PROGRAMME OF THE KKE

PROLOGUE

The KKE was founded in 1918, as the mature product of the development of the labour movement in our country, and also under the impact of the Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917 in Russia. It is the conscious, organized, vanguard section of the working class and has as its strategic goal the overthrow of capitalism and the construction of socialism-communism.

The many years of positive and negative experience of the international communist movement and the KKE have confirmed that the working class cannot fulfil its historic mission, unless it has its own robust, well-organized and theoretically equipped party, the communist party.

The KKE is guided by the revolutionary worldview of Marxism-Leninism. It attempts to interpret the developments in a dialectical-materialist way, systematically following the new achievements in science and technology, to generalise the experience of the labour and people’s movement with the communist ideology as a foundation and with the need for the liberation of the working class from exploitation as its criterion. It fought against the reactionary theories, such as Greece being a “poor relation”, the “inferiority of women”, the racist theories, nationalism and cosmopolitism of capital, obscurantism and intolerance. It struggles for a deeply humanist, scientifically substantiated people’s education. It has inspired radical intellectuals and artists with its ideology and struggles, it became a consistent and firm defender of the Greek people’s culture.

From the time of its foundation, the KKE has been faithful to the principle of proletarian internationalism. It defended the socialist construction in the USSR, in the other countries of Europe, Asia and in Cuba. It participated in the Communist International. It expressed its solidarity with the struggles of the world’s working class, with the peoples who were fighting for their national liberation, for socialism. The KKE at critical and difficult periods in its struggle, received internationalist solidarity and support from the international communist and labour movement. It struggles for the regroupment of the International Communist Movement after the retreat and crisis it experienced and is still undergoing today, particularly after the victory of the counterrevolution in 1989-1991.

From the time it was founded, KKE has stood by the youth of our country. It has always concerned itself with their problems and their future. It continues to trust young generation and their abilities to contribute to the construction of the socialist future.

Its entire historical course vindicates the need for its existence in Greek society. The KKE has never lost its historical continuity. It fought against opportunism and liquidationism in its ranks and was able to draw conclusions from its 95 years of activity. It was able to maintain its revolutionary character in difficult conditions, while it never hesitated to recognize mistakes, deviations and to carry out self-criticism openly in front of the people.

The KKE over its 95-year history demonstrated a solid commitment to the fundamental principles of a revolutionary workers’ communist party: the recognition of the leading role of the working class in social development and of Marxist-Leninist ideology as revolutionary theory for revolutionary political activity. It never renounced the class struggle, the socialist revolution, the dictatorship of the proletariat.

The KKE withstood the turbulence of the victory of counterrevolution in the Soviet Union and the other states of the socialist construction in Europe and Asia. This endurance is not accidental. It has been forged through historical blood ties with the working class and the poor farmers from the very first moment of its foundation.

From 1918 onwards the KKE has given a political content to the workers’ struggles against the capitalist exploitation and paid the price with many deaths, tortures and persecutions. In the first decades of its existence, it faced state repression from every form of bourgeois power (parliamentary, dictatorial), persisting in organizing the working class with positive results for the people’s movement. It demonstrated endurance in especially harsh conditions of illegality in various periods. It was at the forefront of the armed struggle against the occupation by the three powers (Germany, Italy and Bulgaria) through the Resistance of EAM-ELAS. On two occasions, in December of 1944 and in the three year struggle (1946-1949) of the Democratic Army of Greece (DSE), the labour movement, headed by the KKE, and the allied farmers’ movement came into armed conflict with the bourgeois power, which was supported by the direct imperialist military intervention of Great Britain initially and later the of USA.

Over its 95-year course it fought against the notion regarding the collaboration of the exploited with the exploiters, regarding the submission to the exploiters; it defended the gains of the working class and people.

The deep historical roots of the KKE in the working class and people and its stable dedication to the fundamental principles of Marxism-Leninism explain why in previous crises - especially in those of 1968 and 1991- it managed to safeguard its continuity, despite the departure of a large section of its forces.

The KKE has regrouped organizationally, ideologically and programmatically over the entire new period in its history, based on the five intervening Congresses since the crisis of 1991. A product of this course is the present Programme which was adopted by the 19^th Congress, which develops the overall strategy of the KKE for socialism and the basic duties of the class struggle.

The contemporary world and the position of Greece in the imperialist system

The counterrevolutionary overthrows of the last 30 years do not change the character of our era. The current period of the major retreat of the international labour movement, is in historical terms a temporary one. We live in the era of the necessity for the transition from capitalism to socialism, as the material pre-conditions are mature for the socialist organization of production and society. This flows from the maturation of the social character of labour and the sharpening of its contradiction with capitalist ownership. This contradiction has brought the capitalist mode of production in full contradiction with contemporary social needs. The maturation of the material pre-conditions is not determined by the correlation of forces.

The historical setback in the development of the class struggle is accompanied by the mass influx of cheap labour force into the international capitalist market (from Asia, Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe etc.), by the devaluation of labour power in the most advanced capitalist countries (OECD countries), as well as by the emergence of the generalized absolute destitution of the working class in these countries, by the intensification of capital’s offensive at an international level.

The tendency for important changes in the correlation of forces among the capitalist states became more apparent with the deep crisis of capital over-accumulation in 2008-2009 which in several capitalist economies has in reality not been overcome. This process occurs under the impact of the law of uneven capitalist development. This tendency concerns the higher levels of the imperialist pyramid as well.

The USA remains the first economic power, but with a significant reduction of its share in the Gross World Product. Until 2008, the Eurozone as a whole maintained the second position in the international capitalist market, a position which it lost after the crisis. China has already emerged as the second economic power, the BRICS alliance (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) has been strengthened in the international capitalist unions, such as the IMF and the G20. The change in the correlation of forces among the capitalist states brings about changes in their alliances, as the inter-imperialist contradictions over the control and re-division of the territories and markets, zones of economic influence are sharpening, chiefly of the energy and natural resources, the transport routes of the commodities.

The inter-imperialist contradictions, which in the past led to dozens of local, regional wars and to two World Wars, continue to lead to tough economic, political and military confrontations, irrespective of the composition or recomposition, the changes in the structure and the framework of goals of the international imperialist unions, their so-called new “architecture”. In any case, “war is the continuation of politics by other means”, especially in the conditions of a deep crisis of capital’s over-accumulation and important changes in the correlation of forces of the international imperialist system, in which the re-division of the markets rarely occurs without bloodshed.

The periodical outbreak of the crises of over-accumulation tests the cohesion of the Eurozone, as a monetary union of the economies of member-states with deep unevenness in the development and structure of industrial production, in productivity as well as their position in the EU and international market.

The tendency for the strengthening of the interdependence of the economies of the states in the international imperialist system does not lead to a decline of the role of the bourgeois state, as many theoretical variations of “globalization” claim.

In any case, the future of the EU and the Eurozone is not only determined by the imperialist plans, because the contradictions have their own dynamics. Whatever choice is made by the bourgeois management, it will come into conflict with the working class and people’s interests in all the member-states of the Eurozone.

The crisis highlighted even more intensely the historical limits of the capitalist system. The contradictions are sharpening, as well as the difficulties in the bourgeois political management of the crisis and the difficulty in passing into a new cycle of expanded reproduction of social capital in general.

Capitalism in Greece is in the imperialist stage of its development, in an intermediate position in the international imperialist system, with strong uneven dependencies on the USA and the EU.

The accession of Greece to the EEC at the beginning of the 1980’s accelerated its adaptation to the western-European market, a process that continued with its accession to the EU in 1991 and to the Eurozone in 2001. The Greek capitalist state was more organically integrated into the international imperialist system, through its participation in the restructuring of the EU and NATO and other imperialist inter-state alliances.

The Greek bourgeois class initially benefited from the counterrevolutionary overthrow in the neighbouring Balkan countries and from joining the EU; it achieved significant capital accumulation and capital exports in the form of direct investments which contributed to the strengthening of Greek businesses and monopoly groups.

The capital exports also expanded to Turkey, Egypt, the Ukraine, China as well as to Britain, to the USA and other countries. It actively participated in all the imperialist interventions and wars, such as those against Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya etc.

In the decade which preceded the outbreak of the ongoing crisis, the Greek economy maintained a significantly higher annual rate of GDP growth than the corresponding level of the EU and the Eurozone, without substantially changing its position within it. However, it enhanced its position in the Balkans.

After the outbreak of the crisis, the position of Greek capitalist economy deteriorated in the framework of the Eurozone and the EU and the international imperialist pyramid in general, something which does negate the fact that the accession of Greece to the EEC-EU served the most dynamic sections of domestic monopoly capital and contributed to the buttressing of its political power.

The participation of Greece in NATO, the economic-political and political-military dependencies on the EU and the USA limit the room of the Greek bourgeoisie to manoeuvre independently, as all the alliance relations of capital are governed by competition, unevenness and consequently the advantageous position of the strongest; they are formed as relations of uneven interdependence.

The inter-bourgeois contradictions up to this point do not negate the strategic choice to join NATO and the EU although the participation in the Eurozone is developing in a contradictory way while at the same time the trend for the strengthening of relations with other centres (Russia, China, USA) is being reinforced.

The dangers in the wider region are increasing, from the Balkans to the Middle East, for a generalized imperialist war and the involvement of Greece in it.

The struggle for the defence of the borders, the sovereign rights of Greece, from the standpoint of the working class and the popular strata is integral to the struggle for the overthrow of the power of capital. It does not have any relation with the defence of the plans of one or the other imperialist pole and the profitability of one or the other monopoly group.

The material basis of the necessity of socialism in Greece

The Greek people will be liberated from the bonds of capitalist exploitation and the imperialist unions when the working class together with its allies carries out the socialist revolution and moves forwards to construct socialism-communism.

The KKE’s strategic goal is the conquest of revolutionary working-class power, the dictatorship of the proletariat, for the socialist construction as the immature phase of the communist society.

The revolutionary change in Greece will be socialist.

The motor forces of the socialist revolution will be the working class as the leading force, the semi-proletarians, the oppressed popular strata of the urban self-employed, the poor farmers, who are negatively affected by the monopolies, and for this reason have an objective interest in their abolition, the abolition of capitalist ownership, in the overthrow of its power, in the new relations of production

Over the last 20 years, the already mature material pre-conditions for socialism in Greece have developed even further. The capitalist relations have expanded and strengthened, in agricultural production, education, health, culture-sports and the mass media. There was greater concentration of wage labour and capital in manufacturing, retail trade, construction, in tourism. Enterprises belonging to private capital have developed with the abolition of the state monopoly in telecommunications and in the monopolised sections of energy and transport.

Wage labour increased significantly as a percentage of employment as a whole, while the number of self-employed remained stable, as the reduction of a section of the self-employed was accompanied by their increase in the service sector.

The very large shrinkage in industrial production and construction sector, due to the prolonged crisis, led to the rapid increase of unemployment and absolute destitution-extreme poverty and created the problem of homeless people. Youth and long-term unemployment have risen to explosive dimensions.

Of course the crisis has not manifested itself in a uniform way in all the sectors of industry. There are sectors and businesses which have maintained or increased their profits, or have a small reduction, restraint or even an increase of the production compared to the pre-crisis levels.

The distance between the contemporary needs of the people and the working class and their satisfaction increased sharply. The parasitism and decay of monopoly capitalism have manifested themselves in all the sectors of production, retail, in the circulation of money capital, in all the structures of the organization of capitalist society, in all the institutions of the system. They took on the form of financial over-speculation, fraud, embezzlement, corruption, disasters such as pollution in general and in the food production chain, in water, in the atmosphere, in the forests and coasts. The most parasitic profiteering has expanded, such as the drug trade, the organized prostitution of women and children etc. The connections between the centres which illegally bribe MPs and ministers and the organs of power became apparent as well as the connections between organized crime networks and the criminal prosecution authorities.

At the same time, the changes in the structure, the content and the extent of the sectors of the bourgeois state which serve strategic needs for the reproduction of capital create difficulties for the policy of social alliances of the ruling class as well as the sharpening of the basic contradiction between capital and wage labour.

The acceleration of the restructurings shrinks the stratum of the labour aristocracy and the state employees and obstructs the effort of the bourgeois policy to manipulate the labour movement and to assimilate large sections of wage labour, as it had done previously.

The contradiction between the social character of labour and the private capitalist appropriation of the largest part of its results, due to the capitalist ownership of the concentrated means of production, is being highlighted intensely in every aspect of economic and social life. The need for social ownership, Central Planning with working class power is emerging as an urgent necessity. Socialism is more necessary and timely than ever from the standpoint of the material conditions.

In Greece there exist the material conditions for socialist construction. This fact flows from the historical era of capitalism, from the level of Greek capitalism’s development, from the sharpening of its basic contradiction and its contradictions as a whole. Socialist construction can safeguard the satisfaction of the people’s needs which are constantly expanding.

Greece today has major unutilized productive potential which can be liberated only through the socialization of the means of production by the working class power, with the Central Scientific Planning of production. It possesses an experienced and numerous labour force and even with a high level of technological and scientific specialization. It possesses important domestic energy sources, considerable mineral resources, industrial, craft and agricultural production which can meet a large part of the people’s needs: in food and energy, transport, the construction of public infrastructure works and people’s housing. The agricultural production can support industry in its various sectors.

The duties of the KKE for the socialist revolution

The KKE operates in the direction of preparing the subjective factor for the prospect of the socialist revolution, despite the fact that the time period of its outbreak is determined by objective pre-conditions, the revolutionary situation.

The activity of the KKE in a non-revolutionary situation decisively contributes to the preparation of the subjective factor (party, working class, alliances) for revolutionary conditions, for the realization of its strategic duties:

• The rallying of the large majority of the working class with the KKE, determined for the revolution.
• The alliance of the working class with the oppressed under capitalism popular strata, some to be drawn more or less actively into the revolutionary struggle, others to be rendered neutral.
• The support for the people engaged in the revolution by the broadest possible forces which are detached from the army.
• The ensuring of the overwhelming superiority of the revolutionary forces rallied with the KKE against the reactionary bourgeois and wavering petty bourgeois at the decisive moment and in the decisive areas. This is an important political and at the same time organizational issue.

These duties are implemented only in conditions of the revolutionary situation; their implementation will develop simultaneously, and interact with the main and decisive task of rallying the majority of the working class with the Party.

More specifically on the revolutionary situation

The revolutionary situation is a factor which is created on an objective basis.

It is summarized by the weakening of the bourgeois power (“those above are no longer able”) and a sudden upsurge in the militant mood and activity of the popular masses (“those below”) who no longer wish to live as they used to, subjugated to the exploiting power, driven by the serious and sudden deterioration of their living standard, which the bourgeois power cannot manage.

In these conditions, the role of the organizational and political readiness of the vanguard of the labour movement, the communist party, is decisive for the rallying and the revolutionary orientation of the majority of the working class, especially of the industrial proletariat, and the winning over of leading sections of the popular strata.

It is not possible to predict the factors which will lead to the revolutionary situation. The deepening of the economic crisis, the sharpening of the inter-imperialist contradictions, which can even turn into military conflicts, can create such conditions in Greece.

In the instance of Greece’s involvement in an imperialist war, either in a defensive or aggressive war, the Party must lead the independent organization of the workers’-people’s struggle in all its forms, so as to lead to the complete defeat of the bourgeois class, both the domestic one and the foreign invader, and link it in practice with the conquest of power. A workers’ and people’s front, using all forms of struggle, must be formed on the basis of the initiative and the guidance of the party. This front will have the following slogan: the people will bring the liberation 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.

During the revolutionary process, the working class together with its allies creates the seeds of the organs of working class power.

The potential for the revolutionary situation to mature, for the realisation and the victory of the socialist revolution, initially in one country or a group of countries, flows from the operation of the law of uneven economic and political development of capitalism. The pre-conditions for the socialist revolution to come onto the agenda do not mature simultaneously at a global level. The imperialist chain will break at its weakest link.

The economic crisis and the imperialist wars are common threats for the working class and popular strata of every capitalist society. This constitutes the objective potential for the revolutionary movement in one country to be supported by the activity of the revolutionary movement in another country, especially in neighboring ones, in the wider region. At the same time, the course of the class struggle in each country will have an influence on the international framework, as well as a more general impact at a regional and international level. What flows from this is the need for planned and coordinated joint action against every imperialist alliance which aims to suppress the revolution in one country, as well as the potential to form the conditions for the victory of socialism in a group of countries.

More specifically on the revolutionary workers’ and people’s front

The rallying of the majority of the working class with the KKE and the attraction of leading sections of the popular strata will pass through various phases. The labour movement, the movements of the urban self-employed and farmers and the form that their alliance takes on (the People’s Alliance) with anti-monopoly and anti-capitalist goals, with the vanguard activity of the KKE’s forces, in non-revolutionary conditions, constitute the first form for the creation of the revolutionary workers’ and people’s front in revolutionary conditions. 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 their organization and confrontation to take on the character of a full and multi-facetted confrontation with the economic and political dominance of capital.

In the conditions of the revolutionary situation, the revolutionary workers’ and people’s front, using all forms of its activity, can become the centre of the popular uprising against capitalist power. It must prevail in the basic regions, particularly in the industrial-trade-transport centres, communications and energy centres, so as to achieve the full demobilization of the mechanisms of bourgeois power as well as their nullification, the overthrow of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, so that revolutionary institutions created by the people can emerge and prevail, institutions that will undertake the new organization of society and the establishment of revolutionary working class power.

In the revolutionary process there will be the constant impact of opportunist and reformist positions and consequently the need to struggle against them and to marginalize them inside the workers’ and people’s front.

In the conditions of the revolutionary situation, the workers’ and peoples front will also be expressed through committees to protect the strikes and other forms of the uprising. It will acquire the ability and means to protect the revolution in all its phases, to impose the workers’ control in the factories, banks, agricultural production together with the poor farmers, to feed the people, to deal with the multifaceted mechanisms of reaction.

The revolutionary workers’ and people’s front will acquire the ability to pose its own violence against the violence of capital, the ability to have a paralyzing effect on the staff of the class enemy, to neutralize its counterrevolutionary plans, to cut them off from the active support of people who come from the working class and popular strata. It will have the ability to express the poor sections of the farmers, the popular sections of the urban self-employed, the semi-proletarians, the unemployed and immigrants and integrate them in this direction of struggle.

The socialist revolutions of the 21^st century, compared to the bourgeois revolutions of the 18^th and 19^th century and even to the socialist revolutions of the 20^th century, will face a much more organized repressive machine, more technologically developed means of information and mass destruction. They will deal with the mechanisms of the capitalist state’s violence which are integrated into inter-state structures, like NATO, the Euro-army, Europol, the European Gendarmerie etc.

Despite the technological development, the human being does not cease to be the decisive factor in using and dealing with these mechanisms. On this basis, the workers’ and people’s activity has the potential to nullify these means and use the new technologies in favour of the revolutionary movement.

The conquest of working class power in one country contributes to the development of the international revolutionary labour movement, to the conciliation of the working class, popular forces, irrespective of ethnic background, language, cultural and religious heritage, and to the coordination of the class struggle at a regional and international level, to the formation of revolutionary alliances, and even to the defense of each socialist revolution against the international capitalist counterrevolutionary activity.

The leading role of the Party in the revolution

The KKE will emerge in a practical way as the leading force inside the revolutionary process as long as it safeguards the revolutionary line and its competence and has organizations in large units of production, in fields and services which play a decisive role in the overthrow of bourgeois power.

The organizational, ideological and political independence of the KKE holds true in all conditions and in every instance, regardless of the forms of mass organization of the working class engaged in the revolution and its alliance with the poor farmers and other self-employed taking part in the uprising.

The existence of strong organizations of the party and KNE will ensure the formation of party members and members of KNE capable of propagating the ideological and political positions of the party, mainly in the large workplaces and the places of vocational training, as well as in the mass organizations; of inspiring trust; of setting the example of vanguard, selfless activity with self-sacrifice; of utilizing the initiative of forces taking part in activity, fighting against reformism-opportunism and national socialist (Nazi) fascist activity.

The party fights for the unity of the working class in Greece irrespectively of race, national background and language, cultural and religious heritage.

The effective guidance of the conflict with the mechanisms of bourgeois power at every level requires readiness, material and ideological equipment, continuous confrontation with opportunism.

The guiding role of the party in the concentration of forces for the revolution will not be a “one-act play” or a process which will unfold smoothly. It will have upward and downward phases; it will be reflected in the development of the consciousness of the majority of the working class, in the detaching of the semi-proletarians, poor farmers and other self-employed from the influence of the bourgeois class and petty bourgeois and opportunists. It is impossible to predict all the phases of this process, and all the factors which will accelerate or slow down the developments, the exact condition of each class and social group, the correlation of combative forces inside the working class and the popular strata. The direction of this process, the ability of the KKE to lead revolutionary forces and to accelerate the developments will also be judged by its capacity to assess the developments in a timely and objective way and to intervene accordingly.

The guiding role of the party exists, in practice and not just at the level of proclamations, after the overthrow of the power of capital as the first act of the transition of the revolutionary process into a new period of the class struggle. This is related to the abolition of capitalist relations and the creation of new socialist relations, as well as to dealing with the domestic and foreign re-organization of capitalist violence.

The party seeks the revolutionary working class power to be supported by the revolutionary and people’s movements of neighbouring and other countries against the capitalist states which will seek its overthrow. It seeks to form a joint revolutionary centre at least amongst neighboring countries, as long as similar conditions exist.

The party, firmly committed to proletarian internationalism, practically expresses its support for the revolutionary movements of other countries.

It fulfills its revolutionary duty without canceling it in the name of the difficulties created in the class struggle by the international correlation of forces, without considering the international correlation of forces as still and immobile.

Socialism as the first, lowest phase of communism

Socialism as the first phase of the communist socio-economic formation is not an independent formation but immature communism. The basic law of the communist mode of production is valid: “planned production for the extended satisfaction of social needs.”

The development potential of the country is placed at the service of the people and their needs through the Central Planning. This is also valid for whatever has been created by human activity in science, technology and culture that ensures a higher standard of living and intellectual development. Unemployment and labour insecurity will be eradicated, free time will be increased, so that the working people will be able to actively participate and exercise workers’ control, amongst other things, in order to safeguard the character of working class power.

Socialist construction is a unified process which starts with the conquest of power by the working class. In the beginning, the new mode of production is formed, which basically prevails through the complete abolition of capitalist relations, of the relation between capital and wage labour.

• The means of production will be socialized: in industry, energy-water supply, telecommunications, construction, repair, public transport, wholesale and retail trade, import-export trade, the concentrated tourist – restaurant infrastructure.
• Land and the capitalist agricultural cultivations will be socialized.
• Private ownership and economic activity in education, health-welfare, culture, sports and mass media will be abolished. They will be organized exclusively as social services.
• Industry and the largest part of agricultural production will be carried out under relations of social ownership, Central Planning, workers’ control over the whole spectrum of management and administration.
• Labour power will cease being a commodity. Τhe use of alien labour, i.e. wage labour, by those who still possess isolated means of production in sectors that have not been compulsorily socialized will be abolished e.g. in crafts, agricultural production, tourism-restaurants, in certain auxiliary services.
• Labour force, means of production, raw materials and other industrial materials and resources, will be used in the organization of production, social and administrative services via Central Planning.

State production units will be created for the production and processing of agricultural products as raw materials or consumer products. The Greek reality does not require the redistribution of land. Those who do not own land will work in the socialist agricultural and livestock units. The measure of the socialization of land excludes the possibility of land being concentrated, the change of its use and its commercialization by individual or cooperative agricultural producers.

Agricultural productive cooperatives will be promoted, which will have the right to utilize the socialized land as a means of production. The integration of small farmers in productive cooperatives will be carried out on a voluntary basis. The incentives for the participation in cooperatives are: the reduction of the cost of production through collective cultivation work and collection of agricultural products; the protection of agricultural production from certain natural phenomena through the state infrastructure and scientific and technical support; the concentration, storage and preservation of agricultural products and its transport via the central state mechanism; the even distribution of labour time on a yearly basis though the extension of mechanization and central coordination to deal with unforeseen weather hazards. The reformation of the countryside with urban features regarding general education, fully equipped Health Centres connected with hospitals in the nearest urban centres, cultural infrastructure, transport etc.

To the extent which labour is socialized through productive cooperatives and the use of mechanized means of production and collective infrastructure, the pre-conditions will be created for direct integration into social ownership and full integration into the Central Planning. In this direction the contradiction between the city and countryside, industrial and agricultural production, will be eliminated. Those who previously worked in the cooperatives will be benefited from the improvement of their working and living conditions.

The division of labour in the socialized means of production is based on the Central Planning that organizes production and social services and determines its proportions, distributes the products i.e. use values with the aim of satisfying the expanded social needs. It is a centrally planned division of social labour. It integrates individual labour directly - not via the market - into the total social labour, as a part of it.

Central Planning will consciously outline the objective proportions of production and distribution, the aim of developing the productive forces in an all-sided way. It is the communist relation of production and distribution which connects the workers with the means of production and the socialist organizations. It includes the conscious planned choice of incentives and goals in production and aims at the extended satisfaction of the needs of society.

It prioritizes the production of means of production which determines the development of productive capability and the technological equipment as a whole and social services. In the final analysis, it determines the ability of the expanded reproduction and the rise of social prosperity.

Each specific plan must increasingly express the scientific laws of Central Planning and in this way approach the objective proportions of the expanded socialist accumulation and social prosperity.

Central Planning aims, on a medium and long term basis, to develop in a generalized way the ability to perform specialised labour, as well as interchanges in the technical division of labour, to achieve the generalised development of labour productivity and the reduction of labour time, for the prospect of eliminating the differences between executive and supervisory labour, between manual and intellectual labour.

Cooperative agricultural production is subordinated to some extent to Central Planning, which determines the part of the production and the price set by the state at which the produce is collected by the state, as well as the prices, at which the produce is sold in the state-organized popular markets.

Central Planning will be organised by sector, through a unified state authority, with regional and industry-level branches. Planning will be based on a totality of goals and criteria such as:

• In Energy:

Development of infrastructure for the reduction of the level of energy dependence of Greece, safeguarding adequate and cheap popular consumption, the safety of workers in the sectors and of residential areas, saving of energy and high level of energy efficiency. Τhere will be protection of public health and the environment. In this direction, energy policies will have the following pillars: the utilisation of all domestic energy sources e.g. lignite, hydro-electric power, wind power, solar energy, oil, natural gas etc, the systematic research and discovery of new sources, the pursuit of mutually beneficial inter-state cooperation.

• In Transport:

Priority will be given to mass rather than private transport, to rail transport on the mainland and to ferry services for coastal regions and islands. The socialized sector of the ship-building industry will be utilised for the construction, alteration, repair and maintenance of modern and safe ships and rail material.

The planning for all road and air transport and for all forms of transport will be based on the criterion of their interlinked and complementary functioning which will aim at the cheap and fast transport of people and goods, the saving of energy, the balanced human intervention in the environment, the planned development for the eradication of uneven regional development, the full control of defence and security of the socialist state. This requires also the planning of the relevant infrastructure -ports, airports, railway stations, roads and of an industry for the production of means of transportation.

• In manufacturing and mining industry:

Priority will be given to the production of means of production (machine engineering) through the utilisation of the mining industry combined with the development of the respective sectors of manufacturing, by means of supporting country’s scientific research.

Greece has important reserves of metal mineral resources such as bauxite, metal minerals (gold, nickel, copper), mineral resources for constructions (perlite, magnesite, marble, etc.).

The mining of mineral resources will be combined with their industrial processing (e.g. production of aluminium and of relevant aluminium components), with the development of metal and petrochemical industry, the production of machines and means of transport aiming at the reduction of the dependence on foreign trade; accordingly in sectors of manufacturing, such as the chemical industry.

The single state organization of production is safeguarded in food, clothing, leather, textile sectors as well as for other consumer products which cover basic needs of the people. The proportional relation will be promoted between agricultural production (including livestock farming and fishing) and sectors of industry in order to supply a section of the necessary raw materials.

Agricultural production will be supported, correspondingly, on the domestic industrial production of fertilisers, pesticides, animal feed, genetic and reproductive material etc. farm machines, irrigation infrastructure.

Through the state industry for the production of medicines, medical supplies and biomedical engineering, the greatest possible level of self-sufficiency will be sought for in terms of providing free medicines and other pharmaceutical material on the basis of the people’s needs.

• In the sector of communication and information technology:

Technological capabilities are utilised for the enhancement of production, scientific Central Planning and workers’ control in industry, in administration, as well as in social services (telemedicine, tele-education etc). Priority is given to the construction and upgrading of the respective infrastructure projects for the development of the domestic industrial production of automation systems, information technology and telecommunications. Cheap, fast, secure and universal access to communications, information and entertainment will be ensured.

• Spatial planning- construction:

Spatial planning on the basis of the results of research concerning the definition of new needs, the elaboration of regulations and standards as well as on the basis of a nationwide plan for the management of waste, for the comprehensive management of the water resources for their protection and utilisation according to the criterion of people’s prosperity and the construction of cities that will be people-friendly.

Even development of construction in order to cover the needs for housing, for public infrastructure works, for supporting agricultural production, industry, social services. Industrial production can cover the needs of the sector of construction in cement and building materials. People’s housing based on modern standards combined with the reshaping of the cities, infrastructure for quick and safe transportation, protection against floods, fires, earthquakes, sufficient green spaces combined with zones for sports, culture and entertainment will be ensured.

Scientific research will be organised, upon the responsibility of the Central Planning, through state organizations, universities, institutes, etc. for the development of Central Planning, for the satisfaction of the people’s needs, for the administration of social production and social services, with the aim of developing social prosperity.

State social infrastructure will be created which will provide high-quality social services in order to meet needs which today are being tackled by individual or family households e.g. restaurants in workplaces, in schools, facilities for leisure. In addition, welfare institutions and high-level facilities will be created in order to protect, take care of and ensure the personal dignity of people who cannot help themselves due to their age (children, elderly) or due to illness (people with special needs).

All children of pre-school age will be provided with free and public pre-school education, exclusively public, free of charge, general 12-year education through a single type of school with a unified structure, programme, administration and operation, technical equipment, specialised staff educated in a unified system. The systems of evaluation aim at the consolidation of knowledge, at the development of a dialectic-materialist way of thinking, self discipline and collectivity. Exclusively free public professional education will be ensured after the general (basic) compulsory education. Through a unified system of exclusively public and free higher education, scientific personnel will be formed, capable of teaching in universities and of providing the specialised staff in areas of research, socialised production and state services.

Central Planning will create all the preconditions for the development of the socialist cultural creation, for its mass reproduction and dissemination aiming at the universal access to art and aesthetic education, at the creative preservation and development of the cultural inheritance and the contribution of art to the formation of the communist consciousness and stance, for the development of the new society.

An exclusively public and free health and welfare system will be established. A particular emphasis will be given to prevention and services which are necessary for physical and psychological well-being, for the intellectual and cultural development of every individual, for ensuring the environmental and social conditions that affect public health, social activity and the ability to work. Until the complete eradication of addiction to substances there will be specialised social services for prevention, therapy and social integration.

The role and the function of the Central Bank will change. The regulation of the function of money as a means of commodity circulation will be restricted to the exchange between socialist production and the production of agricultural cooperatives, in general with the commodity production of that portion of consumer goods that are not produced by the socialist production units, until the final eradication of every form of private ownership over means of production and of the existence of commodity production. On this basis, the respective functions of certain specialised state credit institutions for agricultural productive cooperatives and certain small commodity producers will be controlled by the Central Bank.

The development of Central Planning and the extension of social ownership in all areas make money gradually superfluous, both in terms of content and form, as a voucher representing the individual contribution to social labour and a means for the distribution of the social product which is distributed on the basis of labour.

The Central Bank will play a role in the exercise of general social accounting and it will be connected to the organs and goals of Central Planning. The Central Bank controls international transactions (inter-state, commercial, tourism) as long as capitalist states exist on earth, transactions which are carried out exclusively by state authorities. It will also regulate the gold reserves or reserves of other commodities which operate as world money or any other general reserve.

Socialist construction is incompatible with the participation of the country in imperialist unions, such as the EU and NATO, IMF, OECD; with the existence of USA-NATO military bases. The new power, depending on the international and regional situation, will seek to develop inter-state relations of mutual benefit between Greece and other countries, especially with countries whose level of development, particular problems and immediate interests may ensure such a mutually beneficial cooperation.

The socialist state will seek cooperation with states and peoples who objectively have a direct interest in resisting the economic, political and military centres of imperialism, first and foremost with the peoples who are constructing socialism in their countries. It will seek to utilize every available breach which might occur in the imperialist “front” due to inter-imperialist contradictions, in order to defend and strengthen the revolution and socialism. A socialist Greece, loyal to the principles of proletarian internationalism, will be, to the extent of its capabilities, a bulwark for the world anti-imperialist, revolutionary and communist movement.

The satisfaction of the social needs

Social needs are determined according to the level of development of the productive forces which has been achieved in the given historical period.

Basic social needs (education-health- welfare) are provided to all for free while another part of them is covered by a relatively small part of the money-income acquired through labour (housing, energy, water, heating, transport, nutrition).

A characteristic of the first phase of communist relations, i.e. of the socialist relations, is the distribution of one part of the products “according to labour”, a result of capitalist inheritance which resembles commodity exchange only in terms of its form. The new mode of production has not managed to discard it yet, because it has not developed the human productive power and all the means of production to the necessary dimensions, through the widest use of new technology. Labour productivity does not yet allow a decisively large reduction of labour time, the abolition of heavy and one-sided labour, so that the social need for compulsory labour can be eradicated.

The planned distribution of the labour force and of the means of production entails the planned distribution of the social product. This is a fundamental difference compared to the distribution of the social product through the market, based on the laws and categories of commodity exchange.

Labour time in socialism is the measure of the individual contribution to social labour for the production of the total product. It operates as a measure for the distribution of these products of individual consumption which are still distributed “according to labour”.

Access to that part of the social product that is distributed “according to labour” is determined by the individual labour contribution of each person in the totality of social labour, without distinguishing between complex and simple labour, manual or not . The measure of individual contribution is the labour time which is determined by the plan based on the total needs of social production, the material conditions of the production process. The special needs of social production for the concentration of the labour force in certain areas, branches, etc., as well as other special social needs, such as maternity, individuals with special needs, etc. are taken into account in the determination of the labour time. The personal stance of each individual vis-a-vis the organization and the realisation of the productive process plays a decisive role in the productivity of labour, in material saving, in the application of more productive technologies, the more rational organisation of labour, the exercise of workers’ control in administration-management.

The preconditions are created for the development of a vanguard communist attitude vis-a-vis the organization and execution of labour in the production unit or social service, with the reduction of purely unskilled and manual labour, the reduction of labour time, in parallel with access to educational programmes, leisure and cultural services, participation in workers’ control. The form of money incentives is rejected.

The socialist power that inherits from capitalism a large number of salaried employees, who come from the administrative mechanisms of capitalism (state employees, employees from the administrative mechanism in the enterprises) will seek their political and cultural adaptation and the integration of their labour into the socialist productive units and the social services.

The planned development of the productive forces in the communist mode of production will increasingly free up more time from work, which will be utilised to raise the educational-cultural level of working people; to allow for their participation in the realisation of their duties regarding workers’ power and management of production, etc. The communist attitude towards directly social labour depends on the all-round development of man as the productive force in the new type of society which is constructed and on the development of the communist relations.

The struggle of the new against the old. The necessity of the conscious and planned eradication of the elements of immaturity

The overcoming of the elements of immaturity that characterize the lower phase of communism, that is socialism, is a precondition in order for the laws of communism to fully prevail.

In socialism every remnant of the previous modes of production have not yet been eradicated and the material conditions have not been formed so that the new mode of production fully takes on its communist character, so that the principle “from each according to his ability to each according to his need” enters completely into force.

Initially there remain forms of individual and group ownership that constitute the basis for the existence of commodity-money relations.

On the basis of its economic immaturity, there still continue to exist social inequalities, stratifications, significant differences or even contradictions, such as those between city and countryside, between intellectual and manual workers, between workers with a high and low level of specialisation. These contradictions must be eradicated, gradually and in a planned way.

During the construction of socialism, the working class acquires progressively, not in a uniform fashion, the ability to have an overview of the different parts of the productive process, of supervisory work, a substantive role in the organization of labour. As a result of the difficulties in this process, it is still possible for workers with a managerial role in production, workers engaged in intellectual labour and possessing a high scientific specialization, to isolate the individual interest and the group interest from the social interest, or to lay claim to a larger share of the total social product, since the communist attitude towards labour has not yet prevailed. The treatment of such phenomena is a matter of the class struggle that takes place in conditions of socialist construction under the leadership of the Communist Party.

The social revolution is not restricted only to the conquest of power and the formation of the economic base for the socialist development, but is extended over the entire course of socialism; it includes the development of socialism in order to approach the higher communist phase.

Subsequently, the new relations will be extended and deepened, communist relations and the new type of man will develop to a higher level that guarantees the irreversible prevalence of communism, provided that capitalist relations have been abolished on a global scale or at least in the developed and influential countries in the imperialist system.

The socialist course contains the possibility of a reversal and a retreat backwards to capitalism, as the experience from the counterrevolutionary overthrow in the USSR and the other socialist countries showed. Retreat is in any case a temporary phenomenon in history. The transition from an inferior mode of production to a higher one is not a straightforward ascending process. This is also shown by the very history of the prevalence of capitalism.

The leap that takes place during the period of socialist construction, i.e. during the revolutionary period of the transition from capitalism to developed communism, is qualitatively superior to any previous one, since communist relations, which are not of an exploitative nature, are not shaped within the framework of capitalism. A struggle of the new against the remnants of the old one takes place in all spheres of social life. It is a struggle for the radical change of all economic relations and, therefore, of all social relations, into communist relations.

During this long-term transition from the capitalist society to the developed communist one, the policies of the revolutionary working class power, with the Communist Party as the leading force, give priority to the formation, extension and deepening of the new social relations, to their complete and irreversible prevalence, not in a voluntarist manner, but based on the laws of the communist mode of production.

There will be an ongoing battle for the eradication of every form of group and individual ownership over the means and products of production and of the petty bourgeois consciousness that has deep historical roots. It is a struggle for the formation of a communist consciousness and attitude towards the direct social labour.

The socialist accumulation which will be achieved, will lead to a new level of prosperity. This new level enables the gradual extension of new relations in that area of productive forces which previously were not mature enough to be included in the directly social production. There is a constant expansion of the material prerequisites for the abolition of any differentiation that remain in the distribution of the social product among the workers in the directly social production; for the continuous reduction of the mandatory labour time; for the constant educational-cultural development and the technological-scientific specialisation; for the eradication of religious prejudices, reactionary and anachronistic views, customs and social attitudes regarding the relations between the two genders.

In accordance with the universal social law of the correspondence of the relations of production with the level of development of the productive forces, each historically new level of development of productive forces that is initially achieved by socialist construction, requires a further “revolutionization” of relations of production and of all economic relations, in the direction of their complete transformation into communist relations, by means of revolutionary policies.

The development of the communist mode of production in its first phase, socialism, is a process through which the distribution of the social product in money form will be eradicated. Communist production – even in its immature phase– is directly social production.

Fundamental principles of the formation of the socialist power

The socialist power is the revolutionary power of the working class, the dictatorship of the proletariat. The working class power will replace all the bourgeois institutions, which will be smashed by the revolutionary activity, with new institutions that will be created by the people.

The revolutionary working class power requires a high level of organisation with all means available. It requires workers’ control in the exercise of the administration of the industrial units above all in the sectors of strategic importance so that the working class power carries out its creative, social-economic and cultural work under all conditions – in a period with the possibility of war, or in the relatively more peaceful period of the socialist construction- so as make possible the supremacy of the workers’ and people’s majority against the organised domestic and foreign resistance of capital, its counterrevolutionary activity after the loss of its power.

This requires preparation and the ability to mobilise as quickly as possible the socialised means of production, the entire labour force through Central Planning so as to rapidly restore the losses that will occur in the period of nationwide crisis that will have preceded, the losses caused by the resistance of capitalists but also of the upper intermediate strata, by the external economic blockade, the imperialist interventions and wars etc.

The fundamental principles of the revolutionary working class power arise from the objective position of the working class in the socialised production process, which has not achieved a unified consciousness of its social role.

The fundamental principles of the new power are in total opposition to the old, bourgeois power because the socialised labour renders the private ownership over the means of production obsolete.

The extent and the forms that the revolutionary working class power uses for the repression of the counterrevolutionary activity depend on the stance of the political and social organisations towards the two conflicting forces, the working class and the capitalist class.

The organisation of the new power is a matter for the working class as a whole. The participation of other social forces

The socialist state as an organ of class struggle, which continues with other forms and under new conditions, does not have merely a defensive-repressive organisational function. It also has a creative, economic, cultural, educational function under the leadership of the communist party. It expresses a higher form of democracy whose chief characteristic is the active participation of the working class and generally of the people in the formation of the socialist society, in the resolution of the old contradictions and the social inequalities, in the control of the management of the productive units, of the social and administrative services of all the organs of power from the bottom up. The exercise of criticism of decisions and practices which obstruct socialist construction, the unhindered denunciation of subjective arbitrariness and bureaucratic behaviour of officials, and other negative phenomena and deviations from socialist-communist principles will be ensured.

The basis of the workers’ power is the obligation of all people who are capable of working to work –at the age designated by the law- and through their work to exercise their rights and obligations towards the organs of power. At the same time, the organs of power themselves and the working class state as a whole guarantee work, which corresponds to their specialisation or re-specialisation regardless of their educational level, the linguistic, cultural, religious heritage, for everyone.

The foundation of workers’ power is the productive unit, the social services, the administrative unit, the productive cooperatives.

The direct and indirect working class democracy, the principle of control, of accountability and the right of recall is based on the Assembly of the working people.

In socialist power the election right means the right of the working people to elect and be elected in all the organs of power, to control and recall the councillors and representatives, a right that can only be deprived due to the implementation of the criminal-disciplinary law.

The working class power seeks the employment of all women who are capable of working and below retirement age. It will guarantee the exercise of the election right for women who had not previously worked and are close to retirement age.

The same holds true for adults who do not work i.e. students who participate through the respective educational unit that is comprised of the workers and the students.

The pensioners participate through the procedures of their last workplace.

The same is valid also for sections of the population with special needs exercise their rights either as pensioners or through their workplace where they are integrated under favourable conditions or through special educational-productive units.

For the sections of the population who speak a different language, the socialist power ensures the preservation of the language and cultural traditions, their acquaintance with their historical roots by means of a special programme integrated in the cultural and educational system. It abolishes separate settlements and takes special measures for their representation in the highest bodies.

The working class power expresses the alliance of the working class with the individual self-employed and the farmers that participate in the cooperatives, enabling their distinct representation through their councils which are also elected respectively by the pensioners. These councils have a transitional form as they express a transitional form of ownership with the prospect of the integration of these strata into direct social production.

The working class character of the state power is reflected in the composition of the regional and central organs, where the self-employed and the farmers in the cooperatives are represented.

Certain guidelines for the formation of the organs of power

The structure of the organs of power includes:

The Workers’ Council, the Regional Council and the Highest Organ of Working Class Power.

The Highest Organ of the Working Class Power is responsible for the Central Planning, for the creative work in economy and in all social relations, for the protection of the socialist construction, the interstate relations. It has full authority, legislative, executive, judicial which are organized respectively in supervisory structures.

A state organ which has particular importance is the Highest Administration of Central Planning that embraces committees for special issues e.g. the special needs of women, of youth, of the people with special needs etc.

All the organs are governed by the principle of the democratic centralism which ensures the unified character of Central Planning and the specialisation in its implementation.

The labour time of the members of the organs is regulated in their workplace for the specific period of their election and according to their obligations in the organs. All economic privileges are excluded by law. The same holds true for managers of the administrative units, the social services.

The Management of the productive unit, of the social service or the administrative unit comprises of many individuals, it will participate in the Workers’ Council. All the respective Bodies and Organs will be able to pose issues regarding the control and the recall of the management.

The appointment of an economic manager and manager of production –at least for units of considerable size- is a matter of allocating the workforce which has the corresponding specialisation is something that is dealt with by Central Planning. The organs of power are obliged to create the preconditions for the management of the units by their personnel.

All three levels of the organs of power – Workplace, Regional, Nationwide- according to hierarchy engage in the organisation of the protection of the revolution, the People’s Judiciary, the control mechanism.

Representatives of the working people as well as specialised staff participate in all the special organs (judiciary, organs of control and protection).

New institutions of socialist power will be created in place of the bourgeois Army and repressive organs-which will be completely dissolved on the basis of the revolutionary struggle for the defeat of the resistance of the exploiters and for the defence of the Revolution. New cadres are shaped, educated with the principles of the new power, by young people with a working class background. The positive experience of the socialist construction is utilised where duties for the defence of the revolutionary achievements were carried out not only by the permanent specialized bodies, but also by workers’ committees.

The revolutionary workers’ Constitution and the respective legislation form a new Law that corresponds to the new economic relations.

The working class power utilises all new technical means in order to acquire an effective defence against international imperialism as well as to achieve the constant rise of productivity, the reduction of labour time in particular the increase of the ability to organise and control production, to abolish the unnecessary administrative work.

The relationship of the KKE with the working class power

The KKE, as the ideological-political organised vanguard of the working class, will constitute the leading force of the revolutionary working class power, the dictatorship of the proletariat. It vindicates its revolutionary leading role as long as it expresses the general interests of the working class and the scientific laws of the socialist-communist construction in practice. The working class, even when engaged in the revolutionary process, has not achieved a unified communist consciousness, a communist stance towards the direct social labour, social ownership, it has not overcome the differentiation among its sections as they develop in capitalism. The members and the cadre of the KKE and its Youth will participate in all forms of society’s organisation and exercise their role as ideological-political leaders, with self-sacrifice, selflessness and without any economic privilege or any other privileges.

The members of the Youth of the KKE, of KNE, act accordingly among the students and the school students under the political guidance of the organs and the forces of the party e.g. in education, in the workers’ army, in the groups for the protection of the revolution etc.

The role of the members and the cadre of the KKE is constantly being judged –confirmed or negated- in practice. This requires them to achieve a higher level of theoretical, scientific, technical knowledge so as to contribute to the ideological and political maturation of the working class for its new role as the leading power of the socialist –communist construction.

The KKE is the political force that introduces in all organs of the working class power the ability to carry out scientific predictions, to organize the activity in a planned way, to elaborate political plans for the formation of the socialist economic basis, of the new socialist relations of production and distribution, of all the new socialist-communist relations that characterize all the levels of the society’s organisation, education, culture, the relations between the two genders, the eradication of the long-term influence of the metaphysical dogmas etc.

The party through its members in each field –and KNE correspondingly in education- expresses its opinion on all issues (e.g. candidacies in organs, for the planning, the report of work etc).

The recognition and the realization of the leading role of the party, is the result of its revolutionary ideological political and organizational formation which is constantly judged in life. The dialectical relation between the revolutionary theory and the revolutionary practice is constantly being judged. This relationship entails:

A party that will be essentially committed to the revolutionary communist ideology, on Marxism-Leninism from which it will acquire the ability to interpret the new phenomena and guide the class struggle according to the need to develop and consolidate the new mode of production; to consolidate socialism as the lowest phase of communism, as the decisive victory of the social ownership against every form of private ownership and the final victory of communism.

This is a party with working class composition throughout its entire structure, throughout its members and cadres. Particularly in conditions of relative stabilization of the revolutionary power, the expansion of the forces of the party and its rejuvenation should not reverse the majority of working men and women from the productive sections of industry in the party.

The working class composition of the party is combined with the collective responsibility so that all members of the party have a high level of Marxist education, the ability to protect the party and especially its highest organs from the penetration of bourgeois ideological constructs, revisionist tendencies and opportunist choices.

A party that will be capable of producing-educating communist scientists, hence a party that is at the frontline for the development of research, for the acquisition of new knowledge as well as for the extensive utilization of its results in favour of the irreversible victory of communism. It has leading organs that are capable of ensuring the unity of the class and scientific character which is a precondition in order for the party to perform its revolutionary vanguard role.

A party that is capable of widening and renewing its revolutionary bonds with the working class, that creates social wealth, in new conditions, in the new turns of the class struggle, in every shift–negative or positive- of the correlation of forces in the country and internationally with an unwavering orientation regarding the complete eradication of the private and cooperative ownership over the means of production. With the vanguard stance of its members and cadres it contributes practically to the development of a communist stance towards labour.

The KKE has travelled a long way and has a long way to go because “the cause of the proletariat, communism, is the most universally human, the deepest, the broadest.”

11-14 APRIL 2013

19^th CONGRESS OF THE KKE