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The German-Dutch Communist Left - Libcom

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Chapter 8 TOWARDS STATE CAPITALISM: FASCISM, ANTI-FASCISM, DEMOCRACY,<br />

STALINISM, POPULAR FRONTS: THE “INEVITABLE WAR” (1933 – 1939)<br />

In 1933 a major debate developed in the international council communist movement, aimed at determining what<br />

course historical events were taking. Was the world economic crisis just a passing phenomenon, or a lasting one?<br />

Would economic collapse inevitably lead to a new wave of revolutionary struggles, or, on the contrary, to the<br />

consolidation of capitalism in a totalitarian form? Would fascism collapse, or grow stronger? Was the fascist<br />

phenomenon limited to a few particular countries, or was it a universal expression of the decadent capitalist<br />

mode of production? Was there a general tendency towards state capitalism, of which fascism and stalinism were<br />

particular expressions? Was ‘classical’ democracy a different form of state capitalism and was it progressive in<br />

relation to fascism? Or should the proletariat fight against it, just as it had to fight against stalinism and fascism?<br />

What should be the attitude of the Council <strong>Communist</strong> movement towards the popular fronts and anti-fascism?<br />

<strong>The</strong>se were the burning political questions which obliged the GIC to go beyond the general debates it had been<br />

having for years on the Unions and Workers’ Councils. <strong>The</strong> responses to these questions, by the <strong>Dutch</strong> and<br />

<strong>German</strong> <strong>Left</strong>s, or by Matticks’ group, were not fundamentally different to those given by the Italian <strong>Communist</strong><br />

<strong>Left</strong> around Bilan. 931 But, given the fragmentation and isolation of the <strong>Communist</strong> <strong>Left</strong>’s various components,<br />

this identity of political and theoretical standpoints rarely gave rise to any joint statements of position. In a tragic<br />

epoch, the different internationalist groups found themselves in a tragic state of political isolation.<br />

<strong>The</strong> <strong>The</strong>ories of Capitalist Collapse<br />

Up until 1932-33, when the GIC published a pamphlet specifically devoted to the economic crisis, the <strong>Dutch</strong><br />

groups had only dealt with crisis theory in passing. 932 But when the GIC was drawn into a polemic with the<br />

<strong>German</strong> and American council communists, it began to place this question at the centre of its intervention. 933<br />

After 1932, each issue of the Persdienst (PIC) 934 defined its objective as follows:<br />

“<strong>The</strong> development of capitalism leads to crises increasingly more violent which are expressed themselves by an<br />

unemployment increasingly larger and a dislocation increasingly stronger of the apparatus of production, so that<br />

millions workers are out of production and at the mercy of starvation. Furthermore, the antagonisms between the<br />

different capitalist states are sharpening to the point where economic war is leading to a new World War. <strong>The</strong><br />

931 <strong>The</strong> view of the Italian <strong>Communist</strong> <strong>Left</strong> was based on the experience of the Russian Revolution and on the theory of the<br />

decadence of capitalism.<br />

932 De beweging van het kapitalistisch bedrijfsleven (‘<strong>The</strong> evolution of capitalist industry’), Oct. 1932. Pamphlet written by<br />

B.A. Sijes.<br />

933 ‘De economische crisis’, in: PIC, No. 23, Oct. 1929.<br />

934 Before 1932, the titles of the GIC s periodical was Persmateriaal (‘press material’) of the Internationalist <strong>Communist</strong>s<br />

(PIC) the title then changed to Persdienst (‘press service’). <strong>The</strong>se politically very ‘neutral’ titles indicated the activity of a<br />

discussion circle, rather than of a political group. PIC was distributed free of charge, supported by voluntary contributions<br />

from militants and readers. This changed in 1938 with the publication of Radencommunisme: the periodical was sold. This<br />

had been the case with Räte-Korrespondenz since 1934.<br />

239

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