The German-Dutch Communist Left - Libcom

favour of leaving the union movement concluded a whole process of evolution. Instead of a union, the nonpermanent
form of ‘struggle committees’ in the factories was propagandised.
The sole position of the 3 rd International since the Second Congress which remained intact was that of support
for national liberation struggles. The influence of Sneevliet on this point – he had been a militant in Indonesia
and China – remained preponderant. However, while an appeal was launched in the Front’s press for the
separation of Indonesia and Holland, it had nothing to do with the anti-imperialism which led to support for the
local nationalist leadership. The MLL Front defended the positions of the 2 nd Congress of the Komintern and not
those of the Baku Congress. It proclaimed that the struggle of national liberation was only possible inasmuch as
it combined with the socialist revolution in the developed capitalist world.
The decapitation of the MLL Front leadership (1942)
At the beginning of 1942, the MLL Front had travelled a long road. Theoretically, it had broken with the old
RSAP. Politically, it had made the choice of isolation in order to defend revolutionary principles. This isolation
inevitably led to splits both within the MLL Front, and outside in the milieu which it influenced. It broke with its
sympathisers of ‘De Vonk’, which after 22 nd June 1941 advocated support for the allied camp as the ‘lesser
evil’. 1173
But it was precisely in Spring 1942, that repression decapitated the MLL Front. The whole leadership of the
Front – with the exception of Stan Poppe – was arrested: Henk Sneevliet, Willem Dolleman, Ab Menist, Jan
Edel (1908-1942), Cornelus Gerritsen (1905-1942), Rein Witteveen (1893-1942), Gerrit Koeslag (1904-1942)
and Jan Schriefer (1906-1942) were all condemned to death for sabotage. Gerritsen committed suicide one day
before the date of execution. Before being executed at Leusden near Amersfoort, on 13 th April, they sang the
hymn of the cause for which they had sacrificed their lives: The International. 1174
Other members of the MLL–Front were shot by the Gestapo on 16 th October: J. H. E. Roebers (1886-1942) and
A. IJmkers (1896-1942).
Despite the blow to the Front, the struggle against the war, the struggle for internationalism, continued. The
‘Communistenbond Spartacus’ (Spartacus Communist Union) took up the reins from the MLL Front. A new
page in the council communist movement opened up.
1173 Cf. Wim Bot, op. cit., pp. 81-84.
1174 Sneevliet and his comrades were arrested after an ex-member of the OSP who had turned nazi, denounced Gerritsen (a
member of the Central Committee) to the Germans. Before a German tribunal Sneevliet made a political speech in which he
attacked National Socialism and stalinism, condemning nationalism and the Orangist resistance. Placing himself in the line
of Marx, Lenin and Luxemburg, he rejected the accusation of ‘sabotage’ brought against him by the German military
tribunal.
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