The counterrevolutionary overthrows of the last 30 years do not change the character of our era. The current period of the major retreat of the international labour movement, is in historical terms a temporary one. We live in the era of the necessity for the transition from capitalism to socialism, as the material pre-conditions are mature for the socialist organization of production and society. This flows from the maturation of the social character of labour and the sharpening of its contradiction with capitalist ownership. This contradiction has brought the capitalist mode of production in full contradiction with contemporary social needs. The maturation of the material pre-conditions is not determined by the correlation of forces.

The historical setback in the development of the class struggle is accompanied by the mass influx of cheap labour force into the international capitalist market (from Asia, Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe etc.), by the devaluation of labour power in the most advanced capitalist countries (OECD countries), as well as by the emergence of the generalized absolute destitution of the working class in these countries, by the intensification of capital's offensive at an international level.

The tendency for important changes in the correlation of forces among the capitalist states became more apparent with the deep crisis of capital over-accumulation in 2008-2009 which in several capitalist economies has in reality not been overcome. This process occurs under the impact of the law of uneven capitalist development. This tendency concerns the higher levels of the imperialist pyramid as well.

The USA remains the first economic power, but with a significant reduction of its share in the Gross World Product. Until 2008, the Eurozone as a whole maintained the second position in the international capitalist market, a position which it lost after the crisis. China has already emerged as the second economic power, the BRICS alliance (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) has been strengthened in the international capitalist unions, such as the IMF and the G20. The change in the correlation of forces among the capitalist states brings about changes in their alliances, as the inter-imperialist contradictions over the control and re-division of the territories and markets, zones of economic influence are sharpening, chiefly of the energy and natural resources, the transport routes of the commodities.

The inter-imperialist contradictions, which in the past led to dozens of local, regional wars and to two World Wars, continue to lead to tough economic, political and military confrontations, irrespective of the composition or recomposition, the changes in the structure and the framework of goals of the international imperialist unions, their so-called new "architecture". In any case, "war is the continuation of politics by other means", especially in the conditions of a deep crisis of capital's over-accumulation and important changes in the correlation of forces of the international imperialist system, in which the re-division of the markets rarely occurs without bloodshed.

The periodical outbreak of the crises of over-accumulation tests the cohesion of the Eurozone, as a monetary union of the economies of member-states with deep unevenness in the development and structure of industrial production, in productivity as well as their position in the EU and international market.

The tendency for the strengthening of the interdependence of the economies of the states in the international imperialist system does not lead to a declineof the role of the bourgeois state, as many theoretical variations of "globalization" claim.

In any case, the future of the EU and the Eurozone is not only determined by the imperialist plans, because the contradictions have their own dynamics. Whatever choice is made by the bourgeois management, it will come into conflict with the working class and people's interests in all the member-states of the Eurozone.

The crisis highlighted even more intensely the historical limits of the capitalist system. The contradictions are sharpening, as well as the difficulties in the bourgeois political management of the crisis and the difficulty in passing into a new cycle of expanded reproduction of social capital in general.

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.

The accession of Greece to the EEC at the beginning of the 1980's accelerated its adaptation to the western-European market, a process that continued with its accession to the EU in 1991 and to the Eurozone in 2001. The Greek capitalist state was more organically integrated into the international imperialist system, through its participation in the restructuring of the EU and NATO and other imperialist inter-state alliances.

The Greek bourgeois class initially benefited from the counterrevolutionary overthrow in the neighbouring Balkan countries and from joining the EU; it achieved significant capital accumulation and capital exports in the form of direct investments which contributed to the strengthening of Greek businesses and monopoly groups.

The capital exports also expanded to Turkey, Egypt, the Ukraine, China as well as to Britain, to the USA and other countries. It actively participated in all the imperialist interventions and wars, such as those against Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya etc.

In the decade which preceded the outbreak of the ongoing crisis, the Greek economy maintained a significantly higher annual rate of GDP growth than the corresponding level of the EU and the Eurozone, without substantially changing its position within it. However, it enhanced its position in the Balkans.

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 dangers in the wider region are increasing, from the Balkans to the Middle East, for a generalized imperialist war and the involvement of Greece in it.

The struggle for the defence of the borders, the sovereign rights of Greece, from the standpoint of the working class and the popular strata is integral to the struggle for the overthrow of the power of capital. It does not have any relation with the defence of the plans of one or the other imperialist pole and the profitability of one or the other monopoly group.

The Greek people will be liberated from the bonds of capitalist exploitation and the imperialist unions when the working class together with its allies carries out the socialist revolution and moves forwards to construct socialism-communism.

The KKE's strategic goal is the conquest of revolutionary working-class power, the dictatorship of the proletariat, for the socialist construction as the immature phase of the communist society.

The revolutionary change in Greece will be socialist.

The motor forces of the socialist revolution will be the working class as the leading force, the semi-proletarians, the oppressed popular strata of the urban self-employed, the poor farmers, who are negatively affected by the monopolies, and for this reason have an objective interest in their abolition, the abolition of capitalist ownership, in the overthrow of its power, in the new relations of production

Over the last 20 years, the already mature material pre-conditions for socialism in Greece have developed even further. The capitalist relations have expanded and strengthened, in agricultural production, education, health, culture-sports and the mass media. There was greater concentration of wage labour and capital in manufacturing, retail trade, construction, in tourism. Enterprises belonging to private capital have developed with the abolition of the state monopoly in telecommunications and in the monopolised sections of energy and transport.

Wage labour increased significantly as a percentage of employment as a whole, while the number of self-employed remained stable, as the reduction of a section of the self-employed was accompanied by their increase in the service sector.

The very large shrinkage in industrial production and construction sector, due to the prolonged crisis, led to the rapid increase of unemployment and absolute destitution-extreme poverty and created the problem of homeless people. Youth and long-term unemployment have risen to explosive dimensions.

Of course the crisis has not manifested itself in a uniform way in all the sectors of industry. There are sectors and businesseswhich have maintained or increased their profits, or have a small reduction, restraint or even an increase of the production compared to the pre-crisis levels.

The distance between the contemporary needs of the people and the working class and their satisfaction increased sharply. The parasitism and decay of monopoly capitalism have manifested themselves in all the sectors of production, retail, in the circulation of money capital, in all the structures of the organization of capitalist society, in all the institutions of the system. They took on the form of financial over-speculation, fraud, embezzlement, corruption, disasters such as pollution in general and in the food production chain, in water, in the atmosphere, in the forests and coasts. The most parasitic profiteering has expanded, such as the drug trade, the organized prostitution of women and children etc. The connections between the centres which illegally bribe MPs and ministers and the organs of power became apparent as well as the connections between organized crime networks and the criminal prosecution authorities.

At the same time, the changes in the structure, the content and the extent of the sectors of the bourgeois state which serve strategic needs for the reproduction of capital create difficulties for the policy of social alliances of the ruling class as well as the sharpening of the basic contradiction between capital and wage labour.

The acceleration of the restructurings shrinks the stratum of the labour aristocracy and the state employees and obstructs the effort of the bourgeois policy to manipulate the labour movement and to assimilate large sections of wage labour, as it had done previously.

The contradiction between the social character of labour and the private capitalist appropriation of the largest part of its results, due to the capitalist ownership of the concentrated means of production, is being highlighted intensely in every aspect of economic and social life. The need for social ownership, Central Planning with working class power is emerging as an urgent necessity. Socialism is more necessary and timely than ever from the standpoint of the material conditions.

In Greece there exist the material conditions for socialist construction. This fact flows from the historical era of capitalism, from the level of Greek capitalism's development, from the sharpening of its basic contradiction and its contradictions as a whole. Socialist construction can safeguard the satisfaction of the people's needs which are constantly expanding.

Greece today has major unutilized productive potential which can be liberated only through the socialization of the means of production by the working class power, with the Central Scientific Planning of production. It possesses an experienced and numerous labour force and even with a high level of technological and scientific specialization. It possesses important domestic energy sources, considerable mineral resources, industrial, craft and agricultural production which can meet a large part of the people's needs: in food and energy, transport, the construction of public infrastructure works and people's housing. The agricultural production can support industry in its various sectors.