19-04-2013

About issues on the 19th Congress of the KKE

The Communist Party of Greece, the KKE held her 19th congress (11-14 April, 2013). Some of the treated topics or issues were:
- the importance of the struggle against opportunism
- the concern to develop a strategy for revolution and for the building a new working-class power and for the beginning of the development of new communist production-relations, based on concrete elaborated actualised analyses
- the sense of responsibility for the ideological and political struggle IN the international circle of organisations who claim to be “communist”, claim to“apply Marxism” in their analyses, claim to be in favour of “socialism” after a “socialist revolution”, or claim to be “anti-reformist”.
In fact as revolution, “building socialism”, as the first stage of communism, in “our time” of global imperialism, is not necessary “first within the borders of a by the bourgeois institutions recognized country or nation”, it means that the building of a anti-imperialist popular movement lead by the working class which is not only that of that respective “nation” or country) and with a working-class-vanguard organisation which is “composed” of vanguard-elements NOT only of one “nation” or “country. So is the struggle against opportunism to be conceived as an INSIDE struggle against opportunism IN the organised working-class-vanguard organisation.

The statements of the KKE in the introduction to her 19th congress
The assessments of the outgoing CC of the party on the situation in the International Communist Movement and the corresponding activity of the party are presented in Theses 43,44,45,46,47. The following are noted here: “43. The party continued its efforts to deal with the crucial and major problems inherited from the victory of the counterrevolution, with the struggle against opportunism being the most basic element. The results are limited though this issue does not depend on the KKE but on the general situation of many communist parties in all continents and indeed of the parties in the powerful capitalist countries.
The class confrontations in Greece, the conflict with the capitalist employers, and the vanguard activity of the KKE have contributed to the development of reflection within many communist parties around the main issue i.e. what the political line should be for the activity of the communists in the conditions of the crisis. The reflection and the debate between different views show the significant contribution of the KKE along with other parties in order to substantiate the need to concentrate forces for the overthrow of the bourgeois power, for the struggle for socialism.

Thanks to the initiative of our party, as well as of other Communist Parties, the International Meetings of Communist and Workers’ Parties take place every year. In these meetings there is an ideological struggle against opportunism, reformism and various currents. In addition, there are Regional and Thematic Meetings of Communist Parties taking place and joint statements are being issued on current issues. A website of the Communist Parties (
www.solidnet.org) is also functioning which has an incorporated system for the rapid exchange of information among them. There is also the publication of the “Information Bulletin” that contains the materials of the Meetings of the Communist Parties.
Nevertheless, these steps in the coordination cannot alter the main issue: the communist movement remains organisational and ideologically fragmented. It is experiencing a situation of a long-term ideological-political crisis that coexists with the corrosive activity of the strong opportunist current and the weaknesses of the Communist Parties that struggle on the basis of Marxism-Leninism. In the conditions of the crisis, of the new requirements for the communist movement, signs are emerging regarding a new retreat from treating the relevant problems from a class viewpoint.

44.
There are CPs which under difficult conditions maintain a correct orientation in general, they fight against bourgeois ideology and opportunism and make efforts to work in the labour movement while facing serious weaknesses. (...)

In the countries which claim to be constructing socialism the KKE examines the developments according to the criteria of the laws of socialist construction, the working class power, the socialization of the means of production and central planning, the workers’ and social control. From this point of view, the KKE expresses both its concern about the strengthening of the capitalist relations of production in Vietnam and also its opposition to the so-called “market- socialism”.

In today’s China the CPC leads the capitalist path of development; it develops relations with the “Socialist International”. This course and generally the positions regarding a “mixed economy”, which was previously supported by social democracy, regarding “market socialism” exert a negative influence on the communist movement; they are utilized in a multifaceted way against it.

Some Communist Parties, which have distanced themselves from Marxism-Leninism, present China as a “model of socialist development”.

45.
The KKE, without giving up on the existing forms of cooperation and coordination of the Communist Parties, is oriented to the effort to form a communist pole among the communist parties which defend Marxism-Leninism, the existence of the socialist construction and its contribution, but also recognize its fundamental mistakes that led to its overthrow, the necessity of the struggle for the overthrow of capitalism and the construction of socialism.

The journal “International Communist Review” (ICR) was founded in this direction on the basis of a framework of common principles –starting from a first discussion in Athens at the end of
2008 and in Istanbul in 2009- currently with the participation of eleven theoretical and political journals of Communist parties. The aim of the ICR is to discuss ideological and theoretical issues and to contribute to the formation of a unified revolutionary strategy of the CP so that the international communist movement gets out of the situation of the ideological-political and organizational crisis.

The KKE considers as its duty and obligation the development of the ideological and political struggle, at an international level as well, against the opportunist forces (European Left Party- left “networks”), the forces of social democracy, the
Trotskyite forces, which exert an ideological and political impact on the international communist movement.

46.
Certain crucial issues that concern the confrontation inside the communist movement:
  • The character of the revolution, the logic of stages. The participation of communist parties in bourgeois governments on the terrain of capitalist society. The international communist movement and opportunism.
  • The distancing from the Leninist concept of imperialism.
  • The stance towards imperialist unions and interstate organizations, the stance towards Russia-China etc.
  • The stance towards social-democracy and the centre-left. The stance towards the possibility of utilizing all forms of struggle in order to confront successfully the violence of the capitalists, the imperialist intervention.
  • The parliamentary illusions as well as the retreat from the utilization of the battle of elections.
  • The stance towards the capitalist crisis.
  • The issue of the environment detached from the issue of the character of ownership and power.
  • The lack of a revolutionary line in the labour movement.
  • The mistaken view that the struggle at a national level has become outdated.
  • The stance towards the socialism which we knew.
  • The mistaken view about “models” of socialism and the “socialism of the 21st century”.
  • The proletarian Internationalism.1
 Sharing the same concern of struggle against opportunism....
I - being not a member of the KKE, so not bound to hold my critic and remarks for just INTERNAL discussions – like to participate in the analysis of the danger of opportunism. I am concerned that there should be no underestimation of that opportunism. I want to emphasize the danger of not recognized (and so not fought)opportunism WITHIN the revolutionary (communist) organisation or party. Because MY OWN experience is that existing and not detected opportunism can be “used” to let enter and to let develop REVISIONISM (BOURGEOIS ideology and BOURGEOIS capitalism protecting strategy formulated in Marxist-SOUNDING phrases) IN the organisation or party. Existing and not fought opportunism will be “used” to mislead members and cadres, who are perhaps themselves somehow “trapped” in some opportunism, so that the whole organisation or party will become a REFORMIST organisation.
There are material reasons for that (as I see it) underestimation of the danger of opportunism. I think for example, that just because of the concrete historical origins of the KKE that differs with a lot of other “communist” parties and organisation in the “circles in which the KKE is working,discussing, analysing”.... The KKE is a real revolutionary party, basing herself on (in a perhaps actualised concrete way) the “Bolshevik (Leninist) party-principles as the CPSU and is a party originating of the Third International. So the struggle against revisionism was done INSIDE the organisation and has “revolutionised” that organisation. A lot of (claiming-to-be) communist organisations are “New” CP's founded more or less outside the considered as totally revisionist “Old” CP.
At the other hand it is important to study the analyses and the positions of the KKE (as for example her congress-documents) because they have a value which goes further than only “her own organisation” and “her own members and cadres”.
Referring to “MY OWN EXPERIENCE”....
The Workers Party of Belgium was such a “New” CP founded on the struggle against revisionism, whereby the “Old” Communist Party of Belgium was considered as totally overwhelmed by revisionism and a “New” Communist Party had to be built. FROM THE BEGINNING, certain forms of opportunism were NOT fought by the whole organisation. Only its president, Ludo Martens, was able to formulate self-critics and was able to analyse false developments and was able to stimulate “struggle between two lines” and was warning CONTINUALLY against the danger of revisionism which could develop on not detected and not fought opportunism. Probably he was surrounded by a leadership of which certain elements already quickly ideologically changed class-position and became “hidden” revisionists.....For me, Boudewijn Deckers is such an example. And the developments in the WPB show now that also Herwig Lerouge and Jo Cottenier – having co-founded AMADA and later on the WPB – must have become rather quickly “hidden” but convinced BOURGEOIS elements. An example of a cadre ( who also co-founded AMADA and later the WPB who was “blind” for development of opportunism – perhaps “trapped” in some opportunism and so was not able to counter politically and ideologically the conscious revisionists, is Kris Hertogen. .....Also myself I was
influenced by some opportunism (forms of dogmatism I should say) until 2000 where I came aware of revisionist developments in the WPB. By analysing and reporting these revisionist developments I could free myself of that dogmatism......but in 2005 I was expelled out of the WPB
As the WPB is (still) been seen - and internationally she is “promoting” herself as such – as a “communist” organisation belonging to the circle of “communist parties and workers parties, I will use the texts of the WPB published on www.solidnet.org (HERE) or articles of cadres of the WPB in The International Communist Review as that of Peter Mertens HERE, to prove that the WPB is NOT anymore a revolutionary communist party with which there can be discussion “among comrades” and differences of opinion “searching her own way to develop a revolutionary strategy”. The WPB has become a “renegade” organisation (“renegade” as Lenin described Karl Kautsky and the parties who were -still – in the Second International during the first World War) Its revisionism has to be unmasked and the WPB has to be used as “teacher of the negative example”. That would be – at least for me - the best way to honour the remembrance of the Ludo Martens, who passed away on 5 June 2011..


1http://inter.kke.gr/News/2013-04-02-info-19congress/, The KKE is marching to its 19th Congress… -ARTICLE OF THE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS SECTION OF THE CC OF THE KKE”

04-04-2013

The KKE about "What is socialism?"

On 11-14 April 2013 the KKE (Communist Party of Greece) will hold her 19th congress, as it is written here. One of the most important issues is the unification of the whole party about the concrete and elaborated strategy of socialist revolution and the building of a society based on communist production-relations, through the stage of what is called socialism (in fact the first stage of communism), and this for a “near future”... A second issue (and therefore a lot of congress-preparing documents are online available in different languages) is the recognition of a serious problem of opportunism in the circles of those organisations which claim to be “Marxist” and “communist” and an analysis of the ideological base of that opportunism. I think that those documents has to be studied.
A chapter in the main-text “ THESES OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF GREECE FOR THE 19TH CONGRESS - 11-14 APRIL 2013” is about “What is socialism?” I am publishing this text here below, just because of the fact that I want to compare it with what the WPB (PVDA/PTB) is writing/saying about it. (and which I commented already - in Dutch - in articles HERE on this page)
So a clear distinction can be made between applying Marxism out of a real proletarian class-position and using Marxist-sounding phraseology to “cover” a BOURGEOIS class-position.
It is not that I totally agree with all the KKE is saying. I have my questions, points of discussion. (I “produced” already some critic on positions of the KKE, HERE, HERE and HERE ...) But I know (I realise now) that my opinion is that of an individual, while that of the KKE is a result of collective study, collective “proof of the practice” and collective discussion, so on a higher level of “probably correctness”.....So some of those critics I would probably formulate them now, in a less antagonist way then I did....

Socialism as the first, lowest phase of communism1

81. Socialism is the first phase of the communist socio-economic formation; it is not an independent formation. It is an immature communism. The basic law of the communist mode of production is valid: “planned production for the extended satisfaction of social needs.”
The development potential of the country will be placed at the service of the people and their needs through the Central Planning. This is also true of whatever has been created by human activity in science, technology and culture. This will endure a higher standard of living and intellectual development. Unemployment and labour insecurity will be eradicated, free time will be increased, so that the working people will be able to actively participate and exercise workers’ control in order to safeguard the character of working class power.

82. Socialist construction is a single process which starts with the conquest of power by the working class. In the beginning, the new mode of production is formed, which basically prevails through the complete abolition of capitalist relations, of the capital-wage labour relation.
§ The socialisation of the means of production in industry, energy-water supply, telecommunications, construction, repair, public transport, wholesale and retail trade and import-export trade, the concentrated tourist – restaurant infrastructure, the capitalist agricultural cultivations.
§ The socialization of land and the capitalist agricultural cultivations. State production units will be created for the production and processing of agricultural products as raw materials or consumer products. The Greek reality does not require the redistribution of land. Those who do not own land will work in the socialist agricultural and livestock units. The measure of the socialization of land ends the possibility of land being concentrated, the change of its use and its commodification by individual or cooperative agricultural producers.
§ The abolition of private ownership and economic activity in education, health-welfare, culture and sports, in the mass media. They are completely and exclusively organized as social services.
§ The abolition of the use of alien labour, i.e. wage labour, by those who still possess isolated means of production in sectors that have not been compulsorily socialized, e.g. in crafts, agricultural production, tourism-restaurants, in certain auxiliary services.
§ Means of production, raw materials and other industrial materials and resources, and labour force will be used in production and the organization of social and administrative services via Central Planning.
§ Industry and the largest part of agricultural production will be carried out with relations of social ownership, Central Planning, workers’ control over the whole spectrum of management and administration.

83. Agricultural productive cooperatives will be promoted, which will have the right to utilize the socialized land as a means of production. The integration of small farmers will be carried out on a voluntary basis. The incentives for cooperativization are: the reduction of the cost of production through collective cultivation work and collection of agricultural produce; the protection of agricultural production from natural phenomena through the state infrastructure and scientific and technical support; the concentration of agricultural produce via the state retail sector; the even distribution of labour time on a year basis though the extension of mechanization and central coordination to deal with unforeseen weather hazards. The reformation of the village with urban features regarding unified education, fully equipped health centres connected with hospitals in the nearest urban centres, cultural infrastructure, transport etc.
To the extent which labour is socialized through producer cooperatives and the use of mechanized means of production and collective infrastructure, the pre-conditions will be created for direct integration into social ownership and full integration into the central plan. In this direction the contradiction between the city and countryside, industrial and agricultural production, will be eliminated. The improvement of their working and living conditions will be the benefit for those who previously worked in the cooperatives.

84. The division of labour in the socialized means of production is based on the central plan that organizes production and social services and determines its proportions, with the aim of satisfying the expanded social needs, and the distribution of products (use values). It is a centrally planned division of social labour and directly integrates - not via the market - individual labour, as part of the total social labour.
Central Planning consciously outlines the objective proportions of production and distribution, as well as the effort to develop the productive forces in an all-sided way.
It prioritizes the production of means of production. The development of productive capability as a whole and the technological equipping of the social services depend on this. In the final analysis, the ability of the expanded reproduction and the rise of social prosperity are dependent on this.
The scientific laws of Central Planning are not identified with each specific plan, which approaches to a greater of lesser extent the objective proportions of the expanded socialist accumulation and social prosperity.
Central Planning aims, in the medium and long term, to develop in a generalized way the ability to perform specialised labour, as well as shifts in the technical division of labour, to achieve the all-round development of labour productivity and the reduction of labour time, for the prospect of eliminating the differences between executive and supervisory labour, between manual and intellectual labour.
Cooperative production is subordinated to some extent to Central Planning, which determines the part of the production that is allocated to the state and sets the state prices, at which the produce is collected by the state, as well as the prices, the produce is sold at in the state-organized popular markets.

85. Central Planning will be organised by sector, through a unified state authority, with regional and industry-level branches. Planning will be based on a totality of goals and criteria such as:

· In Energy:
Development of infrastructure for the reduction of the level of energy dependence of Greece, safeguarding adequate and cheap popular consumption, the safety of workers in the sectors and of residential areas. Protection of public health and the environment. In this direction, energy policies will have the following pillars: the utilisation of all domestic energy sources e.g. lignite, hydro-electric power, wind power, solar energy, oil, natural gas etc, the systematic research and discovery of new sources, the pursuit of mutually beneficial inter-state cooperation.
· In Transport:
Priority will be given to mass rather than private transport, to rail transport on the mainland of the country and to ferry services with modern vessels for coastal regions and islands. Planning will be carried out based on the criterion of having all forms of transport operate in an interlinked and complementary way and with the goals of cheap and fast transport of people and goods, the saving of energy, the balanced human intervention in the environment, the planned development for the eradication of uneven regional development, the full control of defence and national security of the socialist state. This requires also the planning of the relevant infrastructure -ports, airports, railway stations, roads and of an industry for the production of means of transportation.
· In manufacturing and mining industry:
Priority will be given to the production of means of production through the utilisation of the mining industry combined with the development of the respective sectors of manufacturing, by means of supporting national scientific research.
Greece has important reserves of metallic mineral resources such as bauxite, metallic minerals (gold, nickel, copper), mineral resources (perlite, magnesite, marble, etc.).
The mining of mineral resources will be combined with their industrial processing (e.g. production of aluminium and of relevant aluminium components), with the development of metal and petrochemical industry, the production of machines and means of transport aiming at the reduction of the dependence on foreign trade; similarly in sectors of manufacturing, such as the chemical industry.
The Central Planning will promote the proportional harmonized relation between agricultural production and industry for significant and necessary raw materials in the sectors of food industry, textile, leather and clothing industry and generally in the industry of consumer goods. Accordingly agricultural production will be based on domestic industrial production of fertilizers, pesticides, fodder, seeds etc. agricultural machines, irrigation infrastructure.
· In telecommunications:
Cheap, rapid, safe and universal access to communication, information, entertainment as well as the utilisation of technological capabilities for the enhancement of scientific central planning and workers’ control, for equal utilisation of the corresponding applications of the scientific central planning and workers’ control in industry, in administration, as well as in social services (tele-medicine, tele-teaching etc). Priority is given to the construction and enhancement of the respective infrastructure works for the development of the domestic industrial production of telecommunication equipment.
· Spatial planning- construction:
Spatial planning on the basis of the results of research concerning the definition of new needs, the elaboration of regulations and standards as well as on the basis of a national plan for the management of wastes, for the comprehensive management of the water resources for their protection and utilisation according to the criterion of people’s prosperity and the construction of cities that will be people-friendly.
Even development of construction in order to cover the needs for housing, for public infrastructure works, for supporting agricultural production, industry, social services. Industrial production can cover the needs of the sector of construction in cement and building materials.
Safe, modern standards for people’s housing combined with the reshaping of cities, operational infrastructure for quick safe transportation, protection against floods, fires, earthquakes, sufficient green spaces combined with zones for sports, culture and entertainment.

86. Scientific research will be organised through state institutions, universities, institutes, etc. and will serve the protection and promotion of health, Central Planning, the administration of social production and social services, in order to develop social prosperity.
State social infrastructure will be created which will provide high-quality social services in order to meet needs which today are being tackled by individual or family households (e.g. restaurants in workplaces, in schools, facilities for leisure. In addition, welfare institutions and high-level facilities will be created in order to protect, take care of and ensure the dignity of people who cannot help themselves due to their age (children, elderly) or due to illness (people with special needs).
All children will be provided with free and public pre-school education, exclusively public, free of charge, general 12-year education through schools with a unified structure, programme, administration and operation, technical equipment, specialised staff educated in a unified system. The systems of evaluation aim at the consolidation of knowledge, at the development of a dialectic-materialist way of thinking, self discipline and collectivity. Through a unified system of free public higher education, scientific personnel will be formed, capable of teaching in universities and of providing the specialised staff in areas of research, socialised production and state services.
An exclusively public and free health and welfare system will be established. A particular emphasis is given to the prevention of diseases and services which are necessary for physical and psychological well-being, for the intellectual and cultural development of every individual, for ensuring the environmental and social conditions that affect public health, social activity and the ability to work.

87. The role and the function of the Central Bank will change. The regulation of the function of money as a means of commodity circulation will be restricted to the exchange between socialist production and the production of agricultural cooperatives, in general with the commodity production of that portion of consumer goods that are not produced by the socialist production units, until the final eradication of every form of private ownership over means of production and of the existence of commodity production. On this basis, the respective functions of certain specialised state credit institutions for agricultural cooperatives and certain small commodity producers will be controlled by the Central Bank.
The development of Central Planning and the extension of social ownership in all areas make money gradually superfluous, both in terms of content and form.
The Central Bank, as a department of Central Planning, controls international transactions (inter-state, trade, tourism) as long as capitalist states exist on earth. These transactions are carried out exclusively by state authorities. It will also regulate gold reserves or reserves of other commodities which operate as world money or any other general reserve. The Central Bank will play a role in the exercise of general social accounting and it will be connected to the organs and goals of Central Planning.

88. Socialist construction is incompatible with the participation of the country in imperialist unions, such as the EU and NATO, IMF, OECD with the existence of USA-NATO military bases. The new power, depending on the international and regional situation, will seek to develop inter-state relations of mutual benefit between Greece and other countries, especially with countries whose level of development, problems and immediate interests may ensure such a mutually beneficial cooperation.
The socialist state will seek cooperation with states and peoples who objectively have a direct interest in resisting the economic, political and military centres of imperialism, first and foremost with the peoples who are constructing socialism in their countries. It will seek to utilize every available “rupture” which might occur in the imperialist “front” due to inter-imperialist contradictions, in order to defend and strengthen the revolution and socialism. A socialist Greece, loyal to the principles of proletarian internationalism, will be, to the extent of its capabilities, a bulwark for the world anti-imperialist, revolutionary and communist movement.

The satisfaction of the social needs
89. Social needs are determined according to the level of development of the productive forces which has been achieved in the given historical period.
Basic social needs (education-health- welfare) are provided to all for free according to the needs while another part of them is covered by a relatively small part of the money-income acquired through labour (housing, energy, water, heating, transport, nutrition).
A characteristic of the first phase of communist relations, i.e. of the socialist relations, is the distribution of one part of the products “according to labour”. The distribution of a part of socialist production “according to labour”, which resembles commodity exchange only in terms of its form, is a result of capitalist inheritance. The new mode of production has not managed to discard it yet, because it has not developed all of the necessary human productive power and all the means of production to the necessary dimensions, through the widest use of new technology. Labour productivity does not yet allow a decisively large reduction of labour time, the abolition of heavy and one-sided labour, so that the social need for compulsory labour can be eradicated.
The planned distribution of labour force and of the means of production entails the planned distribution of the social product. This is a fundamental difference compared to the distribution of the social product through the market, based on the laws and categories of commodity exchange.

90. Labour time in socialism is not the “socially necessary labour time” that constitutes the measure of value for the exchange of commodities in commodity production. It is the measure of the individual contribution to social labour for the production of the total product. It operates as a measure for the distribution of these products of individual consumption which are still distributed “according to labour”.
Access to that part of the social product that is distributed “according to labour” is determined by the individual labour contribution of each person in the totality of social labour, without distinguishing between complex and simple labour, manual or otherwise. The measure of individual contribution is the labour time which is determined by the plan based on the total needs of social production, the material conditions of the production process in which “individual” labour is included. The special needs of social production for the concentration of the labour force in certain areas, branches, etc., as well as other special social needs, such as maternity, individuals with special needs, etc. are taken into account in the determination of the labour time.
The personal stance of each individual vis-a-vis the organization and the realisation of the productive process plays a decisive role in the productivity of labour, in the evolution of labour time, in material saving, in the application of more productive technologies, the more rational organisation of labour, the exercise of workers’ control in administration-management.

91. Incentives will be formed for the development of a vanguard communist attitude vis-a-vis the organization and execution of labour in the production unit or social service, as a result of the combination of various specific types of labour. The incentives will aim at the reduction of purely unskilled and manual labour, at the reduction of labour time, in parallel with access to educational programmes, leisure and cultural services, participation in workers’ control. We reject the monetary form of incentives.
The planned development of the productive forces in the communist mode of production should increasingly free up more time from work, which should then be used to raise the educational-cultural level of working people; to allow for workers’ participation in the realisation of their duties regarding workers’ power and administration of production, etc. The all-round development of man as the productive force in the building of the new type of society, of the communist relations and the communist attitude towards directly social labour, is a two-way relationship. Depending on the historical phase, either the one or the other side will take precedence.
The struggle of the new against the old. The necessity of the conscious and planned eradication of the elements of immaturity

92. The overcoming of the elements of immaturity that characterize the lower phase of communism, that is socialism, is a precondition in order for the laws of communism to fully prevail.
In socialism the vestiges of the previous modes of production have not yet been eradicated and the material conditions of the socialist mode of production have not matured so as to fully take on its communist character, so that the principle “from each according to his ability to each according to his need” enters completely into force.
Initially there remain forms of individual and group ownership that constitute the basis for the existence of commodity-money relations.
On the basis of its economic immaturity, there still continue to exist social inequalities, social stratification, significant differences or even contradictions, such as those between city and country, between intellectual and manual workers, between specialized and unskilled workers. All of these inequalities must be completely eradicated, gradually and in a planned way.
During the construction of socialism, the working class acquires progressively, not in a uniform fashion, the ability to have an overview of the different parts of the productive process, of supervisory work, a substantive role in the organization of labour. As a result of the difficulties in this process, it is still possible that workers with a managerial role in production, workers engaged in intellectual labour and possessing a high scientific specialization, would tend to isolate the individual interest and the group interest from the social interest, or would tend to lay claim to a larger share of the total social product, since the “communist attitude” towards labour has not yet prevailed.

93. The social revolution is not restricted only to the conquest of power and the formation of the economic base for the socialist development, but is extended during the entire course of socialism; it includes the development of socialism for the attainment of the higher communist phase.
Subsequently, the new relations will be extended and deepened, communist relations and the new type of man will develop to a higher level that guarantees their irreversible supremacy, provided that capitalist relations have been abolished on a global scale or at least in the developed and influential countries of the imperialist system.
The socialist course contains the possibility of a reversal and a retreat backwards to capitalism, as the experience from the counterrevolutionary overthrow in the USSR and the other socialist countries showed. Retreat is in any case a temporary phenomenon in history. The transition from an inferior mode of production to a higher one is not a straightforward ascending process. This is also shown by the very history of the prevalence of capitalism.
The leap that takes place during the period of socialist construction, i.e. during the revolutionary period of the transition from capitalism to developed communism, is qualitatively superior to any previous one, since communist relations, which are not of an exploitative nature, are not shaped within the framework of capitalism. A struggle of the “seeds” of the new system against the “vestiges” of the old one takes place in all spheres of social life. It is a struggle for the radical change of all economic relations and, therefore, of all social relations, into communist relations.

94. During this long-term transition from the capitalist society to the developed communist one, the policies of the revolutionary working class power, with the Communist Party as the leading force, give priority to the formation, extension and deepening of the new social relations, to their complete and irreversible prevalence, not in a voluntarist manner, but based on the laws of the communist mode of production.
There will be an ongoing battle for the eradication of every form of group and individual ownership over the means and results of production and of the petit-bourgeois consciousness that has deep historical roots. It is a struggle for the formation of a communist consciousness and attitude towards the direct socialised labour.
The socialist accumulation which will be achieved, will lead to a new level of social prosperity. This new level makes the gradual extension of new relations in that area of productive forces possible which previously were not mature enough to be included in the directly social production. There is a constant expansion of the material prerequisites for the abolition of any differentiation in the distribution of the social product among the workers, in the directly social production; for the continuous reduction of the necessary labour time; for the constant educational-cultural development and the technological-scientific specialisation of man; for the eradication of reactionary and anachronistic views, customs and attitudes regarding a series of social issues such as the women’s question.
In accordance with the universal social law of the correspondence of the relations of production with the level of development of the productive forces, each historically new level of development of productive forces that is initially achieved by socialist construction, demands a further “revolutionization” of relations of production and of all economic relations, in the direction of their complete transformation into communist relations, by means of revolutionary policies.
The development of the communist mode of production in its first phase, socialism, is a process through which the distribution of the social product in monetary form will be eradicated. Communist production – even in its immature stage – is directly social production.

Fundamental principles of the formation of the socialist power

95. The socialist power is the revolutionary power of the working class, the dictatorship of the proletariat. The revolutionary working class power requires a high level of organisation with all means available. It requires workers’ control in the exercise of the administration of the industrial units in the sectors of strategic importance. In that way the working class power carries out its creative, social-economic and cultural work under all conditions -war communism, a relatively more peaceful period of socialist construction- it makes possible the supremacy of the workers’ and people’s majority against the organised domestic and foreign resistance of capital, its counterrevolutionary activity after the loss of its power.
This requires preparation and the ability to mobilise as quickly as possible the socialised means of production, the entire labour force through Central Planning so as to rapidly restore the losses that will occur in the period of nationwide crisis that will have preceded, the losses caused by the resistance of capitalists but also of the upper intermediate strata, by the external economic blockade, the imperialist interventions and wars etc.

96. The fundamental principles of the revolutionary working class power arise from the objective position of the working class in the socialised production process as well as by the fact that the working class as a whole has not achieved a unified consciousness of its social role. The fundamental principles of the new power are in total opposition to the old, bourgeois power. This arises from the fact that the socialised labour renders the private ownership over the means of production obsolete.
The extent and the forms that the revolutionary working class power uses for the repression of the counterrevolutionary activity depend on the stance of the political and social organisations towards the two conflicting forces, the working class and the capitalist class.
The organisation of the new power is a matter for the working class as a whole. The participation of other social forces

97. The socialist state as an organ of class struggle, which continues with other forms and under new conditions, does not have merely a defensive-repressive organisational function. It also has a creative, economic, cultural, educational function under the leadership of its ideological –political vanguard, namely its party. It expresses a higher form of democracy whose chief characteristic is the active participation of the working class and generally of the people. The people are educated on the basis of moral incentives that arise from the higher mode of production and democracy, during the formation of the socialist society, during the resolution of the old contradictions and social inequalities, during the control of the management of the productive units, of the social and administrative services of all the organs of power from the bottom up. The exercise of workers’ and social control will be institutionalised and safeguarded in practice, as will the unhindered criticism of decisions and practices which obstruct socialist construction, the unhindered denunciation of subjective arbitrariness and bureaucratic behaviour of officials, and other negative phenomena and deviations from socialist-communist principles.
The foundation of workers’ power is the productive unit, the social services, the administrative unit, the producer cooperatives where the working people exercise their rights: to elect and recall the representatives of the unit; to be elected in the lowest level of the working class power, in the Workers’ Council or the Cooperative Council; to elect and recall the representatives to the immediately higher organ of power.
The direct and indirect working class democracy, the principle of control, of accountability and the right of recall, which is extended to the members of the management, is based on the Assembly of the working people.
The Assembly in the production units, the social services, the administrative units, the producer cooperatives is the Body that safeguards the substantial participation of all workers, men and women, irrespective of their educational level and specialisation, irrespective of their linguistic, cultural religious heritage.
The voting right is safeguarded through the obligation of every man and woman, who are capable of working, to work while the working class state guarantees the corresponding job through Central Planning. The exclusion from the election right takes place on the basis of the criminal-disciplinary system.
The working class power will seek to integrate the women who are able to work and are below retirement age (18-55 years) into the direct social labour. This integration can take place gradually depending on the range of the problems that the working class power inherits and resolves.
The adults who do not work i.e. students will participate through the respective educational unit that is comprised of university professors and other workers.
The pensioners form a special social group, as they are characterised by class differentiation. For that reason pensioners will participate in the procedures of their last workplace.
The retired cooperative farmers will participate through their cooperative organisation. The self-employed will participate with their representatives.
The disabled, depending on their degree of disability, will either be incorporated into pensioners or will work under more favourable conditions, or into special educational-productive units.
The so called “minorities”, the sections of the working class who speak a different language, the immigrants inherited by capitalism, the political refugees will be treated according to these very principles. The socialist power ensures the preservation of the language and cultural traditions, their acquaintance with their historical roots by means of a special programme integrated in the cultural and educational system, without separate settlements, providing for their participation in the highest bodies.
Special committees for the needs of women, the young people, the people with special needs may arise from the organizations that took part in the revolution. These committees will be incorporated into the structure of the working class power.
The appointment of economic managers and managers of production –at least in units of a considerable size- will be related to the division of the specialized labour force which will be dealt with by Central Planning. The managers will be appointed as salaried employees without any special economic privileges. The organs of power will have the obligation to create the preconditions so that the unit can cover the needs for its administration on its own.
The management of the productive unit or the social service or the administrative unit will be comprised of many persons. The Workers’ Council will not be merely represented in the management but the management will participate in the Workers’ Council.
All the respective Bodies and Organs can pose the issue of controlling and recalling the management.
The socialist power inherits from capitalism a large number of salaried employees that come from the administrative services of capitalism (state employees, employees from the administrative mechanism of the businesses). The working class power seeks their political and cultural adaptation and their incorporation into the socialist productive units and the social services.
The working class character of the state power will be reflected in the composition of the people’s organs.
The socialist state will express the alliance of the working class with the self-employed, whose economic activity will continue to exist for a transitional period. It determines the conditions (obligations and rights) for sections the scattered self-employed and the cooperative farmers which constitute a transitional form and prepares them for their integration into direct social production.
In any case cooperatives are a transitional form of ownership. Therefore the Council of the Cooperative which is elected by its members is a self-administration organ with a transitional form.

Certain guidelines for the formation of the organs of power
98. The basis of the workers’ participation is the Assembly of the socialist productive unit, of the social or administrative service through which the lowest organ of power is elected, i.e. the Workers’ Council. The structure of the organs of power includes:
The Workers’ Council, the Regional Council and the Highest Organ of Working Class Power.
The Highest Organ of the Working Class Power is responsible for Central Planning, for the creative work in economy and in all social relations, for the protection of the socialist construction, the interstate relations. It has full authority, legislative, executive, judicial which are organized respectively in supervisory structures.
All three levels of the organs of power, according to hierarchy, are responsible for the organization of the protection of the revolution, for the people’s judiciary, the control mechanism.
The organs for defence and the protection of the revolution are based on workers’ and people’s participation as well as on permanent and specialized personnel.
All organs are characterized by the principle of democratic centralism which ensures the unified character of Central Planning and the specialization of its implementation.
A state organ which has particular importance is the Highest Administration of Central Planning that embraces committees for special issues e.g. women’s equality and women’s rights, committees that operate within the framework of the Highest Organ of Working Class Power.
The possibility of being recalled, the regulation of working-time in the workplace for the specific period of election according to the obligations in the organs, the exclusion of participation in more than two organs, and the exclusion of any economic privilege applies for all those who participate in the state organs of all levels.
A revolutionary constitution and revolutionary legislation will be formed, which will be in accordance with the new social relations-social ownership, Central Planning, workers’ control- and which will defend revolutionary legality. Labour Law, Family Law and all the legal consolidation of the new social relations will be shaped accordingly. The new judiciary will be uner the direct responsonsibility of the organs of power. The judiciary will be made up of elected and recallable lay judges, as well as of permanent staff, answerable to the institutions of working class state power.
New institutions will be created in place of the bourgeois army and repressive organs-which will be completely dissolved-based on the revolutionary struggle for the defeat of the resistance of the exploiters and for the defence of the Revolution. Their cadre will be shaped on the basis of their stance vis-à-vis the Revolution.
Gradually, via new military schools, a new corps will be created, chosen mainly from the youth with a working class background. It will be educated according to the principles of the new state-power. The positive experience of socialist construction, where the duties for the defence of the revolutionary achievements were carried out not only by the specialized permanent bodies, but also via the responsibility of the people through workers’ committees on a shift basis etc, will be utilised.
The working class power will utilise all new technical means, the new organisational forms based on technology in order to acquire an effective defence against international imperialism, in organisation and control as well as in order to restrict administrative acts to the necessary ones, to reduce the number of the working people in administrative-non productive labour to the minimum necessary degree.

The relationship of the KKE with the working class power

99. The KKE, as the ideological-political organised vanguard of the working class, will constitute the leading force of the revolutionary working class power, the dictatorship of the proletariat. It will vindicate its revolutionary leading role as long as it expresses the general interests of the working class and the scientific laws of the socialist-communist construction in practice. The working class even when revolutionary will not have achieved a unified communist consciousness, a communist stance towards the direct social labour, social ownership, it will not have overcome the differentiation among its sections as they develop in capitalism. The members and the cadre of the KKE and its Youth will participate in all forms of society’s organisation and will exercise their role as ideological-political leaders, with self-sacrifice, selflessness and without any economic privilege or any other privileges.
The members of the Youth of the KKE, of KNE, will act accordingly among the students and the school students under the political guidance of the organs and the forces of the party e.g. in education, in the workers’ army, in the groups for the protection of the revolution etc.
The role of the members and the cadre of the KKE is constantly being judged –confirmed or negated- in practice. This requires them to achieve a higher level of theoretical, scientific, technical knowledge so as to contribute to the ideological and political maturation of the working class for its new role as the leading power of the socialist –communist construction.
The KKE is the political force that introduces in all organs of the working class power the ability to carry out scientific predictions, to organize the activity in a planned way, to elaborate political plans for the formation of the socialist economic basis , of the new socialist relations of production and distribution, of all the new socialist-communist relations that characterize all the levels of the society’s organisation, education, culture, the relations between the two genders, the eradication of the long-term influence of the metaphysical dogmas etc.
The party through its members in each field –and KNE correspondingly in education- expresses its opinion on all issues (e.g. candidacies in organs, for the planning, the report of work etc).

100. The recognition and the realization of the leading role of the party, the acquisition of the corresponding social consciousness not only by the working class masses but generally by the majority of the people is the result of its revolutionary ideological political and organizational formation which is constantly judged in life. The dialectical relation between the revolutionary theory and the revolutionary practice is constantly being judged. This relationship entails:
§ A party that will be essentially committed to the revolutionary communist ideology, on Marxism-Leninism from which it will acquire the ability to interpret the new phenomena and guide the class struggle according to the need to develop and consolidate the new mode of production; to consolidate socialism as the lowest phase of communism, as the decisive victory of the social ownership against every form of private ownership and the final victory of communism.
§ A party with working class composition throughout its structure, members and cadres. Particularly in conditions of relative stabilization of the revolutionary power, the expansion of the forces of the party and its rejuvenation should not reverse the majority of the workers from the productive sections of industry.
§ The working class composition of the party is combined with the collective responsibility so that all members of the party have a high level of Marxist education, the ability to protect the party and especially its highest organs from the penetration of bourgeois ideological constructs, revisionist tendencies and opportunist choices.
§ A party that will be capable of producing-educating communist scientists, hence a party that will be at the frontline for the development of science, for the acquisition of new knowledge as well as for the extensive utilization of its results in favour of the irreversible victory of communism. Leading organs capable of ensuring the unity of the class and scientific character which is a precondition in order for the party perform its revolutionary vanguard role.
§ A party that will be capable of expanding and renewing its revolutionary bonds with the working class, the creator of the social wealth, in new conditions, in the new turns of the class struggle, in every shift–negative or positive- of the correlation of forces in the country and internationally with an unwavering orientation regarding the basic social contradiction, that between capital and labour. With the vanguard stance of its members and cadres it will contribute practically to the development of a communist stance in labour.
1http://inter.kke.gr/News/news2013/2013-03-05-thesis, THESES OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF GREECE FOR THE 19TH CONGRESS - 11-14 APRIL 2013, Socialism as the first, lowest phase of communism