[The following excerpts from a document entitled "The Political Bases for Reunification" appeared in the December 29, 1977, issue of the Spanish Trotskyist weekly Combate. The document was adopted at a December 17-18 joint meeting of the central committees of the Liga Comunista Revolucionaria (LCR-Revolutionary Communist League) and the Liga Comunista (LC-Communist League).
[The meeting was another step in the process of overcoming a five-year-long split among Spanish Trotskyists.* The reunification of the LCR is scheduled to culminate at a fusion congress in March.
(The translation is by Intercontinental Press/ Inprecor.]
Reunification between the LCR and the LC is giving the lie to the myth of a "permanent division" in the Trotskyist movement. It is showing in practice that a correct conception of democratic centralism makes it possible to secure and maintain unity among revolutionary Marxists.
Both organizations are aware that differences exist. The scope and content of these differences will be elucidated through common work and through a debate with full freedom of expression for all positions. This debate will unfold during the remaining months before the congress.
This of course presupposes that the reunification is taking place on a solid basis: the programmatic principles of the Fourth International, along with fundamental agreement on the tasks of the revolution in the Spanish state. The unification will thus allow us to take a real step forward in building the revolutionary party.
The document "Political Bases for Reunification" was approved unanimously
(with one abstention) by both central committees. It explains these bases in a succinct way.
The text first takes up the historical situation in which humanity finds itself.
*See "Reunification Under Way Among Trotskyists in Spain," Intercontinental Press, December 19, 1977, p. 1399.
The continued existence of capitalism and the unfolding crisis of that system can only end in barbarism. Faced with this prospect there is only one solutionsocialist revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat. The alternative of a socialist society can be fully realized only on a world scale, simply because capitalism is an international reality.
Need for New Revolutionary Leadership since proletariat
Nevertheless, the gained its first decisive victory in the October Revolution in 1917, the workers have been held back time and time again in the struggle for the revolution. This is not the result of their lack of combativity, but rather of the conciliatory, reformist, and even openly traitorous policies of the parties having most influence inside the workers movement-the Stalinists and the Social Democrats.
The bureaucratic degeneration of the first workers state-the Soviet Union-was extended during the second half of the 1920s to the entire Third International, conceived by its founders as the party of world revolution. Today, far from having achieved socialism, the workers states, where capitalism has been overthrown are dominated by a bureaucratic caste that is an obstacle to the international socialist revolution.
The workers movement can expect nothing from its traditional leaderships; a new revolutionary leadership is required. That is precisely the central strategic task that has confronted revolutionary Marxists since the Fourth International was founded in 1938.
Having the goal of overthrowing capital. ism through the conquest of political power by the proletariat, the Fourth International upholds a program for mobilization of the workers. Starting from the conditions at each moment and the consciousness of the working class, this program leads the class toward taking on and realizing all its objectives. It is a program of immediate, democratic, and transitional demands that favors the development of anticapitalist and revolutionary consciousness on the part of broad working-class and popular sectors, forges unity among crisis of the capitalist system, one of exceptional gravity, coinciding with a social and political strengthening of the working class and a rise in working-class struggles. The sharpening of the class struggle on an international scale-from the so-called third-world countries to the bureaucratized workers states, including the advanced capitalist countries-is an undeniable fact.
The crisis of the bourgeoisie has been expressed in a particularly acute way in Southern Europe. In this area, which includes Italy, France, the Spanish state, and Portugal, the crisis of capitalist society and the change in the relationship of forces in favor of the working class are especially clear. This is reflected in the changing relationship of forces inside the workers movement itself: the reformist leaderships of the big parties and unions are being outflanked more and more frequently by the combativity of the workers.
However, there exists a discrepancy between the breadth of the social contradictions, which produces a growing politicalization, and the present level of consciousness of the working class as a whole. In view of the present weakness of the revolutionary Marxists, this means a growing audience for the big workers parties, which appear as the only ones able to provide a political solution to the crisis, one favorable to the working class and the populace.
Social Democracy and Eurocommunism
With the exception of Italy, the Socialist parties are the principal workers parties on the electoral level. This is owing fundamentally to the fact that their reformist policy-and that of Stalinism as well—is most accessible to the broad layers of workers entering political activity for the first time. On the other hand, the Social Democrats have understood how to take advantage of the democratic sentiments inside the working-class movement, which have been strengthened through experiences with fascism and Stalinism. At the same time, they seek to identify this sentiment with the institutions of bourgeois democracy.
The growth of Social Democracy increases its importance as a factor for stabilizing the capitalist system. What will become apparent is the contrast between the "democratic" image of the Social Democrats and the repressive practice they will be forced to carry out to achieve capitalist stabilization-"austerity" and related measures. In these conditions, opposition currents inside these parties and the unions they influence will grow. Revolutionary Marxists must pay close attention to such developments.
Eurocommunism, for its part, registers on the level of theory several decades of reformist practice by the Stalinist parties with mass influence. The policy of "historic compromise" demonstrates the Eurocommunists' willingness—no matter what the cost-to avoid a test of strength between the workers movement and the bourgeoisie. Such a compromise is based on respecting the essential political and economic interests of imperialism. Despite the evident tensions between these parties and the Kremlin, the links that join them have not been broken. The Communist parties uphold the essence of their Stalinist ideological heritage-a policy of respecting the bourgeois state. This coincides with the interests of the bureaucracy. In addition, links with the USSR constitute the principal factor that differentiates the Eurocommunists from their main competitors in the workers movement, the Social Democrats.
Favorable conditions also exist in the Communist parties for the development of much more important internal differentiations than in the past. These processes have and will have great importance for revolutionary Marxists.
Far from representing a retrogression in the political consciousness of the workers, the growth of the reformist workers parties reflects their growing politicalization. In addition, this growth is combined with significant outflanking of these leaderships by the workers movement.
Thus there exist exceptional possibilities for building a new revolutionary leadership. A solution of the present crisis favorable to the proletariat depends, to a great extent, on how revolutionary Marxists take advantage of this situation.
New Political Situation in the Spanish State
With the death of the dictator, the decomposition of Francoism was accelerated. The workers and popular movement immediately went through an unprecedented rise. This immense mobilization brought down the first government of the monarchy and won substantial gains. If it did not secure a complete victory, this is owing fundamentally to the policy of collaboration with the bourgeoisie on the part of the majority leaderships-the PSOE [Partido Socialista Obrero Español-Spanish So- Socialista Obrero Español-Spanish Socialist Workers Party] and the PCE [Partido Comunista de España-Communist
Party of Spain]. On each of the occasions when a general strike capable of putting an end to Francoism was at hand, these parties held it back, demobilizing and disorganizing the workers. This policy allowed the bourgeoisie to put its own stamp on the "political reform."
The capitulatory policy of the majority workers'
leaderships before the Suárez government led to their failure to take advantage of the wide-open possibilities of the December 12, 1976, general strike. It led also to the virtual absence of opposition in the December 15 referendum, to the demobilization of the workers after the fascist crimes in Atocha, and to the isolation of the mobilizations in Euzkadi.
Nevertheless, the workers remain combative. If it is true that they were unable to achieve their main goals, it is no less true that important partial victories were gained: legalization of the workers parties and union federations, amnesty, and so on. Even in the elections, in which the bourgeoisie needed and was expecting an overwhelming victory, the workers voted massively for working-class candidates, almost achieving an electoral victory.
After the Fifteenth of June
The situation that opened June 15 is chiefly characterized by the growing social polarization between the fundamental classes and the mobilization of the left wing of the workers and popular movement. We are in a period of profound political and social instability, in which the bourgeoisie is seeking to change the relationship of forces. All its maneuvers
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The Moncloa agreement represents the acceptance by the leaders of the PSOE and PCE of a true social pact. The main goals are to freeze wages and maintain (or even increase) unemployment. The political aspects of the agreement set substantial limits on liberties and keep the state strongly centralized. The repressive bodies, army, and a large part of the legislative arsenal of Francoism are to be preserved, along with the unquestioned continuation of the monarchy.
In such conditions, the task of revolutionary Marxists is to strengthen the organization and unity of the workers, and to present in the workers and popular strug gles an alternative of unity and class independence-one capable of challenging the reformists for leadership and winning the working class for the socialist revolution.
We understand that we are only at the beginning of this task; a long road still remains ahead of us. We will have to win the best fighters of the workers movement, along with sectors of other parties that will evolve toward revolutionary Marxism, on the basis of agreement on the fundamental programmatic principles of the Fourth International.
But in the last analysis, the practical demonstration that the Fourth International is becoming a real alternative of revolutionary leadership is what will decisively influence the building of the revolutionary party that the proletariat in the Spanish state urgently needs.
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