in SoundingOscar Garcia Agustin Discuss Traces of Eurocommunism remain in contemporary European politics.
“The legacy of Eurocommunism is at the very least contradictory. Today, few voices on the left claim its legitimacy and relevance to the left project, yet references to Eurocommunism are repeated again and again to explain proposed reforms and internal struggles on the left.”
Eurocommunism often resurfaces in the conflict between “real” leftists and revolutionaries on the one hand, and those “seduced” by the lure of social democracy on the other. In these battles, Eurocommunism usually appears as a stand-in for abandoning anti-capitalism. In Spain, where the radical left still seeks to govern and gain hegemony, various leftist factions, including Podemos, often position themselves, for better or worse, in relation to this legacy.
But these debates have led to persistent divisions within the Spanish left, and, as García Agustín argues, “reproducing the logics that generate enemies within the left has not so far proven to be the most efficient strategy for expanding political space.”
Unconditional Democracy
Spain’s radical left politician Gaspar Llamazares continues to defend the legacy of Eurocommunism. defense The foundations of socialism and pluralism in the political and parliamentary systems established during the post-Franco transition to democracy. Llamazares argues that Eurocommunism is the basis for forming a large progressive coalition to gradually transform the capitalist system.
More recently, a new generation of Spanish leftists have criticized the Communist Party for joining the new democratic constitution during the transition period and compromising many of its positions in order to gain majority support, viewing it as a capitulation by the Communist Party. Llamazares argues that the Communist Party’s concessions were essential to the success of the transition and were made with consideration given to the balance of power at the time.
For Llamazares, democracy is central: “For Eurocommunism there is no bourgeois democracy, no proletarian democracy, no mass democracy. There is simply democracy.” No qualifiers.
The debate over when to compromise and how broadly to define the alliance remains central among the left across Europe. For Llamazares, Eurocommunism also influenced the construction of the European Union, and “this DNA” is still there, “in pillars that were not foreseen at its creation: the welfare state, or the pillar of justice and rights.”
Eurocommunism in Britain
The appeal of communism in the 1970s lay not in finding ways to manage capitalism, but in its determination to challenge the entire system. The decade was a time of serious struggle to maintain and build on the gains of the post-war settlement. write Sounding Editor Sally Davison said: “1968 arrived, the liberation movements were succeeding, the culture was changing. Many of us thought then that it was possible to change the system and for socialism to triumph.”
Joining an anti-capitalist party was a way of expressing this optimism. Eurocommunist parties had broken away from subservience to the Soviet Party and were beginning to base their strategies on the political realities of Western Europe. Their belief in democracy had finally triumphed over their deep-seated loyalty to the Soviet state.
In Britain, after much fighting, discussions had begun on a new version of the “Road to British Socialism” that embraced the notion of a broad democratic alliance for change. “The Party offered me and others like me a broad context for activity, the opportunity to take part in debates on strategy, and membership of a political party that was often friendly at branch level and sometimes progressive at national level.”
“The ideas of Eurocommunism aligned us with a trend that was far more attractive than the Soviet model and, importantly, a trend that was far more successful than in Britain. The sense of belonging to an international movement was part of our identity, but that did not mean that we wanted to be subordinate to the ruling party of a repressive, conservative state.”
Everyday Communism
Rybka Saltiel, Matthias Naumann, Anke Struber write It is about a very different tradition of communism, the Austrian Communist Party in Graz, whose slogan for the past 30 years has been “The Party for Everyday Life.”
The party’s politics, which currently runs the city of Graz, are based on sensitivity to class injustice and community engagement, with an emphasis on practical solidarity over ideological positions. The authors see this approach as a “territorial political expression of relational care” that “promotes the building of trust through direct exchange and social engagement.” They argue that “a communist urban politics based on everyday life, small-scale projects, compassionate initiatives, and public ownership can offer new perspectives for a left in crisis.”
