The German-Dutch Communist Left - Libcom

This triumph of revisionist diktats cleared the way for a revision of the Marxist programme of the party. A
commission for revising the programme was formed in contempt of the party’s rules of functioning: the party
committee which decided to nominate the commission did so without a mandate from the Congress, the only
organ with the authority to decide to revise the programme. The commission, under the influence of the
revisionists, proposed nothing less than changing the Marxist conditions for joining the party: while the party
was to be based on Marx’s system, it was not necessary to accept the underlying materialist philosophy in order
to join it. The door was thus open to non-Marxist, religious and even bourgeois elements.
The Haarlem Congress of 1907 merely confirmed the triumph of revisionism. The few Marxists who were on the
commission served merely as a cover for it, barely able to voice their opinion. The Congress produced a
declaration situating the party in the centre, between Marxism and revisionism: “The programme can be neither
orthodox Marxist nor revisionist nor a compromise between the two orientations”. 76 As for Marxism as
represented by Gorter, Pannekoek and Roland Holst, it could only be a matter of “private opinion”. 77
The defeat that Marxism suffered at this Congress was such that neither Pannekoek nor Van der Goes were able
to distribute their own pamphlets against the party leadership. 78 A Congress resolution, adopted unanimously,
was even tougher than that adopted at the Utrecht Congress: the right to criticise was suspended in the name of
the “party unity”. Party democracy was openly trampled underfoot with the agreement of the great majority of its
members, who hoped for an end to what they saw as mere personal quarrels.
For the Marxists, in a very small minority, the choice was between capitulation and combat: they chose combat,
to fight for the old Marxist orientation of the party. They thus founded their own review De Tribune (‘The
Tribune’), which was to give the Marxist current a name.
The birth of the ‘Tribunist’ movement
In October 1907 the radical Marxists began to publish their own ‘social-democratic weekly’. In charge of De
Tribune were the future leaders of the Tribune organisation: Wijnkoop, Ceton and Van Ravesteyn, who had the
unconditional support of the third Amsterdam section, the most revolutionary one in the party. Pannekoek
(Leiden section) and Gorter (Bussum section) contributed regularly, providing some of the most theoretical and
polemical texts. They were all inspired by the hope of the future revolution: historically it was the most
favourable period ever, with the beginning of an economic crisis which they did not yet analyse as the general
crisis of capitalism.
Their orientation was already anti-parliamentarian: the workers’ struggle should link up with the international
struggle by freeing it of any parliamentary or national illusions. The aim was in fact: “Firstly, to unmask the real
meaning of the treacherous manoeuvres of bourgeois democracy in the realms of the right to vote and social
transformations and secondly to give workers an idea of the real meaning of the international situation and the
class struggle abroad.” 79
It is worth noting that this political line was very close to that of the future Bordiga’s current, with the
proclamation of the political and theoretical struggle against bourgeois democracy and the affirmation of
internationalism. 80 The essential difference however, and this was linked to the period, was the fact that the
organised struggle of Marxism against revisionism was seen to take place around a theoretical review, in the
form of an opposition. It was very much later in the workers’ movement that little by little the necessity was
76 Op.cit., p. 20.
77 Op.cit., p. 20.
78 A. Pannekoek, Theorie en beginsel in de arbeidersbeweging (‘Theory and principle in the workers movement’), in: De
Nieuwe Tijd, 1906, p. 610; F. van der Goes: Verkeerde partijleiding (‘Wrong Party Leadership’) (Rotterdam: H.A.Wakker,
1907).
79 H. Gorter, Sociaal-Democratie en revisionisme (Amsterdam: SDP, 1909), p. 122.
80 See: Ph. Bourrinet, The ‘Bordigist’ Current 1919-1999, Italy, France, Belgium (Zoetermeer: left-dis.nl publishers, 1999).
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