Perestroika in Spain chapter 6

-

1{,.i'Jd

7:r/

Part Three Revolutionary Psychosurgery in Slow Motion :,--

Three operations with reversibleeffects and a new revolutionaryway... o Rupture of state structures without yet dismantling the state itself (institutional legal system,regional governments,the Crown). r Corrosion of social institutions (property, family, education). o Playful and pleasurabletransformation of mentalities (ambiences,customs,culture and civilization). . . . that lead to a disintegratedand self-managing society, without God or law.

Chapter 6

Disintegrating the State and Society on Both Sides of the lron Curtaint the Goal of Present.Dayldeological Currents?

A Guide for Following This Psychosurgery in Slow Motion

TI

HAT the shortest route between two points is a straight line standsas an axiom of geometry, yet the rule may not apply so rigorously in matters that involve complexities of the human soul and the sociopolitical life of a country. Suchis the casehere.To understandthe nucleus, historical dimensionsand actual scopeof the neo-revolution of the SpanishSocialistWorkers' Party (SSWP),it must be viewedwithin the context of the world socialist revolution.That is to say,one shouldbe awareof the goals, obstacleqfluctuationg weataressess and failuresof the world movementof whichthe SSWPis a componentand variant.

This study does not pretend to exhaustively examine today's diversedivisionsof socialism,concealedas they are in incomprehensibleterms in texts by contemporary specialistson the subject.

Rather, in this chapterwe proposeto establisha guide that will later permit us to interpret and follow socialism in its diversephases.As if showinga movie in slow motion, we proposeto examinethis revolutionary psychosurgeryand the transformationsof the political and socioeconomicphysiognomyto which Spainis being subjected.

The needfor this outline is dictatedprimarily by various erroneous preconceptionsof Western man about what socialistparties are and what they pretend to be.

L The fdeological

Radicalness of

the Goal That Unites Communists, Socialists and Anarchists

ate version of communism. Socialists are considered to be men who have a more vehementdesirethan other politicians to put an end to social injustices that have risen within the capitalist regime. Vaguely inspired by the communist example,they want to make structural reforms, albeit moderate and prudent reforms that are in accordancewith bourgeois democratic conceptions.

Indeed,this imagehastracesof reality in somesocialdemocratic parties of northern Europe, due to certain historical and psychosocialcharacteristicsof the respective countries, the analysis of which lies outside the boundsof this study. However, this imagedoesnot correspondto the truth if one considersthe internationalsocialist movement taken as a whole and, above all, the parties that form the bridgeheadof the socialist movement, amongthem the SSWP.Despitethe anesthetizing maneuversdescribedin previous chapters, knowledge regardingthis subjectis readily availableto anyonewho studiesideological debatesin the world of the socialist intelligentsia. However, the general public obviously has no clear idea about this reality. The great media giants make no effort to show that socialismintends to ereatea radical changeof mentality-which in time spills over into a profound transformation of culture and civilization-without limiting itself to a simple government program like other bourgeoisparties.

t. A Fnequent Mistake

D. L Phllosophleal Seet That Asptres to a Badloal Transformation of Soaiety and of llan Himself

A prevalentidea of the Westernsocialistparty assumes it to be a type of sentimental,humanitarian and moder-

a) A Global Conceptionof the Universe.The socialist parties are united in a global philosophical conception

REVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOSURGERY IN SLOW MOTION

of man, culture, civilization and the universeitself that is atheistic, materialistic and of Hegelian inspiration.* b) The Political Apparatus for Implanting This Con' cept. At the serviceof this plan, the socialistsin a sectarian fashion** place partisan organizationsand their auxiliary branchesinto the local or international political spheres.*** * The SocialistInternationalbringstogetherpartieswith a commonphilosophicalbasein whichMarxismprevails.

Even those who cameto the diversesocialistparties throughsecularhumanismor variousChristianleftisms neverrelinquishedthe historicalgoalsof socialism.These goals were not abandonedby eventhe German Social DemocraticParty (SDP),which is consideredthe most liberal. For more on this subject,seeKlausMotschmann, Sozialismus,Das Geschiift mit der Lilge, pp. 26'30. ** Leo XIII, the greatPontiff of the socialquestion, affirms: "You understand,venerablebrethren'that We speakof that sectof menwho, undervariousand almost barbarousnames,are calledsocialists,communists,or nihilists,and who, spreadoverall the world and bound togetherby the closesttiesin a wickedconfederacy,no longerseekthe shelterof secretmeetings,but, openlyand boldly marchingforth in the light of day, striveto bring to a headwhat they havelong beenplanning-the overthrow of all civil societywhatsoever"(QuodApostolici Muneris,Dec.28, 1878,no, l).

Echoingthe pontificalteachings,Prof. Plinio Corrfu to keep de Oliveiraobservesthat, ". . . it is necessary in mind, aboveall, what the fundamentalnature of the communist movementis: "- An atheistic,materiqlisticondHegelionphilosophi' cal sect which deducesfrom its eroneous principles a completeand uniqueconceptionof man, economics,society, politics, culture, and civilization. communism "- A worldwidesubversiveorganiz.ation: is not just a movementof a speculativenature. By the imperativesof its own doctrine it wantsto turn all men into communistsand shapethe life of all nationsentirely accordingto its principles. Consideredin this aspect, the Marxist sectprofessesintegral imperialism not just becauseit aims at imposing the tlought and will of a minority on a// men, but becausethis imposition affects man as a whole, in all aspectsof his activity" ("Unperceivedldeological Transshipmentand Dialogue," Crusadefor a Christion Civilization, vol. 12, n.o.4, 1982, p. l0). *** Although the diversesocialist partie obviously constitute an ensembleof less rigid, hierarchical and articulate political forces than those of the worldwide communistmovementdirectedby Moscow,socialistleaders have never hidden the essentiallyinternationalist character of their respectiveparties. The intervention of the SocialistInternational itself is constant,whether to overcomeresistanceto socialismor to stimulatethe ideologicalfight againstconservativegovernments,even in countrieswhere socialistsare not in power.

Toward a Utoplan 8. Headlng 66Paradlse" Whieh Is Bevolutlonary Egalitarian and Llberal: Radleally SeIf .Management Complete This global philosophical conception can be studied from different points of view. For the purpose of this work we will considerit from its historical vantagepoint, sketched that is, from the goalsand strategiessuccessively by socialiststo transform man and society.

Without going farther back, the ideologicalantecedents of socialismdate from the French Revolution. As the French Revolution reachedthe apex of its radicalness, extremistsectorsaroseon the scene.Thus, the Revolution acquired intangible but clear-cut communist aspects during the Terror. The radical revolutionariescarriedthe motto "liberty, equalrty, fraternity" to its final consequences.They contendedthat it was necessaryto eliminate not only kings and nobles,but alsothe proprietors, the "kings" of fields, businesses and commerce,and also the headsof families, the "kings" of the home. Babeuf standsas the most representativeof this extremistlot.l Naturally, the premature revolution of the radical Babeuf insidethe Revolution failed, but the revolutionary bannerthat he raisedwould be taken up againin one way or another during the nineteenth century by the currents of so-calledutopian socialism.* Thesecurrents acted in the revolutionary upheavalsthat shook Europe in 1848and especiallyin the insurrectionof the Commune of Parisin 1871. * Concerning relationships between the doctrinesthat inspiredtheFrenchRevolution, Babeufsmovement and theutopiansocialism of ttrenineteenth century,seealso JuliusBraunthal,GqchichtederInternotionale, vol. l, pp. 45-51,andElie Halevy,Histoiredu socialisme europden,pp. 80-92.Thereis alsoa significantstudyon andthesotherelationsbetween theFrenchRevolution in Karl Marx and FriedrichEngels, cialistmovement pp. 6-8 Utopisme et communautd delhvenir,especially witl Marx and149-150.

In thisregard,Engels, cofounder of so-calledscientificsocialism,affirms: "Germanscientific socialismwill neverforget what has beenraisedon Fourierandd'Oweu-'(ibid., the shouldersof Saint-Simon" p. 8). Thereare evenmore enlighteningfacts about the relationshipbetweenthe FrenchRwolution and the socialist movementin the book by Filipo Buonarrotti 07611837),a cohort of Babeufin the 1795Conspiracyfor Equality,Histoire de lo Conspirationpour I'Egalit4 dite de BobeUf(Brussels,1828,f1e6 [3hning, De Buonorotti d Bakounine,pp. 45-98;and Halerry,op. cit., p. 8l). l. Cf. Plinio Corr3adeOliveira,RevolutionandCountenevolution, p. 32. Concerningthe relationshipbetweenthe FrenchRevolution, Babeufsmovementandcommunistrevolution,sealso Monifiestode fundacidnde la III Intentacionalb Giinter Bartsch,Kommunismus, Sozialiamus, Anarchismus,p. 80;andFriederichEngels,Del sociolismo utdpicool sociolismo cient$ico,pp. 3l-32.

Disintegrating the State and Society: the Goal of Present-DayIdeological Currents?

The revolutionary utopian ideal was defined as doing away with private property and all differences between social classesin society. In this way, every form of superiority amongmen would be eliminated,with eventhe distinction betweenrulers and subjectsdisappearing.In the new state of things, liberty would be absolute, becausemoral law and the coercivelaws that rule civil society would be suppressed.Freelove would be established.

The police, the state,the governmentand, of course,religion and the Church would naturally disappearas useless.Man would finally havebroken the bonds of Natural Law, engravedby his Creator in the depthsof his soul.

The impossiblewould becomefeasible:anarchy, in the etymological senseof the word (from the Greek an, without, and archy, government)would not result in chaos.

From this utopian ideal camethe romantic descriptionsof a type of idyllic tribal life paintedby so many authors.* * Frederick Engelsdescribed thetribalsocietyofthe IroquoisIndianswitl thesewords:"And a wonderfulconstitutionit is, thisgentileconstitution,in all its childlike simplicity!No soldiers,no gendarmes or police,no noprefects, bles,kings,regents, or judges,no prisons,no lawsuits-andeverythingtakesits orderlycourse.All quarrels anddisputes aresettledbythewholeofthe communityaffected,bythegensor thetribe,or bythegentes amongthemselves;. . . Although thereweremanymore mattersto be settJedin commonthan today-the household is maintainedby a numberof families in common, and is communistic,the land belongsto the tribe, only the small gardens are allotted provisionally to the households-yet thereis no needfor evena trace of our complicatedadminisf1fiys apparatuswith all its ramifications.. . . All are equaland free."

Basedon tlis description,he then goeson to explain the final stageof the communistrevolution:t'The state, therefore, has not existedfrom all eternity. There have beensocietieswhich havemanagedwithout it, which had no notion of the stateor statepower. At a definite stage of economicdevelopment,whichnecesarilyinvolvedthe cleavageof societyinto classes,the statebecamea necessity becauseof this cleavage.We are now rapidly approaching a stagein the developmentof production at which the existenceof theseclasseshas not only ceased to be a necessity,but becomesa positivehindranceto production.Theywill fall asinevitablyasthey oncerose.

The state inevitably falls with them. The societywhich organizesproductionanewon the basisof free and equal associationof the producerswill put the whole statemachinery whereit will then belong-into the museumof antiquities,nextto the spinningwheelandthe bronzeax" @rederick Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the Slale [New York: International Pubpp. 86, 87 and 158). lishers,19671, When Karl Marx entered the scene, assistedby Engels, the revolutionary currents found in the theories of these

two both a philosophicalsystemand a method of analysis for launching a processthat would put their utopia into practice. This, the so-calledscientific socialism,or communism,gaveriseto the internationalmovementfor

activatingthe socialistrevolution. From its bosom came the leadersof the RussianBolshevikparty who, with Lenin at their head, fomentedthe revolution that hasmade Russiathe meccaof world socialismsince 1917.

In 1919the Marxist movement experiencedits first great division. Thosewho adheredto the thesisof seizing power by brute force, as proposedby Lenin, joined the CommunistInternational,founded shortly beforeby this Russianleader.Thosewho consideredit impossible to topple the prevailingcapitalist order in the West with the speedand violenceof the Bolshevik Revolution began to call themselvessimply socialists.This createda distinction betweenthe Socialist International, defined in this way, and the Communist International directed

by Lenin.* Yearslater, Soviet leaderTrotsky createdyet a third faction in Marxism: the anarchic-bolshevik current, which accusedStalin of going too slowly toward the fulfillment of the communistgoal of revolutionary utopia. This goal was also the objective of the anarchist currents, properly speaking,or libertarians.

Nonetheless,socialists, communists and anarchists sharethe samedoctrinal origin, and differ only in method of action; they are united in aspiringto the sameradically egalitarianand libertarian final goal.*'t Because of this, with the passingof time the West has often seen them forming fronts of common action and making governmentalcoalitions to open the way for determinedsteps of the revolutionary process.*** * In 1864the socialists unitedunderthe leadership of (International KarlMarxin theFirstInternational Workingmen's Association).

Thisshort-tvedorganization disofPhiladelphia in July 1876.In solvedat theCongress 1889the SecondInternationalwasformedto continue theworkinitiatedbyMarx.Afterthevictoryof theCommunistRevolution in 1917,Leninleda splitinsidethe Second International, foundingtheCommunist International in 1919.This latercameto be knownasthe Third International.The SocialistInternational,which acquired its presentconfiguration in the Congressof Frankfurt of I 95l, is the continuationof the SecondInternational. ** Attesting to the historical fact of the unity of these goalsarethe wordsof a spokesmanfor variousanarchist groupsin the NationalConfederationof Labor: "What type of societyare we fighting for? For a classless, egalitariansociety,whereinthe meansofproduction are necessarily socialistic(not state-controlled),self-managed by the workersthemselves, like the wholeof societyand its structures.This is whatwecall libertariancommunism: a federaland egalitarianself-managingsociety." Further on, he states:"I don't think therearemany differences betweenthe conceptionof the final societyto which we socialists,communistsand libertariansaspire.The differencewould more likely be in the precedingmeansand stages" (in SergioFanjul, Modelos de transici6n al sociolismo,pp. 13l-132and 136). *** 9""1 the Westerncommunistparties,which remainedobedientto Moscowin the Stalin era. haveto

IN SLOW MOTION PSYCHOSURCERY T{EVOLUTIONARY

recognizetllal the conditionsof their countrieswould not permit the application of the drastic formulas that Lenin usedto seizecontrol of Russia.Often they sought forms of coalitionthroughpopularfronts, the "policy hand" ofThorez,andthelike. Thisneed ofthe extended for a gradual strategyalso marks the theoreticalwork of theleadingideologicalcommunistin the West,the ltalian Antonio Gramsci. His theory of the historical economic-politicalbloc claimsthat socialist-communist forcescanachievea cultural and political hegemonythat could make possiblethe radical transformationof socioeconomicstructures.

ff. The Revolutionary

Stagnation

of Russian Communism l.

by the Soviets for Stages Proposed Soelety a Self.Managing Attalninâ‚Ź

Socialists,communistsand anarchists,although divided regardingmethodology, all know that, accordingto the theories of Marx and Lenin, the Soviet revolution must reachthe following stagesin the leastpossibletime: a) The Dictatorship of the Proletariat. This would end by destroying the power of the nobility and the capitalist bourgeoisiein all fields, eliminating private property from the meansof production, putting everything in the hands of the state,and violently implanting the so-calleddictatorship of the proletariat wherein the communist party would exercisecommand in the name of the working class. This would be popular democracyas a political system,establishedover state capitalism as a socioecomonic regime. b) The Creation of a New Collectivist Mentality. The peopleunder the Sovietregime-and thosewho havebeen incorporated by the same methods into the orbits of Moscow-would gradually experiencea changeof mentality by the very fact of living in a society that had destroyedthe basic socioeconomicstructuresof bourgeois capitalism. They would thus abandon the bourgeois mythology, with its alienating religious ideasand notions of socialinequalities,of differencesbetweenintellectual and manual labor, and so on. Thus, they would be completely assimilated into an equalizing collectivism, and be transformed into authentic socialists. c) Fron Self-Managementto CompleteCommunism: The End of the State.The moment of the realization of completesocialistdemocracywould then arrive, that is, communism properly speaking,or self-management.

The starting point would be the transformation of the

property of the meansof production, alreadycompletely state-controlled,into socialproperty. That is, the collective transfer of the meansof production to the peasants and laborerswho work them.* They would self-manage the respectiverural and urban producing units, that is, they would directly assumethe performanceof all manual and intellectual tasks, indistinctly, including management. The peasantsand workers would ceaseto be proletariansand become-according to Marx's formula -direct producers,freely and equally associatedwith other direct producersin the managementof social property that would have been freed from state dominion.** * Thisgoalis consecrated in thepreamble of theSoviet

Constitution, which reads:"The highestgoal of the Soviet stateis the building of a classless communistsociety in which socialcommunistself-administrationwill be developed" ("Constitution [FundamentalLaw] of the Union of SovietSocialistRepublics,"in Aryeh L. Unger, Constitutional Developmentin the USSR[New York: Pica Press,19821,p.233).

** This wasthe goal outlined by Marx, who affirms in Dos Kapitalthatin the self-managingstagetle meansof produproductionwill be "in the handsofthe associated will betheir socialproperty" (from cersand consequently Wolfgang Leonhard, Die DreispaltungdesMarxismus, p. 59). With regardto the nationalization of land, Marx himselfexplainsthat this will havethe effectof Eansforming society"into an associationof freeproducers"(ibid).

It is worthwhile to quote againEngels' descriptionof this sameself-managtngstage:"They [the classes]will fall as inevitably as they oncerose. The stateinevitably falls with them. The societywhich organizgsproduction anew on the basisof the free and equal associationof the producerswill put the whole statemachinerywhere it will then belong-into the museumof antiquities,next to the spinning wheel and the bronze ax" (The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, p. 158).

In each of the new business units, management decisions will be made by an assembly of self-managers; representatives of the consumers and other sectors related to the production cycle will also participate. Selfmanagement must also extend to companies in the services sector, whose growing importance today is notable.

With state property socialized, the self-managers will other self-managed associate-always collectively-with productive or service business units.

At the same time, the state will lose the powers it had concentrated in the previous phase, being relegated to the task of an administrative coordinator of this galaxy of somewhat united autonomous communities that will constitute a global self-managing society. Finally, the state will gradually wither away in an undefined way because of the uselessnessof its functions.

This will be the triumph of this historical era without God, Church or state, wherein men will live harmoniously

Disintegrating the State and Society: the Goal of Present-DayIdeological Currents?

in the most complete equality and liberty. Utopia will have becomea historical reality. (Seebox below.)

In society as it existstoday, evenbehind the Iron Curtain, the individual finds some degreeof liberty in the anonymity of massurban living or in the isolation of rural life. But as part of a committee or a self-managing assembly,one will be subject to the central cooperative power. Nothing may be said in contradiction to the collective interest of the small community to which one will belong and upon which one will depend for practically everything. This will be the prison of micro-collectivism in which all must adopt the radically egalitarian standards inherent to communism. Thus, self-management, far from liberating man, subjectshim to the most com-

plete collectivism,not only of his goods but also of his mentality. Each committee or self-managing assembly would be converted into a small soviet under eagle-eyed vigilance and iron-fisted repression.

Finally, one might ask if the state structure of communism, even when its power is less apparent, will permit the self-managingunits to expandtheir socioeconomic activitiesin waysnot strictly collectivistic and egalitarian.

It seemsclear that it would not, becausethese attitudes would put the whole systemat risk. In reality, this selfmanaging evolution presupposesthat men will lose the notion of their personalinterestsand becomeabsorbed in the collective life, or that revolutionary vigilance will prevent this notion from reviving and manifesting itself.

Behind Self-Management: a Less Ostensiblebut More Meticulous Dictatorship I{ERE arcnumerousrâ‚Źsons that I pâ‚Źrmit us to foreseethe permanenceof the lessostensiblebut more meticulouscommunistdictatorshipin the self-managings6mmrrniXi6s.

Marxist ltrsoseticiansare not very precise about certain neurological Fints of trtis slowmarchtoward selfmrmagprnent.

For example,how could small, self-managingunits fulfill the productive or service demands required by costty modern technological conditions without resorting to a larger cooperativeassociation?

Cstain forms of productionrequire the cooperationof thousandsof people working for the same business; thus, almost inevitably, the assembly of self-managerswill haveto delegate managementdaisions to a minority that will effectuallyregulatethe company rsourc6, Self-management will becomea mere figurehead. Or will the advantagc and well-beingassured by these companiesbe sacrificed in order to dividethem into smallrrnih incapable of producing the same goods?

Moreover, so that the complicated relations between the various selfmanagingunits will not result in uncontrollablechaos,it will be necssary f

at times for representativesof all the cooperativesto meettogetheras one swtor, s$allishing onceagaina suptrcooperativethat would centralizeand coordin4lsthe ensemble.

Marx, aswell asEngels,wasprecise on this: The aforementionedcooperative systemis requiredfor the transfer of businesseto the free workers (self-managers) and the centralization of the direction of the ensembleof cooperativeswill becomean imperative necessity.

This being the case,will the state really disappear,or will only its configuration change,exerling,by means of the aforermentioned centralization, a dominionthat is evenmoremeticulous than the presentone? *** In The Nationalization of Land, Marx affirms: "National centralization of the meansof production will becomethe natural foundation of a societythat will be eomposedof associationsof freeand equalproducers who act in full consciencefollowing a common and rational plan" (from Kostas Papaioannou,Marx et les marxistes,p. 216).

14as himself writes n The Civil War in France: "The Commrlne sought expropriation from the expropriators. It wantedto transform the meansof production, land and capital, presentlyessentiallya means of subjectionand exploitationof the workers, into simpleinstrumentsof a free and organizedlabor. . . . Given that cooperativeproduction should not remainasa fraud and a trap; that it shoulddespoilthe capitalistsystem; that the conjunct of cooperativeassociationsshouldregulatethe national production accordingto a common plan, ttrus taking it under its own direction. . . what would this be, gentlemen,!1f ggmmtrnism,a very possible communism?"(ibid.)

In turn, Engels affirms in his introdnctionto TheCivit War in France: "By far the most important decreeof the Communeestablishedthe organization of large industry, including manufacturing,which should baseitself not only on the associationof the workers of each factory, but also bring together all theseassociations into a greatfederation:in short, an organization which, as Marx quite accurately says, would finally end in communism" (ibid., p. 217\.

REVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOSURGERY IN SLOW MOTION

in the Ftrst Years Mlred 2. Seventy Stage: State Capitallsm Even though seventyyearshave passedsincethe implantation of the Marxist regime in Russia,the desired goal is still far from being achieved.

The unfortunate countries dominated by the communist sect still groan today under the yoke of the Moloch-stateestablishedin Russiaby Lenin, Stalin and their successorsand imposed on the satellite nations.

State-controlledproperty hasnot beenconvertedinto socializedor self-managedproperty. The socioeconomic and political reforms imposedby the communistparties haverevealedthat they havebeenincapableof eradicating from the mentality of the peoplethe traditions and moral principles that-according to Marxist theoreticians -were mereproducts of capitalist structures.Despitethe fact that for decadesthe Church and religion have sufferedthe most cruel persecutionof history, today the religiousconvictionsof the peoplesbehind the Iron Curtain have risen again.

Not evenwithin the communist partiesthemselveshave the collectivist and egalitarian postulatesbeenentirely assimilated. In this sense,the Russianand EasternEuropean leadershavebeenconstantlyplaguedwith concern about the lack of ideologicalconvictionsand brazenopportunism that existsin the communistparties, which dispenseall privilegesavailable in the communist state.

In addition to this, it must be added that they also failed in their communist promisesto assurematerial well-being.On the contrary, the failure of their economic production has becomeincreasinglyevident.

of, the Classieal 8. Ihe Fallure Persuasion Methods of Ideologleal ln the Wect To complete this picture, it is necessaryto add a word about the failure of the communist ideological persuasion in the Westernworld. In fact, according to Marx's famous prophecy,to the ententthat the capitalist economy develops,the opposition betweenthe wer-poorer industrial proletarians and the ever-richerbourgeoisie would grow. This would intensify the classstrugglg wherebythe working classwould come to overthrow the power structure of the'ndustrialized Westernnations.Then, the dictatorship of the proletariat would be establishedeverywhere, grving rise to the processof socialization.

For nearly a century, communist propaganda-served by the most capablespecialistsand having at its disposition enormous economic resourcesand wide freedom of action-and furthermore relying on supportersin al-

most all the non-communistsectorsof Westernsocietycontinually incited peasantsand workers of the free world to take into their own handsthe goods of the "exploiting bourgeoisie."

However, in no Western country did the communist parties manageto transform themselvesinto majority powers.Their electoralcontingents,on the contrary, are meager,if not ridiculous.

The workers and peasantsshowthemselvesrefractory againstacceptingthe promisesof the collectivistparadise.

This reluctancestemsfrom a variety of reasons:aside from the dictatesof commonsense,rooted in human nature itself and fortified by a millennium of Christian heritage, it suffices for them to have knowledge of the so-calledreal socialismimplanted by the Sovietsbehind the Iron Curtain.* * Formoreaboutthiscomrnunist impasse andthestrategy of peaceful coexistence,dialogue and convergencethat the leaders of the Kremlin adopted and have used since the 1960sin relation to the West, \ryerecommend Prof.

Plinio Con0a de Oliveira's work, "Unperceived Ideological Transshipment and Dialogue."

fff. The First Communist Attempts to Find a Way Out of the Nforass l. Marxlst Humanlsm To the degreethat the stagnationof the Russianrevolution wasbecomingevident, a new current of communist orthodoxy began taking shape in certain countries of Eastern Europe.

This faction assumedthe task of finding a way to prevent an outburst of the growing popular discontent, which still remainedpassiveand mute, as well asto overcome the impassedescribedabove.

The solution was the so-called Marxist humanism, which, interpreting above all the writings from Marx's youth, launched a critical analysisof what was called the Stalinist, socialist-bureaucraticstate,so widely diffused in the confines of the communist intelligentsia.At the sametime, the banner of a certain economicdecentralizationand political liberation of the regimealong the selfmanaginglines was cautiously raised.* * TheMarxisthumanists, a minoritythatwasonlytolerpartiesof EasternEuatedinsidethevariouscommunist rope under the Sovietyoke, not only criticizedthe stagnationof Stalinistbureaucratic socialism,but also aspects of the historical dialectic materialism that Stalin

BarbedWire FencesAre Stilt Necessary Self-managingutopia has not arrived yet Soviet-styledsocialismhas not transferred the reigns of power to the workers as promised by the foundersof communismnor hasit beenable to persuadethe masses.The dictatorshipof state capitalism continuesto exist in communist countries. Over recent decades,thesecountrieshave tried repeatedlyto overcomerevolutionary stagnatioa ft16ngh self-managing"liberalization," but all these attempts have failed.

p"ancG.

l0

IN SLOWMOTION REVOLUTIONARYPSYCHOSURGERY

had madethe official doctrineof the CommunistInternational.Likewiseatheistsand materidists,the Marxist humanists,in their mostcategoricallines,beganto maintain that the lawsof dialectics(which,accordingto Marx, propel historical evolution)were not an autonomous movementof matteror of nature,but madeup the dynamismof the self-creativityof man in his struggles againstalienationthroughouthistory.Theyaffirmed that becauseofthis error, the presentSovietleadershadtransformed man into a mereappendageof the bureaucratic state machine,thus checkingthe revolutionary process in its phaseof statecapitalism.Doing this, they had ignored vital questions raised by the anthropocentricthat hadbegunto form in Europeafter culturaltendencies of Sartre, the SecondWorld War with the existentialism Camusand others(cf. Tone Stres,"Il marxismoe la no. 1ll, domandasull'uomo"in CSEOdocamentaione, November1976, pp. 314, 31642n, 322'324). a) In Poland. Certain humanist theses were assimilated as theoretical reflections by philosophers and sociologists of the Polish Communist Party after the rise to power of the anti-Stalinist group of Gomulka between 1957 and 1958.* One of the greatest exponents of this Marxist humanism in Poland is philosopher Adam Schaff. * Later, Marxist humanisminspiredthe attemptedliberalization carried out by Polish CommunistParty secretary-generalGierek,who, in srid contactwith Moscow' wasleadingthe government'spolitical negotiationswith the labor union Solidarity (cf. Jan Pawlica, "Ponencia en mesa redonda, Insegnaremarxismo" in CSEO no.134,December1978'pp. 393-394). documentazione, The labor union Solidarity was formed as a result of the worker strikesof 1980,and uncountablePolish communist militants joined its ranks. It acquireda greatinfluenceamongthe networkof labor union representatives of the large state factories. Solidarity proposedto the countrythe dircct andlargescaleimplantationof the selfmanagementsystem.The communistgovernmentitself forestalledthe union with the counter-proposalof a timid in certainstatebusinessand controlledself-management es, which crystallized in a law approvedby Con8ress on the eve of the coup of 1981(cf. Solidarnosc,"Le prograrnmede Solidarno6d"and "Polonia: la revoluci6n de Solidarnosc"it Apuntes,pp. 138-139'177-182). b) In Hungary. The humanist current also manifested itself in the official communist party in Hungary, where

this tendenry was representedespeciallyby the PetdJi cir' cle, which supportedcommunist leaderImre Nagy during the events of 1956. Among various redresses,it demandedworker managementof factories. Communist theoreticianGitirgy Luk6csstandsout asa proponent of this faction.* * See,fot of Hunof theSociety themanifesto "xample, (10/23/1956)' whoseleitmotifis theingarianWriters into theranksof troductionof workerself-management communist directedby arenovated a socialistdemocracy

party (cf. Papaioannou, Marx et les marxistes,pp. da MarxisDieDreispoltung SeealsoLeonhard, 451452, mus,pp.364-370). c) In Yugoslavia.In Yugoslaviathe Marxist-humanist current had its greatestprojection after Tito's break with Stalin. The Yugoslaviancommunisttheoreticiansfound in Marxist humanismthe ideologicaljustification- within Marxist orthodoxy-for imposing,under careful control, a self-managingfagadeon the regimefrom above.

In self-managingYugoslavia,the meansof production basicallycontinue to belong to the state, and state economic planning as well as state direction of socialized companiesstill exists.The communist party likewise continues to dictate power in this phaseof transition, aswell as to direct the mechanicsof the political expressionof the self-managers.The communist leadersare so consciousof the fallacy of this supposedlyself-managingorganization and of its lack of support in the popular mentality that they constitutionally forbid oppositionto self-management.* Nonetheless, thanks to systematic and insistent propagandaby numerousWesterninformation networks, the "Yugoslav experience"has servedto give a certain credibility to the ideathat Marxist revisionismcan smooth out the collectivistregime; and this includesRussia,according to the degreeof influencethat the humanistcurrent is ableto acquirethere. At the sametime it presented a more transferablerevolutionary way to the communists and socialistsof Western countries. Nikita Khrushchev's rise to power in Russia,which inauguratedthe stageof so-calledds-$laliniation, conferreda certaincredibility to suchillusions. Yet, with the passingof time, it hasbecome more difficult for the Yugoslav communists and their Westernand Easternpropagandiststo concealthe limited and deceptive character of the Tito experience. * TheYugoslavian self-manageconsiders Constitution ment a "particular form of the dictatorshipof the

proletariat" (cf. Constituci6nde lo Repiblica Sociolista Federotivade Yugoslavia,Borba, Belgrade,1974, p, 74).

It prohibits all political activity that aimsto reestablish an economythat is not self-managing(ibid.). It evenconsiders"the socialproperty of the meansof production" as"irrevetrsiblefounand "the right of self-management" dations" of the regime(ibid., pp. 65-60. The Yugoslav CommunistParty, which adoptedthe name Leagueof Communistsof Yugoslavia,maintainedstrict control of the country and its self-managedactivities, which was

by Mijalko Todorovic,president openlyacknowledged of the FederalAssembly,upon presentingthe Constitution (ibid., pp. 4143). Article VIII of the "Fundamental Principlesofthe Constitution"(ibid., pp. 84-88)also leavesno doubt about this particular matter. The unpopularity of this systemis suchthat the governmentis obliged to prohibit any criticism. This prohibition was the objectof a denunciationin the EuropeanParliament'

Disintegrating the State and Society: the Goal of Present-Day ldeological Currents?

on the basisof a HumanRightsCommissionreportpreparedby British DeputyM. Pray, which noted: "It is prohibitedto criticizeex-president Tito, the party and the theory of socialist self-management(Le Monde, 3/2/1983. Seealso Franc Perko, "Il cristianosloveno nella societi dell'autogestione"in CSEOdocumentozi one, nos.53-54,Sept.-Oct.1971,pp, 202-203;Darrtel Chauvey,Autogestion,pp. 4041.) d) In Czechoslovakia. Another frustrated attempt in the Soviet orbit to break the stagnation and save the prestige of the socialist revolution took place in Czechoslovakia under the leadership of Dubcek in 1968. With Marxist humanism as the doctrinal base and after careful consultations with Moscow, they began experimenting with a series of ways to rejuvenate the bureaucratic socialism. Some timid steps toward self-managing socialism were taken. But with the outbreak of the "Prague Spring," in which the uncontainable popular malaise ignited into an antisocialist surge that threatened to extinguish the fundaments of the Marxist regime itself, Soviet tanks responded and put an end to the experiment.* * For more about the evolutionof the official communism of Czechoslovakiatoward self-managementin 1964to 1968,seeDaniel Chauvey,Autogestion, pp.

4149.

The 14th Special Congressof the Czechoslovakian ComrnunistParty heldin August 1968,aftgr the endof the tragic PragueSpring,clearlyadopteda self-managing orientation (cf. Parti CommunisteTchecoslovaque,Ze Congrb Clandatin, pp. l5Gl59, 258-2&, n7, 291-293\.

Shortly afterward, the manifestoof October28, 1970, of the SocialistMovementof CzechoslovakianCitizens, partidly made up of membersof the local communist party, adopteda similar orientation(cf. Jiri Pelikan,SocialistOppositionin EasternEurope,pp. 126,128,130).

2. The

Cultural

Bevolutlon

in Chlna

Another giganticeffort, a monstrouslybloody one, to pull the communistrevolution from the morasswas accomplishedby Mao Tse-Tungin China, beginningwith the time of the "Cultural Revolution" in 1966.The leaders of the ChineseCommunist Party criticized not only the Soviet regime for deviating from the final communist goal, but also the communistpartiesof EasternEurope for their revisionist efforts.

They then launchedan operation ofunprecedentedradicalnessand physical and moral violence. This was undertaken to extirpate from the deepestrecessesof the consciences of thoseboth insideand outsidethe party the last roots oftheir feudal and capitalistpast. They adopted this approachsincethe meredictatorial implantation of collectivismhad proved itself to be insufficient.

1l

In this way, skippingthe stageof industrializationunder the guiseof statecapitalism,the ChineseCommunist Party attemptedto drasticallyimposeconditions for organizing society based on self-managing cornmunes. ffowever, at the same time that the communist state stimulated terrorist anarchy with the fanaticized youth of the Red Guard, it sloweddown the processof its own disrnantlementto guaranteea minimum of order.* * Upon analyzingthe ChineseCultural Revolution (1966-1978), GermanscholarGiiaterBartschaffirmed: wantedhis systemto makedeeproots "Mao Tse-Tung necessothatit couldnotbeuprooted.Forhimit seemed

saryto createthreeconditions:doing awaywith the remnants of Confucianism,aboveall the cult to the family and ancestors;making a definitive separationbetween Maoism and Bolshevismin order to preventthe appearanceof any manifestationof the latter . . .; third, educating millism of followers.The cultural revolutionhad to destroyall the roots of the lifestylederivedfrom Confucianism.. . . It was, on one hand, from its base,an revolutionto destroyandintimidate; anarchic-communal on the other hand, it was, from the top, a statistcommunistrevolutionto dissolvea classof functionaries, guaranteeing,at the sametime, a minimum of order" (Giinter Bartsch,Kommunismw, Soziolismw,Anarchbmus, pp, 108-109).

Commentingon the causeof the failure of the Cultural Revolution in China, French socialistwriter Jacques Ellul said: "The worker and communistidealscould not be achievedwithout psycho-moraland cultural changes.

Whenthe communeswerecreated,they enteredinto conflict with thetradition of the family: the supremacyof the headof the family, the inferiority of the woman, the cohesionof the family structure,labor individualizedinto parcelsand, above all, the cult to ancestors.It had to breakwith all that, . . . and this wasthe drama. Because it wasnot easyto breakwitl this age-oldstructure. . . it inevitablycauseda cultural upheaval,an uprooting, And this was one of the aspectsof the enormous'Cultural Revolution,' crushingthe old who representedthe past, crushingthosewho had somesocialsuperiority (professors, boards of directors-even those of the partyengineers,and so on), the eliminationand destructionof the vestigesof the past-books, monuments,artworks. . . . All had to be demolished"(JacquesEllt:i, Changer de rdvolution: L'indluctable proldtariat, pp. l0Gl07).

The paroxysm of the Chinese-style cultural revolution took place in 1975, as the whole world watched in horror, with the genocide carried out in Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge. Besides physically eliminating between one to three million Cambodians, the Khmer's broader goal was to destroy the last existing traces of civilization in that godforsaken land. And, in part, they managed to do this. (See box on next page.)

Yet these ferocious attempts to violate the natural or-

der of things in order to imposethe revolutionary utopia have also ended in failure.

Under Deng Xaoping, the China of the 1980sattemptedto remedyits backwardindustry by introducing

Cambodia:A Violent Self-Managing

Experiment rF HE Khmer Rouge, supported I militarily by China, defeatedthe Cambodian government trooPs on November17, L975.Theyimmediately orderedthe evacuationof the capital, Phnom Penh. Thousandsof men and women, old and young, died alongthe roadsduring the Dantesque exodus.The population was reshuffled into rural communes.Thus, the city of almosttbreemillion inhabitants wasreducedto 20,(XFpersons.Industry disappeared,the hospitals and universitieswere abandoned,money was eliminated, contact with the exterior wasprohibited.All this wascarried out with the object of creatinga society that would have nothing in common with industrial civilization.

In order to save munitions' the Khmer Rouge murdered with clubs, bayonetsand pikes all suspects,that is to say,thosewho couldhaveoffered some resistanceto the regime. The first to die were thosewho belonged to the ruling classes:military officers, governnent officials, intellectuals, professionalsand also students.For the simple fact of knowing Frenchconsideredan intolerable residual of European colonialism, children over ageten wereeliminatedwithout pity. of the closingof As a consequence hospitals,the persecutionof doctors, the icarcity of medicine-all despised as fruit of Westernculture-and the lack of food, sicknessincreasedin a terrifying way. For example, 80 percent of the peasantscontracted malaria.

The state practically disappeared.

The politico-administrative direction wasnot that of a nation, but of a conglomerate of miserable rural communes, headed by a mysterious, sinister and invisible organ, the Angkar.

All worked equally in the communes.They plantedrice, dug canals, built dikes without the technical as-

Ganrbodlan refugeee fleo the country/.

sistance of modern machines. The children could not live with their respectiveparents,sinceall the adults were for them, indiscriminately, mother and father. In turn, Parents alsonot could givetheir own children preferential treatment. Last names weresuppressed.

In order to maintain this situation, the Angkar createda veritable army of spies,andnamedoneagentresponsible for each unit of Production.

Thus, the meansthey usedto defend comthis egalitarianand e'mancipated munal paradisewas police terror.

Onceagain, after innumerableviolence and horrors, the blaring communist failure of trying to s[ange the mentality of the peopleby force and to impose the self-managing communal life revealeditself. If the iron control of the Angkar had been relased, all would haveresumedtheir normal coruse.

The figures concerningthe number of personssacrificedin the experiment of integral self-managementin Cambodia between 1975 and 1978 are imprecise. Many estimatescalculate than more than two million died; otlers placethe figure at threemillion.

This numberis very high indeedif one takesinto accountthat the total population did not exceedeight million people.

After the Vietnameseinvasion in 1978,the CambodianexPerimentwas in part suspended(cf . Catolicismo, SfloPaulo, December1983;Franeois Ponchaud, Cambodge annâ‚Źe zdroi Jean Lacoutwe, Sumive le Peuple cambodgien!;JacquesEllul, Chang' er de rdvolution: L'indluctable

proletariat, pp. 190-196; Michel Legris, "Le Monde" tel qu'il est,pp.

r32-r4r).

the Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1876), famous anarchist theoretician and lader of the nineteenthcenturywhose works wererevivedin the studentrebellion of 1968,describestle anarchical governmentof the world in a way that recalls the CambodianAngkar: "No singleindividual will havepower -there will be neither order nor public authority. What, then, will takeits place so that the revolutionary anarchywill not endin a rection? Thecollectiveaction of an invisibleorganization opoating all throughthe country. . . . And when the hour of the revolution sounds,lthen we will see]the elimination of the stateand of bourgeoissociety, along with all their juridical relations. . . . And in order to savethe revolution, in order to lead it to its successfulend, amidst this anarchy, [there will be] the action of a collective,invisibledictator,invested with no power,yet still muchmoreefficient and powerful. . . . I seeno $eater salvationthan in revolutionary anarchy, directedin all its aspectsby an invisible collectiveforce-the only it is dictatorshipthat I admit, because the only one compatiblewith . . . the full energyof the rwolutionary movement. . . . We mwt produceanarchy and like invisible pilots amidst the popular storm, we must guideit. . . .

This dictatorship wilt be all the more saneandpowerfulif it is not invested with any official power,nor haveany ostensiblecharacter" (De Ia guerre d Ia Commune;gg. 464, 465, 469, 471,472).

Disintegrating the State and Society: the Goul of Present-Day Ideological Currents?

capitalisticcreditsand technologyand also programsto stimulate individual interest in raising productivity levels in its deterioratedeconomy.For its part, Cambodia took up the Soviet path after the failure of the selfmanagementexperiment.

Thus, the realizationof the self-managrng utopia is far behind schedule,while failures to acceleratethe revolutionary march have accumulated.

fI/. A Basic Strategic Fact Often fgnored in Explaining These Failures On the maxgn of theseideologicaldivisionsin the communist world (which havea greateror lesserauthenticity that we will not considerhere), there is a basic feature of this revolutionary morass that almost no one talks about. In fact, it only surfacesoccasionallyin certain documentsof top communistleaders,especiallythoseof Russia.

That the establishmentof self-managementnot become a mere fagade,it must face the breakdown of the state structureso that it can be replacedby fluid forms of social organization that are incompatible with today's great industrial giants.* * Theroadto self-management, affirmsFrenchrevolutionary JacquesEllul, presupposes the disintegration structures: of today'simmense "The minoritiesevery-

wheremust, before all else,be given a voice and means of expression.. . . In this diversification, new currents and new relationshipswill appear spontaneously.. . .

This is the necessarycondition for self-management to be possible.It is a joke to speakof self-management with thousandsof workers, or for comfor businesses plex organisms.. . . Self-management can only be conceived of for smaller units. . . . Speaking of selfmanagementis equivalentto speakingof the dismantling of the industrial, commercialand administrativewhole" (Changerde rCvolution: L'indluctable prolCtariat, pp.

249-250).

On this subjectAndr6 Gorz says:"Only the small or medium-sLedproduction units can be subordinatedto the needsof a populationthat directsitself, and adapted to local resourcesand aspirations;. . . only in this way can it be directedby thosewho work there and contribute to the autonomyof the city, tle region,the basecommunities. The declineof the stateand self-management are only possiblein a socialarenawherethe small units reestablishthe direct relationship,if not unity, between the producersand the consumers,betweenthe city and tlre countryside" (Adids al proletariodo [M6s all4 del socialismol, p. 109).HoweverGorz believesthat sometype of state organization should subsist to guaranteethe egalitarian existenceof the self-managingsocial nuclei (cf. ibid., pp. lll-Il3).

In this case, the Soviet leaders and communists in generalcannot effectivelyinitiate the march toward a selfmanagingdisintegrationof the state and societyin the East aslong as the capitalistnations of the West do not, in someway or another,follow suit alongthe samepath.

Only a nale personwould imaginethat a Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnevor Gorbachevwould transform Russia into a seaof post-industrialized,self-managingcommunities, somewhatdemilitat'ued, while it faced a supercapitalistic United Statesand West with all their glgantesqueindustrial, technologicaland military organizations intact. Because,in so doing, they would haveestablished conditions for the West at any moment to easilydo away with the Soviet threat.

Thus, whatevermay be the ideologicalitinerary marked

by Marxist orthodoxy, the accomplishmentof its stages dependsupon a solution to this problem: Are there elements that can make them hope that the Western world wiII evolvedirectly from super-capitalismtoward a nodel of self-managing society without passing through the stageof the totalitarian and collectivist state?* Does an efficient revolutionary psychological method exist to stimulate or acceleratethe transformation of bourgeois mentalities and institutions in this direction? t Theofficialpositionof theInstituteof Philosophy of the Academyof Sciencesof the USSRis very enlightening in this matter: "The developmentof the socialist democracystrengthensthe power of the stateand, at the sametime, preparesconditionsfor its extinctiooand, on par with this, takes a step toward a social regimethat candirect societywithout the needfor a political apparatus, without state coercion. . . . of the "Then, to call for the most rapid disappearance state under the pretext of fighting bureaucracy,and to proclaim, in turn, the needto renouncestatepower, is equivalentto the conditionsof socialism,aslong asthe capitalistworld still exists(and, what is evenmoregrave, in tle periodof transitionto socialism)to disarmthe workersin faceof their classenemy" (Academyof Sciences, Fundamentalsof Marxist Philosophy,Konstantinov,pp.

538-539).

In addition to this, the Kremlin leaders could not fail to address another matter in this context that conditions the two preceding ones: Within the noncommunist bloc, there are more than 800 million people who are spiritually directed by one man. These constitute the Catholic Church. Her structure is essentially hierarchical, her dogmas, her doctrines, and her laws are diametrically opposed to an atheistic and radically egalitarian selfmanaging society. If this immense body does not enter democratizing ecthe road of self-management-by

restructuresand promotingcorresponding clesiastical formsin temporalsociety-it will paralyzethemovement utopia. Moreover,if, that aimsfor the self-managing

IN SLOW MOTION REVOLUTIONARYPSYCHOSURGERY

l4

in a world dissolvedinto self-managingmicro-unities, only the CatholicChurchremainsorganizedand opposed to this atomization,shewill havein her handsall the conditions for assumingat a given moment the guidanceof mankind's destiny, which will obviously obstruct communist designs.

V. The Sorbonne Revolution in France: An fdeological and Temperamental Explo sion Wanting to Propel Western IVfentalities Toward Anarchy l.

Ihe Ihat

Profound Prepared

Tendenaies the Way

A profound tendency exists in modern man (which increasesto the degreethat he separateshimself from Christian civilization) toward a chimerical type of life, wherein he can give full rein to his passionsand be free from the constraintsof duty, coercion, effort and pain.

Suchprofound tendenciesdo not produce all their consequencesin just one generation. They slowly modify lifestyles, ambiences,culture, laws and the state. Each concretetransformation feeds man's determination to adapt his life to the tendency.

Today there are innumerablereforms, both large and small, and sociocultural manifestationsof everykind that reflect this profound chimericaldesirefor a life of unrestrained pleasure.Everything in the contemporary world heads in the direction of liberating man from various forms of inequalitiesand legitimate authorities that make up part of life in society presupposes,as for example morality and positive laws.* I For moreontheroleof prideandsensuality in hatred for everyform of superiorityor law,seeRevolutionand PlinioConâ‚ŹadeOliveira.ThisauCountenevolution,by thor shows how thesedisorderly passionsform the deepest stratum exploited by the revolutions that have followed one after another in the Christian West since the end of the Middle Ages and that should be considered in reality as the gradual development of one single, immense revolutionary process.

An unmistakablesymptom of this is the immenseinfluencethat Freud's theorieson liberating the sexualinstinct have had in today's world.

Reteats 2. L New Euman Type lhat the Prlmaey of the Intelligenee and the WiIl At the heart of the progressivemarch of this tendency, simultaneouslyegalitarianand libertarian, is the desire to break not only with hierarchyand the laws of life in society, but even with the very internal order of human nature. That is to say,it feedsupon a desireto form a type of man who abandonsthe dictatesof reasonand the imperativesof the wiU in order to proclaim the primacy of the sensesand the instincts.A manifestationof this phenomenoncould be seenin the 1950swith massesof teenagershypnotizedby the frenetic rhythm of rock and roll and its "cultural" projections.* From this camea whole seriesof relatedrhythms, music,clothing, waysof being and living that increasinglydefine and radicalize this humantype, personifiedby movieand rock stars,the Beatlesand hippies. All this contributed to the "sexual revolution" of 1966on American collegecampuses. * PfinioCorr0adeOliveirarefersto thisphenomenon process in in hisbookcitedabove:"The revolutionary souls,which we havethus described,hasproducedin the most recentgeneration(and especiallyin adolescentsof with 'rock androll') our dayswho hypnotizethemselves a make-upof spirit characterizedby spontaneityof the primary reactions$dthoutthe control of the intelligence nor the effective participation of the will. Fantasyand 'lived and felt experiences' predominateoverthe methodical analysisof reality. All of this is a fruit, to a great degree,ofapedagogythat reducesthe role oflogic and the true formation of tlte will to almostnothing" (RevoIution ond Counterrevolution,p, 69),

3. Ihe Sorbonne: Birth of a Nev

Announclng the Hlstorle Dra

Thesetendenciesclearly eruptedin May 1968with the studentbarricadesofthe Sorbonne,accompaniedby the cry of "It is forbidden to forbid!" A sort of preview of history, it revealedto the astonishedbourgeoisieworld the entire phase of anarchical utopia toward which the disorderly passions of total liberty and equality are directed.

Amid this disorder, unbridled sexualpromiscuity, and outbreaks of violence, the Sorbonnian revolutionaries sangpraisesto the Cultural Revolution of Mao Tse-Tung.

They proclaimed the death of the state and organized societyand the end of the civilization of reasonand the will. And they preachedthe birth of a new historical era whereinthe instinctswould finally be liberatedafter two thousand yearsof slavery.The Freudian-Marxist theories of Wilhelm Reich, touched up by Herbert Marcuse, alignedthe social and sexualrevolution, and pointed to

..1

For the first time in history, a rebellious movement does not rise up in the name of the working class nor does it present itself as a political party, but rather as the struggle of libertarian feeling of the youth against their elders and their whole systemof values. We are speakingof a "revolution in the ways of feeling, of acting and of thinking. . . . It is a revolution of civilization itself."

The European socialist parties tried to becomethe fint catalystsof the libertarian and egalitarian consequencesof this revolution.

r6

REVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOSURGERY IN SLOW MOTION

the hierarchical and monogamous family as the first source of all economic, political, cultural and moral repression.This servedasideologicalsustenance for this temperamentalrebellion, whoseexacerbationsweretranslated into sloganssuchas "Be realistic: demandthe impossible"; "Better a hellish end than an endlesshell"; "The imagrnationtakespower"; and the aforementioned "It is forbidden to forbid."

In turn, the leftist pressaround the world actedas an enormousechochamberof the anarchistexplosion,which was repeatedby revolutionary studentson a smaller scale throughout the West. However, in the end the French bourgeoisiedemandeda return to normality.* * While GeneralCharlesde Gaulle, then headof state, secreflyleft Franceto securethe supportof Frenchtroops stationedin Germany,a hugedemonstration,madeup principallyof the middleandlowerbourgeoisie, wasorganizedon the Avenue Champs-Elysdes in Paris to demandan immediatestopof therevolutionarychaosthat had paralyzedthe country. However,the half-million Frenchmenwho protestedthereagainstthe insupportable effectsof the anarchistrevolution did not direct their indignation againstthe ideological and temperamental root that wasits causeand that couldbe summedup in the slogan"It is forbiddento forbid."

Meanwhile, the university buildings were evacuated, duly cleanedand restored,the barricadeswereremoved from the streetsofthe cities,and orderwasreestablished.

What was the effect of this revolution that had seemed so dominant?

On the immediate superficial plane, it was the failure of a radicalism that could not count on the support of French and world public opinion of that time.

On a more profound plane and considered from the medium and long-range, there were very significant longterm consequencesfrom the brutal shock experienced by the mentality of the Western bourgeoisie. Defeated at Champs-Elysdes, the revolutionary movement of the Sorbonne nonetheless continued to spread by means of its slogans and its ways of being and living. Like a slow oil leak, it filtered throughout a societythat did not seriously reject the ideological content of this rebellion but only its extreme consequences.* * Concerningthe role of the extremist forces in the developmentof the revolutionaryprocess,Prof. Plinio Corr0ade Oliveirasays:"The explosionofthese extremismsraisesup a standardand createsa fixed targetthat fascinates the moderates by its very radicalism.Accordingly, they slowly advancetoward it. Thus, socialism repudiatescommunism,but it alsosilentlyadmiresand tendstowardit. More remotely,the samecould be said of the communistBabeufand his henchmenin the last flare-upsof the FrenchRevolution.Theywerecrushed.

But societymovesslowly along the way they wishedit to follow. The failureof the extremistsis, then, only an

apparent one. They collaborate indirectly, but powerfully, in the advanceof the Revolution by gradually attracting the uncountable multitudes of the ,prudent,' ,moderate,, and mediocre, who are led step by step toward the realization of their guilty and exacerbatedchimeras', (Revolution and Counterrevolution, p, 48).

Twenty yearslater, from his well-establishedoffice as director of the libertarian magazinePflaster Strand in Frankfurt, one of the most representativeleadersof the French May, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, evaluatedthe results of this studentrebellion in statementsmade to the New York Times: "Mr. Cohn-Bendit seesthe status of his friends [of the GreenParty] Ersone political fruit of 1968. . . . But the most visible featuresof 1968appearin people's behavior, in their habits, in their everydaylivesin education, in feminism, in culture."2

Yf. Efow Can the French NIay Be Used to Guide the West

Tow ard Self-Management ?

Socialist Theorists Analyze the Problem Sincethe 1960s,socialist and Marxist theorists have analyzedextensivelythe profound effectsof the student revolution of May 1968. The French authors Alain Touraine and Pierre Fougeyrollasand the Austrian Andr6 Gorz stand out among these.More recently prominent spokesmeninclude Spanishsocialisttheorist Ignacio Sotelo and two Frenchmen,Pierre Rosanvallonand Laurent Joffrin.

l.

Ihe Cultural Bevolution: A Badieal and Profound Change That Leads Mentallties to Total Bevolutlon

The ideas formulated by thesetheorists reveal a new revolutionary global vision, which we will outline below.* * JacquesEllul and Cornelius Castoriadis have also dealt with these ideas and they have been summarized didactically by Richard Gombin. Alfonso Guerra has, to some degree, become their spokesman in Spanish socialist circles.

The so-called philosophers of Marxist revisionism, such as Lukdcs, Korsch, Schaff, Adorno, Horkheimer, Bloch, Marcuse, Fromm, Lef0bvre, linked for the most part either directly or indirectly to the Frankfurt School, 2. New York Times,9/l/1986.

Disintegrating the Stote and Society: the Goal of Present-Day ldeological Currents?

provided a theoretical basefor this new post-Sorbonnian socialism.

we alsopresent n*.

trr, olrnor. recentworksthat

" dealwith this new revolutionary vision: JacquesEllul, Changerde rdvolution: L'indlactableproldtariat; Pierre Fougeyrollas,Marx, Freud et la rdvolution totale; Gombin, Zes originesdu gauchisme;Andr6 Gorz,Adids al proletoriodo (Mdsalld delsocialismo),Rdformeet Rdvolutioni Nfonso Guerra et al,, El futuro del sociolismoi Laurent Joffrin, La goucheen voiede disporition: Comment chongersanstrohir?i PierreRosanva)lon,L'dge de I'autogestion;Ignacio Sotelo, "Las paradojasdel eurocomunismo," in the magazlneSistema,no. 20, September 1977,"Los socialistasen el poder: Problemas actualesdel socialismoeuropeo,"in Sistema,no. 15,October 1976,"Socialismoy Cultura" in Leviotdn,no. l, third quarter 1978(alsopublishedin SSWP,Propuestas calturales,pp. 15-36),and "Socialismoy Marxismo," in Sistemo,May 19?9,no. 29-30;Alain Touraineet al., Au-deld de la crise;Alain Touraine, El postsocialismo. a) The new brew of revolutionary culture. A concrete analysis of the contemporary reality undoubtedly indicates a growing discredit around the world for the dogmatic routes toward communism: the Soviet-type proletarian dictatorship with its state capitalism or the drastic attempts of Mao's China and the Khmer Rouge with their unprecedented totalitarian violence.

At the same time, there is decreasing interest in the revolutionary msfilizadon of the massesof rural workers against capitalism. The working class, contrary to the claims of the classic Marxist ideologists, has integrated itself on a large scale into the so-called society of well-being.

For this reason, the Marxists had to unleash the class struggle from the "dissatisfied minorities," taking advantage of discontent caused by limitations imposed on their desires for egalitarian and libertarian expansion.

These limitations were attributed to the disciplinary authoritarianism inherent to the state apparatus and to the immense, oppressive edifice of industrial societies.3* * Alfonso Guerra,in the openingmeetingof First Conferene on theFutureof Socialismheldin Genwaon September19-21,1985,acknowledged that after the hopes raised in the bosom of socialismby the Bolshevik 3. Cf. Guerraet al.,Elfuturo delsocialismo,pp. 15,23;A. deBlas, in ibid.,pp.4A41,58-59; Tourainee.al.,Au4elddelacrix,pp. ll-13, p. 69; Gorz,Adi6s ql proletariado,pp.

4648, andEl postsociolismo, pp.9-19;IgnacioSote17-19,U,llGllT; Cton,Rdforme etRdvolution, lo, "Problemasactuales delsocialismo europeo,"in Sislerza, no. 15, October1976,pp. 6-7,22-U; "Marxismoy socialismo,"in Sisterno, nos.29 and30,May 1979,p.26; "Socialirmoy Cultura," in Leviotdn, no. I, third quarter,1978,pp. 82-87;Ellul, Changerde rdvolution: L'indluctableproldtariat,pp. 48ff., 261-262; Fougeyrollas, Marr, Freudet la rdvolutiontotale,pp.2122,17,617538; andRosanvallon, L'Agede I'autogution,pp. 59-9.

17

revolution,it wasimpossibleto denyits violent totalitarianismand economicfailure: "In reality,the wholeworld, the fact of the as well as socialistcircles,acknowledges inhumanfaceof thecommunistrevolutions.Variousimpressionsabout this subjecthavebeendiscussed for quite sometime. Initially, the revolutionof Octoberradiated a ne$'movementof hopeabout what worker revolutions therevicouldachieve.Later camethe crises,dissensions, in the Congresses of the SovietComsionarymeasures munistParty, etc.; and today one can saythat thereis perceptionin the wholeofthe socialist a quitegeneralized movementthat the inhuman face of theserevolutions has made them inadvisable.The failure of its administration is naturally addedto this; and this is also sometodayseems thing that, in the marginof somediscussions, sufficiently clear" (El futuro del socialismo,p. 14. See alsop. 25). b) The Rebellion of 196t exposed the sociocultural crisis of industrialized societies. More profoundly, the youth uprising that erupted in France and in the Western world beginning in May 1968 revealed a sociocultural crisis of unexpected magnitude that had developed in the bosom of industrialized societies. The youth uprisings in the "Prague Spring" and in Poland during that same year of 1968 were also evident symptoms of the existence of an analogous crisis in the socialist bloc.4 c) A crisis of generations . . . We are dealing with an upheaval that did not rise up in the name of the working class or in the name of a political party. Rather, it presented itself as the struggle of libertarian feeling of the youth against their elders and their whole system of values.5 d) . . . that tends toward total revolution . . . Undoubtedly, it is a movement with authentic revolutionary content that goes beyond the dogmatism of Marxist orthodoxy. At the same time, it radically opposes all

forms of legal and moral authority and coercion, individually as well as socially.6 e) . . . and departs from a radical liberation of the instincts.That is to say,it is a revolution that proposesbefore all else a liberation of the instincts in the confines of psychiatry from an interior yoke imposed by centuries of civilization and culture that consecratedthe dominion of the intelligenceand the will over the passions.

4. Cf. Alfonso Guerra, in SSWP, "Cuadernos de Polltica Sectorial: Ecologia, Medio Ambiente y Socialismo," pp. 19-20;Sotelo, Socialismo y Cultura, pp. 9l-92; and Fougeyrollas,op. cit., pp. 380-383.

5. Cf. Touraine,Elpostsocialisno,pp. 13, 14,7l; andGorz,Rdforme et Rdvolution, pp. 16, 17, 26,27.

6. Cf. Gorz, Rdforme et Rdvolution, pp. 2-n .Regarding the diffusion of this fiberal equality today , seeGorz, Adi6s al proletariodo , pp .

17-18.Seealso Fougeyrollas,op. cit., p. ,(D; and Gombin, Lu origina du gauchisme,pp. 9G96.

l8

REVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOSURGERY IN SLOW MOTION

With this, it holds completesexualliberation as one of its principal redresses.* By its very nature, this ideological-temperamental explosion,to the measurethat it expanded,would have propelled into the spiral of its anti-authoritarian and anti-repressivestruggleall human activitiesand relations:in the family, workplace,school, business,culture, politics, and so on.7** Becauseof this, the more active and alert nuclei of the student rebellions, lacking any appropriate historical precedents, adoptedfrom Mao Tse-Tungthe term "cultural revolution" to define their movement,although they did not adhere to Maoist dogmas.8"The expression'cultural revolution,' " comments Pierre Fougeyrollas, "truly meansa revolution in the way of feeling, acting and thinking, a revolution in the ways of feeling, of acting, and of thinking, a revolution in the waysof living (collectively and individually), in short a revolution of civilization."e * PierreFougeyrollas clearlyenposes therwolutionary

thinking: "What the youth areaskingfor is not just that their parentsand teachersto grant them the freedomto havethe sexualrelationsthey want. . . . In reality, what theyreallywant is somethingvery distinct.It consistsof a desirefor newinterpersonalrelationshipsbetweenparents and children,teachersand students,and evenamongone another,departingfrom an expansivesexuality.. . . The prycho-sexual rwolutionthat is presentlydorclopingamong the youth constitutesa decisiveforcefor attainingtotal revolutionl'(Marx Fratd et Ia rfuohttiontotole,pp. 36367).

Nchard Gombin is no lessclear: "Everything that exists is again put irto doubt simultaneously.The leftists considerman to be alienatedin his sexuallife because his real desiresare smotheredfrom his childhood by morality, family and school. . . . Now it is a matter of liberating everyonefrom all teachersand all obstaclesto liberty" (Les origines du gauchisme,p. 178). ** HerbertMarcusgthe philosopherof the rebellion of May 1968,saysthis aboutthe newform of revolution: "The emphasisin this newdimensiondoesnot imply substituting politics for psychology,but the contrary.. . . We must reachthe roots of societyin its actual individuals. . . . Tbdaythis qualitativechange,this liberation, implies organicand biological changesofinstincts aswell aspolitical and social changes.. . . One can rightfully speak of a cultural revolution, sincethe protest is directedtoward the whole cultural Establishment,including the morality of oristingsociety.. . . Thereis onething wecan saywith completeassurance: the traditional idea of revolution and the traditional strategyof revolutionhaveended. Thoseideasare old-fashioned.. . . What we must undertakeis a type of diffuse and disperseddisintegration of the system"(Ia sociedodcorn{voro,pp. 45,47, 48,76,77,91). SeealsoFougeyrollas, op. cit., pp. 345ff.

7. Cf. Fougeyrollas, op. cit., p. 386.

8. For moreon this subject,seeGorz,Adids ol proletoriado,pp. 18, 87,88;andMarutse,La sociedad corn{voro,pp. 4548; Sotelo,,Socialirmo y Cultura,pp. 9l-92; Fougeyrollas, op. cit., pp. 366,367,380, 381-386, 3X),4A2,623; Gombin,l,esoriginadugouchisme,pp.

177-179; andSergioVilar, "El santoerotismoo la revoluci6ndelplacer"in Sistema,no.48,May 1982,pp. 105ff.

9. Ibid., p. 390.

2. Ihe

New Multiform

Proletariat

a) The diffuse influence of May 196Ethroughout the West. Although it lacked conditions for an immediatepolitical projection,the whole revolution of the sensesfrom behind the Sorbonnebarricadesresoundedas a token of the end of a historical era. Many aspectsof this premature revolution frightenedits contemporaries.Nevertheless,it is an evident fact that this revolt had links with the profound tendenciesof the permissivebourgeoisie.

Moreover, its influence had been gradually influencing not only the more liberal ambiences,but also many that were scandalizedby its excesses.lo b) Movements,sectorsand tendenciesusedfor the political and sociocultural breakdown of the prevailing system. Due to either the progressivespreadof the tendencies and ideas of May 1968or the gravity of the crisis that weighsover consumersociety,other factors of upheaval have appearedwith a growing force of impact. These, togetherwith the student rebellion, could be stimulated to acceleratethe end of Western capitalism: o The feminist movement, which, within the context of the sexualrevolution, leadsto the elimination of all inequality betweenthe sexesand the destruction of the traditional notion of the family as the basiccell of society.lr o Minorities that havebeenscornedand ostracizeduntil recently,suchasprostitutes,homosexuals,drug addicts, hard rockers, and all the sectorsthat in someway feel oppressedor belittled in present-daysociety.12 o The liberation movementsof ethnic groups and small nationalitiesand regionsthat have beenintegrateduntil now into centralizedand unitary states.l3 o The ecoloetcalmovementthat exploitsthe tendencyto return to nature,favoredby the mmplexity and enormity of la today's super-urbanizedand super-industrializsd5ssig1y.

10. Cf. Gorz, Râ‚Źforme et Rdvolution, pp. l6-17,27-30; Sotelo,Sociolismoy Cultura, pp. 9l-92. Seealsostaternentsof Daniel Cohn-Bendit in item V, 3 of this chapter. ll. Cf. Touraine, El postsociolismo,pp, l19-125 andAu-detd de ta crise, pp.39'40; Gorz, Adids al proletoriodo, pp. 90-91;Castoriadis, Le contenudu socialisme,pp. 338-339;and Fougeyrollas,op. cit., pp.

233-23s,As, 626, 629, 630.

12. Cf. Touraine, El postsocialismo,pp. 168-t69, 177-l7g;Au-deld de Ia crise, pp. U9i Guerra et al., El futuro del socialismo, D. 24: atd Castoriadis,op. cit., pp. 4lrf4l5.

13. Cf. Touraine, El postsociolismo,pp. 125-13l and.Au-deld de la crise,pp. 16,4041. Ellul, op. cit., p.249i and Fougeyrollas,op. cir., pp. 1,1-15,626-628.

14. Cf. Touraine, El postsocialismo,pp. 137-138;and Guerra, in SSWP, "Ecologia, Medio Ambiente y Socialismo,,' pp. 19,21-24.

Disintegrating the State ond Society: the Goal of Present-Doy ldeological Currents?

o And, in a generalway, the ever more apparent incompatibility of modern man with state-ownedand private super-organizations,as well as any type of institutional life. This incompatibility manifestsitself in the tendencyto remain outsidethesetypes of organization, if not to openly challengethem by choosingthe most diverse communitiesof life, work, neighborhood,and so on.15* * The tendencyfavoringthe dismantlingof the state,accordingto the theoreticiansof the socialistrwolution, also seemsto beincubatedin the bosomof neoliberalcurrents.

FrenchnniterIaurent Joffrin pointsoul "Certaincurrents of neoliberalismput thernselveson the antipode of this resurrectionofthe moral order,preachingan integralliberalismthat prohibits the collectivity from interfering with any of the personalpreferences of the citizens,no matter how contrarythey may seemto the currentmorality. The libertarian movement,oneof tle most activefactionsof neoliberalism,says,for examplgthat in the nameof individual rights,the saleof drugsshouldbe legalized.. . . "lrftism has beengiven full rein in this crisis. Today it is liberalismthat has its erdremists,. . . the anarchistcapitalists.. . . The libertarian party, principal organizais growingin intion of thesehazy anarchist-capitalists, fluence eachyear. .. . The libertarians no longer want the state,and, aboveall, they want to suppresslaws and regulations.. . . The libertariansevenrequestthe pureand simplesuppressionof justice,of the policeand the army.

Comploinontsshould Jind private arbitmtors, . . . and citizpwshouldhoverecourseto pivate militiamentoJight crirninals" (La gaucheen voie de disporitiorc Commenl changersonstrohir? pp. 4, 52-53), On this sametopic Joffrin lists this basicbibliography: Henri Arvon, Izs libertaiens amdricains,PU4, Faris, 1983;DavidFriedman,TheMachincryof Freedom,Hary er and Row' New York, 1973;Pierre lrmieux, Du libbolismed I'onarcho-copitalisme, PUF, kris, 1983;Robert Nozick, Anarchy, Stateand Utopia, Basic Books, New York, 1974(op. cit" pp.44,53,54).

8. A New Style of Polilleal Foree to lDirect the Neo.nevolutlon Ibunnrd Self.Management

I

I

5

To the worker forces of times past, it would now be necessary to add this new sociocultual, multiform proletariat, which has an increasinglygtreaterrole asprotagonist in the renewedbattles. The most avant-gardetheorists of the neo-revolution maintain that the old dogmas of Marxism are dead. From the old socialist revolution there remains the impulse toward utopia that unites total equality with total liberty. The authentic revolutionary forces-faithful not to deadideologies, but rather to the real strugelesof today-would be thosewho, far from wanting to dogmatically control this new proletariat, 15. Cf. Touraine, Au4eld de la crise, pp. 47-48md El postsocialbmo,p.2l0; Gorz,Adi6s ol proletariodo, pp.8-81, 130-13land Sotelo, Sociolismo y anlturo, pp. EG87.

19

know how to politically stimulate, liberate and coordinate its energyto overthrowthe walls of the capitalistcitadel.

And this capitalism would not be replacedwith the iron framework of a totalitarian socialiststate,but rather with a new democracy.l6 In effect, the stateand present-daysociety-dismantled through the exacerbationof all thesecontentioustendencies-would gradually be replaced by an immense quilt of small, self-managedcommunities' more or less integratedinto vague federations.l7* French revolutionary theorist Alain Touraine endshis book Au-deld de Ia crise by pointing out: "A new cultural backdrsp is in place: it is time for the sceneto become animated, for a new drama to be performed."ts I How will thisintegraldemocracy orbeincreasingly ganized Theneo-revolutionary towardself-management? theorists of Marxismandtheir liketheclassical theorists, do not reallyconfrontthissubject.Manyof successors, democracy themsayor insinuatethattheself-managing for abunpresupposes a society's aspirations abandoning Thatis,in plainwords,thatit should danceor well-being. itself to beingpoor. accustom from self-management-departing Thus,a generalized carwhat Ronsanvalloncalls micro-democracies, of a national,contine,Irlinkedin ttreconfines tilaginously viableto themin the tal, or worldwidefederation-seems and science of a broaddiffusionof computer hypothesis because recourse information.Thisis so,hypothetically, to directorsand related techniciqnswould allow all the membersof the self-managingcommunityto receivethe sameinformation and also to participate equally in decisions;thus, the director would processthe individual decisionsof all, transforming them into a synthesisdecision,technicaland impersonal,which would express the collectivedesire.This would at timesevenprmit, accordingto them, the autonomousand efficient existence miso-societies,freefrom dominionand of self-managing eventhe control of central or local nuclei of power. utopia could be realized Evenifttris anarchist-socialist without resulting in chaosor a regressionof humanity to a type of savagecomputerizedtribalism, the neosocialist axgumentis not very convincingin its capital point: it does not exclude fron the panorama the hypothesis,alreadyraisedby Bakunin, that one can establish a dictatorshipconcealedby rwolutionary minsrities within the self-managingnetwork.

16.Cf. A. de BIas,in Guerra4 al., El futuro del socialismo,pp.

El post58-59;Touraine,Au4ell dela crise,pp. 11,15-18,47-52,allrd 2n3-2U1, ll-12, 20,2, 7O-7I, I l7- I 19,I 35-I 39, 168-170. sociolismo, pp. I 4.I 9, 2l l, 2lG2l7, 2l92n; Gwrraet al.,Elfuturodelsocialismo, W92, 116-1IE,l3l, 132:'Rdformeet Rdvolution, 23-30,7V1,76-81, pp. 7, 43-57,55,56,247-2fr;C.astoriadis, op. cit., pp. 335-340, 414415; Sotelo,Zos social&fasen el poder pp. 15-21,L32; Sociolismoy culJos6F6lixTezanos, turo,pp.9-93, 97;Ellul,op.cit., pp.?A5,249-250; in Guerraet al., El futuro del sociolismo,pp. 134,142-145;Joffrin, La gaucheen voiede disparition:Cornmentchongersonstrahir? pp.

Il-16, 215-217,617437;Gombin,op. cit., pp. 22-28;and Virgilio Zapatero,in AlfonsoGuerraet al., op. cit., pp. 79, 81. p. 156;Gorz,Adidsalproletari17.Cf. Touraine,El postsocialismo, op. cit., pp. 362-383. ado,pp.109,130-l3l;andFougeyrollas, 18.Touraine,Au-deldde la crise,p.20.

20

REVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOSURCERYIN SLOW MOTION

The complexity and detailed power that comes from computer sciencegives this hypothesis new dimensions and terrible possibilities of realization in a society whose natural mechanismsof forming opinion have been dismantled.

In addition, in this disarticulated and equalized society, could not psychological-and even parapsychological -measures be utilized in order to govern minds? The panorama opened by self-management is so full of unknowns and its horizons are so foggy, or better said, so tenebrous, that without concrete facts it is difficult to really know what to expect.

For more on the alliance between computer scienceand other technical-scientific advances, seeEllul, Chonger de rdyolution: L'indluctable proldtariat, pp. 225-273; Rosarr vallon, L'dge de I'autogestion, pp. 77-78; Guerra, .E/ futuro del socialismo, pp.26-28; Daniel Chauvey, Autogestion, pp.2.AG?.@.Concerning a future society without aspirations for abundance, see Gorz, Adids al proletariado, pp. 90-93, 128-132,and Rosanvallon, op, cit., pp. 173-174.

fff. The fnfluence of the Sorbonne on Socialist and Communist Parties Let us now examinethe effectsof the Sorbonnemovement on the socialistand communistpartiesof the West and on the regimesin the Soviet orbit.

l. The Duroeommunlsts If the analysesof the neo-revolutionary ideologists about the revolutionary potential of the post-Sorbonne Westwerestrong and vivid, so alsowerethoseinsidethe socialist and communist parties, although they had somewhat lessintensity. There seemedto be a certain feaxwithin theseparties that the debateon the consequences of the Sorbonnecould divide the old cadrein their parties.

In fact, this cadre had been formed for decadesfollowing the classicdogmasof scientificsocialism.An abrupt replacement of this official monolithic orthodoxy with ideas of a new and apparently contradictory cast, could give rise to misunderstandings,doubts, internal dissensionand loss of enthusiasm.Becauseof this, the socialist and communist political organizations were generally slower and more cautious in adapting their respectiveprograms to the new winds.

Thus, the French Communist Party dissociateditself from the Sorbonnerebelsduring the first uprisings. However, soon afterward, this sameCommunist Party and the other European communist parties (exceptthe Portuguese),began to introduce liberal touches into their

respectiveprogramsand to showa certaindistancefrom the Soviet regime, particularly regarding its dictatorial aspects.

This processgeneratedso-calledEurocommunismat the beginningof the 1970s.The Italian Communistparty took the lead in this evolutionarytactic (to which the French communistswould later adhere),evenadopting some of the slogansof May 1968regardingthe sexual revolution and certain self-managingideas.le

2. Self.Management Dnters the Eleetoral Program of the Soeiallst Partles The socialist parties of Europe* (among them the SSWP)were the first to take advantageof the libertarian and egalitarianeffects producedby May 1968in the tendenciesand aspirationsof Western society.2o** * From the Congressof Epinayin lg1l camethepresentday FrenchSocialistParty. In 1975,the NationalConventionadoptedthe document,,,FifteenThesesfor SelfManagement."The SSWPwasreorganized in 1924,when Felipe Gonz6lezwas electedsecretary-getreral; the congresses of 1976,1979and l98l confirmedthe thesesof self-managing socialism.The ,,Planof the Italian Socialist Party," approvedby the centralsommi11ss in January 1978,sustainsthesametheses.The final part ofthe ,,Socialist Party Proposalfor the 1980s,"approvedat the Third Congressof the PortugueseSocialist party, was also strongly influencedby the doctrinesof the movement of May 1968. ** It is necessary to considerhow thesetendencieshave beenreceivedin the ambiencesofthe ,,progressivistclergy" of the Catholic Church and analogousspheresof Protestantism.It sufficesto mention the penetrationof Freudian promiscuity that certain theologians and moralists take to unspeakableextremes,as well as the invasionof rock rhythms, modernvestmentsand liberal attitudes in postconciliar liturgical experiments,pentecostalistexcesses, the anti-hierarchicalconceptionimbuedwith the Marxism of ,,liberation theologians" and BasicChristianQormm'nitigs, and so on. a) The electoral victory of the French Socialist party gives new impetus to self-management. The political metamorphosis of the Socialist Party began to define itself to the public when, in May 1981, the socialist electoral victory carried Frangois Mtterrand to the presidency in France. Among the fundamental points of its program 19.Seealsothe thesisapprovedin the XV Congressof the lrati4n CommunistParty in April of lg79 in La polttica e I'orgonizzgzione dei communistiitalioni,pp. 6-16,Z, 52-53,69.

20. See,for example,Partito Sociolistaltaliano, L'alternotivadei sociolist i, pp.x-xii, l -2, 6, 26-28,31,33-39,57,91,105; Da onospora mudarPortugol,pp. 39-40,4849, l4g-l10,3t2,3lL3l4.

The political metamorphosisof the socialistparfies beganto assumedefinition in the eyesof the public when, in May 1981,the soclalistelectoralvlctory carried FrangofuMtterrand to the presidencyin France.Among the fundamental points of his program was self-management,presentedas a type of appropriatedconver' gence(the only onepossible)betweenthe equality heraldedby commlnlsm and so' cialism, on onehand, and liberty, evenfor free enterprlsethat edsts in the Western on the other. democracles, Frenchself-managingsocialismraisedthe bannerof a newtype of society'whose lmplantlngwould transcendEast-Wst rivalries,assuringtheworld of a muchdesired peaceand removlng the nightmare of atomic catastrophe.

A DenunciationHeard Around the World Beginning in December19E1' the Societiesfor the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property and like organizations then in 13 countries denounced this maneuver in news' papers of 69 nations of the West in a masterful study by Prof. Plinio Corr0a de Oliveira titled What Does Self-Managtng Socialism Mean for Communism:A Banier? Or a Bridge' head?

22

REVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOSURGERY IN SLOW MOTION

was self-management,presentedas a type of convergence (the only one possible)betweenthe equality heraldedby communismand socialism,on one hand, and the liberty and free enterprise system that exist in the Western democracies,on the other.

French self-managingsocialismraised the banner of a new type of societywhoseimplantation would transcend East-Westrivalries,assuringthe world of a much-desired peaceand removing the nightmare of atomic catastrophe.

The Socialist Party proclaimed itself internationalist by nature and vocation and affirmed its determination to use France's political prestigeand cultural influence to attatnits self-managingobjective. Leftists from every country celebratedMitterrand's rise to power as presaging a new and ardently desiredera for the whole world. b) The Messageof the TFPs Alerts the West. Realizing that it was necessaryto react in face of this new international impulsetoward self-managingsocialism,the Societiesfor the Defenseof Tradition, Family and Property CIFP) and like organizationsin 13 countries (Argentina, Bolivia,Braal, Canada,Chile, Colombia,Ecuador, France, Portugal, Spain, Uruguay, the United Statesand Venezuela)jointly addressedto the public of their respective nations a Messagetitled; What Does Self-Managing SocialismMeanfor Communism:A Banier? or a Brtdgehead?Its author was Prof. Plinio Corr0a de Oliveira (see side box). The document, which comprisedsix newspaper pages,first appearedon December9, 1981,in the WashingtonPost and in the Frankfurter Allgemeine. By the end of the campaign,it had beenprinted in 187publications in 53 countriesand in 14languages,with a total of 34,767,9Ncopies.* * Thecompletetext of this Message waspublishedby In Argentina,.La Nacidn@uethefollowingnewspap€rs: nosAires);in Australia,TheWeekend Australion(Sidney);in Bolivia,El DiorioQ-aPu) andEI Mundo(Santz

Cruz); in Bi1eti1,Folho de SdoPaulo (56o Paulo), U/tima Horo @io de Janeiro),A Torde(Salvador),O Estado do Parond (Curitiba, Jornal do Comdrcio @ecife), Btodo deMinas (BeloHorizonte),O Popular (C:oiann), Jornal de Sonto Catarina @lumenau)anLdCatolicismo (56o Paulo); in Canada,The Globeond Mail (tororto) and La.Presse(Montreal); in Cbie, EI Mercurio (Sattiago); in Colombn, El Tiempo@oeotA),El Pob (Cali), EI Colombiano (Medellin), Diorio de lo Frontero (Cttanta)andDioio delHuila (Neiva);in Ecuador,E/ Comercio (Quito), EI Tiempo (Quito) and El Universo (Guayaquil);in England,TheObsemer(-andon); in Germarry,Frankfurter Allgemeine (Frankfurt); in ltaly, I/ Tempo(Rome),II GiornaleNuovo (Milan) andCristionitd (Piacenza);in Mexico, Excelsior (Mexico Cit9; in Peru, EI Comercioatd lP-Industria Peruano(Lima)i in the Philippines, The TimesJournol (Manilal; in Portuga[,Didrio deNolicias (Lisbon) andComdrciodo Porto (Porto): in Spain,Lo Vonguordia@arcelona)andHoja

Plinio Corr0a de Oliveira A descendantof illustrious families from the Brafl, zilian states of Pernambucoand Sflo Paulo, Plinio Corr8a de Oliveira was born in 56o Paulo, Brazil in 1908.

After completing his secondaryeducation at St. Louis Academyunderthe Jesuits,he beganhis widespreadand fecund activity as a Catholic militant at the Law Schoolof the University of SdoPaulo. Here he foundedthemovementof Catholic University Action and becaneinvolvedin the movementof theMarian Congregations.

A lawyer at age)A, he waselectedto the Constitutional Assemblyby the Catholic Elec,toralLeaguewhich he had helped to found and whoseelectoral platform he had assistedin establishing,becoming the youngestcongressmanin that body after having receivedthe large"stn rmberof votesin the country.

As a dedicatedand militant Catholic lsder, hewas a professorof History in the Depaftmentof Law at the University Collegeof Sdo Paulo, and later a professor of Modern and ContemporaryHistory at Pontifical Catholic University of Sdo Paulo. ln 1942,he becameone of the founders of Brazilian Catholic Action and servedas its fhst president in the Archdioceseof 56o Faulo. He was also director for 12yearsof the official archdiocesan newspaper Legiondrto. $omeyearslater, he wasthe inspirer and priucipal collaborator of Catolicismo, the most important anticommunistand antiprogressivistnewspaper of Brazil.

Speaker,columnist and writer, Plinio Corr0a de Oliveira has always placedhimself at the serviceof the grand causesof the Church and Christian civilization.

Sincehe was very yomg, he was attracted to the study of the contemporary crisis in its religious, philosophicaland historical aspects,aswell asits originsand cons€qu€nc€s.

In 1959,hepublishedthe book Revolution and Counterrevolution, which analyzes this crisis, pointing out its religious and moral roots and, at the sametime, indicating the road to undertake for whosewho want to restore Christian civilization from its foundation.

In 19@ he founded 1fuslladlian Society for the Defenseof Tradition, Family and Property (IFP) and has beenpresidentof its National Council ever since.Inspired by his book Revolution and Counter-

Disintegrating the State and Society: the Goat of Present-DayIdeological Currents?

introductionof naturalismand hedont:p.inlo the customsand culture of ChristianEurope.

Theaccumulatedeffeci of thmefactors resultedin anotherexplosion,the FrenchRevolution.This secondRevolution proclaimedthe trilogy "liberty, equalityand fraternity," preparing and imposingtransformationsin the hierarchicalstructureof the stateand ,f'f* of society,analogousto those that Protestanti$n propetled in the reliIn his book Revolutionand Coun' gious field.

The egalitarianismthat the French tenevolution,he showshow certain spread tlroughout the Revolution have forces and currents ideological convergedsincethe fifteenth century world did not take long to reachthe to eliminate the Christian character final sphereof Christian order that revalution, TFPs and like organiza- from Westerncultureand civilization, was still more or lessintact: the ecotions have beenborn in 15 nations: to destroythe Catholic Churchand to nomic field. The germs of utopian Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, sweepfrom the face of the earth the socialism-alreadypreent in the prior Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, France, fruits of the Redemptionof Our Lord revolutions-weredevelopingto produce the third great explosion:the Peru, Portugal,SouthAfrica, Spain, JesusChrist.

The principal force of the Revolu- communist revolution that seized the United States,Uruguayand Venezuela.The TFPs haverepresentative tion liesin the manipulationof man's powerin Russiain 1917.

This materialist, atheist and combureaus in Asunci6n (Paraguay), disorderlypassions,aboveall, pride pletely being egalitaxianrevolutionis achievwhich, upon Auckland (NewZealand),Edinburgh, and sensuality, ing its zenitl in our time, already and become exacerbated satisfied, Paris, Frankfurt, Johannesburg, Rome,SanJosd(CostaRica),Sidney producemoral crises.These,in turn, transformingitself into a fourth reve generate erroneous doctrins and lution with the proclamationof the aad ffashington.

A greatthinker and man of action, revolutions.In like manner,thesetend liberty of all the instincts. The rebelPlinio Corrta de Oliveira has pub- to unleashthe disorderlypassions.The lion of the Sorbonneof 1968was a lishednumerousstudies,articlesand latter, by an enalogousmovement,et(- characteristicforetasteof this fourth manifestos.He is the author of 15 cite new crises,new errors and new revolution.

The Revolutionconsideredelobalbooks that haveenjoyedwidespread revolutions.

The first collective explosion of Iy is not just a political or sociologidistribution.Someof his workshave beentranslatedin various languages, these passionsoccurredin the six- el phenomenon.It consistsaboveall totaling mor_e than lm,(m copiesin teenthcenturywith hlmanism and the of a transformationof a moral and reRenaissancein the temporal sphere ligiousnature,whoseeffectsembrace successive editions.

He was also a columnirt for the and with the ProtestantPseudo-Re- the wholeprsonality and all the fields Folho de S. Pculo,the newspaperwith formation in the spiritual sphere. of activity of man; thus have the the largest circulation in Brazil, and Prideled Protstantism to deny,in the revolutionarygermsintroducedthemn Ultima Hora of Rio de Janeiro. religioussphere,the supremeauthor- selvesinto the Church,the state,cusHis articles-more than 2,300 pub- ity of the Popeasthe monarchof the toms, culture, art and contemporary lishedtitles-have examinedpolitical, Church and the authority of bishops politics and economics.

The Counterrevolution, as consociologicaland religiousthemesof as hierarchs,going so far as qt times our times.They havealso beenpub- to denythe authority of prleststhem- ceivedby Plinio Corr0ade Oliveira, lished by numerousnewspapersin selves,Sensuality,on its part, leditto is an ideal that invites modern man Europe, North America and South suppressprimtly celibacy,to introduce to completely reject all the aspects divorceand to liberalizecustoms.On of the secularand egalitarianRevoluAmerica.

Plinlo Corrfu de Oliveira is a great the other hand, thesepassionsled to tion and to restore from its fsundaadmirerof Spanishcultureand histo- the humanistmovementof the Renais- tions, both perennialand presentday, admiration the spiritual and temporal Catholic ry. But he does not only look at sance,with its exaggerated and to the order.

Greco-Roman eulture, past. for Aware of the Iberian Spain's roots of the south Anerican nations and certain that they are calledbY a historicaland providentialvocation to an outstanrlingrole in the nextcenturies, he seesthe gloriousassociation to this future of Portugal and in Spain,sounjustlyunderestimated the nineteenthand twentieth centuries.

24

IN SLOW MOTION REVOLUTIONARYPSYCHOSURCERY

del Lunes(Madrid, Bilboa, SevilleandValencia);in Switzerland,Lo Tribunede Gendve(Geneva);in the United States,The WashingtonPost,TheNew York Times,the Los Angeles Times and The Dallqs Morning News; in Uruguay,E/Pals (Montevideo);in Venezuela,El Universol, Diorio de CarocasarldEl Mundo (Caracas),El Im' pulso @arqursimeto)and Panorama(Maracaibo).

A detailedsunmary of the documentappearedin the folowing publications:In SouthAfrica, TheArgus (Cap Town), The Citizen, The Star, The Sunday Times and Rapport (Johannesburg);in Germany, Siiddeutsche Zeitung(Munich), Die Welt andHamburgerAbendblatt (Hamburg); in Argentina, La Nueva Provincia @abia Blanca),MendozoaridLos Andes (Mendoza);Diario de Cuyo (Sat Juan), E/ So/ (Catamarca),Nuevo Jornada (Gral. Madariaga),GlosPolski, Precisionq,De SchakelEI Lazo andLa Polabra Ucrania@uenosAires); in Auslralia, TheSydneyMorning Herald and TheMelbourne .,49e;in Austria, Die PraseardGroschenblott(Vienna); in Brazil, Coneio do Povo andZeroHora (PortoAlegre), O Jomal (lJrugatata), Brazil PostandDeutscheZeitung (56oPaulo),Monitor Campista(Campos),Didio de Notal a:ndA Rep{b/ica(Natal), O Estadodo Maranhdo and JornalPequeno(SnoLuis), GazettadeAlagoas(Macei6), A'Prov{ncio do Pard @elâ‚Źm),A Vozdo Povo (C6rn6lio Procdpio), Letras emMarcha (Rio de Janeiro),A Crttico andJornal do Comdrcio(Manaus),A Gozeta({it6ria), O Jomol (RioBrana) andJornal do Povo (Macapd); in Canada,Speok-Up(Toronto); in Costa Rica La Nocidn (SanJos6);In Spain,EI Mundo Finoncieroand Serur'cio(Madrid), Suroeste(Seville), Odiel (Hueva), Sur (M6laga) and Cdrdobai in the United States,The Wall StreetJournal (New York and Chicago);in the Philippines, The TimesJournal (Manila); in France,International Herald Tribune, SolidarnoscarldMinute (Paris); in England,TheGuqrdian(London);in lreland, Thehish Timesand SundayIndependent@ubhn); in Nepal, Society Today (Katmandu); in New Zealand, The New ZeslandHerald (Auckland)and.TheDominioz (Wellington); in Paraguay,Hoy and z4aC (Asunci6n); in Switzerland,Le Nouvelliste(Sion); in Veneanela,BuenRato (Caracas). &lectionsfrom Reader'sDigat carrieda six-pagesummary that circulatedin the following countries:Argentina, Australia, Austria, Ba.gladesh,Belgit'm, Bolivia, glqzil, Canada,Colombia,South Korea, CostaRica, Chile, Denmark, Ecuador, El Salvador,England, Germany, the United States(oneedition in Englishand two in Spanish),the Philippines,Guatemala,Honduras,Hong Kong, India, Indonesia,Ireland, Japan, Luxemburg, Malasia, Mexico, Nepal, Nicaragua,Nigeria, Norway, New Zealand,Pakistan,Panama,Paraguay,Peru, Puerto Rico, Portugal,the DominicanRepublic,Singapore, SouthAfrica, Spain,Sri Lanka, Sweden,Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Uruguay and Venezuela. c) The True Face of Self-managing Socialism. Based on abundant quotes from official documents of the French Socialist Party (SP), the Message of the TFPS sustained that self-managing socialism-contrary to what many may think-has the same radical goal as communism, although pursuing it in a gradual way. Its objective is the disintegration of present-day society into autonomous and almost sovereign corpuscles. That is to

say, the French SocialistParty promotesa fundamental transformation not only of industry, commerceand farming, but alsoof the family, the schooland all of sociallife.

Furthermore,it seeksto profoundly influenceevenindividual life, shaping and controlling leisure time and even the interior decoration of homes. Essentially secularist,it requiresthat children of agetwo and over be educatedin self-managingschools.Moreover, its program equatesmatrimony with free union, and assertsthat no distinctions should be madebetweenheterosexualand homosexual unions. In the final phase of the selfmanaging evolution, businesseswill have no bosses.

Managementwill be handedover to the generalassemblies of workers. Businessmanagerswill be electedby these assemblies,which will be sovereignin all things regarding their businessactivities.

The FrenchSocialistParty aspiredto this total reform of society and man-which frontally contradicts the doctrine of the Church-through new forms of classstruggle: in the family, provoking the rebellion of children against their parents; in the school, setting students against teachers,and so on. d) Reaction of the French Socialist Government.

French socialismhad no argument! to refute the ideological denunciation contained in the Messageof the TFPs. The.InternationalHerald Tribune of December12, 1981,describedthe reaction of the governmentin these words: "In Paris authorized governmentsourceshaveaffirmed that they were not prepared to react against this publication, but they werestudyingit. 'There is absolutely no panic [sic] and we are very interestedin knowing who or what is behind this publication.' " Curiously, the French newspapersrefusedto publish Prof. Plinio Corr6a de Oliveira's study. Two of theseperiodicalsthat had formally contractedto publish it upon payment failed to fulfill their agreementwithout providing any reasonfor their decision.* * The TFPs and like organi"ations published a document in which they raised a hypothesis to explain the attitude of the French publications: The very corporations who owned the publications ran the risk of being nationalized or self-managed tlrough proposed legislation then being deliberated by the socialist-communist parlirmentary majority. Passage of this legislation would have reduced these owners to mere managers, or even worse, jeopardized their entire function in the business. It was not, then, so surprising that these periodicals refused the TFPs a freedom of speech that they themselves did not have.

This document was published in 28 newspapersof 12 countries with the title: "In France the Fist Crushes the Rose," an allusion to the symbol of the French Socialist Party. It warned public opinion about the contradictory and impracticable nature of the self-managing promise

Disintegrating the Stote and Society: the Goal of Present-Day Ideological Cufients?

of liberty in socialism.After demonstratingthat it did not fulfill the promiseof liberty,it showedthat the only thing that remainedin the self-managing regimewasits affinity with communism.The FrenchTFP, gaggedby distributedtheMessage in the official press,nonetheless a privatemassmailing to 310,000people.In response, it receiveda largenumberof telephonecalls,lettersand support. In December1983,the FrenchTFP, ripping openthe curtainof silence,launchedthe book by Prof.

Plinio Corrâ‚Źa de Oliveira, Autogestion sociolbte: Les tâ‚Źtestombent d I'entreprise,d lo moison, o l'4cole (SoHeadsRoll in Business,the cialist Self-Management: HomeandtheSchool),whichsoldin bookstores in Paris andthroughoutthe provinces.The book had previously beensold on the streetsof major citiesof the country.

The 218-pagework containsthe completetext of the Messageand the history of the repercussions,the lively polemics that it raised around the world.

Thus, despite the obstacles thrown up against it, the French TFP was able to spread the Message throughout the country, occasioning thousands of reactions of warm support. This Message undoubtedly served as a decisive factor in opening the eyes of the French public-above all the incautious Catholics who voted for the Socialist Party-regarding the true objectives of self-managing socialism.

8. The Freneh

Dxpertment

Talls

. . .

The French Socialist government beganthe march toward complete self-managementof societywith the state takeoveroflarge businas partnershipsand private banks, which would afterward be turned over to the selfmanaglngcontrol of the workers. In reality, as we have already sho\ryn,in the self-managtngsystemthe workers are transformed into slavesof the committees or assemblies that exert a dictatorial power.

Broad sectorsof French public opinion beganto perceivethat, behind a refurbished face, the Socialist Party was hiding its true intent to topple the regime of private property and establish a communist program in its full extension.Opposition quickly arose.And this opposition g;rewto the degreethat the harsh economic effects of the state takeover of large private business conglomerates werefelt. The failure of the self-managingexperimentwas of such magnitude and notoriety that top leaders of the French Socialist Party were forced to publicly admit it.

Little by little, the word self-managementbeganto disappearfrom the political vocabulary of France,and, as a consequence,of the whole world-since France had been chosenas the platform for launching self-management on a world scale.

4.

wlth PoIfuh Self.Management

Parallelto the self-managingadventurein France,another similar attempt was outlined for a country behind the Iron Curtain. In Poland the Marxist-humanistcurrent of communismtried to headtoward a liberation of the regime, but without breaking all contact with Moscow. Solidarity, a union whoseranks includedthousandsof party militants, proposedtransforming the country's bureaucratic socialism into a regime of selfmanagement,beginnilg with the large state businesses.

At this point, we could ask ourselves:To what point did the failure of the self-managng project of Mitterrand in France and, consequently,in the Westernworld, determine that communist Poland would also not evolve toward self-management?What is certain is that the Kremlin decided to put a hdt to this attempt to find a way out of the worldwide revolutionary impasse,pressuring General Jaruselski to launch a military coup on December13, 1981.An iron dictatorshipwasestablished and the Solidarity of Lech Walesawas proscribed.

5. In Yugoslavia Self.Management

and Eun$aryt the Model Follows

The needto acceleratethe self-managingtransformation of societycontinuedto dominatedebatesin revolutionary circles of both East and West: thus the manifesto drafted in 1982at the l2th Congressof the Communist Leagueof Yugoslavia(the nameof the local Communist Party), attendedby representativesof 120communist and socialist parties, including the SSWP and the Spanish Communist Party.* In Hungary aswell, mitigatedfonns of self-management wereestablishedin this sane )aar in rarious statebusineses and some of their small cooperativesubsidiaries.** * Theself-managing of societywasoffitransformation as"the fundamental at thisconference ciallypresented problemof contemporary Thepresident of the socialisml' Conof theYugoslavian Commission ForeignRelations gtress, uponexplaining Grlickov,emphasized' Aleksandar questheofficial positionof hisparty,thatthedecisive in theyears tion for theworldwidesocialistmovement thestate"asa formof representation to comewassurpass theworkingclassandits power." between andmediation is theextinctionof the Thatis to say,whatis needed a stateapparatusfor the benefitof self-management, changeof "governmentin the nameof the classesby the governmentof the sameclasses"(AleksandarGrlickov, 'El problemafundamentaldelsocialismocontempordneo: la relaci6n entre la cl4seobrera y su poder," in Bolet{n de informoci6nyugoslavo,June-July1982,p. 3l). ** In 1982the Hungariangovernmentpermittedthe to compensatein part for formation of small businesses

26

REVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOSURGERY IN SLOW MOTION

the notorious deficienciesof the state. Usually these productionunits are only cooperatives of workerswho put in overtimein the samestateindustrieswherethey the havealreadydone a full day's work. Nonetheless, thesemicro-businesses, solongastheymeet staterespects "an essentialpolitical and economicrequirement:they canin no wayjeopardizethesocialistcollectiveproperty."

Threeyearslater,on Januaryl, 1985,anothertypeof for certain self-managing administrationwasestablished andcomsmallerstatebusinesses that dealtwith services munalinstitutions.Councilswereinitiated,whereworker weregivena 50 percentvoicein decisions. representatives The other 50 percentwasdivided,with one-thirddesignatedfor the business manager,andthe remainingtwothirds givento the headsof the "organic units."

Sinceall theseworkersare generallymembersof the CommunistParty (a condition for promotion in business),the party actuallylosesno realcontrol overthe factories.In practice,the CommunistParty controlseven statesector,for fearthat if the the small,self-managing workersare allowedto act freely, they will act against the interestsof communism.That is to say,the Hungarian communistleadersdo not think the workersareprepared for a large-scale,self-managingexperiment(cf.

Hungria 1985: Anudrio da Agencia de Imprensa Budapress,pp, 75-16, 84-87).

Commentingon the presentHungarian economy, JdnosBerecz,secretaryof the CentralCommitteeof the llungarian SocialistWorkers' Party, said that "the [economic]transformationsignifiesthe deepeningof the socialistdemocracyandthe progress,in the Marxist sense ("En el caminode la of the term, of self-management" autogesti6nsocial," El Pats, 4/14/1987).

These cautious, vacillating and deliberately ambiguous attempts at self-management catrnot be qualified merely as a passing revolutionary whim. In fact, their consequences are determining factors of the very destiny of the worldwide socialist revolution.

Yfff. Gorbachev's Russia Begins the IVIarch Toward SelfIVfanagement : Perestroika The first self-managingrefonns havebegunto be implementedinside Russiaaccompaniedby great international publicity. With a worldwide network of revolutionary propagandaat his service,Gorbachevhas createdthe hope that, at last, statesocialism,whosecenter is Moscow, hasbegunthe marchtoward the so-called "socialist democracy." lt is glasnost,perestroika.* * Supportedby important sectorsof the party, selfmanagingexperimentsalreadyexistedin Russiaeventoward the end of the Brezhnevgovernment,although in the limitedconfinesof severalstatefarms(cf. Alain Pouliquen, "L'organisation du travail agricolecollectif et le contrOlesocialde I'activite â‚Źconomiqueen USSR," in

Revued'EtudesComparatifsEst-Ouest,vol. 13, 1982, no. 3, pp. 23-24).ln1983,MinisterG. A. Alieva,deputy of the Councilof Ministersunderthe governmentof the former KGB chief Andropov, presenteda bill designedto broaden"the circuit for the problemsof production,educationandsocialproblemsthat enterthe collectiveworkers' sphereof directiveaction." That is to say,it would introducea type of participat'bn,with a certainself-managingveneer,in variouslimited aspects of industrialmanagement and other stateinstitutions.

Alieva wascarefulto point out that the self-managing bill safeguarded and plan"governmentalmanagement ring" (Pravda,1983;seealso I. Chvestsk,"Partido de toda la claseobreray de todo el pueblo-8O anosde la 2a Reuni6n del PC ruso," in Pravdo, Moscow, 6/3/1983).With Gorbachev'sriseto power,this tendancy took on greaterproportions.

On February 8, 1987, Pravda published the text of a new law on Soviet "state businesses." The document established controlled self-management, timidly adopting the Yugoslavian business system for Russian state businesses.According to this law, business property would continue to belong to the state. As Article 2,no. I points out, "Business activity is carried out based on the state plan, and its social and economic development primarily acts as an instrument of the economic policy of the CPSU." This fact, however, was never duly emphasized by the press. Instead, the immense publicity given to Gorbachev's reforms emphasizes-generally in a sensationalist way-various innovations of the Soviet hierarchy, such as granting legal status to small private business activities of little or no account, combating bureaucratic sclerosis, comrption, alcoholism, and the like, or actions such as the freeing of physicist Andrei Sakarov and the holding of large convergence-style meetings in Moscow.

This ensemble of measures was given the nume perestroika (restructuring). Gorbachev defined it in this way: "Perestroika means mass initiative. . . . and creative endeavor, improved order and discipline, more glasnost, criticism and self-criticism in all spheres of our society."2l 5other of Gorbachev's definitions is more revealing: "Perestroika is a revolutionary process for it is a jump forward in the development of socialism, in the realization of its essential characteristics."22

I.

Ihe Speetaeular Launehlng Gorbaehevts Book

of

Whilethis policyof reformswasunderway,Gorbachev disappeared for a fewweeksduringthesummerof 1987, 21. Mikhail Gorbachev, Perestroika, New ThinkingJor Our Country and the World (New York: Harper & Row, 1987),p. 34.

22. lbid,., p. 51.

Disintegrating the State and Society: the Goal of Present-Day Ideological Currents?

only to reappeax,in a sensationalway, to launch Peres' troika, Purportedly a self-criticismof the Sovietregime and soon the object of spectacularworldwide publicity, the book partially admits the difficulties encounteredby the implantation of Sovietsocialism.It repeatsthe criti that, of Stalinismand recognizes cismofthe predecessors in reality, "little room was left for Lenin's idea of the ent." 23 working people's self-managem Gorbachevconcludesthat the solution for Russiais to march resolutelytoward self-management:"In short, we needbroad democratbattonof all aspectsof society.That democratizationis alsothe main guaranteethat the current processesare irreversible. . . . We will now firmly stick to the line that only through the consistentdevelopment of the democraticforms inherent in socialismand through the expansionof self-governmentcan we make progressin production, scienceand technology,culture and art, and in all social spheres."z a) Three key points in the doctrine oI perestroika.

There are three capital points in this book that failed to receiveadequateemphasisin the Western press: r "More socialism" in Russia.For the unwary who, through ignorance or superficiality, imagine that with perestroika the Kremlin takes a route of softening and liberalization and abandonscommunistgoals, Gorbachev himself has words to set them straight: "To put an end to all the rumors and speculationsthat abound in the West about this, I would Iike to point out onceagain that we are conducting all our reforms in accordancewith the socialistchoice.. . . Thosewho hope that we shall move away from the socialistpath will be greatly disappointed. Every part of our program of perestroika-and the program as a whole, for that matter-is fully basedon the principle of more socialismand more democracy."25 "More democracy," as Gorbachevunderstandsit, evidently meansrnore self-managingcollectivismthat would gradually supplant the power of the Soviet state.

Further on, Gorbachevrepeatsthis assurance:"Any hopesthat we will begin to build a different, non-socialist societyand go over to the other camp are unrealisticand futile. Thosein the West who expectus to give up socialism will be disappointed.It is high time they understood this, and, wen more importantly, proceededfrom that understandingin practical relationswith the SovietUnionl'x r Ecumenicalconvergencewith the Wet. Another fundamentalpoint in Gorbachev'sbook is that a generalized 23. lbid., p.

24. lbid., p.

25. Ibid., p.

26. Ibid., p.

47.

32.

36.

37.

27

nuclearwar would causesucha worldwide hecatombthat to unleashit would be suicide.In order to avoid this, he proposesmaking the talismanic word dialogue the key note of a new way of thinking and a new style of relations betweenthe East and the West in searchof peace.

Theseexchangeswould then lead to a convergenceof doctrines and sociopolitical regimesthat would begin with the economiccollaboration of what havebeen,until now, antagonisticblocs.i * In fact,Gorbachev presents himselfasa strongpropodialogue:"Political positions nent of the ecumenist

shouldbe devoidof ideologicalintolerance.Ideological differencesshouldnot be transfenedto the sphereof interstaterelations" (Perestroika,p. 143).And' in the same doctrinairetone, he addsthat ideologicalantagonisms shouldbe examinedtogetherin a superiorunity, under a dialecticand relativist prism: "This understanding,of a dialecticalunity of opposites,fits into the conceptof peacefulcoexistence"(ibid., p. 148).

It is herethat the talismanic word "dialogue" enters asa key term for diffusing the ideasof Gorbachevin the internationalarena:"The developmentof a new mode of thinking," explainsGorbachev,"requiresdialoguenot only with peoplewho hold the sameviewsbut alsowith thosewho think differently" (ibid.. p. 152).Later he adds,"That is why we standfor a broad dialogue,for the comparisonof viewsand for debateand discussion.

This stimulatesthought. . . . The main thing, however, is that this helpsinternationalizethe newmodeof thinking" (ibid.). And, frnally: "Dialogue is the first thing I must mention in this contextlof new international relationsl . . . And we note with satisfactionthat this word, though, unlike perestroika,not of Russianorigin, has struck deeproot in the diplomatic vocabularyin recent years" (ibid., p. 157).

Gorbachev'swordsunequivocallyconfirm a forewarnstudy ing worthyofnote. In 1965,in hisaforementioned tJnperceivedIdeological Transshipmentand Dialogue' Prof. Plinio Corrâ‚Źade Oliveira denouncedthe useof the word "dialogue," precisely because communist propagandawasreplacingits legitimatemeaningwith an one: "Thus, the ambiguousand increasinglyrelativistic relativistic and Hegelianirenic myth is the magicalforce of the talismanicword'dialogue,' " he warned(conclusion, no. 8, p. '10).ProfessorCorr0 de Oliveirafurther warned that circulation of this talismanic word in the leadershipcircles of the West would favor miragesof peaceand collaborationwith Moscow (cf. especially chaps.3 and 4).

r Veiled threats to the recalcitrants. The third basic element of Gorbachev's message is the argument that there is no other way out. "There is no reasonable alter-

native to a dynamic, revolutionary perestroika.Its alternative is continued stagnation,"2The warns, directing himself perhaps to the obstinate ones in the Russian CommunistParty. Later, his warning turns to the West' which he threatensthus: "Upon the successof pere27. Ibid., p. 58.

With a worldwlde network of rcvoludonary propaganda at his service,Gorbachevhas createdthe hope that, at last, state socialism has begun the march toward "socialist democracy." This is ghm ost,percstrolka. YetGorbachev himself ps{s thls revealing remark: "Perestroika is a revoludonary process,for it is a jump forward ln the developnent of sociallsn, in the realizafion of its essential characteristics." With his amblguous fame as a reformer

(for the communistshe is a leaderwho is acceleratingcommunization, but for Westerners, a liberalfuing leader), Gorbachevhaveled to the United Statesat the end of 19t7, where he wasHumphanfly receivedby the polifical milleus and the media. Nonetheless,there were sfll many who expressedthelr suspicions.On thls occadon he and president Reagansigned a treaty to remove American and Russian medium-rangemfusilesfrom Europe (above).

29

Disintegrating the State and Society:the Goal of Present-DayIdeological Currents?

stroika depends the future of socialism and the future of Peagg."28* * Westernsocialismfollowstherouteof Gorbachev.In the prefaceof thebook McniJiato por unanuevaizquierda europea(Manifesto for a new Europeanleft), by the of the GermanSocialDemocraticParsecretary-general the economicinty (SDP),FelipeGondezemphasizes tegration of all Europe and the liberalization of betweenthe communismas conditionsfor convergence East and the West, the next objectiveof Europeansocialism.He says:"Europe hasno future unlessit canconvert itself into a politically unitary reality. . . . The three main ideasof Glotz'sreasoningarethese:that only the left can offer a future for Europe; that, in turn, the future of socialismdependslargely on the survival of Europe . . .; and that the future ofEurope, aswell asthat of socialism,depends,in the end, on creatingan atmosphereof relaxationin Europe. . . . A worldwide conrelaxationandthe relaxationofEurope.ue necessary ditionsforthe socialistprojectto advance.. . . Thenew Soviet direction seemsto be setting its stakeson disarmament. . . . A Europewithout military tensionscould be the frameworkwhereinEasternand Westerneconomics could integratethemselves,and it could also be the framework for a growing democratizationand autonomy of the Easterncountries.Still today one must admit that Gorbachev'sreformsarelimited . . . but no onecan foreseewherethe dynamismactivatedby thesereforms will lead.. . . The keyto this distinctiveEuropeis in the advanceof political unity. . . . This makesit indispensable to affirm the Europeanproject in suchterms that its attractivenesscan sweepalong all the social forces" (Leviatdn,no.28, 1987,pp.5457), b) The nuclear treaty, a game of deceptive impressions.

With this ambiguous fame as reformer (for the communists he is a chief who is accelerating communization, and for the West, an ecumenical and liberalizing leader), Gorbachev traveled to the United States at the end of 1987, where he was triumphantly received by the political milieus and the media. Howevet, *1s1s $,s1s still many who expressed their suspicion.* * Top Americanpolitical leadersemphasized that when dealingwith Russia,it would be naive and foolish not to prudently analyzethe facts or, movedby the smiling of Gorbachev,to be takenin and optimisticappearance by mereimpressions.Within the RepublicanParty, there arosea strong opposition to the terms of the treaty on the reductionof missiles.Leadingthis oppositionwas RepublicanParty leaderSenatorRobertJ. Dole(cf. Jeane Kirkpatrick, "The New Bolsheviks,"The l(oshington Post, l2/5/1987\.

On this occasion he signed a treaty with President Reagan to remove American and Russian medium-range missiles from Europe. The publicity surrounding the treaty strove to create the impression in the European public 2E.Ibid., p. 58.

that the danger of a war betweenthe super-powersno longerthreatensthe Europeancontinent.But this impresthan reality: for even sion is basedmore on appearances if the treaty is signed,who can assurethat its terms will be followed? The number of nuclearwarheadsto be dismantledis meagerin relation to the atomic power of the two sides.Moreover, one of the main effectsof the treaty wasto limit the deterrentstrategicoptions of the Western Europeannations, leavingthem vulnerableshould the socialistbloc unleashan attack with conventionalmilitary forces, where it enjoys a crushing superiority.2e

2. What Take

Led Faetors lhts Step?

Gorbachev

to

In face of this sensationalturn in internal and external Sovietpolitics, the question loeica[y arises:What immediatepolitical factors, both insideand outsideRussia, determined this spectacular mobiluation that could permit communismto break out of the country's stagnation?

Ever sincethe time of the Czars,when foreignerscould enter and leavethe country freely, it has been difficult for European diplomats and observersto penetrate the mysteriesof the Russiansoul.

Two factors contributed to this. On one hand, the inhabitants of the immenseEmpire were always generally noncommunicativewith foreigners;each one, living in' sidehis own ethnic-cultual world, rarely engagedin conversation that revealed his interests and profound inclinations. On the other hand, Westernobserversanalyzed the Russianphenomenonfrom their own field of vision, conditionedby the presuppositionsof their own culture.

In effect, the West fluctuated betweentwo extremes: consideringthe empire of the czarsas an aggressivedinosaur capableof swallowing Europe, or viewing it as an indolent and crudegiant, incapableof having any effective or decisiveparticipation in European events.

Since1917,when communismestablishedits police dictatorship over the peoplesof the Russianempire,enclosing them behind the Iron Curtain and institutionalizing the lie asthe official systemof the regime'spropaganda, this difficulty of understandingthe profound movements of the Russiansoul becamea virtual impossibility.

How, then, can anyoneknow for certainwhat is actually occurring in this conglomerationof peopleswho have been subjectedfor almost four generationsto such an antinatural system?The opinions of socialistsand communists-marked by ideologicalprejudicesand tactical 29. Cf. JeaneKirkpatrick, "This Treaty Won't Changethe World," The llashington Post, L2/7/1987'

30

REVOLUTIONARYPSYCHOSURGERY IN SLOW MOTION

interests-must be viewed prudently, as must those of Westernanalysts,the fruit of generallyfleeting and superficial contactswith the Russianreality. In fact, despite all that is narrated or commentedabout today's Russiansociety,the profound unknown factors remain.

At any rate, the Russian communist leaders have agreedthat they must tend toward self-managementas a necessarydevelopmentof the Soviet regime. The dissensionsthat occur among them relate only to various tactical aspects,that is to say, accidentals.What is important to note is that self-managementis, for all of them, the completerealization of communism.

Thus, no matter how much we examine the Soviet revolutionary stagnation-characterized by the resistance to Marxist doctrinesof the peoplesenslavedby Moscow, by the growing ideologicaldisinterest,and by the opportunism that thrives in the very ranks of the RussianCommunist Party-we still must ask ourselveswhetherthese seventyyearsunder the socialistyoke could not but have negativelyaffectedthe capacityof this subjugatedsociety to analyze,to judge, and to desire. @xceptions,of course,can be seenin certain renowneddissideptswho are unfortunately surroundedby a tragic popular indifference in their own country.) The question is pertinent, since even the $y'est,with its regime of liberties in full vigor and with its more active and developedsocial body, has managed to reach its present state of doctrinal indifference and abulia (which we lament, for example, in today's Spain). In this case,would not much gxeaterconditions for producing a mental atrophy, analogousto that which existsin the West, be presentin a societythat has been forcefully leveled, whosefabric of natural relations has already almost completely disintegrated?

This leads to new questions: Has Russia also experienceda revolutionary psychosurgery?Would this strange attitude of not thinking and not desiring that is begrnning to be noted in Spanish society already be implanted in Russiansocietyin gigantic proportions? Many symptomsseemto affirm this conjecture. Perhapsthe most impressivefact is that the Russianmassesstill show no perceptiblesignsof a great eagernessfor freedom, despite Gorbachev's reforms. One could call it a societyincapableof assumingan attitude in face of the facts, and lack of interest regarding its own public life.

In the depthsofthis picture, another questionarises: To what degreeis the Sovietstagnation(to which the present leadersof the Kremlin allude so often) prejudicial to the present plans of communism? Since communism failed in its attempt to gain the doctrinal adhesionof these peoples,is apathy not a necessaryingredientfor the execution of the revolutionary stagesthat must lead to selfmanagement? Meanwhile, international communist propaganda is using this self-managementso that the

Westno longerconsidersRussiaits worst adversary.Thus deceived,it is encouraged,in turn, to take stepsin the samedirection....

On the other hand, as we have already pointed out, if the Russiansbegin to dismantletheir immensestateapparatus in their walk toward self-managementwithout an analogousand simultaneousmovementtaking place in the West, they place themselvesin such a vulnerable situation before the well-armed and wealthy non-communist bloc that this could precipitatethe fall of the Soviet empire.

Gorbachevwill not dare,therefore,to ventureinto the self-managingstageunlessthe West-and particularly the Church-begins to simultaneouslymarch in its own way in the samedirection.

Doesthis meanthat the leadersof the Kremlin consider Westernsocietyalreadyripe to begrn,in its own way, the convergentmarch of capitalismtoward self-management?

How far doesMoscow think that the tendenciesand doctrinesspreadthroughout the free world sincethe Sorbonne revolution (which materializedin neo-socialism and in its ecclesiasticaloffshoots of revolutionary theologians) have brought the West toward this selfmanagingway?

Are there countries on this side of the Iron Curtain wherethis neo-socialistway, contiguousand convergent with Russianperestroika, is.being acceptedand assimilated by the population?

These are questionsthat, within the context of the worldwide socialistcrisisexposedhere,a seriousand objective personmust ask himself. Whatevermay have be the enigmaticresourcesthat Moscow usedto realizethis transformation begun in the Soviet bloc, in the West this symmetrical pathway toward the gradual dismantlement of the state has already beeneffectively begun in at least one European nation. The attention of socialistsand revolutionariesthroughout the world is turned toward this nation today. Alain Minc, a French socialisteconomist, expressedit quite succinctly: ,,Thosewho believethat the left died with the Common Program (the unsuccessful treaty between the Socialist and Communist parties in France)do not read Spanish:Have they perhapsignored that the aggiornamento will not passto the year 2000 by the Bad Godesbergof the 1960s,but rather by today,s Madrid?"30* * Onthesameoccasion Mincaffirmed:,,Theleft, from thenon, bothwill andwill not beliberal:to it fallsthe

role of setting in march the eternal dialectics between equality and liberty. . . . The greater the [revolutionary] movement, the greater must be the liberties: This is the equation that the Spanish socialists have adopted. A 30. Le Ddbot, no. 42, November-December,1986,p. 9g.

Disintegratingthe Stateand Society:the Goal of Present-DayldeologicalCutents? societythat makes'movement'its sloganand a power that flaunts modernnessas its emblem recognize in eachother a similarity, to the point that-absolutely the paradoxically-the first [the movement]regenerates second[the power] (Ze Ddbat, no. 42, November' December,1986,p. 98).

fX. The Revolutionary Psychosurgery of the Spanish

Socialist Workers' Party: A Peaceful and Controlled

Cultural

Revolution That Permits the Gradual Dismantlement of the State and Capitalist Society Tow ar d Self-Management In an interview granted in 1978to the SpanishSocialist Workers' Party mouthpiece Leviatdn, Felipe Gonz{lez explainedthat his party had experienceda "very powerful ideologicalaccumulation" during the yearsprior to his return to the Spanishpolitical scene.It had made profound progressin planning a model for society and in defining the stagesand tactics for establishingit. Gonzdlezcontinued: "It lthe SSWP] has elaborateda great deal, much more than the other parties that usemore flyby-night methods in the social context."

Instead,party leadershad concernedthemselveswith closelyfollowing "the political experiencesof other countries." In his discussionswith French or Italian socialists, Gonzdleznoted his surprise at realizing that he was better informed than most of them about the most recent thinking of neorevolutionaryauthors and personalities in thosecountries."We have followed Bossomore than he hasbeenfollowed in Italy," he stated. "We havefollowed the evolution of severalFrenchtheoreticians,such as Touraine, Mallet or Gorz, for example,much closer than the French comradesthemselves."3l

l. Ihe Prtority of the Cultural Bevolutlon lhat Marks the Whole Proeess Among its political resolutions,the SSWP, like Mitterrand's party, has consideredself-managedsocialization of the meansof production. However, it changed 31. Leviatdn,no. l, 3rd quarter, 1978'pp. 12-13.

31

its revolutionary priorities, carefully avoiding falling into the tactical error of the French socialist party.

Ignacio Sotelo, the ideologistof greatestinfluencewithin the SSWP, showedto what extent the new perspectives on socialismand revolution had been assumedby Felipe Gonzllez'party in a study publishedin Leviatdn in 1973.:z* He statesthere that the working class [of Spainl does not have the revolutionary impulse or the conditions to establishthe classicaldictatorship of the proletariat. "A suddenor violent transformation of the capitalist order would not work," Sotelo notes. This is because"it is not enoughto eliminate private property . . . in order to ralsze socialism." From this he concludes that the segializationof the economyis a processthat is "much more complexand lengthy than the classicsof the nineteenthcentury imagined."33** * From 1979to l98l Sotelowasthe SSWP'snational secretaryof culture, the party's most important ideological office. His thesisexertedan undeniabledoctrinal inWith his criticism of the fluenceat the party congresses.

Sotelostandsas so-calledpragmatismof FelipeGonzAlez, oneof thosewho helpedto consolidatein the eyesof the publicthe moderateimageof socialistleade-rGonz6lez, ofthe Spanish for thetranquil advancement indispensable SocialistWorkers' Party. In reality, ashe himself noted' the function of the intellectualin the party is to serveas a critical fermentto stimulatepoliticianstoward the utopian goal (cf. "socialismoy Cultura," rn I'eviotdn' no. l, 1978,pp. 93-94).In fact, aswill be seenthroughoutthce pages,neosocialismand its higher priority, the cultural revolution, arebeingimplementedto a surprisingextent under the governmentof Felipe GonzAlez,who recently referredto Sotelo, despitehis criticism, as an "intellectual of the socialistparty" who "has saidmany brilliant things"(LeDdbat,Paris,Nov.-Dec.1986'no.2,p.4).

Sotelowas electeda memberof the FederalCommittet of the SSWPduringits 3lst Congressin January1988. ** On this subject,IgnacioSoteloremarks:"Capitalism, far from being at the breakingpoint, destroyedby its internalcontradictions,hasprovento havea truly impressivedynamic and creativecapacity. . . .

"Our presentunderstandingof socialismis characterizdby actiicaldistancing from socialdemocracy,which, 'fiin its ultimate term, eliminatesfrom its horizon the nal goal' of a different society,aswell asfrom the revolutionary thesis that clings to the idea of changingthe establishedorder suddenlyand violently. I believethat wehaveto truly bury therevolutionarynotion ofattaining powerby meansof the working class-one of our oldestand mostcherishedmyths-and, at the sametirne, not acceptthe capitalistsociety" ("Socialismoy Cultura," in Leviotdn,no. l, 1978,pp. 83-84).

Socialists, Sotelo affirms, should get out and circulate, interpreting and stimulating the cultural tendencies that question the traditional morals and their social proiection 32. Cf. "socialismoy Cultura," pp. 8l ff.

33.Ibid.,pp. 82-83.

32

REVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOSURGERYIN SLOW MOTION

in contemporarysociety.The march toward socialism cannotbe basedonly on the struggleofthe workers,but should include the possibilitiesoffered by the evolution of presentways of thinking and living in Spain.* "The political dimensionis not the most important in the march toward socialism," Sotelo further states.3a For socialismto becomea reality, there must be "a true cultural revolution, which would replacethe old bourgeois valueswith new socialist values. I believewe are presentlyliving this cultural revolution, whoseclearest expressionwas [the revolution ofl May '68."35** * According to Sotelo,"Fortyyearsof Francoism have notprevented thesamevoicesandclaimsthatwereheard and felt in France or Italy from being heard or felt in our countrytoday.Themotor ofthe changeis in society and in the analysisof a global strategytoward socialism.

Beyondandabovetheeconomicbase,the decisivepoint to bearin mind is the socioculturaldimension,,(ibid., p. 92). ** Prof. Plinio Corr0ade Oliveirahas describedthe role of man's disorderly passionsas the impelling force of the Revolution.Without the manipulationof thesepassions, the revolutionaryinstitutional transformations would be doomedto failure becauseof the popular reactions they would provoke.A synthesisof this can be found in his aforementionedbook Rayolutionand Counterrevolution,part I, chapter5: ,,The ThreeDepthsof the Revolution:in Tendencies, in Ideas,in Facts.', This ideological theorist of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party neither denies that the party should advance gradually toward socialization in the economic structures nor underestimates the mutual influence between economic reforms and the transformation of mentalities.

However, he is decisively clear on this point: "At the pres-

ent moment it seemsright to me to insist upon the priority of the cultural revolution."35 But the cultural revolution does not remain on the merely speculativesphere among ideologists. Alfonso Guerra, a political leaderwho servesas a liaison between the ideologistsand party members,hasbecomethe speaker for this neosocialism.* * In hisopeningspeech at theFirstConference on the

Futureof Socialism,whichtook placeSeptemberl9-21, 1985,Guerra refers extensivelyto the "processof sinking somepolitical beliefsfrom which the left is suffering everywhere today" (EIfuturo delsocialismo,p. l5). Like Sotelo, Guerra also mentionsthe failure and disrepute of collective statism and of the violent and dictatorial ,,the revolutions(ibid., pp. 14 afi25). He acknowledges loss of the general capacity for mobilization .that is 34.Ibid., p. 87.

35.Ibid., pp. 9l-92.

36.lbid., p.92.

occurringin socialism"(ibid.,p. l5). Amongtheworkers"the old classpride hasdisappeared or is disappearing; it no longerhasits former strength."He notesthat "somesectorsof manualworkers"arebeginningto identify themselves as "middle class," which ,.immediately impliestheir separationfrom socialistthought and action" (ibid., p. 24).Guerraalsoemphasizes the capacity for mobilizationof ,,thedrug androck musicaddictsof the world" in defenseof the claimsthat shouldbe bannersof the SocialistParty (ibid., p. 24). ,.Our obligation as socialistsis to analyzeand interpret the new profiles and new keynotesof the societythat is emerging" to leadit to a "unified, progressivist and freeattitude," Guerraconcludes (ibid., p. 33).

This explains his aforementioned comments about the tremendous revolution, whose impulse came primarily from the sociocultural sphere during the years of socialist government. Guerra also pointed out that, in this respect, this revolution placed Spain in an advanced position relative to the "customs of all Europe.', He affirms: "All the Euro-barometers of the countries of the Community indicate that the Spanish people are the most tolerant and most progressive in customs.r' ,,There is still much to be done, of course, but there is an appetite for doing it, and there is a magnificent revolution that is the return to nature. These revolutions, which are much more tranquil than the political ones, are taking place in Spain."37 This neorevolutionary concept was officially consecrated at the Special Congress of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party of September 1979, where the leadership of Gonz[Iez was strengthened. * * The "Political Resolution', of the highest oryanization of the SpanishSocialistWorkers' party, whiih met on September28-29, 1979,defined this ,,democratic strategytowardsocialism,,(SSWP,,,Resoluci6npolltica del CongresoExtraordinario,,,p. Z). The document publicly statesthe needto adaptto the revolutionof mentalities in Spain in order to createan atmospherethat would support a gradual revolution. ,,We must add the largestpossible-ajority ofthe populationto the socialist idealandto the fight for this ideal,,,thetext reads,.,becausethe triumph of socialismdependsupon whether socialists,in the dialectic processof the formation of the objective conditions for changes,can convert the majority of citizensinto a consciouspolitical majority that would fight decisively. . . in order to achievethe transformation of society', (p. Z). Adopting selfmanagementas "the basisfor the order of the fuure socialist spciety," (p.2) the Congressis awarethat ,,the revolution is not just that one .greatday,, but a permanent and conflicting processfor generating1[rshansfolmation of society.. . . To attain power [rememberthat this text is from 19791, it is necessary to be ableto count on the supportof a newmajority in the slowrevolution of society" (p. 7).

37. Diario 16,7/5/85.

Aboue, lrom lelt to rlght, tarlo Frangole llltterrand.

Soaree, Fellpe Gonzilez

The neorevolutionarT concept adopted by the European socialist parties, which gives priority to the cultural revolution over the socioeconomic revolution, was officially consecratedat the Special Congressof the SSWP in September 1979.

and

Ignacio Sotelo (above),one of the most articulate theorists in the SSWP, stated, "The political dimension is not the most important in the marchtoward socialism."

He statedfor socialismto becomea reality there must be "a true cultural revolution, which would replace the old bourgeois values with new socialist values. I believe we are presently living this cultural revolution, whoseclearestexpressionwas [the revolution o{l May'68."

Gloslng oeeglon of the 3Oth Gongreeo of the SSWP.

34

TTEVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOSURGERY IN SLOW MOTION

2. Ihe Impelling Forees for Putting the lheory into Praetiee The SSWPhasstudiednot only the theory of European neorevolutionaryauthors, asnoted in item VI, but also the meansto effectivelyput it into practice.Felipe Gonzdlez' thus definesthe maturity of a political party as the capacity 'to draw up a seriesof objectiveswith a model of society, having made a sufficiently elaboratedplan concerningthe stepsthat haveto be taken to attain that social model" (interview to Leviatdn).38 In effect, this would be to carry out a gradual and controlled demolition within the famous six legislatures, which Cohn-Bendit and the Sorbonnerevolutionarieshad dreamedof doing chaotically in just one month.

What are the forcesthat the SSWP intends to use to give the decisiveimpulse to the cultural revolution?3e a) In society.The political resolutionof the 2fth Congressof the SSWP,of October l98l , identifiesthesemotivating forcesasthe "large number of groups and organizations that constitute the social movementsof our time: organizationsfor consumerdefense,pacifists, ecologists, feminists, neighborhoodgrievanceassociations,homosexuals,sports associations,cultural and ethnic minorities, pensionersand retirees,the physical and mentally handicapped,students' gxoups,human rights' groups, etc."4 This is, then, the new proletariat made up of the most varied social and cultural gxoupsand spoken about by the most advancedEuropeantheoristsof socialism.To completethis list, we must add the counterculture movements, begrnningwith the avant-gardetheatrical groups and passingto the hippie communes,punks, and the like.

The "new social movements," asthe resolution of this conferencerefersto them, "seek solutionsin a new type of society and from the perspectiveof the revolution of daily life. They appear as movements whose limits are not set by the vindicatory battle [that is, only becauseof concrete advantagesor interests]. They are part of the framework of a profound and radical transformation of society, tending to generatea social conscience."4l b) In political life. The SSWP doesnot intend to lead this revolution as a political, dogmatic and rigidly articulated organization in the style of classical proletariat parties. Rather, it presentsitself as a flexible organization that doesnot dominate the revolutionary processbut that 38. Leviotdn, no. l, 3rd quarter, 1978, p. 12.

39. Cf. SSWP, "Resoluciones:29 Congresodel PSOE," pp,?.Ol-203; SSWP, "Resoluci6n Polltica del CongresoExtraordinario," pp, 15-17. ,10,SSWP, "Resolucione: 29 Congresodel PSOE," p. 201.

41. Ibid., p. 203. Seealso SSWP, "Resoluciones:30 Congresodel PSOE," pp. 6, 13,62-63.

Iiberatesthe energiesand heightensthe tensionsofthese many ethnic, social and cultural movements,thus coordinating the disintegrating effects they have on present capitalist society.* Directed and propelled by the socialists, it aims to establish4a alliil1ss, more or lessexplicit, betweenall theseforcesof socioculturalchangeand the proletariat: "The work of the socialistsin this respect must consistof directingthe constructionof a broad socialist bloc that coordinatesthe conjunct of exploited classesand strata. For this purpose,the SSWPmust assumeall the claimsthat, although having surgedindividually, are destinedto achievefor the citizen a different way of life, and, at the sametime, to attain a freer atmosphere for private life and a systemof collective relations based on new criteria and values."42 * In theaforementioned resolution, theSpecial Congress of 1979stated:"In theSosiallstparty,democracy is not only reflectedin its internalllfe, but alsoby meansof a permanent inter-relationship between thesocialistorganizationandthe externalreality. . . . It shouldbe a stronglyrootedandbroadlydevelo@organization, both thereceptorandcatalystfor theactionof all thesectors that sfugglefor theprogressive transformafion of society;theunions,first of all, andalsopeoples'andcultural movements, women's liberationmovements, youttrand ecologygroups,marginalized sectors,etc.,, (SSWp, Resolucidn Pol{ticodelCongreso p. l7).

Extraordinario, In practice, this new bloc of classes(which is not presentedto the public as a structuredalliance)will generate and intensify the sensation of a multiform dissatisfaction with the bourgeoisie culture and society and its instruments of oppression.

Ignacio Sotelo describedthis strategyin this way: ..The socioculturalprocesshasits own dynamism,and its politics can only institutionalize democratically that which has already democratically acquired a majority consensus. . . . A party like the socialist party, which is identified by its fight for a new societi, has to distinguish itself by a special sensitivity to find and support anti-cultural experiences,that is, the Iiving culture.,' At the sametime, "it must defend at all coststhe freedom of expression for everyoneil1d sysr)rthing."

In other words, it must give free rein to all the disputes of the new proletariat, acting as an amalgam for its exponentsand the SSWPby bringing them togetherthrough their common desire for a libertarian and egalitarian chrnge. This is the etymologicalsenseof the word ,,conspire" (from the Latin conspirare, to breathe together).

The movements of the new proletariat and the SSWP breathe, or conspire, together.

42. "Resoluci6n Polltica" in SSWP, Rasolucionq: 29 Congresodel PSOE,p.7.

The "New Proletariat" of the SSWP The most advanced socialist theorists maintain that the old Mandst dogmasare dead. lyhf rcnnins of the old socialist revolution fu the etlical tmpulsetoward utopia, which unlte complete equality wlth complete liberty.

Without the worker-proletariat of old, socialism is obliged to have recoureeto new dynqmlc forces to advance their "cultural revoludon": "the large number of groups and organizations that constitute the social movements of our fme: organizations for consuner defense, pacifists, ecologists,feminists, neighborhood grievanceassociations, homosexuals, sports associadons, cultural and ethnic minorities, pensionersand retirees, the physical and mentally handicapped,students' groups, human rights' groups, etc." (2fth Congressof the SSWP).

36

REVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOSURGERY IN SLOW MOTION

This breathing together supposespolitical collaboration in commonconcreteobjectives.Suchcollaborations, in the measurethat they becomemore regular, can becomea type of coordination, which can easilygenerate, in turn, a stable collaboration. Thus, the question can be asked:Can't this conspiring,in the etymologicalsense of the word, becomea conspiracy,in the common sense of the word, againstthe mentality they are trying to replaceand againstthe socioJegalorder that they want to destroy?Is this conspiracynot alreadytaking placein the Spanishpolitical panorama?

At any rate, the SSWPis awarethat it should channel the dissatisfactions and demandsof the new sociocultural proletariattoward the constructionof a new socialorder, in order to avoid "ending up in chaosthat would revert to the consolidation of new bureaucraticpower structuresl'43 This is, then, a cultural revolution, which produceschaos and destruction, but in a controlled way. c) In the exerciseof power. The third factor that the cultural revolution intends to useto changementalities is the state.Ignacio Soteloacknowledgesthat the Socialist plan has to travel a middle road betweenthe excesses of failed bureaucratic statism and a premature anarchy. He notesthat it is necessaryto take into consideration"the possibleliberating role that under certainconditionsthe state can also perfor6."44* * In thisvein,seethearticleby AlfonsoGuerra,"The SocialProgressivist Majority."Citingthesocialist electoral trinmphof October1982,Vice-President Guerra states:"Fromthispointonward,therebegananinstrumentalandmediating useof power,thatis, its considerationasaninstrumentto effecta transformation of the stateaudsocietyin Spain.ttTheobstacles for tlat instrumentalization of power,saysGuerra,comenotonlyfrom butalsofroma resis"an intrusionof theoligarchies," tancethatappears "in a muchmorediffuseandextensive (ElPob,6/?n/8q. waytlroughbehaviors andmentalities" Socialistleadersdo not hide the factthat they are using the resourcesof state power to stimulate the action of the various social agentsthat can producethe change in mentalities.The facts describedin subsequentchapters offer adequateproof of this.

8. Ihe Cultural Bevolution Propels the Beform of Soeial Strueture, and the Latter lhen Aeeelerates the Former All the precedingsupposes-and on this point we must insist-that the present socialist leadersare convinced 43. "Socialismo y Cultura," pp.9L93. zl4.Ibid., p. 87.

that the revolution in Spaincannot proceedeither through the dictatorship of the proletariat, which violently imposessocioeconomicstructural reforms on the country, or through the anarchistself-managingadventure.However, as Sotelo affirms, leaving asidethesetwo choices doesnot eliminate "the socialistgoal from the historical horizon."45 The only pathwaythat appearsopenis the gradualyet permanenttransformation of the socialinstitutions, begnning with the changeof mentalitieseffectedprincipally by the cultural revolution. The revolutionary propaganda will presentthesereforms as self-regenerated fruit of the new type of democraticunity, born of a socialevolution that demandsincreasinglygreaterfreedom and more radical equality in all areasof human relations: in the family, in the workplace, in educationand culture, in politics. These changeswill becomeirreversible from the revolutionaryperspective,becausethey will,,institutionalize democraticallywhat has already acquiredthe consensusof the majority," as Sotelo himself states.6 The juridical-institutional reforms, introduced without risk of the popular reactionsand thus repetition of the failures like that of Mitterrand in France or Allende's "socialism in liberty" in Chile, will act to consolidateand intensify the changeof mentalities.* * Backedby a stronginternafional publicitycampaign, Chilefell in 1978to thepoweref I minefilycoalition government of the CommunistPartyandthe Socialist Party,both Marxist-Leninist parties,with smallleftist bourgeoisie fellowtravelerparties(theRadicalpartyand a wingof theChristianDemocratic Party.)Thiswasthe

Popular Unity Party headedby SalvadorAllende. The ChileanMarxist presidentpromisedto.inauguratean original revolutionaryway, the Chileanway to socialism, which consisted of the implantation of the sociocommunistregimeby meansof political mechanismsof liberal democracy.In spiteof atl, the Chileanway proved to be an immensebluff andressun.tingfailure. As a consequence of the socializationof the economy,in lessthan two yearsthe country experiencedan economiccollapse unprecedentedin Westerncountries during peacetime.

While the "democratic" Allendepermittedpopular Unity bandsto ruthlesslyseizehundred of factoriesand rural propertiesthroughoutChile, he imposedtotalitarianlaws in education,conmerce, finance, and so on, and only remainedin powc thanksto scandalouselectoralfrauds.

When it was evidentthat popular support was slipping from his hands,Allende began,with the help of Cuba and other communistcountries,to preparefor amilitary coupto tr4nsform his governmentinto a communistdictatorship.An uncontrollablepopularraction againsttlis movegaveriseto the mililaly revolt of September 1973, whereinthe House of Representatives and the General Comptroller of the Republicdeclaredthe popular Unity governmentillegal, andput an endto this nightmarethat 45. Ibid., p. 83, 46. Ibid., p. 92.

Disintegrating the State and Society:the Goat of Present-Dayldeotogical Currents?

in liberty"(cf. "The boastfullycalleditself"socialism ChileanExperiment,"Crasodefora ChristianCivilizapp.25-53). tion,vol.4, no.4,1975, In more concreteterms, eroticism,homosexuality,incest, abortion, and the most perversepornographic excessesare invading Spanish daily life by means of television,the press,the theater,and the youth drug and rock culture. AII this givesthe averageSpaniardthe impressionthat the monogamous,hierarchicaland moral family is no longer feasible.In this way, it hasbeenpossible, in the name of the democraticconsensus,to introduce legal divorce, decriminalize homosexuality, establishequality betweenmarried couples,legalizs46s1tion, decriminalizedrug use,and give official support to the pornographic onslaught. Thus, the new proletariat is becoming increasinglysecureand insolent in its demands. New occurrencesof the revolutionary demolition in daily life will pavethe way for other institutional legal reforms until they achieve the destruction of Christian civilization and the very notion of civilization as we understandit historically.

This sameprocessis being applied, but with greater care,to the gradual erosion of the regimeof private property. The moment will come to socializebanks, industries, agriculture and commerce. But first it will be necessaryto erode in the spirit of the people the sense of individuality and property. As some of the theorists of the SpanishSocialistWorkers' Party have openly stated, the notions of certain individual rights in the public mentality should be "upset" and "relativized"4Tby encouraging habits, customsand behavior that are increasingly "communal" and collectivist in nature.

As the following chapterswill show, every type of legal, educational,cultural and fke institution, as well as venerableand age-old tradition, is suffering from the action of thesecultural revolution institutional reforms.

Let us point out that psycho-cultural revolutionary advancesare much less noticed than institutional legal reforms. The public in generalis not aware of the true scope of this silent revolution in the mentalities and ways of being and living together that are developing insidethe socialbody without any great difficulty. Ignacio Sotelo describesthis processas follows: "We are inventing socialismfrom day to day, outsideof politics, with new forms of production as well as ways of living together; with new values, based on solidarity and a new sensitivrty for the profound, radical equality of all human beings;probing new democraticrelationships of living together; opposing every definite hierarchy, and criticizing the myth that those who are higher have 10,itemII, 4, a.

47.Cf. Ibid.,chapter

37

more value than those who are lower. These changes of conscience and sensitivity are occurring with great speed right before our eyes' undermining the old power ,,*O'rar.rr48* * This "inventing" of socialismin daily life coversa very broad scaleof activities.It embraces,for example,the experienceof self-managed "communes" of the Socialist Youth, aswell aslanguage,tastes'waysof dressingand entertainment,personalrelationships,and eventhe conceptionof political life: the democraticdebateor ways of governingthe nation' autonomouscommunities,city and so on. councils,businesses, Theselibertarian and egalitarianhabits, customs,and waysof thinking that will shapethe self-managingsociety of the future would be establishedin that ambience of what the SpanishSocialistWorkers' Party calls the socialistfamily, through the action of the sociocultural newproletariat. In a certainsense,to force the comparison, this relationship of the neorevolutionariesof the SSWPand their extra-partisankindred would be the beginningof the new socialorganizationof the future. This is somewhatreminisceilirLa controriosennrof what haF penedwith the start of new Christian waysof being and living togetherin the times of the catacombs,which was the origin of Christendom.

4. I)fumantltn$ the State Apparatus in the Proeess of lhis Per:manent Bevolntion None of the precedingwould be possibleif, because of the incompetenceof the socialistleadersconducting this neorevolution, the institutional structure of the state would be prematurely dismantled. Alfonso Guerra explains that the greatestrisk to this process"is if the political instrument at the disposalof the socialistmajority would fall apart."+e Once again, Allende's ghost looms like a shadowin the minds of leadersof the SSWP. In regard to social structures,aswell asto the politicalinstitutional structure of the Spanishstate, the road to follow is that of the cultural revolution that generatesreforms. Thesereforms, in turn, serveto acceleratethe cultural revolution.

What is required, affirms Sotelo, is neither bureaucratic statism nor uncontrollable anarchy but rather the state liberating socioculturalenergiesin sucha way that "the more socialism,or that is, the more autonomousinstitutions and groups ruled democratically,the less state is needed.As socialismadvances,the thesisof the progressive disappearanceof the state becomespossible,after the [frustrating] experiencesof bureaucratic statism. . . . y Cultura,"pp.92-93.

48."socialismo 49. El Po{s, 6/20/86.

38

REVOLUTIONARYPSYCHOSURCERY IN SLOW MOTION

The way to socialismpassesthrough the involution and democratic developmentof society."so In other words,the socialistswill loosenthe bolts that hold up the framework of the presentdemocraticstate.

But they will do this very carefully so that the frame will not fall loudly all at once. In this way, Spanishsociety will slowly and smoothly slip into a tranquil chaos,which will be controlled and liberating political and institutional.

Self-managementwill seemto sprout from the sociocultural soil itself, stimulated by opportune legal reforms that will underminethe old hierarchical order without insurmountablebreaks or confrontations.

They would like Spaniardsto becomeaccustomedto a situation whereinthe boundary betweenthe lawful state and the new revolutionary legality would disappear gradually. As for the rest, the Constitution of consensus, with all its ambiguitiesand contradictions, would prodigiously servethe purpose.

The use of drugs is growing, delinquencyis increasing, punishmentsand legal defensesare mitigated, police are restrained from preventive and constraining actions, courts are becomingpolitical and entangledin conflicts of competencewith the Constitutional Court; they are even talking about implanting the jury system that can easilybecomepopular courts, as certain socialist leaders desire. The whole institutional legal systemis starting to fall, gving way to chaos.

The political order suffers an analogousphenomenon.

The processof autonomy, which sparkscertain legitimate hopes,is becomingradical and favors virtual separatisms.

Not only radical minorities-armed terrorism or media terrorism-but moderateautlorities themselvesfrom certain autonomoussectorspreach acrazy anti-spanishhatred and often act as if they were leadersof independent states.Spain is slowly disintegrating, but not, at least for the time being, becauseit has ceasedto be officially one country.

The Crown remains as the fagadefor this state whose piecesare beginning to loosen. This fagadeseerns,to any attentive observer, a little less stable with each passing day, but it has not yet fallen.

Begrnningwith the youth communeswhere new types of life are experienced,passingto collectivesand associations that claim somestateauthority fe1 assumingcontrol of their own interests, and continuing as far as the self-governments with independent tendencies, the political-administrativeself-managementis establishing itself gradually in areasof the statestructure itself, which is, at the sametime, being dismanfled.But all of this takes place serenelyand without great trauma so that the public never really has an exact idea of what is taking place.

50. "Socialismo y Cultura," pp.92-93.

5. AII This Oaeurs Wtthin an Eeumenleal State of Sptrit That Cultlvates the Carefree Aspects of Ddstenee If all the precedinghaspresenteda new revolutionary panoramathat makesit necessaryto adapt classicalimagesand criteria to be able to understandit, there is another more novel aspectto consideraswell. This complex framework of an integral socialist revolution depends upon maintaining and intensifying a particular state of spirit in Spanishpublic opinion. This has already been describedin precedingchapters,particularly chapter 5, "Spain in the OperatingRoom.,' As a result of this "numbing,' of the senseof criticism in public opinion, the SSWP was able to attain and remain in power, thus bringing about the greatest transformation of the history of Spain. This numbness, favored by a spirit of optimism spreadin religious, political, and cultural ambiencesand personifiedin the public figuresof the so-called"generation of the King," has gradually acquired a certain content. According to it, all the doctrines, currents of thought and mentalities, opposedthough they may be, should be viewed from one common, all-embracing perspective,which discoversthe link uniting them and excludeswhat separatesthem. In short, it is what we have called ecumenism,whereby all positions collaborate in one way or another for the liberation of man from the dark prejudicesof the past and for an evolution toward the superior stagesthat humanity wil reach in the future.

The revolutionary processdescribedherein its irreversible facets-the dismantling of the state appaxatus,the transformation of social structures, the demolition of mentalities-is being conductedwith the precision, speed, and efficienry of a group of surgeonsperforming a c4lm but drastic operation in the germ-free and temperate atmosphereof an operatingroom. This whole ensembleof revolutionary actionsdoesnot, therefore, propel the averageSpaniard6u1sf his stateof spirit of ecumenical,disinterested and optirnistic tolerance. On the contrary, in a paradoxicalway, to the measurethat the global socialist revolution challengesand demolishestraditional Catholic Spain, this state of spirit tends to act in a consolidating way. The neorevolutionary psychosurgeons are introducing their instruments into the very root of the Spanish mentality, altering the institutional physiognomy of the country, in their attempt to nullify the effects of the principle of contradiction. How far they will be able to go, God alone knows. Indeed, this critical double operation is being madewith so many smilesand such tranquility that, with every cut of the revolutionary scalpel, it invits the victim to a drowsy and ecumenicalsmile.

And this evenin faceof the coarse,sordid, blasphemous

Disintegroting the State and Society: the Goal of Present'Dayldeological Cunents?

and sacrilegious ideas that are invading Spanish life in the name of a liberating culture.

The socialists are not making their revolution in the name of a militant atheistic Marxism. They do not dictate decreeselliging children to memorize phrasesof Marx, Lenin or Mao. Neither do they forbid Catholics to practicereligion. Nor do they ruthlesslyand bloodily abolish the regime of private property. Leaving aside ideologies,they presenttheir astonishingrevolution only as an interpretation of strong and profound desiresfor liberation felt by today's ecumenizedand permissive Spaniards.* This is the neorevolution. All ideologiesand systemsare in crisis, eventhe Marxist ideology,** and Gorbachev himself gives testimony to this with his g/asnost and perestroika. * gaplaining the "democratichegermony"of the SSWP in an interviewto the Frenchmagq^neLe Ddbot, Felipe Gonzfllezstates:"It is a processthat is difficult to embraceconceptuallyusingthe habitual languageof political scientists.. . . In synthesis,let me say tlat at this momenta complexprocessof adjustment,of identification betweenourselvesand society,is taking placein the depths of our society.The socialistparty in someway personifiesfor citizensall the processssqf sfuangeand liberation that have characterizedthe last ten decades.

Liberation of ideas,of customsand of education. . . .

Liberation of womenaboveall" ("Espagte enEurope," interview with Jorge Sempnlnin Le Ddbot, NovemberDecember1986,no.42, pp. 18-19). ** The E ropen ttreorists,eventle Spanish,frequently refer to what tley considerthe crisisofideologies. Ignacio Sotelo,for example,states:"At tle presenttime, ttrere is not a socialistthoueftt worthy of the name. . . . The subjectthat remainsfor us is the disappearanceof socialist tlought. . . . SocialismresemblesanotherGuadiana in virtue of its appearingand disappearing,or, let us say it better, we have entereda new historical cycle that obligesus to reestablisha geater part of our presuppositions" (Los sociolistasen el poder, pp. 18-19).

Alfonso Guerraalsorefersto this matter: "I havesaid that we are living in a historical situation that has to be qualified asuncertain,to saythe least.I believethat the frst factor of crisis for us-for socialistsin generaland not just Spanishones-is tle lossof forceof varioustraditional ideologicaland political references.. . . Marxism has ceasedto be a clearcutideologicaltext. For others it has ceasedto be a text of absolutevalidity. And so, also, havethe economiccollectivistconcapts." He later adds: "We are facing a profound revolution, more authenticthan the ideologicalprcuppositionswith which the perceptionsofthe new realitiesmight be suppliedor nourished.We are on the threshold, at the very doorway, of a new form of society,which explainsthe crisis in the ideasand ideologiestlat comefrom the preceding situation" (EI futuro del socislismo, pp. 14 and 32).

The public is encouraged not to be concerned since the socialists do not have rigid dogmas, or do not threaten with contradictions or unyielding conflicts. They merely

assume,therefore, the essentialinheritanceof all the revolutions that followed one after another from the French Revolution to our times: the pursuit of completeliberty and complete equality toward a self-managingdemocracy in which truth and error, good and evil will finally join togetherin a fraternal embraceof peace.* This will be the threshold of a new historical era. To enter into it' understandit, and acceptit, one needonly take carenot to losethe spirit of tolerance,and neverto take an affirmation or denial to its final logical consequences.

Minister of Culture JavierSolananoted that the point of departurefor solving Spanishproblems does not lie primarily in economicor political measures,but "in the creation of a new mentality." "Drawing near to nature and cultivating the carefree and lighter aspectsof existence" in which the socialistGovernmentis engaged," he concluded,have becomethe "most dynamic components of our civilization, overcoming eventhe dynamism of technology."5l** * In a reportpresented on the to theThird Conference in Javsocialists bySpanish organized Futureof Socialism of PolishMarxistreviea,AdamSchaff,a philosopher revolutionaryconcept sionism,bringsup this essential frequenryin thewritingsof with increasing thatappears movements[the neosocialists: "The aforementioned differ fromoneanotlerbut differentformsof socialisml intact.Evenmore,fromthe unityremains a fundamental point of view of history, we now haveconditionsto understandand explainthis fundamentalunity that hasbeen guiding mankind for centuriesand that is condensedin the idealsofliberty, equalityand fraternity" ("La segunda revoluci6nindustrial," in Guerraet al., El nuevocompromiso europeo:JdveaIII, P. l9). 't*

The idea of emphasizingtle so-calledpleasurable dimensionhas penetratedthe most varied fields of ecumenicalthought today,from the theologicaland philosophical to the political. This would liberate man from dogmas,morals and dl doctrinal definitions; it would eraselogic and coherencefrom all institutions. And it would also allow the uninhibited dwelopment of the that the whimsicalcreativityof the instincts This supposes mostshockingcontradictions(whichwould be manifestawould be tions of this adventurewithout consequences) cheerftrllyacceptedwithout dissent.It is the perspective taken,for exampleby SergloVilar when he defendsunbridled eroticism. He finds inspiration for this in the thoughts of CharlesFourier, a Frenchutopian socialist of the nineteenthcentury who united the revolutionary spherewith a carefreeand on the socioeconomic concerpts total libertinism in sexualmatters(cf. "El santo erotisno. â‚Ź, May 1982). mo, la rwoluci6n deplacerl'in Sistema, In this samesense,Richard Gombin describesthe socalled cultural revolution of daily life, activatedas such '68: "Cultural activity as a by tle neo-leftistsof May meansof experimentalconstructionof daily life obviously correspondsto a completeliberation of human desires, ... to an outburst of subjectivityin the scenarioof 5t. ABC 3/20/83.

40

REVOLUTIONARYPSYCHOSURGERY IN SLOW MOTION

history. . . . Man's subjectivitycan find satisfactionin daily life, not in politicsor economy:The most important battlefieldis locatedthere . . . that is, departingfrom daily life. Spontaneouscreativity tears away the wrappingsofrepressivesociety.. . . This plan for the explosion of subjectivity' releasesitself into the 'unleashing ofpleasure.. . .' It will be the paradisiacalkingdomof creativity, spontaneity,pleasure. . . of the pleasurable civilization" (Les originesdu gauchisme,pp. 93-96).

The extremeof this pleasurablesituation of so-called "weak thinking" wasdenouncedby Paolo Miccoli in an uttcle in L'Osematore Romano.This position,afliliated with the mostcunent forms of anarchism,considersreality "only from the point of view of the pleasurableinstinct of life." It proclaimsitself "incapableof judgment and definition." Beingatheist,it doesnot argueagainst the existenceof God. It considersthe era of reasonas superseded, and it declares"death to art, philosophy, scienceand religion." It affirms that oneneedonly yield to the "spontaneous,instinctiveasd unprejudicedexperienceof life" andto live "in thejoy of affirming the faithfulnessof man to earth" ("Riflessioniin margine al cosiddetto'pensierodebole'nell'atteismo,"in L'OsservotoreRomano, 12/13/86).

In summary, Spain finds itself in an unprecedented situation in history. A political party, the SSWP, has revealed that it has assumed power for a purpose that goes well beyond the proper limits of a party organization.

It is normal to expect that a political group coming to power would attempt to administer public affairs, seeking prosperity, good order, social well-being and peace, following the general direction, of course, of its own ideology. It is even to be expected that it might do this with a more or less ideological exclusivism. What is absolutely unheard of, however, is that a major priority of a political party would be the use of public power for the purpose of transforming the mentality of its subjects.

This can only be achievedby meansof a method that, becauseof its special characteristics,we have called revolutionary psychosurgery.Suchan operation aims at modelinga new type of man who doesnot needabsolute truth or immutable moral laws reflectedin a sociallyhierarchicalorder with definedlegalnorms. An individual like this would be malleableto acceptthe new libertarian and egalitariansocietybeing built over the debris of civilization and culture.

We arrive, then, at a surprising verification: The socialist party assumes-in flagrant contradiction to the proclaimed secularizationof society and the end to all dogmatisms-a part of the task that normally pertains first to the Church and the family, that is, education,the formation of characterand the teachingof the principles by which men can constructand perfectthe socialorder.

This is what the Church did when shebaptizedthe remnants of Greco-Romanculture and evangelizedthe barbarians, giving origin to Christendom. But today, we encountera political organizationthat assumesthe airs ofthe Church, or rather, a sectthat appropriatesthe task of guiding the minds of men. From the episcopateit expectsa vagueapproval, or, at least,asChristiansfor Socialismsaid,that it shouldlimit itself "to havingits voice heard . . . without provoking religiouswars."s2 Consequently, under the direction of the socialistneorevolutionaries, Spain will continue to evolve, as the third millennium approaches,toward completeself-management. That is to say, to the fullest possiblerealization of the revolutionary utopia common to socialists,communistsand anarchists.The SSWPpresentsa new method that may eventually become the solution for the stagnantworld revolution. "Today," Alfonso Guerra has affirmed, "the Spanishsocialistexperienceis servingas the guide and hope for international socialism."s3

52. Cf. Manuel Maceiras,"Cristianos por el Socialismo," in Francisco Azcona et al,, Catolicismo en Espafra, p. 25. Seealso the fourth part of this book.

53. ABC, 6/t9/86.