Declaration of the Central Council for the course towards the 50 years of life and action of KNE
The 50-year course of KNE
is the youthful storming
of the future,
for the new world,
socialism-communism
Source: PDF version.
“The children of KNE”
Well, hello comrades of KNE,
hello again to all of you who say to life the great YES,
to all of you who are thrown into battle without asking for any praise,
to all of you the glorious ones that all together sign
with a Greek and worldwide hammer and sickle.
Yiannis Ritsos
In 2018 we welcome the 100 years of the KKE, the 50 years of
our Organization, with firm belief and confidence in the struggle
for the most glorious and important goal for social development; the
struggle for the abolition of exploitation of man by man. We are
determined that our future is not capitalism, but the new world,
socialism-communism. The anti-capitalist, anti-monopoly struggle
of the youth is timely and absolutely necessary and without this
there is no hope of improving its life and conquering its social and
individual rights.
The 50-year course of KNE is the youthful storming of the future, for
the new world, socialism-communism.
We call on the young workers and unemployed, those who wander from
unemployment to bad-paid jobs and apprenticeship, students in schools
and Universities from working class and popular families:
To demand what belongs to us, what is ours! We fight, we struggle, we
rejoice life, because we want to make it better, beautiful, just, because our
future cannot be a world of exploitation, crisis, unemployment, imperialist
wars. We wage struggle of ideals stemming from our worldview, Marxism –
Leninism, from values that withstand the passing of time, from ideas that
are invisible because they are real, in spite of the times and myths aiming
to reconcile the new generation with the historically outdated capitalist
barbarity.
To meet up in all the places where our generation lives in, works, is being
educated in order to strengthen the action, the organization and the
struggle for a life with contemporary rights through trade-unions, school
students’ communities, university students’ unions and vocational-training
associations, in mass organizations in the neighbourhoods struggling for the
needs and rights of the youth.
To learn about the proposal of the Communist Party of Greece
for the overthrow of capitalism, the construction of a society of true
freedom, of a life with rights, of socialism – communism, the proposal
of struggle and action which we all have to follow today in order to
build this perspective.
We are confident that the 21st century will be the century of a new rise
of the revolutionary movement and a new round of social and socialist
revolutions.
This course does not change, despite the current negative correlation of
forces, in spite of the counter-revolution, the overthrow of the first attempt
to construct socialism in Soviet Union and in a number of other countries.
The course of social progress also entails setbacks. No social system has
prevailed at once. We study and learn from our experience using the
positive and negative aspects that had determined the construction of
Socialism and its overthrow in the previous century.
Capitalism has no longer a future despite the fact that for nearly 30 years,
after the victory of the counter-revolution, it dominates all around the
world.
The system of barbarity has rotten and it will be drowned into its own
contradictions and inconsistencies the inter-imperialist competition, while
a new cycle of economic crisis and recession, is looming. It will be drowned
by the action of the revolutionary masses that will surely develop as such.
Nothing can stop this evolution!
Young men and women who experience the capitalist barbarity are those
who will participate in and strengthen the social alliance and the armies of
the revolution.
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We stand with a sense of increased responsibility and punctiliousness,
collectively and individually, for the strengthening of the Communist
Youth of Greece, the vanguard youth of the Communist Party of
Greece, fighting on the road for the Socialist future.
The course of our party, of the KKE, but also of KNE and the action of the
young communists throughout history fairly fill with pride and excitement
every young member of KNE today and thus, they teach us and train us. But
at the same time, they entrust us with important tasks and give us greater
determination and punctiliousness overcoming subjective weaknesses and
struggling against objective difficulties in order to meet the goals that we
have set:
To have an even stronger KNE, ideologically, politically and
organizationally. By raising the level of education of its own members,
with the rise of the study, and contact with the ideological, political and
historical books, the KOMEP (‘Communist Review’), the “Rizospastis” and
the “Odigitis”, the newspaper of the Party and KNE respectively. With rich
and active life and function inside the organisation, with a single will and
action;
With base organizations everywhere, in all the areas where the
youth works, acts, are educated and lives in. In the majority of secondary
schools, of technical and vocational schools, faculties and departments in
universities and technical institutes, in training and apprenticeship places,
in workplaces and businesses, in the cities, in the popular and working-class
neighbourhoods and villages.
For a KNE rooted through the vanguard action of its members and
its friends, in the trade-unions, the struggle committees, school councils,
students’ unions, the people’s committees of the Social Alliance, in sports
and cultural associations, clubs and groups of the women radical movement,
generally in the mass organizations that can mobilize and rally the youth.
For a militant and strong KNE in order to prevent the deterioration of
quality of life of the youth having as integral element the struggle for culture
and sport, leisure and holidays. For an Organisation with rich interests,
that promotes the vanguard radical art and culture, the multi-faceted
educational activity, with the capability of rallying young artists. For a KNE active in sports, inside the sports centres, along with young athletes and
young people who take part in sports activities.
For a vanguard organisation that informs about and constantly fights
against all drugs and that is at the foreftont of the struggle against the
idealistic perceptions, the metaphysical beliefs and the sedation of mind
and soul of the youth. That struggles against the alienation and the addiction
to the Internet, which not only does not offer knowledge but also lulls and
dismantles the will for collective action.
For a Youth Organization that will take care of their young friends in
early grades of high school and in the last grades of primary school that are
concerned about their school, their family, about what is happening around
them.
We set high goals for a more massive, more robust KNE ideologically,
politically, organisationally so we can be more able to respond to the
modern, complex needs of the class struggle, conquering through everyday
struggle, the vigilance that we need in order to live up to sudden turning
points and crossroads in circumstances under which the preconditions but
also the requirements for certain masses of youth are created so they can
get into unprecedented action, even if previously they had no involvement
in such.
We are vigilant and we struggle so that KNE conquers and cultivates more
and more its revolutionary characteristics:
The unwavering faith in the struggle for the abolition of exploitation
of man by man and the construction of socialism – communism, based on
the valuable contribution and the critical assessment of the construction
of socialism in the 20th century, the study of the causes of the counterrevolution.
The militant, rebellious way of life, the intolerance towards capital, its
apparatuses and the State
The militant relations inside places where we can find young people,
in schools, in universities and technical institutes, in training and vocational
schools, work places and neighbourhoods.
The endurance towards the difficulties of the struggle. The resistance
to the difficulties of the struggle, the dilemmas and the apparatuses of the
exploitation system.
The ideological, political and organisational vigilance needed to
cope in any condition of the class struggle, which is the motor for social
development.
The courage in the fight for what “to some looks impossible”, in the
conflict against the negative for the people correlation of forces that weighs
on the consciousness of young people. The confrontation by also having
consistency and faith in our cause against the dominant bourgeois currents
; the opportunist and reformists ones, anticommunism and all the outdated
ideas presented as new and “modern”, by breaking the compromise and
fatalism. The conflict against injustice by every member of KNE wherever
they are.
The acknowledgement of the vast possibilities that exist today
in the society, of the achievements of science and technology that have
been created by the mind and hands of working people but also the
acknowledgement of the obstacles that do not allow them to enjoy them,
because the means of production belong to the parasites, the capitalists.
The vanguard militant stance concerning the acquisition of knowledge
of the “road” needed to overthrow the world of exploiters.
We have the weapons; we have the tenacity to succeed. We must have
as a valuable guide the heavy legacy of the history of the Communist
Party of Greece and the International Communist Movement, we must
draw conclusions and experience from it and, to go this experience
even further, just like the previous did, and to justify it till the end.
The foundation of KNE,
a mature child of necessity and rage
The Communist Youth of Greece was founded during the years of
April’s dictatorship.
Thus, the decision of the formation of the Organisation, taken by
the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the KKE in August
1968 was implemented. Firstly, the Central Office of KNE was formed
and ‘Odigitis’ was published, and a year later, in October 1969, the 1st
Conference of KNE was held illegally in Athens, where the Constitution and
its Founding Declaration to the Greek youth was adopted and the Central
Council and its Secretary were elected. The foundation of KNE took place in
especially difficult conditions.
The KKE was clandestine from 1947 while with the imposition of
the military dictatorship in 1967 the persecutions and tortures against
communists were intensified and thousands were sent back to prison and
to exile. The KKE in the light of the historical importance of the 12th Session of its CC (1968) refuted the opportunist attempt of various cadres aiming
to dissolute the Party and decided to reconstruct the Party Organisations.
It was the first time after the self-dissolution of OKNE (1943), that an
organisation with Marxist-Leninist characteristics was founded , aiming to
be the vehicle of the KKE’s policies inside the youth, primarily the children
of the working class, to educate the sections of youth with the principles
and ideals of class struggle, i.e. the goal of socialism – communism.
The fact that for a long time, from 1943 to 1968, there was no independent
Communist Youth Organisation was an obstacle for the communist work
inside younger ages. It was especially difficult for the renewal of the ranks of
the KKE with new members and cadres, for the Communist education and
strength in front of difficulties, against parliamentary illusions.
The History of the Party shows that the existence of KKE as a
revolutionary party in any circumstances is a timeless need (e.g. in
conditions of bourgeois parliamentary democracy, illegal action, open
dictatorship, imperialist war). Respectively, there should always be an
Organisation of the Communist Youth guided by the Party. No other
organisation can substitute the need for an independent existence and
action of the Party and the Communist Youth.
The Communist youth of Greece
comes from a long way back…
It inherited the militant traditions of the people and the youth. It is the
continuator of the heroic OKNE, the successor of the militant traditions of
EPON (United Panhellenic Organisation of Youth) and the Democratic Youth
(DNΕ) of DSE (Democratic Army of Greece), of the militant action of young
communists under other conditions in massive political organisations such
as Lambrakis Democratic Youth (DNL).
OKNE (Federation of Communist Youths of Greece) was founded in 28th
November 1922 in Thessaloniki on the initiative of SEKE (Socialist Workers
Party of Greece), which in 1924 was renamed to KKE. From the first moment,
it became part of the Communist International of Youth and developed
internationalist action. The founding of OKNE gave a political and ideological
direction, an impetus to the rise of youth struggles with its own demands by
the side of the labour-people’s movement. It contributed so sections of the
youth could come for the first time into contact with the revolutionary ideas,
the Marxist-Leninist worldview, namely the scientific communism. It spread its action to the places where the youth lived in, worked and was educated.
It promoted and educated the youth with unprecedented, new ideas and
slogans about the importance of knowledge, education and culture, about
the importance and the role of the working class, the gender equality, the
revelation of the hypocritical morality of the bourgeois class concerning the
issues of love, family and marriage.
It was the basic source of recruits for the KKE; it raised thousands of
unknown and famous heroes who were its own creation, whose unbowed
stance in the struggle against social injustice, for the liberation from the
shackles of the exploitative system is a huge source of inspiration and
teachings for today’s struggle. This kind of example is the case of the
communist soldiers – members of OKNE – that stood unbowed at the
hellhole of the “Disciplinary Platoon” of Kalpaki during the decades of 1920
and 1930. There are also the examples of Christos Maltezos, Secretary of
the CC of OKNE that at the age of 30 was murdered with horrific tortures
in the prisons of Corfu, of Ilektra Apostolou that was murdered in the
Police Station in 1944, of Napoleon Soukatzidis that was executed by the
Germans as one of the 200 communists at the firing range of Kaisariani and
many others.
On February 5, 1942, on OKNE initiative, the National Liberation Front of
Youth (EAM Youth) was established.
On February 23, 1943, a meeting was
held with the participation of representatives of all youth organisations that
participated in EAM Youth, as well as other organisations, which resulted
in the decision to found the United Panhellenic Organisation of Youth
(EPON), with the dissolution of all the youth organisations that participated
in its foundation. Thus, with the establishment of EPON, OKNE was
dissolved after 21 years of heroic action. EPON developed an enormous
heroic national liberating, educational and cultural action, and gave to the
youth unmatched examples of self-sacrifice and popular solidarity. More
than 32,000 members of EPON fought in ELAS (Greek People’s Liberation
Army). On the eve of the liberation, EPON numbered 640,000 youngsters
together with Aetopoula (members of EPON of the ages 12-15). Thousands
of members of EPON died heroically at Hitler’s camps and at the battles
against the conquerors and the Greek collaborationist military groups. Most
of the members of ELAS of Athens and Piraeus were members of EPON
and half of the dead members of ELAS were members of EPON.
During the armed class conflict (1946-1949) between the Communists,
the thousands of other militants and the popular movement on the one hand and the bourgeois class with its foreign allies on the other, alongside
the Democratic Army of Greece, the Democratic Youth of Greece (DNE)
was created in the mountains. The DNE had a significant contribution to
the battles of DSE, but also to the educational and enlightening work in the
youth of the Liberated Greece.
At the same time in the cities, and until 1957-1958, the illegal now
EPON continued to act, carrying considerable weight of the work of the
Party in the youth on its shoulders. At the same time, after the foundation
of the United Democratic Left (EDA), the United Democratic Youth of
Greece (EDNE) was formed in 1951. The organisation was dissolved by a
decision of the Commission for National Security approximately one year
later, under the Compulsory Law 509/1947. Later it was succeeded by the
EDA Youth, which, after the murder of Grigoris Lambrakis in 1964, merged
with the newly-founded Youth Movement-Grigoris Lambrakis and thus
the Lambrakis Democratic Youth (DNL) was created. These organisations
undoubtedly played a positive role in the struggles of the youth and the
people at that time, such as the rallies against NATO in 1958 and 1959, the
strikes of the construction workers in 1960, the struggles for education in
the period 1961-63 with the slogan “1-1-4 “(this is how they are known the
vast school and university students’ mobilizations that broke out in 1963,
with main demand 15% of the state budget to be given for the education).
With respect we bow: to those who fought for the people’s interests in all
conditions; to all of those who held a heroic stance with the gun, or with
the makeshift megaphones, who took part in the protests, the strikes, the
sabotages, who were persecuted, imprisoned, exiled, executed, who were
unbowed and taught us a proud, heroic way of life; to those who showed the
form of the devoted and unwavering fighter, i.e. the characteristics of a rebel.
The Communist Youth of Greece
goes a long way forward…
KNE is the vanguard youth and its struggle looks up the future,
because it is the Youth of the working class’ Party, of the Communist
Party of Greece. Besides, the KKE itself is the Party that expresses the
interests of the majority of the youth, because it brings to life the most
new and innovative creation of the human mind in the worldwide social
development; the scientific communism, the struggle for the transition of
man from “the kingdom of necessity to the kingdom of freedom”.Throughout its 100-year life, the KKE was greatly concerned with the life and problems
of the new generation. It showed the only way that can bring results, raising
thousands of young militants and pioneers in the daily struggles, shaping
personalities that do not subordinate to fatalism and compromise.
By the side of the KKE, KNE gives the struggle with pride and responsibility,
puts all its forces on the propagation of the Program, the positions and the
elaborations that concern the general and specific problems of the youth,
its interests. It has a special responsibility to specify the Party’s strategy, its
positions to the youth, and also to help the Party to enrich its positions and
elaborations with the knowledge and experience that KNE’s organisations
gather since they direct their action exclusively towards young ages.
KNE struggles for the overthrow of capitalism and the construction of a
socialist-communist society in which any kind of exploitation of man by man
and any form of capitalist property will be abolished and a higher level of
life and rights will be secured. Because, today, the actual new and innovative
is the existence of a society where young people can satisfy their modern
needs, with equal opportunities and rights, where they can develop allround
their personality, where they can utilize their abilities and participate
in a pioneer way in the construction of the new, socialist-communist society.
KNE works tirelessly so the youth can realize the possibility and the necessity
of such a society and for the connection of its struggles with this prospect.
This character of KNE was the main factor for the fact that it rooted
and gained great prestige and influence in the youth. The character of
KNE as the youth of the KKE is the key factor that gave and continues
to give to the organisation its strength, endurance, steady course,
despite the many difficulties that arose in various periods. KNE was
able to become a leader and organizer of the struggles of the wide
masses of youth alongside the working class.
It continues steadily for the raise of the demands of the young generation,
for the organisation of the struggle for the life that they deprive from us, for its
radical direction and its connection with the class-oriented and the people’s
movement in general. For the youth struggles to be linked to a “thread” with
the struggles of the previous generations, for the preparation of even more
dynamic, more massive struggles for the serious conflicts against the real
enemy, for the victory of the working class and the overthrow of capitalism.
The youth can play an important role in overthrows, in improving the
correlation of forces when it is permeated by class struggle and revolutionary
ideas. The sections of youth and their movements, their struggles, had a major contribution when, without sacrificing their particular characteristics,
they consciously walked side by side with the working class and its allies,
the urban and rural self-employed. This is what the dominant class is so
afraid of. This has been demonstrated throughout history, in certain phases
and conditions characterized by the rise of the labour movement, when
its struggles, emerging from the contradiction of capital-labour, also gained
political content.
Moreover, today, KNE has an action inside schools, universities, vocational
training centers, in the working and unemployed young people so that
militant youth forces can contribute to the regroupment of the labour
movement, the social alliance of rupture and overthrow. It seeks its action
to acquire a character of militant, educational-cultural counter-attack, by
shaping a corresponding current in its ranks and, more broadly, in the youth.
The 50-year life and action of KNE
is irreplaceable
The foundation of KNE gave life to the action of the KKE inside
the youth and the anti-dictatorship struggle. The formation of illegal
organisations of the KKE but also of KNE in youth places influenced the
development and the rise of the university and school student movement,
the organisation of the anti-dictatorship struggle in these places. On KKE’s
and KNE’s initiative, the Anti-Dictatorship Students’ Union of Greece (AntiEFEE,
with its organ the newspaper “Panspoudastiki”) and also the School
Students’ Organisation of Democratic Youth of Greece (MODNE) were
founded, which gave great impetus to the rise of the anti-dictatorship
struggle, from the occupation of the Law School building (February 1973)
that was culminated with the Polytechnic uprising in November 1973. It met
the raging reaction not only of the dictatorship but also of the forces of the
revisionist team that split from the KKE in 1968, which were disseminating
that “KNE disunites the anti-dictatorship youth movement, it is not needed”.
In the years following the re-establishment of bourgeois democracy,
KNE grew stronger at the side of the Party. The decision of the 4th
Session of the Central Council of KNE played a crucial role mentioning
inter alia: “Each member of KNE must form a Base Organisation (BO)”. KNE
grew rapidly, it formed BO all over the country, focusing on the major urban
centers, putting its mark on the militant rise of the youth, on its struggles
and demands alongside the labour-people’s movement. In the struggles of pupils, students, young workers, students in technical-vocational schools, in
the anti-imperialist struggles against the EEC (now EU) and NATO, for the
removal of American bases, for the international anti-imperialist solidarity,
for peace. It was at the forefront for the defense of socialism against
bourgeois and opportunist attacks, for solidarity with the socialist countries.
It had a pioneering contribution to the regroupment, the militant direction
and the creation of thousands of new mass collective forms of action such as
students’ unions, school students’ communities, young workers’ committees,
cultural and educational associations and others. It raised young pioneers in
the youth struggles and it gave new “immortals” like Sotiria Vasilakopoulou, a
member of KNE that was murdered at the gate of the ETMA factory.
After a rich inter-organisational process and discussion and as a result of
a wide-ranging action – amongst them the 1st Festival of KNE-Odigitis in
1975 – KNE reached its 1st Congress, which started its works on February
18, 1976. The 1st Congress was a big step forward for KNE. It was a very
important event for wider masses of youth. As stated in its resolution: “The
foundation of KNE, following the decision of the PB of the CC of the KKE...
signifies the beginning of a higher phase for the youth movement in Greece.
It has been an important milestone for the general development of the
revolutionary movement in our country…After 7.5 years of existence and
rich action”, as stated in the resolution, “KNE is a motor force inside the
youth movement, it is its Marxist - Leninist vanguard, the solid link with the
movement of the working class and its Party”.
The 1st Conference, with its resolution, confirmed as a first task the
direction of KNE in the working youth, and the children of the working class.
It strengthened the confidence of young communists for the irreplaceable
role of the labour movement in the revolutionary change of society. All
subsequent conferences (2nd-1979 and 3rd-1983) were steadily engaged in
the problems and concerns of young people, the propagation of the Party’s
policies inside the youth, the vanguard action of the members of KNE in the
various youth movements.
The course of KNE is objectively inseparable from the course of the
KKE, is overall inseparable from the course of the formation of its
strategy.
From this point of view KNE was also influenced by the counterrevolutionary
overthrows in the socialist countries during the period 1989-
1991, as well as by the crisis that the KKE experienced during the same
period, due to the influence of the organized opportunist action, which was aiming to relinquish the revolutionary characteristics of KKE, to transform
it into a Social-Democratic Party, and eventually to be diffused into the
“Coalition of the Left and Progress”.
Despite the obstacles and difficulties, KNE has endured in the storm of
the counter-revolution. KNE managed to endure because the KKE stood
up “against the stream”, keeping the flag of the class struggle, the fight for
socialism – communism up.
We are proud that our Party, despite all those who would like its
dissolution or its incorporation into the system of bourgeois power, was
able to stand up in these unprecedented, difficult conditions for the
international communist movement. It did not bow to the sirens of
compromise. It defended the fundamental principles and characteristics
of a Communist Party, the worldview of scientific socialism- communism,
Marxism - Leninism, proletarian internationalism, the democratic centralism,
the laws of the socialist economy and society, principles that were at the
centre of the anti-communist and opportunist attack. It opposed nihilism
of the course of the socialist construction in the 20th century, highlighted the
contribution of socialism and the workers’ and communist movement, the
timeliness of class struggle as the only motor force – for the liberation of the
working class through the abolition of capitalist ownership of the means of
production - for the conquest of the political power and the construction of
socialism-communism.
Thanks to the regroupment of the KKE, KNE managed to overcome
problems and confusions that were expressed during its Congresses (4th
Congress -1988 and 5th– Extraordinary Congress 1990), concerning the
questioning of the political and ideological Party’s leading role in KNE, a
questioning of the very nature of the Organisation. The Party’s crisis also led
to the attempt to change the character of KNE, to dissolve it and diffuse its
forces within Synaspismos (Coalition of the Left and Progress) or a wider
so-called “left” youth. These efforts brought KNE on the verge of dissolution
resulting to two splits in 1989 and 1991.
KNE managed to regroup and to begin its course for becoming a more
strong and massive Youth Organization. With the support of the Party
and also its own experience, KNE made steady steps to strengthen its
revolutionary characteristics, to improve its capacity to intervene within the
youth of the working - popular forces.
Of particular importance is the 6thConference (1993) and the militant
effort of hundreds of members of KNE throughout Greece to rebuild Base Organisations, to regroup KNE, to keep the slogan “our future is not
capitalism, it is the new world socialism” alive. The bases for the regroupment
of KNE were greatly strengthened by its 7thCongress (1997), where the
adoption of a new statute of the Organisation, which is the basis of the
present Statute of KNE (voted at the 11th Conference in 2014), stands out.
KNE, since the first years of the counter-revolutionary overthrows, has
fought against wars (Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.) and the plans of the
imperialist states and unions (NATO, EU, etc.) concerning the participation
of Greek armed forces outside the borders, against the rise of nationalism,
so that the youth will not bow before a flag which does not bear its interests,
so that they do not support any bourgeois class. This action embraced
the youth of the working class, school students, university students, young
workers and young soldiers. KNE organized international solidarity, with
both support and practical action, with brigades of solidarity to struggling
peoples. In this framework, the anti-imperialist two-day event of KNE was
established as an institution since July 1992 in Prespes, Greece.
It fought against our country’s participation in imperialist transnational
unions, such as the EEC, later EU, in terms of action and awareness,
highlighting that the European Union cannot become pro-people, nor it
is founded for such a purpose. Since it was founded, it is and always will be
against the people and the youth, because it is a union of the exploiters and
their governments against the peoples.
The course of establishing positive steps, responding to complex
developments and opening up new possibilities, went along with the
persistent effort to strengthen its revolutionary communist characteristics, in
order to be inspired by the revolutionary perspective and to raise the ability
to educate thousands of members and friends of KNE for this purpose. This kind of experience is reflected in all the congresses of KNE until today (8th2001,
9th-2006, 10th-2010 and 11th-2014).
Since its foundation, faithful to the principles of proletarian internationalism,
KNE has developed rich relations with Communist Youth Organizations
from all over the world, while since 1970 it has been a member of the
World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY). Particularly after 1991, it
has played a leading role in enhancing the discussion and joint action of
the Communist Youths worldwide. KNE continues to take on and promote
initiatives such as joint announcements of Communist Youths, international
ideological seminars, meetings of Communist Youth Organizations of
Europe, other forms of collective discussion and joint action that the need
and common steps of the Communist Youths will bring to the fore.
Since 2013, the KKE at its 19th Congress was equipped with a new
Program and a new Statute, which together with the resolutions of the
20th Congress in 2017, are indispensable assets for the strengthening
of KNE’s action and intervention.
The intensity of efforts for a vanguard and mass action in all sections
of the youth went and still go hand-in-hand with new challenges that
KNE must at all phases respond to, to be strengthened as the vanguard
youth of the KKE.
“Odigitis”,
a comrade in action and struggles
Along with the formation of the first leading organ of KNE and its first
Organisations, its “comrade” in action and struggles, its newspaper, “Odigitis”
is published, an organ of the Central Council, an organizer and leader to this
day that was first released in September 1968.
It is no coincidence that the first issue of “Odigitis” was released only
a few days after the foundation of the Organisation. The stubbornness,
the ingenuity, the militant spirit that “no difficulty will overcome us”, the
compliance to the rules of secrecy, the combination of illegal and legal
work, the initiative, made it possible for “Odigitis” to be written and printed
, with news as well as reports from all over Greece, which was distributed
hand to hand. KNE, with the decisive contribution and assistance of the
Party, secured the creation of an appropriate mechanism to ensure the
printing of “Odigitis” and other KNE materials. The newspaper had to come
out in every way, at all costs, and it did.
The action with these features established KNE in the conscience of the
people, secured contact with thousands of young people. Thanks to this
difficult but vanguard action, “Odigitis” and KNE materials were printed,
even during the junta period. Thanks to this action and despite the raid
of the police at its printing place and the interruption of the circulation of
“Odigitis” in 1971, a new printing place was rebuilt in 1972 and “Odigitis”
continued to be a real militant voice within the obscurity of persecutions
and illegality, along with “Rizospastis” and other party publications.
“Odigitis”, from the very first moment of its circulation until today,
contributes decisively to the militant promotion of the policies, ideology
and positions of the KKE and KNE in the youth. It informs and enlightens
about the problems of the youth and their causes, about the demands and
the needs of the youth against the distortion and disinformation of the
bourgeois mass media. It contributes to the generalization of experience
from the activities of KNE Organisations. For these reasons, “Odigitis” is a
mass organizer and guide.
Today it is the only youth publication that “talks” about the problems and
struggles of young people and highlights the way out under the point of
view of the working class. The aim is that “Odigitis” is distributed everywhere:
at every workplace, neighborhood, school and university.
The example of KNE- Odigitis Festival has been emblematic throughout
the course of KNE; it has been bringing thousands of young people in
contact with the most innovative ideas, with the history of the Party, the
movement, with the heroism of those unbowed by the class struggle, the
fights that inspired a glorious artistic work of international impact. The KNE-Odigitis
Festival in its 40-year-long journey has put its mark in our ideological,
political and cultural intervention in the youth. It has always combined
militant education with engaged, progressive art; the creation and more
broad expansion of our bonds with young people, especially with artists,
cultural and sports groups, communities of drug-addicts rehabilitation,
mass collective organisations. This is a distinctive feature that contributes
to the prestige of the Festival itself, its establishment in the consciousness
of thousands of young people, even generations, as the largest politicalcultural
youth event.
We move forward for a robust and massive KNE
The Central Council, all cadres and members of our organisation,
warmly shake the hands of all the comrades who helped KNE to take
root in the youth of our country, from the years of the dictatorship
until today.
KNE reaches 50 years of life and militant action with more optimism
and determination!
The struggle for the mind, conscience, heart, attitude and action of the
youth of the working class and the poor popular strata is a key element of
the class struggle between the working class and the capital.
We are well aware that they do not only want the youth to be ignorant
and neutral. They want the youth to actively support the exploitation
system, the imperialist wars and the slaughter of peoples for the profits of
the business groups. They seek for them to accept that their future will be
crushed in the mills of profitability and antagonism of the exploiters, at a
time when the development of production based on modern technology
can ensure work for all, with a general reduction in working time and a
level of production and services to meet the modern needs of young
people and older people.
They want the young people unable to see any other solution beyond the
limits of the system, to consider the capitalist system invincible and eternal,
to compromise on phony jobs as an alternative to unemployment, on a
highly paid but poor knowledge; to have as partner fatalism and the logic
that “nothing changes ...”
In this effort, we are struggling against the general tendency of society to
substitute knowledge for information, the way in which the bourgeoisie, with
the help of the new means of communication and technology, attempts to
educate on individualism, subjectivity, inertia of thought and action.
Against the rotten values and ideals of the system, the KKE and KNE, in
actions and not in words, have highlighted and still highlight thousands of
examples to follow: Thousands of role models of young modest fighters,
pioneers in education, culture, struggle. Young people with deep sense of
the value of collectivity, with deep love for the people of labour, enemies
of wealth and decay, with deep love for the oppressed all over the world,
with deep faith in the fair cause of the worker, with optimism even in
the more difficult conditions that the world can change, with a deep
knowledge of reality.
Each member of KNE «shall» use and distribute time so that, with the
help of knowledge and experience from the active participation in the
movement, to contribute as broadly as possible in order for the young
people of the working class and popular strata to see the objective reality in
a class-oriented base, without all the ideological “cesspool”. By studying and
utilizing the Party’s documents, with the incisive observation of the impact
of bourgeois ideology on youth, we conquer the capacity of informing
in a creative and understandable way, taking into account the level of
consciousness of the young people. We can convince more than we have
achieved so far, to raise questions and doubts over the dominant
propaganda to even more young people!
Although today’s youth is surrounded by conservative regression,
anticommunism, the ideological attack against the revolutionary, labour
movement and the vanguard role of the working class - especially after the
1991 socialist overthrows - its future for a better life to satisfy its needs is
directly linked to its participation and contribution to the development of
class struggle, the overthrow of capitalist barbarity and the construction of
the new, socialist society.
The time has come for action! KNE, the Youth of the KKE, is here! It has
a clear struggle proposition, has proposals and positions on all issues that
concern the young people of the working-popular families.
Everyone counts in the big struggle we have in front of us! Every
youngster organized in KNE signifies a big failure of the system to put him in
its pocket, to neutralize him! It means that no one will be alone against the
system of exploitation and deception.
The organisation multiplies the strength of each and every one, in
the struggle for a future “in the level of our dreams” and our needs!
Communism is the youth of the world
KNE is our organisation
