Interview with Left
Alternative leader
HUNGARY ourselves five days before the congress, while the reformist circles have already been in existence for a year. The left of the Union of Reformers is close to us. I believe that in the near future the right wing is going to leave the HSP, along with the head of government [Poszgay].
The HSWP is a grouping of the old conservative Stalinist forces, although there are also real communists within it who are still backward looking. They find it very hard to break with the old structures.
TAMAS KRAUSZ, a founder of Left Alternative, (Baldolali
Alternativa — LA), a group supporting self-management, and of the People's Democracy tendency in the Hungarian
Socialist Party (HSP), agreed to answer our questions on the situation in Hungary and in the surrounding region. LA is at the moment involved in the setting up of workers' councils in
Hungary and is leading a fight for a self-management law. This organization is calling for a break with the present government, which it describes as an "IMF-SzDS' government". For this reason it is calling for the mass organizations to leave the tripartite (Party/opposition/mass organizations) Round Table and for the creation of a permanent left forum, based on the workers' councils. The interview took place in Budapest on November 3, 1989.
AN you explain the nature and role of Left Alternative and what its name signifies?
To sum it up in a single phrase, it is all about people who are interested in social self-government, organizing from below as expressed for example by the workers' councils. We support these councils from a legal, moral, political and intellectual point of view. At the same time, LA is a theoretical tendency, not a party.
On the contrary it is an anti-party organization.
Its members come from different political parties or from none. What unites us is our belief in the possibility of a spontanedevelopment of self-organization ous from the base of society. We are preparing theoretically for that. We have no intention of intervening in the affairs of the various parties unless it is unavoidable.
• What is your approach to the present economic situation in Hungary, in particular the problem of the debt and relations with the IMF?
The old Kadarist system is exhausted. It is not open to the left or working class tendencies, something that is common to governments of Stalinist origin, who mix up democratization with free enterprise.
The result, as we see today, is complete decomposition. The structures are disintegrating and foreign capital is taking their place. The present government is a means for the restoration of capitalism, under the cover of a restoration of Christian Democracy. There is a crusade against commu-
The head of the government, Károly Grosz, an old Stalinist and everybody, including Poszgay, all the old Stalinists are proud now to be anticommunist. • You spoke of the restoration of capitalism in Hungary. What is the present situation? Have big firms, sectors of the economy been sold to foreign capital?
Foreign capital is picking out the enterprises that work best, leaving us with the less ellicient firms. At the same time, as far as the debt trap is concerned, the Hungarian economy is in the grip of the IMF and the international banks. Currently the left is divided. It stands in the • What was your attitude to the HSWP congress in October? What is your analysis of the transformation of the HSP and a continuing HSWP with the old apparatus?
It is necessary to break with the old ruling party. That means that we have to break with the conservative Stalinist forces; that is what happened at the congress. Our aim is to free ourselves of the free enterprisers as well. The anti-Stalinist left does not want to join the party. At the same time the right does not want to join the new party, because the "People's Democracy' platform, of which I am one of the representatives, won a majority at the congress over the Union of Reformers. We had a very big influence at the congress. We only organized
Furthermore, the new HSP has abandoned the old symbolism both under pressure from below and for tactical reasons. The red flag has been retained, but the red star has been abandoned and replaced by the red carnation. I am not, personally, in favour of this, but you have to understand that the Kadarist system has completely discredited these traditional communist symbols in the eyes of the public. • Can you give an analysis of the different forces at work here? There is what you call the left, the conservative forces and the neo-liberals who are for the restoration of capitalism.
In Hungary, these different forces do not exist as political parties. The Socialist Party also has an extreme right tendency that is out and out bourgeois restorationist. The restoration is to be carried through by the IMF. On the other hand, the Christian Democrats (MDF) have a workers section that is close to us. But the left wing retains the most conservative traditions. At the same time all the parties are anti-communist. That is how they hope to get power. The SzDSz has 6,000 persons, including ex-Marxists. Of course these renegade Marxists propagate the neo-liberal theories with the enthusiasm of the newly converted. There is also a left-wing minority, socialist "à la Mitter-
The HSWP has a Stalinist wing, but also a progressive left-wing which did not
The small October Party is very confused, radical both in a leftist and rightist sense. They are violently anti-communist, but they also want workers' councils. Sándor Rács (ex-workers' council leader in 1956 and now a candidate for the presidency) is a nationalist of the extreme right, and very Catholic. A lot of these people from 1956 have become violently anti-communist because of their imprisonments and so on. Now they are having difficulty in representing the interests of the workers' councils because the young do not understand them. The youth do not understand the language of hate. On October 23, in front of the parliament it has become clear. The youth do 1. SzDSz — Szabad Demokratik Szövetsége Democrat Association; supporters of westem-style 13 democracy".
Left Alternative appeal for Mayday 1989
International Viewpoint #75 • December 1i, 1989
HUNGARY
• What is the reality of the workers' councils today? Are they everywhere, or is the process only in the initial stages?
They exist here and there. But in my
(Leit Alternative Mayday 1989 appeal distributed in Buda-
WORKERS! ENTERPRISE EMPLOYEES! ENTERPRISE
COUNCILS!
The changeover law will soon be In force! This is the LAST
POSSIBILITY, because if you give your enterprises to national or foreign capital, the present state exploitation will grow into capitalist exploitation. TAKE YOUR DESTINY AND THE
LEADERSHIP OF THE COUNTRY IN YOUR HANDS!
The workers, who spend half their life in the factories, have always made efforts and had the capacity to take over the running of their enterprises, on the basis of their skills and direct interests. Remember the historical examples of WORKER
SELF-GOVERNMENT!
There is no capitalist or state management system that can achieve such efficiency or such results as the creative forces of workers' collectives and their direct material Interests!
Only this can save you from servitude and the country from
CHOOSE and employ leaders responsible to you, who are amenable and good for your cause
Real, non Stalinist, socialism rests on the development of self-organized and self-governed communities, on solidarity and on collaboration.
The dictatorship of the apparatus: that is Stalinism; the self- government of the workers: that is socialism!
Economic democracy is the road to social development. Every other road leads backwards.
ORGANIZE YOURSELVES!
ALL ECONOMIC POWER TO THE WORKERS!
The Economic Policy Committee of the Alternative Left association.
not understand the language of Christian nationalism.
• In this political situation, what is your attitude to the forthcoming presidential elections?
My own personal opinion is that the elections represent "parliamentary cretinism". A political and financial elite will come to power. There will not be "parliamentary democracy" in Hungary, but a parliamentary dictatorship, because there is no self-government structure on which the parliament can base itself. The present parliament has an HSWP majority. It has voted for political parties to get out of the enterprises. I am against this decision. It is contrary even to bourgeois democracy. It is a counter-revolutionary law. What do you think I can expect from this government when it has a majority? There will an anti-communist crusade and new steps towards the restoration of bourgeois democracy.
Unemployment will increase and there will be resistance from the workers. This will shuffle the pack for the IMF. All the lans of the bourgeois liberals are goin
14 to be upse
• Does this mean that you are not going to take a position on the presidential elections? Who do you consider the best candidate?
Imre Poszgay, the HSP candidate. The others are worse, so that's the choice we're left with. • You said that the creation of forms of self-government in the enterprises would change the political situation. What is the situation today with regard to the development of such organs? I understand that you envisage a congress of taking place
We are going to organize soon a conference that will bring together all the workers' councils organized by all the political parties. Of course, the People's Democracy platform will have the greatest weight in the organization of this project. The idea is to regroup the most progressive elements of the old party, that is the anti-Stalinist nucleus in the HSP, influenced by the LA. The forces that come will support the broadest possible assembly of workers' councils.
opinion they are the last chance for a socialist alternative today. • A more general question. Hungary belongs to the Warsaw Pact and Comecon. Are you closely following what is happening in the other countries of the Eastern bloc?
Of course. I wrote a very long article in the first number of Eszmelet (Consciousness) about what is happening in the USSR, the Gorbachev phenomenon and so on....There is a great danger that there will be a civil war between nationalities today in the Soviet Union and even inside the Republics. Or perhaps the reestablishment of control by a conservative dictator. The last chance for perestroika and glasnost is for Gorbachev to unite with the revolutionary forces in the apparatus to support the strikes like that of the miners against the conservatives.
In Poland, I do not see essential differences between the Communists and Solidarnosc since the latter is now also frightened of workers' self-government. Little by little I expect to see collapse, because the IMF is going to ruin the whole of Eastern Europe. There is a process of Latin-americanization in Eastern Europe, which the GDR is now part of The old Stalinist regimes are wholly compromised. They have no more legitimacy. They are pushing free enterprise more and more in order to deprive the workers' movement of room. For this reason we are going to see the collapse of the old CPs in all these countries and the birth of a new left, both anti-free enterprise and anti-Stalinist. All the CPs have lost their old links with the working class. No other party has such close links with the working class. The Stalinist dictatorships have little future in Eastern Europe. Only capitalist restoration, that is a military dictatorship with no social base can stop a turn • A more personal question to finish. What was the reception in Hungary of your selection of writings by Trotsky?
In distinction to another book about Stalin there was not the invasion of political books like now.
In this period of Christian national restoration, Marxist literature is being progressively marginalized. Those who are Marxists liked the book. But it did not provoke a debate. Some comments were favourable. But the opposition (SzDSz, FIDES) hates Marxism, Communism and Trotsky. I describe our modern epoch as "the new Stalinism under a white flag" a democratic Stalinism financed by international capitalism. *