GREECE
Communist youth opposition resolution
WE publish below extracts from the resolution adopted by the Young Communists (KNE) after the decision of the Greek Communist Party (KKE) to Impose a leadership on the KNE. DOCUMENT T ODAY a number of problems are showing up regarding the spread of the impact amongst broad masses of youth of working class values expressed by the KKE. This situation is reflected in an intense way in the KNE's intervention, but also in its own functioning and in the problems that exist amongst its members and cadres.
We believe that we must directiy confront the causes of these problems, which pose acutely not only the question of the effectiveness of the KKE's work, but more generally the question of the relationship between the left and today's youth, and the ability of the former to inspire the ideals of the latter.
Position of youth within society modified
And above all these questions are relat- Ana above all Inese quesuons are related to changes that have taken place in our country and in the capitalist world generally, which have modified the position of youth within society on an international scale, and have changed the terms in which the latter approach the mass movement, politics and the left. They relate also to the changes taking place in the socialist countries, and the image that today's youth have of the kind of future that communists want.
Certainly, there are divergences and disagreements on the part of the cadres of the KNE— and not only amongst the KNE -on the orientation of the Union of the Left, and they have been expressed within the framework of the internal procedures of the party. But this has not stopped the KNE from working within the framework of the Union of the Left, including at the last elections. If our disagreements have been made public, this is not the fault of the Central Council of the KNE. But what is more important is that, despite the efforts of sections of the press to present 14 dogmaic oseneation and an inabili these disagreements as stemming from to keep up with contemporary changes" they actually have a different point of departure - the concern of a section of the cadres and members of the KNE about how the KNE should respond to today's needs, to the questions and problems facing the new generation. How, on the basis of the fundamental principles that underlie the politics and tactics of the KKE, is it possible to link up with the radicalism and combativity being displayed by broad masses of youth?
Unity in action and different opinions
The existence of these differing opinions does not reflect the existence of any majority or minority group. Rather they reflect the diversity of reality itself, and it would be impossible for them not 1o exist.
Moreover, the existence of more than one opinion is not contrary to the basic governing principle of both the KKE and the KNE, democratic centralism, since the latter exists precisely so that differences of opinion can be resolved in unity in action.
On the basis of the preceding, the Central Council of the KNE: Believes that the members of the KNE can and must "take into their own hands" the future direction of the organization. This is the only solution that can assure the unity of
Extracts from an article which appeared in Odigitis, the weekly newpaper of the
KNE, on 13 September 1989.
The author, S. Antonakakis, is a member of the Bureau of the Central Councli of the
KNE.
(In reply to the question are we witnessing the death of socialism?")
It Is more worthwhile to exam-
Ine what has "died". In doing that, one is faced with a number of questions: for example, what relationship can there be between the forms of properly existing today in the countries that are called socialist - where state ownership of a hypercentralized form dominates, In an authoritarlan and anachronistic fashion (as the official documents of the CPSU have repeatedly observed and *the society of freely assoclated pro-
International Viewpoint #172 • October 30, 1989 the KNE through democratic procedures.
Thus, the Central Council has decided to organize an extraordinary Congress of the KNE, in the course of which it will report on its own activity. The elected Central Council is the only body that can, according to the statutes, open such a procedure. Any other procedure would be politically and organizationally arbitrary and would violate the essence of our statutory principles of functioning.
Methods worthy of condemnation
Already in the past such methods were injurious and worthy of condemnation, as the experience of the communist movement has shown. Today, they have the effect of making the lelt seem even more incapable of grasping the message of modern events, and oblivious to the spirit of creative investigation and discussion that perestroika has aroused throughout the communist movement.
The Congress will have as its theme the development of a more advanced analysis, in today's conditions, of the political situation of youth and also its future direction, with the central goal being to rally the new generation more rapidly around anticonservative left positions. *
Central Council of the KNE, Athens, September 21, 1989.
ducers" described by the Marxist classics. Moreover, because the structure and evolution of such economies have revealed their bankruptcy, does this mean that the abolishing of private property is no longer a precondition for creating a free society?
Again, what relationship can there be between socialist democracy, based on the principle of the participation of the masses in administration and political power, and these bureaucratic monsters that have become allen to society and its needs and that constitute a parasitic and reactionary army of bureaucrats living off the backs of society?
And how can the democratic and collective development of theory go hand in hand with perlods of active censorship of thought and extreme authorltarian repression, all in the name of the defence of soclalism? *
USSR