Never at a Loss for Words

Brandt irks his comrades by molding a movement to his image

After fighting broke out in El Salvador, a group of West European Socialists dodged bullets to meet with leftist rebel leaders. During the siege of Beirut, a delegation of Social Democrats picked its way through rubble to confer with Palestine Liberation Organization Leader Yasser Arafat. When they are not touring global hot spots, representatives of the Socialist International, the umbrella organization for 49 Social Democratic parties in Europe, Asia and the Americas, meet frequently to make pronouncements that, they hope, will be heeded by an estimated 15 million party members worldwide.

Yet when 300 ranking Socialists from 70 countries converged on the Portuguese resort of Albufeira last week, the focus was less on their ample advice for world leaders than on the movement's considerable problems. In the past 19 months, five European Socialist parties, including West Germany's, have lost their places in government coalitions. Among those that remain in power, France's is confronted with major economic difficulties and Spain's faces high unemployment. Meanwhile, the Socialist International has become riven by internal squabbles, mostly centering on the contentious role played by its president, former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, 69.

The meeting was marred by the assassination of Issam Sartawi, the P.L.O. delegate, in a hotel lobby Sunday morning. The gunman escaped. Sartawi's presence in Albufeira had been a contentious issue. If all had gone according to plan, the Socialists would have held their 16th biennial congress in Sydney, Australia. But last February, at Brandt's request, Portuguese Socialist Leader Mario Scares extended a formal invitation to the P.L.O. to send an observer. The Australian Socialists, led by newly elected Prime Minister Robert Hawke, objected strenuously, since they did not want to give the impression that they were "instant radicals," as one Australian at last week's meeting put it. Thus the Congress had to be moved to Portugal at the last minute.

As chairman of the West German Social Democratic Party, the largest contributor to the organization, Brandt has used his party's bureaucracy and his personal prestige to expand the movement's influence in the Third World. He has got 16 leftist movements and parties, including those of Guatemala, Venezuela and Costa Rica, to join. But, to the dismay of some of his colleagues, he has imprinted the Socialist International with his own ideological stamp. The Socialist International routinely condemns human rights abuses in South Africa or South Korea, but delegations heading for East European capitals often steer away from controversial subjects. When Poland's General Wojciech Jaruzelski declared martial law in December 1981, Brandt issued a bland statement of regret noting that "unwanted advice and strongly worded declarations will not help the people of Poland." Brandt has also drawn fire for his calls for "revolutionary change" in El Salvador.

In both cases, angry Socialist comrades demanded that the International issue an immediate "clarification." The revised documents explicitly condemned the "brutal repression of civil rights" in Poland, and softened Brandt's position on El Salvador by leaving open the possibility for "free and honest elections." His authoritarian approach brought him into conflict with Swedish General Secretary Bernt Carlsson, 44. Early this year in Bonn, Carlsson pointedly reminded Brandt that "this is a Socialist International not a German International." In retaliation, Brandt forced Carlsson to step down last week.

Brandt's supporters argue that he has broadened the Socialist International's appeal. Says Austrian Prime Minister Bruno Kreisky: "It is a question of whether it is better to be pure or to have greater numbers." Perhaps, but by drawing more strident leftists into the fold, Brandt may ultimately weaken the movement's influence. As French President Franc,ois Mitterrand's failure to send a high-powered delegation to Portugal showed, Socialist parties in power tend to have little time for the empty rhetoric of those that are not. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.