PHILIPPE BOURRINET The Dutch and German Communist Left (1900–68) ‘NEITHER LENIN NOR TROTSKI NOR STALIN!’ ‘EVERY WORKER MUST THINK BY SELF’ 1 In memoriam: Arturo Peregalli (1948-2001), Ngo Van (1913-2005), Maurice Brinton (1923-2005), Paul Avrich (1931-2006), and Cajo Brendel (1915-2007) © Philippe Bourrinet & www.left-dis.nl 2 3 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 (13th–14th 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 2nd 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 4 Intervention in the class struggle and the GIC’s audience ..........................................................................................178 The functioning of the GIC: the working groups ..........................................................................................................180 The GIC’s militants......................................................................................................................................................181 CHAPTER 6: THE BIRTH OF THE GIC (1927-33)............................................................................................................................185 The break with the KAPD............................................................................................................................................185 The GIC and the international regroupment of council communists (1929-32) ...........................................................192 Hitler’s coming to power and its consequences. – The GIC and the German situation...............................................198 Dutch Council Communism and Van der Lubbe .........................................................................................................201 CHAPTER 7: TOWARDS A NEW WORKERS’ MOVEMENT? A COUNCIL COMMUNIST BALANCE SHEET (1933-35).....206 German council communism after 1933. – Relationship with the GIC. – Definition of the ‘councilist’ current .............206 The adoption of the Theses on Bolshevism (1934).....................................................................................................209 Towards a new workers’ movement? — The Theses of the GIC (1935).....................................................................214 An ‘economist’ vision of the revolution? The Grundprinzipien.....................................................................................221