The German-Dutch Communist Left - Libcom

organisations together, including that of Brandler and of Vereeken. 1142 The Front’s Manifesto called on workers
to struggle against the war; and if the war broke out to finish with capitalism by revolution.
It was in fact the question of war, and consequently the attitude of the RSAP towards Russia, which profoundly
transformed the RSAP, at the price of a radical change of programme, then of orientation on all its programmatic
positions. Sneevliet’s change of position on the Russian question was to be decisive, through the fact that he
dominated the RSAP and the NAS with his powerful personality and all his authority. 1143
In 1935 the Party programme took position for the defence of the USSR in the case of war. The crushing of the
Barcelona workers by the Communist Party in May 1937, followed by the Moscow Trials, increased Sneevliet’s
doubts on the validity of this point in the programme.
In December 1939, the RSAP held its last conference. Due to the Hitler-Stalin Pact, the point on the defence of
the USSR was scratched from the Party’s programme: “... the alliance between Germany and Russia has
practically rendered useless the paragraph concerning the duty to defend the Soviet Union”. “No-one now claims
that if Russia finds itself engaged in war, the duty of the international working class is to unconditionally support
the USSR”. 1144
The resolution which removed this point from the programme was adopted by 806 mandates against 18. In fact,
it was more by anti-fascism than by internationalism that the non-defence of the USSR was proclaimed. This
was an ambiguity that had to be settled.
Among the leaders of the organisation, only Willem Dolleman disagreed. 1145 With others he went on to represent
the trotskyist vision after 22 nd June 1941 in the MLL Front.
The Russian-Finnish War again posed the question of the defence of the USSR and that of the ‘right of peoples
to self-determination’. Some militants, such as Hendrik van Driesten (1911-1944), proposed forming a front of
the world proletariat against Russian intervention without allying with the Finnish bourgeoisie. Others criticised
this position which could appear as supporting the Finnish bourgeoisie and denounced as opportunist Lenin’s
slogan of ‘self-determination’. Implicitly denounced any slogan of struggle for ‘national determination”. 1146
Without engaging in a theoretical debate on the nature of the USSR, which would have led to the formation of
antagonistic tendencies, the RSAP prepared for illegality in 1938 convinced that the war would not spare the
neutrality of Holland and that it was necessary to “strengthening the struggle against imperialist war”. 1147
On 10 th May 1940, the German army invaded Holland, which capitulated after 6 days of fighting. Sneevliet, who
was in Belgium, returned in order to continue the struggle underground. The RSAP ceased to exist. In its place
an illegal organisation was constructed: the Marx-Lenin-Luxemburg Front. At first, it comprised 4,600 members,
as against 2,500 in the RSAP. Clandestinity demanded a rigorous selection of reliable militants. In order to
confront repression the MLL Front was built on a system of cells of 5 members, partitioned up and led by men of
confidence who linked up vertically and horizontally with the illegal leadership and other cells. The double
organisation disappeared: the NAS was liquidated in September. The RSAP became the second largest illegal
1142 Georges Vereeken (1898-1988) led the group ‘Contre le Courant’ in Belgium, which refused to link up with the official
trotskyist current. He was the personal friend of Sneevliet and had ties with the Frank-Molinier group.
1143 Sneevliet had the reputation of being very authoritarian in the RSAP. His written contributions, and in particular his
theses on organisation were innumerable.
1144 Quoted by W. Bot, Tegen fascisme, kapitalisme en oorlog: Het Marx Lenin Luxemburg Front. July 1940-April 1942,
(Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Syndikaat, 1983). The paragraph mentioned and the result of the vote can be found in De Nieuwe
Fakkel, 22.12.1939. [English translation: ‘Generals Without Troops, Dutch trotskyism during the Occupation’, in
Revolutionary History, Vol. 1, No. 4, London, Winter 1988-89.]
1145 Most of Trotsky’s supporters left the RSAP in 1938. The remainder left the following year.
1146 The Belgian trotskyists who published Correspondance internationale asserted, in their issue 14 of 15.12.39: “the RSAP
has pushed equivocation to the limit, in organising collections for the Finnish people whereas these collections are sent to
Finnish class organisations!”.
1147 Wim Bot, op. cit., p. 11.
278