Statement of the CC of the KKE on the election result of the 6th May 2012

The CC of KKE met in order to make an initial assessment of the election result of 6th May 2012. This assessment will be discussed in the organs and the Party Base Organisations as well as in the organs and the Base Organisations of KNE. Furthermore, the party will discuss the election result with the people who work alongside the party, its supporters and friends. After this round of discussion and expressions of opinion the CC will conclude its assessment.

1. The election result leads to the reinforcement of the tendency for the renovation of the political scene, as it had been formed for three decades with the rotation of ND and PASOK in the government since these parties have suffered a heavy defeat. The reversal of the political scene, in the form it took with the election result, does not constitute any political overthrow. In the conditions of justified anger and indignation, the logic of punishment and the illusion that there exist immediate solutions from above and through negotiations, prevailed. Nevertheless, the election result shows the positive tendency which is being outlined, the tendency for a radical overthrow at the level of power against the illusions for an easy solution. Despite the spectacular decline of ND and PASOK the election result does not constitute a new era in the correlation of forces between the people and the monopolies, an overthrow or a “peaceful revolution” as has been said.

2. The reforming of the bourgeois political scene, which still finds itself in a transitional phase, serves the attempt to inhibit the tendency of radicalisation, and the liberation from the bourgeois and political influence. Its main characteristic is the restoration of the centre-right and centre-left, the recomposition of social democracy with the forces of Syriza initially as its core. The power of the monopolies needs the renovated bourgeois political system, and possibly with the creation of new parties, to provide the respective alliances and coalition governments. This possibility to attempt the renovation of the system is based on the fact that the forces of the “EU one way-street”, the forces that serve the interests of capital, of the capitalist system, were not reduced in terms of their overall vote.

3. The vast majority of the voters of the two bourgeois parties were scattered mainly to political forces with a similar ideology that support the policy of the “EU one way- street”. To a much lesser extent they were directed to the KKE. In this framework the diverse dispersion of votes was directed to reactionary and nationalist parties such as the “Independent Greeks” and the fascist nazi “Golden Dawn” (Chrisi Avgi). In addition, the election result is marked by the low participation that also expresses a dead-end indignation as well as the financial difficulties of the voters who had to travel. The rise of “Golden Dawn” is one more piece of evidence that in conditions of a deep crisis and impoverishment of the people, while the workers’ and people’s movement has not moved into counterattack and the majority of the parties support the capitalist system or refer to the illusion of its humanization, the danger of the influence of nationalist and neo-fascist views increases. Indeed, in conditions when the EU and all member-states have adopted the equation of fascism with communism as a state ideology. Only a strong workers’ and people’s movement and a powerful KKE can deal with these dangerous views and make them marginal and harmless. “Golden Dawn” cannot be dealt with by antifascist sermons even more by appeals to national unity and the anti-fascist consensus.

4. The people should not have a position of “wait and see” regarding these processes that start with the attempt to form a government. The hard core of the bourgeois class, the business groups as well as the mechanisms and the leading bodies of the EU and the IMF will play an active role in the renovation of the political system. They seek to provide substitutes to the people as soon as possible before the workers and people’s radicalism, the organisation and the initiative of the people becomes stronger and acquires mass characteristics. Irrespective of the outcome of these attempts the main orientation is the acceleration of the actions in order to head off in a timely fashion the sharpening of the class struggle and the rallying of the social forces, the interests of which are to be in opposition to and rupture with the monopolies and imperialism, with the EU itself and the choices of NATO, to strengthen the anti-capitalist consciousness. SYRIZA, which has a social-democratic programme, bears immense responsibilities in relation to the people for the blatant lies that it told before and during the election period, for the illusions it fostered and fosters that there can be a better situation for the people without a confrontation with the monopolies, the imperialist unions.

5. The renovation of the bourgeois political system must be confronted by the people’s vigilance and readiness along with the mass organisation and struggle in the workplaces , in the sectors, the offices, the people’s neighborhoods, the countryside, in schools , universities and vocational schools with immediate demands to repel the new measures which are on the way. No toleration for the slogans of renegotiation, the gradual disengagement from the memoranda and the loan agreement in the framework of the bodies of the EU and the IMF.

6. The CC calls on the members of the party, KNE, the friends and supporters of the party, the people who work alongside the party who have fought proudly in the struggles and the electoral battle, to be beside the working people and defend their rights and just cause consistently. The role and the responsibilities of the party increase. IT IS THE IRREPLACEABLE AND DECISIVE FORCE FOR THE PEOPLES MOVEMENT THAT WILL STRUGGLE, COUNTERATTACK AND HAVE THE PROSPECT of the conquest of the workers’ and people’s power and economy, for the disengagement from the EU and the unilateral cancellation of the debt, the socialization of the means of production, the productive cooperatives of the people , the nationwide planning for the utilization of the development potential of the country with workers’ and people’s control from the bottom up.

7. The CC assesses that the election result was formed in conditions of the general people’s anger and indignation, in conditions of an acute, prolonged economic capitalist crisis and while the EU, with the agreement of PASOK and ND, chose the classic and typical way out in favour of capital and the monopolies: uncontrolled bankruptcy for the workers and the popular strata and controlled bankruptcy of capital. The memorandums and the loan agreement include measures which are based on the Treaty of Maastricht , whose implementation started gradually in all the EU member-states. They are also based on the decisions which followed and the European treaty that extends till 2020. For that reason the KKE has revealed the false character of the separation of the parties of “EU one way-street” into pro-memorandum and anti-memorandum parties.

The KKE literally passed through the obstacles placed on both sides by the system’s forces and its reserves, which are united, despite their differences, in their insistence on the country’s assimilation in the EU, thus their criterion is the peoples compliance with its class choices at all costs, in the name of the euro. On the one hand there was blind indignation and on the other hand there were illusions that a government of the so-called anti-memorandum forces can provide relief and a solution to the pressing problems. The largest section of the discontented and angry workers and unemployed submitted to impatience and the pressure of the illusion of an immediate positive result, the immediate solution without having acquired the required direct experience from the participation in the organization and waging of the struggles. It submitted to the generalized propaganda that there can be no radical change or that this will occur in the “second coming”, a beloved slogan of Syriza that is dangerous for the people. The KKE assesses the election results and tendencies with the objective conditions as its criterion, it does not determine its stance based on the electoral strength or electoral shrinkage of the other political parties.

The KKE had a small increase in these elections. Nevertheless the final assessment of the quality of the intervention and activity of the party in relation to the election result will be completed after the gathering of opinions and data from the regions and of course after the collective opinions of the party organizations.

With today’s numbers and the changes in the arrangement of the political forces which has been noted, irrespective of the final assessments which will be formed through the collective party procedures, the CC assesses that once again the position of the party has been borne out that the progress and sharpening of the class struggle determines the political influence of the KKE and its electoral performance. The evaluation of the KKE which it stated openly at the outset of the crisis has also been borne out: that in the conditions of the capitalist economic crisis, which increases both the relative and the absolute destitution of the people, there co-exist two elements: that the movement can move forward and also that it can temporarily retreat. That the most destitute sections of the working class, the unemployed and the semi-employed, sections of the petty bourgeois strata which suddenly lost their income, are subject to the influence and tendencies which are developing within discontented petty bourgeois strata which are still enduring from a financial point of view, but do not want to lose everything, and which are still hostile to radical change because they believe in their continuing survival. The KKE considers that the second element, that of retreat, has not yet been determined. There are possibilities in the next period for the class struggle to sharpen and the movement to acquire new strength so that there is hope and a positive perspective.

The CC salutes the thousands of working men and women, and unemployed who appreciated the militancy, consistency and the truthful clarity of the KKE’s words, the militancy and unselfishness of the communists and supported it at the ballot box, irrespective of their level of agreement with its overall political proposal. A large section of the workers as well as a section of the party’s voters, under the pressure of the exacerbation of the popular problems, the misleading slogans concerning the renegotiation of the memorandum and the immediate relief for the workers, could not understand and take on board the difference between a government and real power. The CC, summarizing the assessments and conclusions of the party organizations, will better examine weaknesses which must be overcome above all in our activity in the working class and its allies and will make a more specialised evaluation of the election period.

The political proposal of the KKE regarding the struggle for working class-people’s power will find itself at the core of the people in the next period, as the difference between a government and real people’s power will become even clearer, as well as the overall proposal concerning the immediate issues of the people’s survival and working class popular power. From this standpoint political electoral activity of the KKE in harmony with its strategy, as is proper, constitutes an important legacy for the years to come.

The KKE will not support any government, no matter what its composition, which will emerge from the post-election collaboration of the parties, whatever title it may have. This government will not provide anything positive for the people. On the contrary it will respond to the needs and interests of capital, the choices of the EU and IMF. For the KKE to agree to participate in a government, the party would not have to simply carry out a small retreat, but it would have to turn its programme and political line upside down, and make unacceptable compromises regarding the present and future of the people’s interests. The people do not need such a KKE.

7. The KKE and KNE, will be found from the first moment and every day in the front line of the struggle. The CC of the KKE calls on the working people which is suffering, the unemployed and pensioners, the self-employed in the city and countryside, to meet once again with the communists and members of KNE, those who work alongside the KKE and the radical working class and popular forces in the struggle to relieve the sharpening problems, to repel the worst measures which are on the way. No slogan for negotiation and renegotiation can support in the slightest the sharpening needs of the workers and unemployed. Readiness and accurate adjustments at every turn of the struggle are what is required. Above all immediate activity is required if a coalition government does not emerge and new elections are called, which will bring to the fore once again even more intense electoral dilemmas and more powerful illusions.

ATHENS 7/5/2012 The CC of the KKE

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