Eurocommunism is a current within communism that emerged in Western Europe in the 1970s. It sought to reconcile communism with parliamentary democracy by gaining independence from the USSR. The French Communist Party (PCF) was one of the founding communist parties of this current, but it renounced it at its 22nd Congress.
In February 1976, 50 years ago, the PCF held its 22nd Congress in Saint-Ouen. Sometimes considered its zenith, the party had been engaged for about ten years in a major period of renewal. Indeed, the Warsaw Pact's intervention in 1968 to silence the Prague Spring and "socialism with a human face" had forced it to reinvent itself. Most Western communist parties could only condemn the Russian intervention, and the prison-like nature of the "people's democracies" was becoming increasingly undeniable. At the same time, a progressive wind seemed to have swept across the globe, and struggles appeared to be erupting everywhere.The 22nd Congress was therefore a pivotal moment in the "democratic transformation" of the French Communist Party (PCF). It endorsed the "Eurocommunist" strategy that several communist parties in Europe (notably the Italian and Spanish parties) were simultaneously developing. This involved adapting the revolutionary strategy to the times by building a path to socialism through democracy, by winning a majority. Thus, the PCF (which at that time could dream of major electoral successes) agreed to play the game of bourgeois democracy.
At this congress, the party adopted its new slogan, "Union of the People of France," a catchy and unifying slogan, and abandoned its earlier one, "Dictatorship of the Proletariat," which it considered far too outdated and associated with the USSR. However, this decision was not made after careful theoretical deliberation; it was more a matter of marketing itself as a desirable product in the high-stakes election race. Georges Marchais (General Secretary of the French Communist Party from 1972 to 1994) was well aware of this; his explanation lay in the common meaning of each word. "Dictatorship" was frightening after the fascist experiments, and "proletariat" seemed too exclusionary for a movement that now intended to unite all "the people."
The meaning of the expression in Marxist theory was thus forgotten. But how could it be otherwise? The electoral race was already beginning to impose its rules, four years after the signing of the Common Program between the French Communist Party (PCF), Mitterrand's Socialist Party (PS), and the Movement of Left Radicals (MRG).
Worse still: this congress, which was supposed to herald a democratic renaissance, was above all yet another demonstration of the PCF's hyper-centralism. Georges Marchais, for example, raised the issue of abandoning the "dictatorship of the proletariat" for the first time live on television, before the congress, at the end of the preparations. While de-Stalinization was proclaimed externally, the iron hierarchy remained very much alive within.
So what remains of Eurocommunism? In a word: nothing. Or very little. The Italian Communist Party has disappeared. The Spanish and French Communist parties are now but a shadow of their former selves. By proposing a less radical, more "reassuring," less divisive program, the French Communist Party (PCF) abandoned the path of class struggle and began its slow descent into hell. In the early 1980s, it sank into the most blatant and racist electoralism, pursuing anti-immigration policies.
Wendelin (UCL Alsace)
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?1976-2026-XXIIe-congres-du-PCF-que-reste-t-il-de-l-eurocommunisme
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Link: (en) France, UCL AL #368 - History - 1976-2026: The 22nd Congress of the French Communist Party (PCF): What Remains of "Eurocommunism"? (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]
Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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