11-04-05, 10:09 am
The Athens meeting of the European Left Party this past weekend was the subject of questions by reporters at a news conference by the Secretary General of the Communist Party of Greece, Aleka Paparigas. [Translator’s Note: the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and the Portuguese Communist Party were conspicuous by their absence from this meeting, especially since the European Left Party chose to hold its first congress in Athens. The KKE has a long tradition of fighting to defend the principles of Marxism-Leninism. It is a key component of the labor movement and political scene in Greece and has hosted many international congresses of Communist and Workers’ Parties, fulfilling a vital role in building international unity, especially after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In Greece, it wages a hard-fought campaign to defend the rights of workers against the pseudo-Socialist PASOK (which alternates in power with the New Democracy Party similar to the way in which Republicans and Democrats alternate power in the US). Oskar Lafontaine of the German Social Democratic Party, and an opponent within that party of Gerhard Schroder, is one of the founders of this new “European” Left Party. The French CP and Italy’s Party of Communist Refoundation did attend this meeting.]
What are your thoughts on the first congress of the new Party of the European Left?
We have already spoken earlier both in general terms and more analytically about the European Left Party. It is a party which was formed at the express instructions of the European Union in order to do away with the activity of political parties at the national level by transforming them into pan-European parties. In that way, the centralized bureaucracy of the European Union will be better able to exercise control over them.
We are in principle radically opposed to the idea of European parties. Political cooperation within the European framework is one thing and common political action another - obviously taking into consideration the ideological tendencies at work. But now the time is neither ripe, nor is it pragmatically achievable for unified pan-European parties to exist, because what will come into being will be a bureaucratic mechanism - while the popular base of the parties will be destroyed.
However, we are much more opposed to the program of the party itself on ideological and political grounds. I believe there have been many such experiments in the past, i.e. experiments at 'renewal and modernization' as they are presented, or attempts to find a new way. Of course, when you jettison key principles and a basic ideology you need to go searching for something new. But this 'new thing' either actually exists or it does not.
Basically, in our opinion, this is an experiment which will fail, independently of the question of whether it will be able to survive, if for instance, as is possible, other political groupings decide to join it. And just how is it doomed to fail? Because the way in which it was formed will not enable it to strengthen and give impetus to popular, mass movements - because it is incapable of deepening the process of radicalization among the people. The only thing it has to offer - and this is an offer we can must refuse - is to cause vital time to be lost in the task of rallying the forces engaged in mass struggle, those who are even now fighting back against the policies which are decided upon and imposed by the European Union.
As a result of this new party, disorder and confusion will be created. You know, it's like when you're watching a military parade. The soldiers go marching gallantly by in unison and then, as soon as they pass beneath the dignitaries' viewing-stand – they scatter in all directions. That's exactly the way this will turn out. You'll probably say, 'Well, they have every right to build a European party.' Well, we have every right to criticize them, because it will in no away strengthen the people's movement.
From Rizospastis, Trans. by Peter Zerner
