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esult which appeared positive to the GIC, was the establishment of contacts with Union Communiste; and above all with Hennaut’s LCI – by far the closest organisation to the Dutch. At first the latter defended the idea of the necessity of a new revolutionary party was increasingly influenced by the GIC, to the point of evolving more or less toward council communism. The ambiguous attitude of the GIC sprang from its absence of any real critique, except on the question of the party, of the positions of Union Communiste and the LCI regarding the war in Spain. 1093 The GIC published, without comments, texts by Union Communiste and by the LCI on this serious question; these texts, written after May 1937, certainly showed – under pressure of events in Barcelona – positions very close to those of the GIC. But the latter had no intention of working towards a regroupment with these groups, which would have demanded a precise evaluation of their politics and orientation. Finally, events in Spain left the GIC very isolated. The disappearance after July 1937 of Räte-Korrespondenz, the GIC’s only theoretical review in German, showed the international isolation of the Dutch council communists, whose links with the American group of Mattick were reduced to their most simple expression. The only organisation with which the GIC would have been able to establish political links, by reason of their close position on the events in Spain, was the Italian Communist Left. The ‘councilist’ vision of the GIC on the organisation question and its ‘anti-Leninist’ conception made this impossible. 1094 But the events in Spain had been a test for the GIC. Contrary to other ‘councilist’ elements, it neither oriented itself towards trotskyism nor towards anarchism. 1095 1093 From 1938, Hennaut’s LCI was more and more influenced by the ‘councilist’ positions of the GIC, many of whose articles and even pamphlets it published, in Flemish, in its Bulletin. 1094 The only polemic against the GIC and the IARV of Gent (councilist), is found in Communisme No. 21. Dec. 1938. The organ of the Belgian ‘bordigist’ Fraction, linked to the Italian Fraction of Bilan, denounced the “negative conception on the party” propagated by the GIC and IARV: “The GIC and IARV bringing a new proof that one can perfectly well manifest the will to light opportunism and the dangers of treason and, even so, fall into the worst opportunist empiricism in its conception of organisation”. Communisme saw clear concessions to anarchism in the positions of the GIC: “With their local formulations, the comrades of the GIC give the clear impression of having inherited anti-state or anti-government, anticentralist conceptions, which are the attribute of anarchism but cannot be that of communists”. Responding to the GIC, the Belgian Fraction underlined that “... the degeneration and treason of the party does not put its necessity in question, quite the contrary”. However, it noted that, although they refused to admit it, the GIC and its Belgian ‘twin’ in fact proposed a party form of organisation of the party, but adulterated.: “It is really a question here; it seems to us of a function and activity of the party, and the organisms in question do practically nothing else than propose solutions to the masses, but with a return to methods long since rejected by the workers’ experience”. Finally, ‘councilism’ posed itself as exterior to the proletariat: “When all is said and done, the vanguard will pose itself as a mere ‘advisor’ of the masses. It does not identify itself with the proletariat, but will be juxtaposed to it”. One can note that this critique was fraternally addressed, and finally nuanced. It is very far from the sectarianism shown by the ‘bordigist’ current after 1945-50 with regard to any political group situated to the left of trotskyism in the revolutionary circles. 1095 From the councilist group of The Hague, one element such as Rinus Pelgrom became an anarchist, a member of the Amsterdam ‘Vrije groepen’, to end up joining the group ‘De Vonk’ and the trotskyist CRM, during the war [cf. Wim Bot, Generaals zonder troepen. Het Comité van Revolutionaire Marxisten, zomer 1942-mei 1945, Amsterdam, 1986, p. 28.] Cajo Brendel wrote, without any adhesion, in the anarchist journal De Vrije Arbeider of Anton Levien Constandse (1899-1985), leader of the Anarchist Federation which, in 1937, regrouped all the anarchist groups. Constandse turned towards antifascism after Munich [cf. De Gids, 6 th July 1969.] Arrested by the Germans in October 1940, he was freed from the lager in 1944. Latter, journalist for the Algemeen Handelsblad, he remained a prolific anarchist and ‘freethinker’ writer. From 1973 to 1983, he was editor of the anarchist periodical De As (De Anarcho-Syndicalist). He wrote a book dedicated to the anarchist movement in the 20s-30s (with documents): De Alarmisten, 1918-1933. Politieke teksten, gedichten, essays en tekeningen uit de anarchistische tijdschriften `Alarm’ en `Opstand’ (Amsterdam: Meulenhoff, 1975). [See: biography by R. de Jong, in Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland 3 (The Hague, 1989).] 268
Part 4 COUNCIL COMMUNISM DURING AND AFTER THE WAR (1939-1968) 269
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PHILIPPE BOURRINET The Dutch and Ge
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The Dutch and German Communist Left
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General studies ...................
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INTRODUCTION Despite the theoretica
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In fact, it was not the GIC, but th
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history of the Dutch communist curr
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Chapter 1: Origins and Formation of
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1862-1866, 1871-1872); these conser
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Dutch and German workers’ movemen
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However, this ‘radicalism’ of D
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emained an internationalist. It is
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a formidable weapon against the lef
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form the Tribunist movement: Mendel
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of the organisation. 31 He only dev
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The support given to the various re
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Using the pretext of the struggle a
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the end of 1903. 57 By contrast, a
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Bolsheviks had deputies in the Duma
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imposed to form an organised fracti
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was obliged to include in the pream
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‘right’ 100 - which was based i
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This was the beginning of an increa
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carried out by the SDP - in the for
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The growth of Dutch imperialism cou
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Wijnkoop’s suggestion, the SDP’
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evolution. 125 Right up until the w
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helped to write the pamphlet addres
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section, supported a counter-resolu
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Chapter 2 Pannekoek and ‘Dutch’
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The philosophical bases of radical
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Wrongly presented by its opponents
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is most necessary. Only knowledge g
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ended in defeat - but whatever help
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The Dutch Left never considered the
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ourgeois revolutions, thinks of not
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eligious faith in the success of th
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organisations they had so patiently
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forces... The most backward country
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mass strikes; the proletariat’s s
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‘Great Night’: “[passive radi
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economic, and whose political domin
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letter to Paul Lafargue (20 th June
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Luxemburg in urging a clear rejecti
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explicit criticism of their leaders
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As in most of the belligerent count
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the main goal was the return to pea
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Gorter’s analyses were remarkable
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political factors which led to this
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During 1915, opposition to the war
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inform its readers about the Confer
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It is noteworthy that Roland Holst
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powerful opposition to this policy
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The workers’ reaction was immedia
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concealed the Wijnkoop leadership
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Lenin was quite right to emphasise
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“Don’t you feel, little by litt
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dissolved itself. There only remain
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Chapter 4 THE DUTCH LEFT IN THE KOM
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Spartakusbund not rejected particip
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However, the circular of the Komint
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Kommunist, publication of the Breme
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Russians - like Trotsky 433 - no lo
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The resolution adopted by the confe
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Led by Wolffheim and Laufenberg, th
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Pannekoek’s great clear-sightedne
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Rühle’s anti-party current. But
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All these accusations fail to stand
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not that of a general staff, in whi
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democrats and bourgeois in the war
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The unions also resemble the state
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eal decision-making centre. In this
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communism extends from the Rhine to
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The NEP (New Economic Policy) in th
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and the workers, who had all been a
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However, all the left communists, G
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was more disastrous for the VKPD th
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At its 3 rd Congress, the Komintern
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when he was in fact in Spain at the
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workers, and that every three month
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committee is also of the opinion th
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large towns passed from capitalism
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KAI would be “infinitely difficul
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private property”. They constitut
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side, of two KAPDs, with two papers
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intention of working for the reunif
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‘old enemy’ Paul Levi. 650 Deth
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district in Amsterdam, condemning a
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THE GROUP OF INTERNATIONAL COMMUNIS
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the Dutch theoretical review Radenc
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the CPO decided to dissolve in orde
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political sleep by the crisis of th
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economic, rather than the political
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the nationalist, even anti-Semitic
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parliamentary stipend financed the
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shreds”. 706 But significantly, t
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KAPD. The GIC, followed by Pannekoe
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It was a party which dared not spea
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a big impact in the unemployed move
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anarchist group like the BAS was ch
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The other factor in the defeat of t
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would ‘awaken’ the German prole
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Spartacus, organ of the LAO, while
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Chapter 7 TOWARDS A NEW WORKERS’
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The evolution of the Dutch GIC towa
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the world, especially since 1968. 7
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Secondly, by trying at all costs to
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In a contradictory way, the GIC rep
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The ‘new workers’ movement’ a
Page 218 and 219: The function and functioning of the
Page 220 and 221: een eclipsed and replaced by a “d
Page 222 and 223: and developed since the birth of th
Page 224 and 225: GIC recognised the fundamental role
Page 226 and 227: This view has a certain resemblance
Page 228 and 229: “At the beginning of the period o
Page 230 and 231: Bogdanov, the social process was re
Page 232 and 233: to construct a coherent and ordered
Page 234 and 235: “As soon as the proletarian class
Page 236 and 237: the danger of state capitalism. The
Page 238 and 239: inseparable from the anti-organisat
Page 240 and 241: growing uncertainty of existence is
Page 242 and 243: indivisible unity operating like th
Page 244 and 245: “freedoms” and the introduction
Page 246 and 247: Steuermann 972 , Rühle showed that
Page 248 and 249: Russian capitalism. It was only con
Page 250 and 251: The unemployed workers of Amsterdam
Page 252 and 253: Unlike the Paul Mattick group in th
Page 254 and 255: The contribution by this group, whi
Page 256 and 257: Chapter 9 THE DUTCH INTERNATIONALIS
Page 258 and 259: workers’ councils”, the KAPN’
Page 260 and 261: impoverished peasants and, on the o
Page 262 and 263: The first ‘minority’ was formed
Page 264 and 265: iting, since the Dutch RSAP and the
Page 266 and 267: seems to have come from an ex-membe
Page 270 and 271: Chapter 10 FROM THE “MARX - LENIN
Page 272 and 273: to the previous history of Germany
Page 274 and 275: posterity a political, as much as a
Page 276 and 277: Council communist theory had a revo
Page 278 and 279: organisations together, including t
Page 280 and 281: This ‘broad’ policy towards oth
Page 282 and 283: The MLL Front played a considerable
Page 284 and 285: workers had been liquidated. A tota
Page 286 and 287: Chapter 11 The Communistenbond Spar
Page 288 and 289: political past, marked less by synd
Page 290 and 291: process, and “the [capitalist] sy
Page 292 and 293: organisation, once theoretical and
Page 294 and 295: organisation: “The Bond is a temp
Page 296 and 297: The implicit rejection of the Russi
Page 298 and 299: the ‘right’ to speak in the Ber
Page 300 and 301: slavenmaatschappij tot arbeidersmac
Page 302 and 303: In 1945-46, the Bond examined sever
Page 304 and 305: Luxemburg’s conception, it was fo
Page 306 and 307: draws in ever greater masses. [...]
Page 308 and 309: The onset of the Cold War left the
Page 310 and 311: - General rejection of all groups t
Page 312 and 313: disappeared in 1948. Canne-Meijer w
Page 314 and 315: Bond arrived at the idea that the R
Page 316 and 317: After World War II council communis
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joined the left wing of the SPD or
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Like SB, it paraded a strong anti-b
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If ‘councilism’ as an organised
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The history of the Dutch and German
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organisational discipline, both exp
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looked to changes in the sociologic
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The criticisms put forward by Geyer
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BIBLIOGRAPHY A bibliography on the
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Stan POPPE (1899-1991) archives: mi
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Rote Armee (constituted in April 19
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Korrespondenz-Blatt der KAPD, ‚an
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‘Monatsblätter aus der Jugendbew
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Nasha Duma, Sofia, Oct. - Dec. 1919
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THE NETHERLANDS The Dutch communist
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Uit eigen kring; intern orgaan (the
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(These latter two texts have been t
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There is a good choice of texts, tr
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Zur Psychologie des proletarisches
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Marxism: last refuge of the bourgeo
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(These texts are in Authier-Barrot,
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Der Kampf um die Macht in der Gegen
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Pamphlets by the Bulgarian left com
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REICHENBACH (Bernard), ‘Moscow 19
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‚Über Karl Korsch’, in Jahrbuc
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ROEGHOLT (Richter), Ben Sijes. Een
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JANEV (Nikola), Balgarskata komunis
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The ‘intellectual current’: lit
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MALANDRINO (Corrado), ‘Anton Pann
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BERENDSEN (Hans), & WEEDA (Rik), Ui
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HARMSEN (Ger), Historisch overzicht
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NGO VAN, Vietnam 1920-1945, révolu
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WINCKLER (Heinrich August), Arbeite
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Protokolle der Vereinigungs-Konfere
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Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli,
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CWI: Communist Workers’ Internati
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NSV: Nederlandsch Syndikalistisch V
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VOC: Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compa
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Blackwell (Russell) [alias: Negrete
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Fischer (Ruth) [Eisler (Elfriede),
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KAPN, 17, 138, 172, 187, 199, 204-2
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Most (Johann), 29 Mühsam (Erich),
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Rühle (Otto), 13, 17, 21, 62, 120,
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Vonk (group De), 324, 329, 337, 351
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