“Alliance policy for the interests of the people and not for the perpetuation of the power of the monopolies”

On the occasion of the recent meeting of the Portuguese CP with the “Left Bloc” which is being utilised in various ways by the opportunist forces in our country.
[This article was published in Rizospastis, organ of the CC of the KKE, on the 17th of April]

by Giorgos Marinos
member of the PB of the CC of the KKE

The developments in the International Communist Movement, the strategy and tactics of the Communist Parties (CPs), the alliance policy which they follow, their stance in relation to the bourgeois parties, social-democracy and opportunism, the imperialist organizations and the basic issues of the class struggle is a source of experience, which we are obliged to examine, assess, reject or utilise, in order to reinforce the following basic direction:

That the communist parties become stronger, more capable of meeting their revolutionary obligations as the vanguard of the working class, which they must acquire in practice, through the class confrontation, in the effort to strengthen the class unity of the working class, the social alliance with the oppressed popular strata, in the struggle for the overthrow of capitalism, for working class power, for socialism.

The exchange of views concerning ideological-political matters, in which the alliance policy has an important position, is a crucial tool and we would like to share with the CPs our concerns arising from the recent meeting held in Lisbon between the Portuguese Communist Party and the “Left Bloc” as well as the exploitation of this meeting by opportunist forces in Greece. At the meeting of the two parties, according to the statement of the PCP, there was “an exchange of opinions and views on the assessment of each party about the country’s economic and social situation(… )An assessment that enabled to identify aspects where there are converging evaluations. Convergence on views that also do not conceal differences of opinion and even diverging stand points on several issues, in itself a natural fact in parties with different backgrounds and projects”. In the same statement it is mentioned that “In this framework, where each party will stand for the coming elections with their own proposals and project, PCP with the firm conviction and confidence of the importance of strengthening CDU to enforce a rupture with the right-wing policy and open the way for a patriotic and left policy, will continue and increase its political and social intervention. A fact that will not hinder a convergence, as was namely the case at the parliamentary level, giving expression to the defence of national interests, be they by rejecting grievous policies and measures or approving others that promote economic growth, social justice and upholding of rights”.

In addition, the webpage of the newspaper “Esquerda” of the “Bloc” mentions that:

“The Bloc and the Portuguese CP (PCP) are converging on a political left way out. After a one hour meeting, the PCP and the Bloc announced the convergence of their positions against the intervention of the IMF and for a left policy against the bankruptcy. The dialogue will continue.”

These are the facts. And on this basis SYN/SYRIZA and the other opportunist groups in Greece are trying to exploit the situation and bring back their position concerning “left unity”.

We can honestly say that this is the nature of opportunism.

Politics without principles, which tries to mechanistically transfer to Greece an event which took place in Portugal in order to support its own choices.

Nevertheless, this is not enough. The issue is more complex. It concerns the attempt to entrap popular forces in a bankrupt policy of alliances which has as its basis the social-democratic strategy of SYN and the other opportunist forces, which adopt and promote management proposals similar to those of the bourgeois parties, on the crisis and the way out of it, the debt and the deficit.

For this reason it is positive this issue to be opened up.

The KKE has constructed longstanding, comradely relations with the PCP, appreciates its important contribution to the development of the class struggle in Portugal for the defence of working class and popular interests. It appreciates its support for the anti-imperialist organizations, its contribution in facing up to anti-communism and the great difficulties which were created by the counterrevolution and overthrow of socialism.

Our party, as a section of the international communist movement, carefully studies the positions, decisions of the CPs and takes a position on the central issues on the basis of whether the various choices assist or hinder the class struggle, strengthen or weaken the overall struggle against imperialism and the monopolies, whether it helps or does not help the popular forces to be liberated from bourgeois and opportunist ideologies and policies.

At the same time, the KKE systematically informs the CPs about its own activity and experiences.

It is from this standpoint that we examine the meeting between the PCP and the “Bloc” and we consider it necessary to briefly convey the experience which our party has acquired concerning the stance of opportunism in Greece, which has historically employed corrosive and liquidationist tactics through forms of cooperation such as the “United Democratic Left” (EDA) in the 1950’s and 60’s, the “United left” in 1974, and the “Synaspismos” (“Alliance” in Greek)” at the end of the 1980s.

The basic practice which marks its stance is its assimilation into bourgeois ideology and policies, the negation of the principles which characterize a Leninist party of a new type, the abolition of the independence of the CP and its dissolution.

This experience is very useful in order to study the role which the “Left bloc” plays in Portugal.

This is an opportunist party, which has been supplied by cadres who split from the PCP in previous years. This is a party with a social-democratic strategy, with theses that support the power of the monopolies, capitalist ownership of the means of production, the European Union, a party which supported for a long period of time the anti-people policies of the government of the socialist Socrates.

This party is active within the known construct of the EU, the European Left Party (ELP), it holds the position of vice-president in its presidium, together with SYN, participates in the anti-communist campaign, in the attempt to social-democratize the CPs, supports the anti-people decisions for the overturning of working class and popular rights and recently supported, with its vote, the decision of the European Parliament for the participation of the EU in the imperialist war against Libya.

It is obvious that its character does not change because it had a discussion with the PCP and that possibly the basis was created for cooperation between them. Its social-democratic character remains, its activity causes damage to the labour and popular movement. And independently of the intentions of the PCP the “Bloc” will use this cooperation to foster confusion, to corrupt consciousnesses, to outflank the communist parties or anti-imperialist forces.

SYN saluted the meeting of the PCP with the “Bloc” from the very first moment. SYN is trying to opportunistically exploit the developments which are taking place at a European or international level in order to promote its positions and to play its well-known games of deception.

It did the same with the Jospin in France. It saluted the cooperation of the Socialist party with the French Communist Party and various other opportunist formations. It spoke of a “ray of hope” and later on, when this solution provoked intense popular protests and became politically bankrupt, SYN tried to backtrack by using a heap of excuses.

It did the same in Italy, when it saluted the “centre-left” “olive-tree coalition” talking about a “branch of hope” in Europe. And when the working people condemned the anti-people policies of the “olive tree” it tried to justify the unjustifiable.

Of course, the logic of the “unity of the left”, the logic of the so-called “anti-neo-liberal fronts” has received a blow but opportunism insists because its mission is to manipulate the people’s forces, to hinder the radicalisation of the people’s consciousness: a radicalisation which takes place by utilising the knowledge and the experience from the class struggle.

The KKE, which analyses the developments according to a class criterion from the viewpoint of the workers’ and peoples interests and warns of the traps that the forces of submission set for the people, says clearly to the working class, the popular strata and the youth that:

Do not trust at all SYN/SYRIZA and the other forces of opportunism. Their strategy serves the perpetuation of capitalism, of the exploitative system irrespective of the phrasal manoeuvres they make in order to muddy the waters. The main direction that characterises their policy is the maintenance of the monopolies’ power, capitalist ownership of the means of production, and development on the basis of profits.

An important element of this strategy is the systematic anticommunism that provides an alibi for bourgeois anticommunism. This element has marked their course from 1990 onwards to the present day.

The positions and the practices of SYN that support the EU, the strategy of the capitalist restructuring that attack and abolish the workers’ and people’s rights express this strategic direction. This direction is evident in the effort to foster illusions concerning the role of the government of PASOK: they mock the people by arguing that what went wrong is the fact that PASOK abandoned its programme although it is well known that this programme entailed an anti-people attack in every domain.

This direction leads to a hostile stance in relation to PAME and the other militant rallies, to the support of employer and government led trade unionism, of the majority of GSEE and ADEDY that have always sought by all means the corrosion and disarmament of the workers’ movement in order to be assimilated into the pursuits of capital.

The opportunist manoeuvres will not succeed. The political “sins” of SYN are not whitewashed by the effort to utilise the discussion between the PCP and the Left Block.

Today, when the capitalist crisis shows distinctly that the exploitative system has surpassed its historical limits; today when the effectiveness of the class struggle is obviously connected to the solution of the problem of power, SYN/SYRIZA and the other formations are deceiving the people with demands that concern the renegotiation of the debt which means new taxes, hard conditions and new government-EU-IMF memoranda for the people.

They are deceiving the people with the utopia of the fair redistribution of wealth under the conditions of the monopolies’ power and other similar demands which are also widely used by the bourgeois parties, by bourgeois economists and apologists of the system.

The constant changes in their positions and demands in order to muddy the waters demonstrate the unreliability and untrustworthiness of the opportunist parties and groups.

Our people must become very stern and realise that the alliance policy of SYN and its opportunist calls for “left unity” aim at hindering the rallying of the people on an anti-imperialist-anti-monopoly basis, in an anti-capitalist direction.

Their goal is to find accomplices for the perpetuation of the power of the monopolies. At the same time they reveal the misery that characterises the attempt of SYRIZA, the controversies and the deadlocks of the opportunist Babel.

The KKE treats the policy of alliances with a great sense of responsibility, as a tool of strategic importance that strengthens the struggle of the workers’ and people’s movement and the concentration of forces against the plutocracy, against the anti-people policies and the imperialist unions.

Our party has excluded the cooperation with the parties and the groups of opportunism that consciously sought to dissolve the KKE and celebrated the overthrow of socialism, fostering submission, and contaminating the people’s consciousness.

It has excluded the occasional welding together of leaderships and insists on the alliance of social-political forces that have an interest in fighting against the strategy of the monopolies and imperialism, taking into account that the alliance does not constitute a matter only for the KKE but concerns a wide range of forces that remain trapped in bourgeois ideological constructs or hesitate to make the big step.

The KKE insists on the joint coordinated action of the working class, of the small and medium sized farmers, of the self-employed and the relevant with these social forces class-oriented militant rallies that play a leading role in the struggle of our people concerning all its problems.

These rallies constitute the core of the effort to build the antimonopoly anti-imperialist front of struggle that struggles for the people’s power and economy, namely for socialism which is a prerequisite for the abolition of the exploitation, for the guarantee of the right to work for all, and for the satisfaction of the contemporary needs of the people.

This is the answer that the developments themselves have brought on to the agenda. Because the struggle concerning the acute problems of the workers’ families, the struggle against the consequences of the crisis, the struggle against government-EU-IMF memorandum and the cruel anti-people measures, for sovereign rights acquires dynamics to the extent that it develops into a struggle against the power of the monopolies, for the overthrow of capitalist barbarity.