The German-Dutch Communist Left - Libcom

programme. This forerunner of the ‘united front’ policy, vigorously criticised in the RSC’s meetings, gave the
impression that the RSC, to which the NAS belonged, and the SDAP were on the same terrain. The policy of
sabotaging the strike movement was not laid bare. Moreover, the SDP failed to make a real critique of
revolutionary syndicalism; during its Leiden congress of 16 th -17 th November, it considered that “the NAS acted
correctly” during the revolutionary week of 11 th -16 th September. 391
The formation of the Dutch Communist Party (CPH/CPN)
The same Leiden congress saw the birth of the Dutch Communist Party. The SDP was the second socialist party,
after the Russians, to abandon the ‘social-democratic’ label. 392 The Dutch CP was formed even before the
German.
The CPH was a small party, but growing fast: its membership of 1,000 at its Congress doubled in the space of a
year.
This transformation did not put an end to Wijnkoop’s manoeuvring and authoritarian politics. Three weeks
before the Congress, he and Ceton placed a notice in De Tribune, self-proclaiming themselves respectively
president and secretary of the party. By anticipating the result of the Congress, they gave a curious example of
democracy. 393
Nonetheless, the new party remained the only revolutionary pole in Holland. This explains why the opposition
disintegrated after the founding congress. De Internationale, the opposition press, ceased publication in January
1919. The resignation of the 26 members of the Hague section who refused to join the CPH seemed
irresponsible. Their creation of a group of ‘international communists’, with the aim of joining the Bolsheviks and
the Spartakists on the basis of anti-parliamentarism and solidarity with the Russian revolution, was still-born. 394
Most of its members rejoined the party soon afterwards. The Zimmerwald Left group within the party soon
391 De Tribune, 18 th November, quoted in Burger, op. cit., p. 123.
392 The new party’s official name was Communist Party of Holland, or CPH. Historians call it indifferently the CP Holland,
or the CP Nederland (CPN). However, the change of name from CPH to CPN came late. It was decided at the congress of
Christmas 1935, to “sharpen the [party’s] struggle for national independence”. This change in name, in the middle of the
‘anti-fascist front’, was thus done with a nationalist aim. The name of the old paper De Tribune changed for that of
Volksdagblad (‘People’s daily’). With a new name, the CPN tried to appropriate the old ‘national’ glories (Spinoza,
Rembrandt, Van Gogh…). And with this national background, the “Party” climbed up to 11,000 militants, of which a third
in Amsterdam. In 1938 (Het Volksdagblad, 14 th April), the CPN claimed “the communists (were) the best nationalists”.
[See: Cahiers over de geschiedenis van de Communistische Partij van Nederland, No. 5, August 1980: ‘De communistische
pers tussen twee wereldoorlogen’, p. 58. This review of the Dutch CP’s history was published by IPSO, an institute for the
history of the Dutch Communism, from 1968 to 1991.]
In 1990, the CPN fusioned in the Parliament with the Greens, the Pacifist Socialist Party, the EVC, the Radical Party (PPR),
to form – 24 November – the ‘Groen Links’. On the 15 th June 1991, the CP self-dissolved; it gave its archives to the IISG. A
new CPN (NCPN), “marxist-leninist party”, or “pure communists” organisation, was born in November 1992, which
published the periodical Manifest. It came partly from the VCN, the so-called “Horizontalen”, which seceded in 1985,
against the “Eurocommunisten”, to sustain the USSR. The NCPN still defends the remaining ‘socialist’-stalinist countries
like Cuba, North-Korea, and even Serbia.
In July 1999, a split organisation was founded: the United Communist Party (Verenigde communistische partij – VCP), a
‘Leninist’ organisation, claiming for “internal party democracy”.
393 De Tribune, 26 th October 1918. Quoted by Wiessing, op. cit., p. 86. The wording of the notice was as follows: “Attention!
Given that Wijnkoop is the only candidate to the post of party president, he is declared elected to that post. Given that the
only candidate for the post of party secretary is Ceton, he is consequently declared elected. The candidates for the post of
vice-president are A. Lisser and B. Luteraan”. Luteraan, a long time member of the opposition, was not elected. Alexander
Lisser (1875-1943), a diamond worker, became finally a representative of the CPN to Moscow in the 1920s.
394 De Internationale, No. 14, 18 th January 1919, Collectief uittreden. This was the last issue. The ‘international communists’
disappeared as quickly as they had come.
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