The German-Dutch Communist Left - Libcom

Marxisten’ (Committee of Revolutionary Marxists), on the basis of the defence of the USSR. 1178 This group was
much smaller than the Socialist-revolutionary workers’ movement. It published 2,000 copies every month of a
paper: De Rode October (Red October). Max Perthus, just freed from prison, was among its leaders. The old
Trotsky’ fraction of the MLL Front was thus re-formed. Most of the youngest and more activist members of the
old Front joined the CRM. Logically enough, the CRM declared itself the Dutch section of the 4 th International
in June of 1944. 1179
This final split was the result of the confrontation between two irreconcilable political positions: the defence of
the internationalist positions adopted in July 1941 by Sneevliet and his comrades; and support for Russia, and
consequently for the war and the Allied military bloc.
Other reasons – at once organisational and personal – may have played a role in the split. During the summer of
1942, Poppe was careful to eliminate all those in favour of the defence of the USSR from the new leadership.
Moreover, Poppe had been the last person to see Sneevliet before his arrest, and was therefore considered by
some as suspicious. 1180
In fact, the organisation formed around Stan Poppe was well prepared for clandestinity. It was able to continue
political work until the end of World War II almost without arrests 1181 , in part thanks to Molenaar’s great skill in
forging identity documents and ration books for the underground militants, trotskyists included. 1182
By the end of the summer, the group, with some fifty militants, began to publish a more or less regular roneo-ed
bulletin: Spartacus. This was the organ of the ‘Communistenbond Spartacus’ (Spartacus Communist Union).
Several pamphlets were published which revealed a higher theoretical level than in the MLL Front. By the end
of 1944, Spartacus had become a monthly theoretical organ. From October 1944 until May 1945, a weekly
newssheet in the form of a leaflet accompanied it: Spartacus – actuele berichten.
Politically speaking, the Bond’s members were older, and so more tempered and better trained theoretically than
the trotskyist elements. Many of them had been militants in the NAS, and had brought with them a definite
revolutionary-syndicalist spirit. For example, Anton (Toon) van den Berg, a militant of the OSP and then of the
RSAP, had led the NAS in Rotterdam up until 1940. The Communistenbond’s Rotterdam group was formed
around him, and was characterised until well after the war by an activist spirit. Other militants had a long
1178 In her book De ondergrondse pers 1940-45 (Nijhoff: The Hague, 1954), Lydia Winkel claims that Barend Luteraan, exleader
of the KAPN and a friend of Gorter, wrote for the CRM: it seems that during the war, Luteraan created his own
group, on trotskyist positions. After the war, he became a member of the Dutch trotskyist Party (RCP), and then in 1953
joined the social democracy (PvdA). – See: Dennis Bos, Barend Luteraan. Vele woningen, maar nergens een thuis [Many
houses, but nowhere a home]. Barend Luteraan (1878-1970), op. cit.
1179 The ‘Bolshevik-Leninist group’ (GBL), which had been formed on the positions of the 4 th International in 1938,
disappeared following the arrest of its leaders. Although very weak numerically, the CRM declared itself the ‘Revolutionary
Communist Party’ in December 1945, and published the periodical De Tribune.
1180 Suspicion fell on Stan Poppe after the war. Sneevliet had been arrested after visiting Poppe. In the files of the Sneevliet
trial, it was claimed that he had been captured ‘with Poppe’s help’. In December 1950, a commission of enquiry was
formed, composed of the RCP, the Communistenbond, and the small independent union, the OVB, of which the trotskyists
were members. It concluded unanimously that Poppe’s behaviour was above reproach, and that no blame could be attached
to him [W. Bot, Tegen Fascisme, capitalisme en oorlog. Het Marx-Lenin-Luxemburg Front juli 1940-april 1942, p. 185.]
Born in Tilburg in 1899, Constant Johan Hendrik (Stan) Poppe joined the SDAP in 1918. In 1923, he was a socialdemocratic
town councillor in Ede, and remained so until 1931. In 1932 he joined the OSP, a left socialist split from the
SDAP. He was sacked from his job as a customs officer for his political activities. In 1936, he was secretary of the RSAP.
He left it ‘officially’ in 1938, in order to keep his position as a customs officer, but in reality remained one of its leaders up
until the war.
1181 Bertus Nansink was one of the few militants to be arrested and sent to a concentration camp. Leen Molenaar’s
(pseudonym: Kees; died in 1947) system of forged documents was extremely efficient: it was also put at the disposal of the
trotskyists of the CRM – 75 members in 1943, led by Herman Drenth [See: W. Bot, Generaals zonder troepen, op. cit.,
p. 27.]
1182 Of a population of 6 million, 300,000 people lived in hiding, with false papers and ration books.
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