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We welcome with optimism the 2020, in the struggle for the contemporary needs, to pave the way for a socialist future

1. The Central Committee of the KKE wishes a happy and militant year to the working people, the unemployed, the self-employed, poor farmers, the youth and women, to Greek workers in other countries, to refugees and immigrants who live permanently in Greece, or who remain trapped in our country.

Despite the difficulties and the negative correlation of forces, we greet 2020 with optimism. The daily struggle, the estimations and the power proposal the KKE puts forward to the people so it becomes the object of their struggle, are the answer to today’s challenges.

2. The year that passed may have been accompanied by a change in government and a return to capitalist growth however, it did not lead to and nor will it lead to genuine relief for the working people and the masses.

The “dividends” and the “slight relief” are the “wrapping-paper” that today’s ND government is using to hide the continuing robbery at the expense of the people, as well as the fact that the lion’s share of the ‘growth’ is being taken by the big business groups and the so-called “investors”. It is the “carrot” used to elicit people’s tolerance to today’s barbarism, to cast into hell its demands, to force people to compromise with the “minimum”.

After all, the perpetuation and extension of the working jungle, tax robbery, foreclosures and downgrading of social services and infrastructure – even those that are vital for human life –   are necessary conditions to support the investments and the profits of capital, which is enjoying even greater benefits. This was demonstrated by the state budget for 2020.

3. The ND government, together with the “carrot” of growth, is using even more decisively the “whip” of suppression, the “law and order” doctrine.

It is targeting the right to strike and protest. It makes use of social automation and the slandering of struggles. It wants to impose a “silent grave”, especially in workplaces and to undermine the organized struggle of the labor and popular movement, because this comprises one of the primary conditions and at the same time, proof of the anti-popular and unjust character of capitalist growth.

The ND government utilizes the anti-labor – anti-popular arsenal that was maintained and strengthened by the SYRIZA government. First and foremost, it draws on the trend towards conservatism and the frustration that was sown by the SYRIZA government which denigrated militant values and presented submission to the European Union memoranda of duration, to US – NATO imperialism, to the demands of capital as “the only way out”.

SYRIZA exploits government policy to reintroduce false dividing lines, recalling the infamous “government of democratic and progressive forces”. Of course, the experience of the co-governance of the “anti-memoranda forces” that became the “most – memoranda oriented” of all, is still fresh and very bitter. Today, the deeds of SYRIZA speak for themselves, both as a government for 4.5 years and as the chief opposition party, with its transformation into a typical social democratic party, integrating various remnants of the sinful PASOK.

4. Nevertheless, no version of anti-popular bourgeois management in Greece, in Europe and all over the world can provide an answer and a solution to the basic contradiction: Today, where all of the possibilities exist to improve the living standard of millions of working people in our country and all over the world, the results are the exact opposite.

The gap between how working people can live today and how they actually live is growing wider and wider, even when the capitalist economy is a phase of upturn. The clouds of a new crisis are amassing over the international capitalist economy. Alliances, such as the EU and NATO that up until recently were considered unshakeable, are experiencing reshufflings. Trade wars and geo-political conflicts of huge dimensions are breaking out in every corner of the planet. Extensiveenvironmentaldestructionisputtingthepeoplesindanger.

5. The other side of all these injustices of capitalist growth is the implication of our country in the plans of the USA – NATO – EU. Instead of our people living in conditions of genuine security and stable peace, with cooperation amongst all the peoples, it lives under constant threat, as is reflected in the dangerous developments in the Eastern Mediterranean, with the escalation of Turkish aggression.

With the responsibility of all of the governments, Greece has been transformed into a US-NATO military operation base. It is even preparing to store American nuclear arms, making the Greek people a “target”. The Greek people pay NATO 4 billion euros a year. With the new Greek-American “defense” agreement, the American-NATO bases are being extended in Greece and the involvement of our country in dangerous designs is being strengthened. 

The doctrine of this policy which can be summarized as, “as long as Greece remains the good child of the USA, of NATO, the EU, its borders and sovereign rights are ensured” is resoundingly bankrupt.

6. The existing energy wealth in our wider region, instead of being a blessing, is being transformed into a “curse” for the peoples. Here, powerful imperialist, monopoly interests intersect over who will exploit these resources. In this confrontation, the ruling class of our country, the ruling class of Turkey and of course, the USA and other powerful capitalist states are all taking part. The absolute criterion for these interests is of course, profits and not the needs of the peoples. These competitions lead with mathematical certainty to new imperialist wars. They are found behind the devastation and the refugeeism that is afflicting the peoples of the Middle East.

This is why the dilemma of “a retreat concerning sovereign rights and joint exploitation with Turkey or military confrontation” is completely false and dangerous. On the one hand, because a military conflict could work as a catalyst for the joint exploitation plans to move forward, which is the express wish of the USA. On the other hand, the plans for joint exploitation bear the seeds of a new conflict, since they are not a matter of cooperation between the peoples, but of business giants and powerful states, under conditions of increasing international competition.

The Prime Minister’s position on instituting proceedings in the International Court of Justice in the Hague is in line with the effort to cultivate complacency and does not guarantee the preservation of sovereign rights.  Key questions arise on what the “joint agreement” between the two states will contain, taking into account the Turkish positions on the “Grey Zones”, that is the contestation of the Greek borders in the Aegean and the unfounded claims in the Eastern Mediterranean

The World Court’s rulings are influenced by political interventions and geostrategic aspirations, such as the recognition of the effects of the imperialist war on Yugoslavia and the independence of the Kosovo protectorate.

7. The historic events unfolding in front of us reveal the rot and the limitations of the capitalist system. They illuminate the need for a new society, without poverty, wars, crises. It is Socialism, the society for which the KKE is fighting, even if the first attempt at building socialism in some countries in the 20th century was not fully completed, defeated by errors, failures, and shortcomings within a negative correlation of forces. Today, in the 21st century, it is evident that the experience that has been studied, together with the objective development of societies themselves, can lead us to a new society, if we the people set it as a goal, if we decide to show our real power.

Only in this way can the skilled labor force and scientific workforce of the country be utilized to the fullest to ensure popular prosperity. Only in this way can the growth potential of the country be utilized to meet the combined needs of the people and of society. Only in this way can the people enjoy the wealth they produce, holding power in their own hands, guaranteeing genuine democracy and transforming all those people who are marginalized today, into protagonists of social life: the great majority of the people and the youth.

8. Within struggle for the recovery of the losses and the satisfaction of contemporary popular needs, within the struggle against imperialist war and the participation of our country in imperialist organizations and designs, can we find common footing with thousands of working people, can we create breaches in today’s rotten exploitative system, against compromise and fatalism, can we create a huge Social Alliance, not only to fight for relief from today’s acute problems, but also to create the conditions for radical overthrow. For Socialism that is more necessary and timelier than ever before!


MESSAGE OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE KKE FOR THE NEW YEAR

Published in Rizospastis the 1st of January 2020