Yugoslav communists and European far-left - from first supporters of Italian Eurocommunists to last allies of French neo-stalinists (1965-1985)

In: Filozofija i društvo, Band 34, Heft 4, S. 591-612

Abstract

Complex structural changes of social realty in SFRY and Western Europe during
post-war decades have created the need for the largest Marxist parties of
Europe outside Eastern Bloc to accommodate their party policies to new
political challenges and social circumstances. Gradually, communist parties
of Mediterranean started to contemplate creation of a new Marxist ideology
for the welfare state era, which in practice meant seizing attempts to
adjust principles of Bolshevik socialist model to their unique local
circumstances, and moving away from the influence of Soviet party. League of
Communists of Yugoslavia supported the reformist fractions of Italian,
French, Greek and Spanish communist parties, which opened the path for
further expansion of international influence and prestige of the Yugoslav
communists. However, historical evolution of SFRY state policies and
Yugoslav party ideology eventually took a different course than the reforms
of party policies and ideologies of early Eurocommunist parties. The purpose
of this article is to contribute to further understanding of the long term
social and historical process which created a drift between the leading
reformist parties of Europe. This is to be achieved by applying comparative
method to the results of archival research conducted on historical sources
that testify about the cooperation between Yugoslav, Italian and French
communists at various time points during the twenty year long period, while
using the findings of numerous historical, sociological and philosophical
books and articles in order to bring the research results in the appropriate
social and historical context.