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How To Get A More Successful EuroCommunism Movement?

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So I know EuroCommunism suffered from a lack of a lot of things, definite ideology, charismatic leaders (well the ones who didn’t die in the early 80s/be kicked out there party) and a ability to truly breakaway from the perception of being a USSR stooge.

But putting that aside, what are some ways to ensure that EuroCommunism is more successful and is actually able to last the end of the Soviet Union instead of mostly folding into other Left Wing Parties?

How can you have the PSI, the Workers Party, Hell even the CPGB be more successful in this period?
 
The big issue with Eurocommunism is communist parties turning to social democracy at a time where it was flagging due to a changing European economy and general downturn as well as European treaties hostile to its methods, which gave rise to the more economically liberal center left. Which makes me think you'd want it to happen a bit earlier and with good economic thinkers to put down the bases to weather it.

One way to do it would be to have someone a bit less incompetent than Marchais as PCF lead. Once you get France, the waves should help anchor the other European parties. Especially if you can avoid the PS rising to overtake them and Marchais ratcheting back towards the soviet union to try consolidating what the PCF still had. Potentially a more thorough clean up of the leadership after Thorez, rather than his loyalists keeping control?

A France-Italy block would probably be able to counter the degradation of European social democracy and European pressure to drop their agenda as happened against the Common Program government and convinced Mitterrand to drop it and veer fully into austerity liberalism.

Of course the greater possibility would be the PCF not squandering May 68 by lambasting it as petty bourgeois students, and thus absorbing a new wave of left wingers rather than pushing them out. That could potentially derail the realignment to the PS and head the PCF towards a workers/social reformers alliance, which would have a hard time staying aligned with the soviet union and be a natural fit for a less backward looking French Eurocommunism.

I know less about opportunities in other countries. I don't think the CPGB is an option due to Labour's grip on the labour movement, I think if you want British Eurocommunism, it'll have to be entryism and a different Labour Left. This feels more like something a shift on the continent would inspire than something started in Britain though. Successful Eurocommunism may shake up the more Euroskeptic Labour Left into a different position.
 
A France-Italy block would probably be able to counter the degradation of European social democracy and European pressure to drop their agenda as happened against the Common Program government and convinced Mitterrand to drop it and veer fully into austerity liberalism.
A PCI lead Coalition and a Mitterrand/PCF coalition would probably cause Germany to just drop trying to impose any kind of Common Program. Also if France and Italy are working together you’d probably see Portugal and Spain following suite due to there own reasonably successful Communist Parties in the 70s/80s.
Of course the greater possibility would be the PCF not squandering May 68 by lambasting it as petty bourgeois students, and thus absorbing a new wave of left wingers rather than pushing them out. That could potentially derail the realignment to the PS and head the PCF towards a workers/social reformers alliance, which would have a hard time staying aligned with the soviet union and be a natural fit for a less backward looking French Eurocommunism.
That’s a good idea there, also mean that the PS most likely heads in a Rightward direction whilst the PCF becomes as you mentioned an alliance of Workers/Social Reformers.
I don't think the CPGB is an option due to Labour's grip on the labour movement, I think if you want British Eurocommunism, it'll have to be entryism and a different Labour Left. This feels more like something a shift on the continent would inspire than something started in Britain though. Successful Eurocommunism may shake up the more Euroskeptic Labour Left into a different position.
I could see elements of the Labour Left/What would be the Kinnockite strain supporting EuroCommunism methods. One way to ensure British EuroCommunism is if the Green Party violently splintered in the early 80s whilst the CPGB was changing it’s direction. So the CPGB gains the Green Left support that flocked to the Green Party otl and survives (though they’d probably change the party name or something).
 
A PCI lead Coalition and a Mitterrand/PCF coalition would probably cause Germany to just drop trying to impose any kind of Common Program. Also if France and Italy are working together you’d probably see Portugal and Spain following suite due to there own reasonably successful Communist Parties in the 70s/80s.

You could flip Europe on its head and have European efforts reverse to help solidify the Eurocommunist program maybe.

On the other hand, Mitterrand was never going to be satisfied until he ruled alone so that one sounds shaky. If the PCF avoided some of its decline and they're still holding their own, trying to backstab them may not go his way though, so that could be interesting.

Maybe a reverse of what happened OTL with him still trying to push towards the economic center but not being strong enough to pull it off without looking like he'd enter a coalition with the center right, which would be a step too far for the left wing voters the PS was making gains with. At the same time, he misses the flip going on in Europe so the move ends up looking dumb, the PCF has a clear culprit for the end of the common programme and the PS comes back into the coalition as the lesser partner after a change of leader?

That’s a good idea there, also mean that the PS most likely heads in a Rightward direction whilst the PCF becomes as you mentioned an alliance of Workers/Social Reformers.

The PS could go back to "third force", trying to build a neither Gaullist nor Communist coalition along with the center and center right.

I could see elements of the Labour Left/What would be the Kinnockite strain supporting EuroCommunism methods. One way to ensure British EuroCommunism is if the Green Party violently splintered in the early 80s whilst the CPGB was changing it’s direction. So the CPGB gains the Green Left support that flocked to the Green Party otl and survives (though they’d probably change the party name or something).

Yeah but I still can't see the CPGB amounting to much even then, unless Labour splinters. Which is another way this could go? The Labour right splits strongly, maybe over a Labour left win and popular front attempt, which ends up backfiring because Labour retains the unions.


I think at this point it's worth considering the US is shitting its pants because it has never been able to tell the difference between anything on the left. The CIA might try its hand at some underhanded stuff, and exposing it in the act would also be one way to have a rally around the flag effect for an Eurocommunist party.
 
You could flip Europe on its head and have European efforts reverse to help solidify the Eurocommunist program maybe
What would be the effect of a EuroCommunist France, Spain, Italy and Portugal on the fledgling EEC and other trade deals. I’ve heard that much of the EuroCommunists were strongly ‘Socialism In One Country’ folks with Internationalist leanings so I could see the EEC collapsing. Though it probably help nations like Yugoslavia looking further.
At the same time, he misses the flip going on in Europe so the move ends up looking dumb, the PCF has a clear culprit for the end of the common programme and the PS comes back into the coalition as the lesser partner after a change of leader?
I could see that occurring, I could see the Left of PS splitting and joining the PCF or creating a Left Wing Group.
Yeah but I still can't see the CPGB amounting to much even then, unless Labour splinters. Which is another way this could go? The Labour right splits strongly, maybe over a Labour left win and popular front attempt, which ends up backfiring because Labour retains the unions.
Could always go with ‘Benn wins 81’ and the result is the SDP on steroids. Meanwhile the Green Party splinters and maybe the SNP kicks out the Group and the pair join the EuroCommunist dominated CPGB who modernise and change. The result is by the Mid 80s a Left Wing Labour is partnering up with the Red & Greens.
 
What would be the effect of a EuroCommunist France, Spain, Italy and Portugal on the fledgling EEC and other trade deals. I’ve heard that much of the EuroCommunists were strongly ‘Socialism In One Country’ folks with Internationalist leanings so I could see the EEC collapsing. Though it probably help nations like Yugoslavia looking further.

I think the Eurocommunists would be conscious enough about their isolation to hash out some kind of treaty of their own. But it's unlikely it'll look like the EEC yeah. They'd be too afraid (correctly) of disparities between their economies leading to a straight open market ending up skewed in favour of those with a head start. On the other hand, if they want to beat the 70s/80s downturn and position themselves well in the new economy, they'll need serious coordinated investment and an integrated economy would give them the weight to do so. It's possible their focus end up how the Euro block trade with the outside too.

I could see that occurring, I could see the Left of PS splitting and joining the PCF or creating a Left Wing Group.

Not sure it'd be a split, just a leadership coup pointing at the dropped common program or turn right as the culprit for their lack of fortune, with the more ideologically liberal members slinking away to brew something with the last shreds of the Radicals and center right, which could actually siphon away some of the more strident opposition to the new position, adopting a sort of good government/reform/anti corruption agenda rather than contest the new consensus too hard.

Could always go with ‘Benn wins 81’ and the result is the SDP on steroids. Meanwhile the Green Party splinters and maybe the SNP kicks out the Group and the pair join the EuroCommunist dominated CPGB who modernise and change. The result is by the Mid 80s a Left Wing Labour is partnering up with the Red & Greens.

Yeah that could work. Maybe Labour just double down on the unions since it's likely to retain those strong connections and has a better time than OTL bringing them into the new economy, and a well rebranded CPGB/Greens can be the youth and radicals wing?



What's going to be interesting is what it does to West Germany, as well as to the soviet block. West Germany now has neighbors with a left leaning political alignment and probably less commitment to the cold war despite the split with the soviets. And the soviets may have a few reformers empowered by the west Europeans successes, especially since we're entering the USSR's own downturn period. Of course the possibility of a hardliner counter blow is possible, but really not a given. In fact if it happens I can see them losing control of their block in favour of others who would like to curry favour with western Europe, even among their supposedly puppet communist parties.
 
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