"Eurocommunism": Implications for East and West

...In fact, not only are the two processes quite distinct, but, as Jean-Franc.ois Revel has pointed out, the independent Communist states-China, Albania, Yugoslavia, and Rumania-are actually more totalitarian than docile Soviet satellites like Hungary or Poland...

...While the difference between "dictatorship" and "hegemony" is not immediately apparent, it seems to come down to this: In a "dictatorship of the proletariat," non-Communist organizations are simply not permitted to exist...

...under the "hegemony of the proletariat," non-Communist associations may continue to function so long as they respect the primacy of the Communist Party...

...It is a tactical ploy, not an ideological change of heart...

...Euro-communists" have adopted the vocabulary of Western liberalism, but they still retain the elitism and the desire to dominate society which have characterized the Communist movement from its inception...

...But as Godson and Haseler aptly observe, 'To fail to envisage opposition as possible is not far removed from ignoring or repressing it, in the belief that it is unreal or has no value...

...Gramsci believed that once Communists succeeded in dominating society, control of the state would follow automatically...

...If the Western Communists are holding the Soviet Union at arm's length," Revel argues, "it is because they have become convinced that the Russian leaders do not understand how Western societies function and that remaining faithful to the old Marxist-Leninist gospel would doom Communism in the West to the role of eternal and hopeless opposition...

...Although "Eurocommunists" have criticized certain aspects of Soviet life, and profess undying fealty to the cause of liberty, nevertheless they remain committed to an ideology which defines the Soviet Union as progressive and the United States as reactionary...

...Godson and Haseler compare this conception of liberty to that held by the medieval Church, "which not only accepted, but often encouraged, the proliferation of a large variety of bodies, but only on the condition that each of them accepted the place, character and function which the Church ascribed to it...

...As a member of the Central Committee of the Italian Communist Party explained, 1 'Would any part of the population want to see a regression from socialism, a retreat from a higher form of society to a lower ?" The "hegemony of the proletariat" would be so obviously beneficent, so universally popular, that only a crackpot would find cause for discontent...

...Unfortunately, many Western observers confuse the repudiation of "proletarian internationalism" with liberalization...

...Eurocommunism" is essentially a belated attempt to carry into effect the ideas propounded by Gramsci over 40 years ago...

...To begin with, "Eurocommunists" abjure any commitment to the establishment of a "dictatorship of the proletariat," heretofore a sacrosanct shibboleth of international Communism...

...Moscow would obviously prefer that every foreign Communist party subordinate itself to the discipline of "proletarian internationalism," but "Eurocommunists" demand that the world Communist movement be reorganized on the basis of collegiality...

...Gramsci's teachings seemed to offer European Communists of his generation a plausible blueprint for breaking out of their sectarian cul-de-sac...

...The obvious course of action was for the Communists to drop the "dictatorship" rhetoric and project an image of moderation, but this they could not do as long as Moscow- whose authority in the Communist movement was then supreme-withheld its permission...

...Martin's Press / $6.95 Joseph Shattan In this well-reasoned and highly informative analysis of that controversial and much-discussed phenomenon called "Eurocommunism," Roy Godson and Stephen Haseler contend that it is simply a strategy adopted by several Western European Communist parties to facilitate their coming to power...

...Most of the Communist parties of Western Europe are either studiously indifferent or overtly hostile to the innovations which the maverick "Eurocommunists" have introduced, and even the Latin parties differ among themselves over the meaning of the movement to which they all supposedly belong...

...Yet, although the "Eurocommunists" refuse to surrender their autonomy to Moscow, and even reserve the right to criticize Soviet policy, theyv continue to identify themselves with the Soviet state...

...Still, "Eurocommunists" do agree on two fundamental propositions which set them apart from their more conformist brethren...

...Actually, "Eurocommunism" is a misleading appellation...

...Suppose, however, that some anti-Communist individual or group were to challenge the "hegemony of the proletariat' ' -how would the '' Eurocommu-nists" react...

...As Luigi Longo, president of the Italian Communist Party, recently stated, "The Russian revolution has been the greatest work that has ever been done, and whatever one says, it is a propulsive democratic force not only for the Soviet nation but also with regard to the situation in the world...

...Gramsci elaborated a two-pronged strategy: On the one hand, he declared, Communist parties must strive to ally themselves to as many non-Communist parties as possible in order to extend their political influence and to forestall the emergence of anti-Communist alignments On the other hand, Communist parties must also strive, ruthlessly and relentlessly, to acquire a dominant position in the leading institutions of society-the bureaucracy, police, armed forces, trade unions, universities, and, above all, the media...

...It is not, as various friendly Western observers have claimed, a fundamental break with Communist orthodoxy, a halfway house on the road to social democracy, or Leninism with a human face...

...In place of the discredited "dictatorship of the proletariat," "Euro-communists' ' now endorse the "hegemony of the proletariat...

...But how can the Communists, a revolutionary minority in Western European politics which is regarded with fear and loathing by a substantial portion of the middle and upper classes, avoid the role of "eternal and hopeless opposition...

...Joseph Shattan is a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow at the Hoover Institution...

...A "Eurocommu-nist" triumph in Italy, France, or Spain would imperil democracy in those societies and would upset the European balance-of-power to Moscow's considerable advantage...

...The "Eurocommunists" have also jettisoned the doctrine of "proletarian internationalism," and it is here that they have come into conflict with Moscow In the peculiar parlance of international Communism, "proletarian internationalism" signifies absolute deference to the formulations and demands of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union...

...A hat "Eurocommunists" are asserting their independence from Moscow is a development which the West ought to welcome...

...This question preoccupied Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937), a founder of Italian Communism and a political theoretician of considerable originality...

...Merely to pose such a question, "Eurocommunists" respond, betrays a deplorable lack of dialectical acumen...

...Dictatorship and liberty are irreconcilable, they aver, and it is to the latter value alone that they owe their allegiance...

...Given this attitude, it is not surprising that "Eurocommunists" have consistently supported Moscow's foreign-policy initiatives in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East (their views on European affairs, while pro-Soviet, are ambiguous), even to the point of refusing to maintain fraternal relations with Peking...

...But the broad coalition strategy which Gramsci advocated could not be implemented so long as the Communist parties declared, with monotonous regularity, that their ultimate aim was the destruction of their allies and the establishment of a dictatorship...

...On the vital issue of our time-the contest between freedom and totalitarianism-"Eurocommunists' ' are still on the other team...