COMMUNISM PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES OF COMMUNIST PARTY ORGANIZATION As shown by a manual on organization issued by the CP Cyprus (AK

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-00915R000300130002-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 56
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 9, 1998
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: March 2, 1954
• Content Type: REPORT

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25X1A2g 25X1A2g
COMMUNISM
PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES
OF
COMMUNIST PARTY ORGANIZATION
As shown by a manual on organization
issued by the CP Cyprus (AKEL).
2 March 1954 Copy N? 49
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One of the best ways to gain an understanding of how a
Communist Party works is to study a Communist organization
manual, in which the Party discusses its problems in its own
terms and presents its own solutions. The question of organiza-
tion--meaning, how Communist theory and policy can be turned
into practice--has always been of tremendous importance to
Communist leaders everywhere. Theory and practice together
are the keys to successful revolution, as taught by Lenin.
"Without a revolutionary theory," he wrote, "there can be
no revolutionary movement. . . . ." On the other hand, "in
the struggle for power, the proletariat has no other weapon
but organization." "The proletariat can become, and inevita-
bly will become, an invincible force only when its ideological
unification by the principles of Marxism is consolidated by
the material unity of an organization which will weld millions
of toilers into an army of the working class."
In the terms of this formula, it is the fundamental task
of the Communists to develop an elite, single-minded, totally
disciplined organization, conditioned and deployed to exert
maximum influence over the entire working "class."
Communist Party organizational manuals treating these
problems in simple, practical terms are relatively rare. One
of the best known is the so-called "Peters' Manual" (The
Communist Party: A Manual on Organization, by J. Peters),
which for many years was the basic instructional text of the
Communist Party of the United States.
Another such textbook is the one herewith presented.
Although published by a small Communist Party, *this manual,
entitled Organizational Lessons, presents principles and
practices of Communist Party organization that are generally
valid for larger CP's in other parts of the world. (That
general principles and practices may be transferred is dem-
onstrated by the fact that the AKEL manual is acknowledged
to have been based upon an earlier text published by the CP
Greece.)
*The CP Cyprus, founded in 1924, took its present name of
AKEL (Anorthotikon Komma tou Ergasomenou Laou: Reform Party
of the Working People) in 1941. No up-to-date figures on
its numerical strength are available. In 1952 it had an
estimated membership of 4,000; its influence was, however,
greater than this figure would suggest, for it controlled the
Pan-Cyprian Federation of Labor and the Farmers' Union (EAK).
In the summer of 1952, an internal crisis developed within the
Party, ostensibly over the question of union with Greece
("enosis"), and a number of its top leaders were expelled.
The crisis seems to have been brought to a head by the direct
intervention of the CP Greece (KKE).
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Of special interest are the sections on Party security--
Party vulnerabilities and counter-measures (pp. 32-49). The
need expressed (p. 45) for bolstering the Party Information
Branch is one not often publicly acknowledged by CP's, most
of them preferring to conceal the mere existence of a counter
espionage organ.
Lessons 4-6, dealing with the qualities of a "good" Com-
munist, are also of interest. Here, again, AKEL describes in
substantial detail desired characteristics that one seldom
finds mentioned in Communist documents.
The manual, as published, did not include a table of con-
tents. One has been prepared for the convenience of readers.
It will be noted that the text contains minor aberrations
of spelling and grammar; in the interest of speed, the manual
is being distributed unedited, as it was originally received
from a friendly foreign official source.
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Page
Lesson No. 9
"Elements. Their Selection and . . . . . . . . . . . . 29-32
Nomination"
(Principles of developing Cadres.)
Lesson No. 10
"Methods Employed by the Enemy in His . . . . . . . . . 32-39
Campaign against Our Movement"
(Includes case histories of "spies";
weaknesses which permit penetration
of the Party)
Lesson No. 11
"The Party's Protection" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39-46
(Selectivity in recruitment,
supervision of work, and criticism as
security measures.- Creation of
Information Branch for counter-
espionage.)
Lesson No. 12
"Organizational-Technical Preparation" . . . . . . . 46-50
(More organizational security measures.
Rules of personal conduct.)
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Lesson No. 1
"The Parties" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-7
(The Character and function of
the AKEL as a CP)
Lesson No. 2
"Organizational Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-9
of AKEL"
(Functions, composition, method
of selecting members of Party
leadership organs)
Lesson No. 3
"Organizational Principles of AKEL" . . . . . . . . . 10-12
(Basic definitions: "Party democracy,"
centralism.")
Lesson No. 4
"Party Members. Rights and .. . . . . . . . . . ... . 12-15
Obligations"
(Includes requirements of membership
and types of discipline.)
Lesson No. 5
"Party Education" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-18
(Qualities of the ideal Communist)
Lesson No. 6
"Control, Criticism, Self-Criticism, . . . . . . . . 18-20
Party Penalties."
(Criticism and self-criticism as an
important control device.)
Lesson No. 7
"Organizational Leadership" . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-24
(Relationship of organization to
policy. Organizational purity and
efficiency.)
Lesson No. 8
"Organizational Work" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25-29
(Various social and economic groups
as targets for Communist organizing
efforts. Principles: distribution of
labor and maximum participation.
Necessity for secret ("illegal") work
at all times. How deviations are
expressed by attitudes towards
organizational work.)
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Pamphlet entitled "Organisation Lessons"
published by the Central Committee of A.K.E.L.
Prologue
Today we present this pamphlet, which is based on the
"Organisation Lessons" of the Central Committee of the
Communist Party of Greece;, published in 1947. It is
useful and indispensable not only to our Party as a whole
but also to all other conscientious elements of our
popular movement which are outside the Party's organised
limits. This panphlet,might also serve the District
Committees as a series of lessons which probationary
members should, in any case, go through.
We consider it expedient not only to make the necessary
adaptations to conditions in Cyprus; but also to quote some
fundamental and cardinal points from modern. experience,
with special regard to provocation, espionage and vigilance.
This pamphlet should be the A.B.C. of the organisation of
the Party's members and of the followers of the popular
movement in all their organising work because, as Stalin
has wisely emphasized, "organised work alone can determine
the fate of a political course". That is why this
pamphlet has been given an instructional character in the
form of lessons which, on the one hand make it fully
understood and, on the other, require teachers to
collect all essential observations which might be made
during the lessons so that the pamphlet's new edition
might be more complete and richer.
September, 1950.
Publicity Department
of the Central Committee
of A.K.E.L.
LESSON No.1
The Parties
Parties, which represent the interests of the working
class and of the working people and whose fundamental object
is to organize
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organise. the classless socialist community on the basis
of the abolition of human exploitation, are Progressive
parties. Parties which represent the bourgeoisie and the
other exploiting classes and seek to perpetuate the
present-day regime of exploitation are Reactionary parties.
'A.K.E.L], which is the party of the working class and of
the working people, is a progressive party because
.national liberation and the replacement of the exploitative
regime by another regime are its aims. Its members, unlike
the members of other bourgeois parties, believe in
principles, not in persons. A.K.E.L. is a party of
principles with definite fundamental aims which no one
can alter. A.K.E.L4 is a new type of party. It is the
new edition of Leninism.
Our Party leads the working class and the workers in the
national rehabilitation struggle, that is, the union of
'Cyprus with Greece; and the incorporation of~'A.K.E.L. in
the-'areej: people's organised and progressive forces which
guide the working class and workers in the struggle for
power and for a non-exploitative socialist community.
Main characteristics of the New Type
Party
The New Type Party's main characteristics, as determined
by Stalin, are:-
(a) The Party is the vanguard of the
working class.
(b) The Party is an organised section of the
working class.
(c) The Party is a superior form of organisa-
tion of the working class.
(d) The Party is an organ of proletarian
dictatorship.
(e) The Party is a unit incompatible with
intra-Party 'fractions'.
(f) The Party gathers strength from its purge
from opportunist elements.
Let us now examine these distinctive characteristics one by
one.
1. The Party as Vanguard of the working class
A.K.E.L.
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LA.K.E.L}' is the basic power of the national-liberation
movement and of all radical democratic and socialist
changes. It is the vanguard of the working class and
working people of1Cyprus. It is the political party of
the working class which, as a section of the working class
of Greece`, forcibly detached from it, is entrusted with the
task of national-liberation and of socialist moulding.
As vanguard in the struggle against Imperialism and
capitalism it achieves the emancipation not only of the
working class but of all the working people as well.
Consequently A.K.E.L. is, in this respect, the Party of all
the working people also. It is the political guide and
'General Staff' of the struggle of the working class. No
army can do without an experienced 'General Staff' in time
of war. Without a 'General Staff' an army is automatically
doomed to defeat. A.K.E.L. is just this kind of 'General
Staff' for the working class and working people. At the
same time it is the vanguard of the working class which is
closely knit with the working class and workers.
Differences between A.K.E.L. and the remaining part of the
working class as well as differences between the Party's
members and persons outside the Party will exist so long
as classes exist. But, in order that A.K.E.L. might
guide the working class, it should be closely associated
with the non-party masses. The Party is an indivisible
part of the working class and all working people.
A.K.E.L. incorporates the best leaders and most enlightened
elements devoted to the proletarian cause. It incorporates
elements recruited chiefly from the working class. But it
also has elements from the peasantry, from the popular
classes of the towns, from the intellectuals who
understand the historic role ofthe proletariat, and from
all the working people. A.K.E.L. is the 'General Staff'
which directs the class struggle of the proletariat and of
all the working people.
2. The Party as the organised section
OF THE-WORKING CLASS
The Party's obligations during the period of Imperialism
are great. It must lead the workers' struggle in very
difficult circumstances. Moreover, it must infuse into the
non-Party masses the sense of discipline, of
struggle, of organisation, of courage. But, to be able to
do this, the Party itself should be a well-disciplined and
organised part of its own class. Without itself being
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organised it cannot conduct the working masses' struggle.
The view that the Party is an entity is based on that
point in the Charter laid down by Lenin which says:
"The Party is the sum-total of its organisations and
its members are members of the Party's organisation".
The Mensheviks had proposed that any person who in any
manner whatsoever supported the Party should be
considered a member of the Party without affiliating
himself to any of its organizations. But the Party is
not only the 'ensemble' of the Party organisations.
It is also the singular system of these organisations.
Their unification is expressed in the senior and junior
leading organs with the minority's submission to the
majority and with practical engagements for all its
members.
3. The Party as the supreme form of
organisation of the working classes
As an organised and leading Party, A.K.E.L. is not the
only organisation of the working class. The working
class has another set of organisations with which it
carries on the struggle against capital. For example,
it has societies, associations, trade unions, etc.
How, then, should working class leadership be achieved
since that class has a set of organisations? Who is
to determine the general direction of the movements of
all these organisations? A.K.E.L. alone will
determine and guide because it embraces the best elements
of the working class and of all the other working people,
and also because it has greater experience and is a
school which produces leaders able to organise the
working class struggle. Moreover, it has the authority
to transform all the non-Party organisations of the
working class into auxiliary organs, thus uniting the
working class and working people with the Party. The
Party is, therefore, the supreme form of the
proletariat's class organisation. It is for this
reason that the opportunists and capitalists uphold the
non-Party organisations' "independence and neutrality".
4. The Party as organ of Proletarian
Dictatorship
In order that the working class might attain proletarian
dictatorship or popular democracy with a view to the
reconstruction of socialism the Party is needed as an
indispensable 'General Staff' for seizure of power,
"The power of habit in millions of men is the most terrible
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habit" says Lenin. Without a Party as hard as iron and
as strong as steel, capable of winning the working
people's confidence, and without a Party able to
influence the masses, peaceful, pedagogical and economic
struggle after seizure of power cannot succeed. The
Party is, consequently, the organ of proletarian
dictatorship or popular democracy.
Cyprus is not a capitalist, independent country. It is
a colony. As a matter of fact it is a special type of
colony. It is a colony that possesses all the
characteristics of a national entity in common with
"independent" capitalist Greece. Therefore A.K.E.L.
shoulders all the duties of colonial progressive parties.
It has to fight for the country's right of self-
determination before seizure of power. Our country's
right of self-determination lies in its union with the
mother country - Greece. As a parcel of the progressive
party of Greece, A.K.E.L. will thus become an organ of
Popular Democracy.
5. The Party a single will incompatible
with intra-Party 'fractions'
In order that the Party might possess iron discipline it
should, first of all, secure the single will and single
action of all its members. This does not mean that
party discussions are not permissible. On the contrary,
iron discipline postulates party criticism and party
discussions. Moreover, it does not mean at all that
discipline should be blind. Discipline should be
conscientious. Once discussions are over and criticism
has done its work and decisions have been taken, single
action on the part of all members is a sine qua non.
Without it there can be neither a Party nor iron
discipline in the Party. "Whoever in any way weakens
the Party's iron discipline, especially during
proletarian dictatorship, actually assists the
bourgeoisie", said Lenin. It follows, therefore, that
'fractions' are incompatible with the Party's unity and
that they lead the Party to laxity and'disintegration.
It is for this reason that Lenin insisted on the complete
elimination of the 'fraction' spirit and threatened with
expulsion all members who did not comply with this
injunction.
6. The Party, becomes strong when it is
purged of opportunist elements.
"Opportunist elements are the source of intra-Party
' fractions'
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'fractions' says Lenin. The working class admits into
its ranks various elements, such as elements of the
bourgeoisie and the intellectual class which infiltrate
into it on its way. Similarly, with the strengthening
of capitalism there comes into being a class called
labour aristocracy. Lenin describes this class of
people as agents of the bourgeoisie who infiltrate into
the labour movement and bring reformism and chauvinism.
These bourgeoisie groups penetrate into the Party and
introduce into it the spirit of doubt, disintegration and
diffidence, etc. They are the source of intra-Party
divisions, of discontent, of the dissolution of
organisational work, and of the Party's destruction from
within. Merciless war against these elements and their
expulsion are indispensable prerequisites of victory.
The theory that opportunist elements can be defeated by
means of an intra-party ideological campaign and that they
can be dissolved and assimilated into the Party is a
dangerous theory that might paralyze the Party and might
condemn it to inertia which might result in the working
class and the working people being left without a
revolutionary party.
The Bolshevik Party owes its acquisition of power to the
expulsion of the Martov type Mensheviks from its ranks.
On the eve of victory and of the hardest struggle for
victory the slightest hesitation in the Party can demolish
everything. The removal of hesitant leaders at the
right moment does not weaken the Party, or the working
class, or the revolution. On the contrary it strengthens
them.
Questions:
1) What is the New Type Party?
2) What are its main characteristics?
3) Why is the Party the vanguard and the
organised section of the working class?
4) Why is the Party the supreme form of
organisation of the working class?
5)
Why is the Party an organ of the Proletariat
and of Popular Democracy?
6) What is the basic objective aim of A.K.E.L.?
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7) Why is the Party incompatible with
intra-Party 'fractions'?
8) Under what conditions does our Party gather
strength?
LESSON No.2
A. Organisational structure of A.K.E.L.,
Party Groups
The. Party Group is A.K.E.L.'s basic organisational unit.
It consists of at least three Party members. Where
necessary the Party Group is split into'sections for the
best execution of Party work. Each Party Group is led
by an elected three-member bureau. The Party Group links
the Party with the masses. It elaborates and channels
to the masses the Party's decisions and mottos. It
recruits new members for the Party. It provides for the
members' education and for the organisation of the masses
among professional and other organisations.
It participates in the investigation and settlement of
questions which concern the Party and takes drastic
action in the economic and political campaigns.
It mobilises the masses in the struggle for the. achievement
of the Party's aims and, finally, it provides for the
organisation and education of youth.
B. District Organisations
The District Organisation comprises all the urban and
rural Party Groups. Our Island has 5 --District Organisa-
tions functioning in-Nicosia-Kyrenia, Famagusta, Limassol,
Larnaca and Paphos.
The District Organisation is led by the District Committee
which is elected by the District Assembly. The District
Committee leads the District Organisation and works out
its activities on the basis of the Party's decisions.
Each District Committee elects its secretariat which
consists of 3-5 members. The secretariat performs all the
routine functions on the basis of the District Committee's
decisions. The election of the Party's leading organs,
from the Party Group's secretariat to the Central Committee,
is carried out after the Party's elected members have been
supplied with an autobiographical record and self-criticism
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note concerning each candidate together with the
criticising committee's observations.
District Committee plenary meetings are convened once
every two months. Extraordinary meetings are convened if
necessary.
Congress is the Party's supreme organ. Regular congresses
are held once every two years. An extraordinary congress
may be summoned either at the Central Committee's instance
or at the request of one-third of the Party's members
who have been represented at the previous congress.
Congress hears and approves the reports of the Central
Committee and the Central Control Committee. It examines
and amends the Party's programme and statute. It
determines the Party's procedure. It elects the Central
Committee and the Central Control Committee of A.K.E.L.
and fixes the number of regular and supplementary members.
The Central Control Committee holds its plenary meetings
at least every six months. Supplementary members
participate in the plenary meetings and have an advisory
vote. In important matters the Central Committee
convenes a wide plenary meeting in which representatives
of District Organisations also take part.
The Central Committee assumes leadership of the Party's
entire work during congress intervals. It elects, from
among its members, for the management of current affairs,
the Politbureau which is answerable to the Central
Committee's plenary meeting. The Politbureau represents
the Party in its relations with the other parties,
organisations and services and organises the Party's
various services whose activities it regulates. It
determines the salaries of the various central organs
which it directly controls. It issues permits for the
publication of Party newspapers in the Districts, organises
and leads the Party's enterprises and sets up the Party's
Treasury.
The Central Committee appoints a secretariat for A.K.E.L.'s
organisational work.
The Central Control Committee controls the manner of
implementation of the Party's and Central Committee's decisions
by the Party organisations. It holds to accountability those
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who are responsible for contraventions of the Party's
programme and statute and for breaches of Party discipline.
It audits the Party's accounts and sees to the expeditious
investigation of matters by the Party's central organs
(the Central Committee and its Politbureau and secretariat).
D. Leading Organs
(a) The Group members' meeting which elects the
Party Group leaders constitutes each Party Group's leading
organ.
(b) The District meeting which elects the District
Committee constitutes the District Organisation's
leading organ.
For current work the Committees elect a bureau
which is responsible to their plenary meetings.
All these leading organs hear and sanction
the respective organs' reports and they discuss matters
relating to Party affairs.
District meetings are convened by the District
Committees once a year. Extraordinary meetings may be
held when one-third of the members ask for them or if a
senior organ so decides.
Questions:
(1) Which is the Party's basic organisational
unit? How is it set up and what is its significance?
(2) Of what organisations does the District
organisation consist and how is it led?
(3) Which are the Party's senior organs?
(4) When is a Party Congress convened?
(5) What is the Politbureau?
(6) What is a Central Control Committee and
what are its functions?
(7) Which are the leading organs of the Party
Groups and District Organisations?
LESSON No-3
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LESSON No.3
Organisation Principles
of A.K.E.L.
A.K.E.L. is not like other parties. It is a Party of the
working class which embraces in its bosom free men who
joint it spontaneously without any pressure or force and
of their own free will. They must, therefore, know not
only their rights and obligations but also the Party's
aims, its organisational principles and the nature of its
constitution. Our Party - the New Type Party - is founded
on the organisational principles of democratic centralism.
There have been frequent misunderstandings on this point.
Some friends think that when we speak of the development
of intra-party democracy our Party loses its basic
characteristic of centralism. Let us explain:
(a) What is Party democracy? Democracy enables
all members of the Party to express freely their views on
every matter with which the Party is concerned. It enables
them to participate in meetings and to discuss and work out
the Party's decisions and political course. It enables
all members to criticize and exercise control in all
directions. It ensures election of all the leading
organs from among the members themselves. These are the
genuine principles of democracy which are applied in the
Party. But the Party's members have certain duties to
perform, just as the Party itself has duties to perform.
(b) What is Centralism? To enable it to march on,
to possess single leadership and to be uniform in its
function, the Party must have centralized leadership.
This means that our decisions are taken in a democratic
way. We all express our opinion and we then decide by
vote. Once a majority decision is taken we must all obey
it. Our leaders, too, must guide the Party in the
application of the majority's decision. We, in'our turn,
must submit to the leadership. Without it there cannot
be Party unity, nor can the Party's decisions and policy
be put into effect.
Our Party is centralized on the basis of democratic
centralization. That is to say, it is founded on intra-Party
democracy, on strict centralized leadership and iron
discipline. Intra-Party democracy secures for all members
active participation in the Party's life, in the elaboration
of its procedure and in the discussion and settlement of all
its questions. Intra-Party democracy means self-criticism.
That is to say, scrutiny of the accuracy of Party decisions
and ascertainment of the weaknesses and shortcomings of all
party organs and of all members and elements in the performance
of their functions. It means systematic control in the
carrying out of decisions.
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Intra-Party democracy means development of the
initiative of all members of the Party, of all, Party
Groups and of all Party Committees in the execution of
the Party's instructions and in the direct facing of all
facts within their respective spheres of action. Intra-
Party democracy means active participation of all members
of the Party in the nomination and election of the Party's
leading organs and in the replacement of those organs
which prove themselves not quite. efficient by other more
suitable organs. Intra-Party democracy means submission
of the minority to the majority and the unconditional
execution of the Party's decisions by all members of the
Party and the Party Organisation. Intra-Party democracy
means election of all members of the Party - from the Party
Group Bureau to the Central Committee - and their
responsibility to the organisations which elect them.
In cases of offence and in other difficult circumstances
democratic centralisation allows exceptions such as the
admission of members into the leading organs with the
senior organs' approval, the appointment of junior organs
by senior organs, and account-rendering in such manner
and form as should not expose the Party Organisation to
attack and dissolution.
In the event of disagreement, all those who differ in the
execution of a majority decision may have recourse to
senior organs. It is thus evident that there are
circumstances where we must restrict the Party members'
democratic rights.
We are a Party surrounded by enemies. Difficult conditions
therefore arise which embarrass the Party's task and the
application of democracy. It would, therefore, be foolish
on our part to favour the application of democracy in the
Party to its fullest extent because only the enemy would
benefit from it. It would cause great harm and destruction
to the Party. All the efforts of our members should
be so conducted as to enable the Party to do its work in
the best possible way. Thus, since the full application
of democracy in certain circumstances would harm the Party,
it would not be right to apply it in full measure. In such
circumstances the senior'leading organs intervene and often
make appointments to junior organisations from among senior
organs without it being necessary for them to hold meetings
as this would be a difficult matter. This should be done
with care and, so long as we are afforded even the least of
possibilities to apply democracy in the Party, we should do
IT because it would make our Party more energetic and stronger.
According
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According to Lenin's teaching "the Communist Party can carry
out its task if it is organised in the most centralised
manner, if iron discipline bordering on military discipline
prevails, if the Party centre is an organ of power and
authority with wide jurisdiction, and if it enjoys the
general confidence of the Party members".
Questions:
What is the Party's basic principle?
What is meant by intra-Party democracy?
What is centralization?
What is meant by Party discipline?
In what circumstances is centralization
applied in the Party?
(6) What is the position of a member of the
Party in the event of disagreement?
(7) Why should the Party be a well-disciplined,
solid block?
LESSON No.4
Party Members, Rights & Obligations
Whosoever accepts the Party's set principles, works in any
of its organisations, submits to the decisions of the
Party's organs and pays his subscriptions regularly, is
considered to be a member of the Party.
A. Obligations
A Party member's primary duty is to protect and strengthen
the Party. Unity is the first and foremost requisite for
effective action and for the achievement of the Party's
policy. The class enemy is constantly seeking to break this
unity by every means in his power because he understands the
great importance of unity for our very existence. The
enemy's guns are always trained in that direction. He exploits
everything he can exploit. He exploits our weaknesses and .
mistakes, and anything wrong done by us, in order to be able to
strike at the Party's unity. The Party's unity should,
therefore, be preserved fanatically by all members.
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Each-member's first duty should be to guard the Party's
unity. His other duties are:-
To strive untiringly to enhance his ideological level
and cultivate his political conscience; to observe strict
Party discipline; to take an active part in the Party's
inner life and in the country's political life; to apply
in practice the Party's policy and the party decisions. To
work untiringly for the enlightenment and organisation of
the working people, and to play the role of vanguard in
d a i l y affairs and in the struggle of the masses; to
weld and persistently and steadfastly strengthen the
Party's influence among the workers whom he should
conquer with his own example. He should always be at the
forefront in the struggle against Fascism, against the
reactionaries and against all the enemies of the people.
He should be affiliated to his society or some other mass
organisation. At critical moments, in particular, he
should display sangfroid, initiative and courage. He
should protect the Party with ever-increasing
revolutionary watchfulness. He should observe in the
strictest manner the rules of precaution in his practical
work, during interrogations, and before the Courts.
B. Rights
A Party member may participate freely in discussions
concerning the Party's policy and procedure both at Party
meetings and in the Party's Press. He may also take
part in the discussion of decisions taken by the
organisation to which he is affiliated. He may freely
express his opinion, at Party meetings, on the activities
of any Party element, organisation or leadership. He may
participate in the election of leading organs and he may
also be elected to them. He may approach any leading
organ of the Party hierarchy to which he belongs, as well
as the Central Committee, on any personal or Party matter.
Any person who desires to become a member of the Party
should, in the first instance, go through a period of
probation. He should become a probationary member for a
minimum period of three months. To be accepted as a
probationary member he should be proposed by two Party
members and he should submit an autobiographical record.
Before an applicant is admitted to the Party his case should
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be considered and decided upon at a meeting by a Party
Group and his admission should be sanctioned by the District
Committee.
Leading elements of other political organisations are
admitted to the Party subject to the Central Committee's
approval.
Party members who propose applicants for membership are
responsible to the Party for the truth of their
recommendations.
If a Party member defaults, without reasonable cause, in
the payment of his subscription for three successive months
and disregards consequent warnings served on him he is
considered to have relinquished the Party.
Removal of a Party member's name from the members' list is
decided upon at a Party Group meeting and the decision is
put into effect following the Central Committee's sanction.
Decisions for the removal of members from the lists should
be taken with the utmost care and in a spirit of comradeship.
Charges should be verified before action is taken.
An expelled member of a Party organisation has the right to
object to his removal from the members' list. Objections
should be examined by the senior party organisation within
15 days. They might even go to the Central Committee.
A.K.E.L. was created in 191+1 with its doors wide open.
Many persons, not only opportunists and suspicious
adventurers, but also a great number of friends who did not
possess the required qualifications for membership, joined
the Party at once. Naturally, as our Party is the vanguard
of the working class, it should admit into its ranks
vanguard elements of other classes also. We have let whole
.masses of unorganised friends get into the Party without
control. The vanguard thus became , assimilated into
the masses and the Party's character suffered a change which
prevented the Party as an entity from responding to its
duties. We have seen the bad results of this wholesale
rush into the Party. As soon as objective conditions became
difficult, there set in a mass leakage from the Party with
its consequent damaging results. The Party's purge now,
especially following the 6th Congress, which still continues,
will enable the Party not only to get rid of all the elements
which are unfit for the vanguard but also to consolidate its
course organisationally on the basis of the Party members'
III
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devotion and strict conscientious discipline. This purge
has no connection at all with the leakage.
The adoption of the probation rule - with the District
Committees' full understanding - is a guarantee that the
elements which join the Party are tested and educated in
such a way that when they permanently enter the Party they
are efficient elements possessing all the required
membership qualifications.
Questions:
(1) Who is considered a member of the Party?
(2) What are the duties of members of the
Party?
What rights have the members of the Party?
What are, the conditions of membership?
When are members struck off the list?
LESSON No-5
Party Education
A. Clear Mind.
A communist must think clearly. He must be alert and
must possess sangfroid, flexibility and resolution.
A communist must always have a sound body. He must
preserve and develop his physical powers. He must do his
best to secure healthy conditions of life. He must sleep
with windows open. He must love water and should take
plenty of it. He must take regular exercise in the
mornings. He must be fond of fresh air, the mountains
and the sea. Our organisation, which is wholly devoted to
Party advancement, should give attention to physical
occupations also. This applies to the intellectual class in
particular. Our workers should not ignore their specialities.
They should improve them technically as far as possible because
they will always need them in their Party life. Without making
it their special object, our members, apart from those who
work in a special capacity in this domain, should give,
each
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.ach one according tb his individual aptitude, some of
their time to athletism, an innate tradition, so to speak.
Our Party members and elements should also take an interest
in swimming, hunting, target-practice and other athletic
sports. The fundamental object of these exercises is to
enable us to maintain a balance of intellectual and
physical strength such as might enable us continuously to
secure higher records of achievement. All these things
constitute a domain which a good communist and our
organisation cannot and must not ignore. Naturally our
Party and elements do not always possess the material means
which are often necessary even for a very primitively
tolerable life. Nevertheless, we should do our best in this
respect with the possibilities we may have at our disposal
on each occasion.
C. Every Communist a Leader and Renovator
A communist's intellectual horizons embrace the entire
world. This means that a communist stands generally on a
high level of civilisation of his epoch, always holding
the front-line in the social and political fields. What
does this mean?' The communist, who is an element of
A.K.E.L., apart from the school where he is a model pupil,
apart from his speciality in which he should be proficient
and which he should promote in order to become a leader
and renovator, possesses also the necessary encyclopaedic
culture in the principal domains of the worldwide civilising,
intellectual and scientific movements. He continuously
modernizes himself. He takes an interest in the world's
leading intellectual class, in its prominent members and
in their work. Much more than that, he follows the local
intellectual movement. He takes an interest in
literature, the Theatre, music and the plastic art. He
cultivates his aptitudes. He is also interested in the
progressive work of the Cinema and in local and foreign
Radio transmissions. He avails himself of all these
things, always with wise moderation, from the viewpoint of
Party expediency. Here we should pay special attention to
foreign languages. Party members and elements should
have the ambition to learn at least one foreign language in
addition to their mother tongue - the commonly spoken
language - which they should know well. These attributes,
linked with a communist's intellectual horizon, constitute
a communist's general encyclopaedic outfit. But, necessary
and useful as these may be, they of secondary importance
in the intellectual equipment which our elements and members
should possess because their principal and basic mission is to
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enlighten, organise and lead the masses in the struggle
for their social liberation, for popular democracy, for
socialism, and for communism. Therefore, study and
creative assimilation of Marxism-Leninism - science of the
world's knowledge of its change - take first place in a
communist's theoretical-political formation.
D. Organisation of Individual Life
In his family life and domestic environment a communist
seeks always to secure civilised relations no matter how
poor. A communist wants to be a good son, a good daughter
and an affectionate and model parent and paterfamilias.
In this domain, too, he is a model. He knows that normal
family relations and conditions are a great help to him
in his Party functions and in his individual achievements.
A communist takes care to regulate, as far as his
financial means permit, the hygienic conditions of his
home, his food, his clothing and his appearance. The
Party naturally helps, as much as it can, those of its
members who are fully devoted and, particularly, those
who, due to privations, hardships, persecution and torture,
are in poor and broken health. The class enemy always
does what he can to knock out physically our best sons.
A communist is born and bred in penury and in the hard
and cruel struggle against exploitation. He faces the
greatest and most difficult trials of life. The better
he is prepared to meet them the greater will his success
be. In this respect a communist's physical endurance
and state of health are an important pre-requisite which
we should always try as far as possible to preserve in our
favour.
Our Party naturally does not make any political or party
discrimination between the old and sick. But from the
point of view of Party usefulness there is bound to be a
difference between the two. The old man throws all his
forces into his work. The Party must pay attention to the
sick and weak but these should also take care of
themselves. The young man or woman who has entered the
community and has just embarked on political activity
enriched with our experience should pay great attention
to this point. They should prepare themselves and should
harden their bodies so that they might be able to encounter
ahd overcome the difficulties of the class struggle to which
they have devoted their lives.
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(1) Why should a communist have a sound body?
(2) Why is a communist a pioneer and renovator?
(3) Why should he know a foreign language
besides his mother tongue?
(14) Why does creative assimilation of Marxism-
Leninism take first place in a communist's
theoretical and political composition?
(5) Why should a communist regulate his
individual life and become a model?
LESSON No.6
Control, Criticism, Self-criticism.
Party Penalties
A. Control
Control of the execution of decisions exercised by a
Party Organisation over another organisation constitutes
the synthetic element of Bolshevik leadership and of the
Bolshevik education of our members because it enables us
to understand better the abilities and weaknesses of the
members of an organisation. Moreover, it educates the
controllers themselves because it helps them cultivate
a Bolshevik leader's good qualities. Control of the
carrying out of decisions promotes in members the spirit
of Party discipline, of higher exigency and of Bolshevik
responsibility. It trains them in the work which has been
entrusted to them. Furthermore, control renders possible
the timely discovery of mistakes and facilitates their
remedy. Control discloses weaknesses and blunders. It
quickens the backward and prevents the good elements'
downfall. It helps them get on and achieve fresh successes
in their work. Control should not, however, be carried
out in the office. It should be carried out on the spot,
not with promises and statements but with practical results.
This enables us to familiarize ourselves better with the
elements and to determine their actual abilities. Control
from above is, therefore, indispensable. But control from
above should be coupled with control from below. Those who
are led should control their leaders whose mistakes they
should note and should indicate the manner in which they
could be remedied. Stalin says: "What leaders can see is
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more or less limited. Leaders see things, facts and men
from one angle only. They see from above. Whereas the
masses look at things, facts and men from another angle -
from below. They see things in a limited way". We must
combine these two angles for the right solution of a
problem. Only then would leadership be correct. A leader
should, therefore, value the experience of the masses.
He should avail himself of advice for improvement of work.
B. Criticism and Self-criticism
Criticism
and
self-criticism which Lenin and Stalin have
introduced
in
the Parties constitute one of the basic
principles
of
Leninism. They are distinctive characte-
ristics of
all
Communist Parties. Criticism and self-
criticism are a serious means of Bolshevik education of
our Party's elements and members..
Bolshevik self-criticism is a basic method of securing the
timely recognition and remedy of weaknesses and errors in
work. Correct education of the elements helps the Party
to give the elements correct political education because
the concealment of mistakes ruins the elements. Moreover,
self-criticism is a safeguard against the repetition of
mistakes. Correct and fruitful criticism is truly
educative among Bolshevik elements. The Lenin-Stalin
Party teaches us that fruitful criticism and self-
criticism alone can educate the Bolshevik Party elements
to whom selfishness and arrogance are unknown in their
individual lives and work. A Bolshevist does not
compromise with his weakness. He is. exigent towards
himself as he is towards others.
Strict criticism of weaknesses, not concealment, and strict
exactingness, not compromise with errors, are the only
means that facilitate the education of worthy elements.
This is what Molotov says on this point: "We must not
relax but must tighten criticism of weaknesses in work.
We must get rid of the bourgeois arrogance from which we
are suffering. Only then will our leaders not deviate from
the line of political leadership in their work. On the
other hand they will not ignore small matters the neglect of
which often does us harm. When criticism and self-
criticism are actuated by the desire for the best and quick
settlement of a question, with the object of destroying
red-tape methods - bourgeois relics of backward people - the
result is not laxity but mobilisation of our forces for
victory".
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There can be no Bolshevik leader without Bolshevik control
and Bolshevik criticism and self-criticism.
C. Party Penalties
The object of Party penalties is not to punish but to
correct a member or element that has blundered, in order
that the Organisation might be protected. Moreover, their
object is to protect and educate the Party members and
elements. The Charter of the Communist Party of Greece
makes the following observation on this point:
"Undermining of Party unity and discipline, attempts to
create Camps and Groups, and violations of rules for
conspiracy are punished with all severity even to the
extent of expulsion from the Party. Failure to carry out
the Party's decisions, breaches of Party discipline, and
other actions prejudicial to the Party's interests entail
Party penalties such as that of drawing offenders' attention,
administration of warnings, degradation if the offender
holds an office, suspension for a maximum period of six
months, and expulsion from the Party. In the event of a
collective offence, penalty might be extended to the
dissolution of the organisation and its subsequent
reconstitution.
Members whose actions and conduct are not of the standard
required of a member of the Revolutionary Proletariat
Party - especially members who betray the Party to the
class enemy and the security authorities., members who
expose the Party to interrogations and cause it to appear
before the Courts, and members whose party conduct and
individual behaviour are incompatible with the demands of
communist party spirit and morality - are definitely
expelled from the Party.
Questions:
(1) What is the meaning of control, and how
should it be exercised?
(2) What are criticism and self-criticism, and
what part do they play in a member's and
Party leader's party life?
(3) What is the object of punishment, and what
are the penalties imposed?
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LESSON No-7
Organisational Leadership
1. Significance and Essence
of
Organisational Leadership
Various problems and the methods of organisational
leadership constitute one of the most fundamental and
decisive factors in the status, functions and activities of
A.K.E.L. It is a general rule that wherever there is
Bolshevik leadership there is also success in the application
of the political course,and the Party's expansion is thus
assured.
A good leader is half of what is needed for the good
operation and progress of an organisation. A leader always
analyses and clarifies the Party's political course and
decisions which he follows and controls their practical
application. He studies, selects and puts the best
elements in the best places. He helps and leads in a
practical and concentrated manner. The essence and
functions of organisational leadership are:-
Control of the execution of decisions and of
the application of the political course.
(b) Correct selection, nomination and appointment
of elements.
2. Political Course and Organisational Policy
To understand the essence and role of leadership one must
analyse another very important matter which is connected
with it and with the action and reaction between one
leadership and another. This is the Party's political
course. We know that the Party always sets before it a
definite aim such as, for example, the formation of a
National Front for the despatch of a National Delegation
abroad. This course is determined by this or that internal
and international state of affairs. It changes in accordance
with the political situation and, as we have already said,
it is called the Party's political course.
The political course is the general direction which the Party
gives to the organisations and its members for a fixed period.
Determination of the political course is not, however, enough
for its implementation. A set of measures and forms of
organisation and struggle for its practical application
are also needed.
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All the forms of organisation and struggle which are used
by the Party,in accordance with this or that political line
of action, and for the latter's implementation, constitute
what we call organisational policy. Organisational policy
is thus subject to the requirements of the political course.
The political course and organisational policy are inter-
dependent and constitute an inseparable entity. Moreover,
they depend on the Party members' and elements' organised
work. "The political course expresses the Party's desire
to win but does not concern itself with victory. Victory
and the political course's fate are determined by organised
work alone", says Stalin.
3. Vigorous Staff Leadership
Vigorous staff leadership makes correct distribution of
the forces which it utilizes for the attainment of set
objects. It deals firmly with the question of the
nomination and employment of elements. It gives positive,
fruitful, definite, fundamental, help. It assists the
organs in their functions on the basis of collectivity and
of collective and single effort. It helps in the
distribution of work so that work might become more useful.
It controls the enforcement of decis ions of the Party's
political course and contributes to the proper functioning
of the Party's open and secret mechanism.
4. New Organisational Policy of the
Communist Party of Greece.
The new organisational policy, which was laid down by
Comrade Zachariades at the 12th plenary meeting of the
Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece and which
has decreed that one of the elements' important duties
should be/get down to the rank and file, has made
substantial progress, in accordance with the assertions of
the all-Greece Organisational Conference of April, 1946.
The decisions taken at the 12th plenary meeting in the
presence of Comrade Zachariades as leader, laid down an
organisational policy which the Communist Party of Greece
has been pursuing successfully. The 12th plenary meeting
decisions carry the seal of the luminous and vigorous
Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist thought in the organisational
domain also.
The greatest mistake which the 12th plenary meeting discovered
in the organisation field was the serious discomposure in the
social structure of the Party's members (the ratio of workers
was found to be not more than 18%).
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The following ruling was emphasized in the plenary
meeting's decisions:
"The Party should remain principally and fundamentally the
Proletariat Party of Greece".
The meeting emphatically underlined the grave danger to
the Party, namely "the very low theoretical standard of
the mass of the Party's members and elements". It pointed
out the heavy responsibility which a set of senior
Party elements carried for this state of affiars and ordered
that these elements should get down to the rank and file
and work among the masses. Furthermore, the 12th plenary
meeting recorded a state of weakness in dealing with
rebellious anti-Party manifestations and indicated the need
for a concrete and individual re-investigation of the
manifestations, the need for development of intra-Party
life, and the need for more vitality among the Party
members. It stressed the importance of Party vigilance
and pointed out practical and organisational measures.
The Communist Party of Greece has since made important and
positive strides in a forward direction and has overcome
its basic organisational weaknesses. In raising its
organisational policy to the high standard of its political
course the Party has achieved the following results:-
(a) It has purged its ranks.
(b) It has substantially improved its social status.
(c) It has secured a Party structure which
constitutes a guarantee that problems will be effectively
dealt with as they crop up.
(d) It has created reserve leadership.
(e) It has developed intiative in the Party's
rank and file.
(f) It has created mobile and simple Party machinery.
(g) It has achieved a qualitative improvement of its
members and elements.
(h) It has, to a great extent, remedied leadership's
detachment from the rank and file and has done away with
red-tape methods of leadership.
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Today, following these results, the creation of the
go-ahead spirit and the development of new elements are
the main points of the Party's organisational problems.
In our own Party - A.K.E.L. - the 6th Pancyprian Congress
has brought about an important turn towards organisational
policy. First of all it has emphasized the importance of
criticism and self-criticism to which it has given concrete
substance. It has adopted the system of autobiographical
and self-criticism notes and the formation of criticising
committees. It has organised the-Central Committee's
Publicity Department and has established cultural lessons.
It has ordered the readjustment of the Party's rank and file
to labour and vocational organisation. With this
organisational policy as a basis we purify the Party's
ranks. We improve its social structure. We create true
reserve leadership. We develop initiative at the
Party's foundation - its rank and file. We get rid of
red-tape and we contribute to the advancement of the
Party's members and elements.
The Party's correct political course, its correct
qua-organisational policy, the serious reflection of its mass
li- ;activities and the daily/improvement of its elements and
ta- 'their political maturity, constitute the Party's sound
tive (foundations which will enable it to.overcome the
difficulties and obstacles that stand in its way. They will
enable the Party to deal with all things effectively.
(1) What is meant by organisational leadership?
(2) What is the essence of organisational
leadership?
(3.) What is a political course?What does it express?
(4+) What is Staff leadership?
(5) What is organisational policy?
(6) When was the new organisational policy of the
Communist Party of Greece and A.K.E.L.
established?
(7) What has the Party achieved following the
raising of its organisational policy to the
level of its political course?
LESSON No.8
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LESSON No.8
Organisational Work
When we speak of organisational work, having in mind the
Party's functions as the immediate object, we mean the
activity and implementation of the'Party's political
course and decisions with a view to the preparation and
achievement of the Party's strategic aims for final victory.
The significance of organisational work is tremendous
because it is the other leg of proletariat philosophy.
It is practice in relation to theory. Organisational work
will determine the political course's fate. How and where
shall we organise the masses? Where shall we start? With
what vindications shall we set out for the people's
mobilisation?
The political course was laid down at the 6th Conference
and in the decisions of the Central Committee's plenary
meetings. The organisational work of the Party and of
its members and elements will give life to these decisions
and will make them a reality. This is the task of
organisational work. The following basic points form the
essence of organisational work:
(a) Daily mobilisation and participation of all
Party members in the activities and life of their
organisation. This means that every one, from the plain
member and new element to the highest element, should
have a share in the Party's activities and life by
undertaking certain duties. Only then will the organisa-
tion become vigorous and the Party's political course will
have the best chances of success. Moreover, Party
members will progress through experience gained in their
daily struggle and activities.
(b) Organisation of the people's struggle in their
own environment. This means that we should analyse,
acquaint ourselves with and study the environment of
labourers, peasants, etc, in which we work. It also means
that we should begin with the smallest vindications and
most immediate problems such as the question of wages, etc.,
over which these elements are'sensitive. In this way,
slowly but surely, we shall organize the people's struggle
and shall extend it to more general questions such as the
struggle for national rehabilitation.
Organisation of the people's struggle entails the following
tasks:
the
(a) We should, enable our Party, by means of/ right
combination of its open and secret work, to carry on its
task
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task among the masses under all conditions, and we should
organise and mobilise the people.
(b) We should organise the majority of the workers,
employees and farmers in their professional unions. We
should establish unity among the factory committees. We
should organise the struggle of the unemployed and the
struggle for work, gratuities, bread and free meals.
(c) Through political unity in the villages we
should make. rural societies organs of defence of the
countryside's economic interests by extending these
societies to every village.
(d) We should organise the professional and
industrial masses and should strengthen their cooperation
with the working class.
(e) The intellectual class, which fundamentally
belongs to our own community, we should organise and
readjust ideologically so that it might contribute to the
work of enlightenment of the people.
(f) With a dense network of mass organisations we
should embrace the entire poor class in the towns which
should include the youth, A.O.N. (Progressive Youth
Organisation), students, democratic clubs, excursion
societies, etc.
(g) We should organise and firmly establish
ourselves everywhere led and sheltered by E.A. S.'
(National liberation Front) by means of protests, assemblies,
strikes, and all manner of mass mobilisations. We should
persuade the masses, on the strength of their own
experience, that in order to live they must fight.
Furthermore, organisation of the people's
struggle means the organisation of women who comprise half
of the population and without whom there cannot be a
national-liberation struggle.
(h) Daily recruiting for the Party. This means
that it is each member's and element's duty to
recruit new members in the daily struggle for the organisa-
tional growth of the Party. This duty is never put aside
altogether. It depends on conditions and exigencies;
that is to say, sometimes we have mass recruiting and
sometimes limited recruiting. The development and
assimilation of new members are closely connected with this
task. The 6th Conference decisions gave this factor the
character of one of the Party's foremost organisational
duties.
Principles of Organisational work
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Principles of Organisational Work
The following are basic organisational lines on which
Bolshevik organisational work and the activities of every
Communist Party function.
Distribution of labour and collective work: Distribution
of labour in the Party means classification of work for the
Party's various problems, duties and departments of
activity. That is, we should split the whole organisatio-
nal work and should allocate certain definite duties to
elements among the higher and lower organisations, down to
the ordinary new element, so that no communist should
remain without work or duties or without a share in party
life. In this way no organisation. is entrusted with a
single concrete task. This applies particularly to the
Party Groups. Distribution of work should be strict and
concrete. It should be practicable and according to each
member's organisation's capacities.
In order that an organisation might carry out successfully
the duties undertaken by it after distribution of work,
every member of that organisation should work collectively.
Members should not work separately. They should help each
other and should cooperate both before and during their
work.
Distribution of work alone is not sufficient. It should
always be coupled with collective work. It has been proved
that collective work is the highest form of work both as
regards results and the advancement and education of the
elements and organisations.
Combination of Open and Secret Methods of Work
Our Party does not act under the same conditions always.
Sometimes its actions are lawful, sometimes they are
semi-lawful and sometimes altogether unlawful. We should
always combine open forms of struggle with secret forms
of struggle. When our Party acted in an unlawful manner
after the October events our organisations in the towns
acted unlawfully also, but, at the same time, the Party did
not let the least chance of lawful action go by. Rather,
it never gave up the effort to legalize the actions of certain
extra-Party organisations, syndicates, clubs, etc. Both forms
of struggle constitute 'dialectical' unity. Each one acts on
the other effectively. We should employ both methods of
struggle, continuously changing position and weight according
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to political conditions without abolishing either. Every
deviation which favours one method alone should be struck
down mercilessly. Open action is 'Right'. Secret action
is 'Left'. In the end both lead to direct or indirect
class capitulation either through the Parliamentary form of
struggle -(social democracy)- or through sectarianism and
isolation -(anarchy). All Parties have committed such
blunders. In his book entitled "Child.Disease" Lenin
speaks of such deviations. The right combination of open
and secret work definitely protects us against internal
espionage also.
Deviations in the role and significance of organisational
work. Deviations noticed in the role and significance of
organisational work are of 'Right Wing' and 'Left Wing'
character.
(a) 'Right Wing' deviations: They recognise and
deify the political course but they underrate organisatio-
nal work saying "If we have a correct political line of
action all is well".
(b) 'Left Wing' deviations: They recognise and deify
organisational work but they underrate the correct
political course saying "Let us have a good organisation
and that is all we want".
Both of these conceptions are bad and destructive.
Political course and organisational work constitute a
'dialectical' unity and completeness. Neither can exist
without the other. Each one determines the other's fate.
Organisational work, however, will decide whether or not
a given political line of action shall be applied and
whether or not it will succeed.
There are deviations, too, that are noticed in organisa-
tional work, such as saying: "Now we should organise and
then struggle, or, now is the time for struggle and not
for sound organisation and action for other vindications",
etc. Such deviations have been noticed in almost all
Parties, as well as in our own Party, old and recent. These
deviations have been the cause of 'fractions' and
sectarianism and have uselessly delayed the Party's expansion.
They have brought us organisational sectarianism and
isolation from the masses instead of a vigorous intra-Party
life. Every deviation of this nature must be struck down
mercilessly. We must link sound organisation of daily
politico-organisational work with the people's struggles.
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Questions:
(1) What is meant by organisational work?
(2) What is the essence of organisational work?
(3) What is meant by organisation of the
people's struggle?
fundamental
(4) What are the / organisational lines
on which every Communist Party's Bolshevik
organisational work and activity are based?
(5) What is meant by combination of open and
secret methods of work?
(6) What kinds of deviations are there in the
role and significance of organisational work?
Lenin and Stalin have taught us that the Party's elements
are its gold capital. The Party's political course and
organisational leadership are dealt with by the elements.
The political course's fate and its success or failure
depend on organisational work and standard of
organisational leadership. Political leadership and
organisational leadership are inseparably interlinked.
Lenin said: "We cannot determine which question is
political and which organisational. Every political
question might also be an organisational question, and
vice versa. Technically we cannot separate the one from
the other".
The correct political course which has been tested in
practice,having been worked out, the Party's elements
become a decisive force of Party leadership.
The foremost and most important task is to secure a correct
political course. But this is not enough. We should not
merely proclaim the correct political course. We should
also apply it. But, to do this, there is need for
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elements and men who can understand, assimilate and
appropriate it. There is need for men who can apply it in
practice and are able to explain and defend it and to
struggle for it. "Without this, the correct political
course is exposed to the danger of remaining on paper",
says Stalin.
There are many organisational talents in the Party.
Organisational leadership's efficiency lies in its ability
to discover these talents, to apply them to work and to
develop them, because without cultured elements neither
can the question of the elements' education be settled nor/
petit-bourgeois weaknesses be eliminated. can
Selection of Elements
When Lenin wished to be informed about an element's merits
he wanted to know if, from the standpoint of conscience,
and in the political sense, it possessed experience and
abilities.
An element's selection should be made according to the
political criterion., that is, whether the element enjoys
political confidence, and also in accordance with the
criterion of work, that is, whether it possesses abilities.
We should not confine ourselves to the first criterion,
nor should we restrict ourselves to the criterion of
abilities alone. Methods of distinguishing elements
should be such as to enable us to form a clear idea of both
their loyalty and abilities.
An Element's Characteristics
This is what comrade Zachariades says on this subject:
"A loyal and able member leads in the workers'
organisation and struggles. He is always a model of
discipline, heroism, resolution and self-sacrifice. He
always listens to what the workers say. He persuades and
is persuaded. He creates new elements, pushes on,
encourages and leads in a paternal way. He puts the right
man in the right place. He is not despotic. He is
distinguished by his spirit of party comradeship. He is
simple and intelligent. He is patient, explains things and
persuades. When he decides he acts promptly,
energetically and without delays. He is plain and simple and
is party-conscious. He possesses party integrity of
character and party honesty. He never forgets the Party when
he thinks of his personal and family interests. He is not
family-conscious. In this respect Stalin has exposed all the
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harm done by familiarity which he has characterised as
anti-Bolshevik and contrary to party spirit. He has shown
that correct selection of elements means selection on the
basis of objective qualities. He has taught us that in
our work for the elements we should invariably
adapt ourselves not only to the old elements but to the
new elements as well. The old elements possess leadership
experience. They have been welded into the Marxist-
Leninist doctrine. They are conscious of the task
entrusted to them and are adaptable.' These are their
advantages over the new elements.
The new elements have not got the abilities of the old
elements, but they have their own special merits. They are
conscious of being new. This is a valuable quality of
every Bolshevik element. They develop and push on so
vigorously that they quickly catch up with the old and
stand side by side with them as able substitutes.
Stalin says: "Man - the elements - are the most precious
and decisive capital in the world".
Correct Selection of Elements
Correct selection of elements means:
(a) That we should value and preserve the elements
as a gold deposit of the Party.
(b) That we should know them and should examine
carefully the abilities and weaknesses of each. We
should know the right place where their abilities could
develop more promptly.
(c) That we should nominate the elements with
care and should help each developed element to advance
without grudging the time needed for it.
(d) That we should nominate new elements at the
proper time and with courage. We should not let them
rust in one place.
(e) That the elements should be so located that
each one should feel that it is in the right place so
that it might be able to make the maximum/of its
abilities. use
Work for the elements does not end with the elements'
correct selection and location. Their Bolshevik education
comes first in importance.
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Stalin said: "We should accept as an axiom the fact
that the higher the elements' political criterion and
Marxist-Leninist conscience the better and more fruitful
their work. Contrarywise, the lower their standard the
more probable are bankruptcy and failure in their work".
Stalin further says: "Nine-tenths of our problems would
be solved if we could raise our elements to a high
ideological level and if we could weld them politically
so that they might freely adapt themselves to the internal
and international situation and be able to solve without
serious blunders the country's leadership problems".
Leaders cannot be produced by means of books. Books help
leaders advance but they cannot create them. Elements
and leaders develop through work only.
Questions:
(1) On what does success of the political
course depend?
(2) What is the elements' role in the application
of the political course?
(3) What must we bear in mind in the selection
of elements?
(4) What is meant by correct selection of
elements?
Methods employed by the enemy in his campaign
against our movement
A. Calumnies and Terrorism
A.K.E.L. is the unique Party of the working class and of
the working people whom it leads in the struggle against
Imperialist slavery and capitalist exploitation. It is a
thorn in every Imperialist's eyes and in the eyes of all
exploiters of the people. It is, consequently, a target
on which all Imperialists have openly and secretly
concentrated their fire. They use every means of attack
against our Party. To begin with,they have launched a
fierce campaign against our movement as though it were a
movement directed against the Fatherland and religion
and serving the "Red Tsar" - Stalin. They present us
to the simple-minded as the enemies of Greece, as
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Slav-ridden countryless people", as "destroyers of the
family" and as "corruptors of the children's soul".
They make use of all their organs in their attack on us.
They use the Church and all its Bishops. They use the
schools, the newspapers, the Courts, the Police, the Radio,
the Cinema, the theatre, etc. They do not confine their
activities to the use of these organs only because
they know that they cannot achieve their objects by means
of deceit and calumny alone. They resort to violent
methods also. They prohibit assemblies and demonstrations.
They impose restrictions on the Left Wing Press. They
imprison our organisation's leaders, our popular
combatants. They dismiss Municipal Councils that have been
elected by the people. They dismiss patriotic schoolteachers.
They forbid popular street collections. They carry on
economic terrorism against conscientious workers and
industrialists. They adopt most violent methods and the
hooliganism of the 'Hi-tes' (a Right Wing Greek
organisation, Tr.), especially during election campaigns.
They terrorize members of the People's Front. In other
words, in their campaign against our movement for
freedom, the people's enemy continuoously contrives to
make a splendid combination of calumny and terrorism.
A. Provocatsia. (Mise-en-Scene and Provocation)
is
Combination of these two methods, however,/ not
sufficient. To intensify their calumniations and acts of
terrorism our enemies need provocation, that is, they
stage acts which rouse hatred and indignation against the
leading combatants of the people. This dirty method of
provocation is a well-known ancient method. Nero, in order
to justify his persecution of the Christians, set fire to
Rome and accused the Christians of having committed the
act. Two thousand years later Hitler copied Nero's
example by burning down the Reichstag in order to justify
his persecution of the communists. It was only due to
Demetrov's grandeur and valour that this provocation
was crushed and the fact that the Fascists had set fire to
the Reichstag was revealed to the whole world. In order
to calumniate the Soviet Union the British Conservatives
forged Zinoviev's letter. In order to incriminate the
communists the Bulgarian Fascists blew up the Cathedral of
Sofia. In Greece, in order to strike at the Greek Communist
Party, the Monarcho-Fascists fabricated stories of agreements
between Ioannides and the Bulgarians and between
Zachariades and the Serbs, etc. In our little Island, also,
we have witnessed such methods of provocation. The dumping
of pamphlets and prohibited books in the houses of members
and elements of our Party in order to incriminate them
was a common feature during the period of unlawful actions.
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Recently we have seen exhibitions of provocation through
the placing of dynamite fuses in buildings of progressive
elements (Pendayia). Provocation is the most favourite
method of the people's enemies especially at a time when
class struggle and anti-Imperialist campaigns are acute.
C. Espionage
Provocation is of no avail without espionage. One of the
main concerns of the enemy has been, on the one hand, to
follow, by means of agents and spies, the activities and
movements of the Party members and elements- (for more
information he often seizes the Party's and Popular
Organisations' files and censors the Party's and its
elements' correspondence) - and, on the other hand, he
either introduces spies into communist ranks or picks them
out from those ranks.
The enemy picks out these secret agents:
(a) From among inexperienced members of the Party
who have no faith in the Party's struggle and our national-
liberation movement.
(b) From among corrupt elements which have
penetrated into the Party's ranks.
(c) From among elements which have opportunist,
selfish and adventurist tendencies.
(d) From among the pusillanimous and cowards.
These persons the enemy either introduces into or secures
from the Party's ranks by various means such as money,
terrorism, women, etc. The aim of these agents is to spy
the Party's positions and activities in order that the
blow might fall at the right moment and to help the enemy
use the method of provocation. Moreover, their aim is to
distort the Party's line of action so that mass struggles
might fail and the Party might go bankrupt among the
working people. Furthermore, their aim is to inflame
the 'fraction' spirit in the Party's ranks.
Naturally, the enemy is careful not to confine the activities
of his spies to the Party alone. He spreads them out to
all the mass popular organisations such as r the Trade
Unions, the Cyprus Farmers' Union, the Small Shopkeepers'
Association, Youth, etc. The enemy's agents can do a great
deal of harm in these organisations both as regards the
organisation of provocation and betrayal of the various
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struggles, especially the strikes, with the object of
terrorizing the strikers and of undermining their morale.
The creation of the enemy's own organisations in the
popular movement, with Leftist phraseology, is another
form of espionage. Trotskyist organisations, third
Party organisations, etc., are examples of such
organisations. The manifestation of Tito's regime, which
has been playing the role of an agent of international
Imperialism in the international revolutionary
movement, is a classical example of these manifestations
in the international sphere.
D. Examples of Espionage
World history of the labour movement is full of examples
of espionage which should serve as a lesson to all the
elements and members of the popular movement.
(a) Espionage in the Bolshevik Party
We have had Malinovsky's case before the Russian
revolutionary movement. Malinovsky was an agent who
managed to penetrate into the Central Committee of the
Bolshevik Party. On the one hand, as a member of the
Party's Central Committee he organised strikes. On the
other hand, as member of the Police Administration he
suppressed them. He was soon found out and paid the
penalty for his crime.
After the revolution we have had Trotsky's, Zinoviev's,
Buharin's and Rikov's cases. Eventually it was proved that
these "Opportunists" were members of a cursed gang of
spies who went so far as to become linked with Hitler's
General Staff and to work in the Bolshevik Party's Central
Committee on Hitler's behalf. All these things were
revealed to the whole world during the sensational trials
of 1937 and 1938 shortly before the outbreak of World War
No. 2. It is dreadful even to think of what humanity
would have suffered had the Bolshevik Party failed to
discover these vipers and to have purged its ranks of
them before war broke out. The Buharinists and Trotskyists
were the men who on the one hand sent Gorky and Kirov to
their graves and, on the other, paid the highest post-mortem
tributes to them in the Party's central organs. They were
the men who daily betrayed Stalin's policy to Hitler and,
at the same time, filled newspapers with pages of articles
in praise of "Great Stalin, the architect of socialism".
The Greek Communist Party, too, has received severe blows
from espionage throughout its stormy life. The most
outstanding
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outstanding instance is Damianos Mathesi's case which
the "Organisational Lessons of the Central Committee of
the Communist Party of Greece" has described in the
following terms:
(b) Damianos Mathesi's Case
"Lack of Party vigilance has permitted Mathesi's spying
activities revealed in the Central Control Committee's
decision". This decision contains the brief life-story
of Mathesi. It analyses in detail his activities from
the time he joined the Party in 1924 until recent years.
It states that the Security Department made it possible
for him to rise in the Party by helping him organise
successful reactionary movements of elements of the
Communist Party of Greece while in Prison.
Mathesi always undertook the most confidential tasks and
employed divers methods of betrayal of the Party in such a
manner as not to rouse suspicion. He unfolded his spying
activities as soon as he joined the Party and during the
'fraction' strife of 1929-31 when he delivered the
representatives of (? K.D.) to the Security Department;
when he went abroad and returned to Greece in 1935;
when, without the Party's knowledge, he placed in a
Soviet ship alleged political fugitives and subsequently
got the Police to arrest them. He thus sought to expose
the Soviet Union also. His spying activity reached its
climax during the 4th August period. The decision says:
"Sometimes Mathesi throws out hints against
elements, surreptitiously nourishing suspicion against
them and thereby incriminating innocent people. There
have been instances of comrades having been victimized
by this systematic and artful nourishment of suspicion
on Mathesi's part. Sometimes he points out to the
Security Authorities men entrusted with special
confidential duties so that, the authorities, aware of
the duties of a man they had caught at Mathesi's instance,
tried by all inhuman means to wrest confessions from
him".
Whenever Mathesi succeeded in thi-s device - there have
been a number of instances where he actually did succeed -
there followed mass arrests all of which were attributed
to confessions made by the man caught first. Thus,
though Mathesi was the principal source, he always
escaped suspicion since arrests were invariably explained
away. Another method employed by him was to betray mass
movements whereby dozens of anti-Fascists were caught
and entire organisations were thus dissolved.
The Central Control Committee's decision emphasizes the
responsibility for Mathesi's actions. It says that all
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these circumstances which should have aroused suspicion
in responsible quarters were allowed to pass unnoticed.
It was not, until November, 1938, that comrade Zachariades,
while in Prison at Corfu, combined various circumstances
connected with the mass arrests, concentrated his
suspicions on Mathesi, and informed the Party
accordingly. Only then was Mathesi isolated.
The decision gives a record of Mathesi's activities
after his isolation, especially since 1941. Mathesi sets
up an alleged liberation organisation of "the people's
friends" which he introduces to the Party. He
repeats Maniadaki's endeavour to form a Party - an organ
of foreign espionage - under new conditions and with
new slogans: As soon as the Party exposes him
he launches an open campaign against the Communist Party
of Greece, indulging in virulent calumnies against the
Party and its elements. The decision refers to passages
from an open letter which Mathesi circulated in July,
1942, in which he calls the Party's leaders spies and
invites the Party's members to place themselves in a
"state of war".
The decision ends with the following declaration:
"Damianos Mathesi is one of the worst spies that have
appeared in the Party. As a man possessing ability,
skill and artifice he was one of the enemy's most
dangerous agents in the Party, Working treacherously and
with initiative, which indicates that his instructors
excelled Greek capacities, and employing with the ele-
ments' help all the devices of secret activity ranging
from espionage to political provocation and intra-Party
strife, he managed, over a number of years, to do
serious harm to the Party where he held important
positions from which he securely delivered his blows".
"This example of espionage carried out by this type of
spy is very instructive because Mathesi could never have
developed such activity had there been the necessary
vigilance in the Party throughout those years. A three-
year-old member of the Party is entrusted
with confidential work with indescri bable superficiality
and without investigation of his past record such as his
trip to Egypt and his relations with Meimari. Arrests
are made in which he is somehow or other mixed
up. No investigation of any kind is made. On the
contrary, they also try to establish contact between him
and arch-spy Lambrianopoulos. This contact, however,
did not materialize because Lambrianopoulos was too clever
for him. The 'fraction' strife of that period explains
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all this negligence and Party destruction. This state
of affairs helped Mathesi go abroad "unstained" in order
to be vested with new authority. He carried on his work
during Monarcho-Fascist dictatorship with renewed skill.
Provided with freedom of action by the character of his
job he was fully enabled to continue his work with
impunity". "There was no control over him. Obviously
suspicious circumstances passed unnoticed. Even in his
responsible duties (anti-dictatorial military union)
the leaders did not realize that, despite the apparent
increase in the number of members shown by Mathesi,
nothing substantial was done. Bureaucratic control, the
worst enemy of our work, prevails here also. All the
leaders of the anti-dictatorial military union are
caught and it does not occur to any one that this could
not have been accidental. We must declare openly that
through this inadmissable lack of Party vigilance alone
have Mathesi's spying activities been possible".
"The Central Control Committee holds this wretched
creature up to the Party's and Greek people's contempt
and considers it its duty to draw the Party's attention
to this example which shows how much damage lack of
watchfulness can do to the Party. Mathesi's case should
be a lesson to the Party. It should teach the Party how
and with what satanic devices the enemy is trying to
strike at it. It should teach us how vigilant
the communists and their leaders should be in the
preservation of the Party".
Control
The-Central/Committee of the Communist Party of Greece
decides that Mathesi's case should become a lesson of
watchfulness for the whole Party, and that it should be
the cause of a general development of the important
party duty of vigilance".
Our own young movement, too, in its early stages,
especially soon after the October events, received heavy
blows through the recruitment of spies from among its
leading ranks. Most of the Party elements were, at the
time, sentenced to long-term imprisonment because the
Police succeeded in discovering agents among young
Gymnasium graduates, who had no party life at all in
them, and were members of the District leadership at
Limassol. Another act of espionage in our Party was the
disclosure in the Press of the decision of the Central
Committee of A.K.E.L. concerning its self-criticism and
self-dismissal (March, 1948) before the matter had come
before the Party as a whole.
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The trial of Raik and Costov has unravelled international
Imperialism's dreadful endeavour to establish headquarters
of espionage among leaders of the Communist Parties and
Ministerial Councils of/Peoples Democracies.
the
The trial of eleven leaders of the Communist Party of
America has revealed that John Leuder, Chairman of the
Revision Committee of the Party Organisation of New York,
was for many years a spy in the Party's ranks.
Unfortunately similar instances may be found among many
Communist Parties.
(1) What are the principal weapons used by
the enemy against our Party?
(2) Which are the basic organs employed for
the enforcement and maintenance of the
capitalist regime?
(3) What is provocation?
(1) Which are the most characteristic instances
of espionage in world history?
(5) Which are the basic factors which enabled
spy Mathesi to ravage the Communist
Party of Greece?
(6) What have the trials of Raik and Costov
shown?
The Party's Protection
It is evident that especially under present-day conditions
the class enemy is trying with cruelty and artifice to
strike at his most consistent, determined and integral
opponents - the Communist Parties. Imperialism, which is
in the throes of death, is using every means to win its
cause through slander, espionage and open attack against
the popular movements. Organisation of vigilance in the
Party is, therefore, of the first and utmost importance.
The spirit of watchful protection of the Party and the
profound consiciousness of the need for full measures, in
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every concrete instance, for the frustration of our
enemies' plans and attempts to harm the Party should be
the concern not only of the sentinels who stand by every
Party Committee's side but of the whole Party also.
The considered, careful and unbiased continuation of the
physical purge of the Party's ranks - "the Party gets
strong when it purges itself" says comrade Stalin - ;
popularization of experience gained from the class
enemy's blows, especially during the post-October years;
onlightenment on the methods and devices employed by the
class enemy to penetrate into the Party in order to
strike at it from within or to distort the political
course; watchful protection of the elements - "we should
not forget to be vigilant" says comrade Stalin - ; daily
systematic control carried out in a spirit of comradeship;
complete devotion to work in a spirit of comradeship;
correct distribution and decentralization of work in
all the branches of technical mechanism so that each
responsible person should mind only his own business and
not interfere with the other branches of that mechanism,
are some of the basic duties with which Party organisa-
tions should be constantly occupied. The presence of
enemy agents in our midst is neither fatal nor inevitable,
unavoidable. We can purge our ranks and we can protect
ourselves from the harm done by these men, provided we
develop our perspicacity to the utmost limit and provided
we always adopt measures which, even if agents were to
succeed in getting into our Party, we might be able to
prevent their expansion and to clear them out. These are
the essential points on which our attention should
continuously be concentrated.
(1) Proper functioning of Party organisations
Our chief concern should be to secure the proper
functioning of our Party Organisations, big or small.
We should see to the correct application of our Party's
political and organisational lines of action. The people
consider this course as the greatest and most consistent
force needed for the defence and promotion of their Enosis
and social causes.
Our Party Organisations should work clockwise. We should
carefully watch every point of bad functioning and of
the wrong implementation of correct Party decisions. We
should watch carefully every point of disharmony among
Party organisations and of intra-Party crises. We should
find out their sources and their causes. An intra-Party
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crisis may not have been brought about by the enemy.
We should, nevertheless, have no doubt that the enemy
will eventually benefit from it.
2. Party Elements
We cannot have proper Party organisational work without
good elements. The elements, that is, the comrades who
lead all big or small Party work, are the Party's and
popular movement's backbone. Without elements - senior,
medium, junior - a Party cannot stand, and the people's
interests remain unprotected.
The following should be a Party element's distinctive
qualities:
(a) An element is a popular organiser and leader
wherever he is posted. He is distinguished by his
self-sacrifice and self-denial. He is totally devoted to
the People and the Party. He is sober and knows his job.
He is decent and modest towards his co-workers and Party
members in the environment in which he lives and works.
He always exhibits a spirt of cooperation and collective
work. He continuously studies the Party's and the
international movement's principles and lines of action
and gains experience from his daily contacts with the
Party's rank and file and the popular environment. He is
deeply conscious of personal responsibility and adheres
to what he says. Boastfulness, opportunism, megalomania,
conceit, self-sufficiency, vanity and selfishness are
incompatible with the qualities a Party member should
possess.
(b) How to acquire good elements
To acquire good elements we should continously study our
members, their activities, their lives, their abilities
and their shortcomings. We should study their good and
bad points and the results of their efforts in this or
that branch of work. We should continuously study their
mistakes and failures. We should investigate the causes
of their blunders and should ascertain whether or not they
were justified and how they could be remedied. We should,
in particular, help them overcome their weaknesses. We
should continuously lift them up to higher levels on the
basis of their previous good work and we should replace
them if they are unable to remedy their mistakes and
failures. An element's/origin, that is to say the fact
that he might be a labourer, peasant, or an intellectual,
/social
etc.,
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f ind/
etc., should not escape our attention. We should also
examine our elements' way of life. We should find out
whether they work or live as parasites. We should
discover their special weaknesses and tendencies. We
should ascertain whether their environment is a labour
environment or a petit-bourgeois environment and
whether it is of our own environment or foreign. We
should /out what Party and financial difficulties they
encounter in their lives and how they stand up to them.
All these things we should examine carefully with the
object of helping our elements. We should not let
them fall.
In the selection of our elements we give full preference
to labourers who work and are connected with production.
This does not, however, mean that we stand in the way
of the development of elements who come from the employee
class, the intelligentsia, the peasant class or the
class of honest breadwinners in the trades and professions.
We are only careful that they should belong to a healthy
environment and that they should be free from foreign
tendencies and influences. We avoid the pusillanimous
and parasites whom we call "Lumben".
We never make hasty nominations or promotions of
elements. We always proceed at a normal pace - carefully,
not superficially. In this manner we exclude persons
who may have joined the movement in a casual way and
may have in them the element of capitulation or
betrayal, and we can discover suspects and agents who
might have infiltrated into our ranks. We thus close
our doors to the enemy and purge the Party's leadership
mechanism from top to bottom. The purer and chaster
the leadership mechanism is, the more invulnerable our
Party becomes.
3. Good distribution of work and Combi-
nation of open and secret work.
No Party can advance without proper distribution of work.
All cannot work for everything. Each person should be
devoted, to his own work and there should be someone who
should be/responsible for each job.
personally
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This enables the work to advance and the elements to be
selected according to their vocation. Distribution of
work has another advantage. If the enemy strikes, the
blow can be localised. The enemy's nest is discovered,
useless elements are eliminated and the party mechanism
remains intact. The Party rightly treats as a criminal
any member who discloses his mission to another member,
irrespective of whether or not he is his senior, and
looks with suspicion on any one who meddles in anything
that is not his business. There cannot be absolute
loyalty in communist work under capitalist conditions
and, much more so, under conditions of Imperialist
occupation and rule. The Party should, therefore, always
combine open work with secret work. In order that this
combination might be creative and constructive it should
always aim at the preservation and extension of loyalty
and the Party's freedom of action. At the same time it
should protect the Organisation and elements against the
enemy's blows. The Party should always be ready to
pass to any state of unlawfulness (underground
actions, Tr.). It should maintain its connection with
the masses even under the stiffest conditions of
unlawfulness, and it should always make use of all forms
of struggle among the lawful popular organisations -
the trade unions, cooperative organisations, civilising
societies, etc. Such conditions postulate strict
distribution of work among the comrades who carry out
open and secret work. In this way, blows of open work may
not influence or affect the secret Party organisation.
4+. Caution against superficiality, disorder-
liness and gossip - sources of food for
the enemy.
Superficiality and disorderliness are two major evils
which, unfortunately, we still have in the Party to a large
extent. These evils always lead to bad organisation of
work and failure in every kind of work. Because of
superficiality and disorderliness the rules of precaution
are never kept, Party meetings are never properly
organised, the Party's files are not preserved and proper
combination of Party and extra-Party work is not effected.
All these end in arrests, degradation and ruin of the
organisation
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organisation. Moreover, where superficiality and
disorderliness prevail we can never discover the real
causes of arrests. The result is that the enemy's agents
in the Party remain concealed.
Gossip is another major evil in the Party. It enables
the enemy to learn our secrets even without the presence
of agents amidst us. Gossip prevents us from discovering
the source of the leakage of secrets and from thus
localising the enemy's blows and discovering
the agents present in our ranks. We should, therefore,
do well-husbanded and clean work. We should mercilessly
combat disorderliness, superficiality and gossip.
5. Party and Individual Control - an
indispensable weapon for purging
our ranks.
The principle of criticism and self-criticism is coupled
with the daily control of our work. Exercise of control
for the correct execution of a decision by an organisation,
element or member, is an indication of this factor's great
importance. It exposes the weak and dubious points.
Control of the mode of work, of leadership and of the
comrades' social and private life may indicate the need
for help or the need for purification measures. There
is need for control. Friendships and excessive
family-consciousness to the Party's detriment are not
tolerated. Blunders committed by any friend, no matter
in what position he may be, should be made known to the
Party, the Party Group, or a senior organisation.
A.K.E.L.ist who does not control his comrades
facilitates the concealment of evil deeds in the Party.
He does not contribute to the Party's purification.
Likewise, an A.K.E.L.ist who does not accept control from
the Party or his comrades, for his shortcomings and
errors, is a hopelessly bad comrade.
6. Development of the spirit of self-sacrifice
A.K.E.L.ists, and above all the elements, should be armed
with
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with faith in their struggle. They should be inspired
by the people's struggle and the sacrifices of their
comrades. They should cultivate the spirit of self-
sacrifice and should face the enemy courageously. There
should be no retreat before the enemy. Retreat opens
the way to treachery.
7. Organisation of Vigilance
A policy of constant vigilance should prevail in the
whole Party and, above all, among all Party organisation
leaders. This is a duty incumbent on all. It should be
established in all party organisations by sober,
cautious and impartial comrades. We should be affectio-
nate towards members and implacable against hostile
elements. Vigilance should give positive help to the
Party Organisation for the better knowledge of our men
- members and elements of A.K.E.L. It should organise
elements to guide new Party recruits. It should watch
every possible endeavour of the enemy to strike at us.
It should forestall distortions of the Party's course
and it should set itself the task of clearing the Party
of dubious elements. Vigilance is the Party's eye and
ear. It is the Party's and the movement's security.
It therefore controls everybody, every time.
8. Information Branch for recording
the enemy's movements
We should organise an Information Section, for recording
the enemy's movements in all reactionary organisations,
with the help of reliable persons or through friends of
the movement. The principle which we should bear in mind
should be the fact that, through timely knowledge of the
enemy's movements and of his plans and possible blows, we
can encounter them more effectively.
(1) In what way should the Party be organised so
as to be able to frustrate blows of
espionage and provocation?
(2) What are the distinctive qualities of the
Party's elements?
(3)
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(3) How can we develop our elements?
(4) Why do we need distribution of work?
(5) What is the basic object of combination
of open work with secret work?
(6) What are the bad results of superficiality,
disorderliness and gossip?
(7) What is the significance of Party and
individual control?
Organisational-Technical
Preparation
Preservation of the Party's functions and of
our Organisations
The preservation of the Party's functions and of our
organisations is one of the most important problems of
our organisational-technical preparation. By this we do
not mean the Party's leading organs only, namely the
District Committees and the Central Committee. What
concerns us most, and is the most effective factor also,
is to ensure the proper functioning of the Party's rank
and file. No leading organ can function without proper
contact between leadership and the rank and file. To
preserve the Party's proper functioning and our
organisations we should have:-
(a) A sound mechanism. An organisation's
mechanism needs constant renewal. It should be adapted
to current conditions. Sound mechanism requires us to
entrust its operation to the most loyal and devoted
comrades whom we should elect with very great care.
(b) Good organisation, even of the most unimpor-
tant work, carried out on the basis of precautionary
measures and the education of the Party's members and
elements. All the efforts of the enemy can be neutralized
in this way. If there is good organisation there can be
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no situation, no matter how grim, that could not be faced.
Good organisation of our work means that we should give
serious attention to the manner in which our organisations
function and that we should organise our gatherings and
meetings properly and with due regard to the peculiarities
of each town and area. Well organised work postulates
decentralization and resort to divers forms of
activity carried out to the best of our ability. When we
organise work we should bear in mind that the Party's
interests are at stake and that the least carelessness,
superficiality, etc., will damage our Party at the-
people's expense.
(c) A set of organisational measures which might
represent our organisations under new conditions. Our
leading organs should consist of a few members and
should be mobile so as to be able to get together and
decide with ease. The Party's rank-and-file organisations
also should be small. In many cases, especially in places
where our organisations are put to severe test, we might
have Party Sections consisting of five or three members.
In places where terrorism almost frustrates the functioning
of Party Groups we should, naturally, firmly insist on
Party Sections, but we hould, at the same time, pursue
the system of individual, contact with Party members.
(d) Intensification of Party and popular vigilance.
Experience gained from Party activities in all countries
of the world during the past few decades has shown that
the enemy cannot do much by watching alone. He therefore
tries to send agents into our ranks to corrupt our men in
order to strike at us from within and paralyse our work.
Experience has also shown that internal blows are
dangerous to our organisations. Ic1 order to avoid these
blows we should always be alert. We should so distribute
our work and we should take such precautionary measures as
to be able to discover the enemy's agents with comparative
ease. In a quarter or business centre every one knows who
are good and who are bad. If, therefore, we keep our ears
open and listen to what people say we can easily find out
the wretched fellows and spies and we can thus preserve
the functioning of our organisations.
Organisation
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Organisation of the Technical Publicity
Mechanism and of the task of Enlightenment
Organisation of the technical publicity mechanism in
order to ensure the issue of our publications under all
conditions is another very important matter that concerns
our organisational-technical preparation. It is a
well-known fact that Fascist terrorism, blows, arrests,
etc., exercise a delaying influence on mass work and
on people's struggles especially when the enemy succeeds
in wrecking our organisations. In such circumstances
printed matter becomes an essential method of struggle
because its function is to enlighten the people and
popularize our slogans. At the same time it can prepare
the people for their new struggles. We should,
therefore, make printed matter secure at all costs.
The Ten Rules of Precaution
Knowledge, on the part of every member and element, of the
elementary rules and principles of vigilance and precaution
is not sufficient for the protection and Bolshevisation
of the Party. Full understanding of this need through
the creation of a spirit of movement against Provocation
and Espionage, in the Party and its organisations and
among the people, is also necessary.
We must nurture and stir profound hatred against the
class enemy's dirty methods of spying. In every man there
is an innate disgust for spies and espionage. We should
make this feeling a matter of conscience and duty in
the popular masses especially during the present historic
moments. We should develop in the Party, to the utmost
degree, the spirit of Bolshevik vigilance which means
constant attention, denunciation of curiosity and
gossip, denunciation and exposal of the class-enemy
and of the 'Right Wing' and 'Left Wing' agents and daily
struggle against them, and non-tolerance of any
relaxation of vigilance. We would thus be able to raise
a granite wall between our Party and its enemies for
the protection of its mass political stand and its secret
and technical operation. Superficiality and the spirit
of laxity, in which fields the enemy and his agents work
almost undisturbed, should be checked.
The following are the most fundamental rules of precaution:
(1) You must not talk or gossip to any one, not
even to your mother, either about your work or about
matters concerning your organisation, unless your work
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necessitates it. Otherwise you give cover to internal
espionage.
(2) You must be regular and careful in your work
and in, your appointments. In the streets you must not
look behind you or make suspicious movements. You should
dress normally and should carry a normal appearance like
everybody else, especially in the environment in which
you work and move.
(3) When you are occupied with Party work you must
not carry on your person anything, such as cards, badges,
etc., which might incriminate you in case you are arrested.
You must clear your house of every unnecessary object or,
you should have such object kept in an absolutely safe
place. You had better destroy it. You should observe
this precaution especially if you hold a responsible post
or when you are on a hazardous journey or when you go to
a rendezvous, gathering, demonstration, etc. If you must
carry something, you should make sure that you could
destroy or dispose of it at once.
(4) You must not ask questions, nor should you allow
others to ask you questions, by reason of friendship,
comradeship or familiarity, about the functioning of the
secret technical mechanism.
(5) You must not salute any unlawful person whom you
may meet in the street, nor should you pretend to know
him.
(6) When you suspect a comrade you must not trust
him nor should you speak about him to any one except to a
responsible Party member or to a responsible Party
organisation you may meet.
(7) Every responsible organisation must at once try
to find out the causes of a blow. If, for the time being,
it fails in this task, it must not conceal the matter but
should continuously pursue it. Each accusation
must be carefully investigated and every precaution must
be taken by us. If a comrade is accused we must watch
him or we must change his occupation. We should even
isolate him. We must, in any case, proceed with caution
and skill.
(8) When you are travelling or are detained, or in
prison, exile, etc., you must never talk about your
organisation, job or post. There always be the
listening ear of a spy. will
(9) When you are arrested you must remember that
the best thing for you and especially for your organisa-
tion to do is always to say "I do not know". You must
not attempt to answer or try to be clever in order to
deceive your interrogators. The least confession may be
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(10) You must not make statements either to the Police
or your interrogator except when you have an advocate to
defend you. Otherwise you should not speak at all except
before the Court. This is a lawful right. Your statement
should be solemn and calm and it should not betray nervous-
ness. At the same time it should be firm insofar as it
concerns your principles. Before the Court you should use
every means in your power to show the grandeur of a popular
combatant and Greek patriot.
Questions:
(a) What is organisational-technical preparation?
(b) What are the basic organisational measures
indicated for the organisation's protection?
(c) What is the significance of organisation
of the technical publicity mechanism?
(d) Which are the ten rules of precaution?
Epilogue
These 12 simple organisational lessons should be, during
the present exceptionally important period, the A.B.C. of
every A.K.E.L.ist and of every member of the popular
movement. Only by organising our work on the basis of
principles, which have been explained herein and by protecting
ana promoting our Party on the basis of rules explained
herein, can we be certain that we are performing our
patriotic duty towards our suffering people and that we are
leading our national and social liberation cause to victory.
Every A.K.E.L.ist, with faith and conviction and with
intense and enthusiastic devotion to his work, should
march on steadfastly in accordance with these immortal
lessons which are based on experience of the world's
proletariat, and with the sure knowledge that he is doing
his duty of demolisher of a rotten community as a
pioneer of a new life where world peace will reign
supreme and where exploitation of man by man will no
longer exist.
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