The German-Dutch Communist Left - Libcom

The philosophical bases of radical Marxism in Holland
Pannekoek was led to recognise the validity of the Marxist method, considered as a scientific method of
investigating social phenomena, by his own training as a scientist. 146 But for the Dutch Left, as for Pannekoek
himself, Marxism was not so much a ‘pure theory’ as a praxis. This current’s theoretical bases did not engender
a new ‘philosophy’ – like Marx, Engels and their successors, they proclaimed the end of philosophy – but rather
laid the foundations for a vision of the world oriented towards a practical critique of existing society.
a) Marxism: science, method, and ‘ideology’ of the proletariat
Like every Marxist, Pannekoek and the Tribunists – following Engels – always considered that socialism should
be ‘studied like a science’. This proletarian ‘science’ could in no way be confused with the natural sciences.
Marxist theory “is nothing other than the science of society, which we owe to Marx”. 147 While it might use the
results of the natural sciences, its field of application is class society, and its future evolution. It is thus “a
historical materialism and the theory of the class struggle”, whose appropriation by the proletariat will give the
latter “foresight” into the aims and means of the struggle. 148
This definition of Marxism as a science did not mean reducing it to a mere mechanical and positivist dogmatism,
which – part of the heritage of the ‘rationalist’ 19 th century – weighed on the theoreticians of the 2 nd
International, in particular on Lenin. 149 Pannekoek returned to Marx’s original vision, and always insisted that
Marxism is defined by its scientific method of investigation: “Marx’s doctrine of historical materialism, better
defined in its first and simplest aspect as the materialist conception of history, [...] is nothing other than the
application of the methods of natural science to the so-called human sciences, in other words whatever concerns
man and society.” 150
But while Marxism is an analytical method, this method is not a rigid dogma: a “fixed system, or rigid theory”.
The method’s validity lies in its results: “The materialist conception of history cannot be reduced to its method
146 Pannekoek‘s scientific work concentrated on the study of the structure of the “Milky Way”. His major discoveries were:
the existence of two types of red star – giants and dwarfs – at the same time as a Danish scientist in 1905: and with the
Canadian John Plaskett, quantitative star spectrography. He was one of the first astronomers of the 20th century to use
modern physical technical methods to study the stars: the use of the ionising properties of different elements to study the
atmosphere of the stars: the use of photographic and photoelectric methods to define the structure of the Milky Way (our
own galaxy). He took an early interest in the theory of relativity, meeting Einstein during the 1920s when the latter was an
honorary professor at Leiden University. He took part in numerous scientific expeditions (Lapland and Sumatra for
example), always remaining a field worker. His scientific activity, in the form of articles, stretched from 1888 to 1957.
Distinguished as a scientist of international renown – he was awarded an honorary doctorate at Harvard University in 1936,
and the medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1951 – today Pannekoek’s name is just one among many in the history
of 20 th century astronomy. He continues to be known for his work in teaching science: in 1930 he published a classic
“Handbuch der Astrophysik”, but above all a history of astronomy, written originally in Dutch in 1916 and regularly
reprinted since 1950. This latter is still one of the liveliest and clearest histories of astronomy ever written. Today,
Pannekoek is the scientific name of a crater of the Moon. Dutch astronomers gave the name of Anton Pannekoek to the
astronomical institute of Amsterdam, the “Sterrenkundig Instituut ‘Anton Pannekoek’”. But Pannekoek’s name survives
today, too, thanks to his revolutionary political activity, and especially his Marxist writing which has been published since
the 1960s in several languages and on several continents, from Hong Kong to Mexico, from New York to Stockholm, and
from Melbourne to Buenos Aires.
147 A. Pannekoek, ‘Theorie en beginsel in de arbeidersbeweging’, in: De Nieuwe Tijd, 1906, p. 602.
148 A. Pannekoek, idem, p. 603.
149 See Chapter 7, on Pannekoek’s book Lenin as Philosopher.
150 A. Pannekoek, ‘De filosofie van Kant en het marxisme’, in: De Nieuwe Tijd, Vol. 6, 1901, p. 612.
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