The German-Dutch Communist Left - Libcom

– General rejection of all groups that “have participated one way or another in the imperialist war of 1939-
1945”;
– The recognition of the historical significance of October 1917 as a “fundamental criterion for every
organisation that claims to be proletarian”.
These four criteria “simply delineate the class frontiers separating the proletariat from capitalism”. However the
Bond did not withdraw its invitation to Libertaire (French Anarchist Federation).
That international conference could do no more than initiate contacts between new groups created since 1945,
and the pre-war internationalist organisations, which had been isolated in their respective countries by the World
War. In no way could it become a new Zimmerwald, as the group Le Prolétaire proposed. But it was a place for
political and theoretical confrontation, permitting the ‘organic existence’ and the ‘ideological development’ of
the groups and organisations involved.
The French group Internationalisme participated actively in the conference, and pointed out that the international
context made a revolutionary course impossible. The period was one in which “the proletariat has undergone a
disastrous defeat, opening a reactionary course in the world”. The task of the day was therefore to close ranks
and work towards the creation of a space for political discussion, that would permit the weaker groups to escape
from the devastating effects of this reactionary course.
This was also the opinion of the ex-GIC members of the Bond. And it was no accident that two ex-members of
the GIC (Canne-Meijer and Willems), but not one member of the Bond’s leadership, took part in the conference.
The ex-members of the RSAP remained very localist, despite the fact that the Bond had created an ‘international
contact’s commission’.
In general there was great distrust between the different groups invited, many of which were afraid of political
confrontation. Even the Belgian Fraction was only persuaded to take part in the debates by an explicit request
from Marco (Marc Chirik) of Internationalisme. Internationalisme and the autonomous Federation of Turin had
sent official delegations. The former members of the GIC, already in a minority within the Spartacusbond,
represented nobody but themselves. They led a certain mistrust towards Internationalisme, which they accused
of “losing itself in interminable discussions about the Russian revolution”. 1247
Presided over by Willems, a former GIC’s member, Marc Chirik (1907-1990) of Internationalisme, and an old
Belgian anarcho-communist – a militant for more than 60 years who had known Engels at the 1891 International
Conference of Socialists in Brussels – the conference finally revealed substantial agreement on a number of
ideas.
– The majority of the groups rejected Burnham’s theories on the ‘managerial society’ and the indefinite
development of the capitalist system. The historical period was that of “decadent capitalism, of permanent crisis
finding its structural and political expression in state capitalism”.
– With the exception of the anarchistic elements present, the council communists agreed with the groups
originating in ‘bordigism’ on the necessity of a revolutionary organisation. Meanwhile, contrary to their
conception of 1945, they saw the parties as gatherings of individuals who were the bearers of a proletarian
science: “The new revolutionary parties are thus the bearers or the laboratories of proletarian knowledge”.
Taking up Pannekoek’s concept of the role of individuals, they affirmed that “at first it is individuals that
become aware of these new truths”. – A majority of the participants supported the intervention of Marco from
Internationalisme that neither the trotskyist current nor the anarchists had their place “in a conference of
revolutionary groups”. 1248 Only the representative of Le Prolétaire – a group which was to evolve towards
anarchism – defended the invitation of unofficial or ‘left tendencies’ of these currents.
– The present groups rejected all syndicalist or parliamentarist ‘tactics’. The silence of the opposition ‘bordigist’
groups indicated their disagreement with the positions of the Italian bordigist Party.
1247 Account of a journey to contact the group RKD-CR and Internationalisme in August 1946. See: UEK, No. 4, April 1947.
1248 Quoted from the Congress proceedings in Internationalisme, No. 23, 1947.
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