The annual meeting of the Plenum of the “European Communist Initiative” which is a form of regional cooperation and coordination of Communist and Workers parties in Europe was held on Tuesday the 8^th of December in Brussels.

Giorgos Marinos, member of the PB of the CC of the KKE, made the introductory speech.

Below you can find the full text of his speech:

Dear comrades,

Yesterday at the European Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties we discussed the most important issues as regards international developments, the development of the workers’ and people’s struggles and the activity of the CPs in many countries. 

This meeting is valuable. It is a tool that provides all of us the best possible overview of the developments; it enables us to assess objectively the course of the class struggle, to coordinate our efforts in the ideological-political struggle against the bourgeois and opportunist forces and utilize all the possibilities for the strengthening of our parties and the regroupment of the communist movement in Europe.

Today at the meeting of the “INITIATIVE” we can continue our constructive work, we can analyse basic political questions that arose over this period, we can evaluate our work and elaborate the action plan for the following period.

We underscore the following issues:

First, the capitalist crisis continues in several states while at the same time the course of the economy in EU/Eurozone, the slowdown in China, the problems in BRICS e.g. Brazil cause concerns, while many analysts talk about the outbreak of a new crisis.

The working people are faced with an orchestrated full-scale attack of capital as well as with the anti-people policies of the governments that express its interests.

The consequences are very painful.

Capitalism is marked by high unemployment rates, the expansion of poverty, the abolition of labour-social security rights, the attack against collective labour agreements, the commercialization of health, welfare, education, the privatizations and the deregulation of branches and sectors of economy. The youth and the women are experiencing a particularly harsh attack.

The problems are sharpened both in the crisis phase, when the aggressiveness of capital is definitely on the increase, as well as during the growth of capitalist economy as capitalist development is driven by profit.

Second, NATO the EU have launched imperialist wars and interventions with the participation of dozens of other capitalist states, for instance the wars in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Mali, Central African Republic, Ukraine.

This dangerous situation is caused by the sharpening of the imperialist competition over the control of markets and natural resources, the increase of monopolies’ profits and the strengthening of their position.

In this framework the USA, EU member-states, Russia, China as well as several other states with a lower or higher position in the imperialist system are competing with each other.

On this basis, the war flashpoints are multiplying as well as the potential battlefields in many regions around the world.

There are attempts to conceal the real causes of the imperialist wars and interventions using pretexts as the “combating terrorism”, “energy security” etc.

The propaganda apparatus of the capitalist states is using all means to disorient and manipulate the working class, the peoples so as to prevent them from realizing their own interests and to lead them onto the dangerous path of taking sides with the one or the other strong imperialist power or union.

The creation of the provocateur and criminal apparatuses, such as Al Qaeda and ISIS, is also part of the imperialist aggressiveness. These apparatuses initially gain economic power and mass support and then they become more autonomous but they always constitute a part of the aggressive imperialist plans against the peoples. 

The criminal attacks during this period in Turkey, Lebanon, France which led to dozens of casualties are being utilized for the escalation of imperialist interventions, for the intensification of repression, the fostering of racism and xenophobia.

Third, anticommunism is escalating, historical truth is being distorted while it is sought to diminish the role of socialism in social progress, the role of the communist movements in the struggle for the rights of the peoples. Reactionary, fascist forces are rearing their heads, they foster intimidation, they murder, they try to contaminate the peoples with their racist-fascist poison.

In these conditions it is obvious that the activity of the CPs and the INITIATIVE, the intervention of the 29 CPs that participate in this cooperation is of great importance.

In 2015 the “INITIATIVE” carried out interventions on important issues such as:

 · The condemnation of the criminal attacks in France in January 2015
· International Women's Day
· The right to work and the protection of the unemployed
· Workers' Mayday
· The dangerous developments in the Ukraine, the rise of anticommunism and the solidarity with the communists in the Ukraine.
· The 70th anniversary of the antifascist victory of the people's
· World environment day
· The condemnation of the new terrorist attack in France on the 13th of November
· The anti-people character of TTIP
· To highlight the problems of school and university students and young workers.
· To support the electoral struggles waged by the KKE, the Communist Party (Turkey), the Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain.

Our parties organized a plethora of meetings, events, mobilizations in their countries and we must examine in the next period how we can reinforce the exchange of information amongst our parties and our participation in events organized by other parties of the "Initiative", the organization of joint events, an issue that we must study more deeply.

Dear comrades,

The conditions that have been formed for the working class, the popular strata, the youth pose very serious political tasks for the Communist Parties. They have to fulfill these tasks in a complex situation, in line with the demands of the class struggle, in order to strengthen the struggle against the EU, the inter-state imperialist alliance, for the overthrow of capitalist barbarity, for socialism.
We are aware of the weaknesses and the deficiencies in our struggle, the problems related to the coordination of our activity and we are all obliged to make great efforts to overcome them.

The strengthening of the CPs of the "Initiative" in each country, the reinforcement of the ideological-political and mass struggle, the building of our parties particularly in the factories, in the workplaces, persistence in carrying out work in the working class and youth and the intensification of the efforts to change the correlation of forces in the trade union movement are important elements that we must focus on in the next period.

Objectively, the ideological-political confrontation over the course of the developments is intensifying and we will provide some examples.

First, bourgeois and opportunist forces, including the Party of the European Left, refer (generally) to the necessity of economic development as a means of resolving the sharpening problems of the people and dealing with the scourge of unemployment, fostering false hopes amongst the peoples.

The “Initiative” has a very serious task to fulfill, exposing the fact that development based on capitalist ownership of the means of production, the profit criterion and the exploitation of the working class is development for the few, for the capitalists.

Development that can provide solutions to the problem of unemployment, safeguard, for example, free enhanced social services, satisfy the people’s needs requires deep radical changes connected to the overthrow of capitalist exploitation, through the conquest of workers’ power and the socialization of the means of production, with the construction of socialism.

Second, the bourgeois forces adapt, reinforce their intervention to manipulate the workers. Social-democracy changes masks so that it can be useful to the system at every given moment.

The example of SYRIZA in Greece is characteristic. It fostered false expectations, trapped significant sections of the working class, the popular strata, It undertook governmental responsibility supported by sections of capital and strong imperialist powers (USA, France) and decisively manages capitalism.

In this period, it is implementing the 3^rd Memorandum that it decided together with the EU, ECB, and IM, imposing very harsh anti-people measures, resorting to authoritarianism and repression against the workers who go on strike, who struggle. It also entangles the country more deeply into the inter-imperialist competition and the interventions of NATO, the USA, the EU in the region.

Podemos in Spain, for example, as well as social-democratic formations in other countries follow the same line for managing capitalism.

The problem is very serious and the stance of the CPs is of decisive importance, because only the CPs that have clarified their position against every kind of manager of the system have the strength to decisively deal with the illusions fostered by social-democracy. Social-democracy is also a basic pillar of capitalism and alternates with the liberal parties in order to perpetuate the system.

Experience has demonstrated that the so-called “leftwing”, “progressive” governments and those that had the support or participation of CPs, implemented an anti-people political line, harsh measures against the working class, in the direction of serving the profitability and competitiveness of capital.

These governments led the labour movement to retreat, to assimilation into the aims of the bourgeoisie. Over time, the anti-people political line of these governments provoked mass popular protests and conservative-rightwing parties returned to power.

The examples in France, Italy, Cyprus, Denmark and recently in Argentina are characteristic.

Dear comrades,

We should utilize the experience that we have acquired to plan the following interventions in the following period:

1. To systematically continue the effort of the parties of the “Initiative” to develop the workers’-people’s struggle in each country and at the same time reinforce the solidarity of our parties with the struggle of the working class and peoples in every country against capital, against the governments that express its interests, against the imperialist unions, such as the EU and NATO.
2. We must pay particular attention to facing and fighting against anti-communism and the slanders against socialism, highlighting the contribution of the communist movement and socialist construction (In the Soviet Union and the other socialist countries) to social progress. We must demand, with many forms of activity, the prevention and annulment of every kind of ban on the activity of the Communist and Workers’ parties, for example in Ukraine, the Baltic States, Eastern and Central Europe.
3. We must intensify the struggle against the imperialist wars and interventions in Syria, Iraq, Ukraine, focusing on exposing the causes of imperialist wars, demanding the disentanglement of our countries from the imperialist plans, strengthening the front against NATO and the EU, fighting for withdrawal of the military bases and infrastructure. We should set a day for joint action, when we could hold events and actions against US-NATO bases in each country.
4. We should approve, if there is agreement, the text of the joint approach of the parties of the “Initiative” on the refugee-immigration question.
5. Inside the first 6 months of 2016, we should organize meetings with as their theme Lenin’s article “On slogan for a United States of Europe” and we should prepare to promote Lenin’s important work “Imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism”, which will be particularly relevant in this period.
6. We must play a leading role in the events on the 8^th of March, the day celebrating the women’s struggles, on Workers’ May Day, on the 9^th of May, the day of the anti-fascist victory of the peoples and issue joint statements.
7. We must strengthen our solidarity with the people of Palestine and examine sending a delegation of the “Initiative” to the Palestinian Territories.
8.  We must better study the issue of climate change and make an intervention regarding the protection of the environment.

We assess, on the basis of our experience, that we can take further steps in the next period. We thank you. Today we can conduct a substantial discussion and finalize an action plan for the next period.”

09.12.2015