EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW with Vagenas: Communists lead anti-NATO struggle in Greece

How has the anti-NATO struggle in Greece acquired a new dimension in the context of the war against Iran?

Our struggle against NATO over the past five years —since the outbreak of the imperialist war in Ukraine, alongside the massacre of the Palestinian people by the murderous state of Israel, carried out with the support of the US–NATO–EU, as well as the imperialist war in the Middle East and the US’s murderous attack against the people of Iran— has acquired a new and significant dimension in Greece, characterized by greater urgency and renewed momentum. This is because broad sections of the population increasingly recognize that our country is involved in all these developments, at a time when NATO is preparing for a generalized war in Europe, deploying forces and reinforcing military bases along Russia’s borders, modernizing its conventional and nuclear arsenals, and supplying Ukraine with modern military equipment.

At the same time, the EU is also intensifying its war economy and preparations with a degree of relative autonomy. This process extends across all sectors and branches of the member states’ economies —with Germany and France playing a particularly prominent role— and is directed towards the “rearmament of Europe”. It involves the reinforcement of existing funds and programmes for military purposes, the creation of new ones, and a corresponding escalation of the attack on workers’ and people’s rights.
Furthermore, the EU in conjunction with NATO, is implementing the “military mobility” plan —the so-called “military Schengen”— aimed at enabling the rapid development of military forces and equipment to the front lines within a matter of hours.

To what extent does anti-NATO sentiment exist in Greek society, and how do you assess the reasons behind it?

Anti-NATO sentiment in Greek society is shaped, on the one hand, by the traumatic experience of our country’s participation in NATO. This in encapsulated in the well-known slogan frequently chanted at our demonstrations: “NATO means military juntas and wars!”. It is also reinforced by the vanguard educational work of the communists, who are currently drawing attention to the growing dangers facing our people. These dangers arise in a context marked by the decline of US economic power relative to China’s rise and their competition for supremacy within the international capitalist system, and deepening of contradictions both among NATO and EU member states and within them. 

The KKE emphasizes that, through the “Agenda 2030”, the restructuring and development plan for the Greek armed forces, alongside the procurement of modern military equipment, serve NATO’s needs rather than the defence of the country’s territorial integrity and borders. It condemns the deployment of Greek armed forces units in imperialist missions abroad, including in the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean, as was recently the case in Cyprus, where they were tasked with protecting NATO-British bases —and certainly not the people of Cyprus, as the government and the other bourgeois parties have claimed.

It also condemns the decision to deploy Greek troops to the Gaza Strip, while warning of the particularly alarming stance adopted by the Greek Ministry of Defence, which has called on the people to become accustomed to the “flag-draped coffins of soldiers returning home”. 

In practice, it has been demonstrated that involvement in the plans of the US, NATO, the EU, and Israel not only fails to guarantee the security of the people, but also turns the country into a target for retaliation and has set in motion developments that undermine sovereign rights.

Furthermore, broad sections of the population are beginning to recognize that the negotiations initiated under US supervision, within the framework of the decisions of the 2023 NATO Summit, are aimed at strengthening NATO’s south-eastern flank and promoting the joint management and exploitation of mineral wealth in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean for the benefit of monopolies and at the expense of the country’s sovereign rights, the environment, and the interests of both peoples, while also seeking to undermine Russian–Turkish relations.

What initiatives has the KKE recently undertaken in the anti-NATO struggle, and what kind of response have these actions received?

The KKE’s struggle against NATO is both significant and expanding. It constitutes a contemporary, timely and necessary revolutionary task, one that concerns all the popular forces in our country as well as those of other peoples in NATO member states.

The KKE has made no compromises. It stands in clear contrast to ‘leftist’ forces such as SYRIZA which voted for the further enlargement of NATO through the accession of Finland and Sweden. Nor does the KKE resort to vague calls for the ‘dismantling’ of NATO, as some other forces in Europe do; it consistently advocates the disengage of our country —and indeed of every country. At the same time, it underlines that this exit from imperialist unions, such as NATO and the EU, can be can be realised in a stable and irreversible manner in favour of the people when they hold the keys of the economy and power.

The struggle against the imperialist organization of NATO, its armaments, nuclear weapons, unjust wars and its plans is a very important task of our struggle today.

It is, moreover, a revolutionary task closely linked to our struggle to overthrow capitalism, so that the Greek people become masters in their own land and the means of production serve the entire people, who, based on science and through workers’–people’s control, will be able to manage the economy to meet their contemporary needs rather than the profits of the parasitic bourgeoisie. In such circumstances there will be no place for foreign bases and troops, nor any necessity for participation in the alliances of the bourgeoisie, such as the EU and NATO, since the bourgeoisie, along with the capitalist exploitative system, will have been consigned to the dustbin of history.

That is why our struggle against NATO is not simply a phrase in our programme but a contemporary, timely and necessary revolutionary task, which concerns all the popular forces of our country and of the other peoples in NATO member states.

We will not hand over this revolutionary task to reactionary Taliban-type organizations that are linked in multiple ways to the imperialists, or to bourgeois regimes that have emerged from counter-revolutionary processes, such as that of Putin in today’s Russia, or, of course, to the billionaire US President, D. Trump.

The communists in Greece are currently leading the struggle against NATO in Greece. The KKE is the only party in the Greek parliament that fights against NATO and raises the issue of disengagement, voting against military expenditure that serves NATO’s needs rather than the country’s defence. In the European Parliament, unlike other “left-wing” parties, the KKE has voted against imperialist wars and plans. Throughout the year, the KKE and its youth organization, the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE), organize hundreds of demonstrations, particularly in areas hosting NATO bases and military headquarters of NATO and the EU. Communists, together with other workers, have taken action to block roads and railway lines used for the transportation of weapons and military equipment. 

The KKE will continue to do everything in its power to support the initiatives of the All Workers’ Militant Front (PAME), as well as mobilizations of trade unions, unions of the self-employed, the Federation of Women of Greece (OGE), the Greek Committee for International Détente and Peace (EEDYE), university student unions, and other mass movement organizations. These efforts are directed against imperialist wars, for the country’s disengagement, the closure of US and NATO bases, the return of Greek armed forces from imperialist missions abroad, and in support of the heroic struggle of the Palestinian people.  It will also continue to support decisions by trade unions and other popular organizations to block the passage of NATO forces and military cargo through Greek ports, as has occured in the previous period (including through actions by COSCO dockworkers and in Thessaloniki, Alexandroupolis, Tyrnavos, and elsewhere.)

Today, we particularly support the right of conscripts who oppose the imperialist war and our country’s participation in it, and who form struggle committees within military camps to address the problems they face, as well as their participation in workers’ and popular mobilizations against the war, despite the persecution unleashed against them by the bourgeois state.

We believe that today It is imperative to intensify the ideological and political struggle against the aims of the US, NATO, and the EU, while also strengthening the front with the arguments used by the other side of the imperialist war, the Eurasian imperialist axis under formation centred on China and Russia and the forces that support them, so that the workers’–people’s movement does not become subordinated to the plans of other capitalist powers.

At the same time, the revolutionary movement has a duty to exploit the contradictions among capitalist states and their various alliances, to create ruptures and widen existing ones for the benefit of the workers’–people’s struggle and the struggle to overthrow capitalism and build socialism, always maintaining revolutionary independence.

The working class and its allied popular forces have no interest in aligning themselves with one imperialist camp or another, in choosing a camp of thieves or another. The main task for the working class in our country, as well as for the other allied popular strata, is to avoid being drawn through various pretexts and illusions associated with the imperialist camp, namely the EU–NATO camp, in which the Greek bourgeois state participates. Instead they must strive to break free from imperialist plans, foster scepticism and distrust towards the bourgeois government and the state, and struggle for disengagement from NATO, the EU, and all imperialist alliances. This perspective must be strengthened not only through ideological and political debate, but also through active participation in the workers’ and popular movement, reinforcing the understanding that there are no common national interests between workers and capitalists – even in times of war.