The KKE since 1996 (its 15th Congress) has moved past the rationale of “stages” to socialism, which were from time to time accompanied by similar minimum programs.

We have assessed that in the era of the transition from capitalism to socialism there is no room for political positions that trap the working class inside the management of the bourgeois system, through forms of intermediate stages between capitalism and socialism.

There is no room for political positions that advocate support for or participation in the various governments that manage the system, which have a “left-wing” or “progressive” label. Power will either be held by the bourgeois/capitalist class or by the working class. The means of production will either be socially owned or owned by the capitalists.

Solutions within the framework of the system, regardless of intentions, do not constitute forms of approaching a socialist solution but assist the perpetuation of capitalism, by affording it time and fostering illusions amongst the workers.

Today, the party’s program, which was adopted at its most recent 19th Congress assesses that:

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.

It also notes that:

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.

Based on the above, we think that it is clear that the KKE does not follow a political line of “left alliances” and does not have parliamentary illusions about the role of “left-wing” governments.

History has taught us that the rationale of reforms and the rejection of the revolutionary path, the rejection of the socialist revolution constitute a painful retreat from and denial of the most central feature that characterizes a Communist Party.

So, the KKE works in the direction of preparing the subjective factor for the prospect of the socialist revolution, even if the specific period of time when it manifests itself is determined by objective conditions, by the revolutionary situation.

Today, in non-revolutionary conditions, our party prioritizes the regroupment of the labor movement, so that it can become capable of responding to the needs of the class struggle, so that the working class can fulfill its role as the leading class in society, the vehicle of revolutionary change.

The regroupment of the labor movement means strong, mass trade unions that will struggle in a class direction, based on the workers, on the young working people, the women, the immigrants, through collective procedures that safeguard the participation in decision-making and the implementation of the decisions.

Strengthening of PAME, of the class-oriented rally in the labor movement, the change of the correlation of forces at the expense of the forces of reformism, opportunism, employer and government-led trade unionism, the vehicles of social partnership are basic features of such a regroupment.

It requires strong party organizations in the factories, in enterprises of strategic importance.

The labor movement must struggle in a militant and organized way concerning all the problems of the working class based on the criterion of the contemporary needs, achieving the orientation of confrontation against the forces of capital for the overthrow of the capitalist exploitation as well as a high level of class unity.

The working class with its vanguard stance must play the leading role in the construction of the people’s alliance that provides an answer to the question regarding the organization of the struggle to repel the barbaric anti-labor, anti-people measures, to organize the people’s counterattack.

The People’s Alliance expresses the interests of the working class, the semi-proletarians, the self-employed and the poor farmers, the young people and the women of the poor popular strata in the struggle against the monopolies and capitalist ownership, against the assimilation of the country into the imperialist unions. The People’s Alliance is a social alliance and struggles in terms of the movement, following a line of rupture and overthrow.

Today it is being formed on the basis of the common struggle of PAME, the class-oriented rally in the labor movement, of PASY among the poor farmers, PASEVE among the self-employed, MAS among students, OGE among women.

It struggles for salaries, pensions, for an exclusively public and free system for healthcare, welfare, education, for all the problems of the workers and the people.

It supports the view that the struggle for a pro-people way out from the crisis is inextricably linked with the struggle for the disengagement from the EU, the unilateral cancellation of the public debt.

The struggle for the disengagement from the EU is linked with the struggle against the power of the monopolies and the struggle of the working class and its allies, for working-class and people’s power.

The People’s Alliance adopts the socialization of the concentrated means of production, central planning, workers’ social control.

The rallying of the majority of the working class with the KKE and the attraction of leading sections of the popular strata will pass through various phases. The labor movement, the movements of the urban self-employed and farmers and the form that their alliance takes on (the People’s Alliance) with anti-monopoly and anti-capitalist goals, with the vanguard activity of the KKE’s forces, in non-revolutionary conditions, constitute the first form for the creation of the revolutionary workers’ and people’s front in revolutionary conditions.

In the conditions of the revolutionary situation, the revolutionary workers’ and people’s front, using all forms of its activity, can become the center of the popular uprising against capitalist power.

It must prevail in the basic regions, particularly in the industrial-trade-transport centers, communications and energy centers, so as to achieve the full demobilization of the mechanisms of bourgeois power as well as their nullification, the overthrow of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, so that revolutionary institutions created by the people can emerge and prevail, institutions that will undertake the new organization of society and the establishment of revolutionary working-class power, which will be based on the productive unit, the social services, the administrative units, the producer cooperatives.

Then the proposal of the KKE for people’s power with the socialization of the monopolies, disengagement from the EU, and unilateral cancellation of the debt can be implemented.

This is the only realistic and hopeful proposal for the people that can finally put an end to the memoranda and the sacrifices imposed on them which aim to serve the needs of the capitalist development path.

The realization of this depends on the will of the people. The path of rupture with the EU and IMF, local and foreign capital, requires that the people join forces with the KKE.

It is the only true alternative solution capable of utilizing and further developing the country’s productive potential in favor of the people. Greece has preconditions (industrial and agricultural production, mineral wealth, specialized labor force, and scientific personnel) to produce the majority of the products the people need. And on this basis to develop mutually beneficial relations with other countries. Today this potential is either being restricted or utilized in a distorted way, at other times it is actually undermined because it is subordinated to capitalist profits, uneven capitalist development and the commitments to the EU.

The utilization of this potential requires their emancipation from the shackles of capitalist ownership and power. It is the only proposal that can safeguard permanent and stable work for all, exclusively public and free services in education, health, and welfare.

It is the only way to prevent our country’s dangerous participation in the anti-people military plans of NATO, the USA, and the EU. The only way to ensure that we do not become entangled in the web of contradictions between the imperialists, which are fighting amongst each other over how the oil and gas transport routes will be shared out, transport routes which are always drenched with the people’s blood.

Such a path to overthrow the system will not be lonely or isolated as all the parties that defend capitalism claim. It will be supported by the struggle and solidarity of other peoples, movements and countries which are marching on the same path.

Today, better preconditions for the organization and regroupment of the labor movement and the strengthening of the people’s alliance can be formed. Fissures can emerge in today’s negative correlation of forces that exists in Greece and internationally.

What is needed is that the people utilize their experience and use it to empower their struggle for the overthrow of the system.

So, there is a way and a plan for our proposal to be realized and for the working class to see better days, as they should, as they deserve, on the basis of the potential that society has today. And this path requires the formation of a strong popular social alliance which will fight against the new anti-people measures and will have the struggle against the monopolies and capitalism as it stable compass.

Its formation and strengthening today can help change the negative correlation of forces, empower the organization, combativeness, and militancy of the working class and the other popular strata. It can counter submission and fatalism, the subjugation of the people to the old and new managers of capitalism’s barbarity.

An even more powerful KKE is needed for this course, in the parliament and — above all — in the workplaces, in the big factories, in the popular neighborhoods, in the rural areas, in the youth.

The KKE is the only force that can support the struggle of the people against poverty, unemployment, and a degraded life whether inside or outside the eurozone, with the euro or with a national currency.

The KKE is the only force that fights for a rupture with capitalist exploitation and power. It is the force that can lead the people to a truly different and higher form of the organization of society as a whole and the economy.

This entails social ownership of the means of production, central planning, workers’ control. These are the preconditions for the real liberation from the vice-like grip of the markets and capital, for a unilateral and complete cancellation of the debt, for disengagement from the chains of the EU.