The Changing Face of Western Communism

Abstract

The tendency known as euro communism was already in existence when the term was coined in the 1970s. Of necessity, a discussion of euro communism must involve some discussion of the origins and development of communism itself, and especially of the development of the relations between the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and the other communist parties. Socialist movements were developing across the continent of Europe, and indeed beyond, before first world war. In the USSR itself a new constitution was adopted in 1936, a constitution designed in part to win over socialist and liberal opinion in the western democracies. The western communists now presented themselves as true patriots displaying their national flags, where previously they had only displayed the red flag, and singing their national hymns at rallies. At the present time the western communist parties, be they euro communist or not, do not seem to represent a strong challenge to 'democratic socialism'.