The European Communist Action (ECA) conference took place on Sunday 16 March in Paris, on the theme: "Conclusions and perspectives for the labour movement in Europe".

The conference, organised two years after the major workers' mobilisations in France, which shook the country and the whole of Europe, aims to exchange the views and experiences of the CPs of ECA the  on the workers' movement in Europe.

Introductory speeches were made by Jean-Christophe Brossard, member of the PB and the International Committee of the Revolutionary Communist Party of France, and by Kostas Papadakis, member of the CC of the KKE and KKE MEP, who noted the following:

Dear comrades,

We would like to thank all the comrades who are present in Paris today and the comrades participating online in today's meeting of the ECA, which shows, among other things, the importance that the communist and workers' parties of the ECA attach to the contemporary working class, which is the basic productive force of capitalist society and the class that suffers from capitalist exploitation. At the same time, we are aware that its historical mission, which can be summarized in the struggle for the overthrow of the capitalist relations of production and the construction of a new, socialist–communist society, cannot be fulfilled if the Communist Parties are not rooted in the working class, if we do not act within the workers’ – trade union movement, if we do not have party organizations in the workplaces and sectors.

We are meeting here, in the country where two years ago there were very big workers’ mobilizations in terms of massiveness, militancy and duration, with advanced forms of struggle against the organized attack of the French government, the EU and capital to dismantle the social security system, in order to exchange thoughts and experiences on the workers’ – trade union movement and the intervention of the CPs in it. Of course, we know that there are differences from one European country to another, for example in the degree of organization and mobilization capacity, but at the same time there are common problems and common tasks.

Two years ago, the mass strikes in strategic sectors in a country and α capitalist economy like France, such as the chemical industry, the railways and the ports, set the tone for the mobilizations, embraced large masses of workers and gave a militant impetus to workers throughout Europe and beyond.

These struggles were confronted with the powerful mechanisms of repression and provocation of the bourgeois state. The government and the bourgeois parties used all kinds of manoeuvres to exploit and manipulate the anger of the working people.

The Parties that today rally around the European Communist Action, including the KKE, had expressed in all ways their internationalist solidarity with the struggle of the French workers, as well as with the Communist Revolutionary Party of France.

The momentum of the people’s struggle unleashed by those great mobilizations has had a catalytic effect to this day on the decay and instability of Macron's governments, regardless of the prime ministers or the composition of these governments. However, the system has no way out of this dire situation, which lies in the insurmountable contradictions of capitalism, the problems within the French bourgeoisie and the management of the bourgeois political system in the face of the intensification of capitalist competition, the recession, the military involvement in the war and the anti-people policy of the Macron government. The problems of the system pile up, and a solution is sought in an anti-people government reserve: on the one hand, there is the far-right version with Le Pen and, on the other hand, the social-democratic one with the participation of the mutant French CP, the so-called “New Popular Front”. The latter is also a product of manipulation that offers the necessary lifeline to restore social democracy, which is bankrupt in the popular consciousness, and to perpetuate the anti-people policy. However, no matter what formula they use, capitalist profits skyrocket while the people suffer from high prices, low wages, energy poverty, all kinds of commercialization of health, education, etc.

In any case, the important workers’ mobilizations in France highlight the great importance and the need for the working class and the popular strata in France to have a strong revolutionary CP as a mainstay for their struggle. In this regard, due to the erosion caused by opportunism and social democracy for decades, our comrades of the Communist Revolutionary Party of France are waging a hard struggle, under difficult conditions.

As CPs today, we must study the experience, the lessons and tasks of communists, both in terms of our action in the workers’–trade union movement and our role in creating the conditions for its regroupment under difficult circumstances, with the aim not only of improving the lives of the workers, but also of preparing the subjective factor for the overthrow of capitalist barbarism and the construction of socialism–communism. In support of this strategy, the KKE has drawn the line of rallying workers’ and people’s forces, and the line of struggle in an anti-monopoly and anti-capitalist direction.

The imperialist competition is sharpening and the clouds of an imminent capitalist crisis are gathering, forcing the bourgeois staffs to consider alternatives to ensure their profitability, taking into account that the EU's green and digital strategy does not meet their expectations to invest the accumulated stagnant capital with a satisfactory rate of profit. The transition to the so-called war economy and the acceleration of war preparations are accompanied by measures on behalf of the US bourgeoisie, which is changing its priorities, mainly towards the recovery of losses in Ukraine, accelerating plans to secure its energy and trade plans in Gaza and the Middle East in general, while concentrating forces in the confrontation with capitalist China in the Indo-Pacific, which, as has been said, “will to some extent decide the outcome of the conflict for the control of the world”.  Of course, these actions have nothing to do with peace, despite the bourgeoisie’s false claims to the contrary. They signal a new round of dangerous escalation against the peoples, including fragile “peace” agreements that, without eliminating any of the causes of the imperialist war, prepare the next round of conflict between the bourgeois classes, with the peoples as the victims.

Dear comrades,

In this explosive environment of fierce geo-strategic rivalries, the fear of a generalized imperialist conflict is aroused among the peoples. However, there are some promising elements:

For years, especially after the counter-revolutionary overthrows, the staffs of the bourgeoisie have tried to impose on the peoples the notion that the workers’–people’s mobilizations, the struggle of the working class and its movement are ineffective and futile  with the aim  of demobilizing and discouraging them from joining trade unions and taking part in workers’ mobilizations. However, developments contradict this notion as it is the struggle of the working class and its movement that can be the real catalyst of developments. For example, the mass demonstrations in solidarity with the Palestinian people and the blocking of arms and explosives shipments to Ukraine and Gaza that took place in Greece and other countries underline the great importance of the independent struggle of the working class against the imperialist massacre in Ukraine. They contributed to the failure of the provocative attempt of victimization of the occupying state of Israel, and of the propaganda of the apologists of the genocide of the Palestinian people. They put obstacles in the way of the criminal plans of Israel and its allies.

Apart from the horror of death and material destruction, imperialist war constitutes the most violent means for the even greater exploitation of the working class in order to crash the class struggle. The ideological–political preparation of the CP is a precondition for denouncing and highlighting the imperialist character of the war, regardless of whether the bourgeoisie of one’s country is conducting an “aggressive” or “defensive war”, for making the working class aware of its tasks to organize its independent struggle, against any compromise with the bourgeoisie and its aims, showing no trust in the bourgeoisie, in the governments and parties that serve its interests. The KKE maintains that the CP must lead the people’s struggle to the complete defeat of the bourgeoisie, both the domestic one and the foreign invader, to link in practice this struggle with the conquest of power. A workers' and people's front, using all forms of struggle, must be formed on the basis of the initiative and the guidance of the party. This front will have the following slogan:  The people will bring the liberation and the way out from the capitalist system which, as long as it prevails, brings war and “peace” with a gun to the people’s head; with the aim to construct the new socialist–communist society.

The aggression of the bourgeois classes is also expressed within each country by the intensification of the attack against the workers. The NATO Secretary General’s statement about “sacrifices”, including cuts in pensions, and health and social security, in order to strengthen military spending in Europe is revealing. Equally revealing is the abolition of public holidays in Denmark, forcing the working class to work more days in order to boost “defence” spending. The growing struggle of the workers, their struggle against stagnating wages and pensions, the cuts in health, education and social security, the foreclosures of people's houses, as well as for collective agreements, for the necessary infrastructure of civil protection, for stable working hours, for the abolition of overtime and reduction of working hours, against all forms of commercialization of people's needs, is promising.  This is because these workers’ struggles are in conflict with the strategy of the bourgeois classes to increase their profitability and consolidate their power, as well as to their imperialist plans, which also take on military form.

We see the bourgeois governments and capital seeking to stem the rising popular discontent with EU inventions, such as the so-called escape clause for war spending to ensure the notorious competitiveness of EU capital and to put money into its war bonds.

Experience shows that the working class through its struggle draws lessons about the importance of its collective struggle and class solidarityfor achieving some gains, however it needs more than that; more than simply opposing to this or that anti-people law of the government. It must develop even more decisively its own framework of demands, of its real needs, which on the one hand will rally the working class and, on the other hand, will challenge the strategy of the bourgeoisie and the class collaboration of opportunism and reformism. From this point of view, there is positive experience in Greece, as communist-led mobilizations are taking place, with demands for wage increases and Collective Labour Agreements, with the setting up of new unions, the organization of workers, breaking through the fatalism and the rationale of diminished demands. At the same time, an overall effort is being made to bring this struggle together with the mass mobilizations of toiling farmers and the self-employed in order to develop the social alliance for a new and promising prospect for our people to live without wars, poverty and capitalist exploitation.

This struggle for the strengthening of the workers' movement is being waged in fierce confrontation with the compromised reformist leaderships of the trade union movement, which in Greece have been discredited by their undermining attitude over time. The class forces have achieved significant successes that have led to a change in the correlation of forces in trade unions, federations, Labour Centres, and trade unionists who approach and act on the basis of the line of the All-Workers’ Militant Front (PAME), the class-oriented pole in the trade union movement of forces.  However, despite the decay of social democracy, we should not underestimate the compromised leaderships, given that they maintain control of the trade union movement and operate with the support of the employers and the bourgeois state.

At the same time, the KKE and its forces in the trade union movement seek to develop their ideological–political intervention in the workplaces. For example, they unmask the organized operation to make the workers’–people’s mobilizations function as a "pressure valve” to vent the popular indignation, as a stepping stone to a change in the government, as a vehicle for the restoration of this decayed and worn-out bourgeois political system, and the formation of alternative anti-people poles to replace the current managers of bourgeois power. Our forces are trying to make as many workers as possible become aware of the necessity for the working class to take the lead in overthrowing the power of the monopolies, in alliance with the poor popular strata.

Dear comrades,

In the last few days an unprecedented mobilization of workers and people has taken place in Greece, the first of its kind in the last decades, culminating in the strike of 28 February. The central demand is to hold those responsible for the crime in Tempe politically and criminally accountable. This struggle has been going on for two years, since two trains travelling on the same track collided head-on, killing 57 people. This is because the cost-benefit policy and the corporate pursuit of profits prevent the installation of the necessary safety systems, even though they are technologically available. This struggle,  which moves, sensitizes and fills with anger broader forces of the people, is the tip of the iceberg of a wider indignation and discontent, fear and concern for the future, which is fueled overall by the deadlocks of the capitalist system facing the workers and the people as a whole.

The attempt to distort the message of this struggle and turn it into a utopian rehabilitation of the decayed institutions of the criminal bourgeois state failed thanks to the extremely mass strike on 28 February. The KKE and the class trade union movement, i.e. PAME, contributed greatly to the organization of the strike, which was a milestone in this struggle under the slogan “their profits or our lives”.

The qualitative and at the same time promising element of these great mobilizations is that they took the form of a nationwide mass general strike, as the workplaces came to a standstill, the shops, schools and universities were closed, the school and university students participated en masse in the rallies, following the decisions of the trade unions and other mass bodies of the popular movement and the youth, as well as the call of the relatives of the victims of Tempe.

The communists try to direct the struggle and focus on the responsibility of the EU strategy of liberalization, privatization and segmentation of the railways, their underfunding, on the basis of the cost-benefit rationale for the profitability of the business groups, which not only the present government but also all the previous ones have served, and expose their class nature. A key role was played by the struggle of the class forces and the workers in the railways, which was further strengthened after their strikes and mobilizations that warned against the crime that was bound to happen. In addition, only the KKE pointed out the dangerous transport of NATO war cargo by rail and the possibility that the explosion that followed the conflict was related to it, but the government has not yet responded.

The KKE points out that the solution lies in consolidating the people's distrust of the government, the bourgeois state, the policies they implement, the strategic choices they make on behalf of the ruling class. In strengthening the doubt against everything that is and essentially constitutes the system. Because the system is the economy based on exploitative relations of production, and both its crises and its growth are always paid for by the working, popular majority. The system is the business groups that seek maximum profit in every way. The system is the current bourgeois state with its decayed institutions and mechanisms, which can never be “rehabilitated”, which can never serve the just cause of the people. The system is the parties of capital and the EU that have ruled and are ruling this country.

This distrust can become a decision for an organized, unyielding struggle and rallying of forces with the KKE, with its revolutionary ideas and programme, for a different organization of the economy and society, where our lives will not be considered as a cost, for socialism.

18.03.2025