The ninth congress
[December 1973]
The 9th Congress of the CP met in December 1973, in a period of the junta’s rule but also of a rising popular movement reaching its peak in the Polytechnic University uprising in 1973. It carefully analysed all the political events which had marked the country’s political history since the 8th congress. Developments which occurred inside the party itself affected its course of action. An organised right opportunist deviation emerged, which had been active for a long period, denying, in fact, the role and the revolutionary nature of KKE. In the 12th Plenary Meeting in 1968, the party dealt with the fractionist activity of the right opportunist group, clarified its ranks and decided to form party base organisations in Greece. The 9th Congress critically examined the party’s policy and activity since the 8th congress and reached the conclusion that from the 8th Congress until the12th Plenary Meeting (Feb. 1968), the right opportunist deviation was basically dominant in the party’s Platform and actions, due to the following reasons: «the insufficient party guidance, the inadequate mastering and non-resourceful application of the Marxist-Leninist theory, the violation of fundamental Leninist principles mainly that of collectivism and the social composition of the party, the serious hardships which the Party and the movement in general were confronted with after the two successive defeats, especially the difficulties in the reconstruction of the party organisations under conditions of severe illegality and generally the many sided oppression by the enemy as well as the long absence of a substantial number of party members and cadres from Greece».
The congress, also, stressed the hardships in combining legal and illegal activity, facilitated the creation of false impressions drawn from the success obtained by legal work.
The Congress considered as its prime duty the contraction of a strong party with powerful organisations rooted in the working class, the farmers and all working masses connected to them, a party capable of leading the Greek people’s struggle and guiding them to victory.
It extensively referred to the political developments in Greece, to the events and causes leading to the military fascist dictatorship, to the experience gained from the anti-junta fight, to the intensity of work for unity, to the organisation and activity of anti-dictatorial forces for the overthrow of the military-fascist regime, by the masses themselves.
It considered the possibility for an impending reconciliation between the junta and the bourgeois political forces aiming at a political change leaving the base of Greece’s embrace by imperialist organisations and the American State untouched. For this reason, the congress related the revelation of such a prospect to the masses with actions aimed at persuading them that nothing good would come out of such a reconciliation and to connect the struggle for immediate mass demands with the political solution put forward by KKE. «This confrontation has to be continuous and people must become conscious of where the real and beneficial for them solution lies».
The Congress elaborated the party’s Platform. It discussed the erroneous analysis of the 8th Congress about the class-forces in relation to the existence of a «national bourgeoisie» which was ranked among the driving forces for the democratic anti-imperialist revolution. It criticised the mistaken estimation for «a peaceful course» to revolution as well as the adoption of the 8th CC Plenary Meeting resolution of 1958 regarding the liquidation of the Party Organisations. It was also mentioned in the Platform that «Greece would reach the state of Socialism through a unified revolutionary procedure, which will include two stages of revolutionary transformations; one democratic, anti-monopoly, anti-imperialist and one socialist».
Simultaneously, it laid out the alternative solution, after the junta has been overthrown by the masses, which was named «new democracy» and it defined it as «revolutionary democratic authority». The program set the immediate objectives of the mass movement’s struggle for a democratic civil state, national independence, implementation of peace policy and collaboration with all countries, aiming at the restriction of monopoly activity and the improvement of people’s living standards. The congress adopted a Constitution, while it took measures for lifting party work and recruiting, for the improvement of its functioning, the development of ideological propaganda, the strengthening of the fight against the right revisionists who had formed their own party as well as the assistance to the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE).
The 9th Congress of the CP met in December 1973, in a period of the junta’s rule but also of a rising popular movement reaching its peak in the Polytechnic University uprising in 1973. It carefully analysed all the political events which had marked the country’s political history since the 8th congress. Developments which occurred inside the party itself affected its course of action. An organised right opportunist deviation emerged, which had been active for a long period, denying, in fact, the role and the revolutionary nature of KKE. In the 12th Plenary Meeting in 1968, the party dealt with the fractionist activity of the right opportunist group, clarified its ranks and decided to form party base organisations in Greece. The 9th Congress critically examined the party’s policy and activity since the 8th congress and reached the conclusion that from the 8th Congress until the12th Plenary Meeting (Feb. 1968), the right opportunist deviation was basically dominant in the party’s Platform and actions, due to the following reasons: «the insufficient party guidance, the inadequate mastering and non-resourceful application of the Marxist-Leninist theory, the violation of fundamental Leninist principles mainly that of collectivism and the social composition of the party, the serious hardships which the Party and the movement in general were confronted with after the two successive defeats, especially the difficulties in the reconstruction of the party organisations under conditions of severe illegality and generally the many sided oppression by the enemy as well as the long absence of a substantial number of party members and cadres from Greece».
The congress, also, stressed the hardships in combining legal and illegal activity, facilitated the creation of false impressions drawn from the success obtained by legal work.
The Congress considered as its prime duty the contraction of a strong party with powerful organisations rooted in the working class, the farmers and all working masses connected to them, a party capable of leading the Greek people’s struggle and guiding them to victory.
It extensively referred to the political developments in Greece, to the events and causes leading to the military fascist dictatorship, to the experience gained from the anti-junta fight, to the intensity of work for unity, to the organisation and activity of anti-dictatorial forces for the overthrow of the military-fascist regime, by the masses themselves.
It considered the possibility for an impending reconciliation between the junta and the bourgeois political forces aiming at a political change leaving the base of Greece’s embrace by imperialist organisations and the American State untouched. For this reason, the congress related the revelation of such a prospect to the masses with actions aimed at persuading them that nothing good would come out of such a reconciliation and to connect the struggle for immediate mass demands with the political solution put forward by KKE. «This confrontation has to be continuous and people must become conscious of where the real and beneficial for them solution lies».
The Congress elaborated the party’s Platform. It discussed the erroneous analysis of the 8th Congress about the class-forces in relation to the existence of a «national bourgeoisie» which was ranked among the driving forces for the democratic anti-imperialist revolution. It criticised the mistaken estimation for «a peaceful course» to revolution as well as the adoption of the 8th CC Plenary Meeting resolution of 1958 regarding the liquidation of the Party Organisations. It was also mentioned in the Platform that «Greece would reach the state of Socialism through a unified revolutionary procedure, which will include two stages of revolutionary transformations; one democratic, anti-monopoly, anti-imperialist and one socialist».
Simultaneously, it laid out the alternative solution, after the junta has been overthrown by the masses, which was named «new democracy» and it defined it as «revolutionary democratic authority». The program set the immediate objectives of the mass movement’s struggle for a democratic civil state, national independence, implementation of peace policy and collaboration with all countries, aiming at the restriction of monopoly activity and the improvement of people’s living standards. The congress adopted a Constitution, while it took measures for lifting party work and recruiting, for the improvement of its functioning, the development of ideological propaganda, the strengthening of the fight against the right revisionists who had formed their own party as well as the assistance to the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE).
e-mail:cpg@int.kke.gr