Comrade Enver has a problem

Earl Browder

"Eurocommunism is Anti-Communism" is a book by Enver Hoxha, who was the leader of Communist Albania from 1944 to 1985. The book was published in Tirana in 1980 and translated to various foreign languages. At the time, there was a pro-Albanian Communist world movement. Presumably, these groups were the main target audience for Hoxha's book.

Most of the book is an attack on the French, Italian and Spanish Communist parties. The Italian and Spanish parties had launched Eurocommunism, a softer and more reformist version of Communism. Why Hoxha considers the French party Eurocommunist is less clear, since the French Communists were notoriously pro-Moscow. But, yes, I guess it could be argued that the French party was "reformist" back stage. Besides, Hoxha didn't like the Soviet Union either. At least not the post-Stalin Soviet Union.

The whole point of the book is to prove that Eurocommunism and other modernized and softened forms of Communism aren't really Communist at all. I readily concede that Hoxha proves his point rather admirably. Hoxha upholds a strict, dogmatic and sectarian form of Marxism-Leninism. Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin are quoted as authorities. If *this* is Communism, it's indeed difficult to see in what sense the politics of Togliatti, Berlinguer or Carillo could be considered Communist.

But Hoxha also runs into some problems. Where does Eurocommunism come from? How could it have developed? From an Albanian perspective, the pro-Moscow communists were just as "reformist" as the independent Eurocommunists! Hoxha believes that there is a connection, and singles out Khrushchev and Tito as examples of early renegades from real Marxism-Leninism. Didn't Khrushchev attack the great Stalin? Didn't Tito break with Stalin already during the latter's lifetime? Hoxha also mentions Earl Browder, the American Communist who already during World War II called for "class collaboration", support to democratic American capitalism, and wanted to dissolve the Communist Party into a cultural and philosophical association. Browder was later disavowed by Stalin.

But then, Hoxha makes an unexpected move. He believes that the French and Italian Communist parties had a "reformist" line already in the aftermath of World War II. After all, neither the French nor the Italian Communists wanted to organize a socialist revolution. Rather, they wanted to become equal players in a post-war democratic state. For a brief period, the Communists joined the post-war governments of both France and Italy. How different, Hoxha believes, from East Europe where the popular fronts were dominated by the Communists!

There is only one problem. The actions of the French and Italian parties had the full support and backing of Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Union and the Cominform. This was in keeping with the post-war deals between the Allies, which turned East Europe into a Soviet cordon sanitaire. In return, Stalin called off any plans for Communist expansion in Western Europe.

Logically, Hoxha should draw the conclusion that *Stalin* was the first renegade from Communism, and attack Old Joe "from the left", as it were. He does not. Instead, Hoxha takes the contradictory line that Stalin was a great Marxist-Leninist leader and thinker, while his loyal followers in France and Italy screwed up. In reality, they were simply following the commands of Little Father in Moscow. Hoxha is contradictory on other points as well. Thus, he claims that the Spanish Communist Party acted in a revolutionary way in Spain during the civil war, when in reality the Communists did everything in their power to *stop* the CNT and the POUM from carrying out a socialist revolution. As for Earl Browder, he could hardly have carried out his plans to turn the CPUSA into a "democratic" association, had he not enjoyed backing from Stalin as well, at least initially. Comrade Enver clearly has a problem!

"Eurocommunism is Anti-Communism" is not a very interesting read, unless you have a penchant for the more esoteric problems of the world Communist movement.