A-Infos (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]

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"Dictatorship of the Proletariat," which it considered far too outdated 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
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Subscribe/Unsubscribe https://ainfos.ca/mailman/listinfo/a-infos-en
Archive: http://ainfos.ca/en