03.11.2005

Tentative steps to unity

Around 300 people attended the first congress of the European Left Party in Athens, October 29-30. The congress did not achieve much in terms of political clarity - but undoubtedly it was an advance in the cooperation of the left across Europe. Tina Becker reports

The French 'non' to the constitution, the crisis of social democratic parties across Europe and the recent electoral success for the German Linkspartei - these are some of the factors that have helped the creation of the European Left Party. Sixteen parties have now fully joined the ELP (Respect has also applied), while another 11 hold observer status. And still the Athens congress certainly did not feel like a new beginning. There was no atmosphere of excitement, not even to the level that was witnessed at the first European Social Forum in Florence in 2001. It pretty much felt like most of the other international gatherings the left has been engaged in over recent years - if anything, this congress was a little more boring, a little less transparent and a bit more focused on the various 'celebrities'. Quite clearly, the left is still trying to come to terms with the end of the Soviet Union. For over 15 years, pretty much the same European organisations have been creating, dumping and then re-creating organisational forms and political methods in the hope of engaging with a new generation of political activists. The European Left Party is very much part of this. Its one big step forward is its recognition that there is an objective need to create a higher political and organisational formation to face the Europe of the bosses, bankers and bureaucrats - ie, a party. Compare that to the European Social Forum, where we still have to pretend that parties are not so much part of the working class as 'part of the problem'. However, on the downside, it is quite obvious that the ELP in its current form is not the kind of party that could really take on the EU. l Its policies reflect the lowest common denominator between the parties. Its various policy statements, arrived at by discussion on the ELP executive board (made up of two representatives from each member-party) are nothing more than a rehash of safe and ineffective demands and simply too dull to repeat in any detail. The abolition of Nato is perhaps the most daring - alongside a call for greater use of UN 'peacekeeping' forces. l Political differences are not brought out and discussed openly, but hidden behind general platitudes about the need to fight for "a Europe of peace and justice". Just like the ESF, the ELP operates according to the consensus principle. In reality, this leads not to more democracy, but a lack of political clarity and the suppression of minority viewpoints. Contributions at congress consisted of a long list of non-connected speeches, in which each speaker had five minutes to tell the other participants how important the ELP, and naturally his or her own organisation, really was. Thrilling it was not. l Without such clarity, it will prove pretty much impossible to make the ELP a real party in any sense - ie, a party that is part of the European working class and is visible, active and rooted across Europe. The ELP executive board itself stresses that the "visibility of the ELP on the European scene is too modest" (an understatement, I think) and that the few joint actions so far undertaken "were not sufficiently known and thus did not have the impact that one would expect on the European scene" ('On the evaluation and the concept of the European Left Party'). Rifondazione leader Fausto Bertinotti addresses the first congress of the European Left Party, urging the German Linkspartei to enter a government coalition l While the main political document at congress ('Political theses') repeatedly mentions the fight of the "working class" against "capitalism", there is not a single mention of what kind of alternative system we are fighting for: ie socialism. l The question of government participation hangs over the ELP like the sword of Damocles. The main organisations involved have either already participated in regional or national governments, are currently part of government coalitions, are about to enter one or have expressed a desire to do so in the future. In his opening speech, ELP president Fausto Bertinotti (who is currently leading Rifondazione Comunista into a government coalition with Romano Prodi's social democrats) condemned the German SPD for embarking upon a 'grand coalition' with the conservatives. Instead, he said, the SPD should have used the "possibility of creating a government open to the left, an alliance with the Linkspartei and the Greens. This result shows what degree of contradiction social democracy is capable of when it chooses to avoid a dialogue, even a critical dialogue with the alternative left". Officially, of course, the Linkspartei has denied that it is interested in participating in government, but Bertinotti was sure as hell not the only one to pick on the 'hints' dropped by Linkspartei politicians like Oskar Lafontaine. It is certainly understandable why so few organisations and parties have joined the ELP, which was founded in Rome in 2004. It is hardly a dynamic formation and very far from the strong Marxist alternative that our class so desperately needs. In fact, the European Left Party is part of the decline and slow death of the old left: a left that refuses to radically change its undemocratic and untransparent methods of organisation; a left that is still ashamed of and suppresses its political differences; a left that refuses to deal with its history and legacy and learn important lessons. But boycotts waged by the likes of the Communist Party of Greece (today possibly the biggest CP in Europe) are certainly not the answer. Communists and socialists from across Europe should participate in the ELP, which is the highest form of international political cooperation available at present. But our participation must be based on honest and comradely criticism. A European Marxist party could be a powerful weapon in the hand of the working class across Europe. Another opportunity for venting hot air we do not need. Also see related articles: * Tentative steps to unity Around 300 people attended the first congress of the European Left Party in Athens, October 29-30. The congress did not achieve much in terms of political clarity - but undoubtedly it was an advance in the cooperation of the left across Europe. Tina Becker reports * Realigning the left If the European Left Party does nothing else but bring to an end the multiplicity of ineffective umbrella organisations that exist on the European left, it will have achieved something. Let us look at a few of them. * Unification process Interview with Haris Golemis, a member of the central political committee of the Greek party Synaspismos (Coalition of the Left and Movements of Ecology) * Respect: Britain out of the EU? Chris Bambery told participants at the congress that Respect is for the British withdrawal from the European Union