CARRILLO: 'not Stalinist, not social democrat

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Carrillo began by hailing the historic character of the first Congress held in legality for over 40 years.

He condemned the pact between the Socialist Party (PSOE) and the German Socia Democrats to put pressure om Suarez io Dra entire legal sa: on La Passionaria Carrillo's line is passed and Central Committee elected, most of whose members are the same as the outgoing unelected Central Committee, it is predictable that a gigantic purge of oppositionists can be expected.

Carrillo has foreshadowed this in the pre-conference discussion by insisting that tendencies and factions are outlawed in the party. At the Congress itself his threat was more specific: "Anyone who doesn't the e ong party policy is in In spite of the rapid growth of the membership of the CP-from 50,000 to 200,000 in a year-there can be little doubt that the Congress will have convinced a number of militants who support the fight for socialism that the Spanish Communist Party is indeed the wrong party. A clear lead based on the Transitional Programme is now capable of attracting these forces to a revolutionary, Trotskyist position.

That is the authentic Leninism of today. The "Leninism" sloughed off by the CP Congress last week was in any case no more than a forgerv of the CP a year ago.

He claimed that the change from dictatorship to democracy without the intervention ot foreign armies or armed clashes arises certainly from the struggle ot 1936-9:

"Without that then what is happening now would have been inconceivable"

He did, however, complain that:

... the political remains of the dictatorship are moving around too easily"

"We cannot expect that what we call in our terminology the revolutionary crisis will take on the classic forms which we have known in other periods and other countries; we cannot assimilate the notion of revolutionary crisis to insurrectional crisis"

"The oligarchy at the moment does not view the process of change with the same calmness as it did a bit more than a year ago; it begins to show signs of worry and disquiet"

If the monarchy continues to play a positive political role in the change, if it respects the people's will and scrupulously follows the Constitution once it is passed, the question of the form of government will lose the dramatic and conflictive character it had at other times in the history of Spain when those things were not fulfilled"

... our perspective is not to diverge from but converge with the PSOE in a unitary policy"

Carrillo accused the PSOE, however, of creating panic by saying that the forthcoming but as yet undated municipal elections would produce "a radical switch in the balance of political forces"

Hypocritical

To those who argue that an authentic "Eurocommunism" was impossible:

... we are going to show them they are wrong-that the option of a revolutionary Marxist workers' party, neither social democrat nor Stalinist, is a real option."

Carrillo ended with a hypocritical offer to resign made in the full knowledge that his position is absolutely secure:

"If the party thinks that this role of Secretary General should fall on someone else then with my party card in my pocket I will go back to the rank and file as one more militant in the cause of socialism and communism".

But the conference delegates decided Carrillo's role as one more prop for Spanish capitalism could be better acted out in the leadership than in the ranks of the Spanish Stalinist party.