17TH CONGRESS OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF GREECE

Resolve To Build Democratic Front

And Strengthen The Party

Harsev Bains

THE 17th Congress of the Communist Party of Greece, KKE, was held during February 9-12, 2005 in Athens.

The main theme of the congress was to strengthen the Party in all aspects – ideologically, politically and organisationally. This theme was not only of interest to Communists but also all those who are connected with the popular movement in Greece, which is tackling a new storm of reactionary reforms and restructuring of the economy. It also demands the attention of all those who are dealing with the acute problems of the Greek working people and who believe in the international co-ordination of the struggles.

The central committee and other leading bodies of the KKE made an effort to ensure the best possible pre-congress preparation by creating necessary conditions to ensure every party member and cadre increase their participation and contribution to the discussion of the congress draft theses. During these discussions, the fact that the CC carried out substantive self-criticism on its work was regarded as positive. The self-criticism carried out by the CC was in regard to how it corresponded to its main, basic task, which was: To ensure a unified orientation of its action based on Party strategy; To help every organisation bring its work into general planning in order to adjust and fine tune it in the spirit of initiative and self-activation.

PEOPLE’S AGENDA FOR DISCUSSION

The subjects that concerned the delegates at the congress are directly related to the anti-people measures being implemented by the ND government, under the dictates of finance capital, monopoly groups and the European Union. The problems of unemployment, inflation, reduction in the working people’s buying power, the privatisation of education and health sectors have become acute due to the government policies. The social security system, like in many west European countries, is now facing the threat of being dismantled and the Greek working people will have to resist this with all its might. The ending of agricultural subsidies to the small farmers under EU directives is creating untold misery and hardship. Greece has acquired the dubious status by becoming the second European state after Holland to legalise prostitution, a direct attack on women’s rights thus posing an immediate challenge to the women’s movement.

Antagonism between business groups and various factions of monopoly capital for a greater share of the market has now come to the fore. All “reforms” being demanded by monopoly capital are at the expense of the working class and other strata of the people, and are oriented to ensure profitability and to avail opportunities to meet the challenges of international competition. Small businesses are also under assault by monopoly capital.

Under the pretext of fight against the ‘terrorist threat’, state measures of coercion and restriction of collective and individual freedoms has been launched in Greece. The various legalisations enacted for this purpose within the European Union have increased repressive operations by the military forces. Moreover, the EU has demonstrated its readiness to introduce supplementary measures to combat working class resistance.

The constant violations of the Greek airspace by NATO pose a direct threat to the sovereignty of the country. The change in the deployment of the armed forces, beyond the frontiers of Greece, on missions outside the purview of defending the country’s integrity at the behest of NATO and EU, has created a dangerous situation. Simultaneously, utilising the pretext of the “fight against terrorism” a climate is being created within the country to use the armed forces for the domestic repression of the movement. A ‘professional army’ of mercenaries is being created to serve the interests of the imperialists.

In this background, the more than 500 delegates, 98 of whom intervened during three days of serious deliberations concluded that “It is obvious that the working people have just one choice: To develop their struggles, to build the Anti-imperialists, Anti-monopoly Democratic Front, and to strengthen the Party.” They stressed the need for the struggles to have a mass orientation and for them to be coordinated. “The working class must oppose the overall offensive by capital on all fronts”, they stated, “through unity of action, through its alliance with all the strata of the people, through the united counter-offensive on all fronts. “

GREECE’S POSITION

In elaborating the strategy as defined in the 16th Congress, the theses for this congress summed up the position of Greece in the international imperialist system and the EU. The Greek capitalism is defined as “at the highest and final stage of its development, in the state-monopoly stage, and remains in an intermediary and dependent position in the world imperialist system. In the EU, of the “15” it held one of the two lowest places. In the enlarged EU of the “25” it has risen to a more upgraded position. It is however very much dependent, politically and militarily on the US, NATO and the EU.

Greek capitalism appears more developed than others in the Balkans, including Turkey. However, a more developed capitalism does not mean a capitalism which is free of crisis, nor does it imply an established position among the capitalist economies and states.

These passages on the definition of Greece, which were fulfilling the conditions outlined in Lenin’s Imperialism: Highest Stage of Capitalism, provided the backdrop for classical discussion based on theory tempered by practical experience and the concrete conditions in Greece. Majority of the 98 delegates who spoke on the resolution and theses touched upon this issue. The quotes of Lenin reverberated around the congress hall. The members of the CC were also provided the opportunity to intervene during the debate. The great majority of party members, irrespective of observations and recommendations, agreed with the party strategy. The resolution with minor amendments and the theses were endorsed unanimously by the congress. Their agreement was neither emotional nor formal; it was rooted in their experience gained through work and developments. It is also based on their assessments of the broader popular masses and the positive role played by the party.

The congress assessed the strategy, strength and role of the adversary. Their backing through European capital, NATO and more generally from the international imperialist system which has regained the positions it lost after 1917 and World War II. Anti-socialist propaganda remains its basic ideological weapon, intensified after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It utilises the strategy of the opportunist’s logic regarding the “humanisation” of capitalism.

“The strengthening of the KKE has many aspects, indicators and quantitative and qualitative criteria. It cannot be addressed in a general or abstract way, but must take into consideration the particular conditions and their objective difficulties, the specific phase of alliances, the labour movement, the popular movement in general, and the policy of alliances being adopted. Strengthening the party is likewise influenced by international developments and correlations of class forces, by the level and weight of the world labour movement and the anti-imperialist movement more generally. As far as it depends on us, we must improve our subjective capabilities and skills, and upgrade our effectiveness. It is our obligation to contribute to developing and sharpening the class struggle and to forming a strong popular majority current that fights against the monopolies and the imperialist associations. It is our duty to raise our action to a level corresponding to the assessment of the nature of the period, as a period for the passage to socialism”, stated general secretary of KKE, Aleka Paparigha. Along with her there were 18 per cent of women delegates who attended the congress.

In responding to the debate and points raised by the delegates, Aleka Paparigha said that self-criticism alone is not enough and what is needed is to ensure that some thing is done to change the situation, i.e, both quantitatively and qualitatively and making the party more dynamic. “The outgoing CC will not say what is to be done, we have outlined the people’s problems, the issues of youth and women, the challenge of imperialism and the passage of socialism. We must examine the subjective possibilities and develop new objectives”, she said.

UPSWING MOOD

The Communist Party of Greece is in an upswing mood, having registered a growth in its membership. Its determination to infuse new blood in the run up to the 18th Congress also contributed to this upbeat mood. The Party is united politically and ideologically through action and is taking steps to make its base deep-rooted. It will measure itself in meeting the demands of Greek people in the coming period.

Aleka Paparigha reminded the delegates that bourgeois democracy breeds oppression and that capitalism falsifies and increases human material demands. She explained the rationale behind the anti-imperialist, anti-monopoly Democratic Front as a general idea on the question of power and management of the economy that could function in a unifying way. The five characteristics of imperialism exist today in Greece’s capitalism, it’s position in the world and European Union. The Greek monopoly capitalism and its ventures outside the borders of Greece in the Balkans is a clear illustration of this fact. In the process of building the Democratic Front, the party must simultaneously maintain its own ideological, political and organisational independence. This is necessary to help the party to grow strong, she said. Aleka stressed the need to ensure that new members participate in discussions on both theoretical and practical issues. Party must come first and individual leaders, either senior or junior or their intentions must not form the basis for discussions. She concluded her remarks by quoting the Turkish poet Nizmul Hikmut:

“ Even if our sacrifices are high, we will be victorious.”

The Communist Party of Greece adopted a resolution to strengthen the dialogue, work and co-ordination of the international communist movement to produce visible results.

In commenting upon the emergence of the European Left Party (ELP), the KKE stated that the ELP should not be given communist characteristics, as it has yielded to the EU and has been assimilated. All the ELP alliance members are not communists.