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Home , Enrico Berlinguer, Historic Compromise, Luigi Longo, Palmiro Togliatti

14 July 1984 Today

Over one million people attended the funeral of . All sections of Italian opinion mourned the death of a great and respected figure. But Berlinguer was not just a remarkable Italian leader, he was one of the great political figures of postwar Europe. Berlinguer: architect of Donald Sassoon

A POLITICAL LEADER dies, he is mourned by his friends and respected by his opponents. Well over one million peo- ple participate in the funeral. When his death was announced all workers stopped in silence for two minutes. Is it another case of a personality cult? This is unlikely, Enrico Berlinguer's style of leadership was unusual and even out of place in the vulgar age of show business politicians and media-made leadership. He looked and behaved as a man who never sought per- sonal power and whose ego remained un- affected by the pressures of personal ambi- tion. Leadership had been thrust upon him and he had accepted it with that sense of duty which had been one of the basic traits of his austere and slightly puritanical character. put in charge of the party organisation conviction. His was mediated by An old party leader once said that his (1960) then of the party's regional orga- . Gramscism was his official biography should start thus: nisation in the Latium (a demotion?). In natural cultural habitat. The successor of 'When very young, Enrico Berlinguer 1968 he is elected to parliament. In 1969 Bordiga, Gramsci, Togliatti and Longo joined the leadership group of the Italian the ailing leader of the PCI, , had no heroic past, had not been a leader of '. This is not only a quip, asks him to become deputy secretary and men and women, had no contribution to it is also a fact. Berlinguer joins the PCI in his obvious successor. Longo will later make to Marxist theory or the dialectics. 1943 when he is 21. In 1945 he is in the explain that he had asked all the members He had never worked in a factory, nor led a Central Committee. At first he works in of the secretariat and that Berlinguer had strike, was a member of the petty aristocra- , then in . In 1948 he is a been their unanimous choice. In 1972 cy and came - like Gramsci - from Sardi- member of the Executive Committee. A Enrico is at the top: secretary-general. nia, a land inhabited - as many year later he is secretary general of the used to say (and some still say) - by bandits Youth Federation of the PCI. A year later, Togliatti and sheep. Longo later said that one of the we are now in 1950 and he is 28, he Berlinguer had played a very minor role in reasons why they chose this unlikely man becomes president of the World Federa- the Resistance and had no experience of was that in 1969 the party needed someone tion of Democratic Youth, the 'Comin- the Comintern which had been disbanded who understood the young. Berlinguer tern' of the young communists. After this the year he joined the party. He was the had led the young communists and was (important) international experience he representative of a new generation of Ita- still relatively young. returns to Rome where he will stay for lian communist leader. His - Inevitably he would be compared to good. He runs the party school (1957), when Stalin was alive - was pro forma and Togliatti, the authentic shaper of the mod- enters the party secretariat (1958), he is dictated by political necessity and not by ern . Togliatti July 1984 Marxism Today 15 was the product of a great international to which he dedicated his entire life at the ness, with no illusions and no concessions communist tradition. To lead the party helm of the largest communist party in the to ideology, you begin to examine the meant to lead it in every way. West, was to provide the Italian working relations of compromises which are neces- Togliatti would run the party organisa- class movement with a political strategy sary to unblock the situation. In this tion, decide on parliamentary tactics, keep adequate to modern and its place in context it was the case of 'unblocking' in touch with foreign communist leaders, the modern world. This strategy, which Italian democracy from a one-party rule, of make the introductory speech for all meet- came to be known as the 'historic com- building up a complex web of alliances and ings of the Central Committee, write the promise' did not, of course, spring out as relationships so strong that eventually you agenda, draw the conclusion, write at least could name the terms of the compromise: one or two leading articles a week for the we, communists, know well that we cannot daily L'Unitd, write the leading article for Even your opponents will rule Italy against you, Christian Demo- the weekly Rinascita, really edit Rinascita crats and the masses you lead; do you (sometimes rewriting other people's arti- accept your right to win. accept that you can no longer rule Italy cles or telling them how and why they without us? That the millions of people, should write them). He would also jot from all social classes, who support us down a couple of book reviews, polemicise the goddess Minerva - fully grown and must share in political power? with various intellectuals on theatre or fully dressed - from the head of Jupiter. It music or the arts and write essays on was built upon the various stepping stones The Labriola or Gramsci or the Risorgimento. laid by a struggle of 30 years. What The fundamental lessons of the historic Berlinguer did was to make the strategy of compromise are that in order to 'win' it is A strategist 'grand alliances' pioneered by Togliatti never sufficient to obtain the support and Berlinguer did none of these things. He into a concrete strategy and to explain why the consent of your friends. It is also wrote little and only for a particular pur- it was a necessary strategy. He did it with necessary to act in such a way that even pose: a celebration, a Central Committee political courage and what is more impor- your opponents will accept your right to meeting, a public speech. He would write tant, with political precision. win. That is hegemony: to devise a demo- on politics and on nothing else. A product cratic framework within which it is possi- of the apparatus he seems an apparatchik. The ble to begin to conceive the question of the Yet he was unexceptional as a party mana- In 1973 in dealing with the coup-d'etat in transition to . ger. Others did it on his behalf. Togliatti Chile, he explained that the PCI and the Of course, such a framework does not had an intuition in detecting the whiff of a Left, on their own, could not run Italy. yet exist and it has never been established. politician among his younger colleagues. Christian Democracy (DC) was not an So far we have had two roads. One was He pushed forward people like Ingrao and ordinary political party: a party which runs based on the annihilation of the opponent, Amendola, gave them jobs and responsibi- a pluralist and democratic country unin- the destruction of the existing framework lities and used them for a long of terruptedly for 30 years is not an ordinary with all its democratic potentials and the attrition against the older leaders who had political party, it becomes a regime. A consequent establishment of a sys- grown in the shadows of the Comintern. regime is not something one can remove tem which now, after , 'has ex- Berlinguer did not have this ability or with a simple majority in the country or in hausted its driving force' (Berlinguer, De- perhaps he thought that it was not his job parliament: that would be - truly - par- cember 1981). The other road, the so- to form new leaders. liamentary cretinism. The DC had occu- called social democratic one, accepted the As for parliamentary tactics, these were pied all seats of power, both formal and existing framework and achieved major better left to those who knew parliament informal, and had built a powerful consen- gains: more freedom, more democracy and well. He did not. So what did he achieve? sus, an authentic power bloc. The ideolo- the welfare state, but it has not yet been Why did over one million people leave gical basis of this consensus was anti- able to go beyond a redistributive social- their jobs and homes in the middle of a which in the Italian context ism. What Berlinguer was trying to week and an electoral campaign to go to meant the following: in this country there achieve was the famous 'third way', to Rome and pay respect to the body of is something 'special', a very large com- prove that socialism and freedom could Enrico Berlinguer? What had he contri- munist party; its presence makes it im- co-exist. buted? possible to have what there is in all other For a long time the Italian Communists Some will say that in a country full of West European countries, namely, an al- had called this 'third way' the 'Italian Road corrupt politicians and of intrigues, Berl- ternance of parties in government. This is to Socialism'. What was now becoming inguer stood out for his obvious honesty, so because in other countries the alterna- clear was that the 'third way' could not be undenied even by his worst opponents; tive to conservative parties are socialist and purely national. It had to find an interna- that in a country whose memory still bears social democratic parties that do not chal- tional point of reference. the scars of the the demagogic charisma of lenge the basic consensus, but work within , the austere appearance it and have international acceptability. Eurocommunism of this small Sardinian produced respect. Thus in Italy there can be no alternance, Other West European communist parties All this is probably true, but we are not no bipolar system. The DC must rule for had come, for different reasons and in dealing with an image: there is something ever, or at least as long as there is a different ways, to similar conclusions: the more important than that and for which communist party of such strength and first important step was to signal one's Berlinguer will be remembered even when stature. Against this Berlinguer launched autonomy, the rejection of old models. It the image will have left no traces. This his political strategy. The historic com- was the high season of Eurocommunism 'something more' is political strategy. promise meant that, once you have ex- with the joint declaration between the Berlinguer's single great effort, the task amined the situation in its stark concrete- Italian and French communist parties soon 16 July 1984 Marxism Today to be followed by similar statements with Europe is the principal reference point, international relations in military and the Spanish, the British and others. Then but it is not a Eurocentric position security terms: 'it has chosen the line of the French CP had a common programme (although some in the PCI and elsewhere power politics in order to consolidate and with the socialists, the Spanish were will interpret it so). There is no conception extend its own politico-military bloc ... it emerging as a major force and the Italians of Europe as a 'Third Force', no left-wing now considers this to be its fundamental scored massive gains in 1975 and in 1976. gaullism. The terrain is Europe because of instrument for international initiatives'. They were now in control of virtually all geography, but the aim is to find a way out The logic of this, he adds, points to major Italian cities and one Italian in three of the 'logic of the bloc' and this situates . was a communist voter. immediately the Italian Communists Then the Eurocommunist wave re- alongside all those who everywhere on the Certainly a revolutionary ceded. The Spanish were plagued by an planet struggle towards the same aims. What is of great value is what emerges internal strife which would reduce them to The 'new internationalism' is no longer from Berlinguer's analysis and the terrain a minor force in Spanish politics. The based purely on general feelings of 'soli- on which the Left as a whole must work: French CP did not keep up the momen- darity with oppressed people'. These feel- what is the cause of these (new) 'mistakes' tum, it quarrelled bitterly with the social- ings exist, must exist, but they do not of the USSR? The Italian leader offers ists, and suffered a massive electoral defeat amount to a political strategy. some indications. The can while their socialist rivals surged to achieve only provide a military answer (by giving political power. The Italian CP itself was The bipolar system arms to its friends and, when possible, enmeshed in the difficult attempt to sup- During the 70s the bipolar system had intervening directly to protect them), be- port a 'government of national unity' with- entered into a severe crisis: the USA had cause it cannot give any other answer. The out being in government. With the death lost in Vietnam, oil producing nations had crisis of American imperialism has also of , killed by the asserted their control over their own re- become the crisis of the Soviet bloc for the terrorist group, the Communists lost the sources, the Portuguese revolution USSR has little to offer the rest of the man who could have united the Christian brought about by a lengthy colonial war world except a model of society they Democrats around the ideas of the historic had given rise to three new independent cannot follow or are unwilling to follow. compromise. Eurocommunism could no states in Africa. The two superpowers This and an arsenal of deadly weapons. longer be viable if it did not develop into a react in the same way: they seek to re- For long the message of the October wider conception, including a broader establish bipolarity. But before this reac- revolution had inspired the most diverse European Left. tion there is a period of pause. At the peoples in the struggle for their emancipa- Central Committee meeting of January tion. Now Lenin's successors are faced The new internationalism 1982 - - called to discuss the military with the fact that they cannot give the Berlinguer's contribution to the develop- takeover in Poland - - Berlinguer ex- nations of the world what most they need: ment of Eurocommunism demonstrates plained that one of the effects of the a new international system in which they the exceptional attention he paid to the American defeat in Vietnam was that it had can be protagonists. international context within which his par- forced the Carter administration to try a From here follows the role the Italian CP ty — all parties — must operate. Let us more cautious way, to be less aggressive, has played in the peace movement. Some return to the famous article on Chile. In a more reluctant to intervene directly. To be found it too cautious, but the stakes are passage in which Berlinguer underlines sure it was a weak effort, not always high. From here follows too the incessant Togliatti's warning to 'all of us' to consider consistently followed and soon to be defe- streams of initiatives with the socialist the international situation as coldly and ated. But defeated by whom? Not only by parties of the European Left: the Ger- lucidly as possible, he asks: what are the forces within the USA. mans, the Greeks, the Swedes, even the international conditions to which Italy is French; with the liberation movements, subject? The answer is simple, it is some- with the rest of the Third World. It was in thing everyone knows, a central fact that He was not a 'hero of the recognition of the international stature of determines all others, namely that Italy this man and his party that representatives belongs to an international military- Revolution', but he of the most distant countries paid their political bloc and is constrained by it. It is a was certainly a respects to his dead body. He had shown, harsh reality, but it is the truth. It must not revolutionary. after all, how much you can do even in lead to inertia or to paralysis, but neither opposition! must it lead to empty rhetoric, to promises He was preparing to go to . that cannot be maintained. Italy cannot Berlinguer has no hesitation in indicat- There, I am sure, he would have told the abandon unilaterally the Western bloc not ing the Soviet Union as having at least a Soviet leaders what the European peace only because the USA will not allow it, but share of the responsibilities: 'The Soviet movement needs desperately: the removal because there is not only one bloc. There Union did not understand the new terrain of at least some of the SS-20s pointed are two, and they are intertwined in an for political initiative that the dynamic towards us so that it can be made easier for international bipolar system. effects of the American defeat in Vietnam us to free ourselves from those cruise This is the meaning of the decision not had opened'. The USSR does not under- missiles on our soil, deadly symbols of our to raise the issue of NATO, of the PCI's stand 'the value of non-alignment and the subordination to 'the other side'. participation in all the institutions of the new concrete possibilities offered by the Now he will not go to Moscow, but EEC, of the constant emphasis on Euro- North-South dialogue'. The question of others will. He does not leave a model to pean co-operation. Efforts must be made detente — he adds — has now become follow. He was not always right. He was to develop the multipolarity of the interna- purely a question of military equilibrium. not a 'hero of the Revolution', but he was tional system. For a European party, The USSR comes now to conceive of certainly a revolutionary.