The German-Dutch Communist Left - Libcom

workers had been liquidated. A totalitarian state had been born with a bureaucratic caste at its head; the USSR
was a plaything of the big imperialist powers. The conclusion was an unambiguous appeal to internationalism:
“The Third Front sees no reason to change its position with the new phase of imperialist war. It does not take
sides with ether of the two fronts in the imperialist war. It remains independent in the definition of its conduct: to
conform to its own class aim and undertake its own struggle. The German-Russian war is a subdivision of the
second imperialist war.” 1166
Of the nine members of the Central Committee, two voted against: Dolleman and Van ’t Hart (Max Perthus),
supporters of the trotskyist position of ‘unconditional defence’ of the USSR. The arrest of Perthus on 15 th August
reduced the number of partisans of this position in the leadership. Dolleman (1894-1942) based himself on the
youth periodical Het Kompas which published the minority position; the issue was not distributed. 1167 In order to
avoid a split that now appeared inevitable, on 15 th October 1941 Sneevliet – supported by Stan Poppe and Ab
Menist – prohibited discussion on the defence of the USSR. 1168 This ban was lifted at the end of the year. The
majority around Sneevliet was strengthened by the support of Vereeken’s ‘Against the current’ (Contre le
Courant) group in Belgium, with whom a common manifesto against the war had been drawn up in
December. 1169
Against the trotskyist current of Dolleman, a partisan of the defence of the USSR ‘arms in hand’, the council
communist current, around Stan Poppe, asserted itself more and more. 1170 Supported by Sneevliet, the latter
undertook to settle accounts with trotskyist ideology. In an article he denounced Trotsky’s positions as “dubious
and unreal”. Socialism was not the violence of the stalinist state, “state socialism”, but the power of the workers’
councils. The USSR was imperialist. 1171
In another article, Poppe identified with the communist positions of Gorter, citing his book Open letter to
comrade Lenin. He took up the book’s principal theses:
– “in Western Europe the role of the masses would be greater than the role of the leaders”;
– “the union organisations had to be replaced by the factory organisations”;
– “parliamentarism would have to be rejected and fought against.” 1172
This evolution was shown in practice through an appeal by the MLL Front to desert the unions and form factory
committees. The break with the old union policy was a break with the old policies of the RSAP. After the
‘normalisation’ of the NVV socialist union by the German authorities in July 1940, the MLL Front had incited
its members to work inside it. The NVV had become a cover for Mussert’s NSB. The propaganda in July 1941 in
1166 Spartacus, No. 12, beginning of August, 1941.
1167 Subsequently, the youth movement of the MLL Front was dissolved. The young militants were individually integrated
into the Front.
1168 Wim Bot, op. cit., pp. 62-63. After the vote, Dolleman sent a letter of resignation to the Central Committee, protesting
against the rejection of the “freedom of democratic discussion”.
1169 The ‘Manifesto’ appeared in Tegen den stroom of Jan. 2, 1941, organ of the Vereeken group. Vereeken secretly moved
to Amsterdam where he drew up, with Sneevliet, the appeal “to the workers of every country”. It called for the
transformation of all the wars into a civil war. It concluded with a call for “the new international of the proletariat” and to
“mass action under the leadership of the proletarian strike committees”. For a year, on the word of a young Belgian
trotskyist, Sneevliet thought that Vereeken defended British imperialism. Through contacts and an exchange of letters, he
was convinced of the contrary. The international contacts of the MLL Front went through the Vereeken group, which was
closely linked to the Comité communiste international (CCI) or International Communist Committee (ICC) of Pierre Frank
(1906-1984) and Raymond Molinier (1904-1994).
1170 Cf. Wim Bot, op. cit., pp. 67-68.
1171 ‘Verdediging van de Sovjet-Unie?’ (Defence of the Soviet Union?), in: Tijdsproblemen, No. 2, Feb. 1942.
1172 Cf. Wim Bot, op. cit., p. 70. Poppe showed that the struggle in the factories could only be political and transform itself
into a struggle for power: “In this period we are no longer talking about committees, but directly of councils”.
284