The KKE is the people’s rock and the hope for the people’s struggle

Article of the International Relations Section of the CC of the KKE, published in the Morning Star

This article was written shortly before the tough electoral battle for the Greek parliament on the 17th of June, via which the bourgeois political system is attempting to give itself a face-lift.

This is due to the decay of the basic governing parties: the social-democratic “Pan-Hellenic Socialist Movement” (PASOK) and the rightwing party of “New Democracy” (ND). The latter has absorbed a smaller rightwing party (“Democratic Alliance”) and MPs from the nationalist “Popular Orthodox Rally” (LAOS) seeking to promote itself as a “centre-right” pole.

In the other “centre-left pole”, the “Coalition of the Radical Left” (SYRIZA) is replacing the now decimated PASOK. SYRIZA is made up forces that left the KKE in the splits of 1968 and 1991 and “divorced” themselves from the communist movement. These forces are characterized by their support for the imperialist EU. There are also Maoist and Trotskyite groups and forces which came to SYRIZA chiefly from PASOK. SYRIZA declares that it is struggling for a “left government”, which will blunt the very serious problems of the people, without coming into conflict with the EU and NATO, and while keeping Greece in the Eurozone. It was no accident that the president of the Greek federation of industrialists was in favour of a government in which SYRIZA would participate.

The “Democratic Left” (DHMAR) is also in this pole. DHMAR is a split from SYRIZA and also contains forces that have left PASOK.

Through this bipolar system, which is being advertised by the bourgeois mass media as the only option, they are attempting to render the potential dynamism of the people’s vote useless. This is a well-staged “trap”, which aims to block the path of popular forces to the KKE and to impede the development and strengthening of the working class and popular current which does not compromise with capitalist barbarity and the rationale of class collaboration and fights for development which will be of benefit to the people.

The KKE has made it clear that it will not be complicit in a government, even if it has a “left” label, which will operate within the framework of the interests of the bankers, industrialists, ship-owners, and other sections of capital. It will not be complicit in the implementation of the anti-people strategies of the European Union and the crimes of NATO.

Journalists and politicians who attack the party every hour of the day and every day of the year show a touching and belated concern regarding this proud stance and wonder whether its is because allegedly “The KKE does not want to govern”, seeking to “herd” the party of the working class into managing the system of exploitation.

Of course, the communists understand the anxiety of the workers in their search for governmental solutions under the pressure of the enormous problems that they face, but we say this to them: If the workers follow the path of “crumbs from the table”, the path which seeks “mercy” and “alms” from the EU and capital, i.e. the path being proposed by SYRIZA with the left government, then the capitalists and their union, the EU, will hammer us in the years to come.

The KKE says to the workers that they must struggle for their contemporary needs, in a comprehensive way for a different organization of society. So, even when we are not fully victorious we will be able to prevent the worst and make some gains. On this basis it asks the workers to resist the current of the bipolar system, of the “centre-right” or “centre-left” government, because the entrapment in solutions to manage the system will impede the creation of the pre-conditions for real radical changes, It will delay for a lengthy period the real solution that can lead to the satisfaction of the people’s needs, And the real solution is determined by the struggle for working class-popular power, for the disengagement of the country from the EU, for the abolition of the memoranda and all the anti-people measures, for the unilateral cancellation of the debt.

At the same time the “left” forces accuse the KKE of postponing the solution of the people’s problems to socialism, or as they say to the … “second coming”! And the reason is that the KKE rejects the participation in a government, which, according to them, will “relieve“ the working people. Of course, those who falsely claim that the KKE postpones everything to the future forget that the communist men and women, are every day in the front line of the struggle regarding all the people’s problems in the workplaces, the people’s neighbourhoods, in the trade unions, with the All Workers’ Militant Front (PAME), which constitutes the class oriented pole of the trade unions in Greece, as well as with other trade union and mass organizations of the poor farmers , the poor intermediate strata, the women, the youth. The KKE fights inside the parliament in this direction, utilizing the power that the people provide it in the elections.

There are no common solutions for the working people and capital, solutions that benefit them both m! You are either with the plutocracy or with the people! This is the real dilemma which is concealed by the false distinctions between “European” and “anti-European ” orientation, and between “left” and “right”. The real dilemma is this: will the impoverishment of the people continue, either with a government of ND or a government of SYRIZA, or will we move into the counterattack?

The KKE presents the working people with its political proposal for a pro-people way out from the capitalist crisis, its clear position on the withdrawal from the EU and NATO with people’s power, while it underlines that there are no easy solutions.

The path of rupture, the path of confrontation requires sacrifices which nonetheless lead to the people’s prosperity. The path of compromise and submission that the centre-left and the “governmental left” are preaching requires constant sacrifices without a positive prospect for the people.

Of course it is obvious that the class enemies, i.e. the ship-owners, the bankers, and the industrialists, are disturbed by the solution proposed by the KKE. They would prefer a KKE assimilated into the system, a KKE which would be a “plaything” in their hands, a communist “spice” in a left government! Because then they could say: “do not complain! Do not protest! Do not go on strike! Do not demand anything! You are in the government now! Take part in the management of the system! Now we have brought you to heel!”

But they cannot subjugate the KKE. They will not erase the hope of the government of the workers’ and people’s power. That is why their main goal in these elections is to reduce the power of the KKE , because they cannot subjugate it.

The KKE will go against the current of the false hopes that SYRIZA fosters in these elections although it knows that this might affect its electoral results. Nevertheless, the communists, the members of KNE, the leftwing people, the radical people and the conscious people as a whole, the people who know that the KKE is a party with principles, a consistent party, a party for all seasons, that will be with the people in the frontline of the struggle, will fight persistently and decisively until the very end. Because the KKE is the people’s rock and the hope for the people’s struggle after the 17th June.