The KKE was founded in 1918, as the mature product of the development of the labour movement in our country, and also under the impact of the Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917 in Russia. It is the conscious, organized, vanguard section of the working class and has as its strategic goal the overthrow of capitalism and the construction of socialism-communism.

The many years of positive and negative experience of the international communist movement and the KKE have confirmed that the working class cannot fulfil its historic mission, unless it has its own robust, well-organized and theoretically equipped party, the communist party.

The KKE is guided by the revolutionary worldview of Marxism-Leninism. It attempts to interpret the developments in a dialectical-materialist way, systematically following the new achievements in science and technology, to generalise the experience of the labour and people's movement with the communist ideology as a foundation and with the need for the liberation of the working class from exploitation as its criterion. It fought against the reactionary theories, such as Greece being a "poor relation", the "inferiority of women", the racist theories, nationalism and cosmopolitism of capital, obscurantism and intolerance. It struggles for a deeply humanist, scientifically substantiated people's education. It has inspired radical intellectuals and artists with its ideology and struggles, it became a consistent and firm defender of the Greek people's culture.

From the time of its foundation, the KKE has been faithful to the principle of proletarian internationalism. It defended the socialist construction in the USSR, in the other countries of Europe, Asia and in Cuba. It participated in the Communist International. It expressed its solidarity with the struggles of the world's working class, with the peoples who were fighting for their national liberation, for socialism. The KKE at critical and difficult periods in its struggle, received internationalist solidarity and support from the international communist and labour movement. It struggles for the regroupment of the International Communist Movement after the retreat and crisis it experienced and is still undergoing today, particularly after the victory of the counterrevolution in 1989-1991.

From the time it was founded, KKE has stood by the youth of our country. It has always concerned itself with their problems and their future. It continues to trust young generation and their abilities to contribute to the construction of the socialist future.

Its entire historical course vindicates the need for its existence in Greek society. The KKE has never lost its historical continuity. It fought against opportunism and liquidationism in its ranks and was able to draw conclusions from its 95 years of activity. It was able to maintain its revolutionary character in difficult conditions, while it never hesitated to recognize mistakes, deviations and to carry out self-criticism openly in front of the people.

The KKE over its 95-year history demonstrated a solid commitment to the fundamental principles of a revolutionary workers' communist party: the recognition of the leading role of the working class in social development and of Marxist-Leninist ideology as revolutionary theory for revolutionary political activity. It never renounced the class struggle, the socialist revolution, the dictatorship of the proletariat.

The KKE withstood the turbulence of the victory of counterrevolution in the Soviet Union and the other states of the socialist construction in Europe and Asia. This endurance is not accidental. It has been forged through historical blood ties with the working class and the poor farmers from the very first moment of its foundation.

From 1918 onwards the KKE has given a political content to the workers' struggles against the capitalist exploitation and paid the price with many deaths, tortures and persecutions. In the first decades of its existence, it faced state repression from every form of bourgeois power (parliamentary, dictatorial), persisting in organizing the working class with positive results for the people's movement. It demonstrated endurance in especially harsh conditions of illegality in various periods. It was at the forefront of the armed struggle against the occupation by the three powers (Germany, Italy and Bulgaria) through the Resistance of EAM-ELAS. On two occasions, in December of 1944 and in the three year struggle (1946-1949) of the Democratic Army of Greece (DSE), the labour movement, headed by the KKE, and the allied farmers' movement came into armed conflict with the bourgeois power, which was supported by the direct imperialist military intervention of Great Britain initially and later the of USA.

Over its 95-year course it fought against the notion regarding the collaboration of the exploited with the exploiters, regarding the submission to the exploiters; it defended the gains of the working class and people.

The deep historical roots of the KKE in the working class and people and its stable dedication to the fundamental principles of Marxism-Leninism explain why in previous crises - especially in those of1968 and 1991- it managed to safeguard its continuity, despite the departure of a large section of its forces.

The KKE has regrouped organizationally, ideologically and programmatically over the entire new period in its history, based on the five intervening Congresses since the crisis of 1991. A product of this course is the present Programme which was adopted by the 19th Congress, which develops the overall strategy of the KKE for socialism and the basic duties of the class struggle.