Why was the KKE able to retain its mass base and its revolutionary character after the counter-revolution? Why is the communist party of a small, albeit typical, lesser NATO country the leading force of a current for the reconstitution of a leninist pole in the international communist movement, against the main current of social-chauvinism, prompted by imperialist centers?
Unlike for example the -up until the 1990s politically and organizationally similar- Portuguese communist party which ended up supporting bourgeois coalitions the KKE had an internal split with the eurocommunist 'renewalist' tendencies, that were even inside the political bureau. The full organizational split from opportunism proved to be vital for the direction of the party. This allowed the KKE to stay true to revolutionary principles while also retaining firm roots in the working people, while the Portuguese communist party slowly deteriorated through contact with 'leftist' bourgeois forces. The theoretical developments on the KKE's strategy is owed to this direction that refuses to submit to the new negative power dynamic between capital and the international proletariat, and recognises that despite the subversions at the end of the last century our era is still that of socialist revolution.The KKE's contemporary revolutionary strategy is based on the creative assimilation of the experience of the communist movement.
In my opinion, this is a relative development of communist theory because it make it more concrete. I think its driving force are not just the local conditions of Greece but, mostly, its unique history. The KKE today, while of course honouring the communist heroes which where on the first line in the fight against fascism everywhere, criticizes the strategy adopted by the 7th Congress of the Communist International. In its opinion, the strategic theory of two-stage revolution and of the united national, anti-fascist, anti-colonial etc. front mostly succeeded due the onslaught of the Red Army in Europe that objectively destroyed the bourgeois states.
In cases like France the collaboration with bourgeois forces in the antifascist front led to the disconnection of national and social struggles and eventually to eurocommunism.
In Greece the two-stage strategy failed, not only because the Red Army never reached it, but also despite the fact that the KKE did not have to, or rather could not, collaborate with the greek bourgeoisie because it either fled dur
Post too long. Click here to view the full text.