The German-Dutch Communist Left - Libcom

The first ‘minority’ was formed by a militant of the GIC who had on his own account joined the militias on the
Aragon front. 1057 It was an isolated case in the GIC, but it was symptomatic that no explicit condemnation of his
engagement was made. A larger minority, like the group ‘Proletariër’, analysed the ‘Spanish revolution’ as a
bourgeois, anti-proletarian revolution. This minority, which was either a group of militants or a circle close to
the GIC – the GIC’s organisational vagueness makes it impossible to be more precise – made a lucid appraisal of
the ‘lessons of Spain’, but using a councilist method. 1058 It stated that “the struggle [in Spain] did not begin as a
struggle for the liberation of the working class”. The workers were becoming the allies of the Republican
bourgeoisie, prisoners of the false dilemma between fascism and democracy. It was no longer a question of a
fight of class against class, but “of a struggle of parties, of opinions, of ideological groups” opening out into a
conflict between the great military powers. Thus the class antagonism between bourgeoisie and proletariat had
been wiped out. The minority thus concluded that the combat of the workers against the Popular Front was lost
in advance. There was no hope: “... the struggle in Spain is not and cannot serve as an example in order to draw
the lessons for the struggle of the proletarian class... The struggle of the (Spanish) workers is a hopeless struggle
for the preservation of the democratic bourgeoisie”. 1059
The GIC distanced itself very clearly from both these ‘defeatist’ positions. The first because it led to the
abandonment of the class struggle against the Republican regime, by proclaiming the number one task to be the
struggle against Franco. The second because it proposed no fight-back against the Popular Front and no
revolutionary perspective to the world proletariat in Spain and in Europe. 1060 Aware that for the Spanish workers
to rally behind the Republican state and the UGT and CNT unions would lead to a bloody defeat, the GIC put
forward the necessity of a political struggle of the Spanish and international proletariat against the bourgeoisie.
‘The first task is the destruction of the state’
For the GIC, there was no acquisition of the ‘Spanish revolution’ to defend. The installation of the ‘militias’ and
the anarchist collectivisation had left in place the old state apparatus of the bourgeoisie. In October 1936, Dutch
Council Communists denounced” the ‘militias’ as much as the ‘democratic parliament’ of the Republican
bourgeoisie. The collectivisations had only strengthened the power of the state, through the mediation of the
unions: “...the [collectivised] enterprises have been put under the control of the unions and work for military
needs and the needs of the urban population. There is no question of autonomous management of the
workers”. 1061
The first task of the proletariat in Spain could only be political. In order to defect the White armies of Franco,
the Spanish workers would first have to smash the apparatus of the Republican state from top to bottom, by
setting up real workers’ councils, the only form of proletarian power.
“If the workers really want to form a defensive front against the Whites, they can only do so on the condition
that they themselves seize political power instead of leaving it in the hands of the Popular Front government.
That means the defence of the revolution is only possible on the basis of the dictatorship of the proletariat
through the means of the workers’ councils, and not on the basis of the collaboration of all the anti-fascist
parties... The destruction of the old state apparatus and the exercising of central functions of power by the
workers themselves are the axis of the proletarian revolution.” 1062
1057 ‘Lessen uit Spanje’, in: PIC, No. 3, Feb. 1937. The GIC specified that the article in question was not its own, but was a
contribution to the discussion.
1058 ‘Lessen uit Spanje’, in: PIC, No. 6, March 1937.
1059 ‘Lessen uit Spanje (Diskussie artikel)’, in: PIC, No. 3, Feb. 1937.
1060 ‘Het anarcho-syndicalisme in de spaansche revolutie’, in: PIC, No. 16, Oct. 1936: “This militias’ committee is not a
workers’ council for defence, it is more like a democratic parliament”.
1061 ‘Illustraties van de ontwikkeling in het revolutionaire Spanje’, in: PIC, No. 17, Nov. 1936.
1062 ‘Het anarcho-syndicalisme in de Spaansche revolutie’, in: PIC, No. 16, Oct. 1936, ibid.
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