On Friday 20 September 2024, the delegations of the 44 communist youth organizations participating in the central events of the 50^th festival of of KNE-Odigitis, which will take place in Athens on 18–21 September 2024, visited the headquarters of the CC of the KKE.

Eliseos Vagenas, member of the CC of the KKE and head of the International Relations Section of the CC of the KKE, informed the foreign delegations about the developments in Greece, the activities of the KKE and its positions on national and international developments.

The meeting was also attended by Giorgos Marinos, member of the PB of the CC of the KKE and MP, and Kostas Papadakis, member of the  CC of the KKE and MEP.

The introductory speech at the meeting of the KKE with the delegations of the communist youth organizations participating in the 50^th Festival of KNE-Odigitis is as follows:

Dear comrades,

I would like to welcome you to the headquarters of the CC of the KKE and convey to you  warm, comradely greetings on behalf of the CC of the KKE. It is a pleasure and an honour for us that dozens of communist and anti-imperialist youth organizations are participating in the 50th Festival of KNE – Odigitis.

We especially want to welcome and express our solidarity with the organizations from the tormented Palestine, which has been suffering from the barbaric and genocidal attack of the murderous state of Israel for almost a year now. We express our full support and solidarity with the people of Palestine and their struggle for their own state, their own homeland.

We also want to express our internationalist solidarity with the delegation of the Union of Young Communists of Cuba. The KKE plays a leading role in expressing solidarity with Cuba, its people, the government and the Communist Party of Cuba, in their struggle against the barbaric imperialist blockade and other despicable measures, such as the inclusion of Cuba in the list of states sponsoring terrorism.

At the same time, we salute the action of all youth organizations against the monopolies and the decayed exploitative capitalist system, for the rights of the workers and the youth, for the cause of workers’ power, socialism–communism.

Dear comrades,

On the occasion of your presence in our country, we would like to inform you about some basic positions of our Party on national and international developments.

Throughout the past period, the KKE has played a leading role in the development and organization of important struggles of the workers, the people and the youth. It has waged important ideological–political battles against the bourgeois parties, the state, the imperialist unions and, more generally, against the reactionary views they try to promote among the people.

This year’s two mass national strikes on 28 February and 17 April were particularly important in this respect. The first was held on the one-year anniversary of the railway crime in Tempe, which claimed the lives of 57 people, most of them young people and university students. Hundreds of thousands of workers across the country went on strike, demonstrating against the policy that treats safety and the protection of people’s lives as a cost, that literally sacrifices people’s lives on the altar of capitalist profit. The slogan "their profits or our lives" was linked to the demand that all criminal and political responsibilities be attributed to the current and previous governments responsible for this disaster, as well as other similar ones where the people have been victims of catastrophic fires, floods, etc.

The escalation of the struggle against the policies that cause and aggravate the problems of the people, such as the high prices of basic consumer goods, energy poverty, and the policy of the bourgeois governments and the EU overall, led to another strike in April, with the main demands being substantial wage increases, the abolition of anti-labour legislation, the restoration of collective bargaining, the signing of sectoral and enterprise-based labour agreements, etc.

The members and cadres of the KKE in the labour-trade union movement played a decisive role in the organization of the strikes and their preparation within the trade unions and workplaces, taking all measures necessary for their success. You need to bear in mind that these national strikes were neither called nor supported by the two respective Confederations of private and public sectors workers, whose leaderships are controlled by social-democratic and reformist forces in line with all the strategic decisions of capital, the bourgeois governments and the EU. On the contrary, these leaderships have openly played a strike-breaking role.

The forces of the All Workers’ Militant Front (PAME), i.e. the rallying of class-oriented unions and trade unionists supported by the KKE, worked from below, laboriously informing the workers and organizing the struggle, calling for hundreds of General Assemblies of the first-level unions that decided to participate in the strikes, as well as dozens of Labour Centres and sectoral federations throughout the country. Of course, this was helped by the broad discussion on the framework of the struggle and the demands of the trade unions, which must target the real opponent, i.e.  the employers, capital and its parties and governments, highlighting that the criterion must be the the needs of the workers and the people and not the so-called resilience of the economy. This way of working has made it possible for forces that are not rallied in PAME to join the struggle.

In addition to these general strikes, some emblematic struggles were waged in large workplaces that were important for the entire working class. Such is the great struggle of the thousands of workers in the strategic metal industry of LARCO, who have been fighting for four years against the closure of the industry that puts thousands out of work and throws families out of their homes. The KKE is leading and supporting the LARCO workers’ struggle.

Another flagship struggle was that of the miners of the “Hellas Gold” company in Northern Greece, which wanted to impose 12-hour shifts on the workers using the anti-labour legislative arsenal provided by the government and the EU guidelines that literally take the working class back to the 19th century. The KKE supported the months-long struggle and the multi-day strikes of the workers, which led the employers to retreat and the workers to secure 8-hour work and a Collective Agreement with wage increases. It is no coincidence that the KKE’s share of the vote in the June European elections was almost 50% in the area around the LARCO factory, while it was also increased in the villages where the miners live.

We could cite more examples, such as the struggle of health workers in public hospitals, the mobilizations of teachers, etc.

All these actions, which we have briefly described, have contributed to a noticeable step forward in improving the correlation of forces in the bodies of the labour movement. The forces of PAME came second in the Congress of the General Confederation of Private Sector Workers (GSEE), with 23% of the vote, and in the Congress of the General Confederation of Public Sector Workers (ADEDY), with 21.3% of the vote. Another significant fact is that, for the first time in our country, the forces of  PAME came first in the Greek Primary Teachers’ Federation (DOE), and also in the unions of many large public hospitals and in the Federation of Hospital Doctors, among others.

At the same time, other sections of the people also waged important struggles. Such was the struggle of tens of thousands of students, in which KNE played a leading role, who for more than two months carried out dozens of multiform mobilizations, demonstrations and occupations of universities all over the country against the monstrous bill of the New Democracy government, which allows the establishment of private universities and promotes the further privatization of public universities. Our Party is proud of the fact that, thanks to the rich activity of young communists and vanguard students, the lists supported by KNE were able to take the first place in the elections of the university student unions all over the country for the third year in a row, with 33% of the votes and a majority in 117 student unions.

We would also like to refer to the significant mobilizations of small and poor farmers, who, as in many other countries in Europe, have massively opposed the impact of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy, which is wiping out small farmers and concentrating land and resources in the hands of large landowners. In this context, farmers’ roadblocks were set up all over the country, especially in the region of Thessaly, which is the heart of agricultural production, coordinated by the Nationwide Committee of the Roadblocks. This struggle culminated in a mass demonstration of the farmers in Athens, supported by the trade unions and other mass organizations. It is an example of the effort to build the Social Alliance, to develop the joint struggle on the basis of the common interests of the workers’ – people’s strata against the policies of capital, the governments and the EU.

Dear comrades,

For a long time now, the main front in the ideological-political intervention of the KKE has been the opposition and action against the imperialist wars and interventions that are raging in the wider region to the detriment of the peoples.

In the last few months, hundreds of mobilizations, demonstrations, and multifaceted events have taken place all over the country in order to express solidarity with the Palestinian people and to condemn the genocide and inhuman attack of the murderous Israeli state that has resulted in more than 40,000 dead, including thousands of women and children, 100,000 wounded and millions of displaced people.

From the very first moment, our Party has explicitly stated that the aim of the imperialist attack of the Israeli state is to annihilate the heroic people of Palestine who have been fighting for their own homeland for decades.

The aim of the Israeli leadership is the genocide of the Palestinian people and the displacement of those who survive, in order to further weaken the just struggle of this people against the long occupation of the Palestinian territories, for the establishment of the Palestinian state on the borders that existed prior to 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

In fact, it is clear that they want to get their hands on the entire coastal area, from Egypt to Lebanon, in order to satisfy the interests of big business, such as the exploitation of hydrocarbons in the Palestinian EEZ and the strengthening of the trade routes from Asia to Europe via Israel. The existence, struggle and resistance of an entire people, the people of Palestine, is a thorn in the side of these interests.

Of course, Israel’s aggression is also felt by other peoples in the region, against whom it attacks, as in the case of the Lebanese people in recent months. Israel is even threatening to escalate the military conflict with Iran, which will lead to a new imperialist EU–NATO intervention in the region.

The KKE rejects the vile propaganda about “Israel’s right to self-defence” and defends the right of the Palestinian people to struggle in all ways and forms. We also reject the slanders about Palestinian “terrorism”, the reactionary views about a “clash of civilizations” and all kinds of pretexts promoted by various bourgeois and opportunist forces that deny the right of the Palestinian people to their own homeland.

The liberal New Democracy government, with the support of the social-democratic parties of SYRIZA and PASOK, and of extreme right-wing forces such as the Greek Solution party, has committed itself to supporting the Israeli military operation against the Palestinian people, which constitutes a massacre and a crime against humanity. All these parties refuse to proceed with the recognition of the Palestinian state, despite the unanimous decision of the Greek Parliament since 2015.

The Greek governments are deeply involved in the imperialist plans in the region. The deployment of the Greek Patriot artillery battery in Saudi Arabia was followed by the deployment of the frigate Hydra in the Red Sea, under the pretext of “protecting navigation”. In fact, Greece has also taken command of the EU naval mission “Aspides”, in coordination with a similar operation led by the USA.

This open support for Israel is not due to the call of the EU and the USA, but to the fact that the government and the other parties are oriented towards the interests of the country’s ruling class. They are oriented towards the interests of the Greek shipowners, who have the largest merchant fleet in the world, as well as the profits of those businessmen who benefit from the country’s participation in the logistic chains and the redivision of energy resources, the wealth produced by the people, the transport routes for commodities, the market shares. They serve these interests and that is why they  send members of the Greek Armed Forces, i.e. the children of our people, into the eye of the storm.

You see, the New Democracy government was concerned about the profits of the shipowners and the reduction of container traffic in the ports of Piraeus and Thessaloniki. And they want to pass this concern on to the Greek people, as a supposed “national problem”, which allegedly dictates the deployment of the Greek frigate in the Red Sea for “national reasons”! However, this concern has nothing to do with the Greek people. It has to do with their capitalist economy, which condemns the majority to suffer from high prices, poverty, misery, unemployment, foreclosure auctions, the social deadlocks of capitalism, so that the few who hold the reins of power and the economy can accumulate wealth.

Of course, comrades, the imperialist massacre that has been going on for 2.5 years on the territory of Ukraine is still an issue of enormous importance for the intervention of the KKE. The escalation of the war is a fact, the course of events in the last period is forming the basis for the generalization of the war, the use of nuclear weapons is becoming more threatening, and these developments directly affect the peoples of the region and beyond.

From the very beginning, the KKE has pointed out the imperialist character of the war in Ukraine, which is being waged by the bourgeois classes within the framework of monopoly capitalism, driven by the capitalists’ thirst for profit.

Ukraine is a bone of contention for capital, due to its important mineral wealth and large areas of arable land, developed technological infrastructure (12 thermal power plants, 6 hydroelectric power plants, 5 nuclear power plants, 6 major oil pipelines, a huge network of tens of kilometres of pipelines for transporting Russian gas to European countries, 8 refineries), tens of large industrial plants, such as wood and metal processing plants, food production plants, chemical industry, defence industry and shipyards, along with a large workforce. All the above, in addition to its geo-strategic position, especially its access to the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, turn it into a modern apple of discord between the imperialists of the Euro-Atlantic bloc (USA, NATO, EU) on the one hand and capitalist Russia and the emerging Eurasian bloc led by China on the other.

The correct assessment of the imperialist character of the war and the class-oriented approach, which exposes the anti-people nature of the class forces that are waging this war on both sides, has in no way prevented the KKE from organizing struggles against NATO, of which Greece is an active member. The same applies to the KKE’s struggle against the USA, with which the bourgeois right-wing, left-wing and centre governments have signed a "strategic Agreement" (Mutual Defence Cooperation Agreement), as well as to the struggle against our country’s involvement in the war.

Since the outbreak of the war in February 2022, the KKE has scoured Greece, organizing hundreds of anti-war and anti-imperialist events: mass mobilizations at US bases, ports and airports of strategic importance for the Euro-Atlantic arms supply, such as the port of Alexandroupolis, as well as symbolic blockades of NATO forces, condemning the imperialist war and demanding an end to Greece’s participation in the adventurist plans of Euro-Atlantic imperialism in Ukraine. The KKE voted against the provision of arms and  funding to the reactionary Zelenskiy government both in the Greek and the European Parliament. In fact, when Zelenskiy delivered a speech in the Greek Parliament, the KKE parliamentary group was the only one that collectively refused to participate and denounced the government and the bourgeois parties present.

The KKE continues to inform the people about the causes of the war, rejecting the pretexts used by both sides, and calls on the people not to choose a camp between imperialists. We call on the peoples to put forward their independent class interests and to fight together against the bourgeois classes of both imperialist blocs.

There will be more and more pretexts used by the capitalists and opportunists to align the working class behind the one or the other imperialist power in the imperialist confrontation.

Their ideological and political unmasking and refutation is an important task for any CP that defends Marxism-Leninism, and in particular the Leninist conception of imperialism and war. Lenin stressed that war is an “inevitable stage of capitalism, just as legitimate a form of the capitalist way of life as peace is”. Such is the war in Ukraine. The preconditions for this war were set by the historical regression of the counter-revolution in 1989–1991, when the counter-revolutionary process of overthrowing socialism was completed, the USSR was dismantled, the means of production, the factories, the mineral wealth, the labour power became a commodity again and capitalism and class exploitation dominated.

Our struggle against the USA and NATO remains a timely and necessary revolutionary task. We will not entrust this revolutionary task to the bourgeois regimes that emerged from counter-revolutionary processes, such as Putin’s in today’s Russia, or to various axes and alliances that serve the interests of their own monopolies, or of course to the billionaire former US President, D. Trump, who also talks about dismantling NATO. Because, from the point of view of the people’s interests, this task against the USA, NATO, the EU and all kinds of imperialist centres, alliances and unions, is linked to our strategic goal of overthrowing capitalism and building the new, socialist-communist society by disengaging from all imperialist alliances.

We believe that in order for the international communist movement today to be able to meet the demands of this ideological and political struggle, it must draw conclusions from its history, defending the achievements of the USSR and the historical contribution of the Communist International, while at the same time studying the errors, weaknesses and problematic approaches, which have an influence on its ranks to this day, with a critical eye.

Dear comrades,

The crystal clear positions of the KKE in the demanding political-ideological confrontation and its vanguard multifaceted action against the government and the bourgeois parties, the EU, capital and its power have contributed to the expansion of the militant ties between the communists and the people and to the positive result achieved by our party in the recent European elections.

In the 2024 European elections, the KKE won 9.25% of the vote, a further significant electoral increase in its share of the vote compared to the May (7.2%) and June (7.69%) parliamentary elections in 2023 and, of course, compared to the 2019 European elections (5.35%). It elected 2 MEPs, who, together with the 21 MPs, the 6 communist mayors and the hundreds of regional and municipal councillors, are fighting for the strengthening of the workers’–people’s movement. This confirms the positive processes that have been going on for a long time and that were also expressed in the elections.       

Of course, the so-called far-right forces, which are parties of capital and the system, have been strengthened in various countries in these European elections. They act as a cushion to absorb popular discontent, in many cases taking on an “anti-systemic” mantle and using the reactionary policies of the ruling “liberal” and social-democratic parties that present themselves as “progressive”. They also present themselves with false “anti-EU” and “pro-peace” slogans, criticizing certain aspects of the EU, such as the recent CAP review or aspects of the Stability Pact, hiding the fact that it is a union of monopolies, supporting the interests of some monopolies over others in their competition with each other. At the same time, they are a convenient bogeyman used by the so-called centre-right or social-democratic forces to present their own reactionary policies as “democratic” and “progressive”.

It has been proven that when these forces are in government positions, their “anti-systemic” rhetoric always goes out the window. The case of Meloni is telling: she started out as “the great danger for the EU” and now Ursula von der Leyen praises her and looks forward to her support because she has decisively implemented all EU and NATO decisions. These forces are fuelled by the official EU policy and ideology, by anti-communism and the “two extremes” theory, by supporting fascist forces, e.g. Azov in Ukraine, and by the general reactionary turn of the political system.

Especially today, when the impasses of the system are more evident, when the competition, also within the EU, is intensifying and the EU is putting its economy on a war footing in order to face the emerging new economic crisis —a process in which the social democratic and “liberal” bourgeois forces are leading the way, it is only logical that the fascist and nationalist forces, which history has shown to be a valuable support for the capitalist power in its most difficult moments, are also strengthened as a reserve. Under these conditions, any compromises will be temporary and the conflicts will be sharpened, creating cracks in the stability of the imperialist alliance and opening up new possibilities for the struggle of the workers’–people’s forces.

As it has been confirmed historically, only a rising workers’–people’s movement, the class struggle that targets the very causes that generate this reactionary political current, the EU, the imperialist competition, the capitalist system, can create a barrier to the rise of the far right. And this is the message conveyed by the action and rise of the KKE.

We assess that a current disputing the dominant policy, which is currently being implemented by the New Democracy government, and the EU is being stabilized and strengthened. Part of it is expressed in the rise of the prestige and the rallying with the KKE, in the disengagement of workers’–people’s forces from the bourgeois parties which, despite their disagreements and competition over government posts, follow the same general political line to the detriment of the interests of the people, for the development of capitalist profitability, along the lines of the USA, NATO and the EU.

The KKE seems to be particularly strengthened in Attica, i.e. the Athens metropolitan area, where it is again the third force. It is the second force in a number of municipalities with a working-class and popular composition, while it also registers a significant increase in several large urban centres of the country. This was mainly expressed in industrial zones and areas where mass workers’ struggles have taken place, such as around LARCO; in areas where mass farmers’ mobilizations have taken place; in areas where the slogan “only the people can save the people” has been put into practice in the face of the destructive consequences of government and EU policies that have left the people unprotected against floods, fires, etc.

This confirms the ties of the KKE with the popular forces, which have been established in the important struggles of the last period; in our continuous, unstoppable efforts for direct communication, dialogue and debate with the people, in various forms, in the workplaces and the neighbourhoods. Of course, the political correlation of forces remains negative for the people. However, today there is a force to be reckoned with, i.e. the KKE, which can contribute to the organization of the workers’–people’s struggle, the counter-attack, the overthrow, in the next day and in the face of the difficulties to come.

The KKE will utilize the power given to it by the people to organize the workers' - people's struggle for the overthrow of the decayed and obsolete capitalist system and the construction of the new, socialist-communist society.

Finally, I would like to point out that the KKE struggles for the regroupment of the international communist movement, which, in our estimation, is still in conditions of deep political and ideological crisis. In this regard, it actively participates in the International Meetings of Communist and Workers’ Parties (IMCWP), and is leading in other forms of joint action of the CPs, such as the International Communist Review (ICR) and the European Communist Action (ECA). In the present conditions, our Party, which maintains relations with dozens of CPs from all over the world, advocates closer cooperation with those CPs that can contribute to the revolutionary regroupment of the ICM to varying degrees, according to the following criteria:

a) They defend Marxism–Leninism and proletarian internationalism, the need to form a communist pole internationally;

b) They fight against opportunism and reformism, they reject the centre–left management and any variation of the strategy of stages;

c) They defend the scientific laws of the socialist revolution. Based on those laws they assess the course of socialist construction; they seek to examine and draw lessons from the problems and mistakes;

d) They have opened an ideological front against erroneous perceptions on imperialism, particularly those that detach its military aggression from its economic content, and against all imperialist alliances;

e) They establish ties with the working class, they try to act within the trade union movement and the movements of the popular sections of the middle strata, they seek to integrate the daily struggle for workers’–people’s rights to a contemporary revolutionary strategy for workers’ power.

With these thoughts, I would like to thank you once again for your participation.

We are at your disposal for any clarifying questions.

The discussion and the closing speech of G.Marinos

A rich discussion followed on the basis of the questions raised by the delegates of the communist youth organizations about the experience of the communists’ action in Greece in the labour–trade union and student movement, the developments and processes in the international imperialist system, the attitude of the bourgeois governments towards the Palestinian issue, etc.

G. Marinos concluded the discussion. On the occasion of the questions raised about the experience of the KKE’s contribution to the development of important struggles and the strengthening of positive processes in the consciousness of the people and the youth, he stressed the decisive role of the elaboration of the Party’s programmatic perception in a revolutionary direction for the development of the class struggle in Greece and the contribution of the KKE to the International Communist Movement. He also commentedon the issues of the right struggle of the Palestinian people, against the attitude of the bourgeois forces and the illusions that some of them, especially the social-democratic and opportunist ones, try to promote.