03.11.2005

Unification process

Haris Golemis is a member of the central political committee of the Greek party Synaspismos (Coalition of the Left and Movements of Ecology) and director of the Nicos Poulantzas Institute, which is closely linked to the party. He is also a founding member of the European network, Transform!, which participates actively in the European and World Social Forums. In the ELP congress he was one of the two Synaspismos members involved in the drafting of its final document, the so-called 'Declaration of Athens'. He spoke to Tina Becker

What do you think of the congress? The congress - as every international left gathering - is a special event. I consider it part of a unification process of the broad European left and the social movements, which started with the 1997 Euro-marches against the Amsterdam Treaty and found expression in events like the European Social Forum. But its interest is not just about the speeches that are going on inside the hall - it is more about the contacts you make outside. Because by talking to comrades from other countries you soon notice that the political debates and discussions you have in your own organisation are happening almost identically in other parties too. From that point of view, I am really enjoying the congress and I have hopes that it will help the ELP to develop in a useful direction. What would such a useful direction look like? I believe that we need a strong European unified political left as soon as possible - I know your organisation also has been talking about the objective need to build a Communist Party of the European Union. But it needs to be a real party of the left. I do not think it is enough for the leaderships of national parties to get together and run things - though for the moment I guess it cannot be done any other way. But, as we move forward, we need to have the kind of honest political discussions that have been missing at this congress. We have the bones of a real party, but now it needs some flesh. Most parties represented here are not monolithic: they are made up of factions, tendencies or currents with often important political differences. I believe, for example, that there are important questions where I might agree more with comrades of some other organisation such as yours and disagree with comrades of my own party. You are advocating an international party with international factions? Yes, because without such political honesty about our differences the ELP will not develop as much as it could. It will take time to get there, but that should definitely be our aim and therefore dictate to a certain degree the way we are organising today. People on the left have political differences - that is normal. It should be just as normal to discuss these differences openly. This exchange of political views can affect us all. For example, my party, Synaspismos, is now much more radical than it was when founded in 1991. This is due to many reasons, one of which is its involvement in the movement against globalisation, the WSF and the ESF, where it came into contact with more leftwing political organisations and ideas. Our role in the formation of the European Left Party, which we cohabit with communist and radical left parties, is closely related to that 'contamination' during the previous period. There is still quite a long way to go, judging by the resolutions presented here at congress. They very much seem to represent the lowest common denominator. When I first saw the draft theses for the congress, I must say I was very disappointed. They represented some extremely moderate views, even in comparison to what we have found in the 'much broader' ESF processes. However, I was positively surprised when this document actually led to a very interesting political discussion in the central political committee of my own organisation. There, we decided to put forward a series of amendments and most of them have been accepted and integrated into the final document. Naturally, I would have preferred if the final document could have been discussed here at congress and not only at the level of the ELP executive board or the meeting of the party presidents. It is still not a very stimulating document, but the important thing is that it was not set in stone and that we were able to change some things in it. Such an open method is important to draw in as many organisations from across Europe as possible. None of our organisations can carry on planning and acting solely in national terms - we must think in European terms. Not everybody agrees, of course. As you know, the Communist Party of Greece, for example, is refusing to get involved either in the ELP or the ESF - in fact it denounces them as helping the EU and US with their imperialist plans "¦ The main document does talk about the organised working class struggling against capitalism, more so than any ESF document ever did. But should we not also say what we are fighting for? That was one the main concerns of some of my Greek comrades and myself. In our opinion, it should have said that something like, 'Our aim is socialism in Europe, with freedom and democracy'. I think there is one mention of socialism somewhere, but it is not very clear what we mean by this and how we go about achieving it. The key thing is that we should debate such questions properly. For example, I had a discussion with a comrade from Rifondazione Comunista about his organisation's plan to take part in the government of Romano Prodi. I think that as a European communist I have the right to demand of the Italian comrades that, when in government, they will enforce the immediate withdrawal of Italian troops from Iraq and that they will try to change the policies of the European Union. If these two points are not fulfilled, I don't think that the European left and the movement in general will gain anything from the PRC's participation in a possible Prodi government. Also, I have told the same comrade that in my opinion Rifondazione was wrong to take part in the American-style primary elections, in which Prodi has been selected as the leader of the 'Unione' - before even a programme of this coalition has been decided on. I think we have a duty to make these kinds of criticisms of each other in a comradely manner and the Party of the European Left is the most suitable place to do that. I would disagree with you on Rifondazione: I think it should not participate in a capitalist government at all. History has shown that the left cannot but betray the working class if it does so. However, I agree with your assessment that we need to discuss such matters openly with the Italian comrades. Do you think the European left still suffers from the old 'official communist' culture, where one party simply does not criticise another? It is true that in the past, inside the communist movement, we had very bad experiences from the interventions of the CPSU, as the 'leading party', into the internal affairs of the other CPs. This has created the need to fully respect each party's sovereignty. However, this should not lead us to a situation which for me resembles some kind of left foreign diplomacy. Fortunately, we don't have the leading party any more. But it feels as if we now have the heads of the foreign departments sitting around a table, telling each other politely how interesting their views are. We will not get very far with such an approach. We need to be more daring about politics and risk making each other angry. For example, I was certainly surprised that the leadership of the ELP went to visit the prime minister and the president of Greece just before congress. I hope that this does not mean that the ELP wanted to show publicly that it remains respectable and within the political establishment. I think it would have been much better and much more symbolic if, taking advantage of the opportunity offered by the national holiday of October 28 [the anniversary of Italy's declaration of war on Greece in 1940], they had gone to the Kaissariani municipality and, together with its leftwing mayor, paid tribute to the resistance fighters executed there by the Nazis during the German occupation. Definitely, the ELP is not perfect at the moment. But it is very important that its creation shows that many European left parties are beginning to understand that they need to work together and to build alliances, as the only way to break out of the isolation they have suffered for so long. This applies also to parties which are not full members of the ELP - for instance, the LCR or the German DKP. We must learn to work with people - on a European level as well as on a national level - who maybe are not pure Marxists or do not have the best communist programme around. I think the French campaign against the European constitution was a great example of what a broad alliance with clear targets can achieve. There, communists, Trotskyists, left socialists, greens and people from the movements worked together in a comradely way, although not without tensions, which had the wonderful result we know. Trotsky made a good point when he said that socialists can make alliances with the devil, as long as they don't call him an angel. In our view, it is perfectly legitimate to have alliances with part of the muslim community in Britain, for example - as long as we argue for the Marxist programme within such an alliance. I have to say that I have some serious disagreements with the alliances that some forces of the left in Britain and elsewhere want to form in this area. I definitely agree more with your party's critical approach. Even in Greece, some parts of the left are reluctant to come out with strong condemnation of islamic fundamentalism and terrorism. I completely disagree with this stance. We have to be very clear that neither have anything to do with our vision of a socialist or communist society, which must be based on democracy and freedom. 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