The German-Dutch Communist Left - Libcom

Chapter 7 TOWARDS A NEW WORKERS’ MOVEMENT? THE COUNCIL COMMUNIST
BALANCE SHEET (1933-35)
German council communism after 1933. – Relationship with the GIC. – Definition of the ‘councilist’ current
With the German council communist groups plunged into total clandestinity, the GIC shouldered an increased
political responsibility. The whole German movement depended on its political clarity and its organisational
strength. International work towards Germany was taken on jointly by the GIC and the Danish GIK. This joint
work was not without difficulty and friction. 782 If it was to be effective, it required the centralisation and
regroupment of existing forces. This would only be possible if the GIC rejected its conception of ‘working
groups’. At the same time, without the necessary political homogeneity within the international council
communist movement, it was never really possible for the GIC to work towards this regroupment. And without
the latter, the GIC ran the risk of theorising its isolation.
The work of regroupment was taken up by the GIC in March 1933. It not only edited Proletarier, the
international review of council communism, but a German press service – Pressedienst der Internationalen
Kommunisten (PIK) – which replaced the INO from Frankfurt and aimed to reflect the position of the German
groups. 783 Due to the lack of homogeneity between the latter and the Dutch, the PIK was soon replaced by
Rätekorrespondenz, which sought to be a ‘theoretical and discussion’ organ of the ‘Councils Movement’ in its
widest sense. It was thus more an organ for liaison than an organ for political orientation of the various
International groups.
In contrast to the period of the 20s when the Dutch left had been an organisational appendage of the German
movement, while still remaining the latter’s theoretical head, the German left now became an ‘annex’ to the
Dutch council communist movement, at least on the organisational level, since the divergences within the very
decentralised international movement were real but did not concern basic principles (see below).
Under the nazi dictatorship, the German movement was reorganised underground, and was by no means swept
away by the pitiless repression which descended on the workers’ movement. 784 When a member of the GIC
travelled to Germany in the summer to renew contacts he found that the ‘Union’ movement had not been too
hard hit by repression, and the KAU was still intact, to the point of being able to hold three conferences. These
782 Harald Andersen-Harild went to Germany in 1933, for a few weeks, to set up the clandestine links between Germany and
Denmark. Friction between him and one ex-leader of the opposition in the KAPD, then one of the founders of the KAU,
Ernst Lincke (alias Kurt Lange), a building worker refugee in Copenhagen, had disastrous results. Harald Andersen-Harild
‘bombarded’ the council communist groups in Holland, USA and even Germany with letters demanding that Ernst Lincke
leave Sweden. A letter by the GIC, dated 20 th August 1936, stressed that sending personal letters to the German comrades
contained the risk that they would be sent very quickly to the concentration camps. The GIC thus demanded that Andersen-
Harild cease all written contact with the Berlin centre (cf. Archives ABA, Copenhagen, which contains Andersen-Harild’s
letters and also letters of Jan Appel, Ernst Schneider, Johannes Onasch, etc.).
783 Proletarier, which only had one issue; it was a “review for the theory and practice of council communism”. Not to be
confused with the KAPD’s Proletarier, the last issue of which appeared in February 1933. The PIK published by the GIC in
1933 only had five issues.
784 The history of the German groups between 1933 and 1935 can be found in Räte-Korrespondenz, No. 16/17, May 1936:
‘Differenzen in der Rätebewegung’. Some militants of the KAU/KAP were not only interned in nazi lagers, tortured by the
Gestapo, but also murdered by the SA and SS, like the young Paul Voss (1916-1934), a friend of Weiland. [See: M. Kubina,
op. cit., p. 119.]
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