DEBATE BETWEEN THE FRENCH SOCTALISTS AND COMMUNISTS
By Pierre Frank
“The dialogue between the French Socialist party [es] and the French Communist party [PCF] is continuing in its peculiar way. [See World Outlook January 31.] The Socialist spokesmen have talked about theory and doctrine in a sufficiently pedestrian way while their counterparts have brought up current problems and slogans, -
But the PCF leadership did not want to let the series of articles which appeared in le Toles wid go by without replying, and so 1tHumanité published ten articles wader the title. “Problems of Tdeology and Unity.
| As a matter of fact, ‘the topics considered: by both sides involve
all. the issues which ought to be taken up in the program of a prole~ tarian party in our epoch (war’ and peace, proletarian internation~ alism, demooracy, revolution, the transition to. socialism, dictatorship of the proletariat, single party, etc.); but the most striking’ thing about the articles on both sides is their poverty.
_ Those in le Ropu alee, written by one Quilliot, an obscure per= son who serves as theoretiocian for Guy Mollet, do not come up to the level of the scaroely impressive arguments advanced by Léon Blum in the twenties, Their only. "originality" consists in attempting to embarrass. the Thorez leadership by bringing up the practices of. — Stalin and emphasizing that the theoretical "novelties" of the. Khrushchevist period are very close to the old reformism of the Social Demo~ ecracy and far from the. conditions for adherence to ‘the Communist International, .
As for the articles in LtHunanité, unsigned but obviously expres sing the position of the entire PCF le eadership, they are a mass of generalities, of formulas: good for any country at any time,” with a minimum of references. to the real world,
Both series of articles: could be ‘summed up by the same phrase: "We. were always right. wr.
If the central question. were to draw up a theoretical and pro grammatic balance sheet of the workers! struggles in France since the. split in.1920,: even if only in the space of a dozen articles, really something better should have been turned out. The poverty of the debate refleots the level of the leaderships of the two big work-~ ers! parties, . Neither of-them are genuinely interested in theory,’ For deoades not even a simple theoretical pamphlet. has been written by a Socialist leader, As for the PCF leadership, theory has been’ ~ transformed, as it was for the Kautskyists, into a dogma under which to practice the opportunistic policies of the day.
But the discussion carried on this way, wretched as it is, has a political. objective, in ithe first. place among the Socialist leaders who sought it, “The truth is that Guy Mollet, by force of ciroumstance, had to make a turn in the direetion of the POF, The Gaullist regime, threatening the positions won by the PS within the bourgeois demo~ cracy,: has compelled him to seek a pact with the ‘PCF. At the moment, the pressure is not great concerning the content or the. extent of apossible agreement. But-he is aware that he.is engaging in an. opera. tion carrying considerable risk in relation to the possible ally, He recalls that the experience of the Popular Front ended up with a loss in the relationship of forces even within the working class, at the “expense of his party and to the advantage of the PCF,
Since the beginning of the “cold: war," he’ has” kept the ranks of! his party from responding to the appeals for unity from the PCF -by © crude catch phrases hike "The Communist party is not part of the left, but part of the East,"> But. such formulas are not applicable in a
Boe
period of co«operation- between the two parties, Hence the necessity of arming the ranks of the PS "theoretically," with the advantage of being able to demonstrate that, practically, the policy of the PCF is quite close to the points of view maintained by Blum and others at Tours in 1920 than to the positions of the Third International,
In view of this, the leaders of the PCF could not remain silent. In turn they had to provide a certain "theoretical" armament drawing the line between their own organization and the Social. Democracy, .
Thus, although the content of the debate as it has been conduo-~ ted is without interest, the very fact of the debate is quite import~ ‘ant. It reflects.a new ’ situation. which is beginning to .develop in the French workers! movement, a situation troublesome to the routin~ism and ossification of the old leaderships,-
The fact itself that they have been compelled in reality to justify themselves in relation to their respective ranks is a sign that they are beginning to come under question not only because of their daily politics but from a historical and fundamental point of view,
ITALIAN COMMUNISTS HOLD CONFERENCE -
ROME ~~ The fifth national organizational conference of the Italian Communist party LPCI], which was held in Naples March 12-15 was not marked by any Special new developments in policies or in internal relations in the party, thus coming up to the expectations voiced everywhere when the draft document appeared,
The participation of rank-and~file delegates in the debates at the conference was poor and beside the main points with regard to the big strategical problems, being limited to observations about details,
Among the party leaders who took the floor were Togliatti, Ingrao and Longo of the Secretariat; Reichlin, Sereni, Occhetto (secretary of the Communist Youth) and the trade unionist Scheda of the Political Bureau, The speech by Ingrao, who is known as the leader of the moderate opposition of the left in the Central Committee, was a combination of weakness and indecision. He demanded greater international autonomy for the PCI (a position also supported by Amendola and one in which the left and right oppositions have united against Togliatti's Soviet orthodoxy).
Reichlin and Occhetto spoke more vigorously on the theme of internal democracy in the party and the necessity for determining a new strategic line corresponding to tre new problems of Italian fe.
Togliatti, who summed up, after . a ‘short reply by the veporter
-- aBgue
Macaluso, scorned ‘the ' "problematicism" in which a. certain opposition . had expressed itself, as.well as the demands for greater internal’ democracy, He ‘emphasized. his perplexity concerning an international conference of Communist parties (this appeared like "regréts in ad~— vance" over a decision already taken), ne oe oa
“Two points in particular were to.be noted in his rémarks: .estab= lishment of a "dialogue with the Catholics" on the basis of explicit revisionism (Marxism is the inheritor of the Christian values) and a™ bid to the unions to support the Policy of programming even at the cost of: wage demands,
And. this when the class character. of the “government “is: strikingly clear (a billion dollars in American credits, raw concessions. to. Fiat while this monopoly is reducing’ wages and hours , ete.).
NEXT WEEK
"Eoeonomic Difficulties in Italy." Livio Maitan, a
leading Trotskyist of Rome and a member of the United Secre-
tariat of the Fourth International, offers some observations
on the reasons for the steep rise dn tong faces among the
economic pundits of the Ttalian capitalist olasss
Directeur-Gérant: Pierre. FRANK, ae ; Joo eur),