People's Democracy

THE Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece sends militant and warm comradely greetings to the 17th congress of your party, to the delegates, the cadres and all members of your party.

We believe your decisions will help to further reinforce the struggle of the working and patriotic people of your country for democracy, equality and justice, aiming at progress and prosperity for the people of India.

Your congress is taking place at a critical period for all of humanity. After the events of September 11 in New York and the Pentagon, there has been a threat hanging over all the people and their mass movements, that a global dictatorship of monopoly capital will be imposed under the leadership of the USA.

The CPG expressed its sympathy for the thousands of victims of September 11, pointing out at the same time that these actions provided an excuse to launch an unprecedented attack against the freedoms and rights of the peoples on the pretext of a war against terrorism. The more general reasons for this war already existed before September 11 --- a war aiming, above all, to consolidate and perpetuate the global hegemony of the USA. So, under no circumstances have we changed our assessment of the imperialist nature and policy of the USA as a result of the events of September 11; on the contrary, they have confirmed the nature of the USA and in addition emphasised the fact that imperialism is by its very nature reactionary, over the entire spectrum of its manifestations, and not an "open and democratic society of freedom and equal opportunities" which US leaders hastened to proclaim and defend.

And now, we have the declaration by President Bush on "axis of evil" and the Pentagon paper on the "Nuclear Posture Review" which widens the circumstances thought to justify a possible nuclear response and expands the list of countries considered potential nuclear targets.

In the US, court martials were set up, with hearings closed to the public and the media; judicial and police authorities have acquired responsibilities for which they are not accountable, while the secret services now have the "lawful" permission to undertake operations, even assassinations of individuals or groups on orders from the US government. The National Guard has undertaken to guard airports and other points in the major US cities.

Similar measures to suppress individual rights and freedoms are being taken in the EU as well, with coordination between police and judicial authorities, the establishment of a uniform extradition order for all EU countries, and the creation of an EU army as a rapid deployment force to serve the interests of European capital. The EU adopts the general line put forward by the US, irrespective of its ambitions to claim its own share of the gains. Their contradictions do not annul the common strategy they have.

The main feature of the legislative arsenal being assembled is that any resistance movement fighting against capitalist globalisation, or anti-imperialist movement fighting against imperialist interventions and war and against NATO, can now be described as terrorist actions, as can be the movements developing against the anti-popular and reactionary policy of the EU or any social and national liberation movements.

In our opinion, we must fight against the views that originate mainly from the propaganda machinery of the imperialist centres, and that say that terrorist actions such as those of September 11 are a response by the poor and oppressed peoples to imperialist oppression and its rapacious exploitation of the rest of the world. Such views constitute the other side of the repressive measures directed against the movements and peoples who resist and fight against the imperialist world order. They constitute a concerted effort to slander these movements.

No, the fight of peoples and movements for social liberation and national independence has nothing to do with terrorist methods. Communists, with their long years of experience of such approaches, are well aware of this fact. Terrorism as a concept and as a political practice has long since lost its innocence as an erroneous and dangerous tactic for demanding social rights for national independence. Today organisations of this type, even when they still have some mass social base, are directly or indirectly involved with imperialist planning. In no case can we accept that the popular struggle constitutes terrorism.

Dear comrades,

In our country, Greece, the year 2001 was a year of large-scale militant popular mobilisation, in which workers, employees and farmers took part. Militant processes were set in motion among small businessmen and especially self-employed tradesmen and free-lance workers.

The Greek people, as they did in the war against Yugoslavia, took part in large militant anti-war demonstrations, the particular feature of which was the participation of youth. In most parts of the country, anti-war committees were set up, through broad democratic procedures, to coordinate the struggle and give it a nationwide dimension. A particular issue is the denunciation of Greek participation in the war and the enactment of laws curtailing democratic and civil freedoms.

In our country a broad and multiform movement is developing, in which the communists play a leading role, to demand that NATO withdraw from the Balkans and not expand into new countries, and to stop any participation by the Greek government in imperialist adventurism or the dispatch of troops abroad.

During this period, farmers are waging tough struggles against the EU’s anti-agrarian policy and the WTO’s reactionary regulations with respect to farm output and agricultural products. Preparations are under way by the class forces in the trade union movement to confront the government’s anti-popular policy regarding the social security and social rights of the working people, the policy of austerity and rising unemployment. At the same time, suppression and persecution measures have been stepped up. A communist town counsellor was sentenced to imprisonment for taking part in anti-NATO demonstrations in defence of the people of Yugoslavia. People are being prosecuted for participating in the student mobilisations that took place in previous years against the government’s anti-education policy.

We attach great importance to internationalisation of the struggle, to the mass participation in and support to mobilisation against capitalist internationalisation, or "globalisation" as it is usually called, culminating in the massive demonstrations in Genoa and at the most recent EU summit meeting in Laaken. Our efforts to foster exchanges of experience by organising meetings between communist and workers parties are in the same direction, as is our support for and contribution to holding meetings of militant anti-imperialist forces, to achieve a higher level of coordination and common action.

Dear comrades,

The target of the imperialist was declared by the USA and NATO on October 7 against the people of Afghanistan was to secure full control of energy sources and oil and natural gas routes in this strategic region that links the former Soviet republics of Central Asia with Russia, China, India, and Arab and Islamic states in the region.

It is our view that we are looking at the development of a particularly dangerous plan that jeopardises security, peace and stability in large areas of our planet, with unforeseeable repercussions along the way, since a large number of countries will be involved and the intra-imperialist conflicts will take on an open form.

Of special weight in this assessment is the fact that, for the first time since World War II, the crisis embraces simultaneously all three centres of imperialism --- the US, Europe and Japan. The crisis has already shaken Argentina.

The imperialists’ declaration of war against international terrorism but also their implementation of a new international military law against the peoples has obvious goals ----

To consolidate the imperialist hegemony of the US, but also to inaugurate the new apportionment among them, to reallocate spheres of influence and alliances to conquer new sources of wealth, and to crush peoples and countries that resist.

To escalate the rivalry between the powerful imperialist forces on earth over who will get the lion’s share.

The alliance that was supposedly created against terrorism, under the leadership of the USA, was and is fragile and is crumbling; those who are currently allies will be tomorrow’s open competitors, giving rise to the danger of new wars and confrontations.

The unilateral withdrawal of the USA from the ABM treaty creates the conditions for a new round of the arms race and the strengthening of the nuclear arsenal especially by the USA, a fact that further increases the risk of confrontation.

Another problem is that, on the occasion of and under the pretext of the war against terrorism, systematic efforts are being made to set up a unified global military, police and judicial machine that will terrorise, convict, imprison or murder anybody who moves or appears to be moving against the imperialist world order. This machinery is being built today, by decision of the US and the EU, with a regional and international structure.

Dear comrades,

Particularly under the current conditions of imperialist aggressiveness, we estimate that we must step up efforts even more to find a common approach to problems, to coordinate and develop common action.

Today, in our opinion, it is urgent for us to develop our interventions in a more coordinated way on a number of issues such as

--- Denouncing imperialist wars and interventions that are taking place on the pretext of fighting terrorism.

--- Revealing and dealing with state terrorism and the laws of oppression that are being enforced in essence against the peoples and movements that resist and fight against the new world order.

--- Stepping up our struggle against the establishment of a new international law that reflects the principle of might is right.

--- Defending the principles of non-intervention in the internal affairs of independent sovereign states and the principles of respect for states’ territorial integrity and independence.

--- Defending the right of the peoples to make a sovereign choice of their own path of governance and development and to determine their own future.

--- Supporting the struggle of the Palestinian people to have their own independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and condemning the brutal military aggressions by the government of Israel against the Palestinian people.

Let us undertake active initiative to demythologise "globalisation," taking into account the new movements that are developing against the policy of imperialist governments and transnational corporations, and to intensify our struggle against the policies and decisions of G-7, the WTO, the IMF and the World Bank which express the domination of the imperialists and monopoly capital, and which are against workers’ rights and against coutnries and peoples who fight against their schemes.

Let us develop a broad movement to defend the gains of the working people, the right to health and social security for all, confronting flexible forms of labour and unemployment. Let us develop coordination and cooperation with the class organisations of the working people who resist and fight against the capitalist offensive.

Dear comrades,

Our party, respecting the independence of every other party, firmly and persistently promotes and supports any effort that contributes to the unity, coordination and common action of the communist movement, and any initiative that aims to develop a militant, broad and mass anti-imperialist and anti-monopoly movement against the aggressiveness and barbarity of imperialism, to confront its policy and to create the conditions necessary for the peaceful development of the peoples, for social justice and socialism.

It is with great pleasure and interest that we participate as guests in your congress and we aim at further development of our bilateral relations which will contribute to the closer cooperation and coordination of the Communist Parties and the reinforcement of the anti-imperialist forces and their struggle in the world.

With these thoughts, allow us to wish every success to the proceedings of your congress.