Contribution of the Communist Party of Greece

Speech of the KKE in the ECA Teleconference

“The war machine of Euro-Atlanticism, NATO and the EU against the peoples - The communists’ proposal for a way out in conditions of intensifying imperialist competition”

 

Introduction

On behalf of the KKE, we would like to thank the TKP for organizing today’s European Communist Action teleconference.

Today, inter-imperialist competition is escalating. Trade and economic conflicts are intensifying, with tariffs, measures, and countermeasures from all imperialist centers, and more than 50 hotspots of military conflict and confrontation are currently active worldwide. Under these conditions, diplomatic means are becoming less and less important for bourgeois states, and military preparations are taking priority.

In this context, in December 2024, the Central Committee of the KKE adopted a decision entitled "The escalation of imperialist war, the intensification of imperialist competition, and the preparation of the Party." This decision is part of the preparations of the entire Party ahead of the 22nd Congress, which will be held at the end of January 2026 with the theme: "The KKE: strong, steadfast in every trial, ready to answer History's call for Socialism."

 

Causes of Imperialist Competition

It is very important to understand that the intensifying of imperialist competition is not due to some "warmongering,""authoritarian," or "revisionist regimes," as Euro-Atlantic propaganda pretends to argue. On the contrary, it stems from the very nature of the capitalist system, its uneven development. The rivalry between the US, China, Russia, the EU, among others, but especially between the first two for primacy in the global capitalist economy, is an inevitable consequence of the struggle for the division of markets, energy sources, and other critical minerals, and spheres of influence more broadly. This is the main reason that drives bourgeois states and their transnational alliances even to war.

The imperialist war in Ukraine is a conflict between the US, the EU, NATO, and capitalist Russia over geopolitical influence, control of transport routes, and energy resources. The Israeli occupation and genocide of the Palestinian people, planned with the support of the US, NATO, and the EU, is a flashpoint in the Middle East.  Here, too, the interests of the US, Israel, and the EU clash with the plans of their competitors, who are promoting projects such as China's "Silk Road", and the India-Middle East Corridor, all with the aim of ensuring the profitability of the groups that support them.

 

Direct involvement of NATO, the EU, and governments

At the NATO summit in the Netherlands, which the European Communist Action Parties protested against, Euro-Atlanticism drew up plans for battle with Russia, China, and the emerging “Euro-Asian” camp.

The NATO Secretary General set out his aggressive goals, saying: "NATO's military advantage is being aggressively challenged by Russia's rapid rearmament, Chinese technology, and Iranian and North Korean weapons. ... We must win this battle." How will all this be achieved? "Cut pensions, education, health," Mr Rutte provocatively replies.

So, NATO, the EU, and their governments are deeply involved in the imperialist wars that are unfolding, because this is in the interests of their capitalist classes.

In Ukraine, their involvement is crucial, as they actively support the Zelensky regime with weapons, military aid, and financial support, with their eyes set on dividing up the "spoils"of war—the reconstruction of Ukraine and its wealth, at the expense of its people, who will bleed again to pay off the enormous war debts.  The Greek bourgeoisie is playing a leading role in this involvement, with the active participation of the New Democracy government and the support of all bourgeois parties.

Of course, not everything is "milk and honey" within the "Euro-Atlantic camp." Especially today, with the multi-level strategy pursued by the Trump administration and through the bargaining with Russia, which includes control of the Arctic and the release of capable military forces for the "conflict that may determine the future of the world" in the Indo-Pacific. At the same time, with tariffs on the EU, the extremely expensive LNG liquefied natural gas from the US, aims to  secure the primacy of their military industry both in the new conditions of the transition to artificial intelligence technologies and to maintain or even expand their "customer base" in EU countries in the context of their rearmament.

The EU seeks to develop its own independent strategic autonomy: a global gateway for penetration into other continents, strengthening the Common Defense Policy, the spurious tool of military intervention such as the with the misleading name "European Peace Facility." Despite the fact that 23 of its 27 member states are also members of NATO, the EU is preparing to carry out its own interventions to secure the particular interests of the monopolies based in the EU. Plans to form a "Euroarmy" are back on the table, as part of plans for the EU and member states to get involved in "guarantees for Ukraine" if a peace agreement is reached. The Permanent Structured Cooperation exists as a "prototype."

This reality exposes the forces of social democracy and opportunism that talk about a "weak" EU and try to conceal its imperialist character and the aggressive goals of the bourgeoisie of the member states.

 

The EU's War Economy and Its Impact

As part of the "Rearm Europe" initiative, the Commission has established programs such as European Union Armament Initiative and Strategic Autonomy and Flexibility in Europe, which finance the development and production of weapons. In addition, European Defense Industry Reinforcement through common Procurement Act aims to support member states in jointly purchasing military equipment. At the same time, with the umbrella strategy "EU Preparedness 2030," various sectors can be classified as "critical" and linked to the war economy: rare earths and critical materials, electricity production and electromobility, infrastructure, etc.

In this context, the "don’t demand" mentality is cultivated among workers. Already, resources that could be allocated to health, education, pension fund reserves and people's deposits are being used to fuel the fire of war. At the same time, the war economy entails a dramatic deterioration in working conditions, as evidenced, for example, by the generalization of both longer workdays and more flexibility (12-hour and 13-hour working days, or 4-day 10-hour working days) throughout the EU, and losses in workers' income. At the same time, repression, anti-communism, and the crackdown on trade union activity are intensifying.

 

The struggle of European Communist Action

In these conditions of an all-out attack by capital, the struggle of European Communist Action and the parties that comprise it takes on great importance. Because our parties develop their common action by rejecting any kind of management of the exploitative, capitalist system that leads with mathematical precision to crises, poverty, imperialist wars, and refugees. Because they insist that the way out is through conflict with the monopolies, their governments, capital and its power, for another power-economy, the result of the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism. Because they recognize the need to strengthen the labor movement and reorganize it along class lines, as a tool for defending popular rights, and expanding them today, gathering and preparing forces for the counterattack, for the overthrow of capitalist barbarism.

Of course, we are not acting alone. There is subversive interference from forces—including within the international communist movement—that adopt the position that Russia, China, and other countries (Iran, Venezuela) constitute some kind of "anti-imperialist counterweight" to the US and Euro-Atlanticism. They claim, with analyses that are divorced from reality, that socialism is supposedly being built in China, where capitalist relations of production have demonstrably prevailed. Such are, for example, the forces that make up the so-called "World Anti-Imperialist Platform." In other words, they overlook the capitalist character of these states and support their bourgeois classes. Imperialism is not simply an "aggressive foreign policy," as they claim, but the final, highest stage of capitalism, where monopolies dominate in all sectors. Imperialism, in other words, is a system in which capitalist states participate on the basis of their political, economic, and military power. The rise of China, even to the point of surpassing the US, and the strengthening of Russia do not signal the emergence of an "anti-imperialist" pole, but the formation of conditions in which competition will be even more intense and dangerous.

In the final analysis, the Communist and Workers' Parties that adopt this stance choose one imperialist "camp" or the other and are led to adopt the pretexts and "whitewash" the crimes of one or the other imperialist axis that seeks to serve its particular interests.

In conditions of imperialist war, waged by the bourgeoisie and their governments, it is the responsibility of the peoples, with the communists at the forefront, to organize their own independent struggle for their own interests against their bourgeois classes and any imperialist alliance. In the KKE's program, we note: “In the event of Greece's imperialist involvement in either a defensive or offensive war, the Party must lead the independent organization of the workers' and people's struggle in all its forms, so as to lead to the complete defeat of the bourgeoisie, both domestic and foreign as invaders, and to be practically linked to the conquest of power. With the initiative and guidance of the party, a workers' and popular front must be formed with all forms of action and the slogan: The people will bring freedom and a way out of the capitalist system, which, as long as it prevails, brings war and "peace" under gun-point.”

 

Tasks in the current circumstances

In these complex and dangerous conditions, the KKE, aware of its responsibility, seeks to contribute so that the Greek people and the peoples of our region can stand up, linking the struggle against war with the struggle against every bourgeois class and imperialist alliance.

We struggle against war, against economic, social, and political problems, on the road of reclaiming rights, towards counterattack, and overthrow. With the struggle for a new society without exploitation of man by man, the socialist-communist society. For internationalist solidarity with the peoples of the World.

We are stepping up our efforts to inform the Greek people about the true nature and causes of wars. We are fighting against our country's involvement in imperialist plans, we are highlighting the danger posed by the dozens of US-NATO bases on Greek soil and we are demanding that they leave our country, we are demanding no soldiers outside our borders. We are shaping all the terms and conditions for the Party's readiness for action in all circumstances without exception, drawing on our historical experience for this purpose.

We are taking the lead in organizing solidarity with the peoples who are struggling, expressing our solidarity and support for the Communist Parties that are operating in conditions of war, intervention, anti-communism, persecution, and prohibition, and are not giving up.