Communism in Western Europe

Abstract

ANY appraisal of the Communist parties in Europe /- must begin with a distinction that may appear semantic but really touches on one of the most exposed nerves of this strange movement which claims a unique understanding of history, indeed the capacity to make history, and yet which contemporary history has so badly lacerated. is a factor, sometimes serious, sometimes vestigial in Europe today; but Western European Communism does not exist. There is no historically evolved fraternity of parties accustomed to mutual exchange and fitting their national particularities into a common strategy, based on a joint analysis of the economic and social terrain that has, since the war, become increasingly integrated. The Communists are a collection of forces, whose estrangement from one another has been concealed by a common ideology. Some parties are but sects under ambitious (and often pictur esque) chieftains, as has been the case in Holland, Switzerland and Luxembourg. Others are the left wings of expiring or reviv ing nationalisms, as in Iceland or Cyprus and perhaps in Bel gium. Some are the vestiges of movements whose followers have turned to left-wing Socialist parties en masse, as in Denmark and Norway. Certain parties may yet have a future, as in Spain and Portugal, whereas in Germany is a ghost that broods over calamitous error and tragedy from which a once proud movement could not recover. Some parties, as in Sweden, strive desperately to achieve rejuvenation, rejecting even a formal solidarity with their ideological kinsmen. In France, Italy and Finland, where the Communists lead formid able electoral blocs, they cannot integrate themselves into their political communities with any real hope of influencing policy unless they undergo an inner transformation. This must call into question rather basic ideas and modes of behavior, not the least of which is their attitude toward Europe as an entity. The gathering in mid-June of 19 Communist movements at Brussels was the first of its kind. Two years before, the Commu nist parties of the Six together with the British had met in the same city, whereas in Rome, in 1959, only the Six held their first