1st Text of the Theses of the CC:The Party as the guide of the revolutionary labour movement, the social alliance, in the struggle for Socialism–Communism. The report and conclusions on the action of the CC and the Party as a whole from the 20th to the 21st Congress

1. The Party has accumulated vast experience of over 100 years in the field of ideological–political struggle and intervention in the workers’­­–people's struggles. This experience was more effectively and substantially crystallized in the past 30 years, when the KKE for the first time since its founding in 1918, relying on its own forces, struggled to preserve its communist identity. It had to regroup, reorganize, and further develop itself, in conditions of the complete victory of the counter-revolution in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the USSR, i.e. the first workers' state in the 20^th century. The KKE struggled for its revolutionary programmatic and organizational regroupment, the formation of militant groups and cells[1] in the labour–trade union movement and other social movements, which, had been either fully integrated into the system or dissolved.

The KKE has a strong historical legacy. The continuity of experience was preserved; the Party managed to endure, get back on its feet, and take steps forward in the study and development of theory, the elaboration of revolutionary strategy in the new ever-changing conditions of the 21^st century, studying more thoroughly and utilizing the accumulated experience of its 102 years.

It elaborated its Programme. It enriched its programmatic conceptions of socialism– communism. It studied and drew conclusions from the course of socialist construction, focusing mainly on the USSR, and identified the causes of the counter-revolutionary overthrow. It attempted and is still attempting to extend its ideological–political influence on the people. It has been developing its activity in the international communist, labour, and anti-imperialist movement, it seeks to open up new ways.

The experience of these past 30 years is valuable, in many aspects. That is why its study and integration in the daily work of the whole Party, especially today that younger generations have joined and continue to join the revolutionary class struggle, is an irreplaceable condition for the Party's vast multifaceted strengthening, at least to the extent that it bears the historical subjective responsibility for the working class and the people in our country, also marked by the impact on and the interrelation with the communist and labour movement in our region, Europe and internationally.

The existence of a vanguard Programme and elaborations, with positions that are continuously being enriched based on the contemporary developments and the experience of the revolutionary class struggle, is an important precondition for the ideological–political–organizational unity and effective strengthening of the Party. The experience from our organizational regroupment during the past 30 years has been based on the effort to creatively implement the Leninist conception of the Party of a new type, i.e. the Communist Party. It was based on its positive and negative experience from its activity in conditions of illegality or legality etc. However, it was not made possible to comprehensively combine the persistent effort for the restoration of the revolutionary character of the Party with the thorough study of issues of political guidance and the quality of the Party's ties with the workers'–people's forces under the new and, to a great extent, unprecedented conditions.

Our Programmatic and Statutory Congress in 2013, highlighted the issues of Party building and the strengthening of the Party, the leading staff, the Party Base Organizations (PBOs), and the KNE as a key issue and precondition in order for the Party to honour its commitment to its revolutionary task, to become what we called “all-weather” Party.

8 years have passed since the 19^th Congress with the new deployment of party forces, following the adoption of the new Statute, and 4 years since the 20^th Congress, where we identified issues in the political guidance work and approved proposals and a long-term planning for its enhancement. The time is enough to examine the actual situation of the Party, the progress in the achievement of our goals, and to evaluate the accumulated positive or negative experience.

2. The Party, as part of the International Communist Movement (ICM), is going through one of the most difficult periods in its history. This is a period in which —30 years after the victory of the counter-revolutionary overthrow of the first historical attempt for the transition from capitalism to socialism–communism— the following major contradiction continues to exist and deepen:

On the one hand, the contradiction between the social character of labour and the capitalist appropriation of a large part of its results leading to the destruction of a significant part of productive forces, with the outbreak of a new economic crisis before the recovery phase reaches the pre-crisis productive level. Capitalist economy maintains high rates of unemployment, part time employment, and underemployment in general in the recovery phase as well. It leads to mass destruction of human and material resources, due to the lack of necessary infrastructure for protection against natural phenomena, the lack of infrastructure and other health protection measures, despite the great technological potential. Technological development, digitization, teleworking, etc., instead of leading to a general reduction in working time, are used to intensify and increase the degree of exploitation, to provide new forms of manipulation. Acute problems are created by mass refugee flows, due to the long-lasting imperialist war flashpoints and the sharpening of competition between imperialist states, while the tendency for realignments in the imperialist pyramid is now evident.

On the other hand, the retreat of the labour movement —and the communist movement as well— continues, a process which is characterised by occasional outbursts of mass reactions, often with disorienting or reactionary demands. The regroupment of the labour–trade union movement is advancing slowly at the international level, in the most important countries of the international capitalist system; likewise the revolutionary, ideological–political regroupment of the communist movement, even in countries which are faced with a long-lasting imperialist war, with sharpening problems threatening the survival of the people. At the same time, the reactionary transformation of the whole bourgeois superstructure (in education, mass information —newspapers, television, internet—, publishing and artistic intervention, etc.), which is marked by anti-communism, as well as employer manipulation, impede the development of a more distinct revolutionary, ideological–political, that is, communist vanguard.

3. Since the 20^th Congress in 2017, our Party struggled and continues to struggle to maintain its established revolutionary characteristics in very unfavourable international and domestic conditions. These conditions are constantly deteriorating also due to the pandemic, which acted as a catalyst for the new economic crisis, and due to the large influx of refugees–immigrants caused by imperialist wars and fuelled by the policy of the Turkish state. An important factor in the deterioration of the situation is the strengthening of the economic and military presence of the USA, which seeks to block the capital penetration of China–Russia in Greece as a gateway to Europe and the intention of these countries to approach Turkey as an ally. The intensification of competition and contradictions in the region with the concentration of military means in the Mediterranean and the Middle East, the intensification of Turkish claims against Greek sovereign rights, and even the questioning of the territory of the Greek islands, which are also being promoted by the NATO and EU support to Turkey, are further strengthened. It is obvious that the bourgeoisies of Greece and Turkey are seeking to upgrade, each one on its own account, their role in the region, a fact that sharpens the competition between them.

4. We are entering a new, more complex and difficult phase. In these circumstances, the bourgeois and opportunist pressure for “national unanimity and unity” under the flag of the bourgeoisie with the aim to support its geostrategic upgrade is growing. Extreme bourgeois nationalism, especially in relation to the Turkish provocation, as well as cosmopolitanism or its opportunist expression “What do I care about their wars?”, “Let them agree on co-exploitation” are being used for this pursuit. The pandemic and the economic capitalist crisis that allegedly affects everyone —the monopoly groups, the working class, and the popular families— were also used as a pretext for “national unanimity and unity”. At the same time, especially after the sentence of the Golden Dawn as a criminal Nazi organization, the voices in the bourgeois camp saying that “after we got rid of black fascism, now is the time to get rid of red fascism” became louder. In particular, the celebration of the Polytechnic Uprising in November 2020 triggered a new wave of anti-communist offensive, the theory about activities “on the fringes of constitutional legitimacy” returned, the attack against the Party and the class-oriented labour and trade union is escalating, and state violence and repression are intensifying.

In parallel, the competition between SYRIZA and New Democracy (ND) in the alternation of government is a source of ideological–political reformist and opportunist pressure on the Party’s circle of influence, in conditions of long-term legality for the Party, the retreat of the revolutionary movement, and the overthrow of the first historical revolutionary circle of socialist construction.

At the same time, this pressure is also exerted at the level of the international movement, as it is dominated by the strategy of reforms in one form or another (“anti-neoliberal”, “anti-fascist– democratic”, or their combination), or even as a choice of another “centre”, e.g. China or Russia, overlooking their capitalist character. And all this despite the significant efforts of the Party at an international level, the struggle in the framework of the International Meetings of Communist and Workers' Parties (IMCWP), the European Communist Initiative (ECI), the International Communist Review (ICR), the regional meetings, and especially the bilateral relations.

At the same time, the conditions of COVID-19 have had a further negative effect, as a greater and more stable effort is needed to prevent mass organizations from paralysing, to maintain their operation and activity, observing scientifically substantiated public health protection measures.

Under these circumstances, the task defined by the 20^th Congress as “the comprehensive steeling of the Party and KNE” proves to be much more complex and demanding.

5. We estimate that overall our Party successfully met the challenges, under the political guidance of the Central Committee (CC) elected at the 20^th Congress and the Political Bureau (PB) that is assigned to guide it between its meetings. In this direction, the CC organized a rich ideological–political intervention focusing on the 100 years of the KKE, the 100 years of the October Revolution and the Communist International. Relevant books, collections of articles, documents, etc. were published, as well as the four volumes of the History Essay of the KKE, covering the period from its founding until the end of the Civil war and the defeat of the Democratic Army of Greece (DSE), which were discussed and approved by a Nationwide Conference (2018), based on the Resolution of the 20^th Congress.

A broad network of preserving historical memory was created, with museums and monuments for the most significant events of the class struggle in Greece and the Party's history, mostly of the 1940s and the DSE period. A series of central and local publications as well as numerous events took place, which contributed to the development of the Party's ties with new political forces and especially with descendants of the National Resistance and DSE fighters, of political refugees, regardless of their current political stance.

This activity was accompanied by seminars, the KNE–Odigitis festivals and interventions of ideological–political character, focusing on the necessity of socialism–communism, its economic– social–political content, the interpretation of its historical first attempt in the 20^th century, while at the same time its examination was continued.

As a result of political activity the level of the events was improved and the events took on a broader character serving as a basis for our work. The Scientific Conferences have been a significant and remarkable activity in terms of quality as well. However, the respective activity at regional or local level was based, to a great extent, on the intervention of the higher leading organs or at least was supported by staff of the CC, while its reproduction at the level of the PBO was limited and occasional.

The KNE has struggled manfully at the side of the Party. It further elaborated theses and goals, following its 12^th Congress in 2019, at which it specialized its comprehensive intervention to the youth by utilizing the vast experience it had gained struggling at the side of the Party for half a century.

A more intensive programme of political work was organized over these years, with visits to workplaces and districts, meetings, and rallies. We engaged in the battle for the Party's finances, with annual fund-raising campaigns, while in 2020, due to the particular circumstances, we successfully organized three fund-raising campaigns. As a result of consistent work for the 8 past years since the 19^th Congress, the Party's finances have been put in order; perennial problems have been resolved or are to be resolved. A battle was waged against the prohibitions and the reactionary laws regarding parties' finances.

At the same time, the Party, under the political guidance of the CC, engaged in important political battles, such as the triple elections (municipal–regional, European, parliamentary), organizing them with a unified content, something that was an important qualitative step forward.

It also waged important battles in phases of sharpening of the refugee issue, it revealed the causes and the culprits. It proposed solutions from the perspective of the refugees and the Greek people's needs.

6. Our party struggled for the regroupment of the labour–trade union movement and its forces sharpened the confrontation with the employer-led trade unionism forces, against phenomena of degeneration and rigging, the legal action and other repressive interventions against the trade union movement (Patras, Trikala, Panhellenic Metalworkers' Federation–OEM, Congress of the General Confederation of Greek Workers–GSEE , etc.).

In the conditions of the pandemic, which were used by the government and the state in order to strike a blow to the movement and the Party, it has been at the forefront of the struggle in order to convey the message of resistance, struggle, and “organized disobedience”, with significant interventions and mobilizations of the mass movement, such as those of the workers in healthcare and trade, in the class-oriented trade unions rallying in PAME (All Workers’ Militant Front), especially during the demonstration of the 1^st of May, the events for the 47^th anniversary of the Polytechnic Uprising, the nationwide general strike on the 26^th of November, etc.

The PB and the Secretariat made an effort to specialize the Resolutions of the CC concerning the issues of the Party's activity in the movement under these conditions. There was a rise of initiatives and planned interventions in the movement on popular problems such as in Attica, West Thessaloniki, Karditsa, Evia, and LARCO.

We did not manage to conduct the Nationwide Conference on the work in the working class, despite that the Party activity in the period from the 20^th Congress has accumulated new facts in the struggle for the change in the correlation of forces in Labour Centres and Federations, in the sharpening of the struggle to reveal the government and employer-led trade unionism in GSEE, etc. Thus, the CC decided that our work in the working class and its movement should become an object of concern and further elaboration at the 21^st Congress.

7.During these past 4 years, the Party members and cadres played a leading role in the organization of the struggles of the farmers and the urban self-employed against EU, government and employer attacks,  as well as in the struggles of school and university students and the radical women's movement. In a lot of cases, they contributed to the rallying of new forces, to processes of improving the correlation of forces in trade unions, federations and Labour Centres, the farmers' movement, the school and university students' movement and less in the movement of the self-employed. They contributed to the slight increase in the forces rallying around the radical women's movement, although this is not expressed in all associations–groups or in all regions of the country, while, since the lockdown, there are visible signs of an irregular operation of associations’ boards and general assemblies.

Especially in the farmers' movement, the Party members and cadres contributed to some extent to the establishment of the Nationwide Committee of the Roadblocks (PEM) as a form of nationwide coordination, representing federations and farmers' associations.

In these past 4 years, the Nationwide Conference on the work of the Party in the urban self-employed and the Extended Plenum of the CC for the examination of the work in toiling farmers took place, in accordance with the decisions of the Congress. These bodies, as well as the preceding or following process of inner-party discussion, help to form a unified and, above all, conscious perception of the necessity to intervene in the popular and allied forces of the working class; to more accurately define them; to enrich our positions on their perspective in socialist society, on issues of current ideological–political struggle, the elaboration of a framework and objectives of struggle; the promotion of joint action in the perspective of forming a social alliance in an anti-capitalist and anti-monopoly direction.

8. Although a more detailed political analysis on the movements will be made in a separate text, we can mention a general assessment, i.e. that the Party’s prestige and influence as a vanguard and consistent force in the struggle for the acute popular problems is rising among a significant part of forces that join the struggle. In some cases, an expansion of the forces and the influence of the Party and KNE is noted. Overall there was no significant change in relation to participation in movements or a distinct rise of militant sentiments or, whenever observed, they were at least fragile and characterized by a tendency of regression. The rationale of delegating responsibilities, fatalism, and fear instead of participation in the movement and the struggles continue to prevail among the working people, even though they appreciate the Party for its struggle in defence of their interests. A part of the workers, despite participating in the struggle and recognizing the Party's activity, remains influenced by the logic that “there is no way out”, the positions of the Party are not understood as being “realistic”.

This situation is also a reflection of the fact that from the 20^th to the 21^st Congress and in honour of the 100 years of the Party, neither the Party nor the KNE have managed —given the current conditions— to significantly expand their forces and rally an as large as possible section of the working class and its allies around them. This factor, however, is decisive for a distinct rise of the workers' and people's movement in terms of mass participation and militant orientation.

The goal set by the 20^th Congress remains the consolidation of the Party at the productive ages in the industrial sector and in places where salaried employees gather. The steps taken during this period show the potential. However, the utilization of this potential on a large scale requires a more targeted effort to prepare new communist forces, with a more planned and systematic ideological, political, and organizational effort, in order to overcome the inhibitions stemming from the difficulties of everyday life, the general passive climate, the fear of unemployment, insecurity, etc.

9.The 21^st Congress will elaborate the main issue of demonstrating more clearly to the broad workers'–popular forces the distinct role of the KKE as a strong organized ideological–political workers'–people's vanguard, a vehicle of new ideas of revolutionary social perspective, a response to the major issues that have accumulated and persistently demand to be resolved in the 21^st century. This requires a qualitatively advanced level of political guidance, an ideological–political and educational upgrade of the whole Party, from the CC to the PBOs, from the CC of the KNE to the BOs.

A key issue here is that political guidance and activity begin from strategy. This means that it is necessary to specialize the strategy in each phase and in the daily struggle, as we successfully did to a large extent in the period of the previous capitalist crisis, the weak recovery of the economy and today with the new crisis that was accelerated and deteriorated by the coronavirus pandemic. In this framework, we can draw experience and knowledge that must be collectively assimilated at all levels. We can especially utilize the experience from the question of highlighting contemporary popular needs —an issue emphasized at the 20^th Congress—, which paves the way for the anti-capitalist and anti-monopoly direction of the struggle, opens up the discussion for the necessity of the struggle of the working class for its own power. The topics elaborated in the Conference on the urban self-employed and in the Extended Plenum on the toiling farmers can also contribute in this respect. The elaborations and demands that we put forward in pandemic conditions for the requisition of the private health sector, etc. help to reveal the character of the capitalist system, to stimulate reflection on the necessity of the socialization of the concentrated means of production, the land and the central planning proposed by the KKE as a basic element of another, higher level of society organization.

10. We must improve our political guidance work in the ideological–political–mass struggle of the working class and its allies, assimilating the laws of capitalism. In this way, we will overcome known weaknesses, that is, sometimes artificially linking the demands of daily struggle to the prospect, ending up with a slogan “for workers' power” and sometimes unwittingly cultivating perceptions that there could be solutions–“islands of socialism” within capitalism, an issue that leads to the support of a government, as a so called lesser evil, for the concession of some temporary measures.

This does not negate the fact that we struggle under difficult conditions to attain even some relief measures for the people, depending on the development of the correlation of forces and the class struggle. The correct ideological–political outline of these issues, and even more so their discussion within the organs, the PBOs and the Party Groups in mass organizations is not a waste of time but a process to clear up confusions. It must be overall realized that the struggle within capitalism and, in fact, in conditions of the counter-revolution's victory and the retreat of the movement, where the overthrow of the strategic choices of capitalism is unrealistic without being preceded by the formation of the preconditions for revolutionary situation, has special requirements. At the same time, without any sign of fatalism, we must show that a sharp rise of the class struggle could cause difficulties to the system, thus the labour movement could delay or prevent unpopular choices, or could achieve some small gains, as a small step forward to the rise of the class struggle until the general counter-attack. Our strategy, therefore, also concerns daily life and the struggle for various immediate problems. This struggle must be permeated by our standards in relation to political guidance, i.e. the need for the struggle for power without “transitional stages” or participation in governments within capitalism, which are critical issues of our strategy and Programme, based on our 100 years of experience.

11. Under these objective conditions, we witness the growing phenomenon of new communists who lack of a strong Marxist ideological background and a broad educational cultural level. These elements help so that the rallying political line for the sharpened daily problems is not influenced by the bourgeois ideology and propaganda or the notion of bourgeois management, the methods and manoeuvres of the bourgeoisie, which are already massively channelled, reproduced, renewed and promoted by the most modern means. Therefore, the ability of each communist to reject this influence requires constant individual and collective effort. This is certainly a crucial task for the development of individual responsibility and initiative, as well as for the ability to wage class struggle in the movements and the fronts of struggle, with argumentative, persuasive and popularized discourse.

A reflection of this problem is that even in the four years after the 20^th Congress we have not seen a dramatic improvement in the circulation of the daily edition of Rizospastis and the ideological–political–historical–literary books, despite the steps taken to improve their content, including the study of new topics and new theoretical elaborations.

Even though we have some positive signs of elaborated popularized intervention and mass enlightenment, these efforts remain scattered; they do not embrace all the cadres and organizations and  do not always rely on a solid revolutionary ideological–theoretical background.

12. We sought to systematize Marxist education with schools, seminars, and lectures, but all these systems do not firmly embrace all forces and, above all, do not ensure the uninterrupted repetition required throughout the year.

Despite the positive steps, it remains a major problem that the system of inner-party education, and consequently of self-education, continues to function as a “parallel program”, which is not substantially and organically linked to the content of the daily activities of the organizations. It is understood as a complementary, specific task and not as a main element in trying to harmonize daily activity with the main political task. Political guidance does not focus on the continuation of Marxist self-education and its utilization in the current political activity. In essence, this problem concerns our political guidance weaknesses to apply in practice and disseminate our contemporary elaborations, our Programme, our strategy on socialism–communism; to overcome confusions and misconceptions.

To a great extent, the political guidance work from the top to the bottom has not improved and has not been harmonized with our strategic elaborations, especially at the level of the Sectoral organs, as the 20^th Congress had identified. The planning and implementation of the daily struggle, using our documents as a permanent tool, remains a challenge.

At the same time, we have not overcome our characteristic “lack of generosity” regarding the implementation of our collective decision to allocate the cadres' time so that they participate in the systems of organized communist education and training, also by disengaging senior cadres, of the CC, even of the PB, for the fulfilment of this task. The necessary time for continuous self-education is an integral element of improvement and effectiveness of political guidance, organizational work, the examination of problems and experience from class struggle. It is an individual obligation of the cadre but also a collective obligation of the organs.

At times, even when we achieved the discussion on ideological issues on a larger scale throughout the Party and KNE (e.g. on the occasion of the Party's 100^th anniversary, previously on the History Essay for the period 1949-1967), we did not ensure a continuous repetition, and as a result knowledge was even completely lost, given both the age renewal of the Party and the rapid renewal of the KNE forces.

The most important problem is that all the effort to assimilate historical and ideological conclusions, theses and elaborations based on developments and new demands is not consistently combined with direct political tasks and activity. This is partly objective, as the conditions in which we act are characterized by slow, tortuous, drawn-out work, because the issues we face in our activity concern the forming of the preconditions for revolutionary rise in the future. On the other hand, however, it expresses a subjective weakness, which we have to face, that is, how to utilize these conclusions to shed light on aspects and issues of the current activity, how to form the criteria for communist work. Fragmentation and standardization are aggravating factors.

In fact, some of the basic elaborations of the Party, such as the four volumes of the History Essay of the KKE 1918-1949, have not been studied–assimilated in an organized way neither by the cadres nor the KKE–KNE  forces, such as university students, the educators and our forces in Culture, who are constantly bombarded with bourgeois ideology due to their position.

The same need certainly applies for our workers' forces as well, although class reflexes provide to some of them, especially those working in the industrial sector, the background for greater resistance to bourgeois ideological manipulation.

This problem is also reflected by the fact that despite all the fundamental work that has been done with publications, articles, seminars and schools, discussions in organs and PBOs, some issues that indicate a non comprehensive knowledge and assimilation of what we have collectively achieved as a Party resurface. For example, the following issues stand out:

-        The understanding of the exploitative relation and especially the contemporary forms of capitalist exploitation, due to the application of new technologies and other methods of work organization. Issues such as surplus value, the average rate of profit, working time, the application of IT, and the effect of teleworking must be an integral part of articles, but also of public interventions, in order to explain the operation of the exploitative capitalist system.

-        Our view on the nature of the economic crisis in capitalism, the alternation of phases of economic crisis and recovery, issues that contribute to the correct understanding and assessment of the various forms of bourgeois management.

-        Our view on socialist construction in the 20^th century, free from its embellishment by the generations that mainly knew it, while the new generations have a completely distorted perception or ignorance. Particularly, our view on the causes of the overthrow of the socialist system in Central and Eastern Europe, China and elsewhere, especially the dissolution of the USSR and the CPSU, as it played a decisive role in the course of socialist construction and the line of the ICM and decisively affected our Party.

-        The understanding of a series of developments in the bourgeois superstructure, both independently as well as from the point of view of their relation with respective changes and trends in the capitalist economy and the social organization and dynamics, such as changes in state mechanisms, the formation of bourgeois parties, legislation, education, and family, having influence on social and interpersonal relationships, the use of leisure time, etc.

-        The difficulty of forming a political line to rally forces in the movement, based on the monitoring of developments per sector, workplace or social problem.

13.The CC overall focuses each time its attention on the strategic tasks of the Party, elaborates its policy in every phase and moment, seeks to creatively adapt its activity based on current developments, without abandoning the main and basic line of activity and its overall planning. To a much greater extent than in the past, it has overcome the identified weakness to be absorbed by the daily routine and the pressure that it objectively exerts.

At the same time, however, problems and weaknesses in the management of this problem remain, which are detrimental to the planned work aiming at the ideological–political and organizational strengthening of the Party in terms of the party’s foundations and outlook. This problem concerns both the Sections of the CC and the CC of the KNE, but it manifests itself with greater intensity and to a greater extent at the Party base, in the Regional Committees, much more in the Sectoral Bureaus and Committees. Both the members of the CC and the other cadres participating in the organs did not manage to link the study and elaboration of issues under discussion with the discussion of issues of political guidance which constitutes an integral part of each meeting.

Today, it is a crucial issue of priority to overcome the weakness of the CC —both in terms of studying as well as guiding—  to help and effectively guide the process of cadres’ development and emergence, especially from the working class, as well as young and women cadres.

Certainly, all these past years we have had an extensive emergence of new cadres, mainly from the KNE who are integrated to the work of the Party. Cadres who gave impetus to the Party's work, staffed leading organs of all levels, Sections of the CC, took up work in the movement. It is important to renew the cadres in most of the leading organs, especially in the big urban centres. Several cadres have taken on significant political guidance responsibilities, have demonstrated competency and it takes a considerable amount of time to evolve and develop their capabilities. Several cadres have emerged without having assimilated the accumulated experience of the combination of trade union work and the Party’s political intervention, measured by recruitment and Party building, the need for deeper theoretical and ideological education.

In many cases, we must not hesitate to correct the deployment of cadres, so that the allocation of the organs can be efficient. We should avoid, as much as possible, assigning comrades multiple duties as this leads to fragmentation, sloppiness in organizational work; even more so disjointed tasks, resulting in a superficial engagement in the areas of work.

The development of cadres begins from the best possible knowledge of their personal characteristics and their special abilities during their utilization and development based on Party criteria. Today, we need to develop multifaceted cadres, without a simplistic approach, taking into account their physical age, experience, etc. The preparation, however, must have unified characteristics, such as the formation of a certain level of theoretical education and knowledge of the positions and elaborations of the Party, which are also a factor of ideological–political unity and conscious agreement. At the same time, the periodical rotation in the allocation of tasks plays an important role in the all-round development of the cadres. That is to say, rotation of responsibilities in the mass movement, the ideological field and other fields of activity avoiding a permanent assignment in organizational work of political guidance of general tasks.

A large number of cadres stands out and continues to develop, without a prior comprehensive preparation for contemporary political guidance needs, or “emerges spontaneously” due to the need to fill gaps, without planning, provision and proper preparation, while the criteria are not met in a comprehensive manner. The criteria are limited to a general agreement with the Party's Programme and policy, which of course are necessary conditions, but other characteristics must be taken into account as well. For example, cadres, based on their experience, should be free from a perfunctory and routine daily handling of party issues from the party offices, which is usually limited to directions and orders that at most reach a perfunctory and superficial monitoring of the results of our activity. The communist allocation of work does not artificially separate the administrative labour from the executive one, but requires their dialectical combination.

In conditions of low efficiency of party work and limited participation of popular forces in organized activity, it is crucial to foster a spirit of political guidance that will not comply with difficulties. It is not merely a matter of work style. It is based first of all on the militancy of the cadres, which stems from the knowledge of the communist theory, but also from the class–social experience. The uncompromising stance vis-à-vis difficulties and subjective weaknesses, the constant effort to utilize all the possibilities, the creative implementation of the guidelines, the constant concern and vigilance, the development of the self-critical evaluation of the work rest on this very basis.

Particularly a large number of cadres from the KNE, who are fully assigned to the Party and take on responsibilities in political guidance and especially in the mass movement, need multifaceted and systematic assistance, since until then they have little experience from participating in the movement in a position of responsibility and the political–ideological struggle within it, in a mass organization. They have no or very limited work experience. Other cadres emerge from the university students’ movement, which in the last decade has been characterized by disorganized procedures, or work in areas with a low or even non-existent degree of trade union organization, making it difficult for them to organize the activity more broadly; especially today that the majority of the youth faces difficulties to orient towards mass political struggle. Assistance to cadres who have a more direct relation and experience from work to the youth could significantly improve the broader Party's intervention at younger ages, the political guidance of the KNE forces.

The boldness in the promotion of new cadres must be combined with a systematic work for the development of working cadres, so that their class background can be utilized for their maturation, the promotion of their abilities, their Marxist–Leninist education.

The CC must develop more demanding criteria for the performance of cadres, both collective and individual ones, a fact which of course presupposes that we provide all the necessary assistance, so that an ineffective and outdated way of political guidance is not reproduced. The responsibility of the CC concerns in particular the preparation of the KNE cadres to be fully assigned to the Party, taking into account that the living conditions have changed in a negative way (high unemployment, drastic changes in employment relations, more serious family and personal problems due to the circumstances, etc.). The pressures from the great contemporary needs have increased, while the very state of the movement, the negative correlation of forces, the problems of reduced participation of some Party members and cadres add to other Party cadres a burden of practical tasks.

The Party has a duty to educate the forces that in conditions of a revolutionary situation will lead to the overthrow of bourgeois power, to socialist construction. It prepares for the future and this is exactly what determines the succession of generations and cadres.

14. Decisive action must be taken to tackle a long-established perception according to which, in the name of pressing organizational tasks, there is little concern for the development and specialization of cadres in ideological work, of cadres who generally ensure the effective allocation and the necessary planned and effective guidance in the leading organs, the assistance to the KNE, in the Party's dialectical–materialist research, in the theoretical and scientific work. This work should include the hundreds of cadres engaged in research as postgraduate students or PhD, but also cadres from the working class and popular families, with experience in class struggle, tried and tested at the work of the organizations. The need to deploy cadres to acquire theoretical education within the party education system should not be neglected due to the current needs. It is a fundamental task with particular importance for the maintenance and development of the revolutionary character of the Party. Incomplete theoretical level increases routine, repetition without imagination, practical work at the expense of theoretical work.

15. It is an indisputable fact that in all Party organs, from the bottom up, the Secretaries of each organ play a key role, since they bear the general responsibility, set the tone for the orientation, based on the collective decisions of the organs. It is self-evident that they have the task to become more and more multifaceted and more effective. This is an individual responsibility, but also help is needed. The Secretaries should be aware of their shortcomings, rely on the opinion and experience of other cadres who are relatively more specialized in areas of work.

The role of the Secretaries of the Regional and Sectoral Committees is particularly important for the proper implementation of the allocation of work; for the utilization of all links; for the essential operation of the organ in terms of orientation, agenda, preparation, discussion time, encouraging cadres to write articles, upgrading the organized self-education, trying to generalize the experience. They need to be at the forefront of the political activity, to ensure the collective monitoring, consistently utilizing the form of individual discussion with the cadres. They should not only rely on the weekly meeting; they should gain a deeper insight of the situation, become more competent in the specialization, the planning and knowledge of the area of responsibility, of the movements, of how to conduct the struggle, of our prioritization in the region, in the area of responsibility of each Sectoral Committee and PBO.

Comrades who undertake the duty of Secretaries of Sectoral Committees should be given the necessary time to get to know the organization well. Piecemeal changes must be avoided; on the contrary their most complete development, the overcoming of the standardization that is often observed requires an organized and planned rotation of tasks.

16. We must decisively overcome the phenomenon of having organs that act as coordinators of Secretaries of the respective organizations. The problem is not only a matter of allocation of work, but also of orienting the organs' operation towards the discussion about the areas of work and the fronts of struggle, upgrading the ideological discussion, in order to open up ways and form preconditions for the utilization and education of comrades.

The organs should elaborately plan the discussion of issues so that it is not conducted in a perfunctory–informative manner or that it does not include a lot of issues in a meeting. They should utilize the articles of the KOMEP (Communist Review) and prologues of publications,  organize discussions on publications of ideological–historical content, and make corresponding political contributions.

Given that at the level of the lower organs, mainly the Sectoral ones, the cadres face long and flexible working hours and objectively their time is limited, their preparation for such monitoring of the work and for the meetings cannot in practice be cancelled due to multiple duties that require a lot of practical work. As a result, this type of work is preferred, due to the existing great familiarity with this way of working.

The Secretariat of the CC itself must overcome the characteristics of coordination in the political guidance of Regional Organizations also in terms of its composition and operation. In the framework of the allocation of members, the tasks in areas of work and fronts of struggle must be upgraded. Many members of the organs, first of all the members of the CC but also of the Regional Bureaus, have a heavy workload and many different tasks to accomplish. Thus, it is difficult to focus on the main issue, to organize the work, to provide essential assistance in developing the cadres, with sufficient personal help and cooperation. The volume of tasks sometimes creates a kind of fatigue and detachment from interaction with the masses, which impedes the development and maturation of the cadres. It mainly hinders the multifaceted development of cadres, regardless of their particular assignments.

Under the responsibility of the Secretaries, the members of the organs, from the Secretariat of the CC to the Sectoral Committees, must ensure a comprehensive understanding of all the organizations, i.e. beyond those that are under the direct responsibility of each one, which means periodicity in attending the meetings of the Sectoral Committees of a Regional Organization or of the General Assemblies of the PBO of a Sectoral Organization. This applies to all members of the CC as well as members at least of key Sections of the CC.

17. A decisive factor for the promotion of our strategy through the daily activity is to strengthen the ideological element in the inner-party and KNE operation and the operation of the leading organs, so that the ideological struggle in the mass movement and in the independent activity of the Party is properly developed. The PB and the Secretariat of the CC must provide immediate and in-depth assistance in this direction. Only in this way will they be able to effectively and substantially help the critical guiding link for assistance to the PBOs, which is the Sectoral Committees, where we are still facing difficulties, an issue that was compellingly raised at the 20^th Congress.

Visible steps have been taken in the discussion within the CC on the developments and adaptations to our elaborations concerning the fronts of struggle, at a time when serious changes are taking place. In this way, collectivity is reinforced, ensuring that all the members of the CC reach a necessary level of Marxist perception of the basic issues of economy, the problems of the working class, the urban and rural self-employed; a deepest knowledge through the discussion on bourgeois and opportunist ideological constructs, in order to update and deepen the level of political guidance.

However, the collective and in-depth critical examination of the experience of the class struggle, the ideological–political struggle, the rallying of forces at the base on the basis of the strategy and the basic choices of the Party, our policy on social alliance in combination with the development of party construction remains weak.

Despite the steps taken in the discussion around the above issues in each movement, such as of the urban self-employed, the toiling farmers, the women from the popular strata, etc., there are delays in the generalization of the experience of the class struggle and the struggles per sector of the economy. The combined criteria for our work in the labour movement, which were set by the Resolutions of Conferences and the Nationwide Conferences on the work in the working class and its movement, have not been assimilated in their entirety. The fact that we did not manage to realize the Resolution of the 20^th Congress for a new Nationwide Conference on the regroupment of the labour–trade union movement, the work in the working class and the social alliance has certainly contributed to this situation.

18. The in-depth preparation and organization of the discussion; the experience of the class struggle in combination with the way we guide and orient out forces; the specific measures taken, starting from the CC itself, the other leading organs and the central Party Groups[1], will contribute to a greater participation in the reflection and the discussion of all the members of the CC as well as the other leading cadres in all the organs.

A main obstacle to the multifaceted development of political guidance skills is the one-sided approach of many leading cadres, which is largely due to the exclusive engagement with the particular allocation of duties, resulting in the lack of knowledge of the collective work of the organs they belong to, as well as other aspects of the daily complex development of the class struggle, and even the current political confrontation. It is a phenomenon that is found in all areas of work but special help is needed for  our cadres with responsibilities in the movement.

Another goal to be attained is the members of the CC as Secretaries of Regions, and the comrades leading important organizations, to generalize in their interventions at the meetings  the conclusions from ideological–political struggle, either in general or concerning the fronts of struggle; conclusions from the improvement of the correlation of forces in workers' unions, in unions of self-employed and farmers' associations, school and university students, in the rallying of women to the associations and groups of OGE (Federation of Greek Women). Likewise the conclusions from our intervention and struggle in bourgeois institutions, Local and Regional Administration, the Parliament, the universities or other levels of education, as well as from the ideological–political struggle on the social position of women, the concepts regarding the “social gender” and other fronts of struggle, such as drugs, environmental protection, etc.

The hesitation to speak during the meetings, due to the uncertainty of some comrades regarding their contribution to the enrichment and improvement or to the correction of the topics raised by the political reports of the PB or other organs should be overcome. First of all, the members of the CC must develop the ability to generalize the experience from the activity, as objectively as possible, without embellishments or a nihilistic attitude. This is an ability that presupposes the boldness to exert criticism and self-criticism, collectivity, direct contact of all the members with processes within the movement and, if possible, with different representative sections of workers’ –people's forces.

These are issues that concern each and every one of us. Of course, their criticality is not apparent in relatively normal conditions, such as today, but in times crucial for the Party. There are several historical examples of this.

An expression of the difficulties that the CC faces in studying issues of political guidance and generalization of experience is that its members, especially those who are assigned to the work of the organizations, find it difficult to contribute with articles that would provide experience to other cadres who guide the organizations and the labour–trade union movement, the mass movement in general. It is necessary to realize that the study and generalization of experience through articles, especially in issues of political guidance, is a key aspect for the development and maturation of cadres. The members of the CC must acquire a comprehensive knowledge of all party activity and not only a part based on their duties.

19. The education in the highlighting of ideological and strategic aspects of each political and mass task requires the appropriate time and preparation for discussion in each leading organ. It requires collectivity in the preparation of such a discussion and not to be more or less left —as it happens— to some “experts” or to be based only on the duties of each comrade. It requires a great effort on behalf of the cadre to consult the theory, the historical experience, the study of theoretical positions and ideas of the class opponent and not only rely on the elements of the struggle as they are directly manifested in various mass organizations of the movements. Of course, it also requires appropriate allocation of tasks within each organ for such systematic monitoring, deepening and elaboration of our positions and not exclusively or mainly of the demands of struggle or a program of interventions, although also necessary.

It requires the gradual acquisition of the ability and the methodology to help all the leading organs to substantially discuss every activity in the movement and the fronts of struggle, to ideologically–politically shed light on the main issues, the contradictions and conflicts of interests, the root of the problems, the positions of other political forces; to provide their solution. To be, therefore, in conflict and rupture with the bourgeois and opportunist views, bound up with the socialist–communist necessity.

The PB should have scheduled more often discussions in the CC and about more issues concerning ideology, movements, operation, even if this rendered its meetings burdensome. The element of personal responsibility of all its members for the elaboration of the Resolutions, their monitoring and promotion, overall for all the Party's issues should be strengthened in the CC itself.

20. There is room for a significant strengthening of the ideological, political, and organizational work of the Party, by giving further impetus to improve the level of the political guidance and operation of the Regional Committees, and mainly by strengthening the political guidance of the Regional Bureaus and the Sectoral Committees. The leading organs, struggling quickly to tackle complex issues within evolving economic, political, and social developments, were put to the test in ideologically and politically demanding battles as regards their conduct, the organization and implementation of political activity. The experience gained from the effort to rally forces around the Party has been better elaborated.

Factors that contributed to the improvement in our political guidance work were the discussion around the Resolutions of the CC and other important elaborations; the completion of the celebrations on the centenary of the Party; more frequent thematic discussions on the fronts of struggle; the elaboration of experience from a series of nationwide or local battles, interventions in the workplace and elections in mass organizations, which is particularly helpful when systematized with regular monitoring at an interval of 3 and 6 months. The discussion on topics concerning the ideological and political front of our intervention in the working class was strengthened, with differences from one organization to another. However, the basic problem is that the level and depth of concern over the course of the class struggle does not always correspond to what we are facing. We can significantly improve how we work with our positions in an apt and systematic manner, how successfully we wage the ideological and political struggle, how we elaborate the argumentation, framework, goals, and forms of struggle. The need is highlighted for more consistent and collective elaboration, exchange of experience on main issues concerning our activity in the movement and Party building, so that the ideological–political intervention is a major aspect of daily activity. There is further room for strengthening the responsibility and initiative of each Party organization as regards the planning of activity for an upsurge of class political consciousness and struggle.  

21. The Regional Committees make an effort to monitor bourgeois plans, bourgeois state interventions and more particular issues concerning developments in specific economic sectors, per workplace and region. This work helps to make our ideological–political confrontation more apt and evidential, promote and popularize our Programme, specialize the ideological–political struggle and elaborate frameworks of struggle for the mass movement organizations. We must persist in acquiring a more comprehensive knowledge of the class structure per region and nationwide, as well as the developments in business groups, sectors, and large enterprises, so that Party intervention at all levels is made by the leading organs and key Party Groups in a systematically planned manner, not a fragmentary one. Positive results have been achieved where planned interventions were made to form positions, a framework of demands and goals on serious issues concerning the quality of life of the working class and the allied forces.

Overall, these steps do not meet the requirements for a comprehensive discussion about our positions on all the fronts of struggle, as well as the consequences of the capitalist mode of production for all aspects of the life of the working class per category, sex, age, etc., both from a theoretical–ideological perspective and that of the alliance. The efforts made so far do not constitute an overall shift of the leading organs, especially at the level of the Sectoral Committees. The slightly improved orientation in some Sectoral Committees remains fragmentary and does not reach the PBOs in order to contribute better to the assimilation of our decisions, directions, and positions.

This problem is not narrowly organizational but a matter of better targeted, consistent planning and good preparation of meetings; early detection and study of factors related to the course of the class struggle; substantial operation of the leading organs, elaborating the central directions within their area of responsibility. There are only a few Sectoral Committees that elaborate the PBO’s agenda of discussion on Party positions, theoretical and historical issues, the fronts of struggle, the youth in their area of responsibility, or on conclusions from interventions and battles. Most of the PBOs do not evaluate their work continuously from one meeting to another, while thematic discussions mainly take place within the framework of centrally programmed ideological courses.

We have gained positive experience in cases where the Secretary of the organ persisted in the substantial and not perfunctory allocation of work within the organ, the strengthening of collectivity, the planning and work of each comrade in their area of responsibility. The need is stressed for the Secretaries to show continuous interest in discussing areas of work, all movements and groupings, the fronts of struggle; not as a task to organize an event, but as an effort to intervene in forces outside the Party, to elaborate a framework of struggle, the ideological–political struggle in the movement, and tactics in mass organizations  —especially where there is a negative correlation of forces— in combination with an independent ideological–political Party intervention.

The topics of discussion should be as collectively prepared as possible by a meeting of cadres or auxiliary committees. The education, preparation, and utilization of comrades having less experience and a weaker ideological base is a matter of orientation to create preconditions for tackling the issue of comrades that are overburdened with multiple tasks.

In practice, the political guidance of main areas of work with the use of auxiliary groups or committees has not been adopted by all Regional and Sectoral Committees. Where we have managed to do so, new paths that enrich political guidance work have been opened up, but there is great unevenness from one organization to another. We must persist in forming such groups or committees in all leading organs and areas of work, headed by a suitable cadre that is a member of the corresponding organ. Once formed, the most important thing is to be guided steadily with a plan by the responsible member of the organ. This necessitates the specification of their role; the allocation of work; the planning to study issues and ensure the preconditions to achieve results; a collective improvement; the monitoring and assistance from the leading organ that is responsible for strengthening, encouraging, and developing a spirit of initiative.

22. As regards the operation of Party organizations, not everything can be resolved from one meeting to another. Under the particular pandemic conditions, apart from the difficulties in the operation and collective procedures of the organizations, as well as the objectively limited mass events and activities of the Party and the movement, some qualitative elements emerged in the organization of political guidance work. These elements —which are underestimated, as experience has demonstrated— must be established also under conditions without prohibitions. Such elements are individual discussions at all levels and especially with PBO members; the operation of the PBOs and the PBO Sections[1]; being informed about positions and activities from Rizospastis; articles by cadres; initiative-taking for communication with the Party’s circle of influence and the utilization of all means of communication for propaganda work; the planning and improvement in self-education; raising the level of ideological–political discussion; the support provided to the activity planning of  PBO Bureaus in order to overcome sloppiness in tasks,  as well as to assume responsibilities for organizing events, speeches, and interventions; the coordination of sectoral and area-based Party forces to make mass movement and Party interventions.

We must focus on ensuring that all Party elaborations reach the leading staff as well as the PBOs through substantial discussions, by strengthening the ideological element and utilizing the experience of each organization. Our goal is to achieve a systematic improvement and not only isolated positive examples. This is not an easy task and we will not succeed unless we enrich inner-party operation, utilizing forms and means that do not stop at Party meetings, which in any case need to be upgraded in all Party organizations.

Political guidance work can be supported in a more organized and coordinated manner, with regular meetings attended by the responsible cadres for areas of work, PBO Secretaries or PBO Bureau members, heads of Party Groups, and other cadres that can generalize experience, unify directions, support the assignment of cadres through the exchange of experience and the utilization of examples and conclusions, making use of Party documents and decisions, articles in Rizospastis and KOMEP, and our theory overall.

23. Constant vigilance is required as regards the observation of the principles of operation and activity of the Party and KNE. Particular attention is needed to not confuse comradely relations, which develop within Party life and through the hard struggle we are waging, with a spirit of friendship that could lead to the downgrading of criticism, subjectivity, and the creation of a personal circle of influence. The Party has achieved the greatest ideological–political unity so far; however, we must not become complacent.

We should not forget that we have made the same assessment in the past and at various stages; however, it is confirmed that we must not drop our guard. We need to consistently and specifically address any negative phenomena based on our Statutes and always observing all collective Party procedures, a fact that is extremely important for the effective and smooth operation of the organs and PBOs.

24. The necessity for auxiliary staff has been identified, accepted, and recorded in congressional and other Resolutions of the CC. However, the implementation measures are fragmentary, the progress is fragile, and the results are still meagre. This is mainly due to the limited and occasional assistance provided by the above leading organs towards the auxiliary committees of the lower organs. The auxiliary committees need constant and substantial assistance from the leading organs in order to fulfil their tasks.

The Sections of the CC must be carefully staffed, so that the willingness and capacity for study  and research are combined with communist steeling, which also includes elements such as a vanguard stance towards the more general and practical tasks of the PBOs and the BOs, a comradely concern regarding all the problems that each comrade is faced with, etc.

All the above largely concern the relation between the Party and KNE, as well as between the Sections of the CC with the university students' Sectoral Councils and BOs, both in relation to the content of studies and the struggle against bourgeois ideology that spreads through the scientific subject of study. This also applies to secondary education.

In addition, the corresponding Sections must show a greater interest in the content of education at Primary school; the issues of education and infrastructures of the educational system; the conditions of health, healthy nutrition, creative organization and utilization of children’s free time, etc. Overall, they need to step up responsibility for the problems that the school students' BOs face and provide them with corresponding assistance.

25. Overall, the proper staffing of the Sections of the CC creates preconditions for more substantial assistance towards the Regional Organizations and the CC of the KNE.

More decisive steps must be taken in this direction. In particular, the Sections of the CC require better staffing. It is crucial that the cadres assigned in each Section, depending on its scope, combine study and research with the experience from the movement, given that many Sections have the responsibility to guide central Party Groups in mass organizations. Corresponding staffing and renewal are needed in the central Party Groups, mainly in the labour–trade union movement, which have increased responsibility nationwide.

During these four years, positive experience has been accumulated from the Sections that combined work in this manner. Only in this way can we improve the ability to successfully respond to the current ideological–political struggle in the movement, and elaborate the demands of struggle.

We have identified the need for better and more substantial inter-sectional cooperation. Since the previous Congress, some steps have been taken; even though it is not yet possible to assess  that it has been established. Under the responsibility of the PB members, there is improved inter-sectional cooperation, as well as cooperation between the Section heads concerning remarks on elaborations and publications around issues of coordination between movements. However, this has not yet been expressed through joint programming and planning that require well-organized Section meetings, especially those that have inter-sectional representation. Even greater cooperation between Sections is required for the preparation and intervention of joint meetings of organizations’ executive boards in which we are struggling for joint action, to take steps towards the social alliance. In addition, a more consistent inter-sectional collaboration is needed on issues related to the reproduction of labour power and the quality of life of the working class and the popular forces.   

This improvement could be reflected in the relations of the Sections with the Regional Committees, and also in an increased political guidance concern, a deeper involvement of the Regional Secretaries with the scope of the Sections, and the cooperation with them. There is both positive and negative experience drawn from the Sections concerning the above issues.

Study and research must be urgently reinforced in Sections such as that of Labour–Trade  Union Work, Health and Welfare, etc.

26. From today on, the planning to staff Sections of the CC, central Party Groups in mass organizations, and Party organs all the way down to Sectoral Bureaus, must start from the top so that the best possible deployment is achieved, taking into consideration the need for specialization but also multifaceted capabilities; the ideological background and the need to gain organizational experience and experience from the movement; the communist steeling and the different objective conditions within which comprehensive and lifelong communist education is formed; the eagerness to contribute; the assistance provided to comrades facing a lack of time, especially mothers.

The promotion of cadres may start from the bottom, however, the planning for their development and deployment is carried out mainly from the top.

27. The CC bears the responsibility to orient and assist the Regional Committees and Sectoral organs in preparing the PBO assemblies so that they monitor their work and decisions in a lively, creative and practical manner. Only in this way will the need arise to buy Rizospastis, KOMEP, and political–historical–literary books; to combine theoretical and practical activity; to continuously upgrade the PBO’s guiding role in its area of responsibility. We must more decisively address a variance in the PBOs, from a theoretical discussion on general issues or the ideological courses to a routine assembly with an agenda of events and a list of tasks that are usually drawn up by the above organs.

A large number of PBOs have formed an incomplete picture of the issues that the Sector they belong to is promoting, resolving, planning, and facing. Moreover, there is limited insight on the part of the area-based organizations about issues of the sectoral organizations' activity, even though similar workplaces exist within their area of responsibility. Conversely, the same applies to sectoral organizations, which ignore the experience and conclusions drawn from the struggle on fronts such as health, education, the environment, etc.

The CC is not as demanding as it should be —above all from itself— concerning the PBOs' operation; not because it guides them directly but as a matter of correct, creative and effective political guidance of the lower organs. The same applies to the CC of the KNE in relation to the BOs of the KNE.

Most PBOs and BOs do not discuss the experience and problems they face regarding the fronts of struggle in their area of responsibility. The discussion about tasks is unconnected or not adequately combined with the necessary generalization of positive or negative experience, the way strategy is specialized, and the corresponding concern on how we must take action. Such an orientation requires that each PBO establishes its own plan of activity for the concentration of forces around the Party and its policy, makes its own contribution to the regroupment of the labour–trade union movement and the promotion of the social alliance, bears its special responsibility to win the youth over to the revolutionary struggle. Such a plan demands a good knowledge of the PBO's area of responsibility, comprehensive monitoring of the ideological–political struggle, effective utilization of all the Party and KNE forces and reserves, the utilization of current affairs as a chance to monitor the PBO's work and not to thwart its planning.

28. The fact that our Party has proceeded with theoretical–ideological elaborations that have not been assimilated by members or even many cadres, renders necessary the content of these elaborations to permeate the operation of the Party and KNE organs and organizations.

This lack of assimilation does not mean that theoretical work must been given secondary importance for the time being. Theoretical requirements are determined, after all, by social mobility itself, which never ceases.

Whatever we have achieved concerning the study of the transition from capitalism to socialism–communism is just the base. Therefore, this effort requires continuity by each Section, inter-sectionally, and by the CC itself. This refers to all the issues concerning the base and the superstructure. It pertains to social issues, issues of the socialist economy, the foreign policy of the socialist state, the International Communist Movement, the role and structure of the Party, the Party’s principles of operation, mass organizations, and the state.

At the same time, knowledge is required together with the utilization of the Party decisions and elaborations, as well as the improvement of the ideological–political struggle, so that the tackling of the anti-socialist and anti-communist slanderous attack unleashed by the EU and bourgeois staff can be more successful.

In particular, the need for theoretical and ideological–political knowledge, its assimilation and ability to permeate all areas in terms of waging the struggle, concerns our student forces, educators, as well as our forces in the field of culture.

In addition, we maintain an idealized perception on many issues concerning the socialist construction in the 20^th century, which co-exists with ignorance or confusion. Our historical research must be directly linked to the development of our all-round conception of the social–economic–political–cultural content of the new society, the communist one. This task cannot be put off for the future, after the revolution. It is directly linked to the current ideological–political struggle within capitalism, the interpretation of contemporary phenomena and developments in the international imperialist system and our country, as a base to form demands of struggle in mass movements in an anti-monopoly and anti-capitalist direction. Our historical research is also useful as a process of multifaceted class struggle even under the most difficult and unprecedented conditions, for the continuation of the activity and the regroupment of the vanguard; for raising consciousness among ever-broader labour–popular forces, depending on the conditions of struggle against all the bourgeois and opportunistic currents, including the extreme nationalist and fascist ones, the more obvious reformist social-democratic ones, and the more concealed anarcho-autonomous ones.

29. In some cases,  the line of mobilization of forces and the specialization of our strategy according to the circumstances prevailing in each area are conducted in a mechanistic and unelaborated manner. As a result, it is becoming difficult today to rally new, inexperienced, hesitant, or even frightened labour–popular  forces. Thus, it is getting harder to liberate them from the policy of the employers, bourgeois parties, reformism, and opportunism.

Without giving detailed guidelines and solutions for each individual case, the CC needs to educate and assist the members and cadres of the Party and KNE in contemplating each issue, acquiring criterion, becoming armed with their experience —no matter how much or little— utilizing our documents, showing a spirit of initiative, seeking to resolve problems and study the results. The CC needs to assist in a way that the members and cadres can see their mistakes and correct them.

Especially at the Congress, it is necessary to highlight not only the positive but also the negative experience gained, the tactical errors, the experience drawn from tackling problems. The insufficient, almost mechanistic specialization of the struggle and mobilization of forces is a typical situation, especially in the labour and trade union movement, and other movements as well. Our correct criticism and polemics are often generic and blanket; they are not evidential and specific. Criticizing parties by just saying that they follow a “crisis management” policy is not always understood by the workers and popular strata, nor does it prove the anti-people nature of their policy, even though we do have proof and elaborations to pursue a reasoned political criticism, to be evidential of why their policy is based on the interests of the bourgeoisie and, therefore, is against the interests of the social majority.

Very often, the CC members ourselves insufficiently guide our comrades, the Party Groups and Organs, by using slogans and copying party texts to trade union announcements, without deliberating with the members of the executive boards. The superficial verbal escalation is not an apt ideological confrontation nor does protect us from the ideological flank attack of the class opponent and all kinds of opportunists.

However, that does not mean that we consider the negative correlation of forces to be a matter of propaganda; that it is not based on the material and political operation of capitalism in Greece and internationally, under conditions of extremely high growth of labour productivity, a long-standing bourgeois parliamentary legitimacy and many more. Under these circumstances, linking the demands of struggle to socialism, the society for which we struggle, requires a good knowledge of the new issues and problems arising, a reasoned method to highlight their causes, a firm confrontation with bourgeois policy and an escalation in connecting them with the socialist prospect.

Our activity to organize the labour movement and the masses, to rally forces spearheaded by the acute problems, and our work to advance the social alliance are confronted with an objective pressure exerted by labour, popular and even petty-bourgeois forces asking for solutions here and now, small gains and even narrow sectional demands.

However, the response to this pressure cannot be found in the deeply incorrect and marginally expressed perception that the “ideological–political entrenchment”, even a temporary “sectarianism”, could protect us from the opportunist pressure of the long-standing —and not temporary, as it turns out— counter-revolutionary period. The opposite is needed: To develop the ability to wage the struggle against forces, perceptions and stances, while trying from within to organize the masses and rally forces; not outside these processes. To be able to confront the callings that ask from us to make concessions, to carefully examine the demands and their supporting political framework and not to slip into the “minimum demands” or “minimum program” rationale, not to back down from our criticism against other forces, in the name of a questionable “broad rally of forces”. Overall, not to retreat before the pressure which will be powerful.

30. A crucial issue is to specify the criteria based on which we participate in initiatives, activities and mobilizations taking place at a local level. It is essential to first assess the problem, the demand that has been formulated, and not to judge based on the ideological–political correlation of forces amongst the participants. In addition, we also need to take into account the relative range of the mobilization. Based on that, we can also overcome a hesitation shown for the party forces to actively participate in activities of organizations and movements that did not start on our own initiative. At the same time, we need to be vigilant for actions taken by opportunist forces, which, by exploiting a problem, gather their forces and seek to flank us by supposedly promoting “a grassroots unity as opposed to the sectarianism of the KKE’s leadership”. Each activity needs to be always examined collectively and our forces need to be fully prepared for an ideological confrontation as well.

The main and most important issue is to timely assess the mood regarding any sharpening problem, to take initiatives, because, wherever we leave gaps, or a faint-heartedness or lack of initiative is observed, the initiative will be expressed and steered by forces with a problematic orientation and the struggle will be tougher. The main issue is for our forces to be ideologically, politically and organizationally armoured with our positions and our general stance on opportunism so that they are not susceptible to pressure; to work in such a way within the movement so that, with their stance and the ideological–political struggle based on reasoned arguments, they can truly manage to liberate forces from the vice-like grip of opportunism and the anti-KKE obsessions fostered by various forces.

31. Taking all the above into account, we need to steel the Party and KNE, especially the members that have recently been recruited, so they can acquire strong reflexes towards opportunism and mainly overcome its insincere manoeuvres for “joint action” in the name of an “anti-memorandum”, “anti-neoliberal”, “anti-rightist”, “anti-fascist” front —no matter how it is presented each time— aiming to put across the line of a minimum reform program, a transitional government in the framework of capitalism, and to ultimately drag us into coalitions with bourgeois parties, such as SYRIZA, the negative governmental experience of which is valuable for the revolutionary forces.

What is important is not to underestimate the role of opportunism, both under conditions of capitalism and socialism, since its source is objectively inexhaustible and its counter-revolutionary role can result in undermining and defaming the movement. Certain cadres and members of opportunist organizations, with their superficial and intentional transformations, sometimes appear as advocates of the previous Party strategy, and other times, as advocates of transitional governments, transitional political goals, or even of the very negation of the Communist Party as the conscious vanguard of the country’s working class etc. The role of reformism is equally dangerous; it exerts pressure on labour–popular forces for immediate political solutions and reforms in the framework of capitalism, utilizing both overt and covert undermining of the revolutionary class struggle. That does not mean that there is no room for workers, students, scientists, and other employees, who follow or are influenced by such forces, to be liberated from their influence. The Party members need to be properly and systematically guided regarding this issue so they can voice our own criticism before broader popular forces, clarify our own “no” to their opinions and stance, their practices in the movement.

32. The full awareness of the current situation, the retreat of the labour movement and the greater difficulties in crystallizing more concrete results, requires us to struggle without any complacency to improve the condition of the subjective factor, to strengthen the Party organizations by continuously matching the guiding operation and activity in the Party —and also the guiding operation and activity of the Party in the working class— to our strategy, our Programme, the conclusions drawn from the course of the communist movement, the current demands of class struggle.

The contradictions that we are facing show that a greater effort is needed through discussions, small meetings, ideological courses, etc., so that younger ages and relatively restless minds can understand crucial issues regarding the dilemma of “capitalism versus socialism” to a greater extent. These people see the problems of capitalism but do not see socialism as the way out in the foreseeable future; they daily face the hardships of life, work, motherhood, all of which afflict the steady participation in the movement and struggles in times when there are no outbreaks. These are all problems that have more depth than what is usually perceived, and they are often related to the way the working, and in general social life, is organized. A constant struggle is required against their impact on militants and also on our ranks, which will intensify as time goes by and there are no conditions of a dynamic rise of the class struggle, a regroupment of the labour–people’s movement in our country and of the International Communist Movement.

In this stage, the awareness and estimation of the existing militant mood level should not lead to lower expectations regarding our work in every sector: the initiative-taking, the elaboration of a plan, content and forms of action, the propaganda, the goals to mobilize forces, the renewal of the party circle of influence and party forces with working men and women, militants of younger ages in growing sectors and areas of strategic importance.

The leading organs bear the responsibility for ensuring that the general activity does not cover weaknesses and problems in order for our work to meet the strengthening of the Party Organization as much as possible.

In the Party leading staff, the comrades are at the forefront; they are undertaking a political guidance responsibility and participating in the direct intervention and activity with a sense of contribution and methodically. At the same time, there is always the need to match words with deeds, for the correct findings to be followed by the corresponding effort for individual and collective improvement in the area to which each and everyone is assigned. A very good discussion is needed on how to ensure the best possible outcome, without verbiage or shifting the responsibilities. Every leading link and cadre need to bear full responsibility and thus more substantially develop a firm belief that we can resolve what is possible each time.

This matter is also reflected in the comradely and collective spirit and how this spirit is cultivated, starting from the leading organs down to the PBOs, the quality of the collective deliberation and action, the creative and collective monitoring and the possible corrective measures.

33.  Overall, through the creative and careful monitoring of the experience drawn from the struggle, the CC should have focused on specifying the relation between the Party and the labour–trade union organizations, the other organizations of the workers, the rural and urban self-employed, the youth and women’s organizations. The issue becomes even more complex under conditions of crisis and regroupment of the movement, promotion of the social alliance; under the current conditions marked by retreat, even though the labour–people’s struggle should have objectively been directed towards socialism.

Aspects that have already been elaborated in previous Congresses, and more recently in the 20^th Congress, do not seem assimilated within the Party. That is precisely because the monitoring of decisions and results after a struggle or during an initiative in progress is not conducted through the prism of our elaborations.

In addition, today, some members and cadres seem to confuse the direction to politicize the movement, thus levelling the differences between the Party and the class-oriented trade union. Some are even talking as if the PAME were the ideological–political leader of the labour movement. Unintentionally, of course, this is a way of substituting the Party and not achieving a class-oriented radicalization. Several members and cadres are levelling the natural differences existing between the trade unions, the struggle committees for a specific issue, the women’s unions, or the parents’ associations. All these are reflecting weaknesses in the political guidance work of the Party, which is sharpened downwards. Many times these views are not perceived as wrong, as something that harms and hampers our work. In the Party Organs, the PBOs, and respectively in the KNE, we need to overcome the hesitation in responding in a comradely spirit not only to views leaning towards opportunism or are influenced by it but also to views expressing ignorance and confusion.

Much experience has now been gained within the movement. For example, on the occasion of the National Bodies on the urban self-employed and the farmers, a significant experience has been processed on how we work with radical movements, how we adjust our work based on the new developments and experience gained, how we need to work with politically disoriented forces, how we handle issues when we do not have the absolute majority or when new forces start to massively participate in the struggle, under the intensification of the problems.

Although we had accurately noticed certain schematic approaches on the issue of promoting the social alliance in an anti-capitalist and anti-monopoly direction, basically the problems remain. The discussions are not meaningful when it comes to planning the joint mobilizations of PAME, the farmers’ and self-employed associations, of the MAS (Students’ Militant Front) and OGE so that the joint action can be strengthened and the struggle can bring even more results.

34. In the context of the collective operation, there is a need to ensure the time and space necessary for the cadres to comprehensively elaborate and participate in the discussions in the leading organs, the Party Groups, the PΒΟs. Only thus, can we address the weakness existing in elaborating frameworks of struggle and demands on the necessary ideological depth, in understanding the choice criteria for the demands, in working on our line of mobilization, and also on issues regarding the structure of trade unions.

In the leading organs, a number of cadres assigned to the trade union work, although actively and militantly involved, is often less prepared to contribute to the generalization of the experience drawn from the conduct and course of the class struggle. It is an issue that we need to address with practical measures and decisiveness because we are in a period of transitioning to a generation of trade union cadres, who, in order to cope under the contemporary conditions of trade union work, need to acquire and develop multifaceted characteristics by further developing the overall ability of the communists to be able to organize the masses, to be recognized as vanguards within their workplaces.

Mainly at a PBO and Sectoral Committees level in the Party and KNE, we lag behind the needs in promoting the party members to real popular leaders for every issue that the workers'–people's families face in their work or place of residence and studies. Without this factor, the ideological and political work will be fragmented and in limbo. Special attention is needed today to form cadres, members, and organs that will not just reproduce theoretical tenets without being able to practically apply them and combine them with the vanguard work in the area they act, in the mass movement, everywhere. Of course, it is not easy to overthrow this situation overnight, but at the same time, it is not a one-way street, and combined measures are needed both from the top and bottom.

Problems still remain in the formation and operation of the Party Groups, especially in the first-level trade unions, their content, in how they are trying to implement the Party resolutions regarding the communists’ responsibility for the operation and orientation of trade unions. There is still an absence of more forward-looking planning for the sector and the area of responsibility; the improvement of the organization level; the study of the opponent's intervention; the operation of the trade unions; what issues are brought to the fore; what framework we elaborate; what goals we have to expand the vanguard and the movement infrastructures; the forces’ deployment needed. Regarding the activity planning, the executive committees often overlap, the work is not shared and a campaigning form of activity is observed on the occasion of significant events and milestones. In the Party Groups of second-level unions (Federations and Labour centres), there is a very general discussion on the existing situation, based on a generic experience that is tiresome and ineffective.

35. Despite the progress made during this period, the specialized party work in women in the organs of the Party has not been consolidated. This is related to the low degree of assimilation regarding our theoretical positions and the contemporary problems in the ideological struggle on women's inequality. As a result, it is difficult to incorporate the specialized work of the Party among women —even more of the KNE— in all areas of the Party’s activity i.e., ideological–political, organizational, the work in the trade union movement, the movement of the self-employed, the farmers’ movement, the student movement and the work of the communists in the radical women's movement. At the same time, there are gaps and weaknesses in terms of guidance in the promotion of women in the organs of the Party and the movement (an issue which is not solved by quotas, as promoted by bourgeois perception and practice) as well as in the guidance of the Party Groups of the OGE associations.

From this point of view, the organs of the Party must concern themselves with the process of developing and raising the awareness of female cadres (at organizational, trade union, but also ideological level) in order to contribute, regardless of their field of responsibility, to the effort of the Party’s organs to enhance their interest, awareness, creative thinking and control in relation to the promotion of the above tasks. This direction will be strengthened by the improvement of their Marxist education and by their participation in the elaboration of our positions based on the developments that concern the life of women of all ages who join or belong to the working class.

The substantial discussion in the organs and in the Party Organizations on the Marxist conception of the women's issue, especially in organizations in Universities–Research and the sectoral organizations, can be particularly useful, from an ideological–theoretical point of view, for the effort of members and cadres, especially women, to contribute to the specialization and popularization of positions on women's equality, based on their field of study. It can contribute to the effort of orienting comrades to engage in research on aspects of the women's issue, as an aspect of the ideological–political counterattack.

At the same time, the Sectoral Committees should focus on the support of the communist mothers —cadres and members— with practical measures as well.  Central initiatives at the level of Regional or Sectoral Organizations, such as the creation of spaces and programmes for creative activities for infants and small children of school age, are of great importance from a practical and educational point of view.

In addition to organizational measures, ideological–political support of comrades is necessary, in order to formulate criteria on the content of a creative relationship between parent and child. The elaboration of a rich, multifaceted action plan for children and parents (literary books, plays, games–constructions) with specific discussions with parents, especially mothers, utilizing the experience from discussions on the book “Talking to our children for the crisis, for the war” and elaborating the publication “And yet it moves” can be useful. In this direction, communist criteria for thinking and confronting the dominant bourgeois conception will be formed, which presents the care and upbringing of children as an exclusively individual–family matter.

36. Addressing long-term gaps in the understanding of the need to specialize the Party’s intervention in women is a key factor in improving women's recruitment rates, in accordance with the main goal of Party building in sectors and workplaces, aiming mainly at the consolidation of the activity of young women in Party and KNE.

The improvement of the percentage of female Party members over the past 4 years, although it was not unified in Regional Organizations, even Sectoral Organizations, as well as the increase in the percentage of women recruitment, is not accompanied by conclusions drawn by the generalization of experience, positive and negative, or specific ideological, political, and organizational measures. The lack of planning concerns especially the organs in Regional and Sectoral Organizations, where female participation is lower in relation to both the nationwide percentage and the percentage of women’s employment in the respective region. At the same time, the socio–class composition of female Party members in each Regional Organization needs to be constantly monitored, especially in industry and other sectors, in economic sectors with a high concentration of salaried women or sectors which exert influence on the consciousness of working class and popular strata (e.g. education).

37. The organs of the Party and the KNE need to be systematically concerned with the preparation of women in the Party’s circle of influence for their accession in the Party, taking into account that more creative time and thought is required, along with measures to overcome the additional objective obstacles that limit the time devoted to reading and studying, the participation in social action, but also subjective perceptions on women’s’ position in society, which still exist, as well as religious backgrounds. Several factors have intensified in the current conditions as irregular working hours, part-time work, and fixed-term contracts are generalized. This situation affects women’s way of thinking and attitude, even of women Party members; even more so in the conditions of the restrictive measures with the generalization of teleworking and the suspension of contracts, and e-education, that burden family and personal life.

The planning and discussion in the organs concern the creative control of the development of the consciousness and the attitude of women in the Party’s circle of influence, the experience from the recruitment proposals to women, the elaboration of a multifaceted plan of Party activity that takes into account the composition of women in the Party’s circle of influence. The focus needs to be on the Party’s programmatic conception of the position of women in socialist–communist society, the attitude of women towards imperialist war, book presentations of recent editions of Synchroni Epochi and articles by KOMEP. Thus, the direction of improving the age and socio-class composition of women in the Party’s circle of influence, the attraction of more women in Party activity and through their participation in the movement, as well as in women’s association, in parents’ association can become creative.

38. In the KNE, the participation of women is increased, in relation to the Party, while the participation varies among the various sections of the youth and the Regional Organizations. There are difficulties in promoting girls in the organs of the KNE and the bodies of the mass movement. They seem to have more hesitations to take on responsibilities, even in school student councils. At the same time,  there is a number of factors that contribute to young women’s withdrawal from KNE in the period of their transition to the Party, such as family problems, insecurity, and negative influence from their life partner.

Based on the above, the organs of the Party need to support the BOs of the KNE with specific ideological– political–organizational measures, in order to project in a creative way the communist values, the conditions in which the modern “silent” heroism develops and foster endurance in the difficulties of class struggle, but also of the working, study, life conditions. At the same time, the ideological–political support to the Organizations of KNE can formulate a dialectical–materialistic perception of complex social issues, so that the ideological–political confrontation is solidly and aggressively organized in universities, schools, and places where young people are gathered.

The effort to enrich the intervention of the Party among primary school children according to the perception of the women's issue is a more challenging task. We take into account that the bourgeoisie, with its multi-tentacled mechanisms, ideologically intervenes in the thinking and the attitude of the youth on the unequal relations between the sexes at a very young age. Therefore, there is a need for a more systematic multifaceted contribution to the various activities of the Party for these ages, but also to the material of the bimonthly children’s magazine “Kokkino Aerostato”.

39. Reports from monitoring and evaluating the intervention of bourgeois institutions (government institutions, Regions, Municipalities) among women need to be constantly discussed in the organs, in order to organize the appropriate ideological–political struggle. Still, we are far from the organization of a constant ideological struggle against bourgeois ideology and politics but also against the opportunist views on women's inequality, which needs to be based on monitoring and assessing their intervention in women who belong to or join the working class or the popular strata (in each sector, workplace, field of study).

It is necessary to give emphasis on the intensity of the ideological–political work, as it can play a decisive role in dealing with the atmosphere of fear and reduced demands that characterize the sentiment, the attitude of women on whom we focus due to their socio-class position.

The axes of the Party’s intervention need to reveal the class exploitative character of governmental policies and capitalist employers, other bourgeois staffs, but also the effort to strengthen the mechanisms of assimilation through Corporate Social Responsibility, NGOs which has a particular effect on women's consciousness. The generalization of flexible working relations and teleworking among female workforce, in the name of “harmonizing family and professional life”, continues to be at the heart of the assault of capital and bourgeois staffs both in the EU and Greece. At the same time, measures to manage the acute consequences from the expansion of women’s salaried work and the lack of social support for maternity are being reinforced, while the EU strategic choices lead to the deterioration and commercialization of healthcare services. The programme of the ND government “Nanny of the neighborhood” is characteristic, as well as the measures proposed in the "Pissaridis report" (paternity leave, flexibility in working hours and maternity leave, etc.).

These political practices are based on the outdated, conservative views on individual responsibility for family care which, in the best case, is shared more equally by women and men. In fact, these views overlook social responsibility for substantive measures supporting family, measures which are determined by the cost–benefit approach in relation to bourgeois state and business groups. This logic also determines the operation of services and structures for the care of infants, toddlers, the elderly, the disabled and their adaptation to the flexible working relationships of working mothers.

In this context, the direction of social democratic and opportunist political forces in EU and Greece calling for a distribution of European funds based on the effects of the pandemic on women is strengthened. The social democratic forces in feminist movement are also moving in this direction, while in recent years there has been a systematic effort for the feminist movement to revive in Greece as well, targeting especially the youth.

They seek to conceal the class orientation of EU subsidies at the expense of workers' and people's interests but also the class policies of managing the pandemic with serious consequences for working and unemployed women. The low percentage of women in the so-called “Decision-Making Centers”, the “male-dominated” society, the “male-domination” in the higher levels of higher education and especially in natural sciences are being presented as causes of inequality in the relations between the two sexes, particularly in the condition of restrictive measures.

In the context of university projects on sexes, theories about “social gender” are reproduced, which in fact deny or downgrade their biological essence to such an extent that they completely detach issues of social behaviors, perceptions, etc. from the economic and social background which, in combination with the special position of women in the reproductive process, brought about additional social inequalities on the ground of the domination of exploitative economic relations.

They form a distorted notion of “individual rights”, isolating them from the socio-economic nature of rights, overemphasizing certain individual choices, such as homosexual sexual orientation or even the so-called “self-determination of one’s body” in prostitution and drugs. This is a distortion of the perception of individual rights, which is not related to the necessary defense of individuals with particular choices against any form of social alienation, violence, racism, etc. The view of the KKE is based precisely on the confrontation with such reactionary and dangerous phenomena, on the defence of each individual personality against any form of racism, violence, alienation, bullying, and other attacks.

40. Since the 20^th Congress the bourgeois strategy in education has focused on the following axes:

a) The promotion of new abilities and skills required for the integration of workforce in the capitalist economy on the basis of the development of new means of production, but also for the perpetuation of the bourgeois ideological domination.

b) The closer connection of educational structures with the needs of the capital, which is also served by promoting their autonomous and differentiated operation. This perspective particularly affects the structures of vocational education and especially universities.

c) The acceleration of the processes of evaluation and certification of education as a whole in the light of their most efficient operation for the reproduction of the capitalist society in its entirety.

Both in the period of SYRIZA and ND government, a series of changes took place in conditions of significant cuts in spending due to the evolution of the capitalist crisis, while in the phase of the weak capitalist recovery (2016–2019), before the new phase of the economic deterioration education spending has been consolidated to a level that is exacerbating the situation. The modernizations attempted by all bourgeois governments do not meet the new challenges posed by knowledge, the development of productive forces that require a high general educational level as well as skills in the use of state-of-the-art technological means. They seek to adapt general education to the modern needs of capitalism, at the expense of general education.

Of course, each government policy has its own peculiarities, promotes its own priorities, utilizes and prioritizes at the level of propaganda symbolic concepts in order to achieve consensus, depending on the imprint it seeks to leave in the context of bourgeois political scene in each country. As regards education in our country, this effort of the two main governmental bourgeois parties of the current bourgeois political system, ND and SYRIZA, in addition to seeking to highlight false or even secondary political divisions, is also determined by the activity of the KKE and KNE that reveals the unified strategy of bourgeois governments in education and promotes demands and goals of struggle that highlight the real contemporary social needs against the reactionary changes in education.

41. The ideological intervention in the youth is part of the strategy of the bourgeoisie. It does not concern merely the ideological support for bourgeois educational reforms, invoking a series of concepts such as excellence, competitiveness, equality, connection to the labor market, etc. It has more comprehensive and long-term goals: the modernization in the relationship between education and production targeting at even younger ages.

Beyond the general, basic ideological positions (justification of the eternity of bourgeois exploitative relations, glorification and embellishment of bourgeois democracy, “initiative and entrepreneurship”, bourgeois conception of formal equality and freedom, concealment of economy’s class character),  a series of social skills is promoted which allegedly constitute the identity and “cultural consciousness” of  “European citizens”, as well as positions that “capitalism is the best possible system in spite of all its injustices”, “we cannot overcome inequality which, whether inherent and natural or social, is insurmountable”, etc. They plead for the possibilities of capitalism for self-regulation, improvement and reform, in order to prevent the young people, who are in search of a way out of capitalism’s deadlocks, from coming in contact with the prospect of a revolutionary overthrow of capital. For this reason, they place particular emphasis on anticommunism, which is a central state policy that is being elaborated and financed at EU level. Anti-communism is focused on the distortion and revision of history, especially around World War II and the role of the USSR, the equation of fascism with communism, the condemnation of revolutionary violence and its identification with terrorism and extremism, the theory of two extremes, etc.

42. It is confirmed that ideological work is a necessary condition for the broader work with the strategy and the Programme of the Party especially in the youth, but also for the struggle in the movement of school and university students.

Since the 20th Congress, the Party has proceeded to a series of elaborations that promote and popularize our positions by age and level of education, focusing on contemporary possibilities and needs.

The enlightenment work regarding the position on the twelve-year unified school of contemporary general education has continued.

The position of the Party for Preschool Education has been made public, which is a creative specialization of our position on the responsibility of socialism in the education and overall development of children of preschool age.

The Party’s position on university education has also been published. We proceeded to elaborations on the concept of vocational education and training.

In the next period, the main task of the Party in the field of education is to strengthen the ideological–educational effort focusing on the popularization of the Party's proposal for education, work, healthcare and social needs as a whole in socialism; to reveal the bourgeois arguments regarding “neutrality” of science; to highlight the contemporary possibilities of the productive forces, first of all of man, which are limited by capitalism; to organize the debate and the struggle at all levels of education on the basis of the concept school–ideology–education–economy–society, that is, on the basis of the Party’s strategy, utilizing the elaborations and publications to enlighten the main issue: only if the youth realize who and why deprivesthemoftheir future and rights, how and with whom they can assert them, will they be able to claim them.

On the basis of the socialization of the concentrated means of production, the abolition of capitalist exploitation, and scientific central planning, it is possible to determine the multitude of specializations needed, so that young people who have graduated can immediately find a job in their field of study. It is the society that ensures the most free choice of studies, so as to satisfy individual interests with creative work for the benefit of the needs of the majority.

43.During the previous years, the attempt of the Party and KNE to intervene in junior and senior high school students brought back to light the difficulties deriving from the persistent and profound formation and moral shaping of the new generation by the system, beginning at an increasingly young age. During the last years, in fact, capitalist power has intensified its intervention through various means. A series of targeted activities have multiplied and are very thoroughly designed in the form of games, seminars etc. Schools are playing a key role with the prevailing educative principles and the content of schoolbooks, along with programmes by the EU, foreign embassies, municipalities, the Church (“katichitiko” – Christian lessons) as well as other mechanisms such as scouting groups or via the Internet, social media, television, etc.

To deal with this, an Intersectional Committee of the Central Committee was formed, concerning the younger age groups of the youth and aiming to collectively intervene as a Party in the formation of children at a younger age, i.e. before the age of becoming a member of KNE, which, based on its Statute, is at the age of 14. During the period after the previous Congress, emphasis was put on the need for the Party forces to realize the importance of this intervention and, on the other hand, on the elaboration of the content of this intervention; this goal was achieved through elaborating the “Kokkino Aerostato”, other publications, activities held by area-based Organizations, as well as central initiatives (children’s camp, venues in the Festival etc), promoting children’s interacting with the magazine, their formation on progressive, radical values and principles. We recognize and utilize the power given by the group of peers and of a younger role model, which, during the phase of pre-adolescence and adolescence play now a very dynamic role.

For the following years, our goal has to be that this intervention in younger age groups becomes more organized and persistent, that it gains more solid basis and stable characteristics; that it embraces even more children through the operation of children groups in municipalities and cities, with the support of the Party and KNE; that such initiatives are supported and multiplied at the level of the movement (by trade unions, women associations, Greek Committee for International Detente and Peace–EEDYE, etc.). We should continue the effort to publish special content for these ages, through modern forms of pervasiveness and elaborated–adapted projection of messages.

This effort can be reflected in the development of the KNE in junior high schools and the improvement in the quality of the operation and content of school BOs’ life and action.

44.During the time after the previous Congress, new steps have been made in the Party’s intervention in the field of Culture. The rich cultural activity continued more intensively through the Scientific Conferences, the Festivals of KNE–Odigitis, the big artistic productions, the concerts, tributes, exhibitions and competitions of original artistic content; it was characterized by higher quality and more profound approach to the role of Art by the Party and KNE. The number of artists, intellectuals and other specialists in the field of Art, who took part or contributed to all this activity, was expanded in numbers and quality. Certain Party Organizations, utilizing the central experience, developed such initiatives at a local level and with notable results.

The intense cultural activity of this period, but also the initiatives developed by forces of the Party in the mass movement of employees in the field of Culture, more intensively during the last period of the pandemic, contribute to upgrading the Party’s prestige in general as well as particularly in the field of Culture. Through its activity, its practical interest for the serious problems of artists and other employers in the field and the appreciation it holds for their social contribution, the Party earns their respect, creating the path for them to overcome inhibitions and approach its political views. Their relationship with Art offers a different dynamic in their stance towards the brutal social reality.

The rallying of a significant number of artists to the Party, which has been achieved so far, should not be considered as satisfying or taken for granted. It needs a great effort with regular and stable political and ideological discussion in order maintain and widen the rallying of forces, and, most importantly, in order to create political and ideological bonds with younger and talented artists overcoming the actual delay.

45.Generally, it appears that the belief which —as mentioned at the 20^th Congress of the Party— considered culture as a supplementary part of its political activity, tends to be gradually overcome. Culture —especially art committed to communist ideas— starts to be recognized as another field of the class struggle, as a crucial field of action for the Party, able to express and promote, with its own means —aesthetically and artistically— the communist ideology and the necessity of socialism–communism.

However, it needs to further realize that the most important role of Art and Culture as a whole is to contribute to the expansion of educational horizon, to encourage the personality’s multifaceted development and thus the ability of communists to comprehend and impact on social reality. These elements are necessary so as to take up their role as a revolutionary political vanguard.

The possibilities not yet developed in the field of Culture for the development of the Party’s political intervention underline the need to overcome the great differentiation between Party Organizations regarding the level of organizing the cultural activity, by forming cultural committees in all Regional Organizations and PBOs of artists in the biggest cities at least, by regularly monitoring the field, better familiarizing with the issue of Art and having stable cultural activity.

46..Despite any achievements in the cultural work of the Party, there is still a long way to gobeforewe obtain the knowledge and ability to confront contemporary bourgeois theories over the content of Art, avidly cultivated and supplied by great funds through a web of governmental organizations, corporate groups and universities institutions, exerting a serious influence on the younger and more educated generations of artists.

The central and more dangerous characteristic of these theories is that complex social issues, such as violence towards women, “gender identity”, racism etc., are presented in terms of individual rights. Thus, the need to protect victims of any form of violence, racism, alienation because of gender, religion, sexual orientations, etc. is degraded.

It is clear that we need to intensify the research activity in order to elaborate theoretical issues of modern Art and literature, also by coordinating the work of PhD candidates in such fields. A significant factor for the establishment and intensification of the Party’s intervention in Culture is to develop a new generation of artists–creators and scientists in the field of Art, who, along with their talent and knowledge on the tools of Art, will have a Marxist education, which is a decisive factor for creating vanguard artistic work of aesthetically high value. It is a rather difficult goal which, especially in today’s non-revolutionary conditions of great retreat of the communist movement, cannot be left to chance. It requires constant and long-term effort, whose results may not be visible shortly, but will be proven to be valuable for the revolutionary transformation of society.

47. Over these years, we have managed to come into contact with workers from dozens of industrial and other enterprises, per region and per sector. These are fields where we struggle with persistence and planning to build PBOs and BOs. An attempt was made for the leading organs and all party forces, regardless of their area of work and responsibility, to roll up their sleeves and struggle in this direction by assigning more forces, deploying forces where needed, receiving specific and substantial assistance from the CC and the other leading organs, utilizing Party supporters and taking other measures as well.

However, there has not always been a comprehensive commitment to this goal in order to  achieve tangible and concrete results. We need to assess that the leading organs and PBOs did not respond consistently and adequately to this central task in all cases.

Undoubtedly, the Party’s strengthening and the systematic monitoring of its course constitute a  permanent task for a revolutionary, workers', communist party.

48. In the period until the 22^nd Congress, remains the task of renewing Party forces, expanding them based on class criteria, developing the KNE and, above all, ensuring the communist steeling of the members and cadres of the Party and KNE. A precondition for this task is the deep and extensive strengthening of the ideological element in the internal operation of the Party and KNE from the higher leading organs to the PBOs and the BOs of KNE; the ideological and political ties of the PBOs and the BOs of KNE with their circle of influence and their fellow militants in the various movements and fronts of struggle.

This is a very complex —and therefore difficult to accomplish— task that is hindered by old and new barriers such as:

- The very old contradiction between intellectual and manual labour, but also the new difficulties arising from the wide application of IT regarding rapid and condensed information, the addiction to which limits education, the ability to study, and the development of critical thinking and corresponding activity.

- The deterioration and instability of working hours. Teleworking.

- The reduction of the support provided to new parents by grandparents due to the increase in  the retirement age, in combination with the increasing number of working women. This problem  is exacerbated by the inadequate and degraded social support system that makes the care of children, the elderly, and the disabled an individual–family matter.

- The planned work of the employers’ and state mechanism to hinder the workers and the youth from coming into contact with the ideology and policy of the KKE as well as the activity of the labour–popular movement.

49. A necessary precondition for the strengthening of the Party is the expansion of its organized forces in mass workplaces and all sectors of wage labour, as well as among the urban and rural self-employed. During the period of the Party’s centenary celebration, we managed to make up for the losses incurred in previous years and achieve a relative increase in our forces. This positive change, which does not reflect our full potential, took place at a time of intense political developments, pressures and delusions that were widely cultivated in the popular forces in combination with defeatism. However, the small steps taken in the organizational development of the Party, the improvement of its composition in terms of the percentage of workers, the overall Party building in factories, large enterprises, and hospitals, do not correspond to the importance they have for the regroupment of the labour movement, especially in current conditions of the movement’s retreat and the pressure exerted to integrate large sections of the working class.

Despite a better orientation that most of the Regional Party Organizations seem to have attained towards the particular goal of developing the Party in the industrial sector and sectors of strategic importance, the steps taken and the achieved results are still limited. We have established contact with workers in more workplaces, but a combined and targeted work, as well as the utilization of these contacts with a joint intervention plan of the Party groups in trade unions and the forces of sectoral and area-based PBOs, has not been established everywhere. Better preconditions for Party intervention and development were created where we carefully examined each field; ensured a planned political opening, an ideological discussion, an elaboration of a framework of struggle to support the intervention; renewed our ties with the workers; worked in a multifaceted way by utilizing reserves and not recycling the same type of work. It was proved that without a systematic ideological and multifaceted work, which is a necessary infrastructure, no substantial steps can be taken in Party building.

There is a large number of Party and KNE members who, all these years, conduct a vanguard struggle in the workplaces under difficult conditions, utilizing the historical legacy of the Party. This militant political and trade union vanguard can be expanded and help ensure that the preconditions that have been created in hundreds of workplaces produce more concrete results for Party building.

Our sectoral PBOs need to have better orientation in order to form an infrastructure for building PBOs; first and foremost where we already have certain forces or even active supporters and the number of workers is considered favourable. The planning for Party building should be more specifically elaborated at the level of an enterprise, monopoly unit, hospital, and in each specific workplace, where the existing infrastructure can be developed into a cell consisting of a sufficient number of members to create a PBO. This requires a more concrete and persistent work in the orientation of the leading organs, the PBOs, and all the forces, providing assistance and support to the comrades who work in these enterprises. We seek to create preconditions by forming Party cells, aiming to create sections in sectoral or enterprise-based PBOs whose political guidance is particularly demanding, so that the discussion on the prevailing situation in the workplace as well as the specific political and organizational measures required become more substantial and concrete. At the same time, attention must be paid in order not to limit the enterprise-based PBO into its own microcosm, however important it may be, as this could lead to a certain narrowness, a limited horizon of discussion and activity, and possibly work confined within the framework of trade union struggle. Therefore, the leading organs need to ensure that the operation and activity of the PBOs are enriched with the general developments in the sector, area, and region, based on our theory, the historical conclusions, and the ideological superiority of our positions.

Sectoral PBOs with Party members in different workplaces should not be limited to a general discussion and targeting on the sector but should focus on the specific and main areas of their responsibility. They should be concerned about the struggle conducted in those areas, the activity of other forces, and the political guidance of Party cells in enterprises, aiming at building PBOs. They need to create infrastructure and be timely oriented towards the factors that play an important role in the sector, business group, and enterprise. The PBOs should be formed based on where the production and the main mass of the workers are mostly concentrated. Their composition needs to facilitate the implementation of activity, taking into account all the parameters such as distances, shifts, etc.

The area of responsibility must be set in clear terms when determining the composition of the sectoral PBOs. We should not perfunctorily convey the experience of large urban centres, where distances and areas are smaller, to more peripheral and remote regions, as this leads to fragmentation of forces and ineffectiveness. We need to avoid forming PBOs that cover many sectors —even if it is temporarily necessary due to the existing forces— and set goals for a better deployment of forces.

The sectoral and area-based PBOs need to ensure that the necessity and organization of their activity for the social alliance is put across in a practical way.

We focus our attention on industrial sectors; on enterprises active in the energy, metal, food, pharmaceutical, chemical industry, transport, construction, IT, and telecommunications sector; on the big shopping and hotel centres, the hospitality industry, hospitals, places of education (schools - universities), banks, and Local Authorities.

Experience shows that the building of PBOs, especially in large monopoly groups,  factories, and enterprises, necessitates the assignment of appropriate cadres and a staff that will plan, organize and monitor the course of the whole effort.

50.  As regards the Sectoral Organizations, we need to tackle more decisively weaknesses that continue to exist in the deployment of Party forces and reflect their incomplete political guidance. These weaknesses are related to sectoral PBOs whose composition does not correspond to their area of responsibility, consisting of comrades working in different and heterogeneous sectors or of sectoral PBOs covering a large territory with long distances that hamper their operation. They are also related to sectoral PBOs consisting of very few members in relation to the economic sector for which they are responsible, several times lacking clarity in their goals to intervene and build organizations in specific enterprises; but also area-based PBOs that face difficulties in intervening to their region of responsibility according to social–class criteria due to their composition and insufficient orientation.

In view of the upcoming Conferences, we need to elaborate on the deployment of forces based on the sector and workplace in a more comprehensive manner. The leading organs need to have clarity of goals, to take into account all the data in implementing the main direction to establish PBOs in sectors and enterprises. Area-based PBOs should also be included in this effort, maintaining active forces that can play such a role.

The issue of forming party cells in workplaces requires a coordinated effort by party forces both inside and outside each target area, as well as a multifaceted approach by mass organizations to alleviate the difficulty due to, for instance, the lack of traditional or other bonds (of kinship, friendship, etc.) with the Party and the organized movement. The inter-sectoral cooperation of sectoral and area-based organizations can provide experience, information, and conclusions, to strengthen the orientation of work according to social–class criteria. The improvement of the area-based PBOs’ work is more distinct where we establish the orientation of work towards an area–productive basis, the planning and activity for the workers’–people’s problems, the deployment of forces in the working class, the self-employed, the women, and the youth.

51. We have developed the organizational infrastructure to work on more specific measures for  Party building in a number of important —for our cause— large workplaces, growing economic sectors,  and industrial zones.

The deployment of forces in large economic sectors with separate Sectoral Organizations, as well as the intervention in business groups and areas with a large concentration of labour force are a more demanding issue. Careful preparation is needed because we may have a good starting point but  eventually cause damage by creating weak structures. There are economic sectors of the economy that assume particular importance in its overall course or gather the most numerous sections of workers and require unified and continuous monitoring of their development and structure. Such sectors are energy, IT, telecommunications, metal, transport and more specific air transport, shipyards, sea shipping, public transport, food, trade, hospitality industry, tourism, education, health, etc.

We must study the possibility and usefulness of creating new Sectoral or Party Committees in different economic sectors in order to prepare such a prospect[1]. This issue mainly concerns large urban centres, taking into account the overall course of the economy, the productive activity, the importance of the sector in production, the progress in the building–recruiting goals, the existence of a competent number of cadres. We can make use of the accumulated experience.

In this context, we need to focus our attention on forming the preconditions to intervene in some very important monopoly groups and build Party organizations. This presupposes a specific in-depth discussion based on data (number of workers, productive business activity, degree of exploitation, capital coalescence in areas other than the "main" ones, recruitment policy, the employer’s activity in the wider local community and its effect, trade union organization, etc.). This  discussion should be combined with a plan of intervention and deployment of forces in enterprises operating in different areas in the same region. We also need to try a more unified intervention in business groups that are active in various sectors, e.g. food factories where the same employer owns both the commercial and the food part, etc. Therefore, inter-sectoral cooperation, close monitoring of developments, joint meetings and other forms are required.

Following the development of capitalist activity, we should be constantly concerned with the development of political and mass action in large industrial zones, especially in areas located close to large urban centres, in Attica, Corinth, Inofyta, Thebes and Chalkida. This task, however, cannot be resolved everywhere in the same way.

52. The 21^st Congress acquires a particular significance since it is taking place during a period when the new outbreak of the capitalist economic crisis is underway, some preconditions are formed for the upsurge of the movement, but there are also risks for an even major total setback.

Vigilance and readiness are needed for a period where the instability of the bourgeois political system and the intensification of contradictions within the Eurozone and the EU may coexist with the further sharpening of inter-imperialist competition and even the resorting to war between the bourgeoisies and various blocs of forces at a regional, European, and international level. The class opponent is getting prepared as well, stepping up the attack and strengthening the state repressive mechanisms and employer-led mechanisms against the labour–popular movement and the Party.

The current conditions require a planned, targeted, combined ideological–political and mass activity in new economic sectors that experience growth based on the structure of the Greek capitalist economy; among people of younger ages working under new employment relations; in the specialization of our work based on the characteristics and particularities of each sector; in the specialization in women and the youth.

The theoretical–ideological steeling of all the members of the leading organs and the Party Groups in mass movement organizations is a basic precondition to tackle fatigue, routine, and a perfunctory accomplishment of tasks. It is a prerequisite for the objective and clear prediction and mainly for the confrontation of the turning points in the social–economic–political developments, under conditions of a deteriorating correlation of forces to the detriment of the class struggle.

We cannot rule out the emergence of such conditions, neither of conditions of a sharp rise of the class struggle, for which we seem to be somewhat more prepared since they contain the element of uplift.

Consequently, the main issue is to ensure that the revolutionary theoretical ideological–political steeling is expressed and able to tackle problems in more complex conditions, where abrupt and unpredictable developments may coexist and the intervention of the labour movement may not be corresponding. Moreover, a possibility may exist for an even greater retreat of the labour movement, a difficulty in the renewal and expansion of Party and KNE forces, a fact already being expressed in some Regional Organizations.

The Central Committee, and especially the new CC, will be judged by all the above issues after the 21^st Congress and its final Resolutions.

29 OF DECEMBER , 2020

THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE KKE