"This congress has brought no solution to the internal crisis" - Jaime Pastor
* Spain The debates before the 5* Federal Assembly of Izquierda Unida, and the meting itself, have not put an end to the crisis in the organisation. Nor have they permitted a better political clarification. The main themes of the Assembly were the report by General Co-ordinator Julio Anguita, the new statutes, and a discussion on the candidate lists for the election of the new Federal Political Council ("the Council"). T here was little discussion of the political documents -- the Manifesto and the Programmatic Axes. Though the Assembly did criticise the IU leadership for its criticism of the Basque pro-independence party Herri Batasuna, and approve plans to prepare conferences to deal with the women question, the federal nature of the Spanish state and the national question, and on the Basque question.
General Co-ordinator Julio Anguita's report was a self-criticism concerning the organisational functioning of IU, but without admitting any errors in the political orientation followed since the 4th Assembly, or in the leadership's treatment of conflicts within the organisation. This he euphemistically referred to as the "democratic normalisation" of IU.
Anguita reaffirmed the organisation's opposition to neoliberalism and to the way the majority [social democratic] tendency in the Spanish left has adapted to it. But there were no alternative proposals for how to react to the European Union and the governing right-wing bloc [the Peoples Party of Prime Minister José-Maria Aznar, and conservative nationalist parties from Catalonia and the Canary Islands).
There was nothing in Anguita's speech about searching for formulas for alliances with a pluralistic left to repond to political, social, cultural and national questions.
For these and other reasons, most delegates from our current, Espacio Alternativo (Alternatıve Space) abstained in the vote on Anguta' s report.
The leadership's attempts to impose a neo-centralist organisational project were blocked thanks to the numerous amendments to the statutes presented by IU federations from Valencia, the Basque country and Madrid. This enabled us to preserve the principles of pluralism and federalism, and introduce new methods of democratisation, including the increased use of "primary" elections, and the suppression of the system whereby some 200 members of the outgoing party 14 International Viewpoint #297 leadership have ex officio delegate rights at the Assembly. Another amendment allowed currents to present lists with less candidates than the number of seats available - this will help smaller currents achieve greater representation in the larger
There were three lists of candidates for the national leadership. The majority current was the result of a pact between the Communist Party (PCE), the largest component of IU, and some other constituent parties and "independents." Some sections of the PCE and the Andalucian Workers' Unity Collective (CUT) felt that they were under-represented in this list. The PASOC party and the Republican Left, however, were visibly satisfied with
The Third Way current (close to the leadership of the main trade union, Commissiones Obreras) had better-than expected results (considering that they were under-represented in this Assembly.) The current is particularly strong in Valencia, Andalucia, Aragon and Madrid
Our current, Alternative Space, presented our own list. A few days beforehand, we had been invited to join the majority list, but under conditions which would have prevented us from clearly preserving our political identity. And we would have been "penalised" [in number and ranking of candidates] compared to other currents which had pledged allegiance to the majority all through the
Almost all our delegates agreed that we should present our own list. This required us to collect 150 delegate signatures (10% of the total). In fact, we collected 225 signatures, including delegates from practically every federation inside %a donshe-
IU. With this support, we were able to make one of the rare political speeches at the Assembly, and our electoral results were even better than we expected. Our 9% of delegate votes entitled us to eight seats in the new national leadership. Those selected represent the plural nature of our
"alternatives," the Madrid-based Democratic Left Current (CID) - as well as our geographical diversity - Extremadura, Basque Country Madrid, and the overseas branches of IU Half our candidates were women and unlike the other lists, we had some young
Since our fondation in October 1996, we have affirmed our own identity: in favour of a multi-national federalism; support for the self-determination of the Basque people, and a negotiated solution to the conflict there; in favour of a prog rammatic and practical red, green and violet [feminist] articulation of the emancipatory project, including the question of how best to share work, time and wealth in a framework of sustainable development and equal participation of men and women in all sectors of life. We also call for the transformation of IU into a new type of political formation - going beyond the current calition of parties.
On the basis of these ideas, we took an independent position in the conflict which polarised IU in the run-up to the Assembly, with the majority on one side, and the New Left [current arguing for a rapprochement with the social democrats -Ed.] and other sectors on the other side. While we are politically far removed from that current (which is no longer inside IU), we said that the differences would have been settled at this Sth Assembly, and not, as the leadership did, by taking administrative measures which often broke the federal statues.
Those who thought that this Assembly could, by itself, solve the crisis, and provoke a "fundamental clarification" were mistaken. The wounds of the crisis are not yet healed. There are still open conflicts in some federations - Madrid, Aragon and the Basque Country - and this was reflected in the 10% of blank ballot papers in the election of the national leadership.
The Assembly also witnessed the beginnings of the debate for the Communist Party's own Congress. Someone will have to replace Julio Anguita as head of the CP. But who? In this situation, and lacking a political strategy for the coming period, there is a real risk that campaigns like the 35 hour week, opposition to privatisation, and in favour of a federal Spanish state, will be conceived and run as institutional and media campaigns, rather than by searching for a real convergence with those sectors in the social movements which share these objetives. * The author is a leading member of the Espacio Alternativo current inside Izquierda Unida.