On 8 July 2022, a quadripartite meeting between the CP of Greece, the CP of Mexico, the CP of the Workers of Spain, and the CP of Turkey was held in Athens, at the headquarters of the CC of the KKE.

After the meeting, the General Secretaries of the 4 CPs issued the following statement:

“During our meeting on 8/7/22 in Athens, we had the opportunity to exchange opinions on the developments at international and national level, the situation formed due to the imperialist war in Ukraine, and the multifaceted anti-popular and anti-labour attack under the conditions of the so-called Green transition, of the energy crisis and a possible food crisis, essentially of the impending economic recession and crisis.

The conditions require the Communist and Workers’ Parties around the world to intensify their efforts for an organizational and ideological–political strengthening, in order to develop their joint struggle on the principles of scientific communism, that is, Marxism–Leninism and proletarian internationalism, and to advance the revolutionary regroupment of the international communist movement. We seek that first and foremost our Parties, but also the other CPs, forge strong ties with the working class and the popular strata, make steps forward and have a leading role in the class struggle, and at the same time lay the foundation for a unified revolutionary strategy of the international communist movement in a line of rupture with the capitalist system and its managers of all sorts in the prospect of their overthrow. Our era is the era of the revolutionary transition from capitalism to socialism.

In this regard, we reject the support for or participation in bourgeois governments, struggling against both the liberal and social democratic parties, against any kind of bourgeois governments serving the interests of the monopolies.

Our Parties believe that imperialism is not simply an aggressive policy but monopoly capitalism, capitalism in its most reactionary era, that is, at its highest stage. It is essentially intrinsic to stagnation, the huge gap between the productive potential and the meeting of the contemporary needs of the workers due to class exploitation, and the contradictions among monopolies and bourgeois states leading to imperialist wars.

Such is the case with the war that is being waged in Ukraine, where the interests of capitalist Russia clash with the interests and plans of the USA, NATO, and the EU for the control of markets, raw materials, and transport networks of the country.

There is a high risk of a generalization of the war or new imperialist conflicts in countries that emerged from the dissolution of the USSR and also in other parts of the world, especially in the south-eastern Asia region, where the confrontation between the USA and China over supremacy in the world capitalist system is manifested more clearly.

We deal with any process of secession or unification of capitalist states from a class point of view and we struggle against NATO, the EU, and all kinds of imperialist alliances. We oppose the participation of our countries in such anti-popular unions and intensify the effort so that the workers are not trapped under a ‘false flag’ but defend their own interests in conflict with the exploiters and their transnational unions.

We believe that the ideological–political and organizational regroupment of the international communist movement cannot take place without the unwavering struggle against any kind of bourgeois management of the exploitative system, either liberal or social democratic; against opportunism within the communist movement itself. We oppose both the nationalism and cosmopolitanism of capital, racism and fascism. At the same time, we reject the false ‘anti-fascism’ and various ‘anti-fascist fronts’ used by bourgeois and opportunist political forces to entrap the workers and the people in bourgeois management, detaching fascism from the capitalist system that gives rise to and utilizes it when needed.

We struggle with all our might for the meeting of the contemporary workers’–people’s needs through the regroupment of the labour and trade union movement, of the other popular movements, struggling against monopolies and capitalism.

Our Parties highlight the timeliness and necessity of socialism–communism as the only alternative for the peoples and defend the contribution of the October Socialist Revolution and the first socialist state, the USSR, while studying the causes of its overthrow as regards the issues of economy, the political superstructure, and the strategy of the International Communist Movement. We believe that socialism is governed by principles and scientific laws, i.e. the workers’ power, the socialization of the means of production, and the central scientific planning. We reject notions about market socialism claiming that socialism can be built by preserving capitalist enterprises and mechanisms, by allowing waged labour by owners of means of production and land.

Based on the above, our 4 Parties have agreed the following:

- To continue our initiatives against imperialist war, which formally started with the unacceptable Russian invasion of Ukraine. We oppose imperialist powers, the plans of the USA, NATO, the EU, and any other imperialist alliance.

- To demand the disentanglement of our countries from imperialist plans and unions, highlighting the imperialist character of the war in Ukraine. The solution in favour of the peoples cannot be found in the illusions fostered by bourgeois forces claiming that there can be a ‘better security architecture’, NATO ‘without military plans and offensive weapon systems in its territory’, a ‘pro-peace EU’, or a ‘peaceful multipolar world’. The solution lies in the strengthening of the class struggle for the disengagement from imperialist unions, against imperialist war and the womb that gives birth to it, that is, the capitalist system.

- To continue our efforts to exchange experience regarding the activity of our Parties in the labour and trade union movement, the other popular movements, the movement for the equality and emancipation of women, aiming to make struggles more efficient and forge the ties between our Parties and the workers’–people’s forces.

- To intensify our efforts in the framework of the International Communist Review (ICR) and the European Communist Initiative (ECI) aiming to strengthen their activity, overcome weaknesses, lay a more solid foundation, and enrich their content and activity in the coming period.

- To continue expressing our solidarity with the communists in Ukraine and other countries facing anti-communist persecution and bans as well as with all the militants facing persecution due to their trade union and political action in Russia, Kazakhstan, and elsewhere.

- To continue our struggle against the tarnishing of the socialist achievements in the Soviet Union, which was a multinational union of equal Socialist Republics, and at the same time to focus on the study of the causes of its dissolution, utilizing the 100^th anniversary of its foundation.

- To strengthen our solidarity with the people and the CP of Cuba against the blockade and US–EU imperialist plans. To contribute to the success of the 22^nd IMCWP, which will take place in October in Cuba, through our active participation.”

Dimitris Koutsoumbas, GS of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE)

Pável Blanco Cabrera, First Secretary of the CC of the Communist Party of Mexico (PCM)

Ástor García, GS of the CC of the Communist Party of the Workers of Spain (PCTE)

Kemal Okuyan, GS of the CC of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP)

Athens, 8 July 2022