Decisions of April 2022 nationwide conference

(Decisions of the M-L KKE conference of 2022, published on April 1^st, 2022)

Deadly imperialist competition for domination in Ukraine

1. Radical developments are taking place on the world stage as a result of the fierce competition between the imperialist powers and their struggle for the redistribution of world markets and spheres of influence, on the basis of the new correlations of forces and the major shifts in the power of the imperialist centres. A new situation is now taking shape in Eastern Europe and throughout the world, following Putin’s adventurous military offensive in Ukraine, which is accelerating the creation of rival camps (US-EU, China-Russia) and darkening the international horizon, bringing back the threat of general war and mutual nuclear extortion.

The latest phase of the crisis – which has now culminated – began in December 2021, when the Russian leadership made proposals for the signing of a US-Russian treaty that would provide “security guarantees” and prevent Ukraine’s accession to NATO and the establishment of US military bases in the countries of the former Soviet block. With these proposals Moscow was making use of the opportunities it had acquired in recent years, while simultaneously exploiting Washington’s forced shift in the Asian Pacific to contain China. In this way, Russia was seeking to overturn earlier, painful ‘arrangements’ and agreements that had been imposed on her, and to impose new ones that would be more beneficial.

In fact, its aim was and is to halt the expansionist course of American imperialism, to break the stranglehold on Russia and to regain the influence and interests of Russian imperialism over the territories of the former Soviet Union, which the American imperialists seized after the dissolution of the USSR 30 years ago. The negotiations reached an impasse as the US refused to make concessions to Moscow, seeking to continue its policy of suffocating Russia while forcing the European countries, particularly Germany and France, to align themselves with US interests, revealing ruptures and differences, between the US and EU, mainly Germany and France.

The Russian leadership, following the West’s decision to ignore its proposals, proceeded to recognise the independence of the ‘People’s Republics’ of Donetsk and Lugansk and – by escalating its actions – launched a military offensive aimed at conquering and dismembering Ukraine, to destroy its military forces, to overthrow the reactionary regime in Kiev established by the US-European imperialists with the fascist Maidan coup of 2014, and to impose a new puppet regime serving the interests of Russian imperialism. With this military offensive, Moscow seeks to put Ukraine under its military-political control and sovereignty, to “demilitarise” it and make it a “neutral” country, a “buffer zone” between the West and Russia, de facto excluding its NATO membership.

2. The US and the EU – along with their partners and lackeys around the world, the Mitsotakis government prominently among them – denounce Russia’s military operation, offer their support to their puppets in Kiev and proceed to impose harsh economic sanctions against Russia that exclude it from the global financial system, seeking to severely damage the Russian economy and force Putin to retreat and compromise. A big loss for Russia is the decision to freeze – or even scrap – Nord Stream 2, and in general the EU’s – especially Germany’s – energy independence on Russia and its medium-term supply of US liquefied natural gas, opening up golden opportunities for the giant US monopolies. They are reviving a Cold War climate of -McCarthyite – censorship and cultural exclusion and isolation of Russia. At the same time they are moving to reinforce NATO military forces in Eastern European countries and prepare for their own military exercises and offensive actions, with their aircraft carriers and war armada lurking in the Aegean Sea. At the same time Sweden and Finland express their “interest” in joining NATO, prompting new threats from Russia.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine seems to be leading to the strengthening of US-EU ties and to the lessening of the serious contradictions that were lurking below the surface or openly manifested in their relationship and within the framework of “brain-dead NATO”. The invasion has become a catalyst for a major shift in Berlin’s policy. The German government is burning its bridges with Russia and at the same time announces its significant decision to start a massive military armament program with unanimous approval from the German parliament. Together with France, Germany is commissioning its own war industries to equip their military forces and is reopening the debate on whether the ‘independent European army’ can acquire any substance in the future. This is the second time in a short period – the first was after the US bypassed the EU to create the AUKUS alliance – that the European imperialists are urgently opening up the question of a ‘common European defence and security policy’, with the aim of the EU, under the leadership of the Franco-German axis, to strengthen as a special pole in the international ‘security architecture’. Not only to stand independently with greater claims and as a military power against Russia and the other major imperialist powers – China but also the USA in the long term – even if, today, common Western imperialist interests bring them side by side and within the same NATO military alliance.

The consequences of this new course opened up by the German-French axis in the EU will not only mean a more brutal economic bleeding of the European peoples in order to finance the huge armaments and, indeed, at a rapid pace, in order to cover the gap in military power with the other imperialist competitors. It will also mean a further intensification of the imperialist rivalries and interventions and the risks of war they pose and will undoubtedly strengthen the EU’s warmongering characteristics.

3. China gave its support to Russia – without placing itself in the same camp – keeping “safe distances”, stressing the need for “restraint and dialogue” between the two belligerent countries. This is dictated by Beijing’s desire to side with Moscow against Washington, but simultaneously maintain good relations with the EU. An overt support of the Chinese leadership for Putin would have a very negative impact on the relations with Europe, which is at odds with Russia. The withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, combined with the US reluctance to engage in military operations in Ukraine, sends a signal to Beijing that the Indo-Pacific is a prime target for the US, as demonstrated by Washington’s decision form the AUKUS alliance a few months ago. In this light, a greater US involvement in Europe can only be received positively by Beijing, and in a twofold way. First, a protracted crisis in Europe ties down and drains forces and puts US influence in Eastern Europe to the test, creating a distraction for the US leadership, which has its sights set on China. And secondly, Russia is being pushed into an increasingly close relationship with China to counter Western pressure and the economic sanctions imposed on it, just as this happened with the 2014 economic sanctions over Crimea, and in such a case the conditions of cooperation will be set by the Chinese leadership.

4. The US representatives are causing a global uproar, now presenting themselves as defenders of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, condemning the change of borders and not recognizing any “fait accompli” of the invasion. However, the US imperialists in the last three decades – in order to bring entire countries and regions under their control and influence – have launched wars of conquest, have dismembered, enslaved and divided countries and peoples, have organised coups and ‘colour revolutions’, incited nationalist divisions and have exploited the most virulent reactionary nationalism under the guise of supporters of the ‘right of self-determination of nations’. The peoples of Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen and so many other countries have suffered the US crimes and atrocities. Even Ukraine itself and a number of other similar states are the creation and result of the dismemberment and dissolution of the former Soviet Union 30 years ago, which seceded and gained their “independence” because of the decisive support of imperialism and most of them still survive because of imperialist economic, political and military “protection”. The dismemberment of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and the creation of dozens of new states and countries was then promoted by the imperialists on the grounds of securing the “right of self-determination of nations”. This was in fact a blatant charade for the bourgeois, nationalist and imperialist policy of division and subjugation of nations and peoples.

5. The crisis in Ukraine has its basis in the internal problems that erupted after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Ukraine’s declaration as an independent state. However, this crisis was fuelled, sharpened and took its present explosive form due to the direct involvement and intervention of the imperialist powers, especially the US and Russia. The main objective of the US imperialists has been to tie Ukraine to the pro-war NATO chariot with the support of their local lackeys, and to limit or even annihilate Russia’s foothold and influence in Ukraine. The answer to the US-EU imperialist aggression and the reactionary front of the pro-Western forces in Ukraine cannot be given by another imperialist attack and the military intervention launched under the banner of anti-communism and Great-Russian chauvinism on the part of Russia. It is a great illusion for a large part of the Ukrainian people to pin their hopes of repelling Western imperialist interventions on Putin, whose primary objective is to consolidate and secure Russia’s megalomaniacal, imperialist interests in Ukraine and even to use the national feelings of the people of Eastern Ukraine as leverage to bargain with the US-European imperialists for a broader reactionary compromise to “settle” the Ukrainian issue on the backs of the Ukrainian people.

From this point of view, the main problem of Ukraine and its people is a problem of imperialist interference and intervention. And it is against these forces that the struggle of the working class and the people of Ukraine must be directed: for the repulsion of the imperialist interventions by the USA and Russia, for the overthrow of the puppet governments those countries are establishing, for Ukraine not to join NATO and the EU, for it not to be turned into a protectorate of Russia, for the crushing of the fascist forces and the overthrow of the whole regime of imperialist domination. The real national interests can only be defended by the working class of Ukraine, led by the communists, uniting all working people, the Ukrainian people in the struggle against the American and Russian imperialists and their local lackeys, for freedom from foreign subjugation and domination, for the defence of their territorial sovereignty and integrity of their country against new partitions and annexations, for the expulsion of the Russian occupation troops, for peace, democracy, national independence and socialism.

One month after the Russian attack on Ukraine, fighting continues on all fronts and the outcome of the war is uncertain. The Russian invasion troops have suffered heavy losses, while some form of talks and negotiations between the two warring camps and the major imperialist powers (US-EU, Russia-China) have begun to reach an agreement and stop the hostilities.

What must be made clear is that any agreements that may be made between these imperialist powers are of a temporary nature, always subject to constant revision on the basis of the given balance of power and made with the perspective of an even fiercer and more relentless competition. The basic element that characterizes the relations of the imperialist powers is their fierce competition and their struggle for the redistribution of spheres of influence and the redistribution of markets through brutal economic exploitation, the seizure and plundering of the wealth of the great majority of the peoples, the unleashing of wars of conquest and interventions for the enslavement of nations and countries and the suppression of the struggle of peoples for their national and social liberation.

The prospect of losing its hegemonic position on the world stage makes American imperialism more dangerous and adventurous, a source of war and aggression.

6. In the last three decades, after the collapse and dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, in conditions in which the global balance of power changed decisively in favour of US imperialism and it emerged as the only superpower, the strategy proclaimed and implemented by its leaders was summarized into the doctrine: “we will not allow any rival state to challenge the global position we have achieved”.

However, the costly and long-lasting wars of conquest and interventions launched by the American imperialists in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya – which they finally lost 20 years later, because of brave people’s resistance – combined with the deep and prolonged economic and political crisis that erupted at home and the rapid strengthening of their competitors, undermined and weakened this global hegemony and made their arrogant, imperial dream of an “American 21st century” fade away. As these trends seem to take root on the world stage, the US faces the threat of a general ‘challenge to its acquired global position’ and significant changes and rearrangements are taking place in the context of the unrelenting competition between the major imperialist powers for world domination. Of course, as much as the US has been on the decline in recent years and divided internally, it is the US that has taken over 14 countries in the last 25 years from Eastern Europe, the Balkans and new countries that emerged from the break-up of the Soviet Union, and incorporated them into NATO through five successive waves of expansions, turning the global balance of power in their favour and leading to a great weakening and suffocating encirclement of Russia. Consequently, as wrong as it is to say that the US is still the undisputed superpower whose monopoly remains undisturbed, it is equally or even more wrong to say that the US has fallen into second place, that it is “retreating” and is on the verge of collapse.

The strategy of American imperialism – as it is also shaped by the conflicts that have erupted within it, the contradictions and dilemmas of recent years – is to put the brakes on the rapid rise of China and the steady rise of Russia, and to prevent at all costs an alliance between them. The US does so, in fact, by unleashing threats and actively organizing old and new aggressive military organizations (NATO, AUKUS) to force all the other powers in Europe and Asia to align themselves with the US in this confrontation, anticipating deviations (e.g. Germany, France) and ruptures. The US is simultaneously facing two military-political fronts, one in Asia with China and one in Europe with Russia. As Russia’s negotiations with the West have come to a standstill and the US is hardening its stance towards Russia in general, the current Sino-Russian confrontation will gradually transform into an alliance of these two major imperialist powers. This development would shape a new global reality, since whoever dominates in Eurasia dominates the planet. The definition of strategic risk for the US, which is the emergence of a power or combination of powers that will dominate Eurasia, looms threateningly on the horizon.

With new conditions and possibilities Russia is returning to the central arena of international imperialist competition

7. After a long period of internal collapse and nationalist disintegration, territorial secession and civil wars – which began 30 years ago with the dissolution of the Soviet Union – Russian imperialism is today in a phase of consolidation and resurgence, ready to launch large-scale military attacks. Having secured, under the reactionary Putin regime, political stability and relatively high rates of economic growth – although its economy is at a relatively low level, with its GDP accounting for 1/10th of that of the United States – and possessing vast geostrategic territories and inexhaustible energy reserves, with a powerful military-nuclear arsenal that makes it a global military power, it is returning to the table of the major imperialist powers on new terms. With a policy of active containment and an assertion of its influence and vital interests over the territories of the former Soviet Union, Russia has succeeded in halting the expansionist course of American imperialism, in bending and breaking the suffocating encirclement of Russia. This is exactly what Russia sought to capture in a legal, binding form in the two treaties the country proposed to the US and NATO in December 2021. With these proposals – which were ignored by the West – and even more so with the launch of the war for the conquest of Ukraine, Moscow made clear by force of arms that it would no longer accept the current state of affairs – which corresponded to a previous period – and that Russia and the West must fundamentally redefine their relations, on the basis of the new balance of power that has now been established on the planet.

China, a powerful rising imperialist power causing major upheavals in the global capitalist and imperialist system

8. The rapid rise of China, particularly in the last decade, is causing major upheavals in the global imperialist system and the prospect of it dethroning the US from the top in the coming years cannot be accepted by the US leadership. That is why the US is declaring, openly and unapologetically, economic and political war against China and prioritises the confrontation with China as its main strategic objective, because – as its staff has decided – “the rise of China fundamentally shifts the balance of power“. The recent US-Australian-British agreement, the so-called AUKUS, escalates the general geopolitical confrontation between the US and China in Asia and around the globe for global hegemony, and fuels a new military arms race. In this direction, following the formation of the AUKUS alliance, another alliance is being reactivated by the US leadership with the leaders of Japan, India and Australia, forming the Quad Alliance, with the clear and avowed aim of joining their forces against China. The leadership of Chinese imperialism gives its support to Russia in the war in Ukraine – without identifying with it- and continues a “low-key” policy, seeking to buy time, not to be driven now to a break with the US, seeing that time is working inevitably against US imperialism and in favour of its competitors. At the same time, it is building up its forces and alliances in the Eurasian region through a series of economic and political structures, the main one being the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), which is taking on the characteristics of a security organisation. A few days after the AUKUS announcement, the SCO summit met and even decided to expand its membership to include Iran, ignoring the US threats and sanctions against that country. The main powers of the organisation are China and Russia, which the aggressiveness of US imperialism is pushing towards ever closer cooperation, though this does not mean that the cooperation is progressing unhindered.

The ceaseless struggle of the peoples and the great problems that arise before them

9. The war in Ukraine is leading to an even greater intensification of the global economic and social crisis that has plagued the capitalist world for more than a decade and has worsened during the pandemic. It now takes on the dramatic expression of a huge energy crisis, a soaring inflation that is shaking state economies and wiping out people’s income, and a new massive wave of intra-European refugees.

Seeking a way out of the economic crisis in military armaments, intense competition and military interventions, the imperialists and the capitalist system reveal their true face to everyone. The ruling cliques of monopoly capital and their governments continue to impose sweeping anti-labour measures, promoting radical reversals in labour conditions, demolishing all post-war workers’ gains and bringing about a rapid deterioration in the living standard of hundreds of millions of workers, while skyrocketing the prices of energy and all basic necessities. Under the pretext of the pandemic, they protect their reactionary political domination with the destruction of democratic rights, repressive measures to stifle workers’ and people’s struggles and the iron barriers they erect to forcibly stop the refugees coming from Asia and Africa.

The peoples, despite the great obstacles that stand before them, resist the imperialist interventions and wars, the anti-worker and anti-democratic measures of the exploiting classes. Slowly but surely, through their experience, through the destructive fury of capitalism and the crimes and wars of the imperialists, the peoples are waking and standing up. All over the world there is an increasing awareness and activation of the popular masses. From the heart of capitalism, the USA, where two years ago, after the brutal murder of George Floyd, an unprecedented popular uprising broke out with the participation of millions of workers, to the hundreds of millions of workers in India, who are going on militant strikes, the struggle of the peoples against capitalist exploitation and imperialist oppression, against fascism, racism and reactionary nationalism is developing. Important struggles have also developed in many countries in Latin America, Asia and Europe, especially in France, where in recent years the French people have strongly and unyieldingly opposed reactionary anti-worker measures, as well as the repression of the Macron government.

Certainly, from a general point of view, the struggles of the working class and of the oppressed nations and peoples are encountering great problems and difficulties, are developing under unfavourable conditions and are out of proportion to the scale of the attack of the reactionary forces, due to the retreat of the communist and popular movement and the unfavorable balance of power that has been formed. However, in twenty years of wars of conquest in the Middle East, not only has US imperialism not emerged victorious, but on the contrary – as the outcome of the war in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and Libya showed – its bases and forces in the region have been dealt a severe blow by the long and courageous resistance of the peoples. In difficult circumstances, the unwavering Palestinian people continue their unrelenting struggle against the Zionists of Israel for a homeland and freedom.

As imperialist aggression escalates with the military interventions and wars in Ukraine, and the drums of war are sounding in Europe, threatening to lead to a global inferno, we must firmly and persistently put the issue of the anti-war-anti-imperialist struggle in the forefront. We must expose ­imperialist hypocrisy and demonstrate the real aims of their wars. We must stand with the peoples who are victims of imperialist aggression. Our people must intensify its anti-war-anti-imperialist struggle, demand that there should be no Greek involvement in the aggressive US-NATO plans in the wider region and stop all military arms shipments to the puppets of Ukraine, fighting for the exit of Greece from NATO and the EU, for the expulsion of the US bases, for peace and friendship of the peoples.

Β. Foreign policy and Greek-Turkish relations

Notes for this section:

1)Nea Dimokratia (translating directly to New Democracy in english) is the traditional center right party of Greek politics, in power while this was written. It has significantly moved towards the far right the last decade or so.

2) SYRIZA is the newest dominant center left, social democratic party, the main opposition while this was written. Rose to prominence during the economic and political crisis that broke out in 2010.

3) KINAL/PASOK is the older social democratic party that took a heavy blow during the crisis of 2010. Now has a secondary role, having lost most of its influence to SYRIZA.

At a time of extremely critical international and regional tensions and conflicts and with the outbreak of large-scale warfare in Europe, where a sharp acceleration of developments of historic proportions is taking place, the Nea Dimokratia government proclaims its commitment to Greece’s role as “the last outpost of the West towards the East”. The developments that led to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and everything that followed show how dangerous this policy is for our people.

The period of the SYRIZA (2) government and the current one with the New Democracy government are characterized by a shameless servitude to the USA and provocative songs of praise to Greece’s “strong alliance” with them. They thus recall and bring back the darkest periods of the past of overt Americanism, from the Truman Doctrine in 1947 onwards, when the Greek oligarchy – in order to safeguard its power – handed over the country and its people to the USA, which was followed by all the subsequent tragic developments.

These long-standing ties of dependence and subordination have been strengthened. Our country has become a vast US military base aimed at limiting the influence of its competitors (Russia and China) and at American domination, from the Balkans, Europe and the Black Sea to the Eastern and Southern Mediterranean, the Persian Gulf and North Africa. Bases and “facilities” are increasing and are being reinforced, from the north to the southern tip of the country – with Alexandroupolis, Larissa, Stefanovikio, Aktion, Andravida, Araxos, Souda having been ceded to the offensive forces and designs of the US and NATO. The port of Alexandroupolis in particular has evolved into a crucially important, offensive US-NATO hub against Russia.

Alongside Greece’s “strategic relationship” with the US, Greece’s “strong alliance” with France and the relevant Greek-French defence agreement emerged. However, the Rafale fighter planes and the French frigates are not “power multipliers”, as Mitsotakis claims, but “multipliers” of the policy of dependency and risks for the Greek people. The commitments for the involvement of our country in the war campaigns of French imperialism in the countries of the Sahel zone, in Africa,  also form a new dangerous development.

With the war in Ukraine raging, the Nea Dimokratia government, boasting that “we have always been on the right side of history” and faithfully serving the doctrine of “we belong to the West”, aligned and allied with the US, NATO and the EU in all their aggressive decisions. Deepening our country’s involvement and entanglement in the anti-Russian coalition of the West, it sent war material to the Ukrainian government, proceeded to suffocatingly control information so that Western propaganda would overwhelmingly dominate, and spearheaded all sanctions decided against Russia, reaching the unprecedented obscurantist point of banning the presence of works of Russian culture. These are the famous “strong relations” with American, French imperialism and the EU. The strengthening of imperialist dependence. The Right is the faction that has consistently bid and is bidding, without qualms, in servility to the US and the EU. It is an extremely dangerous policy that surrenders Greece to the vortex of escalating imperialist conflicts and makes it a target. Ties of dependence and submission to the imperialists, identification with the US-NATO forces of aggression and war can only cause suffering to our country and our people.

11. The wider geopolitical upheavals and rearrangements taking place in our region are being exploited by the Turkish oligarchy. This is a Turkey in a nationalist frenzy, using its military power and economic penetration to establish itself as a strong regional power. Its provocations, aggressive actions and military moves follow one after the other, opening up many fronts at the same time. Plans and operations are underway to expand Turkey’s spheres of influence and to promote its interests in the Aegean, Cyprus, the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, the Balkans, the Black Sea, the Caucasus and Central Asia, as well as in the Red and Arab Seas, the Persian Gulf, North Africa and the Western Mediterranean.

In this context and with the above information, Greek-Turkish relations are decisively influenced by the interests, interventions and competition of the imperialist powers for control of the wider region.

Since July 2020, when the survey vessel ‘Oruç Reis’, accompanied by a number of warships, started explorations in violation of the Greek continental shelf, the escalation of Turkish aggression in the Aegean, Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean has been unprecedented. The relative calm that prevailed for a short period, during which “exploratory contacts” and talks between government officials of the two countries began, turned out to be a temporary respite.

The situation is again explosive. The plan to create “Greater Turkey”, the so-called “Blue Homeland”, is being implemented gradually and methodically. The provocations and aggressive actions are multiplying. New achievements are constantly being “consolidated”. The Turkish oligarchy is turning the Aegean Sea into a ‘gray area’, by questioning every Greek sovereignty and Greek sovereign right beyond 6 miles, by its references to the Turkish minority in Thrace and by turning the refugee stream into a weapon for pressure and blackmail, has gone on to directly challenge Greek sovereignty over islands such as Lemnos, Samothrace, Chios, Mytilene, Samos, Ikaria and the Dodecanese, demanding their “demilitarization”. A second casus belli is taking shape, attempting to damage the territorial sovereignty and integrity of Greece.

At the same time, daily airspace violations and overflights by armed, manned and unmanned warplanes over and around inhabited islands are increasing, naval exercises are taking place one after the other and the risk of a military escalation is growing.

In Cyprus, Turkey has imposed, in practice, the downgrading of the Republic of Cyprus to a “Greek Cypriot community” and the pseudo-state to an equal partner, and has proceeded to violate and destroy the sovereign rights of the Republic of Cyprus with the use of Turkish drilling rigs, paving the way – another flagrant violation of UN resolutions – for the colonisation of the enclosed area of Famagusta. Currently Turkey is promoting, as a “solution”, the definitive partition of the island into two states. The Turkish invasion and illegal occupation of the northern part of Cyprus is now treated by “partners” and “allies” of the Greek governments as a “bilateral dispute”!

The provocativeness of the Erdogan government is taking place in a context of serious geopolitical upheavals as well as upheavals in the wider region. The war in Ukraine and the open fronts in the Balkans, the Middle East and North Africa have further highlighted Turkey’s critical geopolitical role for the US, the EU, Russia and China. This is something that the Turkish oligarchy is exploiting. With a policy of balancing exercises and “pretentious neutrality” it manages to extract significant benefits for its pursuits.

And while it is a given that the US, NATO, Germany and the EU tolerate or even encourage Turkish aggression over time, all Greek governments – including the current ND government – and all bourgeois political parties, place the “settlement” of the Greek-Turkish crisis on the “high supervision” and “protection” of their US-NATO allies. In fact, our country is being used as a pawn in the hands of the US and France in the geostrategic chessboard of the region, to put pressure on Ankara in order to put a brake on its rapprochement with Russia and China and to unconditionally return to the fold of NATO. This role, the American geopolitical “hinge” as the American ambassador Pyatt put it, has been taken over by the Mitsotakis government, believing that it will upgrade its position and secure a more substantial role and a larger share in the region on behalf of the local plutocratic oligarchy.

The continued stance of Greek governments is the policy of appeasement and concessions towards Ankara’s expansionism. In these critical circumstances that have formed, the Mitsotakis government, embarrassed and panicking, through successive adjustments of the famous “red lines”, is paving the way for the well-known ‘painful compromise’, presenting a referral to the Hague Court as the only “realistic” strategy for the country. With the consent of both SYRIZA and KINAL/PASOK (3) and by recruiting “analysts” and “consultants” they are preparing the people to accept the policy of alleged realism and the “culture of compromise”. In other words, the policy of submission to the imperialists and submissiveness to Turkish demands.

At the same time, the Nea Dimokratia government is proceeding with huge investments in armaments, citing the “defensive shield” of the country, boasting with a nationalist rhetoric that it is gaining superiority in the Aegean Sea against Turkey. In reality, these are armaments that are part of and serve the aggressive US-NATO plans in the Balkans and Eastern Europe, as has now been shown with the war in Ukraine. They have nothing to do with the real defence needs of the country and its people. And the Greek people will be called upon, once again, to pay this heavy bill.

At the same time, local governments, with the support of their foreign, transatlantic protectors, in order to counterbalance Ankara’s blackmail, joined the US-inspired “strategic alliance” with Zionist Israel and the fascist regime in Egypt to make an agreement for the construction of the East Med gas pipeline, adventurously involving our country in the pro-war policy of the USA and Israeli Zionism and putting our people in great danger. Now that the US plans and policies in the Eastern Mediterranean have changed and Turkey’s relations with Israel and a number of Arab countries seem to be warming again, the East Med has been dropped by the Americans and with it all the grandiose plans and “strategic upgrades” of the role of the governments of the Greek grand bourgeoisie.

The huge military armaments that are accumulating on both sides of the Aegean Sea, feeding nationalist cries, the war exercises that have become dangerously frequent, the American Patriot missiles and the Russian S-400’s, the French frigates and German submarines, the drones and Rafals and so on are a threat to the peoples, and not a protection. They are profits for the imperialists and add fuel to the fire of imperialist competition and war.

The peoples of Greece and Turkey have nothing that separates them. They have nothing to gain from the tension and antagonism of the ruling classes, from the reactionary nationalism and chauvinism that is poisoning the relations between the two peoples. Greek-Turkish friendship, however, is not built by appeasement and submissiveness to Turkish expansionism or, even more so, by obedience to imperialist dictates.

We condemn any violation or threat of war against the sovereign rights and any change in the borders of the two countries, defend the territorial integrity of our country in case of an attack by Turkey and denounce any adventurist attack that may be launched by Greece against the sovereignty of Turkey.
Only the common struggle of the peoples of Greece and Turkey against their common enemies, imperialism and the local oligarchies, against the policy of subordination and subjugation, against the chauvinist and nationalist hysteria of the ruling classes, against the reactionary alliances with the Israeli Zionists and the Egyptian coup plotters, will be able to lead to a peaceful solution of the problems, to contribute to the struggle for national independence, for freedom from imperialist shackles, for the expulsion of the American bases, for the exit of Greece from NATO and the EU.

C. Internal situation

Notes for this section:

1) The university asylum was the  ban of police on  uni/school campuses,  originated in the fight  against the Junta of 1967-1974. Notably  the current government  has even permanently  installed a new police  force on uni campuses

2) The Greek National Health Care System

3) KKE is the old revisionist party

12. The year 2022 found the vast majority of Greek society exhausted, with the health crisis ongoing, in conditions of generalised insecurity and a dramatic deterioration of the conditions of life and work. Since 2010, twelve years of a full frontal attack on the people have passed, with successive memoranda of plunder and enslavement of the people and the country. All the intervening governments, from the parties of the Greek oligarchy (PASOK, ND, SYRIZA and various occasional coalition supplements), have obediently served the orders of the lenders, the IMF, European Central Bank and the main imperialist powers of EU.

The Greek economic oligarchy, from the time of its creation and its constitution as a ruling class and throughout its historical development, has been subservient to foreign oppressors. Through the attachment to imperialism and the securing of its “protection”, it ensures its anti-popular domination and interests. The Greek ruling class is the internal support of imperialism in our country and imperialism is its support in turn. It is aligned with imperialism and together they exploit and oppress the Greek people.

In the three or so years of the country’s rule by the New Democracy party, the anti-popular attacks continue. The Mitsotakis government – now the dominant force in the bourgeois political system – is implementing a harsh class policy. Austerity and continuous overtaxation on the people’s income, greater cuts in the already minimal social spending on education, health and welfare, sweeping reversals in labour relations, hard blows to trade union activity and the right to strike (The so-called Hatzidakis law) that hand over the workers, handcuffed, to the brutal capitalist exploitation, and a total sell-out of the country’s infrastructure and wealth to the lenders. And, at the same time, greater immunity and profits for big capital and the multinationals. In short, submissive obedience and compliance to what the lenders and oppressors of the country and the people – the US and the EU – and the local economic oligarchy are demanding.

Immediately after its election, the New Democracy government pursued a policy of intense and violent reactionary reversals, proceeding to drastically curtail workers’ trade union achievements, fundamental democratic rights and people’s freedoms, attempting to impose conditions of political authoritarianism and fascism in public life. Open police terrorism is on the agenda, with riot police permanently installed in the centre of Athens, with dozens of cases of police brutality, with “flexible” police forces marauding through the city, with raids following one after the other, with the violent repression of demonstrations and strikes becoming more and more frequent. And, of course, with the abolition of the university asylum (1), the restrictions and bans on demonstrations, the creation of the university police and the far-right policy in regard to the refugee issue.

The strikes and the militant mobilisations of the people and the youth are characterized as “phenomena of lawlessness”. Also on the agenda are constant attacks against every progressive idea and movement, the denigration of the Left and the ideology and history of the communist movement, the distortion and mockery of every militant practice and movement. From the strikes and mobilisations to the pandemic and the developments in Ukraine, a vulgar anti-communism with parallel triumphalism about the “historical vindication” of capitalism is being unleashed by the government propaganda apparatus, flooding the fully controlled media and attempting to poison the body of Greek society.

13. Two years have passed with tragic consequences of the criminal management of the pandemic, with over 25,000 deaths so far and the imposition of a grim economic and social reality. The toll is dramatic for the life and health of the people, and is one of the worst in the world. The government did not take measures to deal with the pandemic, did not create conditions of health security and protection of the people. On the contrary. Blind lockdowns, knee-jerk decisions, contradictions and regressions, “individual responsibility” was its policy. And most importantly: a universal refusal to support and strengthen the public health system and, ultimately, its criminal degradation and devaluation.

Even though the pandemic has highlighted the crucial importance of the role of the public health system for the health of the people and especially the discredited Primary Health Care in Greece (2), the systematic underfunding and understaffing of the public health system continued, while privately owned clinics, chains of diagnostic centres and polyclinics were scandalously subsidised.

Its real and provocative indifference to the life and health of the people was revealed, in an outrageous way, when the government in the state budget for 2021 and 2022 -with the pandemic evolving and peaking- proceeded to reduce spending on health care! When it proceeded with mergers and closings of hospitals and other health care centres! When it imposed compulsory vaccination on health workers, putting thousands of health workers on suspension, i.e. out of action, further undermining the collapsing public health system. And now, it is preparing to sack unvaccinated hospital staff, to bring in private doctors to the National Health Service and provide expanded services on private economic grounds.

It is obvious now that the government’s Operation Freedom was not only of a sanitary nature. It was an operation against freedom, democracy and people’s health. It was an operation of authoritarianism, of repression, of building a reactionary “emergency” state in the name of fighting the pandemic and health surveillance. And total demolition of the public health system. Even the necessary mass vaccination was exploited with stigmatizing intimidation and threats and the authoritarian enforcement of the mandate, segregation, fines and suspensions of thousands of health workers.

The ND government has weaponized the pandemic to spread insecurity and fear, seeking to terrorize and paralyze the people. Using the pandemic as a pretext, it imposed coercion and fascist prohibitions and proceeded to violently suppress popular reactions. It unleashed a witch-hunt on those who did not comply with its policy and attempted to create social conditions of division. With the memoranda of plunder and enslavement entrenched, the pandemic became a tool for new reactionary developments in the hands of a government that seeks to crush what post-war economic, trade union and democratic gains of the popular movement are left after the memorandum steamroller.

In addition to the tragic consequences for the people of the criminal management of the pandemic, there were also the pernicious manipulations of the government in dealing with the fires in Evia and Attica, which caused an unprecedented environmental, social and economic disaster. Then came the floods, earthquakes and snowstorms. The so-called ‘supervisor state’ collapsed in all cases.

At a time when the reality of climate change requires drastic measures to be taken, the scandalous indifference of the government to take the necessary measures to prevent and deal with natural disasters, to protect the lives, property and work of the working strata has been highlighted once again.

The neoliberal model, celebrated by the Mitsotakis government, means abandoning, dismantling and destroying every public structure and infrastructure that can serve the needs of the people and handing them over to the greed of the well-known private sector.

14. As the “emergency circumstances” of the pandemic are slowly being put aside, the “normality” that the Mitsotakis government has in store for the people is the escalation of its harsh class policy, their impoverishment and misery.

Inflation has hit a 25-year high! With the outrageous increases in energy at its core, a sweeping wave of price increases is spreading to basic foodstuffs and essentials, hitting the broader working classes and giving the most vulnerable social groups ’the final blow’. And not all the effects of the underfunctioning of the economy during the pandemic period have yet to be seen. The consequences of the US and EU economic warfare against Russia, which will have dramatic effects on the lives of the peoples of the West as well, have yet to be felt.

The so-called “relief” measures for popular households, small and medium-sized enterprises and freelancers and the phony benefits, are a drop in the ocean of poverty, destroyed property and lives from the economic crisis, the pandemic, fires, earthquakes, floods, snowstorms.

The people’s income is shrinking hopelessly, unemployment is still at high levels, the poor and middle-class farmers are struggling to survive, debts are drowning the masses, foreclosures are multiplying, “red” loans are skyrocketing and mass auctions are threatening thousands of people’s homes and small businesses.

As for the public debt, after twelve years of harsh memorandum fiscal “discipline”, it continues to grow. It is the highest in Europe and the second highest in the world, and is moving to unimaginable heights of over 200% of GDP!

The government’s narrative of “restarting the economy” and “recovery” lands in the anomalous and dramatic conditions of a reality that says otherwise. Their “growth” does not mean “prosperity for all”. It means strengthening the economic oligarchy alone. It means handing over the country’s wealth and infrastructure to imperialist interests. It means robbing the people. The wealth that is created is defiantly accumulated by the oligarchy. Social inequalities are widening and class antagonisms are sharpening. The rich few are getting richer and extreme poverty and misery spread among the wide working class strata.

The government propaganda about the European “super weapon”, the Recovery Fund, and the economic “cosmogony” that will follow, have nothing to do with what is actually being prepared. The resources of the Recovery Fund will be the new big feast of the plutocracy. Only the people will get the bill.

Loans and grants from the famous Fund come with draconian conditions and commitments. They will be paid out according to the well-known memorandum model, in instalments, provided that the strict implementation of a policy of fiscal discipline and reactionary reforms is ensured, which will give the coup de grace to those workers’ rights and achievements that have survived the twelve-year onslaught against the people. The revenue for the repayment of the European Commission’s loans will be raised through new tax raids on the people’s income.

Already the representatives of the lenders, after the forced relaxation of the “fiscal rules” during the last two years of the pandemic, are coming back to tighten the mnemonic reins again. All their “ideas” and proposals, especially for over-indebted countries like Greece, are leading to a new Stability Pact that will provide a suffocating framework of fiscal discipline and surveillance to guarantee their interests.

15. SYRIZA, during its term of government (2015 -2019), served the policy of the memoranda and undermined and attacked workers’ rights and freedoms, reconciled broad layers of the people with the bourgeois ideology and the values of the conservative world, and elevated the policy of subservience to the US and the EU.

Now, as the official opposition, SYRIZA essentially agrees with and supports the policy of the ND government on all the critical issues that concern the people and the country. In domestic policy, the health and economic crisis, labour and educational issues, foreign policy, the war in Ukraine, the Greek-Turkish crisis and the response to Turkish aggression, the arms programs, the political differences SYRIZA presents are irrelevant and hypocritical. Its demagogic oppositional proclamations are always accompanied by the attitude of “responsible political power”, seeking to project itself as a credible alternative to the government in order to create conditions for a return to power.

SYRIZA’s unpopular governmental past and the substantial identification of its policies with those of the New Democracy party has led it a shrinking of its electoral influence. The constant cracks in its ranks, internal disagreements and contradictions, distancing and increasing degeneration are the inevitable result of the ideological and political bankruptcy of its policies.

The increasing political deterioration of the Mitsotakis government, combined with the inability of SYRIZA to create a strong electoral current, push parts of the power centres to seek forces that could act as a complementary force in case of the inability to form a self-reliant government in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

This purpose is served by the high visibility and open support of PASOK/KINAL and its new leader, N. Androulakis, and their targeted demographic polling. They are creating favourable conditions for the re-establishment of a political space, once dominant, which has been moving in recent years between decay and incorruptibility, attempting to direct the popular discontent manifested against ND and SYRIZA to painless paths, to a controlled party crutch.

PASOK/KINAL, with its new leadership, is trying to find a distinct role with hollow confrontations against ND and SYRIZA. And above all to secure the favour of powerful circles through an attitude of “nationally responsible political power”. Its identification with government policy and with the international and local “anti-Russian” camp in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine serves this purpose.

DIEM25 is an “one man party” created in the aftermath of the total integration of SYRIZA into bourgeois politics, with its leader Y. Varoufakis having a leading role in the developments of that time, despite the demagogic invocation of the myth of “tough negotiations” and his supposed “anti-memorandum stance”. Seeking supporters among those who pull the strings of power, having strong connections with American and European social democracy, he is messing around left and right, mixing reformist illusions with mainstream bourgeois politics while fully accepting the framework of the country’s dependence on the US and the EU.

Both SYRIZA and PASOK/KINAL and DIEM25 are parties that reproduce and serve the policy that serves the interests of the Greek economic oligarchy and imperialism. Together with ND they are the pillars of the dominant political system of power. The main element is their agreement on all major issues of concern to the people and our country. Their differences are secondary. And their oppositional tones of complaint are the necessary cover. The bourgeois and imperialist centres of power, in the face of trends of political destabilisation, alongside the constant encouragement to ensure conditions of political and social consensus, are intensifying the processes for alternative versions of governance that will guarantee governmental stability.

16. The policy of the KKE (3) leadership was a special support for the government’s policy during the pandemic. The KKE accepted, in effect, the government’s policy of curfews and quarantine as a policy for dealing with the pandemic. In all the critical militant mobilizations to stop this policy, KKE not only made no mass call but undermined every such effort, reproducing the view that mass gatherings are a danger to public health. It has maintained exactly the same attitude of silence and tolerance in the face of the authoritarianism of compulsory vaccination.

When the students’ and workers’ movement, with the firm support of forces of the extra-parliamentary left, broke the government prohibitions, the KKE was dragged into the mobilisations and presented itself, without a trace of shame, as the standard-bearer of the struggles that developed. However, its conciliatory and subversive line manifested itself consistently and everywhere, from the student and education movements to the workers’ strike struggles, the health workers’ suspensions and the recent agricultural blockades. Neither in the ADEDY (The federation of trade unions of civil servants), nor in the EKA (The Athenian trade union federation) or in Worker’s Centres and federations in which KKE has absolute control has it proposed a strike from June 2021, despite daily vows on the need for a pan-worker, nationwide strike front. Even on the Hatzidakis law, in an essential alliance with the PASOK and SYRIZA forces in ADEDY, KKE has not even proposed or voted for a resolution for a total rejection of all the provisions of the law and no trade union mobilization to overturn it.

The line of the KKE leadership is in fact an empty line that represents no threat to the interests of the ruling class.

At the same time, the KKE’s policy leaves the government’s policy of subservience out of the picture, having buried the issue of imperialist dependence, which has become even stronger with the new “defence” agreements of the Mitsotakis government with the US and France.

The policy of abandoning the struggle for national independence also found expression in the position of the KKE leadership in relation to the war in Ukraine. Its position is summed up in the slogan “no to the imperialist war“, which sets out a profoundly wrong orientation. Positions like that of Aleka Papariga at a rally that “the war has an imperialist character on both sides, Russia and Ukraine“, that “it is a war between two capitalist states and their leaderships for the interests of each at the expense of the other“, present the war in Ukraine as a war between Russian and Ukrainian imperialism. The statement of the Central Committee of the KKE reads: “The peoples will live better not by choosing a national or other type of exploiter, but by winning, by abolishing the regime of exploitation.” In other words, for the KKE it is the same whether a country is under foreign occupation, or has a “national exploiter”, to the extent that it does not have socialism! And that the main issue now for the people of Ukraine in the face of invasion and war is to abolish the “regime of exploitation”. In the “joint statement of communist and workers’ parties” co-signed by the KKE, the demand for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine is absent and the central demand is put forward as “no to the imperialist war in Ukraine! An independent struggle is required against the monopolies, the bourgeoisie, for the overthrow of capitalism, the strengthening of the class struggle against the imperialist war, for socialism! “.

All this reflects only the obfuscation of the KKE leadership towards the war in Ukraine, which sows confusion and, in fact, distorts the character of this war and the tasks arising from it. That is why KKE refuses to formulate as the primary demand raised by this war the defence of the national independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine from the Russian military invasion and the imperialist interventions of the USA-NATO-EU.

17. This is the content that the basic forces of the Trotskyist and “anti-capitalist” space give to the war and they are led to positions similar to those of the KKE.

One-sided positions about bourgeois class confrontations exonerate the role of the imperialists and undermine the development of the anti-war-anti-imperialist movement.
The general and deliberately ambiguous references to imperialism imply the narrative of “imperialist Greece” and it is in this light that the demand of “non-participation of the country” (i.e. of Greece in the war) is put forward. The repetitions about the “antagonisms of capital” refer to the bankrupt theory of “totalitarian capitalism”, which in reality erases the contradiction between imperialism and the peoples, and which bypasses the struggle for national independence. Just in order to arrive at vague positions on “the formation of a mass, international, independent camp of peoples that will threaten the war strategy”.

A significant number of organisations on the left, on the occasion of the war in Ukraine, equally dangerously, show tolerance, preference or even direct alignment with Russian imperialism. This is a distorted reading of reality, which seeks national independence, freedom and justice of peoples, not in the anti-imperialist struggle, but in the imperialist oppositions themselves, in the great powers and their competition. For the needs of “substantiating” such positions, Russia is turned into a capitalist “regional power” and the invasion is justified as a necessary option.

Both with the analyses of “totalitarian capitalism” and “inter-capital competition” that obliterate the basic contradictions of the current period, and with the illusions of “positive developments” that the victory of one or the other imperialist power can offer, the role of the abovementioned forces is detrimental to the development of the necessary anti-imperialist-anti-war movement.

D. Popular and worker’s resistance and struggle

18. The social and political climate is changing. The health and economic crises are having a catalytic effect on the people, especially since the summer of 2021 and the forest fires. Anger and indignation permeate broad layers of the people. Consciences are awakening, intense processes are taking place. These processes, although they have not yet found their way to mass and organised expression, may take on militant and mass characteristics and lead to an outburst of the workers in the face of the accumulation of problems and the outrageous soaring prices. The relative political stability achieved with the victory of the New Democracy party in the last parliamentary elections in 2019 is now being put to the test. The staffs of the New Democracy and the oligarchy know it. Alarmed by the developments, they are deploying an overwhelming propaganda of embellishment and inversion of reality and manipulations of an electoral nature, in order to dampen popular indignation and to re-capture the electoral mass required to secure their political dominance. They are now brazenly attempting to wash their hands of the disastrous consequences of their policies with the developments in Ukraine and with the sweeping propaganda of the West, falsely selling the ‘right side of history’ as a guarantee of peace, security and democracy. Presenting the politics of austerity and poverty as the result of external factors.

In the face of successive anti-worker measures, the bleeding of the people’s income, police violence and repression, the only way for the M-L KKE was and remains the way of popular and worker-wide resistance and struggle for the reversal of the anti-people’s measures that have been passed and the repulsion of new measures are on the way, for the defence of democratic rights and political freedoms that are being curtailed, in integral connection with the general aims of the struggle for the country’s exit from the EU, NATO, the expulsion of the American bases and the overthrow of imperialist domination.

The pan-worker struggles that took place in our country in the previous period of the memoranda, rallying hundreds of thousands of people and youth, were organized through the primary trade unions and associations, which, by exerting strong pressure on the compromised and subordinate leaderships of the higher organs of the trade union movement, forced them to announce nationwide, pan-worker strikes that facilitated in practice the widest participation of the workers. And in the last two years of the pandemic, despite the great retreat of the trade union movement, the lockdowns ­and the junta-like prohibitions, thousands of workers, health workers, teachers and students went and continue to go on strike through the trade unions and student associations.

When in the first year of the pandemic the police banned all gatherings and deployed thousands of armed police in the centre of Athens and the big cities, when unbearable pressure was put on the left and communist forces to adapt to government pressure and propaganda, two political orientations were confronted in the initial difficult period and throughout the pandemic.

The line put forward by the parliamentary parties – SYRIZA, Diem25 and KKE, but also a number of forces of the extra-parliamentary left and the anarchist and anti-authoritarian space – of: “we will settle the score later”. This line of accommodation and compliance with government pressure, which suspended the mobilisations and – when forced to do them – gave them a symbolic character, without for a moment calling on the people en masse to demonstrate and massively oppose government policy. And on the other hand, the line of militant stance that stood up to the pressure, fought to repel it and consistently put forward the need for mass resistance. This is the line that the M-L KKE has put forward from the first day of the pandemic until today and this is the political stance it has maintained, contributing to the extent of its strength in breaking government bans and strengthening popular resistance.

Despite the miserable, sabotaging role of the GSEE leadership and the undermining policy of ADEDY and the higher trade union organisations, last year dozens of student youth rallies and demonstrations developed through the trade unions and associations, health workers, teachers, other workers, in defence of democratic, educational and labour rights, all over Greece, against government prohibitions and widespread repression, sending optimistic messages. There were also important victories for workers (at e-food, COSCO, for the teachers). Now, almost a year after last year’s general strike, and while the economic and social problems of workers are becoming acute, the GSEE and ADEDY have decided to hold a general strike on 6 April. The vast extent of unemployment, the reduction of wages, the attempt to weaken the right to strike and the functioning of trade unions with the Hatzidakis law, the swelling of inflation and the predicted deterioration of all these developments, plus the disastrous consequences of the war in Ukraine, have created an intolerable situation for the working class. Under the pressure to resist this dramatically developing situation, the leaderships of the higher organs of the trade union movement have crawled out and have been forced to declare a general strike. It is now necessary for this strike to be transformed into a large mass mobilisation of the working class and to be the starting point for a worked wide strike escalation throughout the coming period against the deeply anti-working class policy of the Mitsotakis government. All the militant class forces of the working class must concentrate on this goal.

A year and a half after the conviction of the fascist gang “Golden Dawn”, we see the resurgence of the terrorist activity of various fascist groups. Preachers of anti-communism, reactionary nationalism and racism engage in attacks and thuggery, tolerated by the government and the police. The anti-fascist mobilisation of the popular masses for political isolation and the defeat of their plans must be strengthened and combined with the condemnation of government policies and the reactionary, anti-communist theory of the “two extremes” that feed fascism.

With confidence in the power of the people’s struggle, in the power of the masses

19. The M-L KKE faced the new political reality and the abrupt change of conditions brought about by the pandemic in a direct, firm and decisive manner. In these very difficult circumstances, it fought to prevent the climate that the government tried to impose by setting up a scene of terror, mass hysteria and psychosis. The members of the M-L KKE and Poreia responded with a fighting spirit to the difficult situation, showing confidence in the strength of the people’s struggle, in the power of the masses. Because only the people’s movement, and no one else in its name, can stop and overthrow the government policy.

In this direction, the M-L KKE will continue its struggle within the framework of the mass movement and at the same time will develop its independent political action, while bringing the organizational tasks, those of party building and organizational development, to the centre of its work.

We have remained firm and militant, with endurance and steadfastness, a fighting communist force with ideological and political tools that allow us to move forward, overcoming obstacles and difficulties.

Ε. The organisational tasks

Notes for this section:

1) ERG.A.S is the abrevviation of the faction of M-L KKE in unions that the M-L KKE has presence. The M-L KKE tries to organize comrades in the unions under the banner of “ERG.A.S” to fight a common line with other workers.

2) Poreia (“march”) is the youth organization of M-L KKE. In universities the youth operates under the banner “Student Poreia”. In schools under the banner “Pupil Poreia”.

20. The emphasis placed on organizational tasks in recent years has brought positive results in the life of the party, which are reflected in the functioning of the party, the organs and the core groups, in the integration of new members into the party and the youth, in the creation of new organizations, in meeting and connecting with new comrades and friends, despite the difficulties created recently by the pandemic.

Organizational issues in general, and in particular the crucial issue of our connection with the people we affect, the strengthening of political and organizational links with them, organizational development and party recruitment, must be of greater and greater concern to us, since we still have several weaknesses in this area, weaknesses that were intensified during the pandemic period due to social distancing.

The M-L KKE has an ideological and political orientation that has been tested all the previous years and confirmed in practice and in the course of the major political events, a line grounded in class struggle. This line is our strength. The organisation must study it more deeply, assimilate it and make use of it.

With this ideological and political orientation and the tools we have, we can set a goal and take a solid organizational step forward. Every party organ and core group, every office and every responsible person must analytically and thoroughly turn to this discussion with concrete tasks and objectives.

The decisive link for our organisational development is the commitment of the leadership and members of the organisation to cultivate and consolidate links with our close fellow fighters (…)

The steady connection of party members with mass spaces (unions, associations, etc.) and active intervention in them, in a broad way that will convince people of our positions and politics; the effort to transform social, collegial and trade union relations into stable, ideological, political and organisational relations; individual discussions, regular promotion of the newspaper, financial support; the use of forms and shapes of political discussion and the creation of organised core groups of comrades at a first level. Despite the positive steps that have been taken in the last few particularly years, there are also significant weaknesses in this chapter that need to be more systematically addressed in meetings and debates across the scale of the organisation.

Without exhausting this chapter, the following are some key weaknesses that prevent us from exploiting our existing potential. And the identification of which, as well as other ones, can help to mitigate or even overcome them. These are mainly weaknesses of an organizational culture, specific connection with specific people, in pursuit of the concrete results of organizational connection

There are people around us whom we don’t work with to form conditions of a closer connection. Underestimation in our evaluations of the people around us is another problem. There are also phenomena of haste and the search for quick results, undermining efforts and leading to frustration. Routine participation sometimes in our events or demonstrations, with are members not exhausting the lively effort to attract the social circle.

Weaknesses in linking our mass trade union and broader work with the concrete work of organisational development. Weaknesses in understanding the inadequacies of the people who surround us, who are being bombarded every day by omnipresent views and perceptions alien to our own, and this must be the starting point for our approach. But also phenomena of relaxation in party life and phenomena of liberalism should not go unnoticed and underestimated. The correct political line that our party has elaborated over time in all the critical problems of the political situation and the communist movement is not sufficient in itself, nor will it automatically bring organizational results. Organizational results, speaking of the field of recruitment, have come when we set this goal and when we worked for it. When we engaged and devoted time and effort towards it. That is the only way it has happened and that is the only way it can happen in the circumstances we are in now. And it is the only way to overcome the shortcomings, weaknesses, inexperience and difficulties that exist.

There is no doubt that in recent years our organisation has upgraded its mobility and activity. This is reflected in our active participation in mobilizations and excursions, in events, in our publications, in the texts we write, in our website e-prologos, in the activity of the three cultural spaces, in our youth camping.

Continuing this positive activity, our cadres and by extension the whole potential of the organization must be concerned with the question of our organizational development and expansion of the organization, and more profoundly with achieving the demands of this crucial matter.

Youth work

Youth work is one of the most critical areas of our organisational policy, as it concerns the continuity and future of the party. Undoubtedly, in recent years, significant positive and encouraging steps have been taken in terms of recruiting new comrades and fellow fighters in the Youth Organisation. Young comrades have taken on central party tasks, and overall the youth have upgraded their role in the overall party work. However, our development of the young generation is still weak and persistent efforts will be required to overcome weaknesses and shortcomings that are observed.

As far as our work among working youth is concerned, we must make the young comrades who have recently entered or are now entering the workplace and belong to the masses join their unions. Particularly positive is the presence of young working comrades in the strike mobilizations, against the climate of employer terror and fear of firings. Also, the association of the young comrades with the ERG.A.S. should be positively evaluated. However, several more steps must be taken to strengthen them and to “digest” the political-unionist line. A basic weakness is the low level of connection between the comrades and their working environment, something that must be of immediate concern to the youth core groups and the Central Committee of ER.GAS.

Our work with student and school-going youth, despite the positive steps that have been taken, can and must be improved. Our main concern in the student sector should be to connect with new friends and fellow fighters, with the aim of strengthening and strengthening the independent action and presence of broad political and trade union formations of Student Poreia, both in the schools where they already have a presence and in new schools where there exist possibilities for intervention. Basic tools for the organizational development of the youth are, apart from the Poreia magazine, the annual summer camp and the cultural spaces of the organization.

The meeting of Poreia, held in December, was a positive step in the work of the youth organisation. The presence of a significant number of members and friends is a result of the previous effort and also reflects the potential that exists. But also the substantial discussion that took place around the fundamental political problems, the assessment of the actions of the party and the youth in the two previous difficult years of the pandemic and the more systematic highlighting of the need for organised struggle and collective action had a positive effect within the organisation and on the friends who participated.

The summer camping is a very successful activity, whose success is judged each time by its massive participation, by the content of its events and by the level of our organizational efforts.                                                
The embrace of the camping and its active support by the whole of our organisation is an element that can and should help our organisational goals in many ways.

The cultural domain

Our three cultural spaces, Sima (‘Signal’, in Athens), Sfina (‘Wedge’, in Ioannina) and Piksida (‘Compass’, in Thessaloniki), have constituted a new chapter and, without exaggeration, a leap in the activity of our organization. At the meeting of Poreia in December, the following account was given of the events held in the three spaces:

• 110 events – discussions of political, ideological and historical content.
• 104 films and documentaries
• 101 music events and parties
• 18 exhibitions of paintings, prints, photography, small crafts
• 9 book presentations
• 9 theatre evenings.

And all this in about three years, as the outbreak of the pandemic forced the venues to shut down, and mainly and only to some extent to organize discussions.

In the next period, despite the problems left behind by the two-year pandemic, the operation of the cultural venues should be strengthened by all kinds of activities and events from the total potential of the organisations in the three cities.

With the focus on the three cultural spaces and also with the camping, a new task, a new area in the life of the organization has emerged: the area of the cultural front. Alongside the main front, the political front, the cultural work has contributed and can contribute to our organisational work.

Through the emergence of a progressive content of cultural activity, utilizing possibilities outside and inside the party, it can further help in the chapter of party building and organizational development.

For the newspaper Laikos Dromos

We ensured the uninterrupted publication of the Laikos Dromos (‘People’s Road’), overcoming the serious difficulties we faced, especially in the first year of the pandemic. Despite the extraordinary circumstances of the pandemic and the financial difficulties, we had an increase in the circulation of the newspaper from the kiosk in Athens. Despite the problems, there has been an improvement both in the content and quality of the texts and in the editorial potential and technical “set-up” by our own means. We must insist on the qualitative upgrading and enrichment of the articles with texts of political and ideological content and at the same time strengthen the editorial, publishing and distribution mechanism. In order to improve the editorial work, we must take measures to strengthen the editorial committee, expand the network of regular columnists in the centre and in the provinces, activate the party members for correspondents and texts on issues from the sectors they work and follow, insist on better organisation of the editorial work (ensuring ideological texts, more and smaller texts, timely preparation and delivery of texts, etc.). It must be, again and again, a topic of discussion for our organisations and a point of attention in all our activities, in our individual contacts, in our trade unions or associations, in mobilisations or at work, in the neighbourhood, its dissemination and circulation is an integral part. With regard to the distribution and dissemination of the newspaper, the party organizations must imprint it with specific information, promote it and monitor it. A nationwide campaign will be developed in the coming period to strengthen the circulation of the Laikos Dromos.

Educational publications

The reprinting of theoretical, historical and political books with the help of our publishing organisation ‘Educational Publications’ has helped to strengthen the ideological front in previous years.

However, in recent times publishing activity has been significantly reduced, as has the activity of the website of Educational Publications.

The issue needs to be addressed immediately so that our past publications are collected and catalogued, what has been out of print is reprinted, new publications are planned, the website is revitalized and ultimately the potential of the organization is stimulated to study and distribute our publications, for the need to strengthen the theoretical, ideological, historical and political level of members and fellow fighters.

On the financial work

Our finances are affected by the increasing difficulties – which the economic crisis continues to create – and the great loss of income from the forced restriction of events in cultural venues. Dealing with these difficulties requires a more organised and controlled management of our finances, both in terms of income and expenditure. The regular payment of contributions without delays, wider political work and the effort to obtain financial support from our influences, friends, work and social environment, the contribution of all party organisations to increasing the sales of all our publications and publications, the saving of resources through more careful management of our expenses, combined with improved organisation, systematic control and monitoring of the progress of finances by the financial officers are measures which we must see to.

Panhellenic Conference

For March 2020 we had planned a national assembly, which could not take place due to the beginning of the pandemic. Since then, great developments have been taking place in the world and in our country, which make it imperative to hold a national assembly to discuss international and domestic political issues, as well as organizational tasks.                                                

For these purposes, a nationwide M-L KKE Conference is planned for May 27-29.

The aim of the Conference should be to discuss the critical political issues and to advance these organizational objectives. At the same time, the Conference should be used to gather not only all party members and youth, but also an important circle of comrades and friends from Athens and the provinces who want to attend the Conference, who want to take a step forward towards our common cause.                                      

In every organization, the conference should be organized and prepared for the participation of party and youth members and fellow fighters and friends from Athens and the provinces, who with broad criteria we must invite and form the appropriate climate and conditions for their participation.                              

If we move in time and with the appropriate organizational spirit, the Conference, after two years of the pandemic and its consequences, and in the face of the great developments that are taking place, and in connection with our organizational goals, can be a step that will strengthen the M-L KKE ideologically, politically and organizationally.