Friends and Comrades,

We welcome you to our event, with which we open the 10th Conference of the CPG(m-l). During the previous months when the pre-conference process developed within the organs and sectors of the Organization all over the country, in the many organized discussions with comrades and friends of the Organization and in the public dialogue that took place, with the significant participation of comrades and friends of the organization on its website, certain characteristics were reflected, we may even say they were dominant.

Thoughtfulness, seriousness, importunity, without easy enthusiasm or hasty answers for the big issues before us. These elements indicate a broad sense and awareness that this is a special Conference, a key Conference for our Organization. At the same time, of course, we are well aware that the 10th Conference is, can and must be a starting point on a road that will have many more demanding turning points and tests. We undoubtedly consider the spirit with which members and cadres, colleagues and friends approached the contributions of the S.O. and the issues they raised to be positive. We consider the reflection that seeks to "measure" current strengths and our potential to be necessary as well as positive. Not, of course, in order to declare retreat or resignation, but to see as clearly and concretely as possible the steps that lie ahead and in the direction of the expeditions that today's conditions require.

The understanding and sentience of these conditions prevailing in the world and in our country is, we believe, the main and fundamental reason that produces caution, severity and importunity. We consider the SO's contributions on the international situation and the situation in the country to be quite analytical and informative on how —at least for us— we understand our very turbulent times. About why and how the uncharted seas in which the working humanity, and with it our people are drifting in, have been shaped. About what the capitalist-imperialist system seeks, what outlets it looks to and how this outlet is ultimately fed and promoted by all the dominant powers, on all the scales they exist and in every country.

In this contribution, therefore, we will not present in detail all these considerations and positions that we have already expressed. But we will dwell on the most central elements of these considerations, on the basis of the developments that are taking place with great speed and density.

Friends and comrades,

So what world do we live in and where is this world going?
Let's take stock of recent developments:

– In the US, the issue of Biden's change of leadership is coming back with intensity, on the eve of the presidential elections held in a civil war climate — a continuation and development of the events of the Capitol in January 2021.

– Elements of instability and political crisis are manifesting themselves persistently and strongly in all three main European imperialist countries (England, France, Germany), while in the so-called European periphery there are even attempts to assassinate Prime Ministers (Slovakia).

– Elements of political tensions and crises with their own characteristics and with forms arising from their own political systems are also manifested in Russia (e.g. the Prigozhin campaign) and in China (where last summer we had the "disappearance" of the Chinese Foreign Minister, Qin Gag, a trusted associate of Xi Jinping, who was briefly and hastily replaced after taking office).
– A new debt crisis threatens the EU, with France and Italy (i.e. the second and third economies of the imperialist unholy alliance) emerging –based on bond yields and risk premiums– as the most vulnerable countries!

– A permanent social, class and political unrest, with obvious geopolitical causes, is spreading almost throughout the whole of Latin America.

– Tension is steadily rising in much-affected Africa, with Russian imperialism gaining access, and coups (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger) on the agenda. In the case of Niger, there was even an invasion —not an armed one— of a US base by Russian soldiers, while the West has been embarrassingly silent on the events that have, for the moment, resulted in the withdrawal of the license to exploit the critical uranium deposits held by a French company.

– Macron slaughters the rebellious people of New Caledonia and indicates Russia and Azerbaijan as responsible for the "incidents" as he calls them.

– Dramatic developments in Armenia, which the US-West seeks to remove from Russia's sphere of influence. Georgia is also in the grip of the imperialists of the West on the one hand and Russia on the other, with particularly intense developments as well.

– Similar and even worse developments are threatening our Balkan neighborhood, as the conditions for crisis and confrontation have already been activated in a number of countries, such as in Serbia, with Kosovo as a lever, in Bosnia, in Bulgaria and in North Macedonia.

– Alongside the unjust war in the heart of Europe, in Ukraine, and the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people, various warlike events are unfolding on the planet. For example, at the beginning of June a Russian nuclear submarine, after passing out of Scotland and approaching the coast of Florida, disappeared from US and Canadian radar, only to be found on 13 June escorted by Russian ships in the port of Havana. Also in mid-June a Chinese ship rammed a Philippine ship in the South China Sea in response to their violation —as China sees it— of the region's maritime waters, but apparently on the basis of the broader issues on the agenda of the also hot Far East.

Dear comrades and friends

What are the causes of these developments and what do they show that we have only indicatively mentioned? What is their course, their direction, what are they bringing upon the peoples of the planet?
All these developments and many more that we have omitted —such as the rapid militarization of the economies of the imperialist countries which, in a dance of destruction, are investing gigantic sums of billions for the development and production of ever more destructive conventional and nuclear weapons— but above all, the conditions of the most severe exploitation, dispossession, impoverishment, oppression and terrorism facing the proletariat and the peoples of the planet, as a whole demonstrate one thing only:

An old and rotten system that is shaken by the cracks of its own crisis. It is the capitalist-imperialist system that lives and dominates anywise, committing crimes against working humanity. It is the capitalist-imperialist system, which, in its present phase, immersed in its crisis and in the chaos of its conflicts, is seeking a way out for its reproduction, for a new period of domination, threatening the very future of humanity and the planet.

This situation did not form just yesterday, not even since February 2022, when the invasion of Ukraine by Russian imperialism raised the level of confrontation much higher, multiplied and sharpened the terms of the generalized crisis. The starting point of the present situation could be considered the US-Western victory in the Cold War against the other imperialist superpower, the then USSR. A victory that was recorded with the collapses of 1989-91 and which, as a cold war victory, was exquisitely incomplete, unfinished. Since then the US, as the head of the victorious West, has been in a race to conquer world domination. In these thirty-three years the common basis of all the imperialists and the forces of capital has been the unstoppable beating of the working class and the peoples, the deepening and consolidation of the defeat of the revolutionary communist movement that had taken place and was developing before the collapses. But, at the same time and alongside all this, the situation in the imperialist tableau was not only not emerging victorious and dominant, but on the contrary it was becoming more complicated, as the US was on a course of a relative retreat against allies and rivals, and the imperialists of the East (Russia, China), through a course of contradictions, were being reconstituted, strengthened and upgraded.

The course of these conflicts, which cost gains, rights, blood for the working class and peoples, and the destruction and fragmentation of countries, formed an even greater complication at the top of the imperialist table. In other words, it has formed the imperialist geostrategic triad of the USA, Russia and China, as we call it in the positions of the SO. With this position we note and formulate the very great distance that China too now has from the other imperialist powers. A distance that it has shaped by making significant steps in the development of the economy of high value-added products and at the same time by matching this development with strategic power (nuclear etc.) But at the same time we point out that it remains a "third party" and that the dominant contradiction between the USA and Russia is the ground for China on which intra-imperialist contradictions and relations are developing and evolving.

On the basis of the above, we also answer the question we have raised about what the developments we have mentioned bring to the peoples as well as the overall deadlocks and aspirations of the capitalist-imperialist system. We therefore consider that everything that is unfolding —and given the level at which the imperialist antagonism is at— highlights the fact that we are in the phase of preparation for the Third World War. But let us make two —in our view necessary— points and clarifications regarding this assessment:

1. War, the world war to redistribute markets, zones and spheres of influence, to finally emerge the locomotive that will again lead the world on behalf of the system, is an organic element of imperialism. It is well known that we have been confronted with the myths of "globalization" and "integration" with which the system presented itself as exceeding its historical limits, and from which the very large majority of the forces of the Left adopted and came to assert... that the situation in the "global village" that imperialism was supposed to shape, would be just and equal.

However, today it is not about that! We do not put forward the generally correct ideological position on competition as the main and stable aspect of the relationship between imperialists, the generally correct position that the way out of the crisis and imperialist antagonisms is war. Today we put forward the political assessment that the whole of the antagonisms and preparations that are developing at all levels (economic, commercial, monetary, energy, military, political, strategic) constitute a course of preparation for World War III. Every success or failure (meaning the main imperialist powers) on each individual issue and front is put into this very account: the accumulation of the conditions that will make the War possible.

2. With this assessment, we do not ignore or pass over the question of nuclear weapons and the question of strategic alliances —still unformed— which today constitute prohibitive limits to the declaration of war for the imperialists themselves. But it is precisely these problems that the imperialist staffs are working feverishly to solve, as is now being duly and officially announced! For example, the US pursuit of installing nuclear warheads in NATO-annexed Ukraine, so that they can be in Moscow in a few minutes' time, while blackmailing their “fuck-the-Europeans” allies, was aimed at solving these problems! Russia's invasion of Ukraine has, on the one hand, nullified this pursuit, but at the same time raised the competition much higher. In addition, Moscow is already advertising internationally the time it takes for its nuclear weapons to reach London or Paris, preparing a giant aircraft carrier and installing nuclear weapons in Belarus. While the US-NATO is planning to install nuclear warheads in Sweden and Finland which are members of NATO.

Overall, at the level of the dominant imperialist powers, a competition is raging at all levels (political-military, development of destructive power, formation of the necessary economic background) which seeks —by combining all the necessary factors and blackmailing regional powers and strategic alliances— to overcome the present problems and make war possible, which is the only and final field to solve the issue of global hegemony/dominance. We describe the totality of these developments by the term “preparation phase for World War III”.

Friends and comrades

Precisely because the international system is immersed in its crisis and its antagonisms, precisely because the international balance of power is particularly negative for the workers and peoples, the dilemmas that the dominant powers pose to the masses of the planet, even in the so-called developed and democratic countries of the West, are becoming increasingly reactionary and repulsive. Really, what do the workers, the peoples, the young people, have to choose for their present and future on the basis of what is "offered" and "available" by the forces of the system?
– Trump or Biden? (Or whoever possibly changes him eventually)?

– The woke or anti-woke agenda, both sides of the same reactionary direction?

– Macron with his wildly anti-worker and imperialist policies or the "normalized" Le Pen?

– The social democratic SPD which leads the savage capitalist offensive, which is at the forefront of fueling the unjust war in Ukraine, and which persecutes the Palestinian flag, or the far-right AfD?

– The acceleration of the "green transition" or its containment —both of which are equally environmentally destructive choices of a system seeking which destruction is most effective in supporting its choices and profits?

– The "internationalism" of NATO's massacres (as analysts and powers in the name of the Left say) or the "multipolarity" of Putin's imperialist invasions and sophisticated nukes?

These and many other dilemmas raised, show that the international system can no longer have political choices that —even to a small extent— can express some of the lower-middle classes. Its crisis and its antagonisms produce a universalization of misery and barbarism, and that is why political systems internationally are becoming increasingly reactionary, and under the most provocative cynicism they demand that the masses become the props of one or the other reactionary version or option.

On the other hand, the workers' struggles, the great uprisings, and even the popular and youth revolts —which constitute a persistent and ever more intense aspect of the international situation— are objectively opposed to all the reactionary choices and forces of the system. However, as this intensity of the struggle of those on the grassroots level develops in the given conditions of the decomposition of the working class and the defeat of the communist movement, it is fundamental and crucial that the mass struggle establishes its own class, ideological, theoretical and political bases and draws its own perspective. This is the content of the debate and the confrontation that is developing on the international field between militant, anti-imperialist and communist forces, which seek to assume greater responsibilities and commit to the cause of the struggle. A debate that is important and necessary, and in which we aim to upgrade our intervention.

In connection with this great debate, we will touch on only one but certainly crucial aspect directly related to the question of the preparation phase of the Third World War: The position THE PEOPLE HAVE NO NEED OF PROTECTORS is our basis and our guide. A basis and guide both for the formation of the Anti-War Anti-Imperialist Front of the struggle of the peoples, which the conditions demand, as well as for the cause of the movement and the revolutionary perspective of the masses as a whole. For us the opposite is unthinkable politically, practically, ideologically and theoretically. That is, it is unthinkable to aim and fight for the composition of the working class as a class for itself on the one hand, so that it can lead the people's masses and march on the road of revolution and the liberation of society from exploitation and oppression, and on the other hand to call upon the people, the peoples, to submit to the one or the other imperialist power, to supposedly confront the situation of the world disaster that is being set up, merely by lining up behind one of the main factors shaping this situation.

We are therefore opposed to the illusions fueled by the theory of "multipolarity", the theory of a "new and just security architecture" in Eurasia, the theory of a "just peace" that Russian imperialism is supposedly pursuing. Russian imperialism invokes this multipolarity, given the current correlations of power between imperialists as a springboard for its own aspirations and goals for global hegemony. In addition, the peoples have already been paying with blood and destruction for the aspirations of Russian imperialism! Therefore, the working class and the peoples cannot "assign" the Russian or Chinese or any other imperialist with the duty to confront and defeat the USA on their behalf, which is indeed the greatest enemy of the peoples.

Just as the Palestinian people's struggle for a free and independent homeland cannot and will not be vindicated based on UN resolutions, which for decades have only really expressed the contradictions between the imperialist powers, using the blood of the heroic people and hiding behind the reactionary construction of the alleged two-state solution. Or, accordingly, the vindication of the goal of a UNIFIED AND INDEPENDENT CYPRUS is obvious, we think —50 years after the Turkish invasion and the imperialist imposition of its partition— that it will not happen under the goodwill of the imperialists and their confrontations that are carried out on the backs and at the expense of Greek and Turkish Cypriots.

Overall, in fact, we are opposed to this new —and even more disastrous for the peoples— version of the "three worlds" theory, which is being peddled internationally and in the country as a response to the escalation of the most pernicious dangers. We side with one “world” and one only: the world of workers and peoples. Only this, relying on its own forces, and this alone can and needs to fight and win, and conquer its own socialist future.

Friends and comrades

This is the world we live in, then, and this is the world in which our country is located.
A country dependent on the American and European imperialists, in which —despite the stormy propaganda of the system that attempts the greatest distortions— the reality on all the basic issues is widely evident. We highlight them briefly:

– The only existing and real "economic-productive model" that the ruling class has and applies for the country is the annex-supplement and the "passage" (the infamous "hub") for the sake of the American and European monopolies. Given the de-industrialization and the course of shrinkage of the primary sector. In this context, adaptations-opportunities-potentials are constantly sought out to enable the big bourgeois fireplaces to make a fortune. It is within this framework that the country's productive forces and potential are destroyed, its wealth is robbed and its public infrastructure is plundered. It is within this framework that crimes such as those in Tempi and Thessaly are committed, millions of acres of agricultural forests are incinerated every year, while plains, mountains and islands are being destroyed in order to turn into wind turbine and photovoltaic parks, in accordance with the interests of European monopolies and the local comprador.

– In the context of the intensity of the crisis, the announcements about the "reinstatement" of the small-middle strata, which are constantly being eroded, are always disproved. It is absolutely typical both of the latest government measures on taxation and of the data on how and to whom the billions of the so-called recovery fund are distributed.

– A "holy" constant for all the forces and parties of the system is the unremitting and universalized aggression towards the working class, the people and the youth and on all their rights and conquests (labour, social, democratic). The attack is a basic condition for borrowing, for turning the country into a "graveyard of rights, a special zone" for investment-grasping and for what they call "development".

Of course, the big issue for the ruling class of this country —as it has historically emerged— is the services it can offer to the great powers based on the geographical position of the country. But for the patron-imperialists this is also the primary issue, especially in the present circumstances. In summary and on this issue we note:

– The unstable balance of dual dependency produces frictions and potentially great divisions (over which patron we are with) that are constantly being conjured up. Since 2015, a major shift towards the US has been developing due to its strategic dominance in the war-torn region. The war in Ukraine was a "turning point" with the much greater involvement of the country in every way in the US-NATO war pacing, which continues today INCLUDING on the Palestinian issue. At the same time, the dependence on the European imperialists is multifaceted and deep. So much so that any "distancing" from the EU is unthinkable for the ruling class. Based on this paradox (which is beyond any control of the ruling class) there are frictions.

– All engagements and services to the US engine are done by the ruling class in the light of the reactionary Greek-Turkish conflict and its expectations of profiting in it. The spectacular cancellation of Eastmed, with a State Department non-paper, which had guided the formulation of the agreement and for which the bourgeois cadres so much had triumphed, is typical proof that the notorious geopolitical successes are on loan!

– The antagonisms of the bourgeois classes of Greece and Turkey are not being abrogated. They come under the demands of the US-NATO, and as they are shaped mainly by the Ukrainian war front. The frictions within the bourgeoisie on the question of "dialogue-cooperation" are real, as this "dialogue" at least puts aside bourgeois maximalisms. Without, however, having answers to what needs to be done. Cyprus is included in the bargain even more so today, whose strategic importance is increasing for the imperialists on the basis of the more general developments in Ukraine and the Middle East.

– At the same time, and as we have already mentioned, the issue of the Western Balkans (Serbia-Kosovo, Albania, North Macedonia) is heating up manifold, where the hinge, as Pyatt says, now elevated to a multi-hinge, is called upon to provide new services, for which not all its patrons are in agreement.

Based on all the above data, developments in the political system and in the terms in which the power of the ruling class and its imperialist patrons is exercised in the country have been shaped. The political system is in a constant reactionary shift, it is fragmented and unreliable to the broader popular masses. Fascistization, along with and abreast its other side, the intensity of anti-communism, the line of persecution, terrorism and repression, are the new normality, the only real answers the system has to cover up its political instability and its reactionary nakedness, to deal with the widening revulsion, resentment and anger of the workers and youth.

We underline and point out that based on the conditions and deadlocks faced by the system of dependency and exploitation, there is no possibility of "returning" to a previous situation with less savagery and with the political system being able to assimilate and manipulate oppositions, tensions and protests expressed by both the small and middle classes and by the working people and the youth.

We underline and point out that within the bourgeois cadres and forces —how stupid of them— there is a lot of confusion, a lot of inconsistencies and factionalism, based on their inability to answer both the question of fixing a broader social base on which the upper-bourgeois, plutocratic slacker is based, and the question of the management of the so-called national issues and how the bourgeois forces perceive them.

We are among those who not only do we not want to forget —but on the contrary, we want to underline and emphasize— what has developed since last year, because we would say that it is very instructive about what is underneath and because everything we have experienced this year is, so to speak, "scenes from upcoming movies". On these days last year, there were plenty of analyses of Mitsotakis ''almighty'' and especially of the people being ''suicidal''. And of course, these analyses that disdained the people came from forces and analysts who like to appear to speak and act in the name of the Left!

In the months that followed, large parts of this people who "doesn't understand" and a whole sea of young people who are by definition "apolitical" and "indifferent", made the only choice that can actually tear and crumple, not Mitsotakis and his government, but the policies of the system he (also) serves. They made the choice of a mass struggle that not only did it not seem to come from anywhere (and especially in the case of the student uprising it developed against all estimations considering the situation of the last 17 years), but moreover against it were, from the very first moment, all the arsenal and forces of the system and its leftist crutches.

The unpleasant surprises for the system (which by its nature considers the people and the youth as subservient to it) and for the intermediate forces of parliamentary cretinism and conformity to the dominant framework, continued with the results of the European elections of June 9th. Results in which the broadest disapproval of the EU and the Euro-road was recorded through abstention, against the most coordinated campaign of the local and European mechanisms against abstention. Results, which, through abstention, also recorded the multiple failure of the operation of reconstituting the political system in the country. For not only did they confirm that the formation of the notorious alternative solution with a certain 'centre-left' brand name is not in sight, but at the same time they also dealt a strong blow to the strong leg of the lame political system, the New Democracy party.

Now everyone is trying to catch up! Moreover, within the New Democracy and in the Syriza, PASOK and other groups, there is a lot of confusion. An upheaval that, first of all, has the obvious element of embarrassment, the inability of the political staff to formulate and project answers to the fragmentation of the political system, to the management of major social issues, but also to the geopolitical whirlpools in which the country finds itself. The recent interventions of Samaras and Karamanlis are absolutely characteristic of this weakness, of the deadlocks faced not by the ruling party but by the ruling class and the political forces of the system as a whole. This is exactly why on the other side (SYRIZA, PASOK and their followers) the number of candidates for leadership and leaders who will unite —as they say— this area is constantly growing, while at the same time no alternative political direction is put forward (because there is none) for managing and addressing the issues, the causes that have shaped this situation.

However, the indications, the direction of the confrontations in the ND party and the dust clouds that they produce, as well as the stench that comes out of the stirring in the systemic cauldron of the so-called centre-left are clear. Regardless of the specific form that the developments will take, with possible splits, unifications, with the possibly more energetic and "organic" involvement of the extreme right and fascist forces in the formation of political —even governmental— configurations, what is being prepared is an even more reactionary direction and course.
In fact, all of them are showing their teeth to the people and the youth who, through their struggle throughout the previous period, but also through their mass abstention from the Euro ballot box, stood against and refused the demands for submission to the stability of aggression and for obeisance to the imperialist dependence of the country and where it takes us!

After all, the government of New Democracy and Mitsotakis, as it ought to have done precisely because it is a government, has already declared (supposedly in response to the message it received from the European ballots box) the continuation and acceleration of its anti-grassroots and anti-worker policy! They have proclaimed it and put it into practice with a series of measures, with an escalation of the policy of persecution, with the continuation of choices that serve the war aims of the US-NATO imperialists. This is the real and only line of the system, and it is for the promotion of this policy that the reactionary squabbles and miserable ferment in the political system are developing.

Dear friends and comrades

The working class, the people and the youth, and we with them, are in front of necessary and great battles, battles on all fronts, on all questions concerning the mass struggle for survival, the need for life and work with rights. At the same time, we have to see that we are also in front of great obstacles, put in front of us so that the workers and the youth are prevented from fighting these battles. One such obstacle is the policy of the leadership of the KKE (CPG), which is increasingly —practically, organizationally and politically— turning into a pillar of support for the system's policy, a force for undermining, denying and opposing the mass struggle. Moreover, the satellization to regime reformism, the search for governmental solutions by drawing up proposals and guidelines in search of a "different capitalism", the conception that wants to construct —supposedly communist— answers outside the demands of the class struggle, are the political elements that prevail in the forces that refer to the Left and the movement.

We have been pointing out this paradox for some time now. The mass outbursts of struggles of workers and youth, manifested by going beyond the prevailing lines of compromise and resignation, are advancing and developing against these lines.

We believe and estimate that this paradox will become more acute in the coming period. The working people and the youth will be here, present and opposed to the system's policies, and will seek, on the terms they have, to resist and demand. The organizational, political and ideological support of this tendency, the practical and political support of the struggles that break out to develop, to conquer elements of frontal unity and to have successes, is the task around which basic questions of the people's cause are judged and formed.

Comrades and friends,

Let us now come to us, to the CPG(m-l). To how we define ourselves through our 10th Conference. Where we come from, why we exist, what our nature is and we want to form, what prospect we are fighting for. And most importantly, that which controls all the preceding: What tasks, what role, we commit and claim to have in the class struggle.

These questions exist at every moment in the life and action of a political Organization, and, of course, they are not decided once! The Steering Organ has deemed it necessary to raise them —in a comprehensive and coordinated way— in the context of this higher process, the Conference, precisely because we are far from being in a "moment of ignorance" today. On the contrary, we are within the developing "perfect storm" that the proletariat and the peoples are facing internationally and in our country, and with all that this situation brings and demands in a landscape where the consequences of the defeat of the revolutionary communist movement prevail, and the workers and peoples are seeking anew the conditions for the constitution of their struggle and the formation of their own prospect.

Moreover, as a political Organization we are at a particular turning point of our own, in the sense that there is now a small minority of members and cadres who either started the reconstruction of the Organization in 1982 or participated in it in the first decade out of the more than four decades that have passed since then. This understanding, of course, has positive readings, but in any case it confronts us with the need for a comprehensive updating of our responses to these issues.

Therefore, in relation to all this, we are raising and addressing a number of issues through our 10th Conference.

First of all, the question of the political assessment of the course since the reconstruction of 1982. An assessment that highlights two key issues.

The constitution and the emergence of a whole ideological and political heritage that was not "ready" before 1982 and whose conquest was not self-evident in the given conditions of those decades. A great legacy, on which our action and struggle over these years have been based, and which has been the strength and fuel for the great involvement that the Organisation has had in the class struggle over these decades, the basis of the relations with the people and the experience gained by the members and cadres of the Organisation. On this basis we sum up our assessment by saying that we are proud not only of the pioneering decision of the five leading cadres who took the decision to reconstruct CPG(m-l) in 1982, but also of our entire journey from then until today, which gave weight and substance to the 1982 decision.

At the same time, however, in the context of this assessment, we seek to courageously confront our weaknesses, since we do not consider our present development and constitution to be the maximum objective limit we could reach. On the contrary, we note again and for the umpteenth time the mismatch between our ideological and political presuppositions on the one hand, and what we have built and conquered so far, both at the level of the Organization and in our relations within the working people, the youth and our role in the class struggle on the other. That is why we are "beating ourselves up", with our delays, with misconceptions and approaches produced by rightly dismantling basic issues, without taking into account —to the extent required— the changing conditions and demands of the class struggle.

Secondly, we considered it necessary, both generally in the present conditions and for our struggle and the tasks with which we set ourselves, to define and record the ideological and political coordinates of the Organisation. We would say that we have formulated an ideological and political framework that is first and foremost addressed to the members and cadres of the Organization. At the same time, this framework is addressed and constitutes a call to the world of struggle, to the workers and young people with whom we meet during our daily action, in the initiatives and interventions of the Organization on all issues.

We are obviously referring to the section of the Steering Organ's contribution entitled "Characteristics, objectives and directions", which records the basic elements of our ideological-political identity, the strategic objectives of the movement as we understand them and as we can define them today, the political objectives that constitute the link between the present of the struggle and its revolutionary strategic objectives. On the basis of these questions, in the context of this paper we also highlight our understanding of the movement, of the necessary ideological fronts against reformism and petite-bourgeois anarchist preaching, the organs of struggle that the working people and youth need to build and conquer through their struggle, and the characteristics of the Organization, the characteristics that each member and cadre needs to assimilate and shape in order to serve the goals and perspective we set.

Thirdly, and most importantly, as we have already mentioned, we posed this question: in what direction, for the building of what kind of response on behalf of the working class and the people, are we committed to struggle as an organization? Indeed, we posed and answered this question in the contributions of the Steering Organ more than once and with different formulations, which may even cause misunderstandings, and the Body of Delegates of the Conference can homogenize —if deemed necessary— homogenize these formulations.

In any case, let us set out the basic facts about the substance of this issue:

- We are convinced that the only real answer for the interests and rights of the working class and the popular masses lies in the reconstruction of the revolutionary communist movement and party. This is the necessary direction for not wasting the rage of the masses, for the successive waves of struggle that we are experiencing and which will continue and intensify in the coming period to bring real results at the level of a substantial change in the correlations. This is the only and real answer for building the revolutionary outlet. Namely, for the revolutionary overthrow of the system of dependent capitalism, for the conquest of Independence and the building of Socialism. This is the only real way out, and the conditions of crisis, savage aggression and war preparations underline its necessity even more today.

- Our answer, therefore, to the above question is that we are committed to fighting for the building of the revolutionary communist movement and party that we consider necessary to advance the cause of the struggle. This is the task we undertake, to this we commit ourselves to devote all our forces, and it is based on this objective that we shall proceed and be judged.

- Obviously, it makes no sense - if not naïve - to proclaim that we will succeed. We are aware that it is a complex struggle at all levels (class, social, theoretical, ideological, political), a Long March with bends, turns and great demands. But it makes sense, in fact too much, for us to take the position that we "do not wait" (for other conditions), that we do not set "conditions" to "start", to decisively enter as an organization in this direction.

- On this last point, perhaps two further clarifications are needed:

First, the question could be asked whether we "want" political partners and allies in the task of building the communist movement and party. We would say that, at best, this is a naïve question, which is not justified by any of the facts of the present situation in the Left, and even less so by the goals we set. It is not justified, because everyone knows the tenacity with which, on the whole range of issues, we are today putting forward and fighting the cause of joint action, coordination and the joining of forces on the fronts of struggle that life and the class struggle bring out. Moreover, everyone knows the refusals, the evasions that we face in response, while at the same time we receive proposals for cooperation of different kinds and directions. Partnerships that seek successful electoral leaps and serve the worst illusions for the people and the movement. Or proposals for cooperation that, in essence, propose a withdrawal from the class struggle and the formation of communist responses on its margins. In relation to all this, we will insist on the direction of joint action that serves the development of the struggles and the upgrading of the conditions of struggle of the masses.

At the same time, however, we do not enter into or adopt the logic of the "average", namely, our conformity to what prevails on the Left. In other words, we do not adopt the logic by which we should probably postpone the direction of building a communist movement and party until others are convinced in that direction! Let us put it more clearly, using Lenin's words: We will not go into the swamp they call us to, we will struggle to pull ourselves onto the path that is necessary! This is the only realistic option if there is to be any chance of pulling others out of the swamp. But above all, this is the realistic option to favor the possibility —under the influence of our own struggle, as well— of producing new forces that will share, in a similar way to us, what the necessary direction is.

The second clarification is about a reflection which, starting from the realization that the retreat and dismantling of the movement is of great depth, may even go so far as to doubt the possibility of producing answers today that will build and reconstruct the revolutionary communist direction in the movement. Such a reflection can and does end up in a "maintenance-reproduction of forces" option, adopting a reasoning that "expects" the class struggle to produce better conditions and a foundation for answers.

Let's start with this last one. The class struggle has been intense, fierce even, in recent years, internationally and in our country. Its decisive deficit is political, ideological, theoretical. In other words, its decisive deficit is the absence of a political subject that —being in it— struggles and seeks to produce results of modification of the correlation at all levels and issues, from the development of the class struggle, to formulate conditions of a communist direction.

Everything is made and produced in the class struggle. Nevertheless, no political result, no step of constitution (ideological, political and organizational) is produced without the organized and conscious direction and struggle of the political subject within the class struggle. This is clearly the case with the above, for the fundamental question of the constitution of the working class into a class for itself. The class instinct, the spontaneous tendency of the working class to resist and assert itself, is valuable, but it is not enough. It is not enough for a leading section of it to conquer the consciousness of the class and its historical prospect to lead in the confrontation and revolutionary overthrow of the bourgeoisie.

We have experienced all of this in our country and internationally over the last several years. We have experienced it and keep experiencing it in reverse, as the political subject that dominates and directs the development of the class struggle is that of the opponent, the political forces of the system. The current and former US presidents themselves intervene in the strike struggles of the workers in the US auto industry to pin them down, lead them into assimilation, and subordinate the important processes that develop within and at the limits of the system.

But of course, recent experience in our country is rich in such negative examples. December 2008 and even more so the great struggles of 2010-12 are very characteristic examples of what we have called the decisive deficit of class struggle. And from then until today, until the struggles of the last few months, there are many more examples which show this deficit; struggles that hardly started, which were cut off at their beginning, which —even if they went ahead and lasted long enough— did not manage to accumulate and build up the necessary organizational, political and ideological conditions for the next struggle, let alone emerge victorious towards their objectives.

All in all, then, we consider the thesis that "our era is the era of capitalist restoration and the defeat of the communist movement" to be wrong. The position we advocate has a crucial distinction from the previous one: “our era is the era of capitalist restoration and the defeat of the communist movement and at the same time the era that calls for the reconstruction of the revolutionary communist movement”. This is how we read and understand the demands objectively made by the awakening and struggle of the masses in the world and in the country. An awakening that we have already seen since our 5th Conference in 1998 and we inscribed it with the phrase "something is changing".

With this view and approach to the issues, we are far from ignoring or passing over the great and complex demands of the reconstruction of the revolutionary communist movement and party that our time demands. We emphasize that this is a Long March precisely because we are —we believe— aware of these demands, because we share essentially the assessment that the retreat is of great depth. At the same time, any illusion of self-sufficiency and quick answers for this Long March has nothing to do with us.

But we have an unchanging political decision and direction: the decision and direction to fight for the reconstruction of the revolutionary communist movement and party. Because this is the only direction we believe corresponds to and meets the demands of our time. This and this alone is what we must fight for.

At the same time, it is clear and obvious to us that in reality there is no such thing as the option of "reproducing and maintaining forces". Such an option does not exist in any period, at any given circumstances of the class struggle. A political subject exists only insofar as it acts and claims a role in the present tense, only insofar as it claims to provide answers and direction to the class struggle. In the present stormy period, it is more than obvious that the choice of maintenance and waiting is but a form of resignation.

To mark our answer to this central and crucial question, we have formulated the central slogan of the 10th Conference: "The class struggle needs a revolutionary organization and the communist ideas as a guide".

With our 10th Conference, we take up this position, namely the responsibility to fight in order to put into practice the demands of this slogan.

Dear friends and comrades,

As we march towards the vastness of our purposes, we record and trace a whole set of issues that we have to deal with.

From the rearrangement of our party forces to the steps and perception that we need to assimilate in order to form massive and struggle-ready frontal formations among the workers, the youth and the neighborhoods of the urban centers.

From the elaboration and pointing out of the aims of struggle that will connect us in a direct way with the struggles and the disposition of the working people and the youth to struggle, to the popularization, with simultaneous political upgrading of our printed and electronic means of intervention.

From the steady effort to develop our programme orientations and our ideological fronts, to the —critical and politically urgent— necessity for a more systematic and responsible approach to the question of our international relations with militant, anti-imperialist and communist forces in the region and throughout the world.

From the formation of conditions of inspiration and all-round commitment for every member of the Organization, to the decisive and multifaceted strengthening of the policy for the promotion of new cadres and the conditions for the further formation of the collective leadership of the Organization.

For all these and more that could be mentioned, we will fight and be judged in the coming period. But what will be the measure by which we will judge and be judged for all of this? Or, to put it differently, where is the epicenter of our efforts, our goals, our today struggle and where will it be in the next period?

The answer to the question is very clear and specific: the epicenter of our efforts is and will be the upgrading of the role of the CPG(m-l) in the class struggle. In the conquest of greater possibilities to take the lead in the struggles, to build initiatives of struggle, to formulate data in the cause of the movement.

This is and will be the yardstick for judging all our efforts and goals. This is the decisive criterion for an Organization that wants to serve the working class, the people and the youth, for an Organization that wants to take the lead in opening up and carving the path that gives a prospect and a way out for the interests of the workers and the people.

In order to walk this path we address today, from this platform, the broadest call for mobilization and struggle to all our fellow workers, to all our friends, to the world of struggle, to the working people and to the youth.

Struggle gives optimism! The revolutionary prospect gives strength to the struggle!

Come, let us conquer our lives with struggle and claim our better future!