GREECE

Movement for the Reorganization of the Communist Party of Greece (1918-1955)

Some questions and answers about the current situation in Greece

By voting for SYRIZA, the majority of the Greek people rejected and condemned the cruel economic measures that were imposed, the neoliberal economic policy, in general, and the great-bourgeois parties of ND and PASOK that implemented these measures with the outmost servility. The victory of SYRIZA is also explained by the people’s resentment towards the fascist re-modeling of social life promoted by the government of the fascist scoundrel Samaras.

The old revolutionary KKE, under the leadership of the then General Secretary Nikos Zachariadis, was the only communist party from a capitalist country not to have accepted Khrushchevite revisionism. For this reason, it was eliminated by the brutal intervention of the Soviet Khrushchevite revisionists in 1955-1956 and replaced by the Greek Khrushchevite revisionist party (“K”KE), a bourgeois party of the social-democratic type. More than 90% of the party members led by Nikos Zachariadis opposed and fiercely resisted Khrushchevite revisionism and many tens of cadres were sent into exile in Siberia, including Nikos Zachariadis himself who has murdered by the social-fascist clique of Brezhnev (CPSU) – Florakis (“K”KE) in August of 1973, in Sorgut, Siberia after 17 years of exile.

In 1968, the “K”KE was split into two parties: the euro-communist part known as “K”KE (interior) and the Khrushchevite-Brezhnevite part known as “K”KE. SYRIZA originates from the first part and, consequently, is a social-democratic and reformist party guided by a right opportunist general line and characterized by petty bourgeois class features.

SYRIZA has pledged to implement a kind of neo-Keynesian economic program with the aim, at best, of relieving the burden of the consequences coming from the economic crisis of over-production and extreme neo-liberal economic policy without, however, touching the capitalist system and the imperialist dependence of Greece. Nevertheless, the implementation of this program has met negative reactions from the representatives of the imperialist organizations European Commission (EC) – European Central Bank (ECB) – IMF that continue to interfere in the internal affairs of the country provocatively and without any pretext. This attitude amounts to the annulment of the recent elections in our country.

In the sphere of social questions, SYRIZA is an anti-fascist party suffering from inconsistencies and contradictions as is evident from the fact that it formed an alliance with the bourgeois nationalist party of ANEL and the nomination of Prokopis Pavlopoulos for President of the Republic, a right-wing politician from Nea Demokratia who as Minister of Public Order in the Karamanlis government was responsible for the bloody police violence unleashed on the country’s school youth after the murder of Alexis Grigoropoulos in December of 2008.

Tsipras and the leading group of SYRIZA is neither willing nor determined to eliminate Greece’s political, economic and military dependence on imperialism, which is the cause of certain problems for Greece in addition to the ones stemming from local capitalism. The only thing that he seems determined to do is to reduce the pressure from the European Union and European Central Bank regarding the implantation of extreme austerity programs that have further deteriorated the living conditions of the working class and deepened the process of absolute impoverishment. Today, the situation in our economically bankrupt country is disastrous; as a share of GDP, the national debt has increased from 118% (2009-2010) to 181.16% (January 2015). Production is falling continuously, taxes and prices have increased, social spending has been slashed, there is a massive unemployment of 2,000,000 people (the unemployment rate among young people is about 68-70%), and more than half of the population lives well below the poverty line.

The strategic position of SYRIZA is that Greece should be a member of the European Union and the Eurozone. This is also the position of the other parties present in today’s bourgeois parliament (ND, PASOK, ANEL, Potami, “K”KE) and it reflects the strategic choice of Greek capital as it has been expressed by, among others, the president of the Union of Greek Industrialists in the following form (March 20, 2012): “Europe or chaos”.

During the first three weeks following the elections, the SYRIZA government took a series of actions in order to implement its program that had won the support of wide popular strata, an attitude that is unfortunately accompanied by certain illusions. At the same time, the government’s actions have met a very negative reception from the EC – ECB – IMF whose pressure and constant interference in the country’s internal affairs is condemned by the Greek people. We think that, to a certain extent, SYRIZA’s victory creates favorable conditions for the strengthening of class struggles. Whether this possibility becomes a reality depends, of course, on many factors, the most important of which is the organization of the majority of the working masses in independent and united trade unions and the influence exerted on these and on society in general by the consistent left-wing, anti-imperialist and revolutionary communists.

It is important to clarify that, despite its verbal attacks against the EU and the Eurozone, “K”KE does not put forward (not even for the sake of demagogy) the question of Greece’s immediate exit either from the EU or the Eurozone. In relation to the Euro, the leadership of “K”KE has stated: “A solution outside the euro and the return to the drachma in the present circumstances would be catastrophic” (May 30, 2011), a position that is similar to the one expressed by the president of the Union of Greek Industrialists (March 20, 2012) and mentioned above: “Europe or chaos”.

This is also evident in the party’s program that was approved by its last congress.

For some time now, “K”KE has expressed the view that “the term “national dependence” is not applicable in contemporary conditions” (February 1, 2005). After the 19th Congress, it has openly adopted Trotskyite positions that speak of “imperialist Greece”, “imperialist Second World War” etc and are evident in the “Program” approved at the last party Congress: “capitalism in Greece is in the imperialist stage of development” (“K”KE Program, p. 12, Athens 2013). Concerning the character of the Second World War it is claimed that: “the problem was not only with KKE but the overall strategy of the international communist movement before and during the Second World War. In 1941, another negative point was added when the correct assessment of the war as imperialist – with respect to both sides of the capitalist states – was replaced by the position that it was only anti-fascist” (“Rizospastis”, December 21, 2014).

Therefore, in essence, the policy of this reformist party is not different from that of SYRIZA as far the question of imperialist dependence and the continuous membership of the country in the imperialist EU is concerned. Both reformist parties (“K”KE and SYRIZA) have accepted Greek capital’s present strategic choice to keep the country in the EU and the Eurozone.

In order to contribute to the growth of the working class struggles and the rise of the revolutionary movement, the Movement for Reorganization of KKE (1918-1955) is striving, under very unfavorable conditions, to achieve the following: