The Communist Party of Greece
(KKE) will hold its 19th Congress on the 11-14 of April in Athens.
The preparations for the Congress are in their final phase.
In a 4-month
period the communists were able to discuss the activity of the party over the
previous period, the tasks of the KKE for the following period and the party’s
new draft Programme and its new draft Statutes.
For this reason, the CC published the “Theses”, which
contained these documents and on the basis of which the pre-congress dialogue
was held.
Our party, in an effort for the theses, concerns and tasks posed by the
communists of Greece to become known beyond the country’s borders, has
translated the entire text of the “Theses” into 4 languages: English, Arabic, Spanish, Russian. Messages of
greetings are arriving from Communist and Workers’ and other parties from all
over the world which you can find here
in their original form.
The
discussion was held both in the assemblies of the party base organizations, in
the conferences of the sectoral organizations as well as in the regional
organizations which elected delegates to the Congress. At the same time, a
public pre-congress dialogue was held in the pages of “Rizospastis”, the daily
paper and organ of the CC of the KKE, with the publication of hundreds of
articles written by members, cadres and friends of the KKE. In addition the
party organizations organized dozens of rallies all over the country, where the
“Theses” were presented to the workers. As is well-known, the KKE overcame the
rationale of intermediate stages and determined the character of the revolution
as being socialist in the Programme approved by the 15th Congress in
1996. It posed the resolution of the central contradiction between capital and
labour, because it is precisely this contradiction that imposes the character of
our era, the era of the transition from capitalism to socialism, as the material
pre-conditions for socialist construction have matured.
This basic position of the KKE
is confirmed in the new draft Programme, which will be discussed and approved by
the 19th Congress. However, the KKE seeks to integrate both the
decision of the 18th Congress, which enriches the party’s view on
socialism, as well as the conclusions of the Nationwide Conference which
examined the history of the KKE in the period 1949-1968.
Thus, the 15th
Congress, utilizing the level which had been acquired, determined the line of
the Antimonopoly-Anti-imperialist-Democratic Front as a line to rally popular
forces, noting that the “KKE directs its action in such a way that the
anti-imperialist, anti-monopoly struggle will develop and the anti-capitalist
awareness of the working class and the popular strata will deepen”.
Today the Theses of the CC for
the 19th Congress enrich this direction and determine the People’s
Alliance, which has a clear anti-monopoly anti-capitalist orientation – as
contemporary capitalism is monopoly capitalism- and promotes rupture with the
imperialist unions, struggling against the imperialist war and participation in
it, as the rallying line and line of struggle.
“The People’s Alliance, expresses the interests of the
working class, the semi-proletarians, the poor self-employed and farmers in the
struggle against the monopolies and capitalist ownership, against the
assimilation of the country in the imperialist unions. Its struggle is directed
towards the conquest of the working class- people’s power. For the KKE the new
power is identified with working class power, the socialist power which
scientific socialism defined as the dictatorship of the proletariat, which is
the very opposite of the dictatorship of the bourgeois class, the bourgeois
state.” Thus the role of the social forces, its social character, is
strengthened in the People’s Alliance.
The People’s Alliance concerns itself with all the
problems of the people, it has a clear anti-monopoly anti-capitalist orientation
and today has acquired a certain form with the activity of PAME, PASEVE, PASY
MAS, OGE with a common framework. It does not constitute an alliance of
political parties.
It is
assessed that the People’s Alliance in conditions of the revolutionary situation
will be transformed into “the revolutionary workers’ and people’s front, using
all forms of 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 that
the full demobilization of the mechanisms of bourgeois power is possible as well
as their neutralization, and so that revolutionary institutions created by the
people can emerge and prevail. These revolutionary institutions will undertake
the new organization of society, the overthrow of the dictatorship of the
bourgeoisie, the establishment of revolutionary working class
power.”
On the
international movement
The assessments of
the outgoing CC of the party on the situation in the International
Communist Movement and the corresponding activity of the party are presented in
Theses 43,44,45,46,47. The following are noted here: “43. The party continued its efforts to deal
with the crucial and major problems inherited from the victory of the
counterrevolution, with the struggle against opportunism being the most basic
element. The results are limited though this issue does not depend on the KKE
but on the general situation of many communist parties in all continents and
indeed of the parties in the powerful capitalist countries.
The class confrontations in Greece, the conflict with
the capitalist employers, and the vanguard activity of the KKE have contributed
to the development of reflection within many communist parties around the main
issue i.e. what the political line should be for the activity of the communists
in the conditions of the crisis. The reflection and the debate between different
views show the significant contribution of the KKE along with other parties in
order to substantiate the need to concentrate forces for the overthrow of the
bourgeois power, for the struggle for socialism.
Thanks to the initiative of our party, as well as of
other Communist Parties, the International Meetings of Communist and Workers’
Parties take place every year. In these meetings there is an ideological
struggle against opportunism, reformism and various currents. In addition, there
are Regional and Thematic Meetings of Communist Parties taking place and joint
statements are being issued on current issues. A website of the Communist
Parties (www.solidnet.org) is also functioning which has an incorporated system
for the rapid exchange of information among them. There is also the publication
of the “Information Bulletin” that contains the materials of the Meetings of the
Communist Parties.
Nevertheless, these steps in the coordination cannot
alter the main issue: the communist movement remains organizationally and
ideologically fragmented. It is experiencing a situation of a long-term
ideological-political crisis that coexists with the corrosive activity of the
strong opportunist current and the weaknesses of the Communist Parties that
struggle on the basis of Marxism-Leninism. In the conditions of the crisis, of
the new requirements for the communist movement, signs are emerging regarding a
new retreat from treating the relevant problems from a class viewpoint.
44. There are
CPs which under difficult conditions maintain a correct orientation in general,
they fight against bourgeois ideology and opportunism and make efforts to work
in the labour movement while facing serious weaknesses.
The developments in Cuba have an impact on the
international communist movement. The KKE steadfastly expresses its solidarity
with the Communist Party and the people of Cuba, it struggles for the lifting of
the longstanding blockade imposed by the USA and the abolition of the anti-Cuban
“common position” of the EU, it demands the release of the 5 imprisoned Cuban
patriots and their return to their homeland.
Our party defends the gains of the Cuban revolution
that have demonstrated the advantages of socialism, achieving in the difficult
conditions of the imperialist aggressiveness the solution of the basic problems
that remain unsolved and torment the working class and the broad popular strata
in other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The KKE, in
the framework of proletarian internationalism, develops a constructive dialogue
with the Communist Party of Cuba on the socio-economic changes which have been
promoted over recent years, it expresses its concern about the implementation of
measures that reinforce the presence of capital and weaken socialist ownership,
the socialist relations of production.
In the countries which claim to be constructing
socialism the KKE examines the developments according to the criteria of the
laws of socialist construction, the working class power, the socialization of
the means of production and central planning, the workers’ and social control.
From this point of view, the KKE expresses both its concern about the
strengthening of the capitalist relations of production in Vietnam and also its
opposition to the so-called “market- socialism”.
In today’s China the CPC leads the capitalist path of
development; it develops relations with the “Socialist International”. This
course and generally the positions regarding a “mixed economy”, which was
previously supported by social democracy, regarding “market socialism” exert a
negative influence on the communist movement; they are utilized in a
multifaceted way against it.
Some Communist Parties, which have distanced themselves
from Marxism-Leninism, present China as a “model of socialist development”.
45. The KKE,
without giving up on the existing forms of cooperation and coordination of the
Communist Parties, is oriented to the effort to form a communist pole among the
communist parties which defend Marxism-Leninism, the existence of the socialist
construction and its contribution, but also recognize its fundamental mistakes
that led to its overthrow, the necessity of the struggle for the overthrow of
capitalism and the construction of socialism.
The journal “International Communist Review” (ICR) was
founded in this direction on the basis of a framework of common principles
–starting from a first discussion in Athens at the end of 2008 and in Istanbul
in 2009- currently with the participation of eleven theoretical and political
journals of Communist parties. The aim of the ICR is to discuss ideological and
theoretical issues and to contribute to the formation of a unified revolutionary
strategy of the CP so that the international communist movement gets out of the
situation of the ideological-political and organizational crisis.
The KKE considers as its duty and obligation the
development of the ideological and political struggle, at an international level
as well, against the opportunist forces (European Left Party- left “networks”),
the forces of social democracy, the Trotskyite forces, which exert an
ideological and political impact on the international communist movement.
46. Certain
crucial issues that concern the confrontation inside the communist movement:
The character of
the revolution, the logic of stages. The participation of communist
parties in bourgeois governments on the terrain of capitalist society. The
international communist movement and opportunism.
The distancing from the Leninist concept of
imperialism.
The stance towards
imperialist unions and interstate organizations, the stance towards
Russia-China etc.
The stance towards
social-democracy and the centre-left. The stance towards the possibility of
utilizing all forms of struggle in order to confront successfully the violence
of the capitalists, the imperialist intervention.
The parliamentary illusions as well as the retreat from
the utilization of the battle of elections.
The stance towards the capitalist crisis.
The issue of the environment detached from the issue of
the character of ownership and power.
The lack of
a revolutionary line in the labour movement.
The mistaken view that the struggle at a national level
has become outdated.
The stance towards the socialism which we knew.
The mistaken view
about “models”
of socialism and the “socialism of the 21st century”.
The proletarian Internationalism.
Internationalist
Solidarity
47. In the
previous period the KKE developed significant initiatives in order to express
its solidarity with the great workers’ and people’s struggles that take place in
many countries against the aims, the strategy of capital, against the
imperialist plans, the interventions, for the defense of labour and democratic
rights, against anti-communism, against the bans and the persecutions at the
expense of the communist parties and militants, against the persecutions carried
out with the slogan of the unacceptable identification of communism with
fascism.
The KKE expresses its solidarity with the working class
and the popular strata of Venezuela against the imperialist interventions and
threats.
It supports the struggle of the Palestinian people
against the Israeli occupation, for the resolution of the Palestinian issue; for
an independent, viable and sovereign Palestinian state with the borders of 1967
and East Jerusalem as its capital.
The KKE
supports the struggle of the Cypriot people for a unified Cyprus, independent
with a federal bi-zonal, bi-communal solution, with a single sovereignty and
international representation, without foreign bases and troops, a common
homeland for Greek-Cypriots and Turkish-Cypriots, without foreign guarantors and
“protectors”.”
