The founding meeting of a new regional form of cooperation between the communist and workers’ parties of Europe, called European Communist Action (ECA), took place in Athens on 18 Nov 2023, at the invitation of the KKE.
The founding meeting was attended by delegations from 12 parties in Europe, namely the Party of Labour of Austria, the Communist Workers’ Party – for Peace and Socialism (Finland), the Communist Revolutionary Party of France, the Communist Party of Greece, the Workers Party of Ireland, the Communist Front (Italy), the New Communist Party of the Netherlands, the Communist Party of the Workers of Spain, the Communist Party of Sweden, the Swiss Communist Party, the Communist Party of Türkiye and the Union of Communists of Ukraine.
During the founding meeting, the Founding Declaration of the ECA, which is presented below, as well as an initial plan of activities of the ECA for the coming period were discussed and approved.
On the eve of the founding meeting, the delegations took part in the mass anti-imperialist rally on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Polytechnic Uprising.
Founding Declaration of the ECA
The following Communist and Workers’ Parties of the EU member states, associated related states, and other European countries, declare:
We support the principles of scientific socialism and are united by the vision of a society without the exploitation of man by man, without poverty, social injustice and imperialist wars.
We consider that the EU is capital’s choice. The EU promotes measures in favour of the monopolies, the concentration and centralization of capital; it is strengthening its characteristics as an imperialist economic, political and military bloc opposed to the interests of the working class, the popular strata; it intensifies armaments, authoritarianism, state repression, limiting sovereign rights.
It is our assessment that the European Union is the European imperialist centre, supports aggressive plans against the peoples, and is aligned with the USA and NATO. It has militarism as a structural element. The scandals that continuously erupt in the European Parliament confirmthe character of the EU as a union of monopolies and lobbies and a breeding ground for corruption.
We consider that there is another development path for the peoples. The perspective of another Europe, the prosperity of the peoples, social progress, democratic rights, equal cooperation, peace, and socialism are highlighted through the workers’ struggles.
We believe in the right of every people to choose its own sovereign path of development, including the right to disengage from the EU and NATO. We struggle against capitalist exploitation, for the construction of socialism.
We are not members of the so-called European Parties, which are formed by the EU and amongst them the so-called Party of the European Left.
In the previous period, many of our parties participated in the European Communist Initiative and contributed to its positions and action for the interests of the working class and the peoples, in conflict with capital and the exploitative system.
The ECI has played a positive role in the struggle of the European communist movement. However, developments require a step forward in order to enrich the ideological–political framework and to organize the struggle on a more solid basis.
In this direction, the European Communist Action is established in the place of the ECI.
Every Communist and Workers’ Party from an EU member state or associated state, as well as from other European countries that accepts this Declaration and its conditions can participate in the European Communist Action.
The goal of the “Action” is to contribute to the research and study of issues concerning Europe, particularly concerning the EU, the political line which is drawn up in its framework and has an impact on the lives of the workers, as well as to assist the elaboration of joint positions of the Parties, the coordination of their struggle and the development of solidarity and other actions.
Our Parties seek to establish strong ties with the working class and the popular strata, to get better positioned and occupy a leading role in the class struggle, so that together we can act in a line of rupture with the system of capitalism and its managers of all kinds.
We consider that our era is the era of revolutionary passage from capitalism to socialism. Based on this, we reject any support for or participation in bourgeois governments, struggling against both liberal and social democratic parties, against all kinds of bourgeois governments that serve the interests of the monopolies.
Our Parties assess that imperialism is not just an aggressive policy. It is monopoly capitalism, capitalism in its most reactionary era, that is, in its highest stage. It is essentially inherent in stagnation, in the great gap between the productive potential and the meeting of the contemporary needs of the workers, due to class exploitation, the contradictions between the monopolies and the bourgeois states that lead to imperialist wars.
We believe that imperialist interventions and wars, such as the one thatbroke out in Ukraine in 2022, where the interests and plans of the USA, NATO and the EU clash with capitalist Russia over the control of the markets, raw materials and transport networks of Ukraine and the acquisition of geopolitical advantages, are also a result of imperialist competition.
We oppose the imperialist war and the participation of our countries in it, as well as the real danger of a generalization of the war and the outbreak of new imperialist conflicts in other parts of the world, particularly in the South-East Asia region, where the confrontation between the USA and China for supremacy in the world capitalist system is more pronounced.
We examine any process of secession or unification of capitalist states from a class-oriented point of view and struggle against NATO, the EU and all kinds of imperialist alliances. We are opposed to the participation of our countries in such anti-popular unions and intensify the effort so that the workers are not trapped under a false flag but defend their own interests, in conflict with the exploiters and their transnational unions.
We consider that the ideological, political and organizational regroupment of the International Communist Movement cannot be realized without an unwavering struggle against any kind of bourgeois management of the exploitative system, liberal or social-democratic; against opportunism, which expresses the influence of bourgeois ideology on the labour movement. The one-sided reference to “neoliberalism” causes confusion as it overshadows the necessity of the struggle against capitalism and the bourgeois political system that manages this exploitative system.
We oppose both nationalism and cosmopolitanism of capital, racism and fascism. We reject the false “anti-fascism” and the various “anti-fascist fronts” used by bourgeois and opportunist political forces to entrap workers’–people’s forces into bourgeois management, detaching fascism from the capitalist system that gives rise to it and uses it when needed.
We struggle with all our might for the meeting of the contemporary workers’– people’s needs, through the regroupment and strengthening of the labour–trade union movement and the other popular movements, in a direction of struggle against the monopolies and capitalism.
We oppose the capitalist exploitation of the planet and its resources, as it creates climate change, dangerous pollution and acts on extreme weather, which threaten the lives of the working people. We will take action against this exploitation, to reveal the essence of the problem and to disarm the illusion of “green capitalism” that is constantly peddled and, instead, we will strive towards a socialist world that prioritizes scientific and well-founded measures to safeguard the planet for coming generations.
The Parties participating in the European Communist Action recognize thetimeliness and necessity of socialism–communism as the only alternative for the peoples and defend the contribution of the October Socialist Revolution and the first socialist state, the USSR. At the same time, they study the causes of its overthrow as regards the issues of the economy, the political superstructure and the strategy of the International Communist Movement.
We stress that socialism is governed by principles and scientific laws, i.e. workers’ power, the socialization of the means of production, and central scientific planning. Based on this, positions such as that a market socialism can be built by maintaining capitalist enterprises and mechanisms, by maintaining wage labour by owners of means of production and land, by treating labour power as a commodity and by capital’s exploitation of wage labour are rejected.
The European Communist Action will study the international developments and intervene in all the problems faced by the working class and the popular strata, the toiling farmers and self-employed, women, and young people of working-class origin. In this context, our parties confront and oppose all forms of racism and discrimination on the basis of religion, colour, gender or sexual orientation.
It will take initiatives:
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Against anti-communism, in support of Communist and Workers’ Parties struggling under persecution and bans on communist ideology and communist symbols. It will express its internationalist solidarity with all the peoples and stand by the side of militants facing persecution for their trade union and political action. It will strengthen solidarity with Cuba and the Cuban people against the blockade and the imperialist plans of the USA and the EU, for an end to the blockade and all forms of interference in the internal affairs of Cuba.
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Against fascism and its causes, against racism and xenophobia, by the side of refugees and immigrants who are uprooted by imperialist wars and poverty caused by the capitalist system.
The European Communist Action will strengthen the struggle:
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Against the plans of the USA, NATO, the EU and all other imperialist alliances. Against NATO’s new strategic concept, the EU’s Security and Defence Policy, the strategy of Green Transition and the Recovery Fund, which are tools of capital against the peoples.
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Against imperialist war,for the disengagement of our countries from imperialist plans and organizations. The solution for the peoples does not lie in the illusions spread by bourgeois powers that there could be another, “better security architecture”, or NATO “without military plans and offensive weapons systems on its territories”, or a “pro-peace EU”, or a “peaceful multipolar world”. The solution lies in strengthening the class struggle for disengagement from imperialist unions, against imperialist war and the womb that gives birth to it, that is, the capitalist system.
We will continue highlighting the historical milestones of the struggle of the labour and communist movement. We will continue defending and promoting the Great October Socialist Revolution, the achievements of the Soviet Union and socialism built in the 20th century, further studying the causes of the counter-revolution and capitalist restoration.
In the framework of the European Communist Action and through the bilateral relations between the Communist and Workers’ Parties that are part of its ranks, we will strengthen the exchange of experience from the activity in the labour–trade union movement and in other popular movements, in the movement for equality and emancipation of women, in order to make the developing struggles more effective and to strengthen the ties of the Parties with workers’–people’s forces.
The European Communist Action will seek joint action with other Communist and Workers’ Parties in Europe concerning workers’–people’s problems, issues of anti-communism and internationalist solidarity, against imperialist wars and interventions. It will seek to strengthen relations with Communist and Workers’ Parties on all continents with which there is a ideological–political common reference point.
I mean, if the bias was based on skin-colour or sex, would you feel differently about it?