Contribution of the Communist Party of Greece

“The EU, NATO, and other imperialist alliances: ‘Security providers’ or frameworks for deeper
military involvement at the expense of the people?”

The main argument of the bourgeoisie and its political parties is that our country’s international alliances can ensure the security of its people. They urge us to view NATO, the European Union, and the various strategic partnerships with capitalist states as a “protective umbrella.” But what are they trying to hide? That these alliances were not formed for the security of the people, but for the security of capital’s investments and profits. As we assess in the documents of the 22nd Congress of the KKE, the character of every imperialist alliance is determined by its economic basis. And their economic basis is the dominance of the monopolies and their interests.

The bourgeoisie of every capitalist state seeks to participate in such international alliances because, on the one hand, it wants strong “backing” against the “enemy: the people,” in order to shield its power and make the exploitation of workers more effective. At the same time, it seeks to advance its strategic interests and participate in the division of the spoils: markets, energy sources, mineral wealth, ports, pipelines, trade routes, and investments.

The Turkish and Greek peoples have had a bitter experience with the simultaneous accession of the two states to NATO. Their accession to the Euro-Atlantic alliance was presented as a guarantee of stability and security. However, membership in the same imperialist alliance has not only failed to prevent rivalries between the bourgeoisies of the two capitalist states, but has, on the contrary, led to an escalation, to new territorial claims, and to the contestation of borders in the Aegean Sea, while the problem of the 52-year occupation of a large part of Cyprus remains unresolved. The negotiations and the search for compromises by the bourgeoisie are taking place within the framework of Euro- Atlantic aspirations to strengthen NATO’s southeastern flank and to jointly exploit the wealth-
producing resources in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean, for the benefit of the monopolies, against the peoples, who have nothing to divide and can live in peace, under their own rule, as the Communist Party of Turkey and the KKE are fighting for.

Greece’s deeper involvement in the plans for Ukraine and the Middle East makes the dangers even more immediate. Turning the country into a NATO stronghold, allowing the U.S. to use military bases, sending military equipment, and deploying Greek armed forces on missions abroad are not forms of “passive” participation. They transform the country’s infrastructure, ports, and regions into links in war planning and, therefore, into potential targets for retaliation. The government and the pro-Euro-Atlantic parties seek to present this involvement as a matter of national interest. In reality, this involvement serves the Greek bourgeoisie’s aim to elevate its role as an energy and transportation hub and to claim a larger share of the spoils from interventions and post-war “reconstruction.”

The people pay dearly for this stance: through the risk of war and the diversion of resources from social needs to military equipment and the war economy. The EU, alongside NATO, is promoting the rearmament of Europe, new funds and programs for military purposes such as ReArmEU, SAFE—in which third countries will also participate—and so-called “military mobility,” that is, dual-use infrastructure for the rapid transport of forces and equipment. Behind the calls for “resilience” and “psychological readiness”—or the “culture of coffins,” as the Greek Minister of Defense cynically put it—lies the demand that the people accept cuts in spending on salaries, pensions, health care, education, and social rights, as well as the intensification of capitalist exploitation within the framework of the war economy and preparations.

Today, it is clear that international rivalries are fueled by the intensifying struggle for supremacy between the U.S. and capitalist China, as well as the strategic ambitions of NATO and Russia. NATO is bolstering its military forces and bases, modernizing its arsenal, and preparing for widespread conflicts. The conflict between the Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian blocs, amid internal contradictions within both camps, is creating a very dangerous situation for the peoples.

Temporary compromises do not negate the underlying trend—that of the irreversible intensification of contradictions and rivalries. This is underscored by recent developments—the escalation and consolidation of imperialist wars in Ukraine and Iran, and more broadly in the Middle East—which are paving the way for a generalized imperialist war.

That is why the “Euro-Atlantic or Eurasian camp” dilemma is deeply misleading. There is no “good” imperialist alliance that can be used for the benefit of the peoples. Neither NATO and the EU nor Russia, China, or other capitalist blocs can serve the peoples, as various opportunist forces claim. The subordination of the labor movement to the goals of “its own” bourgeoisie—which such forces advocate in the name of a multipolar world—leads to the abandonment of the independent struggle of the working class and the peoples for their own interests and needs, against monopolies and capitalism, for the construction of socialism, and for the creation of conditions for mutually beneficial international relations. History has proven time and again that supporting the domestic bourgeoisie and siding with the camp of plunderers undermines the workers’ and people’s struggle and its prospects.

The KKE’s action has a clear orientation: the struggle to disentangle the country from imperialist wars and schemes, to close U.S.-NATO bases, and to bring Greek military forces home from missions abroad. Our party plays a leading role in organizing the workers’ and people’s struggle, in the mobilizations of labor unions, student associations, peace committees, and organizations that block military shipments and resist the transformation of ports and other infrastructure into corridors of war.

Yesterday, thanks to the pioneering action of the communists and PAME, the city of Thessaloniki was flooded with people at the nationwide, mass rally. Tens of thousands of demonstrators participated, responding to the call of hundreds of organizations representing the labor movement, farmers, professionals, youth, women, and the anti-war and anti-imperialist movement and delivered a decisive response to the anti-popular policies of the New Democracy government, social democracy, and other bourgeois parties, as well as to capital and its allies, with the central slogan “No sacrifices for their profits and their wars. Give money for wages, health care, and education.”

Through this struggle, we express solidarity with all peoples: the people of Palestine fighting against the murderous state of Israel, the people of Iran, Lebanon, and Syria, and to the people of Cuba, who are facing the long-standing blockade imposed by U.S. imperialism.

The forces of the European Communist Action are aware of their historical responsibilities and have drawn valuable conclusions. The bourgeois classes and their imperialist alliances, the parties that support the capitalist system, bear criminal responsibility for our countries’ participation in imperialist wars and the plans of NATO and the EU, in the arms race and military preparations. They are turning our countries into military bases, perpetrators against other peoples, and targets of retaliation. They foster the so-called spurious “national unity” between exploiters and the exploited, in order to secure consent and drag the peoples into the slaughterhouse of war.

True peace and security for the peoples have never been secured anywhere by the exploiters, the bourgeoisie, and their alliances; they can be built through the strengthening of the workers’ - popular struggle, aimed at overthrowing bourgeois rule and breaking away from NATO, the EU, and every imperialist alliance, with the people exercising sovereignty over the wealth they produce. Only the struggle for a society free of exploitation—for socialism and communism—can pave the way for the means of production, the sources of wealth, to become social and popular property and to serve social needs, rather than being the “apple of discord” of capitalist profit, the spoils and plunder of imperialist conflicts.