As 2025 draws to a close, broad masses of popular forces in Greece have taken to the streets of struggle, waging battles of great significance. Poor farmers have set up roadblocks on central and regional roads across the country, fighting for survival against the monopolies, the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, and government policies that are suffocating them.
The Nationwide Committee of Roadblocks is coordinating this struggle, which currently includes 58 roadblocks stretching from Thrace and Macedonia to Crete. The epicentre of the struggle is Thessaly, where three massive roadblocks have been set up with the participation of many thousands of tractors.
Poor farmers have the support of the working class, which in recent months has also waged important struggles for labour and social rights. These include the general strikes on 1 and 14 October against the 13-hour workday, as well as mass rallies against the government’ state budget, which places an enormous tax burden on the shoulders of the popular strata in order to finance the war economy and preparations, and to deepen Greece’s involvement in imperialist wars.
At the same time, the struggle against NATO, US bases, the country’s transformation into a springboard for imperialist plans, for the return of all Greek armed forces from imperialist missions abroad, and in solidarity with the people of Palestine and all peoples who are fighting, has not ceased for a single moment. Dozens of rallies and mass mobilizations have taken place. One such example is the mobilization of the people of Elefsina against the dangerous plans of the government and the US to turn the area into a hub of imperialist entanglement, exploiting the port of Elefsina in competition with the port of Piraeus, which has been handed over to the Chinese company COSCO. Workers and trade unions in the area mobilized under the slogan: “We refuse to become victims of competition and military conflict”.
It is no exaggeration to say that the soul of the people’s struggles in Greece was and continues to be the KKE. This is evident despite the fact that the Party is currently in a pre-congress process, engaged in a long-standing internal and public debate on the Central Committee’s Theses for the 22nd Congress, which will be held on 29–31January 2026. Even so, the KKE is carrying out a broad political opening and maintains a constant presence everywhere —both in workplaces and in the struggles of the workers. What clearer proof could there be than the fact that the KKE’s action has been rewarded for the first time among civil servants —a particularly difficult trade union environment that operates under the strict supervision of the bourgeoisie, given its key role in the ideological, political, and repressive mechanisms of the bourgeois state? At the congress of the Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions, the DAS trade union list, supported by the KKE and composed of trade unionists rallied in PAME, came first with 25.57% of the vote. Similarly, the KNE list came first for the fourth consecutive year in the student unions at public universities, receiving 33% of the vote.
The most striking fact, however, is that none of the above has been adequately reflected in various international media, including the so-called “left-wing” and “communist” outlets. On the contrary, even at a time when the KKE is at the forefront of the people’s struggle, of the struggle against NATO, the USA, and imperialist war, attacks against the KKE have not ceased. These attacks are sometimes direct, based on unfounded accusations, such as those made by the Communist Party of Belarus, and sometimes indirect, taking the form of insinuating questions, such as those raised in an article published by the German newspaper Junge Welt, which slyly and deliberately questioned whether the KKE’s internationalist event commemorating the October Socialist Revolution was “a sign of a new split”.
First of all, we would like to note that all the materials of the KKE’s Internationalist Event —including the opening speech by D. Koutsoumbas, GS of the CC of the KKE, the contributions of the 26 participating Communist Parties, the Joint Statement on the anniversary of the October Revolution, and the closing remarks of the event by G. Marinos, member of PB of the CC of the KKE— are available on the newly upgraded foreign-language website of the KKE and anyone can study them.
The Theses of the CC of the KKE also provide a clear response to the question raised by Junge Welt regarding “signs of a new split”, noting, among other things that:
“The imperialist war in Ukraine has affected the international forms of cooperation in which our Party participates. The International Communist Review (ICR) had to undergo a period of restructuring, while the European Communist Initiative (ECI), which was dissolved, was replaced by the European Communist Action (ECA). The ideological–political conflict intensified in the context of the International Meetings of Communist and Workers’ Parties (IMCWPs), held in Havana (2022) and Izmir (2023), as reflected in the positions of the Communist Parties and the different resolutions they tabled and adopted.
The situation of the IMCWPs is very problematic; issues of joint action and solidarity have significantly weakened, with characteristic cases including those surrounding the Communist Party of Venezuela and solidarity with the peoples of the Middle East. A situation is emerging that threatens their continued existence, while various forms (“platforms” and “forums”) whitewash imperialist plans and attempt to drag the communist movement into the service of the imperialist Eurasian axis under formation, following the example of the Party of the European Left (PEL), which supports the imperialist EU.”
The situation that has developed within the international communist movement did not arise out of the blue. As noted, among other points, in a recent Resolution by the CC of the KKE under the title “On the escalation of the imperialist war, the sharpening of imperialist competition, and the preparation of the Party”:
“The imperialist war in Ukraine has provoked new and has deepened old ideological–political divisions in the ranks of what we call the International Communist Movement (ICM), which, as we have assessed at the 21st Congress, is in a deep crisis: ‘A fierce ideological–political struggle is being waged among the ranks of the ICM on a number of issues, such as the analysis–interpretation of contemporary phenomena of capitalism and the international imperialist system’.
Thus, in addition to the debate that has been going on for the past few years on:
- what imperialism is,
- the attitude towards inter-imperialist contradictions,
- the attitude towards social democratic forces and ‘progressive’ governments,
- the character of our times,
- the character and the role of the working class,
- the principles of socialist construction,
- the questions of the imperialist war and the attitude of the CPs towards the bourgeoisie of their country and its imperialist alliances have been raised more insistently.
Of course, the above ideological–political questions are also directly related to the debate that has arisen around the issues of war.
This is because the CPs that identified imperialism with the aggressive foreign policy of the USA and some powerful European capitalist states while embellishing the role of other capitalist states, now see in Russia, China and Iran some ‘anti-imperialist powers’ or even an ‘anti-imperialist axis’. Such forces, which arbitrarily and unscientifically disregard the inter-imperialist contradictions and competition, which are the root cause of imperialist wars, estimate that sooner or later a ‘just’ and ‘peaceful’ ‘multi-polar world’ will emerge. Some of them support the capitalist EU or capitalist China and Russia as ‘new poles’ and ‘counterweights’ to the USA, more or less identifying their interests with the interests of the working class and the popular strata of their countries.”
It is true that the KKE has developed a fundamentally different approach, one that has enables it to avoid being dragged into the quagmire of collaboration with bourgeois forces and governments in the name of false “anti-fascism” and false “anti-imperialism”. It has allowed the KKE to take the lead in the struggle against the USA, NATO, the EU, against Greece’s involvement in the imperialist war, and in the struggle of the working class and the popular strata for their rights, while gathering forces for a rupture with the capitalist system and imperialist alliances. In this way, the KKE has safeguarded its independent strategy and has not allowed itself to be drawn into the service of either the Euro-Atlantic imperialist bloc, which allegedly struggles against the “revision of international law”, or the Euro-Asian bloc, which has embarked on a course of reforms and puts forward a supposedly “fair architecture of international relations” and a “multipolar world”.
The KKE’s success is rooted in its deep ties with the working class and its long historical experience, which it studies systematically and from which it draws conclusions for its contemporary struggle. Through the study of its own history and that of the international communist movement, as well as the experience of socialist construction and counter-revolution in the 20th century, the KKE has formulated a revolutionary programme. It has been fortified by the conclusions drawn from the experience of the erroneous strategy of stages, of anti-fascist fronts with bourgeois forces, and the study of the causes of the overthrow of socialism in the USSR, while consistently defending the laws of socialist construction. All of this appears to be ignored by the Communist Party of Belarus in its criticism of the KKE. Instead, it remains attached to and rehashes older, outdated approaches of the international communist movement in order to justify its political identification with the leadership of the bourgeois Republic of Belarus, going so far as to make the unfounded claim that “Belarusian socialism” is being built there today. This position contradicts Marxist–Leninist principles and lacks any scientific basis, since it is well known that the construction of socialism presupposes revolutionary processes: the destruction of the bourgeois state, the establishment of new revolutionary institutions of power, the socialization of the means of production, and the central scientific planning of the economy —not merely the existence of a strong state sector.
Over the past year, the KKE has demonstrated its capacities both within Greece and internationally. It has strengthened its political intervention and has been further reinforced by new forces and by valuable experiences gained through the battles it has fought. For this reason, we welcome 2026 and the 22nd Congress of the KKE with a spirit of responsibility, pride, and combative yet realistic optimism for our just struggle. We are committed to promoting our Programme for a life free from exploitation and imperialist wars, with dignity and social prosperity befitting the contemporary needs of the working class, other popular forces, and the youth in the 21st century.
We wish all our comrades in other countries health, strength, and success in their struggles, so that the fight for socialism–communism may grow stronger across the globe.
Long live Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism!
