Greek Communists break with the EU “United Left”

By Dimitrios Kivotidis

THE CENTRAL of the Greek Communist Party (KKE) has decided that their two newly elected MEPs will not join any of the political groups of the European Parliament.

In the past the KKE was a member of the European United Left-Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) bloc in the European Parliament. The GUE/NGL started as a confederal group but the existence within that group of the Party of the European Left (EL), which tries to impose its own positions and pass them off as those of the whole group has proven a great obstacle for the communist struggle within the EU Parliament.

 The homogenisation of the EL and its overt support towards the EU led the anti-EU positions of the KKE being increasingly attacked and distorted and the dissenting opinions of its MEPs not being taken into account and being silenced.

The fundamental role of communists in the EU Parliament is to expose the anti-popular measures that are being put forward through the EU institutions, in order to strengthen the popular struggle against the imperialist EU. This fundamental undertaking is hindered by political groups and parties who pose as communists or socialists but support the existing structure of the EU and present it as something different than an imperialist construct that serves the EU monopolies.

The KKE struggled against the position of the parties and MEPs of the GUE/NGL, which supported the war in Libya, the invasion in the Central African Republic, and which did not condemn the invasion of the EU in Ukraine.

The continued presence of the KKE in such a group could be used as the “left alibi” for the imposition of the opportunist and social democratic policies of parties which act in favour of the EU and accept the capitalist barbarity and would certainly hinder the struggle of the communist MEPs in exposing the imperialist and reactionary nature of the EU and its policies.

Immediately after the announcement the Greek opportunists accused the KKE of choosing a road of isolation. But is the Greek Communist Party isolated? From whom? From the capitalists? From the EU Parties that vow allegiance to the goals and values of the EU which sacrifices worker’s rights to the interests of the monopolies? From those who tolerate the EU intervention in Ukraine?

There is a qualitative difference between isolation and taking a stand. Yes, the Greek Communist Party chose a solitary stance. It chose to stand alone against monopoly capital, against EU imperialism, against the EU opportunism of the European Left Party. But it is standing together with the working class and the other communist parties; together with the peoples of Europe.

The Initiative of Communist and Workers’ Parties of Europe has brought together communist parties, including the New Communist Party of Britain, which unite their struggle against the imperialist EU. They stand alone against their bourgeois opponents but stand together, united in the single and universal goal of the communist society, the society that will put an end to capitalist exploitation and class-division in general.

The communist party stands alone with the working class because there is only one party for the working class, contrary to the multiplicity of parties that represent the interests of the different and antagonistic parts of the bourgeoisie, and the EU monopolies.

The stance that the Greek Communist Party takes proves it the pillar of the working class. It does not stand alone. It does not stand in isolation. Their stance carries with it the masses of the workers, and now that the masks have started falling off, the solitary pillar will be visible more clearly, standing proud and honoured, carrying the dead communists that fell – and are still falling in Ukraine from the airstrikes of the EU-supported fascist government – in the long and hard struggle to realise the communist goal of a classless society.