The General Secretary of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), Dimitris Koutsoumbas, wrote an article which was published on the weekend edition of "Ta Nea" newspaper (4-5 January) under the title "The obstacle is the... sorcerer". Below you can read the article translated into english:
“Modern bourgeois society with its relations of production, of exchange and of property, a society that has conjured up such gigantic means of production and of exchange, is like the sorcerer who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether world whom he has called up by his spells”*.
The above phrase reflects the depth and the actual cause of the problems that the majority of the people faces today.
We are in the era of the 4th industrial revolution, of robotics and digitation.
These developments witness an undeniable truth: Today, there are all the capabilities to improve the standard of living for millions of working people in our country and the whole world.
The results, however, are exactly the opposite. Instead of going forward, the clock turns back...
The gap between how a worker can live today and how he actually lives is growing, even if capitalist economy is in a growth phase.
The gathering storm of a new crisis rises above international capitalist economy. Alliances, such as the EU and NATO, which until recently were considered as unshakeable, are undergoing rearrangements. Trade wars and geopolitical conflicts of huge dimensions erupt in every corner of the globe. Extensive environmental disasters put the people in danger.
The historic events that are taking place in front of us are the result of this contradiction. While an enormous wealth is being produced, the capitalist economy is characterized by anarchy and competitions over which business groups will appropriate this wealth...
A microcosm of these are what we are also living in Greece. Today, the working man could work less hours per day, enjoying a much better level of rights in his work and overall in his life (social security, Health, Education, culture, leisure, etc.), unemployment could have been eliminated but, instead, we have wage freeze, constant downard pressure of the rights, increase of retirement ages. At the same time, a handful of business groups are increasingly enjoying state money, privileges and tax exemptions, determine on the basis of their profits what will be produced, if it will be produced, where and under what conditions.
The other side of these injustices of capitalist development is the country's involvement in the plans of US-NATO-EU. Instead of living in true security and stable peace in cooperation with all the people and meeting their needs, our people live under constant threat, as it is reflected in the current pseudo-dilemma “retreat in sovereign rights and co-exploitation with Turkey or war conflict”. Every side of this dilemma carries enormous dangers for our people, sovereign rights, peace. On the one hand because a war engagement can act as catalyst to move forward the co-exploitation plans which are also an expressed desire of the USA. On the other hand, the co-exploitation plans bear the seeds of another conflict, as long as we aren't talking about co-operation among the people, but between business giants and powerful states, within conditions of growing international competitions. Our people have been brainwashed for many years by all governments. What was everyone saying to them? “As long as Greece is the good child of the US, NATO and EU, the borders and sovereign rights are secured”. This doctrine goes bankrupt. This is evidenced by the developments after the signing of the unacceptable agreement between the government of Turkey and the so-called government of Libya.
Greece has been transformed into a US-NATO military base, even preparing to store US nuclear weapons thus making the Greek people a “target”. The current Minister of Defense has provocatively stated that we will shed our blood again, on the side of the Americans in future wars (!!!). The Greek people pay NATO 4 billion euros per year. All the other parties participate in this arena of pro-americanism. SYRIZA even went so far as to claim the paternity of the tightest embrace with the US!
So, after all? NATO washes its hands, when it doesn't foment the problem. The EU is limited to wish lists, mumbling some self-evident things. This is how Turkish aggression is fueled. Instead of being a blessing, the existing energy wealth in our broader region (Aegean, East Mediterranean) becomes a “curse” for the people. Strong imperialist, monopoly interests on who will exploit these resources intersect here. Our country's bourgeois class participates in this standoff, as well as the bourgeois class of Turkey and of course the USA, also France, Germany, Britain, Italy, etc, the plans of which aims to limit the “influence” of Russia and China. The absolute criterion for these interests is of course the profits and not the people's needs. These competitions lead with mathematical accuracy to new imperialist wars. They are behind the devastation and the uprooting that ravage the people of the Middle East.
The above are some of what the Greek people daily live. The satisfaction of their modern needs, in every aspect of his life, is “caught up” in the same obstacle. The... “sorcerer” we mentioned in the introduction. That is, in the old and corrupt system called capitalism.
Contemporary challenges require modern solutions. The innovative productive capabilities require also innovative relations of production.
No matter how much the shadow of “TINA” (there is no alternative) falls heavilty over every small and big struggle, no matter how SYRIZA as a government discredited militant values thus reinforcing conservatism, no matter how the government baptizes its barbaric policies as “normality”, the big truth cannot be hidden: A society without poverty, wars, crisis can rise. It is Socialism, the society that the KKE fights for, despite the fact its first attempt of construction in some countries on 20th century had not been able to be completed, defeated by mistakes and deficiences, within a negative correlation of forces. Nowadays, in the 21st century, the studied experience, along with the objective evolution of the societies, can lead us to a new society, if we the, the people, decide to show our actual power.
This is the only way for the country's skilled workforce and scientific staff to be fully utilized, with the criterion of safeguarding popular prosperity. This is the only way for the country's development potential to be used in a way that meets the combined needs of the people and society. Only through this way the people can enjoy they wealth they produce, by having the power in their own hands, having secured real democracy and turning those who are currently marginalized into the protagonists of social life: the vast majority of the people and youth.
The “sorcecer” causes more and more contrasts, more and more unresolved contradictions, but he won't withdraw on his own. He becomes more wild in order to impose his “will”.
As the workers' struggles create and widen cracks in the system, breaking compromise and fatalism, so the “sorcecer” will be demystified to what he really is: A difficult but not invincible opponent.
We welcome 2020 with optimism, no matter how gloomy it may seem. The contemporary challenges can be answered by daily action, by the assessments and the power proposal the KKE presents to the people, in order to become a matter of their struggle.
* phrase from the “Manifesto of the Communist Party, written in 1848 by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
