Embracing the Communist Specter

A specter is haunting Europe, as Marx once put it, the specter of Communism. But what kind? Many Communist parties in Western Europe are displaying a new face and style. Dealing with them is a major problem, especially for the Socialists. Italy's Communists have surged to unprecedented influence while openly approving such palatable ideas as a mixed economy, a multiparty system and a free press. France's party seems to be following suit, even repudiating the sacred doctrine of the dictatorship of the proletariat; and Spain's emerging Communists, lean and muscular from the underground, show signs of similar adaptability.

Portugal's aggressive comrades, on the other hand, have revived traditional Socialist fears about the ruthless Communist lust for power. Last November's abortive attempt at a coup cost Alvaro Cunhal's party both power and prestige, but the experience was too close a call for many a wary Socialist.

How to accommodate the Communists' new image is beginning to divide European Socialists into two camps: a Northern group that wants no alliances with the Communists, and a Southern coalition that believes such alliances are necessary for leftist political victory. The debate sharpened considerably over the past two weeks at two major conclaves of Europe's Socialist leaders.

The first round took place at a meeting of Socialists from 18 European countries at Helsingor (Hamlet's Elsinore) in Denmark. The Northern Socialists--including British Laborites, West German Social Democrats, Danish, Swedish and Austrian parties--vehemently reiterated what has come to be a cornerstone of the Socialist International's policy: no dealings with Communists. "We see no reason to engage in any kind of cooperation," thundered West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, warning that any alliances would endanger both NATO and the Common Market.

Common Drive. "You should not declare anathema what you do not know," answered French Socialist Leader Franc,ois Mitterrand, who has made himself chief spokesman for the Southern Socialist position. He argued that Western Europe's Communist parties are changing, becoming more independent of Moscow, sloughing off archaic Stalinist ideology. Socialists, therefore, can safely ally themselves with Communists in a common leftist drive for power. Mitterrand's views have been challenged as being too ingenuous about Communist intentions, most recently in The Totalitarian Temptation, a new book by disillusioned Socialist Jean-Franc,ois Revel (TIME, Feb. 2).

Last week in Paris, Mitterrand played host to a group of like-minded Southern Socialists, including party officials from Italy, Spain and Portugal, who called for a joint party strategy of all forces on the left. They argued that Southern Socialists, unlike their Northern counterparts, are out of office and stand little chance of gaining power on their own. Economic development is slow in Southern Europe, they point out; workers and unions are anxious for radical change, not Northern European reformism. Southern Communist parties are too strong to be ignored, unlike the small, peripheral parties of Northern Europe. At the same time, the Southern Socialists are growing stronger and can now share power with Communists without necessarily losing the upper hand. In France, for instance, recent opinion polls show that the Socialists would win 30% of the vote in new elections, Communists 20%.

The Southern Socialists clearly viewed the alliances as a necessity, not an ideal. Spain's Felipe Gonzalez ruled out an exclusive Socialist-Communist partnership in his country, preferring a broader coalition that could include progressive Catholics and anyone else seeking a "democratic rupture" in post-Franco Spain (see story page 42). Manuel Alegre, deputy head of the Portuguese Socialist Party, charged that Cunhal's Communists in Lisbon "conduct themselves like a party from another planet and another age."

Still, the principal Southern Socialist parties all endorsed the basic approach toward alliances--if only as strategy, and perhaps for a country other than their own. Portuguese Socialist Chief Mario Soares, who was in the U.S. while his colleagues met in Paris, told TIME last week that the Southern Socialist strategy is designed to "force the Communists to come out for freedom." Whether or not Communist leaders are sincere in promoting liberty, such ideas will inevitably "create in workers and militants a new pattern of thought" favorable to democracy. Soares also thinks that keeping Communists in the Portuguese government has usefully served both to split the party and to make it share responsibility for the unpopular austerity measures there.

New Situation. The U.S. will have none of the Southern strategy. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger does not believe that the Communists will abide by the rules of democracy and yield power should they lose an election. He also fears that Communists in Western Europe's governments might leak NATO secrets to Moscow. On orders from Kissinger, U.S. diplomats called on a number of European Socialist leaders before the Helsingor meeting, urging them to reject any trend toward Communist alliances.

The American lobbying campaign annoyed many Southern Socialists, who feel that neither Kissinger nor their Northern European colleagues understand the problem. "There is a new situation in Southern Europe," says Robert Pontillon, national secretary of the French Socialist Party. "There is a dynamism on the left, but we can't reach power without an alliance with the Communists. Unless the U.S. wants to deal only with the likes of Franco and the Greek colonels, Kissinger must admit the reality of Southern Europe, including large Communist parties."

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