Democracy v. Authority

A generational quarrel over liberalizing the party

"If the party thinks I should stay on, I will again accept that responsibility. But if the party believes that the role should go to someone else, I will return to the base, my party card in my pocket, and work once again as a militant for the victory of socialism and of Communism."

For Santiago Carrillo, 63, secretary-general of the Spanish Communist Party (P.C.E.) for the past 18 years and Moscow's least favorite Eurocommunist, any imminent return to the ranks was unlikely, as his re-election at week's end proved without question. But those final sentences in Carrillo's wide-ranging opening report to the party's ninth congress in Madrid last week, the first held in Spain since 1932, did carry something of a plea. In effect, he asked the more than 1,400 delegates to endorse a political line that, by Communist criteria, continues to be nothing less than adventurous.

The congress came just a year after the party had been legalized by the government of Premier Adolfo Suarez Gonzalez and a scant ten months after it won a disappointing 9% of the popular vote in general elections. The focal point of the five-day meeting, called "a Communist debate for democracy and socialism," was Carrillo's proposal to drop the party's "Leninist" label in favor of "Marxist, democratic and revolutionary." Even prior to the congress, the proposal, which is known as Thesis XV, had upset several provincial and regional party conferences. The furor was not only over the concept itself, one striking even by Eurocommunist standards, but also over sometimes heavy-handed manipulation by the leadership to put the point across. In defense of his Thesis, Carrillo argued that the party's identity was not being lost and Lenin was not being abandoned. Rather, according to Carrillo, the label change merely reflected new circumstances in Western Europe 54 years after the old revolutionary's death. Although Carrillo did not say so, his real goal, undoubtedly, was to give the party a better image in Spain.

The contretemps over Leninism reached a peak during a recent conference of the Catalan branch of the party, the so-called United Socialist Party of Catalonia (P.S.U.C.), which pulled in almost a third of the 1.6 million Communist votes in last June's elections, taking eight of the 20 Communist seats in the 350-member Congress of Deputies. With Carrillo looking on unhappily, a majority of P.S.U.C. delegates declared against Thesis XV, not just because of ideological considerations, but because so major an issue had not been permitted enough discussion. They tried "Stalinist methods to democratize the party," grumbled one P.S.U.C. stalwart. In Asturias, 113 of 500 provincial delegates walked out of their conference, complaining about stifled minority rights, while in Malaga, some 200 dissidents railed against "lack of internal democracy." In Madrid, there were charges that some of the delegates who would vote on Thesis XV had been hand-picked by the leadership.

The debate touches on internal tensions that could prove more vexing to the party in the long run. Fernando Claudin, a former executive committee member who was expelled in 1964 for espousing what would now be considered Eurocommunist tenets, talks about "bureaucratic authoritarianism" in the P.C.E. "Democracy yes," he argues, "but without reducing the supreme authority and infallibility of the party chief."

Though it is difficult to gauge the depth of disillusionment, a younger Communist dissident notes that "this Leninism business is only a maneuver to avoid a general discussion of party matters. The leaders speak of liberalism, but obedience remains the word. They simply want to maintain their positions. It's a combination of personal ambition and opportunistic policy."

In this particular view, the confrontation is less ideological than generational, since many of the dissidents have no quarrel with the Eurocommunist policies of the leadership. But there is a difference in viewpoint between the old guard, like Carrillo, aging Party President Dolores ("La Pasionaria") Ibarruri and other seasoned apparatchiks, many of whom spent the Franco years in exile, and a younger group that remained at home. But how far can internal democracy go, particularly in a Communist party? As one Western analyst puts it, "Carrillo clearly wants it--up to a point. But can he then keep the lid on?"

Last week, at least, he demonstrated that he could. Despite strong Soviet advice to the Spanish Communists to stay with Leninism, the congress voted with Carrillo on Thesis XV, 968 to 248 to set a Communist precedent by dropping the party's Leninist label. With old Moscow friend La Pasionaria unaccountably absent and Carrillo grinning broadly, the delegates attempted to soften the blow by chanting "Lenin, Lenin, Lenin." The municipal elections anticipated later this year will be the first test of Carrillo's triumph--and new strategy.

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