During its recent visit to Turkey for the meeting of the European Communist Action, the delegation of the KKE had the opportunity to take part in an event organized by the cadres of the Communist Party of Turkey. Giorgos Marinos, member of the PB of the CC of the KKE, referred in his speech to the political developments, the actions and positions of the KKE and answered questions. Below we publish extracts of his speech.

Dear comrades,

We would like to thank the Communist Party of Turkey and welcome today’s meeting, which is taking place in a comradely atmosphere.

The serious developments that we are witnessing require that we examine the experience of the class struggle in our countries and exchange views, that we continue and step up our common efforts in the struggle for the interests of the working class, against capital and its power.

Capitalism is in decay; it is marked by the intensification of the exploitation of the working class, by poverty and the uprooting of the peoples, by the competition for the control of the markets and the wealth-producing resources.

Capitalism means “a world on fire”, as the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, the genocide of the Palestinian people by the occupying state of Israel, the Israeli attacks on Lebanon and Yemen, the destruction of Syria by the jihadists with the support of the USA, Israel and Turkey, and the multiplication of hotbeds of war show.

We are on the side of the peoples; we take part in the peoples’ struggle and express our internationalist solidarity. Trusting in the power and the historic mission of the working class, we struggle for a new, socialist society and the abolition of exploitation, in conflict with the bourgeois class and its political representatives, as well as with all kinds of imperialist alliances.

It is within the class struggle that the irreplaceable role of the communists is recognized: we are called upon to work tirelessly to enlighten, organize and mobilize the workers, to form the conditions for a counter-attack and the overthrow of this system.

The KKE puts its forces at the service of the struggle for the rights of the workers and the people. It clashes with big capital and its anti-people policy on all the  problems and needs of the people, while condemning the imperialist wars and Greece’s participation in them, as well as in the plans of the USA, NATO and the EU, under the responsibility of the New Democracy government, of the social-democratic PASOK and SYRIZA, of all the bourgeois parties that serve the interests of the bourgeois class.

In Greece, dozens of anti-imperialist and anti-war demonstrations were organized in solidarity with the heroic Palestinian people, as well as for the closure of the US-NATO bases. Moreover, the workers blocked ports and trains to prevent the transfer of arms to the war front in Ukraine and the state of Israel, such as the dock workers of the COSCO monopoly in the port of Piraeus.

Successful national general strikes, as well as strikes in various workplaces and sectors were held, in confrontation with the anti-people policy and the government and employer-led trade unionism. Emblematic struggles were waged, such as that of the workers of the LARCO metal industry for their work and livelihood, which lasted for 4,5 years.

Multi-day mobilizations of farmers took place for their survival against the anti-farmer policy of the EU. There were also struggles for an exclusively public and free health system; students’ struggles against the establishment of private universities, the commercialization and downgrading of education; struggles for the protection of the people against floods and fires; struggles against accidents at work. The people protested massively against the crime in Tempe, where a train collision cost the lives of 57 young people, and against the foreclosures of people's homes, which are taken over by banks and funds.

Various slogans set the tone, such as “Either your profits or our lives” or “Give money for wages, education, and health and not for the slaughterhouses of war”, which was the main slogan of the mass general strike on 20 November 2024.

The communists played a leading role in all the struggles, in a constant confrontation with the negative correlation of forces, in order to change it. They persist in an anti-capitalist and anti-monopoly line of struggle, working for the strengthening of the KKE, the regroupment of the labour/trade union movement and the social alliance.  

With the rise of the party in the parliamentary and the European elections, we have assessed that the current that questions the dominant policy is being reinforced and that this rise is not a coincidence. Through hard ideological–political work, workers, farmers, self-employed and young people are taking part in the struggles. The All Workers’ Militant Front (PAME), i.e. the class-oriented movement, has emerged as the second force in the trade union movement, with more and more unions rallying around it. It recently won an absolute majority in the Labour Centre of Piraeus, as well as in the large Federation of Private Employees of Greece.   

The progress of the KKE has worried the bourgeois class; anti-communism grows stronger, provocations are staged and repression escalates. Strikes are declared illegal. Punishments were imposed on soldiers who took part in the anti-war demonstrations of the KKE, triggering a moving wave of solidarity with them.  

Recently the Central Committee of the KKE adopted an important resolution concerning the escalation of the imperialist war, the intensification of imperialist competition and the preparation of the party.

This resolution analyses the imperialist character of the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, where two large blocs of imperialist powers and their allies are clashing: The USA–NATO–EU imperialist bloc, which supports the bourgeois government of Ukraine and the murderous state of Israel, on the one hand, and the Eurasian bloc under formation, led by China and Russia, together with their allies and their strategic choices, on the other hand. 

The CC assessed that the party’s action has formed conditions for the development of our work but our forces need to reach a higher level of readiness in the face of developments that will objectively lead to an intensification of the class struggle. It also assessed that the readiness of the party is currently measured by its determination, perseverance and strategic stability, by the militant experience it is accumulating and the ability to adapt to action under all conditions.

The CC studied the process of adaptation of the capitalist economy to war conditions and estimated that the transition to a "war economy" determines the framework of economic developments and at the same time creates new conditions for the action of our forces within the labour/trade union and people’s movement.

The action of the KKE during the past four-year period will be examined at the 22^nd Congress to be held in 2025, focusing on the ideological, political and organizational strengthening of the party, its alignment with its revolutionary programme, in order to become more capable in the struggle for the overthrow of capitalism, for socialism–communism. 

Dear comrades,

We are glad that the cooperation between our parties has reached a high level and we continue with determination, utilizing the coordination in the framework of the European Communist Action (ECA) and the International Communist Review (ICR), the common positions on Greek–Turkish relations, based on the position of no change in borders and the treaties that determine them,  the joint struggle against the bourgeois classes, the USA-NATO-EU and all imperialist alliances, for the strengthening of the friendship between the Greek and Turkish peoples, of all the peoples of our region, for the strengthening of proletarian internationalism.

24.01.2025