27-07-2013

Lenin about revisionism -as developend by WPB on ICS-: “Kautskyite distortion of Marxism”

This year from May 31 till June  2, the International Communist Seminar (an initiative of the WPB herself more than 20 years ago) gathered in Brussels to discuss about the (by the WPB?) chosen subject “The attacks on the democratic rights and freedoms in the world capitalist crisis. Strategies and actions in response”.
It is metaphysics to present one aspect of the overall strategy of the bourgeoisie, to increase continually the level of exploitation, to wage sharp competition in order to win (temporarily) the struggle over the remaining market, over the ownership the most modern and productive capacities (and over the destroying the lesser productive and older, lesser competitive capacities “needed” to sell to the market (the billion possible consumers who have an income to buy), the incapability of imperialism to fulfil the social and vital NEEDS of the WHOLE humanity (7 billion).
Instead of the discussion of what has to be NOW the vital tasks and the most important strategy of those who claim to be the “
vanguard of the working class” in order to lead the working class in her historical task: overthrow of capitalism..... the WPB force the International Communist Seminar to break the heads over which “strategies and actions” has to be developed “in response” of “the attacks on the democratic rights and freedoms in the world capitalist crisis”. In her proposed text (her own text and the proposed “General Conclusions”) her arguing is formulated in Marxist-sounding (but dogmatic) phrases, in order to mislead other communist parties or organisations who because of their underestimation of this dogmatism or because of their own “contamination” with “some” dogmatism. The result of this REVISIONIST practice would be a “postponing” revolution and socialism to a utopian far future (and in fact CANCELING them) One proof of this that the WPB can still NOT formulate “what is in fact socialism?” About this I will write in another article.....
OK, let see, how the WPB is arguing!
I. In times of crisis, fundamental rights are under fire
The capitalist system's ideologues have a tendency to present the State, laws and the justice system as neutral and representing the interests of all. However, when society is based on the private property of the means of production, which by nature is restricted to a limited number of people, genuine equality is impossible. 
Moreover, any social or democratic right that has been acquired under capitalism has two aspects: it is the result of the workers' struggle and a concession by the ruling classes who are trying to avoid worse. Under capitalism, democratic rights acquired by the working class have never been granted. The right to organise, the right to strike, the right to vote, paid leave, the 8-hour working day and 40-hour working week, social security,... it was all acquired after long and hard mass struggles.(...)
.. (S)ince the start of the crisis in 1973, a major offensive was launched against social and democratic rights in Belgium, through austerity plans. The government has propagated special powers, side-tracking parliament: the right to work and to unemployment benefits, the right to health, and wages were attacked vehemently. At the same time, under the guise of security and linked demagogically or not to the issue of immigration, the struggle against crime was used to justify the strengthening of the repressive system and to attack democratic rights.
Consequently, in 1989, the collapse of the socialist countries of Eastern Europe was just another opportunity for the bourgeoisie to pursue its offensive. Particularly nationalism and racism experienced a resurgence, with the emergence of a fascist party like the Vlaams Belang that was able to win up to a quarter of the votes in the North of the country, but also with a series of very repressive laws against the undocumented workers.(...)
Economic and social rights that have been acquired through long struggle, like the rights to social security (right to unemployment benefits that are unlimited in time, the right to early retirement,...) and decent working conditions (protection in case of layoff, the statute of civil service workers, limitations on temporary contracts, free wage negotiations and automatic linking of wages to the consumer price index,...) were attacked by the current government, led by socialist Prime Minister Di Rupo. There is also a plan to eliminate Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) that go beyond the company level. Basic rights are threatened. (...)
Attacks against the right to strike and collective action become increasingly clear. (...)
A general offensive against the unions themselves is developing in parallel. In the North of Belgium, the most aggressive bourgeoisie, represented politically by the right-wing nationalist N-VA, wants to marginalize and consequently to exclude trade unions, and create a "corporatist" Flanders. (...)
The democratic legitimacy of the organizations of the working class is put into question. Increasingly, formal democracy (election results) is used against the democracy created by the actions of trade unions and associations: trade union action is attacked in the name of parliamentary votes. (...)
This also explains the upsurge of anti-communism in times of crisis. The financial elite knows that the communist parties can grow significantly in times of crisis, as we saw in the 1930s. In our country, attacks of this kind begin to materialise, (...)
There is also a more general intention by the State to "discipline" the population in times of crisis. Workers are disciplined by the activation of the unemployed and other welfare recipients, forcing them to accept low-paid jobs or paid internships of 1,5 Euro per hour. In case of refusal, sanctions are being taken and social benefits are removed. The aim is to put pressure on wages and to force workers to accept any job.
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Talking in general and not talking about class-character: “theState.... a “society based on the private property of the means of production, which by nature is restricted to a limited number or people
And then it is suggested that the “
democratic rights and freedoms” are the result of a historical decision of a homogenous working class to start that “long and hard mass struggle” with as objectives “The right to organise, the right to strike, the right to vote, paid leave, the 8-hour working day and 40-hour working week, social security” by which the bourgeoisie was more foresighted than the working class herself... and did “concession to avoid worse”.
Well in already the first chapter of “
State and Revolution” and in the first part of that chapter  Lenin describes exactly how revisionists as the actual leadership of the WPB proceeds:
On the other hand, the “Kautskyite” distortion of Marxism is far more subtle. “Theoretically”, it is not denied that the state is an organ of class rule, or that class antagonisms are irreconcilable. But what is overlooked or glossed over is this: if the state is the product of the irreconcilability of class antagonisms, if it is a power standing above society and “alienating itself more and more from it", it is clear that the liberation of the oppressed class is impossible not only without a violent revolution, but also without the destruction of the apparatus of state power which was created by the ruling class and which is the embodiment of this “alienation”. As we shall see later, Marx very explicitly drew this theoretically self-evident conclusion on the strength of a concrete historical analysis of the tasks of the revolution. And — as we shall show in detail further on — it is this conclusion which Kautsky has “forgotten” and distorted.2
And why is the WPB so general about “the (capitalist) state”? It is because INERNALLY it is not so clear if the ACTUAL capitalist state which the WPB is confronting, is “Belgium” or the “European Union”.
Here above the WPB was talking about Belgium and how in Belgium the “
democratic rights and freedoms” are under attack.
Further on the WPB is explaining how this is done on European Union level.
II. The European Union, spearhead against democratic rights
In Europe the bourgeoisie has willingly abandoned part of its powers to the European Union which functions as a spearhead against democratic rights. This has six dimensions :
The right to strike : The European Union wants to impose its four « fundamental freedoms » (the free movement of goods, capital, services and people) over social rights. (...)
The right to organize : Through framework decisions the European Union has developed a European penal law for political repression. These decisions define « terrorist intentions » as the will to impose a different model of society. (...)
The right to public services : The European Union allows capital to increasingly act without barriers and invade all sectors of society. Privatisations and deregulation have transferred fields formerly considered of public use and touching upon vital needs, to the boards of directors of private companies : communications (post, telephone, internet) , mobility (railways, urban public transport), the production and distribution of energy and water, pensions (pension savings), and increasingly health (private insurance) and education. 
Increasing authoritarianism of the executive and social rights : The European Union has accelerated the growing transfer from the legislative to the executive power : the powers of Parliament, already very limited, have been further reduced.(...) At lower levels, closest to the people, elected officials have very limited powers. Local autonomy has been emptied by European and national straitjackets. Municipalities are placed under guardianship.
The formation of European forces of repression :(...) European police units that can be used against popular revolts in Southern Europe are formed. Eurogendfor, a European Gendarmerie Force, is ready to start its operations in Greece.
Generalized control over the population. The European Union has developed legislative instruments that extend methods of control and repression beyond borders to confront potential popular resistance.
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And because not is analysed how the working class should organise herself in order to break the concrete developed capitalist state which is developed to protect actual capitalism (in her final imperialist stage) – by which there would be on international level certainly discussions if the national state (and here is “state” a by the international bourgeois institutions used term) or the developing imperialist state-machinery European Union is defining the way how the workers should be mobilised to organise themselves – and because there has “just” to be talked about “strategies and action in response of the attacks of democratic rights and freedoms” the following conclusions are considered as sufficient:
III. Response strategies and actions
The crisis of the capitalist system has multiple dimensions. The more this system shows its anti-social nature, the more it shows its anti-democratic nature. As Marxists, we fight economism that considers only socio-economic struggles as truly anticapitalist. Workers must lead all forms of struggles against capitalist exploitation and oppression. In so doing, communists take the lead in the conquest and defence of democratic rights.
Mass work, a presence in companies and neighbourhoods and the enlargement of the party are essential preconditions to take charge of these struggles, and to fight repression against trade unions and communist organisations by the authorities. (...)
As a party, we are on the front line for democratic rights. Over the last years the defence of social and democratic rights in the world of labour has been a major axis of intervention of our party, especially in the struggle against austerity programmes. But also in defence of trade union rights and the right to strike. Notably through the action of trade-unionists, lawyers and communists at the SNCB (railways), Carrefour (distribution), Ford and the national airport of Brussels (Zaventem). (...)
A crucial axis in the coming year will be the fight against the nationalist offensive of the N-VA that wants to win the 2014 national election in order to impose the division of the country, spearhead to dismantle a series of social and democratic rights.
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... and of course in order not to become judged to be “just a reformist party” the following is added in misty vague terms:
Ultimately, we propose these demands for democratic rights in a wider perspective of the struggle for socialism, the only way leading to authentic and complete democracy for the workers. Towards the end of 2014, we will hold a Congress on our societal  project, socialism. The theme of socialist democracy will be a major axis.5
Well about the vision of the WPB on “socialism” I will write in another article (as I have already done HERE in different articles...but in Dutch)
And now, the actuality let the KKE answer on the by the WPB forced subject of the International Communist Seminar, “The attacks on the democratic rights and freedoms in the world capitalist crisis. Strategies and actions in response.”.....
The KKE on her website about a new attack on the “
rights that haved remained for the working people”:
The strike on 16th July with the demonstrations against the multi-pronged law of the government of ND and PASOK in Athens and in 65 cities throughout the country has been the starting point for new struggles. This draft law threatens to smash any rights that have remained for the working people both in the private and public sector,...(...)
Dimitris Koutoumpas, GS of the CC of the KKE (...): “
this multi-pronged daft law is a monstrosity. Apart from the mass dismissals, the tax plundering, the cuts in the public organisation for healthcare we would like to denounce in particular the effort to generalize individual labour contracts with the reduction of the minimum wage, which is actually a starvation wage, below 500 Euros. The suffocation that our people feel must be immediately transformed into a mass people’s counterattack. The people must take their future into their own hands without expecting solutions from above so as to pave the way as soon as possible and turn their back to the new bipolar system which is being created6.
   
1. 22nd International Communist Seminar , Brussels, May 31 – June 2, 2013 , www.icseminar.org – info@icseminar.org ,”The attacks on the democratic rights and freedoms in the world capitalist crisis. Strategies and actions in response.”. Workers Party of Belgium (PTB)   
2. http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/staterev/ch01.htm#s3,     Vladimir Lenin's “The State and Revolution”, chapter 1 “Class     Society and the State”, in 1, The State: a Product of the     Irreconcilability of Class Antagonisms”
3. 22nd International Communist Seminar , Brussels, May 31 – June 2, 2013 , www.icseminar.org – info@icseminar.org ,”The attacks on the democratic rights and freedoms in the world capitalist crisis. Strategies and actions in response.”. Workers Party of Belgium (PTB)
4. 22nd International Communist Seminar , Brussels, May 31 – June 2, 2013 , www.icseminar.org – info@icseminar.org ,”The attacks on the democratic rights and freedoms in the world capitalist crisis. Strategies and actions in response.”. Workers Party of Belgium (PTB)
5. 22nd International Communist Seminar , Brussels, May 31 – June 2, 2013 , www.icseminar.org – info@icseminar.org ,”The attacks on the democratic rights and freedoms in the world capitalist crisis. Strategies and actions in response.”. Workers Party of Belgium (PTB)
6. http://inter.kke.gr/News/news2013/2013-07-17-pame-strike.html,     Strike of PAME in Greece- starting point for new struggles”

24-07-2013

Real revolutionary ambition beside blindness for development of opportunism in International Communist Seminar

Although the subject to discus about on the 22nd meeting of the International Communist Seminar (Brussels, May 31- June 2, 2013) and about which the contribution of the participating Communist parties and organisations, was LIMITED to “The attacks on the democratic rights and freedoms in the world capitalist crisis. Strategies and actions in response”, the KKE had not intention to limit the formulation of her “strategies and actions” just “in response of the attacks on the democratic rights and freedoms”.
In contrary, she places the “
attacks on democratic and freedoms” in the cadre and context (and is making it CONCRETE instead of speaking in formal and general terms) of “the strategy for the reinforcement of the bourgeois class in the entire capitalist world in conditions of prolonged capitalist crisis
...The intensification of the repression, the escalation of the attack on democratic and trade union rights and freedoms on the part of the bourgeois class in the entire capitalist world is part and parcel of the strategy for the reinforcement of its interests and power, in conditions of prolonged capitalist crisis and rising popular discontent. It is the other side of the promonopoly restructurings, the strategy of competitiveness and entrepreneurship, the intensification of exploitation and the concentration and centralization of capital. (....) This general trend-which is expressed through the strengthening of the bourgeois political system with new repressive mechanisms, both state and para-state, with the adoption of the most reactionary and authoritarian laws in order to break the labour and people’s movement-is extended and exacerbated in the conditions of crisis.
This trend is clearly manifested in our country. In conditions when the capitalist crisis is deepening and popular discontent is swelling however without the labour movement having been able to regroup, the aggressiveness of capital has created a new situation, with reactionary changes which have already been expressed at the level of bourgeois institutions and governmental praxis. (...) (I)t is of very great importance that in these conditions, despite the intimidation, bans, repression strike struggles were successfully carried out in our country with the decisive contribution of the communists and PAME.1
The KKE sees a link of the “functioning of the EU repressive mechanisms” which have to “buttress the bourgeois political systems in member states”. The KKE see in reformism and also opportunism (in “communist circles”, I suppose..) the ideological weapon of the “bourgeois political system
The functioning and role of EU repressive mechanisms, Europol, Eurojust and Frontex is strengthening in the same direction.
The imperialist interventions have been institutionalized. The connection between the “civil protection apparatus” and the “mutual defence and solidarity clause” is becoming stronger – providing for the intervention in member-states on the pretext of crisis management-, the reactionary characteristics and aggressiveness of the EU are being reinforced in relation to military interventions in its member-states, with the pretext of “terrorism”, “destruction of natural or human resources”, “cyber attacks” etc for the breaking of the labour movement and the protection of the bourgeois political system. The warnings of Jean-Claude Juncker that crisis and high levels of joblessness risk sparking a "social rebellion" in Europe are not at all accidental.
The offensive is escalating with the adoption of activity against “radicalism” and “extreme ideologies”, with the pretext of “terrorism”. (...)
The ideology and political activity which leads outside of the boundaries of the capitalist system is being criminalized, anticommunism is intensifying and being transmitted through the various channels of manipulation.(...)
The EU openly criminalizes the communist ideology; it strengthens its reactionary legal arsenal for persecutions, bans, violent repression and attacks against the labour-people’s movement, above all against the communist parties which call the exploitative capitalist system into question. This tendency was generalized with the EU’s enlargement in 2004. At the same time the intervention of the EU is strengthening in order to buttress the bourgeois political systems in members states and more generally. The reactionary characteristics of the so-called “European parties”-amongst them the “Party of the European Left”, which expresses the organizational merger of the opportunist current with class mechanisms of the imperialist EU. (...)

Together with the repression and ideological offensive, the efforts for the
reformation of the bourgeois political system are accelerating. New parties are appearing which aim at or are already participating in coalition governments.
Realignments are being witnessed both in the centre-right and in social-democracy and opportunism.2
As I understand it, the KKE is saying: “The bourgeois strategy is not only directed on attacks on democratic rights and freedoms but first of all as an attack on all revolutionary capitalism opposing forces. Beside the repression weapons, the ideological weapons, are organised fascist forces and parties just “a section of the bourgeois political system” and has to be fought TOGETHER with the bourgeois and capitalist system as well.” In just an “antifascist” formation the KKE sees an opportunist (or even bourgeois) tactic of holding back of overthrow of capitalism. Read for yourself:
A feature of the reformation of the bourgeois political system is the intensification of state anti-communism, as well as the development and parliamentary representation of national socialism/fascism, the sharpening of authoritarianism and of state and para-state repression (for instance the provocation that led to burning of the MARFIN bank and the death of 3 workers or the murderous attack against PAME in Syntagma square during strikes).
Golden Dawn is a National-Socialist fascist organization. It strikes against immigrants and is hostile to the struggle of the labour and people’s movement, it utilizes vulgar anticommunism.

It is a section and party of the bourgeois political system; it is an organization of
the bourgeois class, of capital. Its economic programme has many common points of reference with “anti-memorandum” bourgeois and opportunist forces. The official antiimmigrant political line with violence and repression reinforces the atmosphere of racism and converges with these views.

Golden Dawn is supported by important cells in the state and para-state and its role is aimed at striking against the KKE, at breaking the labour movement.
Such forces are nurtured by the adoption of anti-communism as the official policy of the EU, the criminalization of the activity of CPs in many countries, the “theory of the extremes”, the slandering of socialism and above all the anti-historical equation of communism with fascism. (...)
Recently, under the pretext of the activity of fascist organizations, a discussion began about legal bans which will pave the way for bans at the expense of communists. It is no accident that immediately various “well-wishers” emerged to remind people that the KKE also exists and operates outside of the constitutional arc.

Golden Dawn and similar formations cannot be dealt with by blurred “anti-fascist” formations allied to forces of capital which nurture this phenomenon. It will be substantially and effectively dealt with by the rise of the class organization and struggle. It will be isolated by the organizations of labour and people’s movement; it will be weakened through the activity and strengthening of the People’s Alliance; it will vanish with the overthrow of the capitalist system that reproduces it. There is already some relevant initial experience accumulated in this regard.
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In fact – but I fear that opportunist contamination make some organisations in the ICS blind and deaf for it, while conscious REVISIONISTS like the leadership of the WPB will not dare to react on it – the KKE is formulating a critic on “allowing” opportunism IN the circle of communist organisations by concluding here below:”At the level of the strategy of the CPs, the detachment of the front of struggle for democratic rights from the anti-monopoly-anti-capitalist of capitalism, objectively leads to the rationale of an intermediate stage on the terrain of capitalism, in the rationale of the struggle for reforms on the terrain of the domination of the monopolies, even if they declare their faith in the struggle for socialism.” The KKE herself is taking – self-critically - an example out HER OWN history: “in Greece the line of support to the ND government in the name of the “National Anti-dictatorship, National Unity” after the fall of the military dictatorship”.
There is an intense political and ideological confrontation around issues of democratic rights and freedoms, around the question of what line and what direction should the response of the labour movement be in. This also reflects in the communist movement.
Bourgeois and opportunist political forces foster a non-class theory of democracy detaching the economic base from the superstructure. They present the tendency to reaction of the bourgeois parliamentary democracy – the monopolies’ dictatorship with democratic guise -as a “deviation”, preaching a more “ethical”, “democratic” and “humane” capitalism. The speech of SYRIZA’s President to the conference of SEB (Hellenic Federation of Enterprises) is indicative of this, which invoked Lenin and specifically his saying that socialism equals Soviet Power plus electrification in order to end up stating in front of an audience of industrialists that “today we can say: Development equals democracy plus investments!”
Indeed some of these forces claim that the problem of the capitalist crisis is a problem of democracy, reversing reality and adhering to the most extreme idealistic viewpoints, bypassing the fact that the economic base conditions the political superstructure and not vice versa.
(...)
On this basis they seek to drag the working class and its movement into a position of supporting bourgeois democracy: either by calling for “anti-fascist fronts”, or in an alliance of the forces of the “constitutional arc” against the “fascist danger”, their common denominator is for the labour movement to line up in support of the bourgeois institutions, the bourgeois constitution etc. This led, for example, in France the PCF to call for a vote in favour fro the conservative liberal Chirac so that Le Pen would not win, or similar forces in Italy that supported various centre-left formation so that Berlusconi would not win, without of course curtailing the reactionary trends. How can the fascist views be dealt with if you defend the system that creates them? Fascism is capitalism, and as Brecht stressed in his era “'Any proclamation against fascism which refrains from dealing with the social relations from which this arose as a natural in necessity is lacking in sincerity. Whoever does not wish to abandon the private ownership of the means of production, not only will not be rid of fascism, but will need it.”

It is no accident that another prominent figure of the communist movement, Alvaro Cunhal (this year is the 100th anniversary of his birth), noted in 1997, when comparing the situation of the working class in a regime of bourgeois democracy with that of a fascist dictatorship: “ How many of these situations and the characteristics of the labour relations and exploitation which were imposed by the power of the monopolies and land-owners in the era of the dictatorship are being repeated today with the replacement of the power of the monopolies and land-owners by the counterrevolutionary political line of the successive governments?”Is it not obvious that the basic cause is found in the socio-economic system? Is this not one of history’s great lessons?”

The problem is even greater when it is transferred from the electoral process to the movement. The acceptance of bourgeois legality leads in the end to the subjugation to – more and more restricted-the boundaries which are posed every time by the bourgeois state, to compromise with the “freedom” of capital to exploit the labour force.

At the level of the strategy of the CPs, the detachment of the front of struggle for democratic rights from the anti-monopoly-anti-capitalist of capitalism, objectively leads to the rationale of an intermediate stage on the terrain of capitalism, in the rationale of the struggle for reforms on the terrain of the domination of the monopolies, even if they declare their faith in the struggle for socialism.
We have known the strategy of eurocommunism as a full development of this view. A strategy which detached politics from the economy and considered that the road to socialism passes through the expansion of bourgeois democracy. The outcome is well-known and the examples quite a few (e.g. The stance of eurocommunism in relation to the April revolution in Portugal, in Greece the line of support to the ND government in the name of the “National Anti-dictatorship, National Unity” after the fall of the military dictatorship etc). At the same time opportunism, while supporting the political system of the dictatorship of the monopolies, with as its tool the Party of the European Left acts to undermine and target the communist parties. As the President of SYRIZA characteristically mentioned in an interview that a party of the working class, a Bolshevik party, a party of the new type, “would not be a tool, but an impediment for the construction of an open broad democratic society.”
In reality, the working class and the popular strata can only respond to capital’s offensive through questioning bourgeois legality and bourgeois democracy, in an anti-capitalist antimonopoly direction. The law is what is right for the workers: this slogan expresses the backbone of a new legitimacy born out of the struggles.
There are many examples (e.g. from the anti-dictatorship struggle in Greece and other countries).4
And so the answer of the KKE to the question formulated by the ICS “which strategy and actions in response of the attacks on the democratic rights and freedoms in the world capitalist crisis.” is clear in the conclusions:
We can draw valuable conclusions about what the labour movement needs, what organization, direction and preparation. The issue of the stance towards bourgeois legality acquires more general importance in the conditions of a crisis.
We assess in the political resolution of our 19th Congress that: The developments indicate that the intensification of state violence and repression, the restriction of political and trade union liberties will be expressed in a reactionary revision of the constitution that will incorporate the relevant laws and the restrictions of the EU. The bourgeois class and its parties are even not satisfied with the bourgeois democracy they established themselves. Their choice to break the labour movement, to impede any possible radicalization of the working class and the poor popular strata is inextricably linked with the restriction of the activity of the KKE, with the declaration of anticommunism as the official state ideology, with the utilization of the well known theory of the “two extremes”.
In case of a more direct and active involvement in an imperialist war the first repressive measures that will be taken will be related to the labour-people’s movement and the KKE. Therefore, our party must achieve a complete readiness targeting mainly the development of more substantial and strong bonds with the largest possible section of the working class, it must overcome weaknesses either in terms of orientation or in terms of taking practical measures, in order to reinforce the People’s Alliance, in order for the anti-monopoly anticapitalist direction of struggle that protects the people from all kinds of attacks to become a conviction of the people”.
It’s a fact that today
the revolutionary struggle, the people’s movements will have to face a much more organized repressive machine, more technologically developed means of information and mass destruction. They will have to deal with the mechanisms of the capitalist state’s violence which are integrated into inter-state structures, like NATO, the Euro-army, the Schengen Agreement etc. Despite all this the human being does not cease to be the decisive factor in using and dealing with technology. On this basis, the workers’ and people’s activity has the potential to neutralize these means or to use them in favour of the revolutionary movement.
The anti-monopoly anti-capitalist line of struggle gives a comprehensive answer to the complex problems which are placed before us by the developments, as well as the deepening of the capitalist crisis, the intensification of the inter-imperialist competition, the sharpening of the aggressiveness of capital.

The P
eople’s Alliance of the working class, the semi-proletarians, the self-employed and the poor farmers, youth and women from the working class and popular strata in the struggle against the monopolies and capitalist ownership, against the assimilation of our country in imperialist unions, provides the answer as to how the popular forces will be prepared for the decisive confrontations and class conflicts.

The notions democracy, people’s sovereignty, imperialism and imperialist war have a deeper, class content for the people’s alliance. They are directly related to the abolition of class exploitation, to the socialization of the concentrated means of production combined with the organization of the small farmers in cooperatives and the socialisation of land.

The People’s Alliance begins with the resistance, solidarity and survival of the people as its starting point. The struggle for all the working class and popular rights. It adopts the socialization of the monopolies, all the concentrated means of production, central planning, workers’-social control. It adopts the disengagement of Greece from the EU and NATO, from every form of relations with imperialist unions. It has as its goal the abolition of the foreign bases, the presence, under the various pretexts, of foreign military and police forces in Greece. It struggles against the state repression, the employers’ violence, it defends the trade union and political freedoms.

The P
eople’s Alliance provides the answer to the issue of how the struggle should be organized today in order to repel the barbaric anti-worker anti-people measures, with a concentration of forces and a struggle of counterattack, so that there can be some gains, on the road of struggle for the overthrow of the power of the monopolies.

It answers regarding the timeliness and necessity of socialism which with working class power, the abolition of the exploitation of man by man, is the basis for the qualitative enhancement of the people’s rights, the satisfaction of the contemporary social needs, the participation of the people in the building of the new society, democracy for the many.
The revolutionary working class power, that is the dictatorship of the proletariat, is by far better than the “best” bourgeois parliamentary democracy; it will replace all obsolete bourgeois institutions with new ones created by the people; it expresses a higher form of democracy whose chief characteristic is the active participation of the working class and generally of the people. The revolutionary constitution and the new revolutionary legislation that will be formed, will be in accordance with the new social relations.
The stable orientation to the strengthening of the labour movement, the formation of the peopl
e’s alliance, the consistency in the perspective of workers’ people’s power is the task of  the communists. It requires steady ideological and organizational work in order to neutralize  the fear, the caution towards the perspective of the revolutionary overthrow, as well as against  the mechanisms for buying off and assimilating the working class.
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Comparing the KKE with the FRSO, the DKP and the CPGB(ML)
In comparison I will give here below the most important points of the contribution to this ICS meeting of the Freeom Road Socialist Organisation (FRSO) (United States), the German Communist Party (DKP) (Germany) and the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist) -CPGB(ML)

The Freedom Road Socialist Organisation
The issue of defending democratic rights and the fight against political repression is one of the most critical fronts of struggle for communists in the United States. It is a question that has an  immediate, tactical significance as well a long term, strategic importance. (...)
Our basic approach to repression is to do everything in our power to build a broad as possible front for democratic rights while resisting particular attacks. This includes working with organizations that have a bourgeois democratic character, mass organizations such as the trade unions, and when possible making use of contradictions among the enemy.
To give a concrete example, within a day of the 2010 FBI raids against anti-war and international solidarity activists, a broad call for protests was issued and actions took place at Federal Buildings across the United States.
The choice was made to stress the attack on the democratic rights of anti-war forces to organize, as opposed to the anti-communist aspect of the raids. This was done because it was an accurate way to frame this issue and it allowed for building a broadest possible front against the repression. (...)
Likewise, the approach of uniting all who can be united was and is vital in building a broad defense. As it is, thousands of people in the anti-war, Palestine and Latin America solidarity, and other progressive movements have spoken out against this repression. So have trade unions representing almost a million workers, civil rights organizations and some members of Congress. A large infrastructure has been built around the defense work.

As we see it, anyone who holds that people have the right to organize, to speak out and to form political associations has a place in this movement to defend everyone’s democratic rights. (...)
It’s clear that that the FBI, the misnamed U.S. ‘Justice Department’ and the forces that pull their strings have an agenda. (...)repression to the left.
(...)criminalize international solidarity. From Palestine to Colombia, people want to be free of oppression. It is a great thing that there are people in the United States who support these struggles. The U.S. government is treating solidarity as if it were a crime, while supporting death squad governments like Colombia. The U.S. military kills on a daily basis in Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia and many other countries. Yet our rulers have the nerve to turn around and say those who fight for freedom and independence are ‘terrorists.’ (...)
Another element is the anti-communist character of this attack, which takes aim at Freedom Road Socialist Organization. FBI documents, including a set of interrogation questions were discovered in a raided home and read like something right out of the ruling classes 1950’s anti-communist campaign; “Who do you know? What do you talk about? Where do you hold meetings? Tell us about steps taken to overthrow the government.” It is like the calendar has been turned back 60 years.

So the question naturally comes up: Where is this repression is heading? The short answer is we do not know. We hope for the best, while preparing for the worst.
(...)
Our basic aim here is to create movement in defense of the people’s democratic rights while making things more difficult for the enemy.
(...)
The rulers of the U.S are like a frightened giant, and are responding with repression. They pass law after law designed to curtail democratic rights and they are putting more people in jail. We are determined to do everything we can to combat these reactionary moves.

As we see it, there is a relationship between the fight for democratic rights and the struggle for socialism, in that more democratic space, even in what is in fact a dictatorship of the rich, creates better conditions to organize for revolution and socialism.
6
In fact their final conclusion leads to what the KKE is criticising in “the detachment of the front of struggle for democratic rights from the anti-monopoly-anti-capitalist of capitalism, objectively leads to the rationale of an intermediate stage on the terrain of capitalism

The German Communist Party (DKP)
The German CP conducted its 20th National Congress last March with an additional day last Saturday. (...)
At least in developed capitalist states, the struggle for democratic rights is inseparable from the antifascist struggle. I(...)
The bourgeois state is not neutral. Its role and the role of the government bodies is not at all non-partisan, and believing so would be harmful.

Germany is being shaken by the scandal of fascist murderers (....)
This continuity does not result from some individuals’ misled behaviour. It results from the bourgeois state’s role and its practice of political ruling in favour of the capital, and from the fact that fascist ideology is a means of stabilisation of these power relations. This is true also in times of a bourgeois democracy (like now) when fascists are used to execute pressure against progressive forces and as a last resort in case the capital considers its rule at risk. (...)
Hence it is correct to demand state action against fascist activity, and at the same time it is necessary to struggle to keep the state from abusing its action against the Right for suppression against the Left. Referring to the defence of democratic rights, it is positive that there are many positions shared by communist, left, and progressive forces with bourgeois democrats.
(...)
We are in need of an anti-fascist strategy which takes into account everything used by the Nazis to impose their ideology: the struggle for the ban of their largest and most influential party – the so-called National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD), the struggle against racism, and the struggle against the neo-Nazis’ social demagogy.
(...)
Who talks about fascism, must not remain silent on capitalism! Among the left, this must be an imperative. Although it is correct not to have any illusions about the character of bourgeois democracy, we must not despise it. It is the form of bourgeois rule which leaves most leeway for leftist politics, hence we have to defend it against any cutbacks of democratic rights and against a more authoritarian army.
(...)
Through the theory of extremisms, i.e. an equation of left and right, the state’s alleged “neutrality” is used to hit the Left
. (....)
Since nowadays the blows against the Left are directed against forces who combat the militarization of the German society, today the defence of democratic rights also is struggle against militarism. Still, there are few who confront this militarization, and German imperialism looks for its place and presence in the world facing insufficient resistance. We must intensify the resistance!

In this regard one problem is the lack of proletarian internationalism in Germany. We can see it in case of a transnational company - the defence of the local branch instead of defending the interests of all branches of the corporation, be they in Spain, Belgium, or elsewhere. The results are slogans like “we pay for the Portuguese, the Greek, the Italians etc”.
In this sense, the protestors in Frankfurt are practicing two things by their action: the defence of democratic rights and the advancement of the badly needed international solidarity – go ahead forces of the Left are protesting in the very heart of the German and European banking
system. This is what we need more of. 7
In fact, the vague, formal and general formulation of the DKP could lead to what the KKE is criticising: “Bourgeois and opportunist political forces foster a non-class theory of democracy detaching the economic base from the superstructure. They present the tendency to reaction of the bourgeois parliamentary democracy – the monopolies’ dictatorship with democratic guise -as a “deviation”, preaching a more “ethical”, “democratic” and “humane” capitalism. (...)
Indeed some of these forces claim that the problem of the capitalist crisis is a problem of democracy, reversing reality and adhering to the most extreme idealistic viewpoints, bypassing the fact that the economic base conditions the political superstructure and not vice versa. (...)
On this basis they seek to drag the working class and its movement into a position of supporting bourgeois democracy: either by calling for “anti-fascist fronts”, or in an alliance of the forces of the “constitutional arc” against the “fascist danger”, their common denominator is for the labour movement to line up in support of the bourgeois institutions, the bourgeois constitution etc.”

The Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist)
(W)e are in the midst of the deepest crisis of capitalism since the late 1920s. Like all capitalist crises, this is a crisis of overproduction, notwithstanding the fact that it had made itself most forcefully felt in the financial sphere. (...)
There is a debate going on between the Keynesian and the monetarist factions of monopoly capitalism, with the former calling for growth and the latter for continuing austerity. But the truth is that none of these factions has any solutions to the problem inherent in capitalism, namely, the crises of overproduction, which is a consequence of the contradiction between social productive forces and private appropriation. (...)

Faced with this dilemma, each imperialist country is doing what it has always done when faced with similar situations in the past – it is intensifying its attacks on the working class at home and on the oppressed peoples abroad, while trying to outmanoeuvre its rivals and competitors. This is leading to the intensification of the contradiction between labour and capital in the imperialist countries, between a tiny group of imperialist exploiting nations and the vast masses of the oppressed countries on a world scale, and between the various competing imperialist powers.

Confining myself to the situation in Britain, dear comrades, there is a rising tide of anger among layers of the working class. However, the resistance of the working class to attacks on it has so far been muted because of the suffocating grip of social democracy on the working class through the trade-union leadership.

It is just the same in the anti-war movement, which is controlled, through their agents, by the same people who are attacking working people at home and waging war on oppressed peoples abroad. (...) the Labour party – the same party that waged war against Yugoslavia, Iraq and Afghanistan while in power and continues to support imperialist wars in opposition – controls the anti-war movement. (...)
Our Party continues to insist that the working class, if it is to come within striking distance of its real enemies, must get rid of all illusions in the Labour Party.
Further, our Party is of the view that it is equally important to fight against the opportunists of the revisionist and Trotskyist variety who, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, continue to foster illusions in this party of imperialism. We continue to insist, with Lenin: "That the fight against imperialism is a sham and a fraud unless it is inseparably bound up with the fight against opportunism" (Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism).
At a time when the opportunist leadership of the anti-war movement in Britain (...) is doing its best to support, albeit slyly and surreptitiously, imperialist predatory wars against the oppressed people,
our Party takes to the anti-war movement the message of solidarity with the victims of aggression by our own bourgeoisie, for we are convinced that: "the revolutionary movement in the advanced countries would actually be a sheer fraud if, in their struggle against capital, the workers of Europe and America were not closely and completely united with hundreds upon hundreds of millions of 'colonial' slaves who are oppressed by capital" (V I Lenin, Second Congress of the Communist International, 1920). (...)
Capitalism, far from being eternal, is decadent, parasitic and moribund; it is the chief obstacle to the forward progress of humanity and is the cause of the misery of the overwhelming majority.

Our party is doing its best to bring ideological and theoretical clarity into the working-class movement. We are doing our best to build a proper Communist Party capable of connecting itself with the broad masses of the working class and leading it in its struggle for socialism through the overthrow of capitalism.

The working-class movement in Europe has gone through a period of several decades during which there was almost no resistance to capitalism. This state of affairs came about through a combination of the prosperity created by the special conditions that followed the second world war and the degeneration and demoralisation brought to our movement by Khrushchevite revisionism. As a result, the working-class movement appeared to have reached a permanent dead end. (...)
Looking at the unfolding crisis of imperialism, we would not be surprised if, in the not-toodistant future, we are witness to days in which four decades are embodied.

The defeat of the imperialist predatory wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the rising tide of militancy among the European working class are proof enough of this assertion.
Comrades, ours is a very small party and we do not claim to be the movers and shakers of the working-class movement in Britain. We are doing our very best to develop our party and connect it with the working class. We are having a fair amount of success; however, we have a long way to go. All the same, it is our assertion that we are the only party in Britain calling itself communist, which, while firmly adhering to the tenets of Marxism-Leninism and refusing to be diverted by the latest political fashion and allurements of easy success through adopting opportunist stances, is growing and attracting young and serious workers. In the not too distant future, we hope to reach the position that was occupied in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s by the old Communist Party of Great Britain.
I conclude my remarks by saying that communist parties all over the world have a duty to cooperate with each other.
There is an urgent need to build an inclusive international communist movement that does not resort to bans and exclusions to stifle debate, nor strive to perpetuate the schisms and sectarianism brought into the movement by Khrushchevite revisionism.8
The CPGB(ML) is capitulating for the principle that the best solidarity with the anti-imperialist struggle elsewhere in the world is: developing a OWN strategy for mobilisation the “OWN” working class (of which one is claiming to be the vanguard-part of) for their organisation in order to do the revolution (and overthrow of capitalism) in the OWN region of the world.
The best “
fight against opportunism and revisionism” is to formulate a CONCRETE ELABORATED revolutionary strategy which will unmask all opportunist and revisionist illusions instead of the formal and general one as which is now the program of the CPB(ML) (to download on her website)
The formulation of “
the resistance of the working class to attacks on it has so far been muted because of the suffocating grip of social democracy on the working class through the trade-union leadership.” is in fact supposing a HOMOGENIC consciousness in the working class. And when they are considering themselves being  a PART of that same working class, then they are in fact, confessing that their minds are also still in the “grip of the social-democracy” which make them indeed unable to be “the movers and shakers of the working-class movement in Britain”. Revolutionary confidence in the possibilities of the masses starts with the knowledge that there are different levels of consciousness within the masses and it is the task of the themselves as vanguard of the working class considering part of the working class, to find and taking contact with the most advanced elements and to “use” those as levers to lift the consciousness of the intermediary layers, where perhaps still reigns the “suffocating grip of social democracy” (better is to say: where still reign the illusions of possibility of REFORMING capitalism)
I think that out of the contribution of the CPBML speaks a lack of confidence in the possibilities of the masses. This confidence in the possibilities of the masses is well-existing in the KKE as she says:
The revolutionary struggle, the people’s movements will have to face a much more organized repressive machine, more technologically developed means of information and mass destruction. They will have to deal with the mechanisms of the capitalist state’s violence which are integrated into inter-state structures, like NATO, the Euro-army, the Schengen Agreement etc.(...)
(T)he workers’ and people’s activity has the potential to neutralize these means or to use them in favour of the revolutionary movement. (....)

The notions democracy, people’s sovereignty, imperialism and imperialist war have a deeper, class content for the people’s alliance. They are directly related to the abolition of class exploitation, to the socialization of the concentrated means of production combined with the organization of the small farmers in cooperatives and the socialisation of land.

The People’s Alliance begins with the resistance, solidarity and survival of the people as its starting point. The struggle for all the working class and popular rights. It adopts the socialization of the monopolies, all the concentrated means of production, central planning, workers’-social control. (...)
The People’s Alliance provides the answer to the issue of how the struggle should be organized today in order to repel the barbaric anti-worker anti-people measures, with a concentration of forces and a struggle of counterattack, so that there can be some gains, on the road of struggle for the overthrow of the power of the monopolies.
It answers regarding the timeliness and necessity of socialism which with working class power, the abolition of the exploitation of man by man, is the basis for the qualitative enhancement of the people’s rights, the satisfaction of the contemporary social needs, the participation of the people in the building of the new society, democracy for the many. (...)
The stable orientation to the strengthening of the labour movement, the formation of the people’s alliance, the consistency in the perspective of workers’ people’s power is the task of  the communists. It requires steady ideological and organizational work in order to neutralize  the fear, the caution towards the perspective of the revolutionary overthrow, as well as against  the mechanisms for buying off and assimilating the working class.
   
122nd International Communist Seminar, Brussels, May 31 – June 2, 2013 ,www.icseminar.org – info@icseminar.org ,“The attacks on the democratic rights and freedoms in the world capitalist crisis. Strategies and actions in response.”  Contribution of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE)
   
222nd International Communist Seminar, Brussels, May 31 – June 2, 2013 ,www.icseminar.org – info@icseminar.org ,“The attacks on the democratic rights and freedoms in the world capitalist crisis. Strategies and actions in response.”  Contribution of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE)
   
322nd International Communist Seminar, Brussels, May 31 – June 2, 2013 ,www.icseminar.org – info@icseminar.org ,“The attacks on the democratic rights and freedoms in the world capitalist crisis. Strategies and actions in response.”  Contribution of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE)
   
422nd International Communist Seminar, Brussels, May 31 – June 2, 2013 ,www.icseminar.org – info@icseminar.org ,“The attacks on the democratic rights and freedoms in the world capitalist crisis. Strategies and actions in response.”  Contribution of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE)
   
522nd International Communist Seminar, Brussels, May 31 – June 2, 2013 ,www.icseminar.org – info@icseminar.org ,“The attacks on the democratic rights and freedoms in the world capitalist crisis. Strategies and actions in response.”  Contribution of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE)
   
622nd International Communist Seminar, Brussels, May 31 – June 2, 2013 ,www.icseminar.org – info@icseminar.org , “The attacks on the democratic rights and freedoms in the world capitalist crisis.
    Strategies and actions in response.” Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) :”Defending democratic rights and resisting repression in the U.S.” By Mick Kelly.
   
722nd International Communist Seminar , Brussels, May 31 – June 2, 2013 , www.icseminar.org – info@icseminar.org , “The attacks on the democratic rights and freedoms in the world capitalist crisis. Strategies and actions in response. “. German Communist Party (DKP) Günter Pohl, International Secretary
   
822nd International Communist Seminar , Brussels, May 31 – June 2, 2013,  www.icseminar.org – info@icseminar.org , “The attacks on the democratic rights and freedoms in the world capitalist crisis. Strategies and actions in response. ..”Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist).by Harpal Brar