According to the Programme of the party: "Capitalism in Greece is in the imperialist stage of its development, in an intermediate position in the international imperialist system, with strong uneven dependencies on the USA and the EU.(...)

After the outbreak of the crisis, the position of Greek capitalist economy deteriorated in the framework of the Eurozone and the EU and the international imperialist pyramid in general, something which does not negate the fact that the accession of Greece to the EEC-EU served the most dynamic sections of domestic monopoly capital and contributed to the buttressing of its political power.

The participation of Greece in NATO, the economic-political and political-military dependencies on the EU and the USA limit the room of the Greek bourgeoisie to manoeuvre independently, as all the alliance relations of capital are governed by competition, unevenness and consequently the advantageous position of the strongest; they are formed as relations of uneven interdependence.

The inter-bourgeois contradictions up to this point do not negate the strategic choice to join NATO and the EU although the participation in the Eurozone is developing in a contradictory way while at the same time the trend for the strengthening of relations with other centres (Russia, China, USA) is being reinforced."

The evaluation of the economic strength of a state is a difficult matter, as an entire range of factors must be taken into account, both related to the domestic situation and also to the economic relations with other economies, and also how these change over time. Amongst these factors are the volume, value and general structure of domestic production, the level of capital accumulation and its development, raw material available in the country, the technological level and labour productivity, the structuring of capital and the working class, the relations between imports and exports of commodities and capital, the utilization of the country's geographic position.

A first, general evaluation can be provided by the GDP (which expresses the volume of production) and by the per capita GDP of the economy (which is related to productivity).

On the basis of the assessments of the IMF for 2016, Greece is in the 49th position globally in terms of GDP with 196 billion dollars, behind Portugal which has 205 billion dollars (47th position), Vietnam with 200 billion dollars (48th ) and in front of the Czech Republic that has 194 billion dollars (50th ) and Romania with 187 billion dollars (51st).

Turkey is in 18th position with 756 billion dollars and participates in the group of the 20 richest states in the world (G-20).Based on 2014 data, Greece was in 44th place globally.

With per capita GDP as the criterion, which is an indicator of the average level of income of the residents of a state, Greece is in 39th place with 18,000 dollars a year, behind Portugal with 19,100 dollars a year and in front of the Czech Republic (17,600 dollars a year) in 40th.Turkey is in 67th place with 9,200 dollars a year.

The accurate evaluation of the military strength of a country is equally complex, which is determined by a number of factors, which are referred to in Thesis 8 of the Theses of the CC for the 20th Congress.

According to the Bonn International Centre for Conversion (BICC), Greece is the 10th most militarized country in the world based on a comprehensive range of indicators (size of military spending relative to GDP, size military forces relative to the population, heavy weaponry etc.). Greece has 13 active soldiers per 1,000 residents, while the EU countries have an average of between 2 and 3 and Turkey has 6.6. Greece was both before the outbreak of the crisis and also today in the top 3 places amongst NATO countries in terms of military spending ( as a % of GDP).

The combined indicator of the GlobalFirepower website attempts to include some elements that quantify the total strength of military forces and classifies Turkey as being the 8th most powerful globally, with Israel in 16th place and Greece in 28th place. However, in terms of airplanes, heavy weaponry and naval forces, the correlation of forces between Turkey and Greece is around 1.5 to 1-2 to 1.

03.03.2017