The German-Dutch Communist Left - Libcom

The Dutch and German Communist Left (1900–68) ..................................................................................................................1
“NEITHER LENIN NOR TROTSKI NOR STALIN!” ............................................................................................................................1
AKNOWLEDGMENT..................................................................................................................................................................7
INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................................................................8
PART 1: FROM TRIBUNISM TO COMMUNISM (1900-18) .....................................................................................................13
CHAPTER 1: ORIGINS AND FORMATION OF THE ‘TRIBUNIST’ CURRENT (1900-14): ...............................................................................14
A short outline of Dutch history .....................................................................................................................................14
The beginnings of the workers’ movement....................................................................................................................16
Domela Nieuwenhuis, the SDB and the SDAP .............................................................................................................17
Domela Nieuwenhuis and the roots of ‘councilism’ .......................................................................................................21
The beginnings of the SDAP – The three Marxist generations – Troelstra and the right of the party............................24
Marxism’s first struggles against revisionism ................................................................................................................29
The 1903 transport strikes ............................................................................................................................................30
The Marxist opposition within the SDAP (1903–1907)..................................................................................................33
The birth of the ‘Tribunist’ movement............................................................................................................................37
The split at the Extraordinary Congress of Deventer (13 th –14 th February 1909) ...........................................................40
The SDP‘s Activity in Holland up until 1914 ..................................................................................................................44
The SDP and the colonial question – The Tribunists and Sneevliet in Indonesia .........................................................47
The Dutch left and its influence on German radicalism.................................................................................................51
CHAPTER 2: PANNEKOEK AND ‘DUTCH’ MARXISM IN THE SECOND INTERNATIONAL ...............................................................................58
The philosophical bases of radical Marxism in Holland.................................................................................................60
The ideological obstacles to the proletarian revolution..................................................................................................67
From the mass strike to the proletarian revolution ........................................................................................................71
War or world revolution? ...............................................................................................................................................82
CHAPTER 3: THE DUTCH TRIBUNIST CURRENT AND WORLD WAR I (1914-18) ....................................................................89
Social democracy and Tribunism facing the war...........................................................................................................89
Gorter’s political and theoretical combat against the war..............................................................................................93
The SDP and the Zimmerwald Conference...................................................................................................................97
The development of the SDP: between revolution and opportunism ..........................................................................101
The SDP in 1917: its attitude to the Russian Revolution.............................................................................................105
1918: between revolution and opportunism. The birth of the Dutch Communist Party................................................110
Part 2: THE DUTCH COMMUNIST LEFT AND THE WORLD REVOLUTION (1919-27) ......................................................115
CHAPTER 4 : THE DUTCH LEFT IN THE KOMINTERN (1919-20) ...............................................................................................116
The left currents in the Komintern in 1919. .................................................................................................................117
The German Question.................................................................................................................................................120
The Amsterdam Bureau (1919-20)..............................................................................................................................122
The KAPD and the Dutch minority of the CPN............................................................................................................126
The turning point of the 2 nd Congress: infantile or lethal disorder of communism? .....................................................130
Communist Left’s arguments against Lenin’s book Left Wing Communism, An Infantile Disorder .............................133
CHAPTER 5: GORTER, THE KAPD AND THE FOUNDATION OF THE COMMUNIST WORKERS’ INTERNATIONAL (1921-
27)........................................................................................................................................................................................................145
The retreat of the world revolution. – The 1921 ‘Kronstadt tragedy’ and March Action...............................................145
Gorter, the KAPD and the building of the KAI .............................................................................................................160
The split in the KAPD and its international consequences ..........................................................................................166
Part 3: THE GIC FROM 1927 TO 1940..................................................................................................................................175
THE GROUP OF INTERNATIONAL COMMUNISTS (FROM LEFT COMMUNISM TO COUNCIL COMMUNISM) ...................................................176
The origins of the GIC.................................................................................................................................................176
The GIC press.............................................................................................................................................................177
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