[Debate] KKE: "A Weak Bourgeois Government Means a Strong People"

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

Arguments like this apply more to cases like Egypt (Mursi vs. Shafiq)
than to ones like Greece (where voters are clearly expressing
preferences for a stronger national-popular government vis-à-vis the
euro core ruling class than the ones they've had so far during the
crisis).

<http://bit.ly/KiaWlz>
A weak bourgeois government means a strong people

The GS of the CC of the KKE spoke at a large rally of the party in
Syntagma Sq., outside the Parliament, Tuesday the 20th of March, when
the bourgeois parties inside the parliament approved the country’s new
loan agreement, through which the coalition of government of
social-democratic PASOK and liberal ND and the Troika seek to chain
the people for the next 30 years.

Similar rallies of the KKE, which in their majority were transformed
into mass marches, took place in the capitals of all the regions and
other cities in the country. Thousands of people of toil took part in
them-workers, self-employed, women, and young people. With slogans
such as: “No to the Loan Agreement- We will not live in chains!” “We
do not consent, we do not retreat” “Onward workers, now as one fist,
tear down the memoranda and the bosses!”

It should be noted that the election period has already begun in
Greece despite the fact that the official date for the elections has
not yet been announced but has been fixed for the 19/4 or at some
point in the first two weeks of May.

In Athens, the GS of the CC, Aleka Papariga underlined in her speech
“that the conflict is total. Two strategies are coming into conflict:
On the one hand the strategy of capital’s interests and on the other
the one which represents the interests of the working class and the
poor self-employed in the cities and countryside(…) What will make the
difference in this election battle will be the vote the KKE receives.
Because only in this way will a real people’s message be conveyed that
will intimidate the terrorists of reaction and those ready to
compromise at the right moment. (…)

The Papademos government and the partners ND and PASOK have undertaken
the obligation, until the elections are held, to work hard for the
implementation of the many new barbaric measures which have been taken
and to take new ones.

Regarding the question “the EU or chaos” we respond that: you are
bringing chaos, we have the strength to teach you a serious lesson at
the ballot box and chiefly so that the count down begins for our
liberation from every form of capitalist exploitation and imperialist
tie.”

Regarding the Loan Agreement the GS of the CC of the KKE mentioned
that “It constitutes, together with the PSI, the old and new memoranda
is the first act of a multi-act tragedy, which to begin with will last
until 2042, in the framework of which a long term offensive will
escalate, month by month, quarter by quarter, against the popular
social forces, the workers, the poor popular strata of the city and
countryside. A united offensive, a united response and counterattack,
one for all, and all for one.”

Regarding the renegotiation of the debt and the measures which have
been taken, something which all the bourgeois and opportunist parties
regurgitate, Aleka Papariga posed the question: How will they combine
the improvement of the workers’ lives with the observance of what has
been agreed? And she added: “Of course they are not negotiating for
the good of the workers. They are negotiating sometimes in a more
exacting way and sometimes less so for the interests of one or other
section of capital, according to whether this section is strong and
expand into the international markets. Such negotiations will be
carried out by the leaders of the bourgeois and opportunist parties.
Let’s say that they possess this ability to negotiate despite the fact
that they will achieve nothing despite their negotiation abilities

Competitiveness means a race over which country is the champion in
taking anti-worker measures. Competitiveness is nothing other than a
race which will deepen unevenness. In any case, they are talking more
and more about the countries of the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Northern
and Southern Europe. It is not a question of geography but a question
of class.

What do the supporters of the EU say about the nonsense they had been
peddling to the people for years? What do all those who spoke of
convergence, social solidarity, stable development and prosperity say
to them? Indeed certain left-wingers find it convenient to explain
unevenness and uneven relationships in moral terms, without political
and class references. Because it is convenient for them to mock the
people in this way that there is a solution inside the system, that
there can exist both a humane form of capitalism and a barbaric one.
Also certain people exclusively attack the Troika because it deprives
us of national sovereignty, as if the Troika arrived on its own, as if
it is above the EU, IMF and ECB. The signing of the Maastricht Treaty
and the statement that we will remain in the EU whatever happens
legitimises the Troika (…) The accession to the imperialist EU, the EU
of the capitalist states, means the acceptance of unevenness, of the
sharpest competition inside the predatory alliance, as well as the
decisions which on each occasion the strongest capitalist countries in
the imperialist chain inside and outside the EU make”. This was noted
amongst other things by the GS of the CC of the KKE.

A. Papariga in conclusion stated that: “We do not conceal from the
people that neither a better defence nor a better attack are
sufficient. The struggle must be waged until its end, until working
class-people’s power, disengagement from the EU with socialisation,
planning at a national level, working class-people’s control and a
unilateral cancellation of the debt. Of course no one is voting for
working class power at the ballot box, consequently full agreement is
not necessary, however the people must vote to gather together
strength, experience and courage in order to impede new tragedies, to
fight for what belongs to them and their children.”

e-mail:cpg at int.kke.gr
-- 
Yoshie Furuhashi
<http://mrzine.org/>