Introduction of the GS of the CC of the KKE, Aleka Papariga, to the press conference

The Assessment of the KKE regarding the revealing procedure-fraud of the exploratory mandates, which were part of the general plan for the mass manipulation and the disarmament of the people with the focus on the next elections

This is the reason why the KKE, when it was asked before the elections what it would do in case it received the exploratory mandate, clarified honestly and boldly before the people (without caring about the cost it would have regarding votes) that it WOULD immediately return the mandate. The KKE clarified that it will not participate in a government of bourgeois management that objectively entails an anti-people way out from the crisis. It is very well aware of the position and the practice of other parties, that none of the proposed governments, either those in favour of “negotiation” or those in favour of the “amendment” and a new Memorandum can solve the acute problems, even approach the needs of the people. This is the content of the historical responsibility, regarding which SYRIZA denounces us. We reply to them by commenting that they are demonstrating a historically irresponsible stance in relation to the people.

Respecting the institution of the mandates does not mean that the various parties should make exploratory attempts with hypocritical discussions and proposals since one or more parties have decided not to participate in the government as they want a new round of elections for their own purposes. Why, for instance, did SYRIZA not say from the beginning that it wants a one party government so as to avoid this wretched game which unfortunately will continue over the next few days?

For this reason we asked for elections yesterday, not because elections constitute, as it is usually said, the culmination of the people’s intervention, the solution for the people’s problems but in order to stop the deception. In any case, we are heading for elections. Therefore, the people must be ready to intervene drawing conclusions from this process of deception. These are staged games. But even if they form a government at the last moment the people should again be vigilant because elections will be around the corner.

OLD AND NEW MODERNIZED DILEMMAS

We assess at the same time that each party via the procedure of the mandates attempted to place at the centre of the people’s attention new misleading dilemmas so that if new elections are held the people will be trapped in old and modernized dilemmas and that the endurance of radical popular masses will be reduced in the face of the pressure.

Such dilemmas are:

FIRST: euro or drachma, despite the fact that whether with the euro or the drachma the people will be destitute.

SECOND: Greek or European solution, despite the fact that the issue will be determined by the class struggle and confrontation within Greece first of all and of course at a European level, not by negotiations but by strengthening the European labour and people’s movement in its struggle against the EU, in rupture with it.

THIRDLY: Austerity or development, but the path of capitalist development entails austerity in the conditions of the sharpening capitalist competition, and sharpening inter-imperialist contradictions.

FOURTH: right or left, Memorandum or Anti-memorandum, dilemmas which will also take on other forms, according to the developments, through the new form of the two poles centre-right-centre-left. These dilemmas, for which Syriza bears very serious responsibilities, marginalised and obscured the real contradictions inside Greece and the EU.

The real question for the Greek people is:

GREECE-WORKING PEOPLE INDEPENDENT AND FREED FROM THE EUROPEAN COMMITMENTS OR A GREECE INCORPORATED IN THE IMPERIALIST EU? The real contradiction inside Greece and in the EU is between the capitalist businesses, the monopoly businesses and the interests of the working class, the self-employed in the city and countryside, the contradiction between the governance of the people’s power and the power for the perpetuation of the bourgeois class.

Especially Syriza with its continuous mutations and also its general programme is attempting to use a left façade to persuade the people that the capitalist and workers can co-exist and prosper. Indeed, it is demanding social support for a left government, with the desire of persuading the people to take the position of the applauding audience, when the people must be demanding, must monitor and must be emancipated in relation to the government. It wants a priori to impose reduced expectations on the people with the dilemma left-right, in the logic of PASOK in the 1980s. With its positions today it is of course not a faithful imitator of PASOK, which then had advanced slogans such as EEC AND NATO ARE THE SAME SYNDICATE, OUT WITH THE AMERICAN BASES. It imitates its tactics, which is very negative for the people.

Each of the parties which had the responsibility of the mandate, and those that took part in the dialogue, utilised the open interventions of the EU and the IMF to consolidate the dilemmas. These despicable interventions are not new or unprecedented. They existed further back in the past, there were open and blackmailing dilemmas during the Papandreou and Papademos governments and will continue after the elections whatever government is formed. Here it is also revealed that a government, which states that it wants to keep Greece in the EU at all costs cannot negotiate or renegotiate for a pro-people way out from the crisis, in favour of the people’s rights. Finally, it will sign the EU decisions, at the most uttering some minor objections as PASOK did during its first period of government.

The only patriotic pro-people position is the unilateral cancellation of the debt, the struggle for the disengagement from the EU and its blackmails.

These blackmailing and intimidating dilemmas are creating the two new poles of two-party rotation, absolutely painless for the business groups, and in the end useful for the EU, as they all agree with the participation in the EU and therefore compliance with it. The people must not reinforce these two poles with their vote, reproduce them or support them in any way.

By attacking each other, they are seeking to stabilize and embed in the consciousness of the people the inevitability of assimilation into the EU, and consequently in NATO and the participation in imperialist wars, despite the fact that they do not touch on the latter, as if it does not concern the government, which will be elected. It is not at all accidental that among the various proposals and the 5 points promoted by Syriza in society, this is not included either as an axis or in the content: namely, what would the governmental delegation of the Tsipras government do when it takes part in the NATO summit, with the imperialist strategy of “intelligent defence” as its theme, that is to say with the subject of measures and policies to make the imperialist alliance more flexible and deadly. We remind you that the NATO summit will be held on the 20-21 of May. Unless of course Syriza, is seeking a one-party government, wants to avoid committing itself now or to avoid its participation in a summit, which just a few days after the formation of a government would expose it through the signing of the NATO summit’s decision.

The eclecticism and the choice of topics are characteristic of Syriza’s 5 points so that it can approach a specific audience, as if a government does not have to deal with all the problems. We witnessed the intervention of the Hellenic Federation of Industrialists to safeguard the stability of Greece in the EU in opposition to the people and in order to prevent the sharpening of the class struggle.

ND is mocking the people’s consciousness with the misleading argument that Syriza is leading the country out of the EU and Syriza is responding that it will ensure that Greece stays in the EU at all costs, something which is true. While at the same time it is lying when it claims that the “EU one-way street” can become more humane and pro-people. PASOK is stating that it can find agreement with Syriza as it says it is in favour of the EU and the euro. Syriza is lying that it will cancel the memorandum and the loan agreement and that it will free the people from the debt. And these three together with the Democratic Left are leading the people to the same blackmailing fear, but from different approaches, and are placing a barrier against a truly different and radical alternative solution.

These are dilemmas which absolutely serve the agonized attempts of the ruling class, faced with the danger of a popular uprising, to regroup its political staff, through the creation of a new renewed bipolar system of the centre-left and the centre-right, centre-right and the left with the governmental left fully assimilated into it. The governmental left, which allegedly does not hesitate to take on responsibilities, is the vehicle for the assimilation, subjugation and even breaking of the labour movement, the foiling of its social alliance with the self-employed in the city and countryside. Armed with the stick and when necessary the carrot, to turn the movement into an applauding spectator, bought off with temporary benefits (crumbs in the conditions of reduced demands) due to the crisis and destitution), which are painless for the system. A special goal so that this strategic aim can be achieved is to weaken in every way, including using repression, the vanguard role of the KKE in the labour and people’s movement, in the rallying of anti-monopoly anti-imperialist forces, or to force it to mutate, so that the system’s safety net is reinforced. The only ones who would be satisfied by such a development would be the industrialists, the ship-owners, and the monopoly groups. Neither of these two inter-connected attempts will be successful.

The election battle has begun. It is an opportunity for the suffering people to understand that there is a real danger that the radicalism, which they demonstrated, that the tendency to seek an alternative solution will be subjugated to the illusion of the “solution here and now”, the lesser evil, “something better” whatever that may be.

We are not living in the 1970s and 1980s during the ND and then the PASOK governments, in favourable conditions for capitalism. This period has ended, a period which allowed certain concessions to be made and reforms, which were harmless for the system in Greece, which had been previously been carried out in capitalist Europe. The path of capitalist development inevitably leads to economic crisis, to today’s circumstances, when a historical revenge has been taken against the peoples of Europe through the abolition of all the gains and concessions made after the war and in the case of Greece after the dictatorship.

The opportunity is being presented to those who wish to struggle for a better life- in the midst of the grotesque image of this week of mandates, when each party is trying to sound pleasing, to present itself as a militant negotiator- to correct the people’s vote in order to strengthen the KKE.

To reflect on the essence of the pro-people way out of the crisis and pro-people development and on what a people’s government means.

The future will be even more difficult and the people must not play a waiting game, and must not believe that the results of the elections can correct or overthrow the barbaric political line, which they have experienced, which is due to capitalism and the assimilation of Greece in the EU, with or without Merkel and Sarkozy.

The people have a major opportunity today to utilise their experience and not to throw it away in the name of the crisis, the dilemmas and illusions. The people and the country need a strong KKE and a movement fully emancipated from every governmental, employer and EU embrace. Consequently the vote must serve the regroupment of the labour movement, the social alliance and this is the reason why the strengthening of the KKE is important.

The people will pay a high price for every retreat from this perspective. The price will be new torments and disappointments and the loss of valuable time.

Athens 10/5/2012 THE PRESS OFFICE OF THE CC OF THE KKE