The German-Dutch Communist Left - Libcom

proletariat as a whole it is necessary to struggle in the same way, in other words with an equal energy, against all
imperialisms, its own as well as foreign imperialism.” 302
The decline of the capitalist system
Gorter did not grasp the capitalist system’s decadence as a theoretician, basing himself on a historical and
economic study. He analysed its social and cultural effects. The world war was a direct threat to the proletariat’s
very life. The birth of world capitalism was the final result of a historical evolution leading to a fight to the death
between the proletariat and world capital: “Times have changed. Capitalism is so developed that it can continue
its further development only by massacring the proletariat of every country. A world capital is born, which is
turning against the world proletariat [...] World imperialism threatens the working class of the whole world.” 303
It comes as no surprise that Gorter, the great poet, should be particularly sensitive to the crisis of artistic values,
an undeniable sign of the decline of capitalist civilisation. His judgement was hasty, since he leaves out the new
art forms which appeared after the war, strongly inspired by the revolutionary wave of 1917-23 (expressionism,
surrealism...). But above all, Gorter shows capitalism’s inability to create new great art, in the image of an
expanding social system, as was the case during the 19 th century: “Great art is dead today. In every country, great
poetry is dead; dead are impressionism, naturalism, the great bourgeois realism [...] Great architecture is dead.
What architecture is left is heartless, loveless. Music is a mere shadow of what it was. Great painting is dead.
Philosophy is dead; the very rise of the proletariat has killed it.” 304
This vision of the decadence of the capitalist system in all its forms was not limited to Gorter. It lay at the basis
of the foundation of the 3 rd International, and of the Left Communist currents after the war, especially the
German Communist Left, strongly influenced by Luxemburg, Gorter, and Pannekoek.
The bankruptcy of social democracy and kautskyism
Like Lenin, Luxemburg and Pannekoek, Gorter showed that the war was made possible by the treason of those
parties which “foreswore socialist ideas”. 305 He emphasised that the process of the 2 nd International’s collapse
had been prepared by successive repudiations of the struggle against war and the economic struggle. It was the
subjective factor which finally gave the international bourgeoisie a free hand in 1914 to enter into war. None
could grasp the rottenness of its adversary within the proletariat better than the bourgeoisie, a class condemned
by history and with all the intelligence of a class hanging on for its own survival as society’s ruling class.
Already in 1912, at the Basle Congress, “The bourgeoisie, which thanks to its own putrefaction has a very
sensitive nose for moral decomposition, immediately scented the way this Congress of the International was
going. It felt that there was nothing to fear from such a Congress. It put Basle cathedral at our disposal...” 306
For the Dutch Left – which moreover had been prevented from speaking during the Congress – Basle was only
the ultimate conclusion of a long decline. The 4 th August 1914 was no more than a grand ceremony against the
war, where the incense of pacifism was abundantly used.
However, Gorter did not analyse the 2 nd International’s betrayal as a mere treachery of the leadership. Like
Pannekoek, in his article cited above 307 , he went into greater depth, defining the organisational, tactical and
302 H. Gorter, op. cit., p. 47.
303 H. Gorter, idem, p. 42.
304 H. Gorter, idem, p. 53.
305 H. Gorter, idem, p. 29.
306 H. Gorter, idem, p. 115.
307 A. Pannekoek, ‘De Sociaaldemocratie en de oorlog’, De Nieuwe Tijd, Feb. 1915, pp. 69-84, 137-151.
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