Introduction

The foundation of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) in 1918, which was hastened by the Great October Socialist Revolution, was the mature product of the growth of the labour movement in Greece and of its convergence with the theory of scientific socialism.

The vanguard KKE, the class-conscious and organised segment of the working class, has as its ultimate objective the overthrow of capitalism and the building of socialism and communism.

It is guided by the world theory of Marxism-Leninism. It strives to assimilate this theory and to develop it creatively, generalising the experience of the labour and popular movement.

Decades of experience by the international communist movement and KKE confirm that the working class cannot accomplish its historic mission unless it has its own strong, well organised and theoretically equipped party, a new type of party.

KKE adheres to the principle of proletarian internationalism, of international solidarity and co-operation with the working people all over the world. It fulfils its internationalist obligations consistently, participates in the struggle for the rebuilding, unity and strengthening of the international communist and labour movement.

From the time of its foundation, KKE steadfastly defended the USSR, the socialist system in Europe and the other socialist countries. It participated in the Communist International and in subsequent efforts by the international communist movement to create a common strategy against imperialism. It expressed its solidarity with the struggles of the world’s working class, with the peoples fighting for national liberation, democracy and socialism. KKE in turn, at critical and difficult periods in its struggle, also received international solidarity and support from the international communist and labour movement.

KKE, a profoundly patriotic party, is the genuine and worthy inheritor of the national, democratic and revolutionary traditions of the Greek people. It fights against every manifestation of fascism, nationalism, chauvinism and racism. It defends the rights of minorities and migrants.

Throughout its history, KKE has linked the struggle for socialism with the struggle for national independence and democracy, for a Greece independent of imperialist economic, political and military organisations. It refuted the theory of Greece as a “poor relative”. It proved that the Greek people can rely first of all on its own material and intellectual forces. Communists were in the front ranks during the heroic years of EAM and the National Resistance and in the fight of the Democratic Army.

KKE, in its 78 years of heroic history, fought against the concept of class collaboration between the exploiters and the exploited. Under difficult circumstances, it was able to retain its revolutionary nature. Using open self-criticism, it fought against and dealt with the consequences of the mistakes and deviations that have occurred during its long and eventful history.

KKE struggles against imperialist wars, defends peaceful co-existence between peoples. The threat of war will be present as long as imperialism, the source of war, exists. The fight to defend the peace is inextricably linked with the anti-imperialist struggle, the struggle for socialism.

KKE is a profoundly democratic party. Throughout its history it has proven to be an unwavering defender of the people’s democratic, civil and trade union rights. The way in which it is organised, its principles and operating regulations, its links with the masses, its recognition of the revolutionary role of the working class and the other popular masses constitute a persuasive expression of its democratic character.

KKE has proven to be a consistent and steadfast defender of the culture of the Greek people. It has fought against obscurantism and bigotry, it has fought for a deeply humanist, scientifically-based education for the people. It has supported the efforts and scientific work of the progressive intelligentsia; it has promoted the lattr’s role in labour struggles, in the liberation, democratic struggle.

From the time it was founded, KKE has stood by Greek youth. It has shown care and concern over their problems and their future. It continues to look with confidence upon the young generation and to count on their abilities to contribute to building the socialist future. Its entire history proves the need for its existence in Greek society.

KKE Programme presents, along general lines, its overall strategy for socialism and the main tasks of the class struggle.

A. MODERN WORLD

OUR ERA, THE ERA OF THE TRANSITION FROM

CAPITALISM TO SOCIALISM

Significant changes have taken place in the capitalist society in the 20^th century. Imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism, was shaped. The monopolies were created, and played a decisive role in economic, social and political life, generating the trend toward stagnancy and corruption. The capitalist economy passed on to a new level in the internationalisation of capital and production. Banking and industrial capital merged. Financial capital was created, and the financial oligarchy. The export of capital took on great significance in relation to the export of commodities. International monopoly associations of capitalists were formed to divide up the world between the major capitalist powers. State monopoly capitalism (SMC) came into being.

On the threshold of the 21st century, international developments are marked by the imperialism’s barbaric and inhuman attempt to impose a new world order on earth. Humanity is living through grim moments because of the aggressive imperialist need to dominate and subjugate which is being manifested more openly after the counter-revolution in the socialist countries of Europe and the negative change in the international correlation of forces. The constant, open interventions and the competition between the imperialist forces over the distribution of markets are leading to new bonds of dependence and submission for some countries, to the appearance of new tension spots and local wars, and to the murderous action by the so-called peace-keeping NATO or other multinational forces. Action by the monopolies is accompanied by an unprecedented attack against the rights of the working people, against their labour and social gains, and by the plundering of the planet’s natural resources.

A small number of developed capitalist countries controls and exploits the greater part of global wealth. The dominant position among them is held by the United States, which is the leader in promoting the new world order. These same forces control the United Nations. The transformation of the UN into an agency for the international imposition of their will constitutes a flagrant violation of its founding principles and objectives. NATO has become a global watchdog and agent of the new order. The role and responsibilities of a number of international imperialist organisations and associations have been upgraded; these include the World Trade Organisation (formerly GATT), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and the European Union (EU), which constitute the main instruments for suppressing the objective trends toward internationalisation in the plans and goals of the transnationals. The former socialist countries of Europe have been transformed into a field of tough imperialist competition. Their people have seen the inhuman face of capitalist restoration and exploitation. Around the leading powers in the international imperialist system is a second circle of countries, the local oligarchies of which endeavour to play the role of the regional chieftain and intermediary, with a view to upgrading their position and extracting part of the super-profits.

Despite the favourable circumstances for international imperialism, its profound and unresolved contradictions are becoming more acute and more numerous. Action by international capitalist organisations and transnationals is causing the contradiction between the social nature of production and the capitalist appropriation of its output to become increasingly deep and sharp.

The promotion of interstate imperialist regulations is deepening the disparity in the international division of labour and development. The peoples are paying for the competition between the three main capitalist blocs--the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the European Union (EU) and Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC)--and between the leading imperialist countries that constitute them, in their efforts to control and redistribute markets and spheres of influence.

The militarisation of international relations and the arms race, together with the sharpened contradictions within imperialism and the revival of nationalism and chauvinism, produce and reproduce violence and war, reinforce instability and create risks of a generalised military conflict.

The general crisis of capitalism continues. The relative and absolute poverty of large sections of the working class and other strata of the people continues. New zones of poverty are appearing. The waves of migration keep growing. The problems of unemployment, poverty, lack of housing, working in the black economy, crime, social illnesses, the spread of narcotics, prostitution, and the marginalisation of broad social groups have today taken on massive dimensions even in the heart of the capitalist world. The crisis in values, manipulation of the mass media, the commercialisation of knowledge and culture and the wholesale destruction of the environment mark the modern capitalist society ever more strongly. Racism and the fear and hatred of foreigners are being cultivated systematically together with the dissemination of irrationalism, the revival of all types of mysticism and religious fanaticism. Neo-fascist and nationalistic parties and organisations are re-appearing and becoming active. A shift has been observed toward political reaction, the main features of which include state oppression, constraints on individual and collective rights and overt action by the secret services and the machinery of the imperialist state. Parasitism and corruption have assumed enormous dimensions. The anti-productive activity of transnational capital is becoming stronger. The growth of the productive forces through the utilisation of new technologies goes hand in hand with the mass destruction of others. In our times, the great gains in science and human culture are being stifled under the cloak of capitalism. Human beings, who have never before had as much potential for well-being and freedom as they have today, are prisoners of exploitation and poverty.

All modern social reality shows the need for the working people to reply to a dilemma that is more pressing than ever before: whether to say yes to submission, to the constant worsening of their lives, to regression and obscurantism; or to say yes to the road of resistance against the prevailing capitalist options, against imperialism and the monopolies, in order to overthrow their dominance and power and to build socialism.

Capitalism is historically out-dated. The need and timeliness of socialism are emerging, as is the indomitable vitality of Marxism-Leninism, the scientific theory which has once again proven its timelessness, its irreplaceable role as the theoretical tool for analysing, understanding and bringing about revolutionary change in society.

The counter-revolutionary upheavals have not changed the nature of the times. The present phase, in which the international revolutionary movement is in retreat, is temporary. A new, resurgent phase is already maturing within the intensified class struggle, the resistance of the international working class and the new phenomena of the people’s awakening and militant presence. The 21st century will be one in which the revolutionary forces will regroup to repulse the offensive by international capital, and mount a decisive counter-attack. Our century will witness a new upsurge in the world revolutionary movement and a number of new social revolutions.

THE MODERN REVOLUTIONARY AND ANTI-IMPERIALIST MOVEMENT

The ranks of the world’s working class are expanding. New countries and peoples who have experienced the heavy dependence on and cruel exploitation by the transnationals are swelling the ranks of the forces which objectively have a place in the great front of the anti-imperialist struggle, opening the road to socialism. The right of every people to decide what road they will take to development, and to participate on an equal basis in the international division of labour, is synonymous with the struggle against the imperialist centres, the capitalist associations and their various international mechanisms. It is integrally linked with the need for socialist change, which it proposes as a topic for urgent discussion.

Rallying together and struggling against the new imperialist world order and its expressers are today the main links in the modern revolutionary process. This is the way for the international working class and the peoples to defend their gains and rights, to bring about a positive change in the international correlation of forces and to create the conditions for the new upward and winning course for the revolutionary movement.

In these directions the following will objectively come together:

- The revolutionary labour movement in the capitalist countries.

- The countries that are building socialism under the particularly difficult conditions of domination by international capital.

- The anti-imperialist movements in the countries that are oppressed by imperialist centres.

Common action by these forces is capable of combating imperialist expansionism and impunity.

A decisive role can and must be played by the international communist movement. The struggle against imperialism and for socialism cannot have substantial and firm successes if the communist movement is organisationally and ideologically fragmented. The rebuilding of the international communist movement and its emergence from its present state of crisis and retreat, the restoration of its unity on the basis of Marxism-Leninism, of its proletarian internationalism, and of united strategy and its particular expression, are the most urgent tasks required by the present conditions of struggle against the international unity of capital. In this direction, co-ordination and common action, dialogue and discussion about its ideological identity, and the strategy of the modern anti-imperialist and revolutionary struggle can and must go forward. This is a process which is absolutely linked with the resolute struggle against and refuting of reformist and opportunist viewpoints, as well as the various theories that aim to assimilate and manipulate the working class.

KKE will go forward and, with all its forces, will support initiatives that reinforce and express these directions. It will continue and intensify its own initiatives, particularly in favour of co-ordination and common action against the new world order in the Balkans, Europe and the Mediterranean.

B. GREECE IN THE IMPERIALIST SYSTEM

Greek capitalism is in the last stage of its development, i.e. at its state monopoly level. In our country, the material conditions exist for the socialist transformation. This can be seen in the level of development of Greek capitalism and in its contradictions.

Greece is in an intermediate and dependent position in the world imperialist system. There are historic reasons for this: the slow and difficult beginning of capitalism in Greece, which took place under the direct economic, political and military involvement of powerful capitalist states and under conditions of dependence on foreign capital. Monopoly capitalism appeared in Greece later than in the developed capitalist countries, and after the international imperialist system had already been created, with the result that it rested on a relatively low material and technical base. In the post-dictatorship years, state monopoly capitalism developed further, dependence on foreign monopoly capital and international imperialism grew. During recent decades, particularly during the 1980s, Greece became more organically adapted to the imperialist system within the framework of the European Community (now the European Union) and NATO, through its participation in international inter-state agreements.

With the Treaty of Maastricht, the intervention of the imperialist centre of the European Union was upgraded. To its statutory ability to intervene in the economic sphere was added the ability to intervene on the political and military level, and in the fields of foreign policy and so-called internal security.

International monopoly capital controls the Greek economy and its main sectors of activity. The transnationals and monopolies won new positions, penetrated more deeply and play a direct role in sectors critical to the shaping of political behaviour, and of the social consciousness of the working class and the people. Greek capital has become more closely linked with the interests of international monopoly capital. The dominant trend is the interconnection between local capital and its dependence on and adjustment to more general planning. The general trend to involvement does not change the fact that sections of local capital have been hard hit by the transnationals.

The Greek oligarchy maintains close connections with all three imperialist centres. Greece’s membership in the European Union does not revoke the dominant role of the United States, particularly in the political and military fields. Under present conditions, the local oligarchy aims to play the role of intermediary between the European Union and NATO on the one hand, and the countries of the Balkans and the Mediterranean on the other. It wants to enhance its economic, political and military presence in the region. These ambitions make it more willing to take part in imperialistic expansionist plans, while bringing it up against the analogous ambitions and expansionist schemes of the Turkish oligarchy, increasing the competition between them and the problems between the two countries. Thus greater possibilities are created for intervention and for the major imperialist forces to take advantage of these differences.

Greece has fallen into line with the restructuring imposed by its membership in this imperialist system and is adjusting its economy, mainly in the direction of the service sector.

The base of Greece’s industrial production is shrinking, while phenomena of bankruptcy, buyouts and mergers are increasing. The agrarian economy has already received a major blow. Valuable productive forces are being destroyed. The distance separating Greece from the developing capitalist countries is growing constantly. These adverse developments which are a burden on the people are reinforced by the policy of privatisation, the so-called “less state” and the deregulation of the market. This policy constitutes an expression of the modern state monopoly regulations to the benefit of big capital. Productive sectors of the capitalist state are being handed over for more intensive exploitation by the private sector. The collaboration between the state and the monopolies is growing. The necessary framework is being created, as are the conditions for a free rein to be given to monopoly action, greater exploitation of the working people and plundering of the country’s natural resources. The role of the capitalist state is being strengthened as an instrument for redistributing the wealth produced to the benefit of the oligarchy, as a mechanism to suppress and manipulate mass movements. The modern state constitutes the conveyor belt for applying transnational decisions and the regulations of the European Union and other imperialist associations and agencies.

Unemployment is on the rise, particularly among young people and women. The position of the working people is deteriorating, because of the harsh austerity and reactionary changes that are being promoted in labour relations based on the guidelines in the White Paper. Social security, state education and the public health and welfare system are being attacked and downgraded. The position of the broad popular strata, particularly of the working class, is becoming constantly worse. Anxiety and insecurity about the future are on the rise.

Changes have also taken place in the composition of the Gross National Product (GNP). During the past 15 years, the percentage participation of services has increased, with a rising trend for parasitic services. The share of industry, manufacture and the agrarian economy has dropped.

Changes have taken place in the class composition of the Greek society. The number of the economically active population has increased. The number of salaried people has also increased as has their percentage of the economically active population.

The working class, the main productive force, has grown in both absolute and relative numbers. They have become more concentrated in trade and services. The percentage of the factory proletariat has fallen. There has been a significant increase in the number of foreign workers. In some regions, a trend has re-appeared of migration to European countries. The class differentiation of the farmer has deepened, and the trend toward their overall decrease in number has been reinforced. The middle urban strata have increased both in numbers and as a percentage of the economically active population. The bourgeois class has a reduced percentage.

During the 22 years of the post-dictatorship period, the two different roads along which the Greek society could develop have become plain:

- The road that serves the interests of the transnationals and capitalists at the

expense of the people; the road of adjusting and submitting to the anti-labour anti-popular choices of the European Union and NATO.

- The road of creating the anti-imperialist anti-monopoly democratic front of

struggle which offers prospects for the working class, for the lower and middle strata of the people in the city and the countryside, and for young people.

There is no super-class or third road. Either one will serve the monopolies, imperialism and the capitalist system, or one will serve the people and will have prospects for socialism.

C. NATURE OF THE REVOLUTION

THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST ANTI-MONOPOLY

DEMOCRATIC FRONT OF STRUGGLE

AND THE TRANSITION TO SOCIALISM

The Greek people will be delivered from the bonds and effects of capitalist exploitation and of imperialist oppression and dependence when the working class and their allies bring about the socialist revolution and proceed to building socialism and communism. The internal developments that have taken place in Greece and the changes in its position within the imperialist system during the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s contributed to making the material conditions for socialism in Greece mature sooner. In our time, the time of the transition from capitalism to socialism, the struggle between the classes is directed toward the resolution of the primary contradiction between capital and labour. The revolutionary change in Greece will be socialist.

The driving force of the socialist revolution will be the working class as the leading force, the semi-proletarians, poor farmers and the most oppressed urban petty bourgeois strata of the people. Young people will play an active role in the struggle to build socialism. KKE seeks to convince other sections of the middle strata that their long-term interests are not served by retaining the capitalist system. That they should stand by the forces which are fighting for the socialist transformation. Even the neutrality of these strata will contribute to the transition to socialism. During the course of building socialism, illusions about capitalism and prejudices about socialism will dissolve.

The adverse international developments, such as Greece’s closer attachment to imperialist organisations and plans, have increased the influence of the international factor on the evolution and outcome of the struggle for socialism on the level of one country alone.

The interaction between the national and international does not refute the fact that internal contradictions and conditions play a major role in the revolutionary process. The revolutionary popular movement in each country should direct its fight toward fostering socialism, thus offering its own contribution to improving the international correlation of forces.

The popular labour movement in Greece should acquire the ability to weigh, to calculate in advance and to take advantage of all the opportunities which may appear in Greece for the transition to socialism. It must take advantage of positive developments which will contribute on an international level, but it must also adapt its action to conditions of long-term struggle. At every phase, a policy must be chosen which will increase the militancy of the working class, of the popular forces, and will lead to solving the problem of power.

There is an ever more urgent need for KKE through its policy to contribute to the shaping and maturing of the subjective factor for the socialist revolution.

The anti-imperialist anti-monopoly democratic line of struggle will contribute to rallying the great majority of the people to resist and to defend their interests against the aggressiveness of big capital. This is the road which will help change the correlation of forces, help to approach and, under certain conditions, to bring about the transition to socialism. More than in previous years, this struggle is linked organically with the struggle to overthrow capitalism. It incorporates the cracks that will undermine the foundations of capitalist domination. It will create the conditions necessary for the working class and their allies to gain political power.

The maturing of the conditions for socialist revolutionary change will not be the result of one action, but of a process with ups and down and various phases, shifts and turns which will be determined by the correlation of forces, by the readiness and will of the great majority of the working class and the other strata of people, by ideological, political and organisational preparation, by the strength and preparedness of KKE, and by the degree to which the ideas of socialism and communism are revitalised.

KKE, participating in and working for the development of the unity and the militancy of the anti-imperialist, anti-monopoly democratic front, at the same time maintains its ideological, political and organisational independence. It considers its immediate practical duty to be promulgating its programme openly among the people, putting forward the need and timeliness of the socialist transformation, and working actively for these issues to be understood.

The anti-imperialist, anti-monopoly front of struggle objectively expresses a broader social base, the interests of the great majority of the people who suffer the effects of actions by the transnationals and of Greece’s membership in imperialist organisations, the interests of the working class, working farmers, the middle strata in the city, and social movements which are fighting to uphold democratic rights and to reject imperialist plans that are to the detriment of the people and of peace. It rallies the working people in the sector of culture and science who resist the sub-culture, commercialisation and manipulation.

The process of creating the Front is carried out on the grounds of the struggle over the acute problems which are of concern to the people and the country, the political and ideological confrontation with the country’s oligarchy, the multiform mechanisms of its state, and with the governments and the political forces which represent its interests or consent to serve them. The power of the Front lies in the leading role of the working class and its Party, in its unity of action, in its alliance with the social strata that fight in an anti-imperialist, anti-monopoly direction.

The Front, in its initial stage, starts out as a coalition of mainly social forces around anti-imperialist, anti-monopoly demands and goals, around partial fronts of struggle which mobilise various sections of the working people into a united strong popular current. The more the organisation and political experience of the working class and the other popular strata and the class struggle grow, the greater the possibilities for the anti-imperialist anti-monopoly front to accomplish corresponding changes in the political correlation of forces.

KKE seeks to co-operate with the political forces that accept the need for conflict between imperialism and the transnational monopolies, that defend the rights of the working people, and the country’s popular sovereignty and independence. Collaboration may be expressed in the form of co-operation, multiple coalescences and common action on certain specific problems, on which agreement has been reached. The experience of common action will show the degree to which it can expand and collaborate on other anti-imperialist, anti-monopoly goals, and the degree to which it can then evolve into a political agreement.

KKE sees other parties not only on the basis of their proclamations, programme and goals, but also looks at how they defend the vital interests of the working people and support their struggles. Political collaborations, in order to be stable, in order to provide thrust and political dynamism to the anti-imperialist anti-monopoly front of struggle, must rest on existing social processes and coalescences, and develop the alliance between social forces. They must rely on struggles, recognising in practice the power of the popular movement. They must combat the splitting and undermining plans of the ruling class and its allies.

The Front embraces the place of work and residence. It will penetrate into key sectors so as to claim victories, to contain the counter-offensive and reaction by its class and political adversaries. It will exert influence on the armed forces and the security corps so as to weaken efforts to suppress and stifle the popular will.

In the course of the struggle and to the degree that its anti-capitalist nature deepens, it will take on the features of a revolutionary popular front organised from below and from above, capable of rallying all the broader popular masses to action. It will take on quality features higher than the mass movements and their organisations.

The organs of this front will be the headquarters of the struggle on every level, the organisers, the leaders of tough class conflicts. They will not be restricted to exerting pressure and control over the bourgeois state and the other bourgeois institutions. They will mobilise the people, so as to reverse anti-popular choices, not to bow to those above. Through the struggle they will shape new popular institutions, in conflict with the urban institutions that legalise the dictatorship of the monopolies. They will train and prepare the people to utilise all forms of struggle and to be in a position to change them rapidly, according to developments. The leading bodies of the anti-imperialist anti-monopoly popular front, the institutions engendered by the people, which appeared during the confrontation and class struggles will constitute the seeds of the new political power of the working class and its allies.

BASIC PROGRAMME DIRECTIONS AND GOALS OF STRUGGLE

KKE will play a leading part in ensuring that the Front organising the struggle determines its directions and demands on the basis of a framework programme of directions and goals which are opposed to and fight against the main choices of monopoly capital. A programme open to radical changes that affect the foundations of the capitalist system. This cannot be just any minimum framework programme, and even less can it constitute a programme for managing the crisis in the system. It must reflect the level of maturity of the anti-imperialist anti-monopoly social forces. It must consolidate and deepen their alliance. It must develop the social and political consciousness of the working class and other working people. The Front will be influenced by the extent of the agreement between the forces that make it up, in alliance with KKE.

The Front’s programme directions and goals of struggle will have internal cohesion and hierarchy. They can be adjusted in the course of the struggle according to developments within the Front and the correlation of forces on the social and political level. They will serve the organisation of the struggle for measures and goals related to: the vital economic, educational and cultural needs of the working class and the other popular strata; confronting the problems of unemployment and its effects; defending and broadening their gains and democratic rights; defending and broadening the country’s productive base and its development potential; demanding national independence and defending the country’s territorial integrity against the new imperialist world order; ensuring the country’s active contribution to the struggle for peace and thwarting all forms of intervention and imperialist war in the region and more generally.

Among the main programme directions and goals of struggle are:

- Disengagement from the European Union, as a basic condition for utilising Greece’s domestic development potential, for a real improvement in the working people’s living standard.

- Refusal to take part in imperialist plans and interventions, in any way whatsoever. Common action with other movements in neighbouring countries for a regional system of security in the broader South (Balkans, Mediterranean, Middle East). Disentanglement from the web of political and military dependence on the US, the European Union and NATO. Withdrawal from NATO and from the Western European Union. Removal of the US-NATO bases and nuclear weapons. Development of common action with peoples and countries to dismantle NATO and other military-political organisations.

A national defence policy which safeguards Greece’s security and ensures an anti-imperialistic orientation in international relations and in the region. No ceding of sovereign rights to imperialist organisations must be sanctioned.

- Action which aims to address the explosive problem of unemployment, protection and to secure a real increase in the people’s income. Indexing of wages, pensions and allowances. Fight against the imposition of new labour relations. Reduction of working hours with the full guarantee of the financial, social and social insurance rights of the working people, both Greeks and foreign nationals. Abolition of overtime and taking measures which oppose and abolish discrimination against women and young people. Development and use of new technologies for the benefit of the working people.

Measures for hygiene and safety in the workplace. Institutions of labour and popular control.

Equal wages for work of equal value for men and women, young people and foreign workers. Indefinite unemployment benefits, allowances of 80% of the minimum wage. Ensuring social and social service rights of the unemployed while they are without work.

Special protection for people with special needs and for the elderly.

Defence of the rights of minorities more generally.

Democratic, anti-monopoly reform of the taxation system in favour of the popular strata. Combating tax evasion and tax exemptions for big capital. Zero taxation on basic goods and services.

Price controls at source and measures to deal with profiteering. Low prices on broadly popular consumer products.

- Action against agreements which mortgage our country’s development potential. All basic social and welfare services should remain in the public sector. Demand for and defence of the public nature of enterprises and sectors of strategic importance (research, technology, transportation, telecommunications, energy, banks, mineral resources). They should be released from dependence on monopoly commitments; substantial parliamentary and popular control should be introduced.

Struggle to reinforce, upgrade and modernise the public health sector, with emphasis on prevention and protection from occupational diseases. Development of state industries to manufacture pharmaceutical products, medical machinery and other supplies.

Struggle to restrict, aiming ultimately to abolish, large private enterprises in the field of health and social welfare.

Action against the commercialisation of knowledge. Public, free, modern education, without class barriers, for the people to serve social, humanistic and occupational goals at all levels.

- Rejection of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and GATT and the effects of their promotion. Support for agricultural co-operatives; policy for their development, and regulation of their debts. Support for the policy of subsidising the restructuring of farm output according to the country’s potential. Measures to support the income of the small or medium-scale farmer, increase of public and private investments in infrastructure projects.

Anti-monopoly framework of measures to support light and cottage industry, small and medium-sized enterprises. Incentives for their co-operative organisation.

- Struggle to democratise public administration, the armed forces, the security corps and the system for dispensing justice.

Safeguarding trade union rights in the armed forces and the security corps.

Struggle to make the local and prefectural government independent of the machinery and choices of the European Union and the central government. Measures for democratic decentralisation, ensuring funds and substantial competencies. Establishment of an elected 3^rd-tier of government. Separation of church and state, respect for the right to religious convictions.

Social control over all forms of information. Support for initiatives by social organisations and local government in the information field. Support for and upgrading of public television. Restriction and ultimately abolition of the possibility for big capital to be active in this field.

- Political action which will elevate the social dimension of the human personality, and enhance the working people’s quality of life. Public programmes for cultural infrastructure. Defence of the rights and role of the working people in the cultural field. Establishment of aesthetic and artistic education in the state school system.

- Opposition to the commercialisation of sports, which should not be used as a means to disorient and manipulate people’s minds. Radical reform and democratisation of the legal framework so that the right to exercise and sports becomes an essential one for the people as a whole and especially for youth.

The goal is the all-round development of the personality, enhancement of health, cultivation of the spirit of noble rivalry, and friendly, peaceful co-existence among peoples.

- Struggle to protect the environment. Strict and effective controls on polluting industries. Promoting renewable sources of energy, urban and physical planning based on the criterion of respect for and protection of the environment. Planning to address the pollution of the seas and the destruction of the forests.

- Measures for the equality of women, in the family, on the job, and for her participation in social and political action, in culture.

- Measures to protect childhood and adolescence, to guarantee the rights of the young generation to education, work, cultural and intellectual development, for the creative utilisation of their leisure time. Co-ordinated struggle to confront the social scourge of narcotics with emphasis on prevention.

The struggle for anti-imperialist anti-monopoly goals must at the same time be extended to a broader framework in the region and throughout Europe. Co-ordination of the struggle on an international level will at the same time hit at the centres of imperialism. It will strengthen the solidarity and the inclination to fight, it will reinforce optimism, it will mobilise and attract new working class and popular forces.

The Front of struggle will develop initiatives on an international level to co-ordinate with other national movements. It will seek international points of support in governments and international organisations which defend the interests of the independent development of the peoples. It will take an active part in international solidarity movements. It will support peoples suffering from imperialist policy, interventions and local wars. It will seek the greatest possible international support, particularly in critical conditions of nation-wide crisis, when international imperialism hastens to support the oligarchy of a country and to maintain it as a prop and sphere of influence.

THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST, ANTI-MONOPOLY FRONT

AND THE PROBLEM OF POWER

Among the ranks of the Front will be disparate forces from the point of view of their social position and ideological and political stance. They will reflect different trends with respect to the prospects and purpose of the anti-imperialist anti-monopoly struggle.

The development of socio-political confrontations and class conflicts will put the problem of power on the agenda. KKE directs its action in such a way that the anti-imperialist, anti-monopoly struggle will develop and the anti-capitalist awareness of the working class and the popular strata will deepen. KKE is trying steadfastly to persuade people that it is not enough for the bourgeois parties and their allies to withdraw from the helm of state. The bourgeois state and its machinery must be overthrown. A new popular power must be created which is none other than socialist power.

Under conditions where the class struggle and the popular movement are on the rise, when the revolutionary process has begun, there may be a government, as the instrument of the people’s power, which will have the approval and consent of the struggling people, without general elections or parliamentary procedures. This government will be identical with, or merely formally separate from, the power of the working class and its allies.

Under conditions of class conflict and the great decline in the influence of the bourgeois parties and their allies, a government may emerge of anti-imperialist anti-monopoly forces based in parliament even without the conditions having been met for the revolutionary transition.

The planning of government measures aiming to relieve the people, against transnational capital, dependence and Greece’s participation in imperialist associations, may rally the people and persuade them of the need for a more general breach with the past.

KKE would seek for such a government, through its action and more general popular intervention, to contribute to beginning the revolutionary process. The period that will show whether or not the government will go forward will not be a long one. Experience has shown that it will be short. If developments do not take a positive course, then the government will be overthrown by the reaction of the ruling class and imperialist intervention. But its overthrow would not necessarily mean a total reversal. It may be a factor helping the people understand more profoundly the need for the radical overthrow of the capitalist system.

In every case, the decisive factor will be the unity of the working class, and the winning of its leading role and that of its Party, KKE, in the Front.

Under the leadership of KKE, the most militant and experienced section of the working class, the Front will acquire the ability to alternate all forms of struggle promptly, in order to combat reaction and counter-offensive by the country’s ruling class. At these key moments of conflict, when the breach with the capitalist system comes up for discussion, realignments and rearrangements of the political forces will take place. The working class will seek to preserve the alliance and its links with as many of the anti-imperialist anti-monopoly forces as possible ole. The necessary conditions for the Party to fulfil these goals are the strengthening of its revolutionary features as a new type of party, its continuous assimilation of the theory of Marxism-Leninism, expanding collectivity in working out KKE’s policy and applying it in action, renewing its ranks and promoting thousands of new cadres, women and men workers and other people who work with their hands or their mind.

D. THE BUILDING OF SOCIALISM

KKE’s concept of the building of socialism is based on Marxist-Leninist theory, and on enriching it with the conclusions and discussions of our Party and of the building of socialism in the 20^th century. The building of socialism is governed by general laws that apply to all countries. The starting point for the transition of Greek society to socialism, the lowest level of communism, is: The revolutionary gaining of power by the working class in collaboration with its allies. The nationalisation of the main means of production. The socialist planning of the economy.

The achievements of science and new technologies will be used for the all- round growth of the productivity of labour and of social production, so as to secure jobs for all those capable of working, to maintain a constant improvement of the working people’s living conditions and to raise the people’s level of social and cultural well-being on the basis of the socialist principle: To each according to the quantity and quality of his work.

Socialist planning of the economy serves the primary law of building socialism: Production having as an incentive the broader and fuller satisfaction of social needs, on the basis of the best techniques and technology, using the modern achievements of science. Under socialism, social relations will change radically.

Socialism will eliminate the acute problems that the working people experienced under capitalism, such as unemployment, underemployment, management and state terrorism, insecurity, uncertainty about the future, the downgrading and disdaining of their role and personality, violations of their rights and freedoms. Socialism provides the opportunity to use objective laws and scientific prediction in a conscientious, planned way to the benefit of the entire society.

Irrespective of the form it will take, the socialist state, from the point of view of its class essence, will be a revolutionary power of the working class, the dictatorship of the proletariat.

The tasks of the socialist state will include hindering the efforts which the local capitalists and international reaction are certain to make to restore the regime of capitalist power, and creating a new society by abolishing the exploitation of man by man. Its function will be of a leadership, organisational, economic, political, cultural, educational and defence nature. It will express a higher form of democracy, and have as its main feature the active participation by the working class and the people in solving the main problems of building the socialist society and controlling power and its instruments.

The form to be taken by the revolutionary workers’ state in Greece will be resolved through the revolutionary fight, through tough class struggles, under conditions in which the revolutionary process will emerge and develop. The history of the class struggle of the workers’ and farmers’ movement in Greece, in the special conditions of struggle for national liberation, such as the history of socialist revolutions, has established various forms of popular power (soviets, popular councils for defence, security and meals, popular tribunals, etc.).

The socialist republic will safeguard the existence of the parties that act within the framework of the socialist system. Socio-political associations, e.g. radical social movements of women, young people and ecologists with political orientations, with the participation of the socio-political anti-capitalist front during the revolutionary period, will develop their own significant role according to their social base.

Mass social organisations, especially the labour unions, are the instruments by which the working class will control its state, and protect itself from the dangers of high-handedness, bureaucracy, and deviation from the general interest.

Democratic centralism is a fundamental principle in the formation and operation of the socialist state, in the development of the socialist republic. It will serve to draw the working people constantly into the exercise of the functions of power, in an close relationship with the growing importance of the central administration. The social organisation will be founded on the new relations of production and distribution which are based on state social ownership, in particular: on the industrial sectors of means of production and modern technology, on developing consumer product industries, on the extraction and energy fields, on telecommunications and transport, on the banks, on the foreign trade network. The new socialist economic relations will extend to the main trade and commercial networks, to the large tourist units, to shipping companies, to the mass media and to the service and social security sectors. Commercial secrets will be abolished.

Free services will be ensured in education, health, welfare, social security and other social benefits to children and the aged. Large-scale capitalist land holdings, and those of monasteries, churches etc., will be nationalised. Regional disparities in development will be offset.

Socialist power will take into account the increased modern needs of the working class, particularly those workers who have lived under conditions of poverty, and the needs of poor farmers and the middle strata, as well as the special needs of young people, infants, children, women and the needs and capabilities of the working intelligentsia.

It will create the conditions necessary for the development and concentration of small production and fragmented services, through different types of socialisation. It will encourage co-operativism in various forms through specific policy measures. It will satisfy the working intelligentsia by the objective evaluation of the social worth of their services. It will apply a policy of incentives for working people who have migrated and will be encouraged to return if they wish to contribute to building socialism.

The foundations will be laid to improve the general standard of living and culture. To increase personal leisure time as a result of reducing the socially necessary work time. This will come about through the increasing productivity of labour. Personal work will be liberated from heavy, monotonous bodily labour. Illiteracy will be confronted. The right to personal ownership acquired through labour will be recognised.

The material conditions will be created for the abolition not only of every source of class exploitation, but also every source of social oppression. The process by which the exploitation of man by man will be totally abolished in Greece, and which will certainly be influenced by the international context, will be a complex one because of the difficulties Greek capitalism will have bequeathed to the new society through its participation in international imperialist organisations.

The difficulties will be dealt with by the revolutionary action of the popular masses, by the socialisation of the basic means of production, the extension of the socialist relations to commerce, services and small production; all possibilities will be used for the productive forces to overcome the difficulties.

The central field on which the building of socialism will be judged will be the planned development of the productive forces and the improvement of socialist relations of production so as to ensure the satisfaction of human needs on an ever higher level. At the focal point of attention must be the utilisation of new scientific and technological achievements on a broad scale in production and services with a view to developing the productive forces. The planned and rational use of material, financial and labour resources. State and labour control will confront profiteering, graft, and the black market.

Socialist power will calculate the influence of the law of value, it will utilise commercial relations within the framework of planned production and social ownership, with a view to deepening the socialist relations of production. Among the first steps in the building of socialism, according to the conditions and problems to be faced, a part of capital, non-monopoly capital, may be permitted to operate under certain conditions.

According to the international conditions and Greece’s immediate environment, mutually beneficial inter-state relations will be developed between Greece and other countries, particularly with countries whose level of development, the nature of their problems and their direct interests can secure such a beneficial co-operation.

Greece, which is located at the cross-roads of three continents, belongs to the geographic-strategic region in which, objectively, there are states and peoples in whose direct interests it is to resist the economic, political and military centres of imperialism.

Socialist cultural policy, in both its educational and cultural aspects, aims to develop integrated personalities. It links general educational development with occupational and scientific specialisation, and general cultural development with the shaping of a socialist consciousness that is primarily expressed in an attitude toward work and social ownership.

With the revolutionary gaining of power by the working class and its allies, the transition from capitalism to socialism begins. The class struggle does not stop, but its forms of expression change. The residues and effects of capitalism may remain for a relatively long period, according to the particular conditions in each country. The victory of the socialist revolution cannot remove these imprints automatically, but will do so along the way, according to the internal conditions and the influence of international developments. Even after the building of the foundations of socialism and the abolition of capitalist ownership there will be an objective, material foundation for the sharpening of old and the appearance of new conflicts. As the experience of building socialism in the 20^th century has attested, underestimating contradictions can lead to their evolving into serious antagonisms, to their undermining the socialist structure, to reinforcing counter-revolutionary elements and to the return of capitalism.

Socialism constitutes a society whose birth and growth are inextricably linked with the leadership action of the Communist Party as a bridgehead for social progress. The vanguard leading role of the Party develops, is confirmed and consolidated in action, in life.

The main prerequisite is the dialectical relationship between the party in power and the masses, its vital link with the working class, with labour and other popular organisations. The building of socialism is not a cause for a revolutionary vanguard that will wield power. It is a cause for the working class, for the entire people.

A decisive role will be played by the social composition of the Party, the policy of promoting cadres from the working class, and the developing of theoretical and ideological work. The Party’s vanguard role is linked also with its ability to develop and enrich revolutionary theory through the on-going study of theoretical and scientific issues and through the generalisation of experience from the new problems and contradictions which the building of socialism will be called upon to solve.

The ability of the socialist system to defend itself will not cease with the efforts to achieve progress and the growth of the socialist economy and to develop its defensive armour. It will also continue the effort to develop the ideological defence of the working class and the people more generally, through their understanding that imperialism will not abandon its effort to undermine and overthrow the new society.

Progress in the building of socialism will depend on the training of the new type of person who, under complex and adverse conditions, will take an active and responsible part in building socialism, and on constant vigilance and the prompt handling of the violation of principles.

The Party, as the vanguard of the working class, the class which can express and defend the total interests of the socialist society, represents the interests of the people. It confirms its vanguard and leading role, combining correctly the duties of power with the duty of providing ideological leadership for the working class and for the popular masses to ensure their active participation in building and directing social and political matters.

Ensuring popular participation and social control, and drawing the working people into the exercise of the functions of power, are neither spontaneous processes nor easy ones. Socialism will not be built in a society that is uniform in terms of class. The vital leading relationship of the Party with the working people and their mass organisations depends on maintaining and developing its revolutionary features under the most varied historical circumstances.

KKE will focus its attention on developing popular initiative, on utilising the role of working groups and experienced and specialised cadres, and on the lively democratic functioning of the lower levels of its organs of administration and power.

It will develop systematic, ideological, political and training work so that the relationship between the working people and socialist ownership does not become an employer-employee relationship. Labour discipline and coresponsibility must not become dulled, especially among those workers who acquired them under the enthusiastic conditions of the early revolutionary period. It will be vigilant so as to prevent phenomena of high-handedness, discrimination and privileges.

The negative effects on the socialist consciousness of the working class and the people more generally can be mitigated, dulled and reversed. This will depend on the degree of understanding of the new phenomena and contradictions which arise in the course of building socialism. It will depend on the readiness, vigilance and action by the Party, by the socialist state.

Democracy and collectivity in the Party’s operation and consistent observance of the principles and regulations of its operation are important conditions to safeguard it from deviations and violations.

KKE, under conditions of power, must safeguard its orientation and action: it must take care to develop collectivity and democratic life within the party, to cultivate and utilise the initiative of non-party organisations, to ensure effective supervision from top to bottom and in particular from bottom to top. It must ensure critical and self-critical examination of cadres’ work, and when their action is not constructive, it must be prepared to remove them.

The Party must be strict with the cadres who violate the principles and operating regulations of the Party and communist morality; this is a problem of decisive significance particularly for parties in power who are building socialism.

Despite the great present difficulties, we communists retain our optimism. Humanity will go forward. The working class will take their fate into their own hands, through common action with other oppressed strata of the people. With this certainty, KKE makes its Programme public, hoping that its ideas will become a material force for radical social change. The building of socialism will open up a new era in the history of Greece and its people.

May 1996