Roots of Eurocommunism

Abstract

The publication by Santiago Carrillo in April 1977 of 'Eurocommunism' and the State [ 1 ] has ended another in a series of chapters in the history of the international communist movement. After Yugoslavia, China and Albania, the three most significant communist parties in terms of strength, electoral potential, superiority of organization and popular support, Italy, France and Spain, have broken away from the Soviet-dominated communist orthodoxy. However, unlike the Yugoslavs, Chinese or Albanians, whose departure from the Soviet camp was initially not for ideological reasons but was precipitated by pragmatic expectations at that time, the Eurocommunist group have presented several major challenges to the established versions of such cornerstones of MarxistLeninist theory as proletarian internationalism, the dictatorship of the proletariat [2] and opposition to the European Economic Communities. This paper is intended only as a preliminary discussion article examining the roots and parameters of what has already become one of the most important and interesting contributions to the ongoing process of reinterpretations of Marxism-Leninism-Stalinism. It is surprising that in the fast growing but mostly speculative literature on Eurocommunism, so far little attention has been given to its historical foundations and diversity. The name Eurocommunism was first invented in 1975 by a Croatian journalist, Frane Barbieri, working for the Milan daily, II Giornale Nuovo, as a generic title to distinguish those western European parties who were asserting their independence of Soviet tutelage [3], and who were aiming to transform the capitalist societies of Europe into socialist societies through the ballot box rather than some revolutionary process. Although it is highly questionable whether Eurocommunism exists as a definable ideology as against Eurocommunist strategy, its basic assumptions can be summarized as follows. The historical situation in the highly industrialized countries of Western