THE FRENCH Communist Party [PCF] is in turmoil. A fierce debale has broken dut in the ranks on the reasons for the defeat of the Union of the Left in the March elections. The party leadership's ciaim that the PCF "bears responsibility" is widely chailenged.
Many militants think there must at least be something wrong strategy which leads to such a defent. Was their party not a bit to blame for the way in which the split with the Socialist Party took September : - a split which was only half-beartedly covered over on the eve of the second round of the elections?
A boroshell was dropped into this discussion last week SRIDCOTS HEATSAC SAYIAH is ne longer possible to go on like this". and that it is moncary fo denounce and to change from top to bottom the mode of functioning of this "machine" which party.
CHISINI this themseives, for their freedom TBlaHEs. T0i 15, for (hecnuse the party is its militants), but for ihe mass of French workers, who entout onc cr in tist ote ele.
who cannot conquer Comnrunist Party either. presently exists.
These same militants do nol want the party to he a 'party like the otbers. They know only too well what these are, bourgoois parties, within which is exercised the professionais. expens, tuals, closely linked to the upper levels of the State administration.
These same militants believe in the necessity for a revolutionary party of the class struggle of the exploited, they believe in the necessity for a lcadership and officials in this party. They belleve that democratic centralism must be retained rules are profoundly changed and more Importantly, its practice. This is not just a matter of formal rights. but of that which decides the fate of every formal right: the political life and practice of the party.
Now we are at the beart of the problem: the party. What party?
I use the word "machine" advisedly.
bocause it returns to the term of Marx and Lenin for tbe State. On the face of SOCIALIST CHALLENGE 4 May 1978 page 8 philosopher Louss LOUE articles member since the days of the Oppositon.
Altbusser is able to with a hands of the lendership. reçent stand place proletariar* bywell-known someone to if, in its structure and This is the parlismentury their cells and sections ALTEIEI serious (for the They SLTE for clections, the it oligarchic and intelleccan ang provided that its the AlLussermember of the PCF for thirty years. In publishod the newspaper Le Monde, totalling some 20,000 words in ail, he presented one of the mast scathing indictments of the operations of a mass workets party to Open speak with an intima e knowiedae ot the workines of the PCF. Often a nonconformist with resard to prevathne oamy dogia. CHL has on several oocasions suffered at the was 1o oppose the dropping ol the "dictatorship of the from the party's programnic at its 22nd Congress in 1976.
His Le Monde articles cerkre on rwo Key problems: the relationship hetween the party leadership and the hese, and it, this is a startling statement for make: party obviously ncu a State in the proper sense, but everything is carried on as hierarchical functioning, it was closcly modelled both on the apparatus of the bourgcois Stale and on the maltary apparatus.
apect of the party. On the one hand there is the mass of militants, who freely discuss in This is the "sovercign people': but it stops short federal secretariats, led by full-time officials, is reached. The break is there, where the apparatus takes precedence over the base. There things start to become leadership). popular will of the base expresses inself ultcareactionary forms (majority ballor in three stages for the congresses) and DILaD under the ciose scrutiny of "nominating commissions", which are providen for in the statutes for the clection of le 12 m275 Communiat Party leader Georges Marchi Merchals washes his hands of all responsibility for the electoral deleat of the lelt. the relationship between the party and wotking class and oppresscd The scope of this cannot be adequately presented in the space available here, Wr YG. limited ourselves to two shorl excerpts highlighting these cestral concerns ETEHISAIS AERBSSCIE others have met with a sharp responsc from the party leadershin.
POUICT meeting af the PCF Ceritrad Commitice at the end af last week, general secretary Georges Marchais accused the dissidents of busybodies.. composins monologues al their desks apart from everyday life and any consultation with their comrades".
The Central Committee unanimousIy approved Marchais" report, which came down firmly against any concessions — such as the opening ug of a limited discussion in the parly press Bat as Althusser ourlines, the "officials" but have been illegally extended to the election of congress delegates.
These produce hierarchy of officinls: members of th bureaus and the Centra Committee, capped by ihe Ceutrall bureau and secretariat.
Comnmittee, elected by striety selected federation delegates, is supposed to be the sovercien organ of the party, its legislature and executive. In practic this sovereign organ exists more lo ratify and ensure the implementation of the leadership's decisions lian to prapae a shin na: Wie caera heardEL Committee had taken IEIL LEYE in reality the Commictee is more often the executive leadership legislature: in this capacity it is u sort of peneral assembly of prefects seniop local goverument administrators ap saka at pre-alaction meeting. He is also pletured right Central accurate barometer of tecling inside oritiquc the PCF In fact the criticiems have come nor have only frou inseilectuals like Althusser and the historian Tean Ellenstein, but also from party cadies and PLP SELON UDTEUEEAEH COTHE ces. editor million-selling Action has aiso resigned his post in protest at rhe continuation ol Stalinist practices laside the PCF. being Socialet Challenge considers that this denule holds important lessons for the left in Britain. inside the PCF continuc despile the ourcome of the Ceotral Committee future issues we will be publishine further encerpts from it analssing the fundamental questiura n srake pointed by the centfal goverumest in dispatchcs to robierve the control on the spot appoist the feder f secretarler, and TO TABEIE GEUMILE COUHOES The leadership bases iself bot oniy Central on the membe Committee, but also on the locuidable power, Tunctionaries of all kind, fal im aften officials and advisors af these knowns, recruited on the competence or connections, always-ly cooption Contral category least And this is the militars aspeet of the Central party Fud be ine gite te e dha ma mdd the uhwolule vestical matien, wisch ret slbed formn of the military hicraschy. Commitee is hardiy an members of tbe party's •ITH ISIT BE weekly, The discussion will undoubtedly meeting, and in as wel 1 sificials, ed.] which the lendershir cuanot, Fi, 10 the federations of the Central DE Sit the central mon ee bang ai basis aimilariry and specialist of cvory erganisation and 1 heen fundamental priociple compar mentall as the mils the compartmentAvoid.
THE advantage: thai it can this leadership In more relaxed mood JEAN ELLEINSTEIN loads ANC Compartmentnilsation has a rwo-fnlc cilcei, On the one hand, ir cnrioses cvery rank-and-fle militanl in harrow ascending cofamn, which rism fono their cell to the secrion, and beyond that, to the federation: ami alte io doine b Hatia wlio faithfully filler the contributions of the hase in he light of ie decisions from the lon. On E ther band, the runk and-file midiia outaide section lederntion conterences dl thes sre a delegnte), enter into any rclationship with the milicinh of auy otber cell wrick belongs w anoticr ascendins bolamn. Every anempt to establich a horizontal relationship CUPET today, declared lo be Yactional"
Ope covid bebeve, in elfec, that we wete in a mililary formasion, wbere sulite obedience and secrecy, bu also a drastie comparmentalisation ol the units cogaeed in combuc riothing igniominious abouf it, It tetalls the periods witen ths party bed to adopt military loris g security defend itself and act: the clundestinits of the parly of Lente, of the parly during the Resistance. sic. Inasmuch conditions Jatilied measunes of compartmentalisation, s0 the proient conditions TELUE themn enachronistic, and sterile: not mhef and al te estene, for th DWILALS. of bicials tbemsehve lila_ comlinng the murar model of comparimcntalsation wit) the model ol parliccrentors dempe Ethe harts cannot hei aungtiominu. From tie parhumentar well-knowi the baurgcomie achieves the reprodocrion af lo Formi af political domination throueh the free "citizens', sn the party leadership achieves the reproduction of its form of domination through the militants And from the military model bl compartmentalisation it draws among ouners the lot insignilicant advanlage dispuise ihe co-optins nfficials as tbeir election. As a result ol combination otrains the reproduction noi only of the form ol political In effeer the narrow circles from wluch che lendership is drawn makes E practically impossable to dislodg: then, wharever their failures or even xometimes their political bankrupicy (for instance, the line of 'legalisution at all cosss in the antumn of 1940) Under these conditions, the 'game" of
democracy in the patty
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A WAY OF FUNCTIONING WHICH MUST BE CHANGED FROM TOP TO BOTTOM
A PARTY MODELLED ON THE STATE APPARATUS MILITARY APPARATUS
BOURGEOIS MODE OF POLITICAL FUNCTIONING