By Frank Noakes
BUDAPEST — East and central European Social Democratic parties met here on March 12-13 to discuss the problems confronting the region. "For the new Europe" was the latest in a series of conferences hosted by the Hungarian Socialist Party.
Gyula Horn, chairperson of the HSP, presented a thesis to the 150 delegates that began: "Two to three years after the political landslide in central and eastern Europe, and the euphoria and democratic fever it evoked, it would appear that enthusiasm is gradually giving way to disillusionment and embitterment. But despite the growing disillusionment, central and eastern Europe continues to look for miracles and to harbour the illusion of Western aid."
And herein lies the problem of the transition in the region, as Horn went on to point out: "We must also allow for the fact that we are not attractive partners. The structure of our economy is in a sectoral clash of interests with the [European] Community. This applies to the steel and textile industries, and even to agriculture." That is, the main industries of the region.
But Social Democracy in the east faces its own peculiar political problems, which are just as intractable.
Historically, Social Democracy's stated objective has been to reform the capitalist system. But Social Democrats in the east have as their point of departure support for the creation of the capitalist system.
This necessarily means supporting the privatisation of property, nominally owned by the people as a whole. It also means accepting the "logic" of lowering living standards and the removal, or at least the downgrading, of previously enjoyed social securities.
This poses an immediate contradiction that was apparent throughout the conference. While wholeheartedly supporting capitalism, the Social Democrats bemoan the integral social costs associated with creating it. The economic transition is socially brutal and painfully slow.
But Horn, and the majority of delegates present, chose to sidestep the contradiction. "Naturally", he says, "all these shortcomings were inherited from the old regime".
Unable to support social benefits which are "unsustainable" because they run counter to the needs
of capital, the Social Democrats explained away the destruction of the previous system of social provision as a "collapse". "This was inevitable", according to Horn, a former minister in the old regime, "because the maintenance of the system superseded the economic potential of these countries".
In the same vein, a statement from the chairperson of the Socialist Party of Albania, Fatos Nano, declared support for economic reforms, but called on the government to resign, voicing concern, among other things, over its freeze on privatisations and support for "mass social assistance with no way out".
Delegates were told in one breath that the application of shock therapy was unworkable and socially insensitive, and in the next, that the region has "a surplus work force of tens of millions".
"Let us into Europe and give us favourable treatment" was the catchcry of the gathering. For the benefit of the handful of west European Social Democrats present, Horn hinted darkly of the possibility of Pinochet-type dictatorships emerging if aid did not arrive. But there was no chance of a restoration of the previous regime, which itself had travelled a long way down the path of marketisation. "The process of privatisation which has begun in each country will produce the social economic basis for the new system", he claimed.
In fact, the whole theme of the conference exposed the redundancy of Social Democracy in the east. The process of transformation, Social Democracy's shared goal, is ultimately dependent on the west, and therefore out of their control, they admitted. Yet with the exception of only Hungary and Czechoslovakia in 1991, there was a net outflow of resources from the region; things have hardly improved since. Politically, they needed the ideological backing of the Socialist International, it was stated.
The right-wing politics of western European Social Democracy are mirrored in the east. The Hungarian Socialist Party now supports, as do its French and German counterparts, tougher measures against refugees, stating, "It is in the national interest to take steps towards tightening immigration regulations".