EURO-COMMUNISM
19
For the moment , by the way, the Itali an Communi st party does
exercise a considerabl e veto power on the poli cies of government,
and through its cha irman shi p of pa rli amenta ry committees has
somethin g to say about th e day- by-day running of public affairs.
If
we move on to th e questi on of rela ti onships
to
Eastern Eu rope and
the Soviet Uni on , it seems to me, Walter, tha t you have exaggera ted
the degree of dependence of these pa rti es, pa rti cul a rl y the Itali an , but
also increas ing ly, I think, the French Pa rty, upon the Soviet Uni on .
You ca ll th em famil y quarrels. T hey brin g up strong fee lings, but
they a re not no tori ously unifying for those who li ve through th em.
It is true tha t the Sin o-Sov iet split was a major split precisely
because the Chin ese were no t simp ly a guerill a pa rty in the hill s,
desperately try ing to negoti a te with the Kuo Min Tang, but because
they rep resented th e sta te appa ra tus, the government and the na–
ti onal consciousness of a major power. T here is no reason to suppose
that Western European Communi st pa rti es, under p resent condi–
ti ons in government, will suddenl y lose their na ti onal component or
na ti on al consciousness. T he no ti on
0 1
the transmi ssion of disruptive
effects to Eas tern Europe is an interes ting one. A certa in amount of
skepti cism is, I think , legitima te. T he install a tion of Marchais in
cha rge of industry in France, or Berlin guer a t Finance or even in the
Pri me Ministership in Rome will no t bring down the Soviet regime
or th e sa tellite regimes.
An a rgument could , however, be made tha t, since the immedi a te
prospect for Eas tern Europe is no t a cho ice between parli amentary
democracy immedi a tely and the p resent reg imes, but a certain kind
of loosening of a rrangements to a ll ow the gradual development o f
plura li sm, the pa rti cipa ti on in gove rnment and in democra ti c
po liti cal life of Wes tern Eu ropean Communi st parti es in some sort
of to uch with the Eas tern Eu ropean Communi st pa rti es mi ght be
to
the adva ntage of those seeking a p lurali zation of political life in
Eas tern Eu rope.
A furth er questi on has to do with the troubling no ti on of the
structu re of the Party, its ma intenance as a party, of these parti es as
Communi st parti es. We have
to
take account of the fact tha t these
pa rti es have hi stori es. Some o f th eir hi story is, to say the least,
ing lori ou s. And aga in I think tha t it is unrea listic for a hi stori an to
expect these pa rti es to change overni ght , to stop being Communi st.
T here arc gf'neralion al qU f's ti ons, qu es ti on s of the adhes io n of o lder
genera ti on s of militants to the Pa rty, ideological ques ti o ns, which I
think a re graduall y bein g solved .
T he q uesll on o f structu re is an interes ting one and a troublin g
