A Necessary Rupture? Jaime Pastor
Spain's Izquierda (United Left - IU) holds its conference later this month (December), not everyone will be able to participate. The process of rupture which started in May means that the Partido Democratico de Nueva Izquierda (PDNI) is now outside IU. So are several IU federations in Galicia, Cantabria and Castille-La Mancha, the Greens in Andalucia, and a good part of the "Third Way" current. More recently IU has split with its Catalan partner Iniciativa per Catalunya, and called on IU sympathisers in Catalonia to form a new organisation there.
IU is still pluralistic: alongside the various currents in the Communist Party, there are a range of smaller socialist and republican groups. But, as a result of the crisis, many IU supporters and voters no longer see the United Left as what it set out to be: a regroupment of forces to the left of the Socialist Party (PSOE). This, obviously, has reduced IU's credibility.
How did we come to this? Part of the explanation lies in the unfavourable political and cultural context, with the social movements retreating, and support for anti-capitalist values and ideas declining. Some sections of the old social left
"adapting" to the neo-liberal hegemony. Others show a healthy determination to resist, but limit themselves to simplistic "communist" arguments, and try to establish a firm barrier between themselves and everyone else. Including those who share their concerns, but refuse the methods used to resolve the differences
Many of us who joined IU in the early 90s recognised that, despite the existence of diverse and partially incompatible projects inside IU, the originality of the formation, and of similar projects in other countries, was in its capacity to encourage cohabitation between diverse currents, so as to join their forces in a counter-offensive against neoliberalism. For a while, as IU received growing electoral support, and with significant social mobilisations, particularly the general strikes of 1985 and 1994, this seemed possible.
But things changed. A large part of the responsibility is born by the leadership of Spain's two main trade unions, CCOO and UGT. Opting for the "lesser of two evils," trade union leaders have encouraged social passivity.
The May 1995 municipal elections marked the limits of IU's electoral growth, and revealed the organisation's difficulties in adopting tactics in its institutional work which would allow IU to maintain its autonomy from the ruling Socialists (PSOE), without allowing the old rightwing Partido Popular (PP) to take control of town halls and regional governments in the 17 Autonomous Regions. Leaders of IU talked of "two banks of the river" with IU on one side, and the PSOE and PP on the other. But this only confused left
The March 1996 elections saw the PSOE replaced by a PP government.It also ended any IU ambitions of "overtaking" the PSOE as the largest left-wing party (though the leadership has not made a critical evaluation of its previous orientation, and its sectarian implications). The United Left was stagnating, unable to relate well to the "old" and the "new" social movements.
Although IU articulated a progressive criticism of the way the trade union leadership negotiated counter-reforms of the pension system and labour market with the PP government, this did not translate into practical initiatives and proposals. Instead there was a reliance on verbal aggression, and a lack of pedagogical work. The trade union leaders exploited this, to convince most of their members to "close ranks" in the face of IU's criticisms.
IU's relationship with youth movements or the anti-Maastricht movement were hardly helped by its votes in favour of the new Penal Code (which still criminalizes refusal to do military service, abortion for social reasons, and squatting) and its reluctance to relate to platforms and initiatives which it considered relics of the far left." IU did not move to the left in practical terms. To say nothing of its participation in "anti-terrorist" pacts, and support for Spanish demands for the extradition of members of the armed Basque Conspiracy theory
The Spanish Communist Party (PCE), the largest element within IU, had always had a contradictory relationship with social democracy: oscillating from subordination to sectarianism. It was hardly a surprise when the PCE reacted to the electoral victory of a conservative bloc (the PP in coalition with right nationalist parties in the Basque country, Catalonia and the Canary Islands) by imposing a new, tense debate about IU's relationship with the PSOE, now in opposition.
One current in IU (now called the PDNI) argued for a strategic alliance with the PSOE. The leadership of the PCE reacted in a purely defensive way, arguing that this minority initiative was part of a
SOLDADO JAPONÉS, AÑOS
DESRUÉG DE PERDER LA
SEGUNDA GUERRA MUNDIAL
• VIVA EL
EMPERADOR
JULiO ANGUITA, ANOS
DESPUÉS DE LA CAIDA
DEL MURO DE BERLIN
¡ ViVA
MARX Y
LENIN
Spain * between the Socialist Party and most of IU into the background
The problem is that the IU federal leadership made support for their 'pure' IU electoral platform in Galicia into a point of conflict with the leadership of IU's Catalan partner, Iniciativa per Catalunya, and with several IU federations. The result was a series of splits.
As over the Galician IU, we disagreed sharply with the way the IU federal leadership handled the conflict with Initiativa. While we disagree with the [rightist] positions of the leadership of Initiativa per Catalunya, we think that the debate should have happened at the 5th Congress. The centralist way in which Anguita has
FIND THE SEVEN DIFFERENCES (if there are any) Japanese soldier, years after the end of the second world war "conspiracy" led by the PSOE and the PRISA industrial group, which also owns Spain's largest newspaper, El País. legedly to destroy IU and its Coordinador The aim of this conspiracy General, PCE leader Julio Anguita. Since April 1997, this "theory" has been used to justify a "war" which, inevitably, has meant breaking IU's own statutes in order to finish with the "enemy."
The result was the expulsion of the PDNI, transforming a current which would not have won even 20% of votes at this coming congress into victims. As a result, the PDNI has been able to pull whole federations of IU with it on its way
Espacio Alternativo [the IU current led by the author and some Fourth International supporters] argued that initiating a rupture was not the best way to deal with the PDNI "operation" inside IU. We did not see why a small minority, despite their considerable media support, should dominate the agenda of the rest of the organisation. We also refused to accept that the conflict with the PDNI was the main reason for IU's obvious political disorientation, institutional inertia and introspec-
True, the PDNI strategy of seeking permanent, public differentiation with the IU leadership made cohabitation difficult.
But we distanced ourselves from the IU leadership's autistic attitude, and its refusal to accept legitimate criticism over some specific votes in parliament, or pointing to its poor relations with some of the social movements. We rejected the old argument that "the ends justify the and so we protested the violations of the statutes used to marginalise PDNI supporters... and others.
Plurality problems
This is the main problem. What started as a struggle against those who later formed the PDNI increasingly became an
MANTiN Julio Anguita, years after the fall of the Berlin Wall aggressive response to any sector of IU which the leadership suspected of seeking regular collaboration with the socialist party, or which disagreed with the leadership in the way it was handling the crisis.
For instance, the IU leadership in Galica was expelled for forming a coalition with the socialist party in Galicia's regional elections in October. They justified this coalition by the need to defeat Manuel Fraga (PP), a former minister during the Franco dictatorship, and President of the Galician Autonomous government (Xunta) for the last eight years. Local IU leaders also hoped that the coalition would entitle them to the privileges of a parliamentary fraction.
While we agreed with the IU federal leadership in Madrid that the Galician coalition was short on programmatic content, and lacking in references to the Maastricht criteria and NATO, we disagreed with Julio Anguita and others over how to resolve the conflict with the IU leadership in Galicia. We also argued that we should prioritise some agreement with the increasingly popular left-wing Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG).
Unfortunately, Anguita insisted on splitting with the Galician IU leadership, in the name of "coherence," and a centralist conception of what IU should be. We, in contrast, argued for respecting the right of the Galician IU to develop their own strategy in regional elections, even if we disagreed with their decisions. Instead, the IU federal leadership helped create a rival 'real IU' electoral list which won an unimpressive
0.8% of votes. The left-nationalist BNG won 25.5% (up from 18.4%) while the
PSOE-IU-Green coalition won 19.4%, compared to a total of 27.1% in the previous elections. The PP was re-elected, with a slightly smaller absolute majority
The breakthrough of the BNG has pushed debate on an Italian style coalition encouraged the formation of a new pro-lU Catalan force to the left of Initiativa has given the United Left a hispanocentric image, much resented by parts of the
The perverse effects of this "war" also led the IU federal leadership to reject my own text on the need for a federalisation of the Spanish state, including the right to self-determination for the various nationalities. The text had previously been approved by a large majority, but, since I had in the meantime voted against the sanc tions imposed on supporters of the PDNI, the secret vote went against me...
There is a serious risk that IU will retreat into an old-style, centralised, homogenous party of the presidential type. That is what the new statutes proposed at the coming congress imply. They will make it difficult to guarantee respect for pluralism of views, and a truly federal
So far, this model has been used against the right-wing within IU. But in the future it could also be used against the organisation's alternative left minorities. Particularly over differences of opinion concerning the solution to the Basque conflict, and the relationship between IU and the Basque separatist party Looking forward
Although there is an obvious divergence between the PSOE and most of the
PDNI on the one hand, and a range of anti-neoliberal forces on the other, the situation in Spain cannot be reduced to a confrontation between "two lefts."
The Spanish and European left is, in reality, extremely diverse. The antineoliberal left contains a range of views on how to oppose capitalism; in the social and ecological fields, in responding the pluri-national nature of the Spanish state, and (still) in explaining the fall of real socialism." There is no overriding consensus on what forms of action, or what organisational form the left should take. In this context, how can we ensure that the United Left emerges from this 5th
Congress in the best possible conditions for rebuilding the anti-capitalist and internationalist left?
13
US$ 70
* Spain
One of IU's main problems has been its delay in understanding the nature of the change in the political cycle in recent years. This change obliges us to redefine our relationship with the ruling conservative Partido Popular, creating a strategy *of full-on opposition.
With the PSOE we should focus on joint action which can pull the social democrats to the left (though while maintaining our autonomy, and without generating illusions in electoral coalitions). We need to work with left-wing nationalist groups across the Spanish state and, above all, with the social movements, from the trade unions to the anti-militarist youth... To articulate the social, ecological and gender questions within one political
This will only be possible if IU has a new culture of debate and dialogue. With respectful confrontation where necessary, but without converting any divergence that emerges into something incompatible with project as defined by the leadership. This plurality and genuine federalism must De reflected in the decision-making bodies Croatia's racist chief
President Franjo Tudjman has warned Croatian youth against all those who are "genetically programmed... to act against the Croatian motherland."
This reference to the Serb minority came at celebrations to mark the 7th anniversary of the youth wing of Croatia's ruling party, the HDZ.
According to the Croatian Helsinki Committee, the president's latest racist outburst contravenes Croatia's constitution, as well as United Nations and European conventions on human rights. [CHC/JD]* International Viewpoint Analysis with attitude!