10-11 August 2014

Dear comrades,

We would like to thank the CP of India for providing us with the opportunity to table some positions of the KKE at the seminar which for objective reasons we can not be present at.

In every region of the globe, in every capitalist state there is a plethora of data that highlights the necessity of the common effort to study the basic factors that determine the developments. What is even more necessary is the discussion amongst the CPs about which path, which line of struggle must be followed for the effective intervention in the developments and to worthily represent the interests of the working class, the popular strata, until the final victory.

Casting a quick glance over the developments we can note the following:

First: There are serious existing war flashpoints, like in the Ukraine, Libya, Iraq, the murderous offensive of Israel against the Palestinian people etc.

Second: In the capitalists states as a whole, both in the phase of development and even more so in the conditions of the crisis when capital is becoming more aggressive, the working class and the popular strata are suffering, facing high levels of unemployment, poverty, the abolition of basic labour, salary, and social-security rights.

On the basis of this situation, a basic conclusion can be drawn:

Capitalism in its final, imperialist stage constantly becomes more dangerous.

The inter-imperialist competition for the control of the markets and the natural resources is sharpening, local and regional wars are breaking out, and the danger of a generalized imperialist war is still present.

The sharpening of the basic contradiction between the social character of production and labour on the one hand and the capitalist appropriation of the results on the other (because the means of production are in the hands of the capitalists) lies behind the crisis of capital over-accumulation that the peoples in many countries are experiencing.

As long as the power and the means of production are in the hands of capital and regardless of the form of management, whether it is called liberal, social-democratic, or “left”, the profits of the major business groups will continue to be the criteria for the functioning and development of the system, together with the increase of surplus value, the unpaid work of the working class, the maintenance and intensification of the exploitation of labour by capital.

In these conditions the discussion must be focused around the basic issue, the basic contradiction, which at a social level is expressed as the contradiction between labour and capital, the resolution of which constitutes or ought to constitute the basis for the formation of the strategy of the CPs in our era, an era of the passage from capitalism to socialism, which was borne out in particular by the Great October Socialist Revolution in 1917, at the beginning of the previous century.

When we talk about the resolution of the contradiction capital-labour as a precondition for deep, radical changes, we highlight the necessity for the resolution of the central problem, the problem of power.

This is a crucial issue that is related to the role of the working class which is the revolutionary subject of our era and this is determined by its objective position in production, as an exploited class, which does not own the means of production and sells its labour power, its ability to work, in order to live.

The KKE focuses on this crucial issue and insists on the revolutionary, vanguard role of the working class, its organization, the regroupment and strengthening of the labour movement so that its ability to meet the needs of the harsh class confrontations is improved.

To be precise, the historic revolutionary mission of the working class and its preparation for the overthrow of the exploitative capitalist system and the construction of socialism are basic issues for the CPs that are the conscious vanguard of the working class.

Of course, taking into account the presence and role of the urban and rural intermediate strata, we must carefully examine the alliance policy so that the effort to concentrate forces against the bourgeois class is strengthened, to concentrate forces against the monopolies that have the power and the ownership of the means of production in their hands.

The KKE, struggling for the overthrow of capitalism and having rejected in 1996 the damaging logic of “stages” that limit the struggle to the terrain of capitalism, has defined the character of the revolution as being socialist in its programme (because the resolution of the contradiction between capital and labour is necessary in the era of imperialism) and has formed a line of rallying and struggle in order to gather together the popular forces, emphasizing the alliance of the working class with the poor farmers and the oppressed urban intermediate strata, the self-employed for the construction of the People’s Alliance.

The alliance of the working class with the popular strata is a crucial issue. The alliance policy, the concentration and preparation of forces is determined by the strategic goal of overthrowing capitalist barbarity and can not be integrated into games between the political leaderships of opportunism and social-democracy aimed at managing the system.

The People’s social alliance has an anti-capitalist anti-monopoly orientation and will be strengthened through the everyday struggle concerning every popular problem, it will be adjusted and will be prepared so that it can become capable of playing the leading role in the revolutionary situation (which has an objective character and every party must prepare for it), in the people’s uprising for the overthrow of capitalist barbarity.

We deal with the issue of the “social movements” on the basis of the vanguard role of the working class and its necessary alliance with the farmers and self-employed, the youth and women from the popular families and we would like to note the following:

Often opportunism (which expresses the impact of bourgeois ideology and policies on the labour movement) attempted to downgrade the role of the working class and present “cross-class movements” as the revolutionary subject or flatter the youth which is not a separate class or stratum.

Often it attempted to present movements that limit their activity against the one or the other aspect of the anti-people policies implemented by the bourgeois governments as being “radical”. But in essence these movements express the interests of sections of the bourgeois class and have chosen to operate within the framework of capitalism, working to disorient the working class and popular strata.

The KKE has a critical and well substantiated stance against such efforts.

For example:

Over recent years, the movement of the “indignants” has manifested itself in Greece, Europe and other regions of the world, with slogans against the capitalist crisis but which also conceal its capitalist character, the real causes that give birth to it. Examples of this line are that the “traitors” or “speculators” or “those that have been bought off” are responsible for the crisis. In Greece they used the very dangerous slogan “out with parties and trade unions from the mobilizations”, and these movements were utilized by SYRIZA which is a social-democratic party and they also paved the way for the strengthening of Golden Dawn, as a reactionary stance was fostered against the organized labour movement, as well as misleading views that an alleged other “patriotic” management of the system could be the salvation for the people.

A second example are the so-called “orange evolutions” that were used in particular in the former socialist countries in Eastern and Central Europe and trapped popular forces inside the plans of sections of the bourgeois class to overthrow the bourgeois governments and to promote other bourgeois forces to government in the framework of relieving the popular indignation and perpetuating capitalism, with the support and open intervention of other imperialist powers in the internal affairs of these countries.

A third example is the “Arab Spring” that was used as a means to overthrow anti-people governments, but with the aim of installing other bourgeois governments in their place, in the framework of the bourgeois modernizations and on the background of the inter-imperialist contradictions in the Middle East and North Africa.

In recent years there has been a major discussion about the “left” and “left governments”. In relations to this, allow us to note that we must be very careful about the term “left”. As a rule the forces of social-democracy and opportunism hide behind this term and attempt to trap the workers with shallow anti-capitalist sloganeering.

What is the basic element? The basic element is the stance of these parties in relation to the issue of power and the ownership of the means of production, their stance towards the imperialist unions.

It is demonstrated in practice with these criteria that the self-proclaimed left forces are forces for the management of capitalism and express sections of the bourgeois class, as SYRIZA in Greece does which recently argued that “the position of our country in NATO and the European Union can not be questioned”.

Now we have a great deal of experience from the self-styled “left governments”. We do not judge intentions but we can prove in a detailed way that these governments, in some cases with the participation of CPs, not only did not contribute to the satisfaction of the contemporary needs of the people but they became the means to manipulate working class and popular forces, they managed the capitalist system and the interests of the monopolies, they led  the labour movement to retreats and in conditions of the sharpening of the people’s problems were bankrupted in the consciousness of the popular forces, they lost support and conservative rightwing forces returned to government. This has been demonstrated by the examples of France, Italy and other countries.

Our party follows with great interest the developments in e.g. Latin America in particular; it consistently expresses its solidarity with the struggle of the Communist Parties and the peoples that struggle. We do not underestimate measures that limit poverty, safeguard basic structures in health and welfare but the problem is deeper and regards the maintenance of capital’s power and its ownership over the means of production, i.e. the maintenance of the basis of the capitalist system and the perpetuation of the regime of the exploitation of man by man. Our opinion is that the crucial issue is the strengthening of the communist parties that struggle in conflict with capitalism and the change of the correlation of forces in favour of the communist parties and working class at the expense of social-democracy that controls and manipulates the situation. The correlation of forces must be changed against the rationale of the so-called “21^st century socialism” that in essence has no relation to scientific socialism and Marxism-Leninism and traps the people’s consciousness in the logic of the utopian humanization of capitalism.

Those political movements that support a “new architecture for international relations” operate in the same framework, the dead-end path of improving and “correcting” imperialism, ignoring what id the nature of the states (capitalist or socialist) that form these international relations. So we assess that the analysis regarding the so-called “multi-polar world” conceals the essence of imperialism, its economic base comprised of the monopolies and consequently the competition to promote monopoly interests. This is a fact that is clearly apparent in the role of BRICS which is an inter-state union of capitalist states.  The KKE has been struggling for years against the USA, NATO and European Union, which is an inter-state union of capital in Europe, but we call on the peoples to examine their own interests which have nothing to do with the interests promoted by the bourgeois class at a national level and the inter-state unions at an international level.

Undeniably, the developments are complex and require careful study and persistence in using class criteria for analysis, using our worldview in order to adjust the strategy and tactics of the CPs to the contemporary needs of the class struggle and also to maintain a clear direction for the concentration of forces and for the formation of class consciousness concerning the overthrow of capitalist barbarity in a difficult situation due to the negative correlation of forces. The attempt to incriminate the struggle for socialism and the simplistic approaches that slander this struggle, talking about “sectarianism”, are a serious problem because outdated analyses are concealed behind this, analyses which have never been confirmed anywhere and in essence perpetuate the rationale of humanizing capitalism, leaving the struggle for socialism in the “cupboard”, treating it as an issue for a vague and distant future. But socialism is as timely and necessary as ever and this is highlighted by capitalist exploitation and barbarity itself.

In conclusion, we can say that on the basis of recent and past experience the CPs have the obligation to chart their own independent ideological and political course, to elaborate their strategy and tactics according to the needs of our era, the era of the passage from capitalism to socialism, taking into account that the development of capitalism has led to the maturation of the material preconditions for the construction of the new socio-economic system, socialism.

The strengthening of the working class as the bearer of the new relations of production and the class struggle which is the motor force of social development has a special role in the strategy and tactics of the CPs.

This approach answers the contemporary needs of the confrontation against the bourgeois class and provides the possibility of strengthening the class struggle, the struggle for socialism which is timely and necessary. This necessity is not at all lessened by the overthrow of socialism in the Soviet Union and the other socialist countries where the counterrevolution was victorious via a process of mistakes, the opportunist corrosion of the CPs and the violation of the basic laws of socialist construction.

Dear comrades,

At the end of our short contribution, we would like to stress that the communists must examine the issue of the social movements through the prism of the class analysis and the class approach to social phenomena and developments.

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS SECTION OF THE CC OF THE KKE