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Berlinguer: Architect of Eurocommunism Donald Sassoon

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Berlinguer: Architect of Eurocommunism Donald Sassoon 14 July 1984 Marxism Today Over one million people attended the funeral of Enrico Berlinguer. 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 Eurocommunism 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 Leninism was mediated by An old party leader once said that his (1960) then of the party's regional orga- Palmiro Togliatti. 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, Luigi Longo, had no heroic past, had not been a leader of Communist Party'. 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- Milan, then in Rome. 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 Italians 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 Stalinism - 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 Italian Communist Party. 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 Italy 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 third way 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 historic compromise 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 socialism. 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 war 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 Soviet sys- grown in the shadows of the Comintern. regime is not something one can remove tem which now, after Poland, '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 communism 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.
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