The German-Dutch Communist Left - Libcom

the CPO decided to dissolve in order to mark its complete break with the CPH and the left socialist current. On
15 th July 1935 De Vrije Tribune became the organ of the Verbond van Communisten (‘League of Communists’).
This new group had a totally council communist orientation. Like the GIC it defined the USSR as a form of state
capitalism, the latter being a general tendency of capitalism in crisis. Anti-parliamentary and anti-union, it came
out in favour of a “new workers’ movement” and for the “self-activity of the workers” on the basis of “new class
organisations”. Like the GIC, it denounced anti-fascism just as much as fascism. It saw the CP and Sneevliet’s
RSAP as a kind of “radical social democracy”. Soon afterwards the Verbond broke up and most of its members
joined the ‘autonomous’ council communist groups, or like Goedhart moved before 1939 towards a form of
“independent socialism”.
The influence of the GIC was also felt in Belgium, wherein 1935 contacts had been made with Adhemar
Hennaut’s LCI. 674
The functioning of the GIC: the working groups
The greatest weakness of the Dutch council communists – which derived from their conception of the function
of the revolutionary organisation (see Chapter 6) – was their mode of functioning. This mode of functioning no
doubt explains their disappearance in 1940 and their inability to deal with clandestinity during the period of the
Occupation.
Although it was really a political group the GIC refused to recognise itself as such. Its existence marked a break
with the organisational tradition of the Dutch Left. In this sense, the GIC was more an expression of the German
‘anti-authoritarian’ current, regrouped around Rühle’s AAU-E, than a continuation of the movement around
Gorter, who embodied the party tradition. Because of its ‘anti-authoritarianism’, the GIC refused to function as a
political organisation, and this was the case from its beginnings in 1927. Its meetings had no chair, there was no
treasurer, no statutes, no obligatory dues, no voting, no difference between members and sympathisers. The
mode of functioning was very close to that of the anarchist groups.
“The Group of International Communists had no statutes, no obligatory dues, and its ‘internal’ meetings were
open to all other comrades of other groups. As a result it never knew the exact number of members in the group.
There was never any vote; this was judged unnecessary because you had to avoid any party politics. You
discussed a problem and when there was an important difference of opinion, the various points of view were
noted, and that was it. A majority decision had no significance. The working class would decide.” 675
This mode of functioning, which corresponded to that of a discussion circle, was not without dangers. It
condemned the GIC to withdraw into purely theoretical problems, and when political problems were posed, like
the Spanish question (see Chapter 8), it was very difficult to see the demarcations of principle between the
majority and the minority of the group. At the same time, the divergences about intervention, which reflected the
opposition between the activist and more theoretical tendencies, could not be overcome by voting or other
means, and often led to more or less unclear splits.
The marked hostility to any idea of centralising the work had been expressed since 1927 by the formation of
‘working groups’. These were organs of political groups which did not dare admit to being such. There were thus
‘working groups’ for international contacts, for the press, for the preparation of discussions, for external
intervention. In this way the GIC was not only a federation of local groups, but also a federation of working
been member of the management council of Radio Free Europe, but condemned American politics in South-East Asia in the
60s.
674 Through Adhemar Hennaut (1899-1977), Bilan published texts of the Dutch council communists. On one occasion only,
the GIC informed its readers of the existence of the Italian Fraction, by publishing Mitchell‘s critique of the
Grundprinzipien [cf. PIC, No. 1, Jan. 1937, ‘De Nederlandsche Internationale Communisten over het program der
proletarische revolutie’).
675 Radencommunisme, No. 3, cited by ICO, No. 101, Paris, 1971.
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