Stronger Communist movement in NATO countries during the Cold War?

Looking at Cold War history and present, it seems that Communist parties were only strong in several NATO countries, such as France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal, and perhaps a few that I haven't named.

I don't think it's realistic for the USA to have a viable Communist Party, but is there any way to develop electorally significant Communist parties in Canada, Great Britain, West Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Turkey, etc? In addition, in the countries where the Communists were strong, is it possible for Communist parties to ever form a government by themselves or as the head of a coalition?
 
In the Northeast of the Netherlands especially there has been a strong communist movement all through the Cold War (even today!). Unfortunately the region of the Netherlands this area belongs to has approx 500.000 inhabitants total.

In addition to that there is/was quite a admiration going for Mao, Stalin and such is several leftist political parties on national level, but they were still by no means communist parties.

I think it requires a Soviet Union doing better during WWII and ending up further to the West in '45 to have more success in W-Europe.
 
Pro-Moscow Communists were hammered from two events in 1956: Khrushchev's "Secret Speech" to the 20th Congress of the CPSU, and his invasion to crush the Hungarian revolution later that year. It's what eventually gives Trotskyism the upper hand in British far-left politics and, with the policy of peaceful coexistence, lays the groundwork for an anti-Moscow "anti-revisionist" Communist movement (this eventually splits into Maoism and Hoxhaism). You'd probably have to stop Khrushchev's rise to really be able to increase "official" Communism's numbers.

I don't think too much is going to fix the numbers of either Trotskyism or anti-revisionist communism; maybe if Trotsky hadn't been assassinated and lived past WWII they'd be in better shape but it's hard to see where they would have gone.
 
There are two elements of a political party, the ideologues and the laymen.

The problem is communist parties had little in the way of successes that they could show.

The heyday of the European communist parties were in the immediate aftermath of WW2, when their partisan experiences in fighting Germany gave them credibility as major political groups. For the first time the communist parties could point to proven results. But of course that only worked if you were living in an occupied nation. So that leaves the commonwealth out, Turkey as well. And no offense to the Dutch and Belgians, but their resistance movements kind of sucked, which hurt communist support there.

They then needed to convert their war time reputations into governing experience, to show that yes communists actually can run a nation. Then hopefully the hypothetical phase three (which never happened) is to win a national election, form a government and cement the existence of the communist party, that yes they are here to stay.

So war experience -> governing experience -> ruling experience. All successful communist parties have followed that pattern, or attempted to at least. And thats how you attract supporters among the layman. People look at what your party can offer them, and then you need to have successes you can point to, to show them and to show your party is credible.

Then there's the ideologues. Or the idealists. These are the core supporters and true believers of the party (and the people who actually run for office). Unlike in America you really cant just take these voters for granted. Their numbers were severely hurt by actions of the USSR and perceived failures among their own communist party, leading them to defect to other parties. Besides appealing to the average voter you also need to find a way to keep these ideologues on board.
 
Maybe the radical wing of the Labour Party in the UK could turn into a communistic party.

They did eventually, but after the Cold War had ended.

b00s6rrm.jpg


If you have earlier, aggressive action against Militant Tendency you might see it come sooner.
 
maybe if no Marshall Plan? If the western allies are left devastated and impoverished, communism would certainly become more appealing. But I think Canada and Britain are no-go for this... they came out of the war in too good of shape, and Canada is tied too strongly to the US economy...
 
As for communist parties forming a government themselves, Italy has a chance. Fear and Loathing does a good rendition of this. In Portugal too, there's a chance. As for the others though, I doubt the communists would be more influential than OTL.

If it's early enough, France could even have a chance.

...Or it doesn't even need to be that early. Perhaps your Centurions end up leaving France looking like Drew's Portugal, eh? :p
 
Perhaps butterfly the 1956 Soviet invasion of Hungary? That episode forced many prominent members of Communist parties across Europe to confront their own consciences, as far as their allegiances to Moscow went. I'm not saying that would necessarily postpone other rebellions within the Warsaw Pact, but it might allow for your scenario to succeed somewhat.

It is more than just bourgeois and old-middle-class members examining their consciences. Its also workers looking at Soviet tanks crushing workers councils with visceral disgust.

No 1956 probably removes the intellectual vitality from extra-CP microfactions that put out Quaderni Rossi which became Autonomism, or Socialisme ou Barbarie that influenced Solidarity (UK). In fact, Andy Anderson's outrage at Hungary 1956 was really obvious (and resulted in a better book than Cardan/Castoriadis papers).

yours,
Sam R.
 
If it's early enough, France could even have a chance.

...Or it doesn't even need to be that early. Perhaps your Centurions end up leaving France looking like Drew's Portugal, eh? :p
What is this a reference to? I've never read Fear and Loathing and I don't want to try to read the whole thing just to understand one reference.
 
What is this a reference to? I've never read Fear and Loathing and I don't want to try to read the whole thing just to understand one reference.

In Drew's Fear, Loathing, and Gumbo, Portugal's Carnation Revolution gets taken over by communists, who then proceed to establish the Democratic Progressive Republic of Portugal. Also in that TL's second part, Rumsfeldia, Greece collapses into a civil war.
 
Top