Political Resolution of the 19th Congress of the KKE

The basic tasks of the KKE until the 20^th Congress

The 19^th Congress of the KKE was convened from the 11^th to the 14^th of April 2013. The workings were held at the headquarters of the CC of the party.

The 19^th Congress approved the Theses of the CC which include the report on the party’s work and its political tasks until the 20^th Congress, taking into account the discussion and their approval by the general assemblies of the Party’s Base Organizations (PBOs) and the Conferences. It also approved the report of the CC at the 19^th Congress as well as the report of work of the Central Auditing Committee (CAC).

The 19^th Congress of the KKE adopted the Programme and Statutes of the party, also taking into account their approval in the PBOs and the Conferences, as well as proposals made in these bodies.

The 19^th Congress of the KKE approved the Political Resolution, which determines the tasks of the party until the 20^th Congress, underlining that the party has the task of consistently and permanently popularizing the Programme, especially in the working class, the urban and rural self-employed and youth. This task significantly assists the organization of the working class’s struggle, the regroupment of the labour and people’s movement, the formation of the People’s Alliance, the party building.

The documents of the 19^th Congress constitute the direction of the activity in fundamental issues, based on the party’s strategy. This is the basis of our alliance policy, of the priority of our work in the working class, the tactics in the various movements, fronts of struggle, electoral political battles, the tasks of the KKE in the international communist and labour movement. In addition, the importance of the KKE orienting to younger age groups, as well as to women of the working class and popular strata.

The documents of the 19^th Congress further equip the KKE in order for it to meet the contemporary demands of the class struggle and decisively deal with the difficulties, confirming its role as the vanguard of the working class, as an all-weather party.

The direction of the developments

The KKE, an all-weather party

The deepest and lengthiest crisis of capital over-accumulation since the 1950s has manifested itself in the Greek economy as well, from 2009 onwards.

According to the current data it is not easy to predict whether the possibility of a unilateral cessation of debt’s payment has vanished followed by the withdrawal from the Eurozone or the possibility of its split due to the withdrawal of a stronger capitalist power such as Italy.

Such predictions are a fact and such fears exist in the regional and global staff of imperialism especially those which are engaged with the analysis and the assessment of the economic developments. What will determine the specific development in Greece is not the management competence of the current government or another left-tinged “national salvation” government, as SYRIZA¹ claims, setting as its goal a new “Marshall Plan” for the European South, but the depth of the crisis in the Eurozone, the difficulty in maintaining today’s alliances and the formation of new ones, particularly on the part of Germany.

The Eurozone might also be reconstructed with the establishment of different zones of coherence. Greece may remain in the Eurozone something that will be accompanied by a new “haircut”, a demand which is also shared by SYRIZA thus converging with the position of the IMF.

Definitely, irrespective of the various scenarios, which haven’t been finalized yet, the process of centralization of accumulated capital in the hands of a smaller number of larger monopoly groups will intensify. The anti-people measures and the attack on the workers’ and popular strata’s rights will also be intensified.

The developments indicate that the intensification of state violence and repression, the restriction of political and trade union liberties will be expressed in a reactionary revision of the constitution that will incorporate the relevant laws and the restrictions of the EU. The bourgeois class and its parties are even not satisfied with the bourgeois democracy they established themselves. Their choice to break the labour movement, to impede any possible radicalization of the working class and the poor popular strata is inextricably linked with the restriction of the activity of the KKE, with the declaration of anticommunism as the official state ideology, with the utilization of the well known theory of the “two extremes”.

In case of a more direct and active involvement in an imperialist war the first repressive measures that will be taken will be related to the labour-people’s movement and the KKE. Therefore, our party must achieve a complete readiness targeting mainly the development of more substantial and strong bonds with the largest possible section of the working class, it must overcome weaknesses either in terms of orientation or in terms of taking practical measures, in order to reinforce the People’s Alliance, in order for the anti-monopoly anti-capitalist direction of struggle that protects the people from all kinds of attacks to become a conviction of the people.

The situation in the Eastern Mediterranean as a whole becomes more complicated, it will have new negative consequences for the Cyprus issue which is a problem of invasion-occupation, given the rapprochement between Turkey and Israel, in the light of Turkish claims, combined with the aspirations of the Egyptian bourgeois class to revise the agreement with Cyprus on the demarcation of the Exclusive Economic Zone.

The recent developments with the ambiguous stance of the Greek government in defining the Exclusive Economic Zone(EEZ) brought more clearly to the forefront the fierce war among the capitalist states, stronger and weaker, something that increases the danger of Greece being involved in an imperialist war at the side of the one or the other imperialist alliance. The contradictions of Greece with Turkey and Albania, FYROM as well as Egypt, in the framework of the general inter-imperialist contradictions, especially over the EEZ and energy, will be even more intensively expressed in Greece and the wider region and thus everything is possible, including an imperialist war.

In any case, whatever form the participation of Greece in the imperialist war takes, the KKE must be ready to lead the independent organization of the workers’-people’s resistance and link it with the struggle for the defeat of the bourgeois class, both of the domestic one and the foreign one as an invader.

The KKE must take initiatives, according to the concrete conditions, for the formation of the workers’ and people’s front with the slogan: the people will give freedom and the way-out from the capitalist system which as long as it prevails brings war and “peace” with the gun to the people’s head. The working class of Greece and its allies in the antimonopoly struggle must prepare themselves from now on ideologically-politically about the line to deal with such a possible development. The deepening of the capitalist economic crisis, the intensification of the imperialist competition, the efforts to reform the bourgeois political system, make it necessary for the KKE to rapidly proceed with the regroupment of the labour movement and the strengthening of the People’s Alliance. It is a priority for the bonds of the party organizations with working class and popular masses to be strengthened, to build the party first of all in the strategic sectors, in every workplace. The KKE, its friends and supporters, the people, guided by the resolutions of the 19^th Congress, must armour themselves and unwaveringly face the attacks.

Beginning from the CC to the PBOs, the party organs must adjust their activity to the needs of the class struggle, to become a real battle staff, to utilize every site of resistance at the base, generalizing the experience from the struggle. The party organizations must multiply their initiatives for the rallying and organization of the popular masses, the supporters of the party must be systematically informed, proposals which arise from the experience of the class struggle must be utilized and incorporated in the planning of our activity.

A key element for the fulfillment of these tasks is the improvement of the functioning of the PBOs, the collective discussion and specialization of activity, the improvement of the arguments in order to persuasively answer to questions of the people, the readiness to respond to attacks against the political line and struggle of the KKE.

The implementation of the principles for the functioning of the party must be reinforced in combination with the above as well as the observance of the Statutes in general. The members of the KKE, KNE, the friends and supporters can fulfill the tasks of the 19^th Congress with combativeness, persistence and self-sacrifice.

The strengthening of the ideological-political confrontation

The ideological-political struggle on all the issues included in the documents of the 19^th Congress must be intensified. The following in particular must be dealt with immediately:

• The offensive of the class enemy and the opponents of the KKE in general which aims at marginalizing it.
• The anti-communism, the slanderous anti-socialist propaganda which constitutes the official ideology of the EU as well.
• The “friendly” attack, with attempts to pull the KKE into an “anti-memorandum” line, so that it supports the change in the formula of bourgeois political management, inside or outside the Eurozone.
• The well worked-out plan of the bourgeois state and political system to damage the moral standing of the party, focusing mainly on its finances.
• To expose, and deal with Golden Dawn. To expose its character as a national-socialist fascist organization, which is created by the capitalist system and used to strike against the KKE and the labour-people’s movement.
• The attempt to present the KKE as a “systemic” party, committed and subjugated to the system as well as the effort to equate the KKE with the bourgeois parties, based on the view that “they are all the same”.
• To deal with reactionary views which foster racism and xenophobia in the people’s consciousness.
• The alternative version of the reformist line is being promoted by the forces of opportunism which seek to come to a political agreement based on the so-called “transitional political programme”, which is based on a position of servicing the state debt by returning to a national currency, without conflict and rupture with the monopolies, the capitalist ownership and bourgeois power.
• The parliamentary illusions and the expectation of a pro-people way out via a bourgeois government remain prevalent even amongst forces that participate in the struggles along with the party, even in a section of the party’s voters.
• The hypocritical sloganeering about the loss of Greece’s national independence and its occupation by Germany. This political line seeks to obscure the fact that the subordinate-intermediate position of a country in a capitalist alliance (from which the unequal relations between its members flow) does not negate their common strategic interests, on which the alliance is formed.
• The need to increase the circulation of the party’s media for ideological intervention and propaganda, Rizospastis, “Communist Review” (KOMEP), the political books, as well as the need to increase the visits to the KKE’s portal and the audience of “902 left FM”.

The reformation of the bourgeois political system

The differences between the liberal and Keynesian model are expressed in our country by the controversy over the alternation of the bourgeois governments, they are used to trap the popular masses inside the framework of the system, in the attempt to reform the bourgeois political system, so that it can provide a variety of alternate bourgeois parties for the governance, on the basis of the cooperation amongst them.

The bourgeois class of the country is adjusting its choices. It takes into account which government can control the labour movement, prevent the rise of class struggle and ensure that the escalating offensive on the working class and popular income and the consequences of the crisis in general, which are characterised chiefly by the large percentage of unemployment, will take place with the least possible reactions either with memoranda inside the euro or with the bankruptcy, either controlled or uncontrolled with the exit from the Euro.

The attempts to reform the bourgeois political system will continue towards the formation of two poles: the centre-right based on ND² and the centre-left based on SYRIZA.

SYRIZA is developing into a social democratic party, which will be more conservative compared to the original social democratic PASOK³ in the post-dictatorship period. Significant sections of the labour and governmental bureaucracy, sections of the intermediate strata that enjoyed immunity as allies of the bourgeois class and its parties, with benefits, tax evasion, with participation into the management of EU funds are seeking and finding their political expression in SYRIZA. Its particularity is that it also consists of opportunist forces that broke away from the communist movement, maintaining several slogans and methods of work.

SYRIZA presents itself as a left party that rallies in its ranks various forces, from the social-democrats of “3^rd September”⁴ to the communists of “renewal”, which defend the “welfare state”. Its strategy, regarding the issue of power and EU, is social-democratic, pro-monopoly.

The proposal of SYRIZA for alliance and a “left government” and the “salvation of Greece” is supported by sections of the bourgeois class. In addition, it seeks cooperation with political forces such as the Independent Greeks⁵ and the Democratic Left⁶. It has sent out feelers to the USA, Great Britain, Brazil as well as Russia.

The more SYRIZA is being strengthened as a social-democratic governmental party, the more the processes for the formation of new barriers will intensify, comprised of forces of the so-called extra-parliamentary left (ANTARSYA-NAR⁷) and other groups, (Plan B-Alavanos⁸), and even of centrifugal forces of SYRIZA, of the so-called left or communist renewal, which operate in the direction of the so-called transitional goals and transitional management governments.

The communists must even further popularize the consistent position of the KKE that it is not going to cooperate with or participate in management governments which are promoted by SYRIZA and whatever other bourgeois management forces exist or may exist. We need to popularize our position on the alliances and the role of the KKE in the working class-people’s power and governance.

Through its systematic and multi-facetted activity, the KKE must contribute to the electoral battles (parliamentary elections, elections for the European Parliament, and local government elections) so that the vote for the KKE by sections of workers and poor popular strata expresses not only the desire to support a political force which consistently struggles for the people’s problems, but also a class choice aimed at weakening the bourgeois political system, the bourgeois governance. Every crack in the bourgeois governance should reinforce the direction for the overthrow of bourgeois power and capitalist ownership. The realistic proposal of the KKE for the way out of the crisis in favour of the people, the only proposal which is opposed to the positions of all the bourgeois parties - liberal, social-democratic and those of the so-called “left government” - must be widely highlighted among the people.

A feature of the reformation of the bourgeois political system is the fascist “Golden Dawn”. The people must isolate it, responding decisively to the attacks, to its national-socialism and demagoguery. The KKE and KNE must play the leading role so that the mass organizations, the trade unions in the workplaces, particularly the People’s Committees in the neighbourhoods, schools, the student unions in the universities, must take decisive initiatives for the organization and mobilization of the people against “Golden Dawn” and its criminal attacks. In addition, the activity of other fascist tendencies must be dealt with inside the ranks of the movement, which have as their goal its suffocation, the curtailing of the upturn of the class struggle

The labour movement must find itself in a state of readiness so as to be able to utilize the prospect of the rise of the class struggle, the conditions of a significant change in the correlation of forces. At the same time, the leading sections of the labour movement must be also prepared for the possibility of a negative development, for the possibility of a retreat in the class struggle and a setback so as to be able to prepare themselves in accordance with the new conditions for the new rise that will definitely occur.

The labour movement and its allies will have to achieve readiness and the ability to act so as to deal with the increasing violence and repression of the state, “para-state” and the employers, and the activity of the new government-led trade unionism that SYRIZA is trying to form, in cooperation with the old forces of the labour aristocracy and employer-led trade unionism.

The 19^th Congress provides the answer to the question of how the struggle to repel the barbaric class anti-labour anti-people measures will be organized regardless of which government manages the crisis: a government with ND or SYRIZA at its core, or a government of the so-called anti-memorandum arc including from the “populist right” to the parliamentary left, as has been recently proclaimed by SYRIZA or the positions of “Plan B”. Specifically:

To organize the people’s counterattack, so that, through the daily struggle, a discrete path for the struggle for the overthrow of the power of the monopolies will be mapped out. To rally the anti-monopoly anti-capitalist forces on the basis of the common activity and their own tasks in every sector, workplace and neighbourhood.

The struggle against the consequences of the crisis, for preventing the people becoming even more bankrupt, for a pro-people way out of the crisis can constitute a launching pad for the organization of the working class-people’s counteroffensive. This depends on the extent it promotes the support of the masses for the struggle for the overthrow of the power of the monopolies, in combination with the struggle against imperialist war and the participation of the Greek bourgeois class in it whatever form it might take.

The strengthening of the People’s Alliance

The People’s Alliance, expresses the interests of the working class, the semi-proletarians, the self-employed and the poor farmers who cannot accumulate capital, of the youth and the women from the working class-popular strata in the struggle against the against the monopolies and capitalist ownership, against the assimilation of the country in the imperialist unions. The Peoples’ Alliance is a social one and has movement characteristics in a line of rupture and overthrow.

The People’s Alliance answers the issue regarding the organisation of the struggle for the repulsion of the barbaric anti-labour anti-people measures, with the concentration of forces and a counterattack struggle, so as to achieve some gains in the course of the struggle for the overthrow of the power of the monopolies. The People’s Alliance has a clear antimonopoly anti-capitalist orientation. It promotes the rupture with the imperialist unions, it fights against the imperialist war and the participation in it. It acts in order to strengthen the rallying of anti-monopoly anti-capitalist social forces it seeks the struggle to be directed towards working class-people’s power. The People’s Alliance directs its struggle against the repressive mechanisms. Each social force, apart from a common framework of activity has its own tasks.

The People’s Alliance concentrates its forces in each city, focusing on the monopoly groups, factories, shopping centres, hospitals, Health Centres, electric power plants, telecommunications, public transport. It guarantees the common activity of these forces on the basis of each sector and generally with the unemployed, the self-employed, the poor farmers and the poor hard- working people. It has an upward course as a process of maturation of the political consciousness, the organization and the forms of struggle.

In these given conditions it is organized and coordinated for the resistance, solidarity, for survival. It defends workers’ and people’s income: salaries and collective bargaining agreements, pensions, workers’ and people’s rights, the prices at which producers sell agricultural products, the protection of the farmers and the self-employed, the people’s housing from the profiteering of the banks and taxation. It defends the right to free public education, healthcare-welfare, to cheap high-quality goods for popular consumption, infrastructure for culture and sports. It struggles against all drugs, for women’s emancipation and equality, for the protection of the unemployed, for transportation, lodging and meals for school and university students, for the immediate needs of the young couples, against drug addiction, alcoholism. It demands measures for the protection against earthquakes and floods, public works for infrastructure that improve the living conditions, the balanced intervention of people into the environment. It highlights the development potential of the country from the viewpoint of the existence of raw materials, of the concentration of means of production, the skills of the labour force, the scientific-technological achievements.

The People’s Alliance struggles against the state repression, against the violence of the employers; it defends the trade union and civil liberties etc. The struggle for a pro-people way-out from the crisis is inextricably linked with the disengagement from the EU and the unilateral cancellation of the public debt without any implications for the social security funds, for public hospitals in rupture with every imperialist union and alliance.

The struggle for the disengagement from the EU is linked with the struggle against the power of the monopolies and the struggle of the working class and its allies for working class-people’s power. The positions of certain bourgeois and other forces for exit from the euro and the EU, without touching the power of the monopolies, their ownership, the attachment of Greece to other imperialist centres and states, obscures the people’s struggle for disengagement from the EU with the people sovereign and their own power. Today, when the internal contradictions of the monopolies are strengthening in the Eurozone and the EU, whatever centrifugal tendencies exist must be utilised to liberate the peoples from the predatory alliance and the power of the monopolies. Today, when the prestige of the EU is fraying, with the crisis continuing in other countries, i.e. Italy-Spain, the alliances of the South or with the Euro-Atlantic axis, i.e. the USA, Great Britain, do not constitute a pro-people solution. The struggle for the disengagement with the peoples sovereign and with their own power must now strengthen in every country, as well as in the 27 EU member states.

Capitalism cannot be humanized neither with the EU nor with the recipes of the USA and other capitalist powers.

The People’s Alliance adopts the socialization of the monopolies, of all the concentrated means of production, central planning and workers’-social control. It adopts the disengagement of Greece from the EU and NATO, from every kind of relation with the imperialist unions. It aims at the abolition of the foreign bases, of the presence of foreign troops and police forces in Greece on various pretexts.

The notions democracy, people’s sovereignty, imperialism and imperialist war have a deeper, class content for the people’s alliance. They are directly related to the abolition of class exploitation, to the socialization of the concentrated means of production combined with the organization of the small farmers in cooperatives and the socialisation of land. The People’s Alliance fights in these fronts of struggle as well as regarding the other problems that torment the people.

The People’s Alliance seeks to constantly attract into its ranks new trade union organizations and generally mass organizations of the working class and its allies so that the bourgeois, reformist and opportunist trade union forces that prevail in the highest trade union bodies but also in Labour Centres and federations are steadily and effectively weakened according to the development of the balance of forces at a social and political level.

Over the course of the development of its activity it will gather workers’ and people’s forces with a low level political experience which to the one or the other extent will be under the influence of the ideological-political views of the bourgeois parties, reformism and opportunism. They will waver regarding the realistic and necessary character of the struggle for working class power as the only alternative power against the power of the monopolies.

The leading organs and the PBOs must acquire the ability to act jointly with these popular forces. Difficulties and weaknesses must be overcome, so that the People’s Alliance strengthens, so that it has a direction for the overthrow of the power of the monopolies. The level of consciousness must be taken into account at every juncture as well as the maturation and experience of the popular masses and the need to safeguard their mass participation. The main front against the monopolies and their representatives must not be blunted. The alliance of the working class must be constructed with the intermediate strata which have not rid themselves of the rationale of small-scale ownership of the means of production, despite their opposition to the monopolies. The working class as the leading force will seek to radicalize, to deepen the anticapitalist-antimonopoly line.

For this reason the elaboration of issues related to tactics as a part of our strategy is very important in the political guidance to the level of the PBOs.

The KKE’s ability to discuss with and win over new popular masses which have a generally hostile attitude to the system, suffer from capitalist oppression and have not been won to a revolutionary line today, must be strengthened. Suitable slogans and forms of struggle must be chosen. The confrontation with the other forces must be well-aimed, so that our line can rally, so that the perspective for the overthrow can be strengthened. We must ensure that the formation of the alliance will have a line of rupture. The propaganda at a central level and in the workplace must be understandable, sharp, revealing, it must rally and instil a combative spirit.

The People’s Alliance today has a certain form with the common framework of activity amongst the labour and trade union movement through PAME, the poor farmers through PASY, the self-employed, tradesmen and craftsmen through PASEVE, the young men and women rallied in MAS, the women through OGE’s associations and groups. It is not an alliance of political parties.

The KKE participates in its organs and in its ranks through its cadre and members, through the members of its youth, KNE, who are elected in the organs of the movement and work in the organizations of the working class, the self-employed, the poor farmers, the students, the school students and the women. The party is steadily seeking to deploy competent cadre in the ranks of the movement so as to fight against the reformist-opportunist line, so as to safeguard the character of the alliance also from inside, its capability to approach and forge links with new forces of the working class and the popular strata.

The course of the political struggle includes the possibility of the emergence of political forces that express positions of petty bourgeois strata, that agree in one way or another with the anti-capitalist, anti-monopoly character of the social–political struggle, with the necessity of its direction towards the working class and people’s power and economy.

The KKE, maintaining its independence, will seek the joint action with these forces in supporting the People’s Alliance. The cooperation is being expressed with the joint activity of their members and supporters in the ranks of the mass organizations that form the alliance or in its organs through their elected members. This cooperation is not transformed into a unified organ of the Alliance comprised of the parties-constituent parts, with a structured organisational form and structures.

Objectively an organization with a form like this will be short-lived, it will not contribute to the development of the labour movement and the movement of its allies, it will come into conflict with the independence of the KKE.

In the conditions of monopoly capitalism there emerge opportunist political parties and groups with various forms which split from the KKE and have different positions with it in several issues above all in the main political issue, that of “reform or revolution”. The KKE cannot carry out any political cooperation with these political forces. This holds true regardless of the manoeuvres that the opportunist political forces carry out in conditions of the movement’s rise adopting slogans that seem to be in favour of the people. Their political proposal for the problem of the power is integrated in the framework of the management of the capitalist system.

The popular masses which are rallied with these forces might participate in the ranks of the mass workers’ and people’s movement, even in the ranks of the revolutionary movement, in conditions of a sudden sharpening of the class struggle that attracts broader popular masses, in conditions of a revolutionary situation. In each phase of the struggle an acute ideological struggle must take place as opportunism constitutes a force of capitulation with the bourgeois political system and the bourgeois class, a force that undermines the development of consciousness in the revolutionary direction.

The KKE maintains its independence in the bourgeois elections as well. Its lists may also include individuals who cooperate with the party. The People’s Alliance as an alliance of the most radical politicized sections of the labour- trade union movement and the trade-union movement of its allies, of the organizations of the youth and the women, as an alliance that acts in the ranks of the movement, with the aim of bringing about the broadest possible rallying of new masses, does not take part in national and local elections, in elections for the European Parliament, in referendums.

The KKE does not hide the fact that its strategic goal is socialism-communism, the overthrow of bourgeois power and the conquest of political power by the working class. Through its proposal for the People’s Alliance it makes those necessary compromises, as the Social Alliance cannot agree with its own programme. The People’s Alliance must be constructed in confrontation with the power of the monopolies, the governments of bourgeois management, with a general direction for People’s power. It must have a proposal for governance-power which is clearly distinct from the bourgeois governments i.e. from the political power of the monopolies, in the sense that it directs its activity towards the change of class which is in power.

The working class and popular masses, through the experience of their participation in the organization of the struggle in a direction of confrontation with capital’s strategy, will be persuaded of the need for character of their organization to be full and multi-facetted confrontation with the economic and political dominance of capital.

The labour movement, the movements of the urban self-employed and farmers and the forms of the expression of their alliance (People’s Alliance) with anti-monopoly and anti-capitalist goals, with the vanguard activity of the KKE’s forces, constitute the first form for the creation of the revolutionary workers’ and people’s front in revolutionary conditions.

Today the leading activity of the communists amongst the working class, the poor farmers, the self-employed, the women and youth of the working class-popular family, as well as in conditions when the masses are mobilizing, in conditions of sudden outbursts has the following goals: to build bonds, to make the proposal for the way out of the KKE to be accepted by the working class and the popular strata, to be prevalent amongst them, to highlight its superiority.

• It is a basic duty for us to strengthen, to build the People’s Alliance everywhere in the sectors, in the cities. The People’s Committees are its expression in the neighborhoods. They must be formed everywhere.
• The People’s Committees, the People’s Alliance in the sectors and neighborhoods must ensure solidarity, even the bread that the poor do not have, will protect the poor from having their houses confiscated. They will participate; they will support the struggle of the workers against the barbaric measures. They will protect the neighbourhood from the incursions of the state forces of repression and the criminals of “Golden Dawn”. The working class and the people’s alliance in the workplace and neighbourhood will organize the people in the popular uprisings. The same alliance will protect the people from setbacks. The People’s Alliance will confront liberalism and social-democracy.
• The effort to integrate new forces, trade unions and organizations of the poor farmers and self-employed into the People’s Committees must strengthen.
• Every section of the Social Alliance must mobilize wider forces in its area of responsibility, and at the same time coordinate their activity.
• The connection of the People’s Committee with local organizations and groups of workers, as well as unemployed must proceed.
• The activity of the party on the problems, rallying and organization of the unemployed must be reinforced.
• The KKE’s forces are responsible for the development of this form of organization of the people and at the same time for the maintenance of the independent ideological, political, organizational activity of the party.
• The activity of various reactionary nationalist groups in the neighbourhoods must be exposed and dealt with as well as the prevalence of inertia in the consciousness of the people in conditions of crisis due to the activity of various opportunist organizations, social-democracy and NGOs.
• The regroupment of the labour movement must proceed decisively. New working class masses and immigrants must enter the trade unions and become active. A war must be initiated against government-employer led trade unionism from top to bottom and against the trade union groupings of SYRIZA’s forces, as well as new ones that are emerging. A special plan and intervention is necessary in the trade union committees where they are in the majority, especially in the first level trade unions. The workers must rid themselves of these leaderships.
• The party’s activity regarding the problems of immigrants must step up a gear.
• The intervention of the Party Organizations’ must strengthen in order to reinforce PASY and PASEVE.

PARTY BUILDING-KNE

A basic factor that determines the role and the effectiveness of the party in the labour movement and class struggle is the party building, above all in industry, the ability to rally the working people in the specific conditions in an antimonopoly and anti-capitalist struggle around the PBOs. Priority must be given to the building based on the sectors decided upon by the Conference for the regroupment of the labour movement.

The building first of all in the workplaces, the recruitment of workers, concerns all the Party organizations in the workplaces, sectors and neighbourhoods, in the cities and the countryside.

The party building in these difficult conditions requires a comprehensive plan of activity in the broad working class masses which are suffering from the crisis.

Elements of such a plan are:

• The activity around the sharpening problems everywhere and the formation of the organs of struggle. Systematic activity on the problems of unemployment in combination with the mobilization of the unemployed themselves and their families.
• The specialized work in each sector, area, category of worker and by age-group and gender.
• The proper study and knowledge of the area, with the aim of the party’s effective intervention.
• To acquire an overview of the problems of the workers, their causes, the political line which sharpens them, the direction for their resolution, in our contacts with them.
• The mobilization of all forces, supporters, friends, members of KNE.
• The strengthening of our work in allied strata of the working class, amongst the poor farmers and the self-employed, as well as their organization.
• The integration of new recruits based on the Statutes and the Programme.
• The ties of the PBOs not only with the supporters, but also with broader popular masses which express discontent against the anti-people measures of the governments, must strengthen.
• An integral element of party building is the constant study of the redeployment of party forces based on the Resolutions of the extended plenary of the CC and the Regional Conferences. Crucial work sectors must be strengthened with the suitable deployment of cadres in places and sectors of strategic importance, focusing on Attica, Central Macedonia and other major urban centres. The deployment of cadres must necessarily provide for strengthening of sectors of work, staff and especially the Sections of the CC.
• The assistance to KNE is a serious task which is directly related to party building.
• The responsibility of the party must increase in relation to the younger age groups. We must take all those ideological-political-organizational measures, so that the direct and primary responsibility of the party for the work in the youth is understood, to expand our activity in younger age groups which has particular significance for the ideological-political education and guidance of KNE.

THE PARTY’S FINANCES

The unwavering stance of the KKE in the previous period provoked the rage of economic and political centres which escalated their slanderous attacks and provocations around the finances of the party. Their aim is to create confusion and doubts about the integrity of the party, to reinforce the view that the KKE is no different from the other parties. The attack regarding the finances of the party and generally anticommunism have been prevalent all these years.

It is expected that state financing will be used as a means to exert pressure for compromises and retreats.

The KKE will not accept any control of its relations with its members and friends, any intervention in its functioning and activity or the manipulation of its political line in the name of receiving financing from the state.

The state subsidies cannot be the main source of the revenues of a revolutionary party. The issue of the financial independence of the KKE is a crucial issue. It is related to the ability of the party to cope with the most difficult conditions.

Since its foundation the KKE has suffered persecutions for many years and it is absolutely reasonable for it to be vigilant especially in today’s conditions when the class struggle is sharpening. In today’s conditions of the economic crisis it is necessary to reduce costs and conduct broad work amongst the people for the financial strengthening of the party.

The new conditions demand a better organization and monitoring of the economic activity of the Organizations in order to collect all the dues by the party members, the contributions of friends and supporters. Even more persistence and decisiveness is necessary to tidy up our finances, to reduce flexible operational costs, to regularly and substantially monitor the revenues of the organizations.

The increase of the circulation of “Rizospastis”, of the Communist Review and the books of “Synchroni Epochi” publishing house, apart from its particular importance for our ideological and political intervention, makes a significant contribution to the reinforcement of the finances of the party.

The financial support of the KKE for 95 years constitutes a kind of political relationship between the working people and the party. It is an element that shows the development and the consolidation of the bonds of each PBO with the supporters and the friends of the party.

The 19^th Congress decided:

1. Extended Plenum of the CC with the aim of examining the decisions of the Nationwide Conference of March 2010 and of the Extended Plenum of June 2010 for our work in the labour movement and party building.

2. The realization of a Nationwide Conference on the activity in the youth and the support of KNE.

3. To organize a study on the self-employed in the cities. To hold a Nationwide Conference for the work of the party among the poor self-employed and their movement.

4. To improve the system of enlightenment and propaganda with all the means that the party has at its disposal and utilizes. The new CC must form a special detailed resolution that will be discussed throughout the party.

5. To continue the historical research of the party concerning the period 1968-1974, to publish a new edition of the Essay on the history of the Party in the period 1918-1949.

6. To proceed immediately to the preparation of the multifaceted events of the party for the 100^th anniversary of its foundation.

7. To improve “Rizospastis” and increase its circulation. To increase the circulation of the “Communist Review” (KOMEP), the theoretical, political books so as to develop a kind of a “movement”, a strong educational current in the party and KNE, and more broadly in the circle of friends and supporters. The new CC must elaborate a new concrete schedule.

8. To form a comprehensive material-technical and human infrastructure for the scientific research of the party and on this basis to substantiate its elaborations and studies.

9. To create along with KNE a relevant infrastructure so as to support the activity of the party in the section of Culture and Sports, in the movement against drug addiction, in the realization of events in the framework of the KNE festival during the year.

10. The priorities of the KKE on the international level

The activities for the regroupment of the international communist movement must take on many aspects and forms:

-Continuation of the efforts for the formation of the Communist Pole, utilizing the steps which are being taken with the “International Communist Review”.

-Participation in international, thematic and regional Meeting of the Communist Parties, trying to preserve the communist characteristics of the International Meetings, countering plans to widen them with the so called left forces.

-Independent ideological intervention of the party for the propagation of its positions, its analyses and their scientific substantiation.

-Development of the bilateral relations as well as of the joint activity with the Communist Parties of our region (Balkans, Middle East, Europe) as well as with the Communist Parties from other continents.

-Strengthening of the international activity of KNE for the regroupment of the Communist Youth Organizations and their joint activity, the intensification of the struggle against the bourgeois and opportunist views that affect the ranks of the youth communist and anti-imperialist movement.

- Mobilization and activity for the condemnation of the imperialist interventions, the imperialist war and the imperialist conditions of “peace”.

-Contribution to the strengthening and the expansion of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) with new class-oriented organizations, confrontation with the current of reformism, of the employer and government-led trade unionism at a global level.

-Support for the international anti-imperialist organizations, of the World Peace Council (WPC), for the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) of the Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF).

Athens 11-14 April 2013

¹ SYRIZA- “Coalition of the Radical Left”, founded in 2004. It consists of the party SYN (Coalition of Left and Progress) and other smaller, former Maoist and Trotskyite forces which call themselves “left”. Its programme is a programme for the social democratic management of the capitalist system. In conditions of the capitalist crisis, given the significant decline of the main social democratic party in Greece (PASOK) in the elections, it absorbed a section of the apparatus of PASOK, increased its electoral strength and seeks to render itself the basic pole of the social democratic management. It participates actively in the so called “Party of the European Left”.

² ND- “New Democracy”, founded in 1974 and has a conservative liberal programme.

³ PASOK- “Pan-Hellenic Socialist Movement”, founded in 1974. It had been the main social democratic party of the country until the elections in 2012. It has been managing the governmental power since 1981, alternating in power with ND. After 2012 it has formed a coalition government with ND.

4 3rd September –the founding declaration of PASOK signed on 3/9/1974.

⁵ Independent Greeks, emerged in 2012 from a section of MPs who split from ND and is also supported by a group of PASOK cadres. It has a conservative programme and uses nationalist phraseology.

6 Democratic Left: it was created in 2010 from cadres who left SYRIZA and has a social democratic programme. It sets as a priority Greece to remain in the European Union and Eurozone and it participates in the three-party government which was formed after the elections of 2012 along with ND and PASOK.

⁷ ANTARSYA- “Anticapitalist Left Cooperation for the Overthrow”, formed in 2009 by the New Left Current (NAR). It constitutes a hotchpotch of opportunist political groups of different shades which are influenced by Trotskyite, Maoist, and eurocommunist views. It maintains an anti-KKE stance and is willing to cooperate with social democratic forces.

8 Plan B is a political organization founded in 2013 by the former president of SYRIZA, Alekos Alavanos. It considers that the participation of Greece in Eurozone is the basic problem and the cause of the crisis. It considers that if Greece withdraws from the Eurozone while at the same time maintaining its position in the composition of the EU, it can overcome the crisis.