The German-Dutch Communist Left - Libcom

slavenmaatschappij tot arbeidersmacht). 1210 From this, it was clear that the party could neither seize power, nor
‘govern’ the workers. “Whatever the party that forms the government, it must rule against men, for capital, and
by means of a bureaucracy”. 1211 This is why the party, both party and part of the workers’ councils, remains
distinct from the state:
“It is a quite different party from those of bourgeois society. It does not, itself, take part in any form of power
[...] the proletarian seizure of power is neither the conquest of state government by a ‘workers’ party’, nor the
participation of such a party in the government of the state [...] The state as such is completely foreign, in its
essence, from the workers’ power; thus the forms of organisation of the workers’ power have none of the
characteristics of the exercise of power by the state.”
It is undeniable that such positions on the party were closer to those of the KAPD than to Pannekoek’s. Although
the Communistenbond Spartacus published Pannekoek’s The Workers’ Councils in February 1946, it was in fact
opposed to the latter’s ideas on organisation. Pannekoek only envisaged the organisation in the form of small
discussion and ‘opinion’ groupings: “organisations of opinion, leagues defending a common point of view”.
But contrary to what was to happen later, in 1946 it was the Communistenbond that influenced Pannekoek. In his
Five Theses on the Class Struggle, he stated – contradicting his earlier theses – that the work of revolutionary
parties “is an indispensable part of the self-emancipation of the working class”. 1212 True, he reduced their
function to a solely theoretical and propagandistic one: “The second function [the first being the conquest of
political power], that is to say spreading ideas and knowledge, studying, discussing, formulating social ideas, and
through propaganda enlightening the spirit of the masses, falls to the parties”.
Those oppositions which appeared in the Bond on the question of the Party, during the preparation of the
Christmas 1945 Congress, tended to change the nuance of the Theses rather than criticise them. At all events,
they rejected Pannekoek’s educationist theory. Draft Theses, accepted by two out of five of the political
commission, insisted that “the new party is not the class’ teacher”. The drift aimed above all to clarify some
points which had remained vague in the Taak en Wezen van de nieuwe Partij. In the first place, the better to
mark the break with Sneevliet’s old RSAP, ‘tactical’ participation in elections was clearly rejected:
“Naturally, the party does not take part in any parliamentary activity”. Secondly, the draft’s author thought that
the Theses marked a return to the KAPD’s activist conceptions, or rather to ‘leaderist’ tendencies in the class
struggle.
“The party does not lead any action, nor, as a party, does it lead any action by the class. Indeed, it fights
precisely such subordination of the class and its movements to the leadership of any political group”. 1213
In this spirit, the new party “does not recognise any “leaders”; it “only executes the decisions of its members...
As long as a decision is maintained, it is valid for all the members”.
d) The splits
Inevitably, the Bond’s orientation towards a centralised organisation, and the importance it accorded to
theoretical reflection in the form of debates and educational sessions, did not satisfy its more activist elements.
These latter around Toon van den Berg, retained the old revolutionary-syndicalist spirit of the NAS. They had a
1210 The pamphlet formed one of the Bond’s programmatic foundations. It examined the question of power through the
evolution of class societies from Antiquity to capitalist society.
1211 In: Southern Advocate for Workers’ Councils (SAWC), No. 33, Melbourne, May 1947. Pannekoek’s Five Theses were
reprinted by the group ‘Informations et Correspondance Ouvrières (ICO)’ in the pamphlet La grève généralisée en France,
mai-juin 1968, a supplement to ICO, No. 72.
1212 Idem.
1213 ‘Stellingen over begrip en wezen van de partij’ (Theses on the concept and essence of the party), in: UEK, No. l,
Dec. 1945. These Theses formed the third draft submitted for discussion, but not accepted by the Bond’s Congress.
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