KKE responds to the statement issued by the Russian Communist Workers’ Party (RCWP)

In response to a statement issued by the RCWP after the 22nd International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties that was held in Havana, the International Relations Section of the CC of the KKE notes the following:

“We have read, to our sorrow, the statement issued by the Russian Communist Workers’ Party (RCWP) following the 22nd International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties (IMCWP) in Havana. We believe that it is engaging in another attack, in a non-comradely or at least a critical spirit, against the KKE, the Communist Party of Mexico, the Communist Party of the Workers of Spain, and the Communist Party of Turkey that took the lead in issuing the Joint Statement of 43 Communist and Workers’ Parties and 30 Communist Youth Organizations. The Joint Statement condemned the imperialist war in Ukraine based on class, communist criteria as a war between the USA-NATO-EU and capitalist Russia.

The essence of the position of the Communist Parties and Communist Youth Organizations against which the RCWP is directed is the condemnation of both sides involved in the war being waged in Ukraine and the highlighting of the need for the peoples to raise the flag of their own resistance and struggle, to separate themselves from the competition of their bourgeois classes and their political representatives regardless of their guise. In this regard, we have condemned the aggressive stance of the USA, NATO, the EU, and the Ukrainian government already since 2014, as well as the unacceptable military intervention of Russia in Ukraine.

25.02.2022. The KKE holds the first mass rally in Athens against the imperialist war and Greece’s participation in it. It highlights the unjust and imperialist character of the war and calls upon the peoples to refuse to take sides between two thieves.

  

The statement of the RCWP conceals facts and positions or presents them in a biased way. The truth is that our current disagreement with the RCWP is deeply class-based since the RCWP and its joint resolution with the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) and the CP of Ukraine support the aspirations of capitalist Russia in the imperialist war. The RCWP accused the KKE and other CPs of opportunism, while today it is collaborating in this war with parties in Russia and Ukraine that it called ‘compromised’ and ‘opportunist’.

We consider that the positioning of the CPs towards war, free of nationalist influence, is a demanding and strategically crucial issue.

The policy followed by the leadership of the RCWP even leads it to provocative actions such as the one directed against the Union of Communists of Ukraine. It is targeting this party because it has separated its position by making a class-based analysis, it characterizes the war in Ukraine as imperialist, and it has signed the Joint Statement of 43 Communist and Workers’ Parties and 30 Communist Youth Organizations.

The stance of the RCWP today is marked by the choice of its leadership to support the policy of the Russian state and the Russian government; to side with the Russian bourgeoisie adopting its pretext about waging an ‘anti-fascist war’ while in practice thousands of children of the Russian and Ukrainian people are being killed due to the competition between ‘two thieves’ over the exploitation of the wealth-producing resources, the control of markets, and the acquisition of geopolitical advantages.

The MP of the KKE and vice-president of the Greek Parliament, G. Lambroulis, is on the “blacklist” of the reactionary authorities of Ukraine, together with other cadres of the KKE, because he visited Donbas in 2014 and expressed solidarity with the people of Donbas and Ukraine overall.

The position that the Russian bourgeoisie, its state, and the Putin government will save the people of Ukraine and Donbas from fascism is unfounded and misleading. It conceals the fact that fascism is a creation of capitalism and provides cover to the forces of the counter-revolution that slander the October Socialist Revolution and the construction of socialism in the Soviet Union, even by glorifying philosophers - defenders of fascism or resorting to crude anti-communism, as president Putin has repeatedly done.

The historical conclusion that permeates imperialist wars is proved once again: The CPs that come under the banner of the bourgeois classes and serve their strategic aims are objectively directed against the interests of the peoples.

In particular, regarding the RCWP’s support to the speech of the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine, P. Symonenko, at the 22nd IMCWP and the claim that the 4 CPs that took the initiative for the Joint Statement should take into account the positions of the CP of Ukraine, we want to note the following:

Of course, each CP, based on Marxist–Leninist principles, has an obligation to make its own analysis on such critical issues and to take a position on a war that is already being waged for 8 months now, with the possibility of its generalization and the use of nuclear weapons. However, the responsibility of each CP for a comprehensive class-based analysis and positioning does not contradict the responsibility for collective study and consultation.

01.05.2015. The reactionary authorities of Ukraine ban the May Day event. The KKE, responding to a request of the CP of Ukraine, sends a delegation to Kiev. In the photo above, the delegation of the KKE (G. Marinos, E. Vagenas) and the representative of the Portuguese CP at the rally held in Kiev.

The KKE has tried to contact the CP of Ukraine and managed to speak on the telephone several times with the International Relations Section, asking about the position of this party towards the imperialist war. However, the answer we have always  got was that the CP of Ukraine has not issued a statement and has not yet taken a position. The war is being waged for eight months now and this party has not sent a statement to inform the Communist Parties nor has it sent a statement to SolidNet.

The first public statement of the CP of Ukraine is the one made during the 22nd IMCWP in Havana through the speech given by P. Symonenko, who sided with the Russian bourgeoisie and in this regard he attacked the KKE.

The RCWP is concealing the truth. It also conceals what the representative of the KKE pointed out in his contribution in response to the aggressive speech of the First Secretary of the CP of Ukraine at the 22nd IMCWP.

Namely, that the Ukrainian government has characterized cadres of the KKE as terrorists and personae non gratae in this country. It has put them on a blacklist due to the fact that in October 2014 they visited Donbas during the elections in Luhansk and Donetsk and expressed solidarity with the communists, the Ukrainian people, and the people of Donbas.

April 2022. The KKE was the only party that did not participate in the fiesta organized by the Greek government in the parliament, where the President of Ukraine, V. Zelenskiy and a fascist of the Azov Battalion with Greek origin addressed a speech. The GS of the CC of the KKE, D. Koutsoumbas, shortly afterwards stated that “We are proud that the KKE benches were empty when the other parties were applauding Zelenskiy and the Nazis of the Azov Battalion.”

Moreover, that the KKE visited Kiev and was by the side of the CP of Ukraine in May 2015, when the Labour Day celebrations were banned. That one of its MPs visited Kiev in November 2015 and stood by the side of the CP of Ukraine at the anti-communist trial.

Over the years, the KKE has resolutely condemned the interventions of the USA, NATO, and the EU in Ukraine as well as the Ukrainian governments, the fascist, and the pro-fascist forces. It has denounced the persecution of communists through continuous interventions at the Ukrainian embassy in Athens and the European Parliament.

The KKE refused to take part in the meeting of the Greek parliament in April 2022, where the President of Ukraine Zelenskiy addressed all the other parties. Our party denounced the Greek government, the Ukrainian president, and the fascists of the Azov Battalion.

That is because the KKE has principles and expresses its internationalist solidarity in every situation; however, this has been ‘forgotten’ by the RCWP and the CP of Ukraine.

Our party has been struggling for years against the US, NATO, and the EU; against every imperialist intervention. It daily struggles against the US bases in Greece and the involvement of the Greek governments in the US–NATO plans. It struggles against the objectives and aspirations of the Greek bourgeoisie. At the same time, based on communist principles, it opposes the aims of the Russian bourgeoisie and the Russian state, denouncing Russia’s unacceptable invasion of Ukraine and the violation of its territorial integrity and exposing the deceptive pretexts they use to entrap and manipulate the peoples.

We reiterate that the CPs that come under the banner of the domestic bourgeoisie and the bourgeoisie of the invader, have no excuse; they violate communist principles and bear heavy responsibilities.

Over the past 8 months, the KKE has organized dozens of demonstrations against NATO and the deployment of arms and troops to the imperialist war in Ukraine.

The Joint Statement of 43 Communist Parties and 30 Communist Youth Organizations, which underscores that ‘The interest of the working class and the popular strata requires us to strengthen the class criterion for analyzing the developments, to chart our own independent path against monopolies and bourgeois classes, for the overthrow of capitalism, for the strengthening of the class struggle against imperialist war, for socialism, which remains as timely and necessary as ever.’ assumes greater significance today.”

Published in Rizospastis – Organ of the CC of the KKE on 12–13/11/2022.

 

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