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No to a European McCarthyism

Will Europe take the road of McCarthyism as the United States did fifty years ago? Will freedom of expression and of organisation be killed “in the name of democracy”?

On December 14, 2005 in Paris, the Political Affairs Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a draft resolution introduced by Göran Lindblad of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and named “Need for international condemnation of crimes of totalitarian communist regimes”. This draft resolution will be submitted to the plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which will take place from January 23 to 27, 2006.

Among those who have approved the draft are members of parliament of countries that do not hesitate to imprison leaders of parties and popular movements, while closing their eyes to the restoration of Hitlerite symbols and tolerating impunity for former war criminals.

The draft resolution does not aim to condemn the authors of reprehensible acts, but to stigmatise the communist movement and ideology as a whole, which would, “wherever and whenever implemented, be it in Europe or elsewhere, have always resulted in massive terror, crimes and large scale violation of human rights”. This way, the draft negates that the communist movement and ideology are part and parcel of the history of the workers’ movement and of social progress, and it criminalizes progressive ideas inherited from the Enlightenment and aspiring for social, economic and political change.

The draft resolution likewise negates the decisive role of the Soviet Union and the communist movement in the fight against the Nazi horror. Let us remember the words of Albert Einstein when the until then yet unbeaten Nazi machine was stopped in Stalingrad: “Without Russia, those blood dogs (…) would have obtained their goal, or in any case, would have been close to it.”

The resolution, if approved, would lead to an official history of the USSR and of communism that would paralyse historical research and impede an objective debate on the comparative assessment of the capitalist and communist systems. It would open the floodgate to a witch-hunt - similar to the McCarthyism of the 1950s – against researchers who do not subscribe to that official history. We must assure scientists’ freedom of research and of expression against an updated and European version of McCarthyism.

The criminalisation of existing socialist countries and communist parties

The resolution demands that “national interest perceptions should not prevent countries from adequate criticism of present totalitarian communist regimes (…) in certain countries (…) where crimes continue to be committed”. By thus criminalizing existing socialist countries, this draft resolution prepares minds for military aggression against them, something the Bush Administration has threatened them with already several times.

By criticising the fact that “communist parties are legal and active in some countries, even if in some cases they have not distanced themselves from the crimes committed by totalitarian communist regimes in the past”, the draft resolution prepares to outlaw those parties.

A threat to the entire trade union movement

Beyond communism, the draft resolution goes on to criminalize even the concept of class struggle itself, “used to justify crimes”. This way, it threatens the European workers’ and trade union movement as a whole, a movement that opposes today’s neoliberal policies.

The people of Eastern Europe have been plunged in a previously unknown poverty. All over Europe, workers and particularly youth are concerned about their future. Unemployment is on the rise, social achievements are being dismantled, democratic and trade union rights are under threat and wars have reappeared, both within and outside Europe (Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq). For the initiators of the draft resolution, “the condemnation of crimes committed plays an important role in the education of young generations. The clear position of the international community on the past may be a reference for their future actions.”

This quote reveals that such strategy is part of the logical framework of a partisan political struggle, and not of a search for justice. At the same time, this quote also recognises the depth of the popular rejection of the policies implemented in Eastern Europe.

Today communists, tomorrow trade unionists and antiglobalists, and the day after tomorrow…?

The official document can be found on the website of the PACE :
http://assembly.coe.int/main.asp?Link=/doc...5/edoc10765.htm