The conflict in Eastern Ukraine did not come as a surprise to the KKE. It marked the ignition of a confrontation that had long been in the making — methodically prepared in the pressure cooker of clashing powerful interests — and it is a direct consequence of the capitalist restoration that led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. It is worth recalling that at the time, the entire spectrum of Greece’s political establishment, from the far right to the so-called “renewed Left” — except the KKE — was proclaiming that “the avenues of peace and prosperity” were opening up for the peoples.
The long chain of wars — Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Sudan, Ukraine, Iran, and others — along with the capitalist crises that followed, has clearly confirmed who was proven right in their predictions.
Among these wars is the war in Ukraine, which has now lasted 1,461 days. It is the largest war on European soil since the Second World Imperialist War, causing millions of refugees, countless wounded, and hundreds of thousands of deaths. Most are coming from poor popular families, who either could not escape conscription or were drawn into the war “voluntarily” because of the so-called “generous” salaries offered.
The KKE exposed the real causes of this bloodshed, rejecting both the pretexts of the Euro-Atlantic bloc — claims of “defending Ukraine’s sovereignty,” “free choice of alliances,” or “democracy versus authoritarianism” — and the pretexts used by the Russian leadership to justify its unacceptable military invasion, such as an “anti-fascist war,” “protection of Russian-speaking populations,” or “demilitarization of Ukraine”. The KKE made clear that the conflict is not about any of these stated reasons. It is about the control of natural resources, energy routes, and spheres of influence between the Euro-Atlantic bloc and the Eurasian imperialist axis under formation. Recently, in an unvarnished display, the bargaining between Trump, Zelenskiy, and Putin over Ukraine’s rare earths exposed the truth, shattering the last illusions some still held.
During these four years of imperialist war, the KKE has taken a leading role in Greece in the struggle against our country’s involvement in the conflict, as part of the Euro-Atlantic imperialist bloc. The Party organized major mobilizations against the war outside US bases in Alexandroupoli, Souda Bay, Larissa, and elsewhere. It supported corresponding actions by trade unions, mass organizations, and the anti-war and anti-imperialist movement.The KKE blocked roads, railways, and ports used by NATO forces. It voted against the agreement to expand US bases and against the military spending for NATO. In the European Parliament, while New Democracy, PASOK, SYRIZA, and the far right, together with parties of the European “Left”, supported the war frenzy of the European imperialists, the KKE voted against it and denounced these actions to the people.The Party opposed and condemned both the dispatch of Greek armed forces military equipment to Ukraine and the training of Ukrainian soldiers.
Today, a broader concern is the duration of the war and the potential scope it may take, including the possibility that it could expand and merge with the dozens of other military conflicts around the world — for example, the tensions between Iran and the United States. In other words, it could escalate further and lead to the use of even more destructive weapons, including nuclear arms.
War is not a natural phenomenon, like an earthquake. It is a social phenomenon. Under capitalism — the enemy of the peoples — war is inseparable from the rivalries that give rise to imperialist conflicts: the pursuit of monopoly profits, the control of markets and natural resources, energy reserves and energy and commodity transport routes, and the overexploitation of workers and peoples.
Despite various “peace talks” or temporary truces, the truth is that, for the first time since the Second World Imperialist War, humanity is closer than ever to the prospect of a Third World Imperialist War. This assessment is based both on the intense confrontation between the United States and China for supremacy within the global imperialist system, and on the extensive military preparations of the imperialist powers and competing imperialist blocs — developments that strongly resemble the interwar period.It should come as no surprise that contradictions arise within imperialist alliances such as NATO and the European Union. These contradictions stem from uneven capitalist development and the unequal relations between capitalist states. Alliances may shift or be reorganized, but their class nature remains the same: they reflect the economic base of the capitalist states that comprise them, and their conflicts serve the interests of the few, of their monopolies.For this reason, the “Euro-Atlantic versus Eurasian” dilemma is false and irrelevant to the interests of the peoples.
It is the peoples who shed their blood in imperialist wars, becoming “cannon fodder,” while profits flow to the arms industries and the construction firms that carry out the so-called “rebuilding”.
We must not be fooled by rulers of any kind claiming that our country is a “haven of security and stability” in a world that is burning, rotting, and sinking into the abyss of war. Such havens do not exist under capitalism! The United States, NATO, the EU, and every imperialist alliance are no “safe harbour,” despite what they tell us. The cases of Greenland, the “grey zones” in the Aegean, and the so-called “Blue Homeland” make this abundantly clear.
Now is the time to strengthen the struggle of the people and youth: to close the US and NATO bases of death, to bring back the Greek armed forces stationed abroad, and to intensify the workers’ struggle to disengage the country from imperialist interventions, wars, and NATO-EU alliances — makingour people masters in theirown land.