Moscow Backing for Carrillo

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The Editor of the daily Pravda, Victor Afanassiev attended the Spanish CP Congress where he discovered, among other things, that "Eurocommunism does not exist"

This discovery obviously made him feel a whole lot better since when Carrillo's party officially threw the whole legacy of revolutionary socialism, Leninism, out of the window, Afanassiev could not find it in him to give more than the mildest rebuke.

"Lenin is the banner of the revolution". , he said. "We cannot rejoice at the abandoning of Leninism by the PCE"

Unity

His worry, he said, was that "a debate on principles may weaken the party. The strength of a Communist Party depends on its unity. I haven't found very much unity at this Congress. In fact, I have the impression that the discussion hasn't finished."

But that was as much rebuke as Afanassiev thought necessary. Aside from that he bent over backwards to support Carrillo's position.

"After all", he said in an interview in Le Monde, ". not words that count, but 1 he policy that is followed"

Abandoned Afanassiev, of course, is quite aware that the Stalinist party on whose Central Committee he sits abandoned Leninism as long ago as did Carrillo's party, but hypocritically finds it impolite to say so.

So Afanassiev very strongly insisted that the Spanish CP had not in his view become a social democratic party.

"It continues in fact to define itself as a revolutionary party which struggles for socialism. And the policy it has followed up to now doesn't suggest that it has stopped being revolutionary. We shall see what happens"

The editor of Pravda knows better than anyone that to define the Spanish CP as non-revolutionary would be to brand the Soviet CP and all its satellite parties with the same name.

Because, as he explained in detail, the Soviet CP, like the Spanish, accepts the completely strategy of parliamentary socialism, even an authority "Lenin"

rule out anti-Leni the peace Broad citing Stalir e lied, : peaceful road Carrillo embracing veteran Stalinist nist to install socialism. If that ful, wasn't applied in Russia it to was because of the conditions n as of the time, most notably the absence of parliament. "The October revolution itself resulted in very few deaths. It was imperialist reaction which obliged the people to take up arms.

The Fianna Fail government in the Irish Republic was elected to power last year on a populist platform which promised something to almost everybody.

in practice Jack Lynch's La Passionaria at the conference struggle the Christians and the petty bourgeoisie ...We refer, of course, to the present moment in Spanish While not sharing Carrillo's rapture for the present Spanish monarchy, Afanassier did recognise that "the actions of King Juan administration has presided over a situation where most sections of Irish society have experienced substantial losses.

The strategy of the Fianna Fail has been based on further encouragement of international capital, already attracted to Ireland by the extremely favourable conditions for extracting profit from workers.

Capitalists can expect to gain a rate of profit which, at a comfortable 30% is no less than three times the international average!

Eager to sustain and, if possible, expand this figure, the Lynch government has recognised the necessity to impose state wage control as part of a systematic assault on the working class in This analysis has been confirmed by the constant pressure from strikes for higher wages and improved conditions.

Production at Fiat's plant has been stopped by a strike on wages which began on March 16, and solidarity action has thoroughly disrupted distribution of vehicles.

Aer Lingus During the same period 1,200 clerical and supervisory staff at Aer Lingus, members of the Workers' Union of Ireland, have also been on strike for higher wages.

Both in this dispute, and in the long running strike within the telecommunications industry, union leaders have refused to support effective picketing which could prevent management scabs from running a skeleton service.

The 6,000 members of the Irish Post Office Engineering Union have now been on strike for three months to secure revised terms for the introduction of new technology.

It is this action in particular which has provoked sharp cries from the bourgeoisie, incensed by this additional obstacle to their ability to extract surplus value from workers.