Eurocommunism

The article provides an account of the much-disputed episode of the dialogue between the Italian Communist Party (PCI) and the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) on the eve of the Ostpolitik. Basing on multi-archival research, the author provides evidences that the collaboration originated from an Italian initiative, and was linked to a broader reassessment of PCI’s international outlook. SPD’s reasons of interest (related to the development of the Ostpolitik) are also considered, as well as East German’s critical standpoint. While its importance for the establishment of the Ostpolitik should not be overrated, the episode is revealing of PCI’s views on Cold War, détente and the role of West European Left during crucial years of change for the European order. New elements that distanced the Italians from Soviet perspectives and from allegiance to a cracked international communist movement were intertwined with substantial flaws in the understanding of the international situation and the setting up of the Party’s strategy, which were to influence PCI’s fortunes also in the following decades. It was also due to these strategic stalemates that the collaboration with SPD, after assuming a considerable relevance for two years, eventually lost momentum in a changed international context.

The Eurocommunist legacy is rich with inspiration (the search for a middle way between social democracy and the far left) and potential assets (in defining a strategy adapted to current European societies and the multiplicity of dominations which run through them), but also with unresolved problems (concerning in particular the relationship to the capitalist state).

Turkish Abstract:

Bu makale tarihsel materyalist gelenekteki sınıf tartışmalarının yirminci yüzyıl kökenlerini incelemektedir. İncelemenin ana aksına György Lukács, Nicos Poulantzas ve E.P. Thompson’ın sınıf yaklaşımlarını alarak, bu yaklaşımların birbirleri arasındaki kontrast üzerinden Marksist sınıf teorisinin altındaki epistemolojik yaklaşım farklılıklarının bu teorilerin ve teorisyenlerin içinde oldukları tarihsel bağlamlar içerisinde hangi somut durum analizlerini mümkün kıldığını ve ne tür siyasal stratejilerle ilişkili olduklarını araştırmaktadır. Sınıf yaklaşımlarının tarihsel bağlamları içerisinde anlaşılması gerektiğinden hareket ederek sınıf bilinci, sınıf yapısı ve sınıf oluşumu kavramlarının ve bu kavramları mümkün kılan sınıf kavrayışlarının sınıf failliğini nasıl ele alıp tanımladığı; sınıf failliği ile siyasal strateji arasındaki ilişkinin nasıl düzenlendiği ve bunun pratikteki yansımalarının ne tür sonuçlar ürettiği; ve yirminci yüzyıldaki bu tartışmaların bize sınıf teorisi ve bu teoriyle doğrudan ilişki halindeki praksis açısından ne tür katkıları olduğu sorularının cevaplarını aramaktadır.

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English Abstract:

This article examines the twentieth-century origins of class debates within the historical materialist tradition. By situating the class approaches of Georg Lukács, Nicos Poulantzas, and E.P. Thompson on the main axis of its investigation and contrasting one approach with another, it studies how different epistemological approaches underlying the Marxist theory of class can give birth to different sorts of analysis of concrete conditions, and how they can be in relation with different political strategies. Taking these theories and debates firmly rooted in their historical contexts, it goes on with seeking answers to following questions: how the notions of class consciousness, class structure and class formation, and the conceptions that enact those notions, handle and define the class agency; in which ways the relationship between class agency and political strategy is organized and what consequences this relationship produces; what contributions these class debates of the twentieth century provide us regarding a more rigorous Marxist theory of class, as well as the praxis in direct relation to this theory.

La democracia, como bien ha señalado Luciano Martorano (2011), nunca gozó de tanto prestigio e influencia, sea en el discurso "docto", sea en el "sentido común", como en las últimas décadas del siglo XX. Casi se ha convirtido en "consenso" el significado reproducido por los periódicos y los medios de comunicación controlados por el gran capital, que restringen la democracia a su aspecto procesal. No es de extrañar el intenso prestigio que han experimentado ciertos intelectuales académicos como Habermas y Dahl, y el desprestigio de un Lenin, por ejemplo. La cuestión de la democracia en Marx (y en el marxismo) tiene como telón de fondo la cuestión del Estado, en particular las diferencias entre el estado capitalista y el Estado durante el período de transición posrevolución (el período socialista). A pesar de la afirmación de Bobbio (1991) de la ausencia de una "doctrina marxista del Estado", el marxismo (o la ciencia de la historia) contribuye significativamente al tratamiento de los problemas concernientes a la especifidad del Estado, a partir, por ejemplo, de una redefinición del significado de los conceptos de dictadura y de democracia, desde los clásicos como Marx, Lenin, Kautsky y Rosa Luxemburgo, a los más recientes como Althusser y Poulantzas. Balibar (1975) tiene razón al decir que la teoría de Marx no es un sistema asentado sobre una base filosófica. De ahí que la teoría de Marx no esté terminada. Además, la exposición de su teoría no tiene un comienzo absoluto en su conjunto, ni en cada una de sus partes (por ejemplo, la parte "económica" que él expone en El Capital). Sin embargo, esto no significa que la teoría de Marx no es sistemática en el sentido científico, es decir, que no define su objeto de estudio con el fin de explicar su necesidad objetiva. Lo que da a la teoría de Marx su carácter sistemático, en este sentido, es el análisis de las distintas formas de lucha de clases y su conexión. Por lo tanto, la cuestión del Estado, de la dictadura, y de la democracia solo pueden ser definida desde de los conflictos de clase que dan su contenido y delimitan las diferentes formas de Estado. Al menos en uno de los aspectos, Bobbio (1991, p. 29) tiene razón cuando dice que Marx tiene una carga de originalidad al ser el primer escritor político que une una concepción realista del Estado con una teoría revolucionaria de la sociedad y del Estado. A partir de los escritos de Marx, el pensamiento marxista movilizó un intenso debate sobre la cuestión de la democracia y de la dictadura en base a la pregunta sobre cuál es el tipo de Estado que se configurará en el proceso socialista hacia el comunismo. Este debate cobró gran intensidad durante la II Internacional-movilizando a líderes políticos e intelectuales alrededor de este asunto, tales como Lenin, Bernstein, Rosa Luxemburgo y Kautsky-, y durante la década de 1970, por ejemplo, cuando aparece el llamado "eurocomunismo"-debate que movilizó entre otros al intelectual socialista

The article provides a critical overview of the latest phase of scholarly engagement with Eurocommunism, firstly, by pointing out the resilience of a 'Cold War framing' in many of the new studies of the phenomenon , secondly, by stressing the resulting blind spots in the assessment of its geographical scope (e.g., the lack of attention paid to Spain, scarce contributions on Eurocommunism's ramifications beyond West Europe). It then proposes a de-centred perspective on the phenomenon that is able to encompass its global roots and outreach, especially regarding the Third World; contrary to the prevalent focus on individual national cases of Eurocommunism, the article calls for a framing of Eurocommunist coordination as a transnational formation, so that both the leading role of Italian communists and the cross-border exchanges that shaped it can factor into a revised scholarly engagement with the topic. From this vantage point, Eurocommunism emerges as a strategy of transition for the global conjuncture of multiple crises that the 1970s represented, one that nevertheless failed to present a viable alternative to neoliberalism, another product of the decade in question. The article concludes by approaching the little explored gender dimension of Eurocommunism, visible in its entanglement with the second-wave feminism.

The visit of Dolores Ibárruri to Yugoslavia in August 1976 occurred during the period of significant political changes in Spain that had a direct impact on both Yugoslav and Spanish communists. The encounter between Dolores Ibárruri, Dobrivoje Vidić, and Josip Broz Tito was an important opportunity for discussing those questions, as well as to exchange opinions about the current international topics and recent global meetings, such as the Non-Aligned Summit in Colombo and the Conference of Communist and Workers Parties of Europe in Berlin. Besides discussing such bilateral and international matters, spending the three-week-long vacation in Yugoslavia allowed Ibárruri to meet some of the “Spanish fighters”, amongst whom she had maintained a respected reputation.

Cet article propose une étude synthétique des usages de la pensée de Gramsci (en premier lieu les notions d’hégémonie et d’État intégral) par Althusser et par des philosophes et théoriciens de l’État fortement influencés par lui (Étienne Balibar, Nicos Poulantzas, Christine Buci-Glucksmann, Perry Anderson) dans la deuxième moitié des années 1970 (période de l’eurocommunisme). Il s’agit ici de restituer le dialogue entre ces différentes pensées où la place de Gramsci est déterminante, et d’examiner comment elles s’inscrivent d’une manière complexe dans les débats de cette période, qui portent notamment sur les rapports entre socialisme et démocratie.

Geboren in Galizien und aufgewachsen im »Roten Wien« der Zwischenkriegszeit, erfolgte Franz Mareks Politisierung vom Zionismus zum Marxismus. Der österreichische BürgerIn­nenkrieg im Februar 1934 machte ihn zum Kommunisten. Er war führend im Widerstand gegen die Dollfuß-Schusch­nigg­-Diktatur und in der französischen Résistance tätig. Nur knapp entging er dem Tod in den Fängen der Gestapo. Als »glühender Stalinist« kehrte er 1945 nach Österreich zurück und kämpfte mit der KPÖ für den Sieg des Sozialismus. Chru­schtschows Geheimrede 1956, die Verfasstheit seiner eigenen Partei und der kommunistischen Weltbewegung lösten einen Umdenkprozess aus. Zunehmend war Marek maßgeblich vom Denken Antonio Gramscis und den Ideen der italienischen KP beeinflusst.
Er wandelte sich zum Kritiker der Sowjetunion und zum Reformkommunisten von europäischem Format. Er war mit Rudi Dutschke bekannt, Eric Hobsbawm nannte ihn in einem Interview »seinen Helden«. Nach der Niederschlagung des Prager Frühlings 1968 brach er mit der KPÖ. Fortan wirkte Marek bis zu seinem Tod 1979 als Chefredakteur des »Wiener Tagebuchs« und entwickelte es zu einem Kristallisationspunkt der unabhängigen Linken, von der er als wichtiger europäi­scher Marxist wahrgenommen wurde.

Starting with the question why there was no such phenomenon as “Euro-communism” in West Germany, this essay wants to explore the problem of continuity between pre-war and post-war communist politics in Germany. Following a short account of the demise of the WestGerman Communists before 1956, the main part of the essay uses the theoretical concept of “Fordism” to analyse the emergence of a new Left in West Germany in the mid-sixties. The main thesis is that both the absence and presence of Euro-communism can be related to a broader crisis of political representation within the Fordist welfare-state. It was a crisis that undermined the mechanisms of class-politics on which the labour movement had built up its strategies.

After Franco’s death in November 1975 the most mobilized part of the opposition struggled to break with his political regime, which seeks for its survive beyond the dictator’s life. Social and political conflicts, which became the preferred model to defy the regime, achieved a huge intensity in the main industrial and urban regions of Spain. Along the dictatorship, the province of Tarragona was secondary in terms of social mobilization. Although, political opportunities generated by the conflictive context established the conditions for a general strike on the local level. The attempt was a failure on its terms but it supposed the highest peak of mobilization in the city during the dictatorship. Its political consequences became obvious when three city councillors resigned and the Civil Governor was dismissed. The conflict hardness was only exceeded by unprecedented police violence, which clearly conditioned the far-reaching political showdown against the Francoism in​ 1976.

Since the mid sixties the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC, after its Catalan initials) was able to promote and lead a broad movement to end the dictatorship, not only in the industrial area of the Great Barcelona, but also beyond. Their willingness to galvanize the protest movements in rural areas —where, due to the action of the social movements, to a large extent impelled by Communists, they found more and more spaces to express their disaffection— led them to make a considerable effort to extend their influence far beyond from where they were already hegemonic. Work towards the peasantry, workers in small industries or construction workers, which had been mere rhetoric until then, began to focus the debates and actions of the PSUC in the countryside.

This article focuses on the international activity of the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) since the aftermath
of the Prague Spring’s repression until 1977. It was a period characterized by the beginning of the
definitive decline of the international communist movement. The analysis takes into account multiple
dimensions. It examines the PCE’s growing criticism towards the soviet model, and its repercussions on
the relations between the party leaded by Santiago Carrillo and the communist movement. Moreover, the
article explores the PCE’s attempt to promote a new kind of internationalism in Western Europe, invoking
a renewed collaboration between communists and socialists and taking advantage of the conditions
provided by the détente. In this context, there was the rise of the eurocommunism, that the essay analyzes
illustrating the internal and external factors that determinated its crisis in the second half of the 70s.

Mitte der 1970er-Jahre avancierte der italienische Eurokommunismus zu einer massiven sicherheitspolitischen Heraus-forderung, weil er sich der klassischen Ost-West-Logik entzog. Eine im Nachkriegsitalien noch stark an der Sowjetunion orientierte kommunistische Massenpartei wollte sich in einem geostrategisch zentralen Mitgliedsstaat der NATO von Moskau lösen und infolge demokratischer Wahlen die Regierung übernehmen. Wie reagierte der Westen darauf? Sollte man den Kommunisten Glauben schenken und am Ende möglicherweise einem Trojanischen Pferd Moskaus Einlass in die Machtzirkel des Westens gestatten? Am Beispiel der außen- und sicherheitspolitischen Strategien der USA und Westdeutschlands analysiert Nikolas Dörr die Ängste und Hoffnungen, die mit der eurokommunistischen Herausforderung in Italien verbunden waren und zeigt auf, welche Bedrohungen die west lichen Staaten befürchteten und welche Spannungen sich daraus ergaben.

This interview was conducted over the course of a month and touches on Karl-Heinz Dellwo's experiences and reflections during his participation in the Red Army Faction; in the squatters movement prior to the days of the RAF; the significance of the Vietnam War and anti-colonial struggles in general; his criticisms of the RAF's concept of the urban guerrilla; his analysis of the German State's strategy of counter-insurgency; his experience serving a double-life sentence in prison; and his work as a publisher and filmmaker afterwards, as someone who remains a militant in everyday life.

This paper examines ten years (1963-1973) of visits to Australia of Italian Communist Party (PCI) officials. In particular, the visits' origins, meaning and ramifications are analysed and framed against the background of postwar migrant worker identity discourses and radical politics. They appear to have shaped markedly the direction of the experience of Italian communists in Australia, especially in Sydney, and their interaction with both the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) and the PCI. Ultimately, they helped spread the message of Italian communism among migrants and encourage the replication on Australian soil of the successful experience of the Europe-based PCI federations with thousands of worker members. For the CPA, which had been looking for new ways to break through to the hearts and minds of the migrant proletariat, the visits heralded a stronger partnership with its Italian members, a closer link with Eurocommunism, and a potential new stream of recruits that would have reversed the hemorrhaging of membership. The visits were instrumental, as argued in this paper, for the establishment and promotion of an Italian cultural and language space for which far-left Italian migrants in Australia had long yearned.

Die Auseinandersetzungen um den Eurokommunismus in der bundesdeutschen Politik 1967–1979, in: Jahrbuch für Historische Kommunismusforschung 2012, hrsg. von der Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur, 20. Jahrgang, 2012, S. 217–232.

François Mitterrand und der PCF. Die Folgen der „rééquilibrage de la gauche“ für den Parti Communiste Français, in: MIP – Mitteilungen des Instituts für deutsches und internationales Parteienrecht und Parteienforschung an der Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf (PRuF), 17. Jahrgang, Nr. 1/2011, S. 43–52.

Tekst će razmatrati istorijsko-političku ulogu neoliberalnih intelektualaca koji su delovali u smeru prevazilaženja klasičnog laissez-faire liberalizma, ali i ulogu eurokomunističkih intelektualaca (onih koji su delovali u okvirima komunističkih partija Španije, Italije i Francuske u drugoj polovini prošlog veka). Osnovna teza rada sastoji se u tome da se strukturno mesto intelektualca u eurokomunističkim strategijama sedamdesetih godina XX veka pokaže homolognim mestu koje zauzima neoliberalni intelektualac. Napuštanje pozicija organskih intelektualaca unutar zapadnoevropskih komunističkih partija i njihovo udaljavanje od radničke klase približiće njihovu delatnost intelektualnom elitizmu koji je karakterističan za neoliberalne intelektualce. Pored problematizacije neoliberalizma kao jedinstvene političke teorije, autor će ukazati i na njegove heterogene odlike, te realne političko-ideološke angažmane neoliberalnih intelektualaca. Sa druge strane, figura eurokomunističkog intelektualca, koja se pojavljuje već nakon Staljinove smrti, predstavljaće primer izvesne političke dezorjentacije i suštinskog nerazumevanja aktuelnog trenutka u kojem vlada monopolistički kapitalizam.

Este trabajo de final de máster pretende investigar los puntos en común y las divergencias entre las diferentes corrientes historiográficas de interpretación y recepción del pensamiento político de Antonio Gramsci. Para mostrar una panorámica general, elegiré como objeto de estudio una variedad de casos que datarían entre 1944 y 2017 y que, a su vez, comprendería una diversidad de países y contextos políticos. Asimismo, haré uso de bibliografía en diversos idiomas: Italiano, Catalán, Castellano, Inglés y Francés.
Con este trabajo, tengo la intención de sentar los campos de estudio de una futura Tesis Doctoral sobre la figura y el pensamiento de Antonio Gramsci. Así, con la panorámica desarrollada en este TFM podría desarrollar más a fondo la temática.

En las próximas páginas se realizará una comparación entre los principales rasgos de las líneas políticas de PCI, PCE, PCF y PCP, tomando como caso de estudio las posturas adoptadas por los primeros tres partidos hacia la actuación del cuarto en el curso de la Revolución de los Claveles. Ésta adquirió un valor emblemático, en la medida en que durante su desarrollo se plantearon en toda su intensidad para los comunistas occidentales cuestiones fundamentales de orden ideológico y estratégico - ¿qué relación tener con Moscú? ¿qué internacionalismo y qué tipo de revolución eran posibles en la Europa occidental de los setenta? ¿qué actitud adoptar hacia la democracia occidental? -. La Revolución portuguesa funcionó así como un espejo en el cual los Partidos Comunistas, en una etapa crucial de su trayectoria, se observaron el uno al otro y, al mismo tiempo, fueron observados por la opinión pública, las otras fuerzas políticas y los Gobiernos de ambos lados del Telón de Acero. A través de los acontecimientos portugueses de 1974-1975, por lo tanto, es posible obtener una fotografía de las varias concepciones que caracterizaban entonces los comunismos occidentales.

This  article  touches  upon  the  problem  of  Eurocommunism  and  estimates  its place among the social thoughts of Western Europe in the XX  century.  The  main  peculiarities  of  this  doctrine  are  depicted  and  compared  with  the  earlier  modification  of  the Marxist  theory  in  Europe.  The  author  shows  the  urgency  for  studying  this  phenomenon  and  considers  main  conclusions  which can be made for current political situation in Ukraine.