Lee PRIM Rim S ik: St OR

Commentary

I: The urgency of renewal

In May, 1989, the B.C. convention of the
Communist Party called for “the renewal of
Our socialist perspective to address the
Complex problems of the contemporary
World and to advance a socialist alternative
that accords with the highest ideals of the
Working people.”

We could not have known that only six

months later the international communist
Movement would be faced with a political
Crisis as a result of the historic upheaval in
Eastern Europe.
_ The events in Eastern Europe have made
It necessary for the party to speed up its
ideological and political renewal. Many of
the programmatic concepts that the party
Was to consider, such as the idea of the
leading role of a Communist Party in social-
ist society, have been dramatically answered
by history.

Our party is today facing a stern chal-
lenge to keep pace with a changing world.

€ require an interpretation of the events in
Europe, a re-appraisal of the post war his-
tory of socialism, and we need to arrive at
Conclusions over the basic ideological issues
involved.

Most of all we need to turn our attention
to the urgent task of political renewal of the
party in Canada. This is the challenge of the
1990s.

II: The struggle against Stalinism

The political transformation of Eastern

Europe in 1989 has brought the Stalinist

political, economic and ideological frame-
work for socialism in the post-war world to
a sudden end.

In the Soviet Union, it was the Commu-
nist Party itself which introduced peres-
troika and glasnost and led the reforms that
are eliminating the Stalinist legacy. How-
ever, the historic upheaval which has
changed the Communist Party govern-
ments of Poland, East Germany, Hungary,
Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Romania
and eliminated the constitutional guarantee
of the party’s “leading role” was the result
of popular democratic action.

It is to the credit of a new generation ot
Communists in the GDR, Hungary, Cze-
choslovakia and Bulgaria that they have
facilitated a peaceful transition to demo-
Cracy, and today are striving to renew and
Strengthen socialism.

On the other hand, the brutality of the
Ceausescu regime in Romania which turned
against its own people has left an ugly mark
on socialism which can only be removed by
total repudiation of these actions by social-
ists everywhere.

The system of Communist Party govern-
ments throughout Eastern Europe after
WwW II did not fulfill the promise of their
anti-fascist origins. Rather these govern-
ments became the expression of the Stalinist
conception of the dictatorship of the prolet-
ariat, and rested primarly on military power
in the context of a divided Europe and con-
frontation with imperialism.

The political regimes of eastern Europe
were based on the rejection of economic
and political pluralism, and the institution-
alization of the Communist Party as the
leading force in society. The forty-year
experience of these countries records many
successes in the social, economic and cultu-
ral spheres. However it must be concluded
that the Stalinist conception of political
power and the political economy of social-
ism led ultimately to stagnation and

| SOCIALISM IN TRANSITION
Debate opens on a new direction

Amid the growing debate about socialism and the new direction being charted by
the countries of Eastern Europe, the B.C. provincial executive of the Communist
Party this week issued an important new discussion paper, entitled Socialism in
Transition. It is part of a wider discussion leading to the party’s convention in
October. Comment is invited on the document, either as letters to the Tribune or by
writing directly to the Communist Party, 1726 E. Hastings, Vancouver, VSL 1S9.

bureaucratism, corruption and crimes
against the people.

Socialists everywhere are aware and con-
cerned that the changes in Eastern Europe,
in Poland and Hungary especially, may
open the door to a return to capitalism
— that is, a society in which private capital
is economically and politically dominant.
There will be sharp struggles to come over
these issues. Our internationalist obligation
is to oppose any foreign interference or
manipulation in the determination of the

. national will.

The challenge for socialists in these coun-
tries is to re-establish their roots in the work-
ing people and to shape a pluralist socialist
economy which is both dynamic and demo-
cratic. This will require a thorough-going
political and ideological renewal. In Poland,
Hungary and the GDR, decisions have
been made for a rebirth of the socialist
movement, including the formation of new
parties.

Czechoslovakia

There were many expressions of popular
discontent and resistance to the Stalinist
character of Eastern European govern-
ments over the past 40 years.

The most important, and tragic, of these
conflicts was the armed intervention in Cze-
choslovakia in 1968. The Communist Party
of Czechoslovakia, the CPSU and the War-
saw Pact have now recognized that the
intervention violated the sovereignty and
self-determination of Czechoslovakia.

The importance of the 1968 intervention
was that it cut short an important attempt
to democratize socialism in Eastern Europe,
and dramatically counterposed the demo-
cratic objectives of the Prague Spring with
“existing socialism” in a manner which
closed the door on reform and renewal
throughout the international communist
movement.

It was argued at the time that the inter-
vention was justified by impending counter-
revolution in Czechoslovakia, and materials
issued by the Warsaw Pact sought to prove
that allegation. Communists in Canada
were especially influenced by these argu-
ments and they were a factor in the CPC
decision to support the intervention.

Today it is known that an armed counter-
revolution was not imminent in Czechoslo-
vakia. Indeed the issue was not a restoration
of capitalism, but the political course which
had been set by the Czech party and people.

Canadian Communists recognize that
the intervention violated the self-deter-
mination. of Czechoslovakia and did tre-
mendous harm to socialism. The Canadian
party’s policy of full support for the inter-
vention was a serious political error which
also exacted a political price in this country.
The party lost members, influence and pres-
tige as a result of its political stand. The
reasons for this error, however, go far
beyond the lack of appreciation for the
actual situation in Czechoslovakia. The
defence of the intervention by the CPC
arose mainly from the ideological precepts
which shaped the party’s analysis.

Reflecting on the debate in the CPC in
1968 over the intervention in Czechoslova-
kia, it must be said that the views of the
minority have been proven correct. It is to
the party’s loss that this view took 20 years
to be understood and appreciated, and this
poses important questions for the party
about its internal processes. Those who dis-
agreed with the majority decision were

marginalized or removed from leadership.

Some believed that their views had been
declared incompatible with party policy and
quit. While a revolutionary party requires
unity in action, a revolutionary party must
also have the capacity to listen and learn
from minority views.

III: Ideological issues

The very posing of the question in Cze-
choslovakia as one of counter-revolution
points to the basic ideological issue that is at
the root of the 1968 intervention and other

ragic episodes in the history of the interna-
tional communist movement.

The issue posed is the right ofa people to
structure their society according to the
national will.

Marxists have always appreciated that a
revolution has the democratic right to
defend itself from its class adversary or from
foreign intervention. This is the right of the
majority when faced with the undemocratic
use of force by the minority, or a foreign
force.

However for 60 years the Stalinist inter-
pretation of the dictatorship of the proleta-
riat has been at the base of a set of
interconnected dogmas which have led to a
pattern of restrictions on democracy and
violence against the people by governments
officially proclaiming adherence to Marxism-
Leninism.

Some of these erroneous dogmas which
concern the political sphere directly include:

© That social revolution must be the
result of a single revolutionary blow, the so
called “sharp break,” rather than as the
product of an extended historical period in
which socialist governments could be won
and lost and won again many times. This
concept rejected political pluralism or the
ability of the majority to democratically
replace a government or to change political
course.

@ That the rule of the Communist Party
is synonymous with working class political
power. Any threat to the party was per-
ceived as anti-socialist and subversive. This
led to the arbitrary suspension of liberties
for the majority.

© That socialism develops as an increas-
ingly monolithic society in which social
interests converge and are represented by
the party and its institutions. This idea rein-
forced dogmatism and defined any expres-
sion of social and cultural interests apart

from those of the party as a threat to the

system.

These dogmas were internationalized by
a distortion of the concept of “proletarian
internationalism.” This cornerstone of the
international workers’ movement involves
the class solidarity of workers in all nations

against a common class adversary. But over
the past 60 years it has also meant the com-
mon fidelity to similar ideological princi-
ples, and a continuous international
ideological struggle for those principles. A
variety of forms Were used in the interna-
tional movement for carrying out this
struggle. At times this resulted in the polari-
zation of parties and constituted interfer-
ence in their internal affairs.

Genuine internationalism requires that
working class movements in each country
retain their right to criticize and express
their view, especially on universal questions
of peace, human rights and democracy.
However internationalism also must mean
respect for the right of each nation to set its
own political course without direct interfer-
ence. Both of these conditions were violated
by the Stalinist interpretation of proletarian
internationalism.

Imperialism has sought to use the present
crisis of socialism to proclaim the death of
socialism and the theory of Marxism. It is
not socialism or Marxism, but their Stalinist
distortions, which have come to a dead end
in 1989. On the contrary, Marxism retains
its validity as a science and the changes
taking place in the world offer new oppor-
tunities for its creative development.

IV: Political renewal in Canada.

The transformation of world socialism
has brought about a dramatic lessening of
international tensions and has inspired mil-
lions that peaceful coexistence and genuine
self-determination of nations can be
achieved. “New thinking” is perestroika in
international relations.

Imperialism, however, has neither em-
braced new thinking, nor does it offer
democracy and self-determination for the
nations of the world. Imperialism continues
to demonstrate its aggressive character, and
remains the greatest threat to the survival of
the world.

The U.S. invasion of Panama, the con-
tinued aggression against Nicaragua, the

support for the death squad government of

EI Salvador and the disastrous effects of free

trade in our country are all expressions of

U.S. imperialism which demonstrate the
need for a new and democratic order in the
Western hemisphere.

Nor has imperialism solved its own struc-
tural crisis and inherent inequities. —

Ten years of neo-conservatism has dem-
onstrated that the expansion of the produc-
tive forces under capitalism does not lead to
full employment, equality and social justice.
On the contrary, neo-conservative policies
have eliminated democratic rights, lowered
living standards, dismantléd social services
and fostered racism and chauvinism. As
Canada sits on the edge of economic reces-
sion, already more than one million
workers are unemployed.

However as the decade of the 1990s
opens, the Canadian left faces great chal-
lenges. The trade union movement stands’
demobilized and relatively ineffective in the
fight against
democracy has made concessions to neo-
conservatism, and has failed to develop a
viable and sustainable socialist alternative
for Canada in the global economy of the
1990s.

The Communist Party also faces a politi-
cal crisis of growth and of theory arising
from Canadian conditions which must be
overcome if it is to provide leadership in the
advancement of left politics in Canada.

The Communist Party of Canada,
together with Communists internationally,
faces the challenge of breaking decisively
the political association with Stalinist ideol-
ogy and its “state socialism” application in
the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

The Canadian working class needs a
strong revolutionary socialist movement in
our country which is distinctly Canadian.

Such a movement needs a creative Marx-
ist analysis of Canadian conditions, and a
program for social change based on the

see DEBATE page 11
Pacific Tribune, January 15, 1990 « 3

neo-conservatism. Social ~