Spanish Communist Party (PCE)
RICHARD CARVER reports.
sial thesis 15, which redefines the party as revolutionary Marxist and democratic' dominated the regional conferences in the run up to the Ninth Congress. Lie first in Spain since before the Civil War. But the congress itself took Fele discussion on the issue and it was something of an anti-climax when 75 per cent of the delegates stuck up their antiLeninist' hands In the assembly hall of an expensive Madrid botel late last Friday.
SYMPTOMATIC The lack DE COALEs symptomatic of a problem which angered many members throughout the pre-congress discussion.
Even of leadership Andalusia moved to condemn the of open discussion.
In Asturias, where there was a minority thesis 15, walked out conference. And in Cataionia, where a majority opposed the leadership, all hell broke loose.
What upset these oppositionists was that general secretary Santiago Carrillo seemed more concerned with adapting to the needs of capitalist democracy than democratic principles within his party.
Along with the Leninism comes the end of TEEHANC centralism engendered organisational practices which in reality lead bureaucratic centralism.
explained one party leader.
But hopes that this might lead to real Leninist internal democracy were quickly dashed, when it was explained that the party wowd malain is ban "Factional organised tendencis Jibe Moscow daily Pravds has made its 'historic" decision formally to drop its "Leninist" label.
The debate on the controver- | reacted in typically venemous style. Eurocommunism, it said Sunday.
blackest purposes of reaction.' Parties which ignore Marxism-Leninism doom themselves to wander in the dark. This is the experience of the Communist Party of Crechoslovakia."
There is a tiny hypocrisy in this.
Marxist-Leninist' of the PCE in the 1930s which got rid of internal democracy and Initiated the collaboration with capitalist partics Carrillo continues to this day.
What worries Moscow 1s thal the PCE has always been the spearhead Communist Parties"
away from Moscow The abandonment of LeninIsm is determined more by local than international considerathe tions, but still the Kremlin is like concerned that it may signal a new stage in the turn away from Moscow and towards national imperialist class.
The PCE has gone furtbest in against this direction because of the relative strength democracy in Spain.
OPPONENTS The Socialist Party (PSOB) got five times the vote and six times the deputies of the PCE in last June's election.
And the PSOE-backed UGT has conne of challenge the PCE-controlled Workers Commissions Tor the allegiance of trade unionists.
Leadership SCENCE
congress attacked the PSOEs go it alone attitude and its desire to create a two party system alongside the bourgeois UCD.
In contrast the PCE calls for a 'government of national conand defender and NOTICES Pact, the version of the Social Contract.
the dose of It was the which dropped the term "Marxist-Leninist, Carrillo argued that the party had a lot ground to make up: we canno wait another thirty years, as the other European CPs bave done, to percentage which will allow us! the the The first session of the BOWMELE Russell human rights Germany has reached its the conclusion.
The with Berufsverbote and dealt ruling soley with the question: Are Y CSE VICTORS acoess to professions because of political views. The answer to most this was a unanimous yes.
of The international Jury further Spanish concluded that this represented La threat to human rights and Explaining why the PCE had 1 was applied in a discriminatory within the IMF campaign ut 132 Cowley Hoad.
party. of lost The back cloctoral Tribunal on in West session was concerned being denied supplementary whether especially the and Etienne Balibar.
But the leading distance positions.
to be a determining force in our according opponents of this line. the 25 per cent who did not thesis 15, are a mixed bunch. They range from pro- relations Moscow (though there are only ginning A narrow majority felt that a question discrimination practiced by other bodies, such as trade unions and profescould nor be insufficient The obstructive attitude of the authorities prevented the Tribunal taking verbal evidence From the povertine sell ta evidence confine ieseli distinguished published official positions It roviewed more than 500 cases before selecting 12 which researched The reemen over ye showed intelligence service information about young, come under the influence of the Trotskyists and Maoists. position like the Catalan theoretician Manuel de Cristal have linked up with intellectual oppositionists in the French party, such as Louis Althusser TO TELL.!
apposition strategist is Manuel Sacristan who bas gradually taken tus Althusser's He argues that: The Eurocommunist analysis LOUCHE take acoount of a revolutionary European dialoctic. Eurocommunison 15 not a strategy for socialism.
'Euroconusunism as a socialist strategy is a crass utopia.
which the classes will be prepared to abdicate in full swing, while an ascendant cinss change the of production, rela WHETOOLL attend is taken as admission of guilt. Denial of radical views is often disbelieved, even without evidence to the contrary * Concepts like loyalty vague and undefined, exposing The subjects to uncontrolled and Mopped arbitrary rulings people be considered "loyal", but because of their associations likely to become disloyal The jury which heard thi is composed ment European figures, such as the Norwegian and the French theologian Prafessor members include harrister Lord Gifford, Labour MP Jo Richardson, POOLESSE Ruth Class and playwrights Howard Brenton and Trevor they have apy importance, is a Bernstein. (Bernstein was an carly social democratic theorist who was subject to a blistering polemic from the Marxist wing of the But, alibough Sacristan tries to bridge the gap between the everyday practice of the party and the final seizure of power, the rift is too great for him to fully shake free.
And he explicitly accepts the Eurocommunist analysis politics, which argues that the capitalist class 15 now stronger than ever The Eurocommunists use this inversion of the truth to justify gradualism and class collabora tion. Sacristan wavers.
The strength of the opposi tion and this continuing irritant on the party's left flank mean that the Ninth Congress will not signal the end of the debate. I was just the beginning.
Griffiths.
One jury member who was was Olelo Carvalbo, leader of the 1974 anti-fascist coup in Portugal.
Portuguese autisorities him leaving the country after West Germar intervention.
The Tribunal has been subject constant campaign slander and disruption A confidential goverhment docoGermany and Britain revent published Interior harass Tribunal members and Minister plans supporters (sco Socialise Chal lenge 16 February 19T6).
The evidence and conclusions of the first session show why the West German authorities have so much to fear.
combered of In ecol
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a few of these to sections like | tions, without using coercion." BERTRAND Russell Foundation press conference, preparing the tribunal. way against people of particu-