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wednesday, 3 Juni 2009, 17h26

European Elections :: The Communist Party of Greece in all social and political struggles

Cecile Chams
03-06-2009

Giorgos Toussas. Our Party has launched a big pre-election campaign that is the continuation of our work having as main orientation workers, young people, and women. The KKE calls the working people to condemn the anti popular policy of the EU and the parties that support it. It calls for disobedience, indiscipline, rupture with the EU, for the perspective of the disengagement of our country from this transnational capitalist union. It explains to the people the real character of the financial crisis, which is inherent in the capitalist system. This is why the KKE calls the workers not to make any sacrifice for plutocracy. It fights so that the workers do not pay for the crisis. The KKE calls the people to vote in the elections for the EP, having their experience as a criterion, having the only real dilemma: either with the monopolies or with the people. It presents another way of development for the Greek society, having at its centre the satisfaction of the contemporary needs of the popular family, as contrasted with the “EU one-way road” presented by the bourgeois and opportunist parties, which is a way of safeguarding and increasing the profits of the monopolies. The political proposal of the KKE aims at creating the popular socio-political alliance of the working class and the middle strata of the town and countryside, with an anti-imperialistic anti-monopole line of struggle in order to fight for the people’s power.

The KKE uses all forms of action during its pre-electoral campaign: open rallies, meetings, visits to houses, tours in working places and places where we can meet young people. Our work focuses mainly on the working class and the youth. This is why we give a great importance to visits and this work is mostly based in working places, where we talk with the workers face to face.

Our Party, armed with the decisions of our 18th Congress, has as its main goal the reconstruction and counter-attack of the workers’ movement. The members and cadres of our Party are in the front ranks of the class orientated trade unions, the organization of the working class in every working place. They take advantage of the capitalist crisis in order to organize the struggle of the working class, so that they face the fierce attack of the capital against their rights. Our Party is at the front line of the struggle against dismissals, the generalization of flexible working relations, the reduction of the working week and the respective reduction of wages.

The class working movement, PAME, with the determinative contribution of communists, already counts a series of important victories in this struggle. With its militant activity, it has obliged the employers to re-employ licensed workers, like in “Carrefour” and the “Renault” and “Toyota” factories. The class orientated trade unions which are rallied in PAME have recently given a hard battle against the intimidation and the attempt of the giant group of toys multistores “Jumbo” to bribe a young trade unionist. They broke the employers’ terrorism with continuous demonstrations outside tens of these chain stores each week, despite the trials, arrests and tribunal sentences by the bourgeois courts. These days, really heroic strike struggles are taking place by the workers in the soap factory “Papoutsanis”, in the Parnitha casino and elsewhere. The united unyielding struggle of the workers and class trade unions of PAME has already had important results. They earned the payment of workers who had been unpaid for months. They succeeded important rise of wages in several sectors. They confronted the “class cooperation”. This clash with the idea of the so called social consensus that promote the compromised trade unions of GSEE, where the forces of ND, PASOK and opportunists of Syn/Syriza have come to terms with union of employers (SEV - Hellenic Federation of Enterprises), help wide masses of workers to come up to crucial conclusions. This activity has significantly increased the prestige of the KKE among workers.

One of the main priorities set in the 18th Congress of our Party in February 2009 is the strengthening of the Party and the construction in working areas. This constitutes one of the main prerequisites in order KKE to fulfill its role as the lead of the working class in the way for socialism. All our political activity is connected and linked with the strengthening of our Party in working areas, with its strengthening within the youth.

How do you present your Party in this campaign, in opposition with some so-called “left forces”, including the social-democracy?

Giorgos Toussas. The social-democratic parties are fully incorporated into the capitalist system. They are parties of the capital. They support the interests of the monopolies and have a heavy responsibility for the abolition of historic social gains of the working class and for the imperialist wars. In addition, certain parties today, especially in Western Europe, have transformed into Social democratic parties and the term “Left” is used to whitewash compromise and incorporation. In many countries of the Western Europe (France, Italy), these parties participated in “central-left” governments, giving a “left” alibi to the capitalist system. The KKE openly states to the people that it does not intend to help in any way the capitalist system, as these parties have done, in their endeavour to participate in the management of the crisis of the capitalist system.

The main political line that they present is the so-called fair redistribution of wealth cultivating the utopia that capitalists might accept to share their profits with the workers. They try to persuade the working class that there can be “a capitalism with a human face”, a better EU, through a better management formula. They consciously deceive the workers, hiding the imperialist character of EU, namely that this union is the gendarme of monopolies’ profits. KKE do believe that behind the line of antimperialist antimonopoly struggle there is only incorporation to the capitalist system.

One of the basic prerequisites of the class struggle is the steady confrontation, except of course from the bourgeois ideology, also with opportunism and all its petit-bourgeois ideological variations.

It seems that you will have to face a strong anticommunist campaign from the conservative and from the social-democrat party (Pasok).

Giorgos Toussas. In the framework of the bourgeois allocation, in our country, the leading role in anticommunism has been accorded to the social-democratic party, PASOK, which follows this line along with the extreme conservative racist party, LAOS. They use calumniations, libels, even the worst and most provocative lies, in order to strike our Party. They borrow arguments from the darkest moments of the Greek history, when the bourgeoisie was expatriating and executing communists. This development has satisfied the ND government, while the opportunist party of SYN/SYRIZA intensifies anticommunism. This effort is included in the general anticommunist hysteria in Europe, in which the EU and ots institutions play a leading role. In the EP, the coalition of the parties that support the EU (Conservatives, Social-democrats, Liberals and Greens), drew up, co-signed and voted for a vulgar and unhistorical resolution that equates communism with nazism.

Our Party confronts this anticommunist campaign in a decisive way. It reveals to the workers the real aims of its inspirers. The history has proved that anticommunism has always been the forerunner of barbarous attacks against the working, social and democratic rights of the working class and the people’s strata. This is the goal it serves today, within a deep capitalist crisis, thus proving the historical boundaries of the capitalist system. The anticommunist hysteria will fall once again. Our Party is even more strong and mature and decisively repulses the lies, the calumniations and the history distortion. It proudly presents its 90-year-old history, a history of struggles and sacrifice for the interests of the working people. It does not disregard the enormous conquests of the socialist countries. It highlights the necessity and relevance of Socialism, it presents more intensely its strategic goal, which is the abolition of the exploitation of man by man and the construction of socialism-communism.

How are the Greek people affected by the international economic crisis? What is the job situation in the different sectors?

Giorgos Toussas. The bourgeois and opportunist parties and forces claim that this crisis is a financial one and try to persuade that it is caused by the so called “casino capitalism”. We reject such “theories”. The crisis is a product of anarchic capitalist development, the reduction of the buying power of the workers, imbalance between productive sectors, parasitism in the economy which is caused by private-shareholder ownership of the concentrated means of production, the root of the daily buying and selling of shares-paper of future profits without basis which is carried out through banks, insurance companies, stock-exchanges etc. The crisis is the inevitable fate of all capitalist economies, which shows that capitalism is not powerful. No policy of managing the system can free it of its internal decay. Our theory, Marxism - Leninism, explains scientifically the circle of the capitalist crisis, proving the scientific superiority of communist ideas.

The consequences of the crisis already affect our country. Its dimension and deepness cannot be accurately assessed. The capitalist crisis in Greece is linked with the crisis in the Balkan countries and the Southeast Europe, where the Greek capital made serious investment in the previous years.

There is already a fall in the production of a series of sectors, building, processing etc., and in commercial sectors. This has resulted in dismissals and rising of the unemployment, reduction in wages, intensification of the attack against the rights of the working class. Our Party has set an essential task, to fight the capitalist attack against the working class. It organises the reconstruction and counterattack of the workers’ movement with the slogan “No sacrifice for bourgeoisie. You paid a lot for the profits of the Capital. Don’t accept to pay for its crisis.”

A solution in benefit of the working class and the people cannot occur without a clash with imperialism and monopolies.

Is tourism already affected?

Giorgos Toussas. The capitalist economic crisis leads to the shutdown of smaller hotels and tourist units, leadin to a bigger concentration in the benefit of the great capital of tourism. The EU, with its guidelines for deregulation of the markets, and the bourgeois parties of ND and PASOK are abettors for the policy also in the specific sector of economy. More than 50 % of the workers in Greece cannot afford to go on holiday. We give a hard battle in every working area of the tourist sector against the dismissals, the intimidation by the employers and against the elimination of the rights of the workers. Moreover, we struggle against privatizations of beaches and other infrastructures. The KKE underlines the necessity of the socialization of the means of production, also in the tourist sector, so that they become people’s property. All the workers and people have the right to tourism and leisure time. We present the indisputable truth, that only in socialism these needs can be really satisfied for all.

Is the economic crisis an important theme in the electoral campaign?

Giorgos Toussas. We estimate that capitalist crisis is the one of the main criteria for the vote of every worker and youngster. Both liberals and social democrats except from their operation to spread lies and false theories regarding the real character of the capitalist crisis, they make a serious effort as well to disorientate, through scandal stories in which both parties have been involved all these years that they are in government. What they hide well is that capitalist crisis is bred in the bone of capitalism. The measures that EU and capitalists together with their parties are promoting haven’t been taken due to crisis. They are trying to take advantage of the period of crisis in order to shoulder the burden of crisis to the workers. At the same time imperialists and monopolies have had the opportunity to launch a new round of profits. We call on people who don’t obey to the class bourgeois measures in the name of the crisis, to struggle so that plutocracy pays for the crisis. This struggle could enhance the discussion about the impossibility of capitalism to solve people’s problems, to satisfy people’s needs. This struggle and discussion can open the road for the main issue of power, for the other alternative road of development that KKE proposes.

Greece has an important agriculture sector. We remember the last blockades of the peasants who protested against some EU measures affecting them. Can you explain their claims and what the contribution of the KKE in their struggle is?

Giorgos Toussas. The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), its midterm review in 2003 and its “health check” in 2008 have constituted a heavy strike against the small and middle scale farmers. The generalization of the system of direct aid and the decoupling of subsidies from production resulted in the abandonment of farming. The continuous reduction of funds for the agricultural production and their transfer to the second pillar (agritourism etc.) have led to the abandonment of the land, the reduction of production, the increase of prices, the concentration of land and the strengthening of monopolies in the production and supply of markets.

In 2013, the abolishment of subsidies will give the finishing stroke to the small and middle scale, poor farmers.

The aggravation of the farmers’ problems, the further reduction of the already low agricultural income resulted in mobilizations of the small and middle scale farmers. In January, there were tens of blockades and thousands of small and middle scale farmers demonstrated with thousands of tractors. Above all, what is important and auspicious is that an important number of young farmers also participated. The KKE was at the side of the farmers; its members and cadres were at the front line of the struggle. In the blockades organized by the militant Federations and Associations in Thessaly, Western Greece, Evros and elsewhere, the blockades supported by PASY (All Farmers’ Militant Coalition) played an important role.

The blockades organized by the militant Federations and Associations and supported by PASY had a framework of demands including three main axes: Compensation for the income with concrete proposals, protection of the minimum guaranteed prices of all products and reduction of the cost of production, which is connected to the abolition of the TVA, of the differentiated rate of excise duty on fuels etc. This framework has a clear orientation, which is the confrontation with the CAP, with the EU that serves the interests of the monopolies, with the policy of ND, PASOK and the forces supporting the “EU one-way road” against the farmers.

In the farmers’ movement, like in the workers’ and self-employed people’s movement, there was a confrontation between two lines:

The first one is the line of PASEGES (Panhellenic Confederation of Unions of Agricultural Cooperatives) and GESASE (General Confederation of Greek Agrarian Associations), controlled by PASOK, and SYDASE (Confederation of Democratic Agrarian Associations of Greece), controlled by ND. This is the line of support to the capitalist strategy, the CAP and the EU. In this block, systematic work is done by ND and PASOK cadres and trade unionists in the farming sector, with the participation of trade unionists from Synaspismos. Their framework of demands mainly regards the support to rich farmers.

The second line is the one followed by the militant federations and associations supported by PASY. This line rallies an important number of small and middle scale farmers and represents their interests. It confronts the anti-popular policy in general, the policy against the farmers of the PASOK and ND governments, the CAP. It paves a new way of development, which will serve the interests of the small and middle scale farmers, as well as those of the working class and the people’s strata, through the production of cheap agricultural and livestock products, in order to fulfill the popular needs.

The events of last December, with the murder of a young student by the police in Athens and the uprising and demonstrations of the Greek youth, were reported by the world media. What are the consequences of these events in the electoral campaign of your Party?

Giorgos Toussas. During December several mobilisations were organised in Greece (strikes, rallies, demonstrations etc). The bourgeois media both in Greece and internationally focused mainly on scenes of "blind violence" trying to suppress the mass, self-protected mobilisations organised this period by KKE, KNE, by class-oriented trade union forces that join PAME (All Workers' Militant Front) and SASA (Militant Coordination of Secondary School Unions) and other mass organisations of the popular movement.

The media turned a blind eye to the fact that KKE and KNE condemned right from the start the murder of the student and at the same time organized mobilizations that were the most massive. The mobilisations organised by KKE and its youth KNE put forward a platform of demands that regards as responsible for the reactionary legal framework and the action of the repressive state mechanisms not only the government of ND but also the EU, the bourgeois, imperialist power.

In order to have prospects, the struggles developing in Greece, in the working class, the youth, the peasantry, must acquire a clear orientation, not just against today’s government, but to aim at the heart of the problems.

Unfortunately, some forces, anarchists and so-called “anti-authoritarians” play the role of the Trojan horse inside the people’s movement, providing a pretext for new repressive state measures to break the front of the workers-peasants-self-employed.

The opportunist forces of SYN-SYRIZA “caress the ears” of the hooded persons, believing that it will offer them some more votes. In Greece, these theories are mainly represented by SYN-SYRIZA as well as other left fringe groups lending a hand to PASOK. These forces of modern opportunism help the disorientation and assimilation of forces in a fight against "neoliberal" management, without an anti-monopole, anti-imperialist direction.

A wider part of the working class appreciated the KKE‘s position on December, acknowledging that it was a safeguard of the political content of the struggle and the force of protecting movements from provocations. We have disclosed as well the launching of a new round of antidemocratic measures following the EU directives and developing the climate of intimidation and fear that the government tried to cultivate during and especially after the mobilizations with new reactive laws.

The wave of privatizations is affecting all European countries. What is the situation in Greece, including in the health care and education sectors?

Giorgos Toussas. The bourgeois governments of ND and PASOK have been promoting privatizations and the liberalization of the energy, telecommunications and electronic communications markets, as well as other strategic financial sectors. They constitute lucrative sectors for the increase of the profits of monopolistic groups.

Today, they promote the further privatization of education, health and care systems, with severe consequences for the income and the living conditions of the popular family. The working and popular movement confronted and still struggle against privatizations, against surrendering the public wealth to the capital. However, there are not only the privatizations, but also the so-called public-private partnerships, which are used by the state in order to finance the construction of infrastructure and other works (roads, schools etc.), which the private companies exploit for decades. It constitutes the attachment of various sectors to the capital and their subordination to the capitalist needs; this is the case in higher education and research, where an institutional framework is created, so that they function according to the needs of the business; also in the health sector, where the social security funds pay expensively for health services, either they are offered in public hospitals or in private businesses.

This is why our Party rejects the proposal of the social-democratic party and the opportunists that certain privatised businesses should go under state control, as a means of facing the crisis and “regulating” markets. Because even with state control, in a capitalist economy dominated by monopolies, also these businesses will function with financial criteria and with the rules of the “free market”, aiming at gaining profits and not at fulfilling the people’s needs. Such proposals disorientate and hide what is essential, which is who is in possession of the means of production. Our Party fights for the socialisation of the means of production and for the central planning of the economy, under the workers’ control. This is the only for the working class to enjoy at last the wealth they create and that belongs to the workers.

According to Eurostat, the Greek workers spend the biggest amount of money in the EU for healthcare; the expenses for education weigh down the popular family.

The proposals and the Program of the KKE on Education and Healthcare are against the capitalist way of development, the way imposed by the EU supported by the monopolies and the capitalist parties – ND and PASOK – in our country.

The KKE fights for:

A free-of-charge public educational system based on a comprehensive 12-year general education for all, without class and racial discrimination, that will ensure the harmonious cultivation of all aspects of the human personality, and will provide general academic learning about nature and society.

Public post-secondary vocational schools. They should be a source of knowledge and training for young people and not a source of profits to businessmen.

An integrated system of higher education, without class barriers, the unscientific division of studies into cycles, and of institutions into categories. Cultured professionals should be trained with a high level of specialisation and professional ability, and degrees should be linked to the right to work.

Development of academic research, to produce new knowledge and serve the needs of the people.

An exclusively public, integrated healthcare system providing free of charge social services and medical treatment to the people, starting from prevention, public health, family programming, mental health, health and safety at workplaces. Primary health care and mental health in the cities and countryside, particularly in border areas, tertiary care with a developed and up-to-date equipped EKAB (National First Aid Centre).

Strict health and safety measures at the workplaces. Setting up of a state agency of labour doctors and safety technicians within the public health system. Workers’ control for the prevention of accidents and occupational diseases, particularly for the working women. Security premium by the employers for the risks at workplaces. All the personnel in the Healthcare and Welfare system should be permanent, full-time and exclusively employed with decent salaries, working conditions and opportunities for scientific advancement. Doctors working as freelancer to be integrated into the public Healthcare system.

The KKE clearly states to the workers that in order to realize our Party proposals, which are proposals to the advantage of the working people, radical changes are demanded at power and economy level, which can be imposed through a strong socio-political popular alliance with an anti-imperialistic and anti-monopole program.

Pension funds have been gutted by speculation. The workers are being pressured to save for their own pensions. How do you react to this?

Giorgos Toussas. The workers’ social security rights are under an enormous attack by the ND and PASOK governments, which realize the EU guidelines, according to the orders of the EU capital. Through the recent reactionary reforms by the ND government, the retirement age rose, while another bigger increase is expected. The abolition of the Heavy and Unhealthy Jobs category is being promoted, for which there was a lower retirement age. The decision of the European Court of Justice against our country, with the consent of both the Greek government and the European Commission, leads to an increase of the retirement age for women working in the public sector, from 5 to 17 years, on the pretext of equity between men and women! Our Party is at the front line of the struggle for the defense of the workers’ social security and pension rights, for the salvation of their Social Security Funds. It presents the need for counterattack and the fight for the contemporary needs of the working class: The lowering of the retirement age to 60 for men and to 55 for women, and five years less for people working in heavy or unhealthy occupations.

The people here in Belgium vividly remember the dramatic fires of summer 2007. It seems that the Greek Government took some measures?

Giorgos Toussas. In fact, there is the opposite case. The government doesn’t take any measures against the speculation of the land; on the contrary, with the new land-use plan brought for voting, they privatize and give everything to the capital: forests, mountains, sea shores, beaches, the people’s oxygen. This policy of land commercialization arms the arsonists’ hands and is responsible for the enormous destruction of forests that has been going on in our country for decades and not only in the summer of 2007, when it took tragic dimensions.

Our Party wants to highlight all the popular problems, on the way to the elections for the EP. It calls the workers to adopt a stance according to their problems. The parties supporting the “EU one-way road”, especially the bourgeois parties alternating in the government, cooperate with the capitalist-controlled bourgeois media, doing their best to hide those problems. Regarding the political news, they present the scandals of political corruption, in which both capitalist parties are involved; they try to grow polarity through arid confrontation, so that they disorientate the workers from the essential dilemmas, so that they keep their reactionary policy and their anti-popular programs away from the political confrontation.

Greece is one of the main "borders" of the EU fortress. What are your claims and activities about migration and rights for migrant workers?

Giorgos Toussas. The policy of the EU and the Greek ND and PASOK governments regarding the immigrants is a policy of fierce and barbarous oppression. The goal is to maintain a semi-legal statute, which will keep immigrants as hostages, so that they constitute a cheaper labour force for the capital and a means for more pressure against the working class in order to deprive workers from their rights.

The strengthening of FRONTES, the composition of rapid border intervention teams, the implementation of a system for the control of the external EU borders – EUROSUR – the shameful directive, voted in the EP, on the detention of immigrants (even minors) for up to 18 months, their deportation and a 5-year interdiction from entering the EU, are some of the main examples of this policy. Greece holds the grave first place of the worst treatment of refugees, since it grants asylum only to 0,6% of the refugees that apply for asylum to our country.

The integration of a common anti-immigrants policy is one of the main goals of the EU; a common reactionary policy on asylum and immigration constitutes the goal of the agreement on immigration that was recently adopted by the European Council.

The KKE considers immigrants as an integrated part of our country’s working class. It develops activities among immigrants and refugees, aiming at integrating them in the class orientated trade unions and the class working movement. It fights against racism and xenophobia.

The KKE struggles along with the immigrants against the reactionary anti-immigrants policy of the EU and the Greek bourgeois governments and it demands:

Simplification of the processes of granting and renewing stay and work permits.

Establishment of the rights to education, pension, healthcare, welfare, full labour and social rights. Legalisation of the immigrants living in Greece and recognition of their political and civil rights

Other than the European issues, is there any other international issue in discussion in the election campaign (NATO, Palestine, etc.)?

Giorgos Toussas. As I said before, our Party seeks to put all the big popular problems at the center of the political confrontation; it seeks to open the discussion on the role and character of the EU, on its anti-popular and imperialistic policy. On 9th May, a series of manifestations and a big Rally for Peace were organized regarding the Anti-Fascist Victory; the slogans were against the NATO and the imperialistic interventions of the USA, the NATO and the EU in Afghanistan and Iraq, against the imperialistic US and EU plans for the “New Middle East”. The parties supporting the “EU one-way road” are trying to make these issues disappear from the political scene, because such discussions reveal the reactionary character of their policy and their positions. They reveal the lies of those presenting the argument that the EU can be opposite to the USA. The EU competes against the other imperialistic forces, in order to share the imperialistic loot, but it is united with the other imperialists when facing the peoples. This is a truth that the EU parties want to hide, but we try to bring forward.

Can you explain the tasks of the KKE European deputies on national and international levels?

Giorgos Toussas. The Party’s MEPs work collectively in the KKE European Parliament Group. The activity of the KKE and its EP group, inside and outside the EP, during the last legislative period, proved that the vote for KKE was the only valuable vote for the people’s interests. The KKE and its EP group revealed the reactionary plans, the anti-popular measures promoted by the EU during all these years. It revealed, to the best possible extent, the people’s and youth’s problems in the EP; the struggles and demands of the working and popular movement. It was at the front line of the organization of the workers’ struggle against the EU policy and measures against the workers, the struggle against the subversion of the labour law in the EU, the expansion of flexible forms of employment and “Flexicurity” against the dismissals, the Bolkestein directive, the imposition of the 65-78 hour working week and the split of the working time in active and unpaid “inactive” time; against the reactionary restructures in Education, through the Bologna process, against the extinction of farmers through the new CAP.

It reinforced its cooperation with the Communist and Workers’ Parties of the EU member states, with common meetings, bilateral and multilateral, with demonstrations, statements, interventions. It contributed to the development of a current of disobedience, resistance and rupture with the EU and its policies at European level, a current that strengthens among the European peoples, as it was proved by the recent NO of the Irish people. In the same direction, the MEPs and the EP group of our Party will work consistently and decisively during the next legislative period of the EP.