POLITICS OF EUROCOMMUNISM

Edited by Carl Boggs, and David Plotke

In the last years of the 1970s, determined to escape from political irrelevance, the Communist Parties of France, Spain and Italy rode the waves of Eurocommunism to the gates of governmental power.

While there has been general agreement that Eurocommunism is an important and significant phenomenon, there has been less of a consensus about what it represents. While some establishment analysts applauded the Eurocommunist Parties’ conversion to liberal democracy, many others denounced the whole business as a dangerous charade to deceive the naïve.

Socialists have also been divided between those who see in the Eurocommunists’ ‘revolutionary pragmatism’ an important new tradition of working-class radicalism and others who regard it as a further step on the road to reformism, social democracy or opportunism. The Politics of Eurocommunism attempts to set this debate on a former footing by bringing together major new contributions on all aspects of the Eurocommunists phenomenon by socialist scholars and activists of various persuasions from Spain, Italy, France, and the United States.

The authors consider the origins of Eurocommunism in the post-war politics of Mediterranean Europe and the continuing process of de-Stalinization and its effects on relations between the Communists Parties and other social movements, parties and pressure groups in their own countries and on the policies of the countries of the Soviet Bloc, the USA and the EEC. A concluding section reviews the historical significance of Eurocommunism and assesses its prospects in the 1980s.

Table of Contents

Preface  
Introduction   

I. STRATEGIC ORIGINS AND PERSPECTIVES  

1. The PCF and the End of the Bolshevik Dream George Ross
2. Italian Communism at the Crossroads Joanne Barkan
3. Spanish Communism in Transition  Jose Rodrgiuez-Ibanez

II. THE PARTIES AND POPULAR MOVEMENTS  

4. Democracy and the Mass Politics of the PCE Temma Kaplan
5. France: The New Middle Strata and the Legacy of the May Events Andrew Feenberg
6. Terrorism and the Italian Left Suzanne Cowan
7. Italy: The Feminist Challenge Annarita Buttafuoco
8. Political Ecology and the Limits of the Communist Vision Louise Beaulieu and Jonathan Cloud

III. THE INTERNATIONAL SETTING  

9. Eurocommunism and the Stalemate of European Communism Fred Block
10. Eurocommunism and the USSR: End of the Bolshevik Tradition in the West Louis Menashe
11. American Policy and the Italian Left Paul Joseph
12. Integrating Europe to Disintegrate the Left Diana Johnstone

IV. THE PROSPECTS OF EUROCOMMUNISM  

13. Eurocommunism and the American Left David Plotke
14. The Democratic Road: New Departures and Old Problems Carl Boggs