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Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira Double Game of French Socialism IntraText CT - Text |
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3. The SP and Communism -The Strategy of Gradualism
Is there a clear difference between the strategy of the SP and that of communism for reaching the ultimate goal of total equality? Yes: a) The SP fears that immediate implementation of a regime of total equality would stir up undesirable reactions; b) For this reason, which is purely a question of circumstances, opportunism and strategy, the SP holds that communist principles must be applied gradually, and in stages so gauged as to avoid excessive shocks. 13 A certain initial moderation of the French socialists in the transition to total equality is not the result of kindness, compassion or indulgence for a defeated adversary, but rather the consequence of a strictly utilitarian calculation made long before their victory. However, it should be emphasized that in its radical egalitarianism the French SP draws on the socio-economic experience - which we know to be harsh and disappointing - of all the countries in which communism is or has been put into practice. Thus, to a great extent the SP avoids the nationalization so characteristic of old-fashioned communism and aims to establish, in all or nearly all enterprises that have hitherto been private, another form of democratic and radical egalitarianism: self-management. 14
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13. "The socialists hold neither these willful solutions of leftism nor the reformists' policy of little steps, nor the myth of the union of populism" . . . Leftism is that particular form of willfulness called maximalism which consists in wanting to skip the intermediate stages to reach the maximum all at once. Maximalism disdains and rejects transitional measures and jumps right into complete socialism. It confuses the final objective with intermediate reforms" (Documentation Socialiste, no. 5, pp. 32-33). "I refuse to enter the debate between reform and revolution. That is a purely formal discussion, because he who accepts temporary improvements in the condition of the workers is a reformist, and he who deems necessary a fundamental change of society, a revolutionary. The French unions and the large French workers' parties have always admitted this [distinction]; they make it the basis of their everyday policy . They do not play the irresponsible game of 'all or nothing' ... (PIERRE MAUROY, Heritiers de l'Avenir, p. 274). "The real significance of May 1968 ... is that the transformation of society requires a program aiming at all that can possibly be accomplished. To change society .. is to reject the illusion of a revolution that would be an instantaneous upheaval. There is neither instantaneous upheaval nor a quick and definitive solution. It is necessary to work on a long term basis, following a line that I would call 'tough reformism'. "For us, revolution is the gradual change of the structures of the existing system" (ibid., p. 295-296).
14. "The notion of self-management ... is at the crossing of ways between scientific socialism an utopian socialism (for which Marx and Engels had more than respect, even though they criticized it)" (Documentation Socialiste, supplement to no. 2, p. 42). "Today ... it is harder and harder to build socialism on a centralized model. Socialism must set other goals for itself. Departing from collective ownership of the principal means of production and from planning, the self-management program is the inversion of the logic that up until now has characterized the evolution of industrial societies ("Fifteen Theses, p. 6). "This program of self-management gives a new content to the notion of social utility. Breaking away from an excessively 'economic' view of socialism, it is not limited to the field of production. It attacks immense socio-cultural problems ... The program of self-management links its egalitarian goal ... to the implementation of democratic mechanism which will once again permit calling into question ... the social division of labor" ("Fifteen Theses," p. 11).
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