The fight against Markos Vafiadis, leader of the Greek left and head of the so-called "Democratic Army" (DSE) started early. Even before the battle of Konitsa, the opposition was lurking. The antagonism manifested itself almost openly in the 4th Plenary Session on July 28 and 29, 1948. Markos was particularly concerned with the failures of the party's leadership and reached the point of clearly questioning Zachariadis' choices by submitting his famous "Platform".
His "Platform" was submitted to the meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the KKE on November 15, 1948. Of particular interest are the following points which, in our humble opinion, do not even need commenting as the criminal utopia of Zachariadis is revealed in detail. It is worth paying attention to what Markos said about "recruitment" in the DSE.
"In November, as soon as Zachariadis had come to the mountain, the PG discussed this issue. I maintained that it is unprofitable to weaken the headquarters at this time by taking part of the forces at their disposal as our reserve. Because this weakening would have as a consequence the weakening of their action, and consequently less recruitment. It should be noted that even from the middle of 1947, recruitment into the DSE had taken on an almost entirely violent character.
“The voluntary ranking did not even reach 10%. In order to be able to recruit, it was not necessary to gather but to deploy the infiltration forces in areas where there was recruitable material. Therefore, the course of the formation of our reserve should have been similar. To be taken as a reserve not from the existing divisions, but according to the increase in strength that would be made by headquarters. However, the other position prevailed for the immediate gathering of divisions and it was decided that this reserve force would reach 14 thousand men by March. This decision was not carried out.
“Until June the total strength of the reserve unit was 5,500. I must say that on this issue I was forced not to speak more because Zachariadis, instead of another argument, said:Markos knows how to fight and deals tactically well with issues. But he does not understand, he cannot grasp the strategic problems, such as the question of the reserve".
Markos also referred to the infamous 4th Plenum:"...It took place at the end of July 1948. 10 comrades took part. I made the proposal at the suggestion of Zachariadis, who told me that you will talk about the battles of Grammos and the action of the DSE in the other regions, and you will set the tasks. Two collaborations preceded it. The events themselves showed that a critical review should be made, at least of the period that intervened between the 3rd Plenary and here. Because that was the only way the 4th Plenary could be properly oriented. I made a plan and took it to Zachariadis. He said that if the decisions of the 3rd Plenum were not implemented, it was because the communists did not do their duty, etc.
"Thus we were once again led to decisions that do not correspond to reality any more than those of the 3rd Plenary. Instead of coming out clearly and honestly telling the Plenary the real reasons why the decisions of the 3rd Plenary were not implemented, we tried to justify our mistakes with patches. The decision was written entirely by Zachariadis. None of the comrades present raised serious objections, neither to the proposal nor to the decision.
Referring, indirectly, finally to the DSE's prospects of victory, in the form of a comment on the situation of the "monarcho-fascists" and the "people's democratic movement," Markos said:"It is a fact that monarcho-fascism has its troubles. But to say that he is on wooden legs and that his overthrow is closer than any other time is something that loses its seriousness and exposes the Party and the movement to dangers. With the main support of the American imperialism that completes the occupation and dominates our country despite its economic messes and the feuds that exist between the various cliques, monarcho-fascism managed to achieve a relative political-military stabilization which is expressed:
a) by liquidating the state apparatus and creating a regime of fascist violence,
b) by maintaining the Tsaldaris-Sofoulis government for one year with the main objective of neutralizing and subjugating the populist democratic movement,
c) with the fact that the monarcho-fascist army which, despite its failure to deliver serious blows against the DSE, continues to fight for two years without any calculable cases of stops, joining the DSE, desertions, etc. Monarcho-fascism has not only the possibility of replenishing the losses of his army, but also of its normal numerical increase, as long as the Americans provide the means,
d) monarcho-fascism holds all large and small centers, almost all arterial roads and serious supports in the countryside,
e) he took by force all the administrations of the trade unions and every strike event or protest of the workers about their miserable financial situation is stifled. He outlawed all mass political organizations and democratic parties (EPON, Democratic Associations, Communist Party, etc.) and managed, through executions, etc., to force the followers of the populist democratic movement in the cities and rural areas he controls, into silence and tolerance .
"The popular democratic movement, which today is expressed almost entirely through the armed struggle, also achieved a relative stabilization, which is due to the successful defense of Grammos, the intense action developed by the DSE in the other regions, the justice of the struggle it does, the faith and self-sacrifice, which distinguishes the executives and members of the Party. In the inability of monarcho-fascism to solve the economic and political problems of the Greek people who, despite terrorism and oppression, remain loyal to the ideals of anti-fascism and independent Greece.
"But this stability, due to the conditions that exist in the country, is disproportionate to that achieved by monarcho-fascism and does not contain possibilities of overthrowing monarcho-fascism in the immediate future. Today the DSE has approximately thousands of fighters who oppose the approximately 300 thousand total armed forces available to monarcho-fascism.
"In order for the DSE to act aggressively for the liberation of serious areas as a support for the complete overthrow of monarcho-fascism, it must reach the number of 65-70 thousand men in the months of October, November, December, January, February, March. If we take the period between the 3rd and the 4th Plenary as a basis, we will see that with better conditions that we had in terms of subjective factor, we managed to recruit only 15 thousand, in about a year .
"Consequently it is impossible to reach a military performance such as follows from the decisions of the 4th Plenary. Here I am not taking into account either the factor of a more intense American intervention, nor the increase of 70,000 troops, which monarcho-fascism is asking from the Americans. Moreover, as the situation of our organizations in the cities is today, one cannot expect a decisive combination of the aggressive effort of the DSE with strikes up to an uprising.
"But not even the DSE has the ability to knock on the doors of the cities with its serious aggressive actions to create such conditions. From the correlation of forces, means and possibilities, the conclusion emerges that the DSE cannot armedly overthrow monarcho-fascism with its own forces in the immediate future , but with direct military aid that will come from the recognition of the PDK (Provisional Democratic Government) by friendly countries. But this does not seem likely because the DSE could not create the appropriate conditions and the international situation does not seem to allow such action, at least at the moment".