Under the slogan, “Counteroffensive,” the Eighteenth
Congress of the Greek Communist Party (KKE), from February
18 to 22, 2009 was a great Congress of a great party.There
were a thousand delegates from all of Greece, about 200
invited guests, and 90 foreign delegations, among them the
PCRF , Pȏle de Renaissance Communiste en France.[In English,
roughly, Rallying Point for Communist Rebirth] represented
by our comrade Daniel Antonini:

Athens is bedecked with the colors of the KKE, and thousands
of KKE billboards, which are left unmolested.

The bourgeois press is content with speculation. Aleka
Papariga, (General Secretary) is she going to pass the torch?
Is X or Y best positioned to replace Aleka? It is in this
framework, sketched in broad strokes, that the Eighteenth
Congress of KKE finds itself in the immense hall of the
Congress of Central Committee.

War and peace…

Far from the speculation, the work of the Congress goes ahead in the
wake of sharp struggles (student, workers, and farmers). They
present a burning reality.

•Struggle against the European Union of the monopolies and
for national independence and democracy.

•Struggle against fascism, chauvinism, racism, and for the
defense of immigrants.

•Struggle for peace peaceful coexistence among the peoples
and against imperialism. Nothing to see here having to do
with any status quo, the General Secretary spelled it out:
“the workers have to prepare themselves for war against the
bourgeoisie. ”

•Proletarian internationalism; solidarity with
the workers of the whole world.

•Overthrowing capitalism and
the building of socialist society guided by a
Marxist-Leninist vision;

•The anti-imperialist front and road
to socialism .

“Today,” explained Aleka Parariga “the KKE is stronger, more
mature and has established the possibility of realizing its
strategy and organizing the daily struggle in a good
direction.”

For some months the Theses on Socialism have been discussed
in the party . Seventy two percent of members have voted.
Almost all have approved (against were 0.35 percent; 0.61
percent abstained). With this clear line KKE which celebrated
its ninetieth anniversary in November sets itself the goal of
showing to the Greek people by its presence and action in
struggles that the reactionary policy of the supporters of
the EU, the Right, the social democrats — together – is
reversible. That there exists a way out for manual workers
and intellectuals. The Communists are and will be in the
front ranks of the building of an anti-imperialist front with
its vanguard the working class , to wage the struggle for
radical change.

The analysis reaffirms that in the struggle for socialism the
working class — with the Communist Party — is the guiding
force of the new state power. The struggle for the
development of a new society is carried out by the state
power of the revolutionary working class with its central
leadership the CP which uses the laws of socialist society.

The scientific and class nature of the policy of the CP is a
crucial precondition for socialist construction. If these
characteristics are lost, opportunism sets in, then it
becomes a counterrevolutionary force.

Class consciousness in the whole of the working class does
not develop spontaneously and evenly; it depends above all on
the strengthening of communist relations of production.

Counterrevolution in the USSR and future revolutions

According to the Theses of the Congress the opportunist turn
which took place in the USSR in the 1950s after the Second
World War, the gradual loss of the revolutionary role of the
party, confirms that the danger of the development of
deviations in socialist society never disappears.

Beyond imperialist encirclement and its undoubted negative
impact, the social base of opportunism also persists as long
as private property and sectoral property persist, and as
long as commodity-money relations, and social differences
persist. The material base of opportunism will last all
during the building of socialism as long as capitalism and
powerful capitalist states remain on earth.

The adoption of revisionist and opportunist viewpoints by the
leadership the CPSU and other CPs finally transformed these
parties into vehicles which led the counterrevolutions in the
1980s. The state power of the working class cannot be shared.
The dictator ship of the proletariat is the instrument of the
working class in the class struggle, which continues through
other means and other forms . The working class, insofar as
it is a vehicle the communist relations of production which
will be created as the means of production are made
socialized collective property , is the only class that can
wage the fight for the total victory of communist relations,
the disappearance of classes, and the withering away of the
state.

The conclusion of the Theses adopted by this Eighteenth
Congress remains that the counterrevolutionary defeats do not
change the character of this epoch. The twenty-first century
will be that of a new impetus of the revolutionary movement
and a new series of social revolutions. At the conclusion of
its work, the Congress elected a central committee of 77
members and reelected Aleka Papariga as general secretary.

Social Profile of the Congress. A Party of Workers and Youth:

Median age 45 years
•    Less than 30   -  11.6  percent
•    31 to  50   -  44.46  percent
•    51 to 70  – 42.3 percent
•    above  70  -  0.6 percent

Political Experience in KKE
•    A little more than 9 percent joined before 1974
•    61.2 percent joined between 1974 (legalization) and 1990
•    29.5 percent since 1991

Social Composition
•    76 percent are workers and employees
•    (65 percent in private sector;  29 percent are union members)
•    2.81 percent farmers
•    9.32 percent tradesmen and craft workers
•    7.15 percent retired
•    1.73 percent academics and researchers
•    0.55 percent artists

Speaking for the PCRF,  Antonini noted that the capitalist
system was looking to make the workers pay for the crisis and
insisted on the “euro-McCarthyite” danger and the risk that
August 23 becomes “the day of the victims of Stalinism and
Nazism.”

“The capitalist and their puppets fear a Communist rebirth,
of Communist Parties staying faithful to their principles.” He said
capitalism’s trouble is going to burst forth on the occasion
of the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
It would be good that our answers have an international
dimension. To conclude, “like you we struggle against the
evils of capitalism, the illusion of a Social Europe, for the
departure from the EU. Like you we think that think the path
to salvation is the revolutionary transformation of existing
society.”