22 May 1986 Marxism Today EUROPE'S LEFT: A NEW CONTINENTAL BLEND Donald Sassoon The French election was a profound blow to the European Left. But it would be wrong to think the European Left is taking a hammering. What is more, some parts of it have been doing some important rethinking. THE DEFEAT of the Left in France is political stage in Britain, West Germany, democratic and the communist currents of depressing, but the overall situation of the Holland, Italy and Spain and ecology has the European Left were each relatively European Left is not uniformly gloomy become a major issue in most countries, united and coordinated by their respective though, on the whole, the debits outba- especially in Germany. commitment to Atlanticism and Soviet lance the credit-entries. Clearly political developments have not foreign policy. Now this old distinction is The pessimists will point to the con- been uniform, even though West Euro- much less relevant. Besides, in spite of tinuation of conservative rule in Britain pean countries have reached a remarkable their antagonism and rivalry, the two and West Germany, to the election of a degree of convergence in their economic trends did share a common premise: the right-wing government in France, to the and social structure. Their economies are assumption that the nation-state was the continuing split between Socialists and deeply intertwined. They tend to be each fundamental terrain of socialist trans- Communists in Italy, to the weakening of others' main trading partners. All are formation and that all political problems the peace movement after the successful affected by the collapse of the (same) could be resolved once a left government installation of Cruise missiles in Western traditional manufacturing sectors such as had subjected the state machine to its Europe and to the boost the European shipbuilding, steel and heavy engineering. control (or had constructed a new state Right has received from the overwhelming Nearly all face the most formidable level of machine). victory achieved by Ronald Reagan in unemployment since the 30s. The diffe- The expression 'national roads to social- 1984. They will also point to the revival of rent governments have tended to adopt a ism' has been commonly used to describe traditional ideologies as a reaction against policy of containment of public spending, the strategies of the communist parties the alleged permissiveness of the 60s, the jettisoning some aspects of the welfare since the war, but it could be equally well growth of right-wing populist racism state, cornerstone of the class compromise used to characterise those of the socialists. (France), and the weakening of trade un- between labour and capital which had Keynes, as much as Lenin, took the na- ion influence throughout the continent. underpinned the economic growth of the tion-state as the main terrain of political The optimists will point out that in the 50s. Finally, all European states face inter- and the state as the chief instrument 80s, for the first time since the war, national economic trends which escape any of change. This concentration on the state left-wing governments were elected in form of national control. led in most cases to statist politics, the Spain, Greece and France. They will stress The same problems and issues crop up tendency to see solutions as emanating that the political success of the new Right everywhere: 'What is happening here is from the top, the chronic distrust of move- has not been as devastating as it is some- ments from below, the refusal to recognise times made out to be. Its only real victory forms of organisation other than those has been in Britain with the advent of most component parts of the traditional to the labour movement, ie, Thatcherism, and even here it has failed to European Left have had to unions and parties. provide a long-term solution and is becom- admit that there is a crisis of To some extent this was inevitable. ing unpopular. In West Germany it has Political parties fight in a national environ- been forced to moderate its policies. In socialism ment, take part in national elections, pre- France and Portugal it co-exists with a sent national programmes. The assump- Socialist president while it has been defe- that the workers are disappearing. That's tion of all this must be that the state and its ated in Sweden. The optimists will also all. Nothing like this has ever happened to institutions are in effective control of what find comfort in the increasing divisions us, but we cannot return to the past', so goes on within the national borders and between Western Europe and the USA and declared the new (Communist) leader of that something can be done at the national in the fact that the new Soviet leadership the CGIL, the main Italian union, but it level. This kind of politics led to an seems to be seriously committed not just to could have been said by any trade unionist overestimation of the potentiality of the better public relations but also to a rapid living in the real world. The Left every- state level at the expense of the local and improvement in East-West relations. where is very much in the same soup even the supranational levels. Moreover, new progressive social subjects though it is, on the whole, disunited and There is thus a thread linking the con- have become firmly entrenched: the uncoordinated. cept of the nation-state and statism. One of women's movement has had an impact in the great achievements of the new Right virtually every West European country; a The Left and the nation state has been to keep these two concepts sepa- strong peace movement has succeeded, at This was not always the case: for nearly rate. The 'nation-state', subsumed in the least for a time, in holding the centre of the two decades after the war the social- ideology of nationalism, is allowed to May 1986 Marxism Today 23

The Left in Western Europe The information in the boxes gives the share of the vote scored by the major left parties in each country. The map indicates the political complexion of the government in some of the major West European countries. right-wing government left-wing government France-right-wing government and left-wing president Italy-predominately right-wing government but left-wing prime minister

Olof Palme, until his tragic SWEDEN assassination Swedish prime Social Democrats (SAP) minister and leader of the 44.9% Social Democrats. Palme was (VPK) one of the great figures of the 5.4% postwar European Left. Total left share 50.3%

BRITAIN Labour party 27.6% Total left share 27.6% 'general election June 1983)

Alessandro Nalta, Enrico Berlinguer successor as general secretary of the Italian Communist party, which remains arguably the most impressive left-wing party in Peter Glotz, secretary-general Europe. of the West German SPD and one of the key figures in its rethinking. An interesting feature of recent years has been the growing convergence FRANCE WEST GERMANY between the SPD and the Socialist party (PS) 31.04% Social Democrats (SPD) PCI. Communist party (PCF) 38.2% 9.78% 5.6% Total left share 40.82% Total left share 43.8% (general election March 1906) 'general election March 1981}

PORTUGAL Socialist party (PS) 20.77% Communist party (PCP) 15.49% Total left share 36.26% : general election (October 19851

Andreas Papandreou, the Greek prime minister and the architect of the revival of the Greek Left after the overthrow of the colonels.

ITALY Socialist party (PSI).. 11.4% Communist party (PCI) 29.9% Total left share 41.3% SPAIN general election June 1983) Socialist party (PSOE) GREECE 48.4% Pasok 45.8% Communist party (PCE) Communist party (KKE) 5.4% 9.9% Total left share 53.8 Communist party (interior) ( general election October 1982) Felipe Gonzalez, the (KKE-es) 1.8% charismatic leader of the Total left share 57.7% Spanish Socialist party and (general election June 1985) prime minister since 1982. 24 May 1986 Marxism Today

maintain positive connotations while stat- necessary to come to terms with the new tionalists too accept that the European ism (which is taken to mean most forms of forms of capitalist development. Left is in crisis but blame state intervention) is mercilessly criticised. Europeanists, on the other hand, share and the old Keynesian assumption that it is At the same time the policies which flow with the traditionalists a lasting commit- possible to resolve the fundamental contra- from this critique make the nation-state ment to the goal of socialism, but, unlike dictions of capitalist society. Class remains less relevant and the conception of 'nation- them, recognise that drastic revisions are the fundamental issue. The information al roads' even less realistic. Why? Because necessary. Both Europeanists and centrists society is just another stage of capitalist the Right calls for deregulation every- are generally pro-EEC, but the former development. New issues, such as femin- where, for the free movement of capital, emphasise that the long-term goal of Euro- ism and ecology, they say, express at best for the abolition of all restrictions to trade, pean integration must be the independ- real social demands but they must be for unimpeded currency flows etc, in other ence of the whole of Europe (East and integrated into working class politics. words, for the removal of obstacles to the West) from both superpowers while the 'National roads to socialism' remain the growth of international capital. The result latter have a clearly Atlanticist conception foundation of any political advance. The of all this is to leave the nation and its state, of Europe. EEC is, in the final analysis, nothing more Europeanists have taken on board than a rich man's club. aspects of the critique of statism and have the phase of been receptive to the new social move- The West German SPD 'eurocommunism' is now ments, particularly to green politics. They The two major representatives of are also more aware of the limitations of the Europeanism are the West German SPD clearly over nation-state and consequently more will- and the Italian Communist party (PCI). ing to examine both decentralised and Since its electoral defeat three years ago the the focus of all the efforts and political supranational politics. They respond to SPD has been re-examining its past energy of the Left, totally at the mercy of the structural changes brought about by strategy. This is perhaps yet another exam- powerful external constraints. the rise of the 'microchip' society and to ple of how a period of opposition can, at the Japanese and American challenge by times, concentrate the mind wonderfully: The three trends calling for greater European autonomy in in government the SPD had assumed that The new Right's critique of statism as well economic and defence matters as well as West German socialism had succeeded as its attachment to the nation-state has for the democratisation of the institution of where others had failed and that they had been felt everywhere in the labour move- the EEC. produced the best model of social demo- ment and has contributed, together with cratic management of the economy -Mod- the structural crisis, to the crisis of left The centrist line ell Deutschland - to be adopted by the rest politics. This has engendered a welcome 2 The centrist option. , which is of Europe. There was an understandable wave of self-criticism (not in all parties: particularly strong in the Italian and Span- pride at the successes obtained: low unem- fundamentalists can be unrepentant sin- ish socialist parties, starts from the pre- ployment, a good social security system, ners). Most component parts of the Euro- mise that the crisis of socialism in Europe an efficient economy and low inflation. pean Left have had to admit that there is a is irreversible and ends up by accepting This optimism did not last. The Schmidt crisis of socialism and engage in a serious most of the neo-liberal critique of the government had to embark on a deflation- rethinking of their strategies, programmes welfare state and, in particular, the con- ary economic policy of austerity. In and perspectives. Many left parties have cept of 'overloaded government', that is, September 1982 it lost the support of its been particularly struck by the difficulties the assertion that because the government coalition partners (the Free Democrats) faced by the French Socialists' attempt to cannot cope with the surfeit of demands and had to give way to a right-wing reflate on their own, and by the way they emanating from civil society it must seek to government. In the elections of March were forced to adopt an austerity prog- reduce them. 1983 the SPD, deserted by many of its ramme. The centrists assume that the informa- traditional working class supporters, suf- fered major losses. Of course, modern political parties are tion revolution is reorganising European complex organisms which can be catego- society around the American model: class Jolted by the successes of the Greens and rised in different ways and are not so is no longer a significant social cleavage, by the strengths of the pacifist movement, monolithic as to be easily pigeon-holed political trade unionism is damaging, class the post-Schmidt leadership decided to into 'ideal types'. Nevertheless there are, politics are irrelevant and the market must develop a new programme to be ready broadly speaking, three discernible be the central mechanism in the allocation before the end of 1986. The preparatory trends, all co-existing to a greater or lesser of resources. Centrism entails an out- extent within each party: Europeanism, spoken commitment to Atlanticism. It centrism and traditionalism. These are the recognises the reality of the American in theory all three options are main features of each of these trends: economic challenge but exclusively in available to the British 1 The Europeanist option. This, like the terms of technological competition (as Labour party centrist, is 'revisionist' because it accepts Heseltine did during the Westland affair). that what is in crisis is not only a particular It lays more emphasis on European society form of capitalist organisation of society adapting itself to the requirements of the documents demarcate themselves from the but also all hitherto existing forms of technological revolution than on the use of past in at least three respects: socialist politics. The centrists, such as the technology as an instrument for change 1 The traditional concept of 'unli- British SDP, conclude that the socialist and social progress. mited growth' which was the keystone of project is no longer valid and that it is 3 The traditionalist option. The tradi- the historic compromise between labour May 1986 Marxism Today 25

and capital is jettisoned in favour of a new national terrain. This led to the phase of ish Communist party (5.4% in 1985) the conception of economic growth within Eurocommunism which, in Enrico Berl- SAP faces serious economic problems. ecologically defined guidelines. inguer's conception, assumed that the di- 'Social-democracy in a single country' is 2 The need to establish a new relation vision between the social-democratic and unlikely to work as well as in the past. between North and South. communist wings of the European labour 3 The conception of a European-wide movement could be overcome. More than strategy as the only dimension which 10 years on from its inception we can see European problems that eurocommunism was really an Europeanism assumes that if it is necessary attempt to achieve a 'historic compromise' to have some form of supranational power the question of greater between West European socialism and in order to attempt to control transnational communism for the construction of an economic processes then this power must autonomy in the field of independent Europe. attempt to obtain some of the popular defence. . .is where the legitimacy national governments have. The phase of 'eurocommunism' is now Here too the PCI has been the most active. differences between the clearly over. Nevertheless it has enabled It has been the foremost advocate of the parties are at their most acute the PCI to achieve lasting European recog- democratisation of the EEC, supporting a nition. The response of the socialist parties long-term plan for political union. This has been varied. Most continental socialist plan, named after Altiero Spinelli, an would enable the socialist movement to parties have been at least prepared to independent socialist elected to the Euro- meet the challenge of the new technologic- examine the terms of Berlinguer's Euro- pean parliament in the PCI list, was al revolution. pean compromise. The German SPD has opposed by the British, Danish and Greek There is undoubtedly a tactical element been the most positive and is now, on Socialists, but Mitterrand (who had direct in the emphasis on ecology: the SPD is international issues, the closest party to the experience of the dangers of go-it-alone running very scared of the Greens. Never- PCI. From the British Labour party there reflation) supported it enthusiastically and theless, there is no doubt that the SPD is has been a deafening silence, but then its was followed, albeit a little less enthusiasti- seriously rethinking the very concept of lack of interest in European questions has cally , by the rest of his party and, eventual- 'progress towards socialism' as being the become nothing short of astonishing. ly, by the SPD. equivalent of quantitative growth and has Even the Swedish Social Democratic The Europeanist trend also recognises put the ecological question at the centre of party (SAP) is 'europeanising' itself. Olof that the transition to the so-called informa- its politics. This is closely tied to the Palme, in his last article written for an tion or electronics society has caught the rethinking on the issue of nuclear war. The international audience, appeared con- divided European national states unpre- SPD is quite distant from unilateralism or vinced that not even 'exceptional' Sweden pared to face the American and Japanese pacifism, but it has changed significantly could escape the complex network of con- challenge and the new international divi- since Schmidt called on the Americans to straints that the internationalisation of the sion of labour. Consequently, it advocates site Cruise and Pershing missiles on Euro- economy was establishing. increased European economic co- pean soil. Peter Glotz, the party's new This does not make the SAP a operation. The aim is to develop a Euro- secretary-general, has come out against 'Europeanist' party: Sweden's neutrality pean industrial policy, particularly in the NATO's strategy of 'first strike' option and her non-membership of the EEC tend fields in which Europe has lost ground and in favour of the creation of nuclear- to underline her separateness from the rest against Japan and the USA; aerospace, free zones. of Europe. Yet Sweden's industrial struc- telecommunications, office equipment, The overcoming of the national road ture is so deeply integrated with that of the optical instruments, automobile and, model epitomised by the Modell Deutsch- rest of Europe that the SAP is looking at above all, electronics. This policy requires land slogan has been replaced by a new Europe with renewed interest and is keen kind of Europeanism. In a New Statesman to participate in a concerted European article (December 20-27 1985) Peter Glotz economic recovery programme. writes: 'Social Democracy and democratic The exceptional achievements of what the EEC is, in the final socialism can only be achieved today as has been the most successful case of social analysis, nothing more than a European concepts; in national terms democracy in power (the most egalitarian rich man's club these ideals become more illusory and welfare state in Western Europe and unin- hopeless every day.' The constraints are terrupted electoral success from 1932 to such that 'ah effective economic policy for 1976) should not disguise the fact that the an adequate monetary and trade policy. democratic socialism is now scarcely possi- SAP, its imaginative foreign policy not- This may entail a single currency for ble within the empty vessel of the nation- withstanding, was wedded to a strategy of extra-European trade and a European state.' a national road to socialism and to an tariff preference system directed specifi- excessive statist management of society cally against Japanese and American pro- The PCI until the crisis of the 1970s. This led to its tectionism. 'Balkanised' European pro- The Italian Communist party reached the first important defeat and to the beginning duction and distribution cannot compete same conclusion by a different road. The of a period of self-criticism, of which the with the organisational strength of Japan strategy of the Italian road to socialism, most important result was the Meidner and the USA. pioneered by Togliatti, was a necessary Plan which sought to combine decentral- The most important steps taken in this stage in order to achieve a rejection of the ised economic management and industrial direction are due to French initiatives; the Soviet model of the transition to socialism democracy. Returned to office in 1982 and Arianne project for the orbiting of satel- and a recognition of the specificities of the supported by the 'eurocommunist' Swed- lites, the Airbus project for the building of 26 May 1986 Marxism Today

commercial aircrafts and the E'sprit pro- ified his outspoken Atlanticist position anti-European to be centrist. What the ject (European Strategic Programme for since Italian national pride and its special Greek Left does teach us is that electoral Research and Development in Informa- Middle East interests were totally disre- support, however massive, may not be tion Technology) which aims to finance garded by the USA during the 'Achille sufficient to carry out policies developed in integrated research in electronics. The Lauro' incident last year. More recently, opposition. At the last elections (1985), Eureka project started off as Mitterrand's he has tried to contain Reagan's provoca- Pasok obtained 45.8% of the vote and the European answer to SDI (Star Wars), but tive manoeuvres against Libya. pro-soviet Greek Communist party (KKE) has now become much more concerned Like the PSI, the Spanish Socialists 9.9%. This makes the Greek Left the with civilian-orientated technological re- (PSOE), led by prime minister Felipe strongest in Europe at present with over search. A number of non-EEC countries, Gonzalez, have cultivated an image of 55% of the vote - all of which is anti- such as Austria and Finland, have joined youth, moderation, pragmatism and mod- NATO and anti-EEC. Yet this made not the programme. ernity. Like most 'centrist' parties, the the slightest difference. Under Pasok, This brings us to the question of PSOE offers a commitment to social jus- Greece stays in NATO and in the EEC. No greater European autonomy in the field of tice without excessive state intervention. left-wing party has ever been able to defence. This is where the differences The combination of attractive leadership, achieve what De Gaulle did: unilateral between the parties are at their most acute. moderation, a skilful use of the mass media disengagement from NATO. The SPD and the PCI have emphasised and, above all, the promise to integrate that detente must not be allowed to rest Spain into the European family of demo- No general model exclusively on a dialogue between the US cracies proved electorally irresistible and This survey of the state of the Left in and the USSR; there must also be a ensured victory at the 1982 polls. The lack Europe has not been undertaken in order European initiative. The French Social- of a specific socialist economic programme to unearth a model to be imported and ists, after their absurd support for the or of a mass organisation proved no hand- copied but rather to delineate the kind of installation of Cruise and Pershing missiles icap. general approaches currently pursued. All in Europe (outside France), now oscillate The main 'achievement' of the PSOE three options presented have problems and between 'nuclear nationalism' and Europe has been to produce a majority in favour of none of them guarantees electoral success. as a nuclear third force. The first position NATO against both progressive public Traditionalism dominates only in the has majority support in France because it opinion and the Right. This has probably Greek, French and Portuguese Commun- is upheld by all gaullist forces as well as by reversed the anti-socialist tide which was ist parties - all parties with little prospect the French Communist party, but the developing, and Gonzalez now stands a of facing the test of government in the near second has growing support within the very good chance of being re-elected in future. Centrism, though not a serious Socialist party. Needless to say, neither of October. option for committed socialists, stands as a these positions is popular with the bulk of He, however, has kept a foot in the warning of where excessively uninhibited the European Left, though, realistically, it Europeanist camp because he has prom- revisionism may lead. must be recognised that there is no support ised that Spain will not join NATO's Though full of risks the construction of whatsoever for unilateralism in France. military command and will remain nuc- a Left Europeanism seems to me to be the lear-free, and that US military personnel in most realistic and valid perspective. To The centrist parties Spain will be reduced. suggest, as I do, that the era of the The most obvious case of a centrist party nation-state and of national roads to social- (with the British SDP) has been the Italian The distinctiveness of Pasok ism is coming to an end does not mean that Socialist party (PSI). It has welcomed The PSOE and the PSI may have problems parties can ignore their national environ- Cruise missiles in Sicily and has deliberate- but the centrist Portuguese Socialist party ment. It means rather that they must ly sought to become the most pro- (PSP) is in great difficulties, having drop- define their own line on the basis of an American Italian party. ped from 36 to 20% in the October 1985 understanding of the interconnection be- Under the leadership of the present elections. Most of the votes lost went to a tween their national society and the inter- prime minister, Bettino Craxi, it has di- new 'mould-breaking' party led by former national context. vested itself of much of its traditional President Eanes. The PSP has had to seek In theory all three options are available socialist culture and language, accepting to improve its relations with the super- to the British Labour party. However most one of the central arguments of the new traditionalist Portuguese CP (which, elec- of its centrists decamped five years ago into Right: that the shrinking of the working torally speaking, is not doing at all badly; it the SDP and its traditionalists are either class, the technological revolution, the is now the second communist party in the isolated or having second thoughts. So far, bureaucratic nature of the welfare state, EEC with 15.5% in 1985). The two parties as we have seen during the Westland affair, the lack of credibility of the trade union joined forces in the final round of the it hesitates to face the sole realistic political movement, are all tell-tale signs that the election of the president of the republic, line it can now take: Europe. It may great historical era of socialism is over. The thus ensuring the victory of the former believe that, in these difficult times, it is PSI thought it could supplant the PCI by Socialist leader Mario Soares with 52.28% better to have no policies and no thoughts, appealing to new emergent middle classes of the popular vote. particularly in this field. It would be a in the name of efficiency and modernity. The Greek Socialist party (Pasok) serious error, because as long as this state Unfortunately for Craxi, the PCI has mod- evades any easy categorisation. It has some of affairs continues not only will the ernised itself sufficiently to withstand the of the features of the centrist party (char- Labour party remain, in European terms, challenge. ismatic leader, media politics, no great an irrelevancy, but it will have failed, once There are signs that the PSI is beginning concern for ideology or tradition) but it is again, to define Britain's wider role in to reconsider its policies. Craxi has mod- too left-wing, too anti-American and too Europe. •