PROLOGUE

These Statutes were adopted at the 19th Congress of the Communist Party of Greece which was held on 11-14 April 2013.

They were formulated by amending and supplementing the Statutes approved by the Party’s 15th Congress. Experience from the distant and more recent past was also utilized in drafting them.

The Statutes determine the aims and character of the KKE, and the principles and rules on which it is structured, operates and acts. They define the rights, obligations, primary duties and rules of activity for the Party’s members, Organisations and organs.

The great value and significance of the statutory principles and operating regulations of the KKE, as a revolutionary Party of a new type, have been judged and tested during the approximately 100 years of the KKE’s existence and activity, as well as by the rich experience of the international communist movement.

To defend these principles in a conscious and resolute way and to observe and apply them strictly constitutes the paramount duty of every Party member. This duty is identified with the defence of the Party’s very existence and of the main conditions which enable it to guide the working class to accomplish its historic mission, the revolutionary conquest of working class power for the socialist construction.

INTRODUCTION

a. The KKE is the Party of the working class, its conscious organised ideological political vanguard, its highest form of organisation. It is a revolutionary organisation of like-minded volunteers which is struggling to overthrow capitalism and build the socialist-communist society in which all exploitation of man by man, every form of private ownership of the means of production will be abolished, and in which a higher standard of living, the rights of the people and equality of opportunities and rights will be assured, as will the all-round social progress in Greece.

The strategic goal of the KKE is the conquest of revolutionary working class power, the dictatorship of the proletariat, for socialist construction. The KKE aims to devote all its forces to building this superior society, being fully aware that it will be the task of the working class itself, at the head of all those who suffer from capital’s power,  and of its substantial participation both in the struggle to win it, and in the process of safeguarding and consolidating it.

The working class, the vehicle of socialist change, fighting in the front ranks of the struggle to overthrow capitalism, is striving not only for its own liberation, but for the liberation of all working people.

For these reasons, it is a historical necessity for the KKE to exist and grow stronger in Greek society. In order to win its fight against daily oppression of capital and to end the exploitation of man by man, the working class needs its own independent political organisation, a revolutionary Party capable of guiding its struggle for its vital interests and the construction of a new higher society, the socialist-communist one.

b. In its organization, functioning and activity to realise these noble aims, the KKE is guided by the worldview of Marxism-Leninism and the proletarian internationalism. It is inspired by the first attempt in history at working class power, the Paris Commune (1871), and even more so by the first victorious socialist revolution in Russia in October 1917. It utilises the positive and negative lessons learned from the construction of socialism in the 20th century, above all in the USSR. It understands the lesson that the class struggle continues until the abolition of every source of social inequality, every form of private ownership of the means of production. The KKE is guided by lessons of the class struggle in Greece, the heroic struggles of EAM-ELAS in the period of the occupation and December 1944 and especially in the climactic struggle of the Democratic Army of Greece 1946-1949.

The KKE, based on its worldview and with the aim of developing it, studies the socio-economic and political developments in Greece and internationally. On this basis it forms its programme, strategy and tactics.

c. The transition from the capitalist society, which is going through a deep crisis, to a socialist society presupposes the conquest of political power by the working class, the socialisation of the concentrated means of production, the creation of producer cooperatives in agriculture, the central scientific planning of social production and services, workers’ control, which will liberate the creative activity of the workers, the youth. The KKE is struggling with all its strength to make the working class and its allies aware of this need. In this framework, it exhausts every opportunity in its daily struggles to defend the lives of the working people, their economic, political, trade union, and cultural rights and freedoms.

In this struggle it seeks the unity of the working class, regardless of specialty, educational level, nationality, cultural and linguistic traditions or gender. It seeks the alliance of the working class with the poor farmers and self-employed in a people’s antimonopoly anti-capitalist alliance of struggle for working class power.

d. The organisational structure and operation of the KKE are determined by its aims and its revolutionary character. Its fundamental principle is democratic centralism.

 The consistent application of democratic centralism, in all its aspects, is necessary for the ideological, political and organizational unity of the Party, a necessary condition for it to achieve its goals.

e. The KKE is founded on the principle of proletarian internationalism. It bases its internationalism on the common interests of the working class, and on the common necessity and goal for socialism-communism in every capitalist country.  It educates its members in the spirit of proletarian internationalism, international solidarity and cooperation with workers all over the world. It fulfils its internationalist obligations consistently and participates in the struggle for the regroupment, ideological and strategic unity and the strengthening of the international communist movement.

The KKE struggles against all manifestations of fascism, nationalism, chauvinism, racism and identifies patriotism with the class struggle.