Greece: Press Office of New Democracy helps disseminate the ideas of Lenin!

During the recent SYRIZA congress the Press Office of New Democracy issues a press release, pointing the finger at the ideas defended by the Communist Platform. We publish here a short note from the Communist Platform and the text of the Press Release for the information of our readers.

We thank the Press Office of New Democracy for its extraordinary work in disseminating the programmatic positions of the founding documents of the Communist International, as drafted by Lenin, on which are based the programmatic proposals of the Communist Platform, which is the only alternative document to the Positions Document of the Central Committee at the SYRIZA congress.

We address an appeal to our comrades in the party leadership to not lose their cool and not to then go rushing to reassure the bourgeois media that the ideas of Lenin are today a minority opinion within SYRIZA. That much they already know.

At no point have Communists been afraid of being in a minority, neither of course are they surprised to find their ideas being denigrated by the ruling class. However, we must say that we find it difficult to explain this particular instance of the ruling class’s attempts to denigrate our positions, given that they simply reproduce passages from our communist programme verbatim. ‘Dear’ Mr Kedikoglou [government communications spokesperson], do not forget us: our programme contains another nine points. We look forward to seeing more ingenious press releases such as yesterday’s.

The ingenious press release from New Democracy’s press office follows here in its entirety:

“The Press Office of New Democracy releases the following announcement in relation to what is really being discussed at the SYRIZA congress.

“If this isn’t a mistake, it evidently is some sort of joke! In order for the Greek people to know what is really being discussed at the SYRIZA congress, we provide the following passages verbatim for illustrative purposes:

“Positions: The much needed revolutionary socialist programme for SYRIZA:

“A revolutionary socialist government should abolish the bourgeois state apparatus and establish the new power of the workers. In order to lay the foundations of such new power, it must take the following fundamental measures:

“The total reform of the armed forces in the following manner:

Full trade union and political rights for all soldiers and junior officers;

Elected and recallable committees of soldiers and junior officers must decide all issues that relate to their unit;

The right to elect and recall officers resides with the soldiers; there shall be measures to improve the living standards in the units (re hygiene, nutrition, and sufficient leave) and to increase soldiers’ wages to the level of unemployment benefit;

There shall be sufficient arms training during the entire duration of the term of service;

No professional army; a term of service with arms training for the entire working population as a guarantee of the defence of the working class’s conquests and rights;

All officers to receive wages no higher than those of a skilled worker;

Setting up a structure within the army with military units of the workers’ organisations that are to be trained at the expense of the state;

The radical reformation of the security forces;

Abolition of all special security forces of state repression and of policing of the struggles of the working class and youth.

The banning of special forces from all places where political proceedings and/or trade-union activities are taking place, and the extension of asylum to all educational institutions and work places.

The abolition of whatever self-management exists within the security forces, and their subjection to the control of the mass organisations of the working class and of the youth, and their transformation into civilian protection units which shall involve on a rotational basis elected members of the mass workers’ organisations and of the youth. Their educational curriculum to be determined by an elected committee of representatives from the mass organisations….”

In order to avoid any confusion, we include the official web-link of the SYRIZA conference where such “innovative” Stalinist positions of theirs can be found”.

(Friday, 12 July 2013)