Thursday, February 3, 2022

Dimitris Koutsoumbas: "Capitalist growth, by definition, is anti-popular in any management formula"

Capitalist growth, by definition, is anti-popular in any management formula, stressed Dimitris Koutsoumbas, the GS of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), speaking in Parliament on 02/02/22, noting that ND and SYRIZA with their “development” laws compete over how they will distribute billions of euros to the few by crushing the people.

Speaking about the new “development” law, he highlighted that the mockery must end and that the tale of capitalist development is the same old story that does not convince anyone. He added that growth is here, but wages —average and minimum— remain stagnant because capitalist growth is based on the intensification of the exploitation of workers.
 
Dimitris Koutsoumbas noted that the striking similarity between the proposals of  ND and SYRIZA is not accidental, stressing that they are based on the “green digital transition” promoted by the Biden administration and the EU aimed at the controlled destruction of capital and the promotion of “green investments” due to the over-accumulation of capital. He also noted that the parties supporting this strategy of the capital conceal that “green digital transition” will cost the people dearly by increasing the cost of energy, that the commerce and hospitality sectors will be concentrated in fewer business groups, and that the Recovery Fund is inextricably linked to inflation, high prices, and poverty.

Referring to the reduction in the anti-popular property tax (ENFIA) previously announced by the prime minister, he noted that it cannot offset the enormous increase in electricity prices and basic consumer goods. “We continue supporting the popular demand for the abolition of ENFIA, this unjust tax, in contrast to all the other forces that have abandoned this demand”, he added.

D. Koutsoumbas expressed the solidarity of the KKE with the workers of the LARCO industrial unit, which the government is preparing to sell off.Concluding his speech, the GS of the CC of the KKE highlighted the following: “In contrast to this deadlock for the people, the KKE proposes a radically different solution. It proposes a different path, the path of the socialization of the concentrated means of production, the central scientific planning of the economy; the path of socialism. This path can truly plan the economy to meet the people’s needs.

- It can secure that soaring productivity will lead to an overall reduction of working time and an improvement in people’s income.

- It can secure fewer working hours for all, providing free time for the workers’ educational and cultural needs, for participation in civic life.

- This path can comprehensively develop the productive forces of the country, securing a balanced growth of all sectors, without being bound by the criterion of voracious appetite for maximum profitability leading to phenomena of acute unequal development and anarchy in production.

- This path can secure energy planning according to the criterion of people’s needs, in contrast to today’s reality submitting energy planning to the profitability of the capital.

- This path can solve the problem of free and public healthcare, prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation; the welfare and support of the People with disabilities; the public and free education at all levels for all; the mass and free access to sports and culture; the protection of the environment.

The KKE’s development proposal includes such elements. The KKE will turn it into a law of the workers’–people’s state when it will be called upon to do so by the people’s will.

We now have drawn conclusions from the attempt of socialist construction in 1/3 of the world in the past century. We have learned from our mistakes, oversights, and weaknesses; we hold on to the positive elements and the achievements. That is why we are optimistic about the present and the future.”

inter.kke.gr