The thirteenth congress
[19 - 24 February 1991]
Since 1989 the process of the overthrow of socialist regimes has been dominant world-wide and until 1991 when the USSR was dissolved.
At the same time KKE was preparing for its 13th Congress, in conditions of acute internal strife caused by some cadres who substantially rejected the character of the CP as a revolutionary Party of the political vanguard of the working class and they aimed at the diffusion of the Party within the Coalition of Left and Progress (CLP) and the CLP transformation from a Coalition of parties to a Unified party.
They did not accept the class struggle and the socialist perspective as well as the existence of the working class and they were in a very intense factional fight within the party ranks. A restricted crisis had already occurred in 1989, when a number of CC cadres had resigned and the split of the Communist Youth had taken place.
The 13th Congress assembled under these conditions in Athens at the indoor Hall of the Olympic Stadium from 19th to 24th February 1991. The congress had been defined, by the 12th Congress, as Programmatic Congress.
The confrontation with the opportunist trend which aimed at making the party social-democratic or even more at its liquidation did not conclude during the congress although theoretical and ideological questions were argued out. However, the majority fought for the maintenance of the CP, for its revolutionary nature and its role as an organised conscious vanguard of the working class.
The 13th Congress elected by a majority vote CC cadres who favoured the retaining of the Party’s Communist features but it did not put an end to the internal fight. The subversive activities continued and reached a peak in July ’91 when 45 members of the CC left the party.
Under adverse conditions and the libel by the former cadres who spearheaded the anticommunist bourgeois propaganda, as well as the negative international conditions, due to the overthrows, KKE was engaged with its reconstruction. It gave this fight along with a wide campaign among the people in an effort to develop action in the mass movement and it also prepared the 14th Congress.
Since 1989 the process of the overthrow of socialist regimes has been dominant world-wide and until 1991 when the USSR was dissolved.
At the same time KKE was preparing for its 13th Congress, in conditions of acute internal strife caused by some cadres who substantially rejected the character of the CP as a revolutionary Party of the political vanguard of the working class and they aimed at the diffusion of the Party within the Coalition of Left and Progress (CLP) and the CLP transformation from a Coalition of parties to a Unified party.
They did not accept the class struggle and the socialist perspective as well as the existence of the working class and they were in a very intense factional fight within the party ranks. A restricted crisis had already occurred in 1989, when a number of CC cadres had resigned and the split of the Communist Youth had taken place.
The 13th Congress assembled under these conditions in Athens at the indoor Hall of the Olympic Stadium from 19th to 24th February 1991. The congress had been defined, by the 12th Congress, as Programmatic Congress.
The confrontation with the opportunist trend which aimed at making the party social-democratic or even more at its liquidation did not conclude during the congress although theoretical and ideological questions were argued out. However, the majority fought for the maintenance of the CP, for its revolutionary nature and its role as an organised conscious vanguard of the working class.
The 13th Congress elected by a majority vote CC cadres who favoured the retaining of the Party’s Communist features but it did not put an end to the internal fight. The subversive activities continued and reached a peak in July ’91 when 45 members of the CC left the party.
Under adverse conditions and the libel by the former cadres who spearheaded the anticommunist bourgeois propaganda, as well as the negative international conditions, due to the overthrows, KKE was engaged with its reconstruction. It gave this fight along with a wide campaign among the people in an effort to develop action in the mass movement and it also prepared the 14th Congress.
e-mail:cpg@int.kke.gr