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The Dilemma of Credibility: The Spanish Communist Party, the Franco Regime and After

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

Paul Preston
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IT IS REPORTED THAT WHEN ALVARO CUNHAL CAME OUT OF PRISON IN the late 1950s, he initiated a purge of the leadership of the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP). Their crime was apparently españolismo – or a sympathy with the broad reformist policy of ‘national reconciliation’ adopted by the Spanish Communists in 1956. The Spanish leaders were aware of this implied slur on their revolutionary seriousness, but as both parties battled for survival against repressive dictatorships, it was not an issue over which to break openly the fundamental solidarity between them. Yet a decade and a half later, with Cunhal seemingly leading his Party down the highroad to socialism and his Spanish comrades probably within sight of their immediate goal of the collapse of Francoism, the theoretical discrepancies have re-emerged. Santiago Carrillo, Secretary-General of the PCE, has been sufficiently critical of Cunhal's attempt to create an Eastern European-style socialism in Portugal to earn Soviet accusations of lack of solidarity. Carrillo has described Cunhal's policy during the last year as ‘a good example of how not to make a revolution’. In doing so, the Spanish leader has not only incurred the displeasure of Moscow, something which he has learned to live with since his stand against the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia, but also risked serious internal division inside his own party.

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Article
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , 01 January 1976 , pp. 65 - 83
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 1976

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References

1 Interview with Carrillo in Nouvel Observateur, 23–29 June 1975; ‘Carrillo contra Cunhal’ in Cambia 16, 22–28 September 1975.

2 Interview with Carrillo in Newsweek, 22 September 1975.

3 Mundo Obrero, 8, 22 May 1974.

4 This policy is most clearly expounded in Santiago Carrillo, Después de Franco, ¿qué?, Paris, 1965, (henceforth DFQ) and Hacia el postfranquismo, Paris, 1974 (henceforth HPF).

5 Carrillo, Santiago, Nuevos enfoques a pmblemas de hoy, Paris, 1967, pp. 140–59Google Scholar.

6 Ibid, p. 18.

7 Newsweek interview, cit.

8 Santiago Carrillo, Demain l’Espagne, Paris, 1974 (henceforth DLE). Cf. Fernando Gomez Peláez. ‘Santiago Carrillo o la historia falsificada’ in Interrogations, No. 2, March 1975; Semprún-Maura, Carlos, ‘¿Quién es y qué pretende Santiago Carrillo?’ in Topo, El Viejo, De Carrero Blanco a Eva Forest Paris, 1975 Google Scholar, and several articles in Cuadernos de Ruedo Ibérico, Nos. 43–5, 1975.

9 Fernando Claudín, ‘La crisis del Partido Comunista de España’ in Cuadernos de Ruedo Ibérico, Nos. 26–7, 1970.

10 Berlinguer, E. and Carrillo, S., Una Spagna libera in un’Europa democratica, Rome, 1975 Google Scholar, contains the complete text.

11 Hernández, Jesús, En el país de la gran mentira, Madrid, 1974, pp. 49–60 Google Scholar; Enrique Lister, ¡Basta! (n.p., n.d.) pp. 113–18; Castro Delgado, Enrique, Mi fé se perdió en Moscú, Barcelona, 1964, pp. 28–32.Google Scholar

12 Hermet, Guy, Los comunistas en España, Paris, 1972, p. 46 Google Scholar; Sorel, Andrés, Guerrilla española del sigh XX, Paris, 1970, p. 130 Google Scholar; Nuestra Bandera, June‐July 1947, April 1950; Básta, pp. 30, 163–4; Claudín, Fernando, La crisis del movimiento communista, Paris, 1970, pp. 494–5, 669Google Scholar.

13 Hernández, pp. 177–85; Castro Delgado, pp. 222–5, 246, 289; Antonio Mije, ‘Un año de Junta Suprema de Unión Nacional: lecciones y experiencias de un gran órgano de combate’ in Nuestra Bandera, January 1945.

14 Hermanos, Juan, Fin de la esperanza, Buenos Aires, 1964, p. 28 Google Scholar. There is a growing literature on the guerrilla, none of it very satisfactory. The best work remains Sorel, Guerrilla.

15 El Sodalista, 18 March, 31 May 1951; Ricard Soler, ‘The New Spain’ in New Left Review, No. 58, November–December 1969.

16 Torres, Lorenzo, ‘The Spanish Left: Illusion and Reality’ in Socialist Register, 1966, p. 69 Google Scholar; Basin, pp. 145–9, 171–2.

17 Mundo Obrero, mid‐January 1957; 15 July 1959; Ramirez, Luis, Nuestros primeros veinticinco años, Paris, 1964, pp. 169–71Google Scholar; Hermet, p. 59; Claudín, Crisis, pp. 14–16; Torres, p. 72.

18 de Castro, Ignacio Fernández and Martínez, José, España hoy, Paris, 1963, pp. 235–56Google Scholar.

19 España hoy, pp. 67–222.

20 Carrillo, Santiago, ‘The Working Class Paves the Way to Freedom for Spain’ in World Marxist Review, Vol. 5, No. 8, 1962, pp. 3, 7.Google Scholar

21 Costa, Pau, ‘Organización e iniciativa revolucionaria’ in Cuadernos de Ruedo Ibérico, 13–14, 1967, pp. 29–35 Google Scholar; Sanz Oiler, Julio, Entre el fraude γ la esperanza, Paris, 1972, pp. 119–20Google Scholar; Prieto, Carlos, ‘La tactique du parti communiste a contribuéà l’affaiblissement des commissions ouvrières’, in Le Monde, 18 02 1970 Google Scholar.

22 Fernando Claudin, Las divergencies en el partido, n.p., 1964, pp. 3–5, 94–102; Basta!, pp. 21–8; Garcia, Eduardo, ‘Espagne: le parti communiste consolide ses rangs’ in Nouvelle Revue Internationale, 08 1968, pp. 179–80Google Scholar; interview with Santiago Carrillo in Le Monde, 4 November 1970.

23 Claudín, Divergencias, pp. 29–31, 43–9, 70–2; ‘Dos concepciones de la via española al socialismo’ in Horizonte Español 1966, Paris, 1966, II, pp. 66–7, 79–84, 92–6.

24 DLE, pp. 21–4, 118–21; HPF, pp. 35–7.

25 Carrillo, Santiago, Libertad y sodalismo, Paris, 1971, pp. 43–50 Google Scholar; DFQ, pp. 75–80, 86–7; Nuevos enfoques, pp. 54, 116–34; Enrique López, Carrillo: dos cams de una mistna moneda, n.p., n.d. pp. 26–9.

26 Claudin, ‘La crisis del PCE’, p. 54.

27 Vanguardia Obrera, No. 57 August—September 1971; Actión, No. 9, November 1972; Boletín de Informatión del FRAP No. 25, June 1973.

28 Charles Vanhecke, ‘Les “revisions” du P.C. Espagnol: Deux Ans de Crisc’ and interview with Carrillo in Le Monde, 4 November 1970; Mundo Obrero, 30 September, 7 October 1970; Basta!, pp. 10–41, 62, 83–103; Claudín, ‘La crisis del PCE’, passim.

29 Paul Preston, ‘General Franco’s Rearguard’ in New Society, 29 November 1973 and ‘The Assassination of Carrero Blanco and its Aftermath’ in Iberian Studies, Vol. III, No. 1, 1974.

30 Mundo Obrero, 24 December 1971, 12 December 1973, 19 June 1974; HPF, pp. 57–62.

31 HPF, pp. 5–6; DLE, pp. 15, 136; Mundo Obrero, 8, 22 May, 4 June 1974; Le Monde, 2 3–25 June 1974.

32 DLE, pp. 186–7; of. note 8.

33 Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 1 August 1974.

34 Cuadernos de Ruedo Ibéricho, Nos. 43–5, 1975; Frente Libertario, No. 45, September 1974; Vanguardia Obrera, No. 90, 2α quincena de agosto, No. 91. September 1974; Servir al Pueblo, No. 30, August 1974; La Voz Commtmista, No. 7, July‐August 1974.

35 Mundo Obrero, 4α semana de septiembre de 1975.