role of the social forces, its social character, is strengthened in the People’s Alliance.
The People’s Alliance concerns itself with all the problems of the people, it has a clear anti-monopoly anti-capitalist orientation and today has acquired a certain form with the activity of PAME, PASEVE, PASY MAS, OGE with a common framework. It does not constitute an alliance of political parties.
It is assessed that the People’s Alliance in conditions of the revolutionary situation will be transformed into “the revolutionary workers’ and people’s front, using all forms of activity, can become the centre of the popular uprising against capitalist power. It must prevail in the basic regions, particularly in the industrial-trade-transport centres, communications and energy centres, so that the full demobilization of the mechanisms of bourgeois power is possible as well as their neutralization, and so that revolutionary institutions created by the people can emerge and prevail. These revolutionary institutions will undertake the new organization of society, the overthrow of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, the establishment of revolutionary working class power.”
On the international movement
The assessments of the outgoing CC of the party on the situation in the International Communist Movement and the corresponding activity of the party are presented in Theses 43,44,45,46,47. The following are noted here: “43. The party continued its efforts to deal with the crucial and major problems inherited from the victory of the counterrevolution, with the struggle against opportunism being the most basic element. The results are limited though this issue does not depend on the KKE but on the general situation of many communist parties in all continents and indeed of the parties in the powerful capitalist countries.
The class confrontations in Greece, the conflict with the capitalist employers, and the vanguard activity of the KKE have contributed to the development of reflection within many communist parties around the main issue i.e. what the political line should be for the activity of the communists in the conditions of the crisis. The reflection and the debate between different views show the significant contribution of the KKE along with other parties in order to substantiate the need to concentrate forces for the overthrow of the bourgeois power, for the struggle for socialism.
Thanks to the initiative of our party, as well as of other Communist Parties, the International Meetings of Communist and Workers’ Parties take place every year. In these meetings there is an ideological struggle against opportunism, reformism and various currents. In addition, there are Regional and Thematic Meetings of Communist Parties taking place and joint statements are being issued on current issues. A website of the Communist Parties (www.solidnet.org) is also functioning which has an incorporated system for the rapid exchange of information among them. There is also the publication of the “Information Bulletin” that contains the materials of the Meetings of the Communist Parties.
Nevertheless, these steps in the coordination cannot alter the main issue: the communist movement remains organizationally and ideologically fragmented. It is experiencing a situation of a long-term ideological-political crisis that coexists with the corrosive activity of the strong opportunist current and the weaknesses of the Communist Parties that struggle on the basis of Marxism-Leninism. In the conditions of the crisis, of the new requirements for the communist movement, signs are emerging regarding a new retreat from treating the relevant problems from a class viewpoint.
44. There are CPs which under difficult conditions maintain a correct orientation in general, they fight against bourgeois ideology and opportunism and make efforts to work in the labour movement while facing serious weaknesses.
The developments in Cuba have an impact on the international communist movement. The KKE steadfastly expresses its solidarity with the Communist Party and the people of Cuba, it struggles for the lifting of the longstanding blockade imposed by the USA and the abolition of the anti-Cuban “common position” of the EU, it demands the release of the 5 imprisoned Cuban patriots and their return to their homeland.
Our party defends the gains of the Cuban revolution that have demonstrated the advantages of socialism, achieving in the difficult conditions of the imperialist aggressiveness the solution of the basic problems that remain unsolved and torment the working class and the broad popular strata in other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The KKE, in the framework of proletarian internationalism, develops a constructive dialogue with the Communist Party of Cuba on the socio-economic changes which have been promoted over recent years, it expresses its concern about the implementation of measures that reinforce the presence of capital and weaken socialist ownership, the socialist relations of production.
In the countries which claim to be constructing socialism the KKE examines the developments according to the criteria of the laws of socialist construction, the working class power, the socialization of the means of production and central planning, the workers’ and social control. From this point of view, the KKE expresses both its concern about the strengthening of the capitalist relations of production in Vietnam and also its opposition to the so-called “market- socialism”.
In today’s China the CPC leads the capitalist path of development; it develops relations with the “Socialist International”. This course and generally the positions regarding a “mixed economy”, which was previously supported by social democracy, regarding “market socialism” exert a negative influence on the communist movement; they are utilized in a multifaceted way against it.
Some Communist Parties, which have distanced themselves from Marxism-Leninism, present China as a “model of socialist development”.
45. The KKE, without giving up on the existing forms of cooperation and coordination of the Communist Parties, is oriented to the effort to form a communist pole among the communist parties which defend Marxism-Leninism, the existence of the socialist construction and its contribution, but also recognize its fundamental mistakes that led to its overthrow, the necessity of the struggle for the overthrow of capitalism and the construction of socialism.
The journal “International Communist Review” (ICR) was founded in this direction on the basis of a framework of common principles –starting from a first discussion in Athens at the end of 2008 and in Istanbul in 2009- currently with the participation of eleven theoretical and political journals of Communist parties. The aim of the ICR is to discuss ideological and theoretical issues and to contribute to the formation of a unified revolutionary strategy of the CP so that the international communist movement gets out of the situation of the ideological-political and organizational crisis.
The KKE considers as its duty and obligation the development of the ideological and political struggle, at an international level as well, against the opportunist forces (European Left Party- left “networks”), the forces of social democracy, the Trotskyite forces, which exert an ideological and political impact on the international communist movement.
46. Certain crucial issues that concern the confrontation inside the communist movement:
- The character of the revolution, the logic of stages. The participation of communist parties in bourgeois governments on the terrain of capitalist society. The international communist movement and opportunism.
- The distancing from the Leninist concept of imperialism.
- The stance towards imperialist unions and interstate organizations, the stance towards Russia-China etc.
- The stance towards social-democracy and the centre-left. The stance towards the possibility of utilizing all forms of struggle in order to confront successfully the violence of the capitalists, the imperialist intervention.
- The parliamentary illusions as well as the retreat from the utilization of the battle of elections.
- The stance towards the capitalist crisis.
- The issue of the environment detached from the issue of the character of ownership and power.
- The lack of a revolutionary line in the labour movement.
- The mistaken view that the struggle at a national level has become outdated.
- The stance towards the socialism which we knew.
- The mistaken view about “models” of socialism and the “socialism of the 21st century”.
- The proletarian Internationalism.
Internationalist Solidarity
47. In the previous period the KKE developed significant initiatives in order to express its solidarity with the great workers’ and people’s struggles that take place in many countries against the aims, the strategy of capital, against the imperialist plans, the interventions, for the defense of labour and democratic rights, against anti-communism, against the bans and the persecutions at the expense of the communist parties and militants, against the persecutions carried out with the slogan of the unacceptable identification of communism with fascism.
The KKE expresses its solidarity with the working class and the popular strata of Venezuela against the imperialist interventions and threats.
It supports the struggle of the Palestinian people against the Israeli occupation, for the resolution of the Palestinian issue; for an independent, viable and sovereign Palestinian state with the borders of 1967 and East Jerusalem as its capital.
The KKE supports the struggle of the Cypriot people for a unified Cyprus, independent with a federal bi-zonal, bi-communal solution, with a single sovereignty and international representation, without foreign bases and troops, a common homeland for Greek-Cypriots and Turkish-Cypriots, without foreign guarantors and “protectors”.”
e-mail:cpg@int.kke.gr