League of Communists in the Netherlands Verbond van Communisten in Nederland | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2 November 1985 |
| Dissolved | 1992 |
| Split from | CPN |
| Succeeded by | NCPN |
| Headquarters | Kouwenoord 73, 1104 KB, Amsterdam |
| Ideology | Communism Marxism-Leninism Anti-revisionism |
| Political position | Far-left |
TheLeague of Communists in the Netherlands (Dutch:Verbond van Communisten in Nederland,VCN) was acommunist party in theNetherlands.
The VCN was the result of a split in 1984 in theCommunist Party of the Netherlands (CPN), who disagreed with therevisionist andEurocommunist line of the new leadership of the CPN. In 1982 ananti-revisionist platform within the CPN emerged, called theHorizontaal Overleg Communisten, (Horizontal Forum of Communists, HOC) which at first functioned as a lobby group within the CPN. Former member of parliamentFré Meis and the only communist mayor of the Netherlands,Hanneke Jagersma, were the more prominent supporters of the platform.[1]
After the CPN Congress of 1984, in whichdemocratic centralism andMarxism-Leninism were abandoned, the HOC decided to split from the CPN and form the VCN.[2]
The VCN consisted mostly of former CPN members fromAmsterdam,Limburg,North Brabant and the city ofGroningen. Remarkably the party had until 1989 very little support in the CPN stronghold ofNortheast-Groningen.
In 1986, the VCN contested theTweede Kamer elections, but only gathered 4,618 votes, just 0.1% of the votes. However the CPN just barely missed the 0.67% hurdle and therefore lost its representation. It was the first time since 1918 that the communist party wasn't represented in theTweede Kamer.
In 1989, after the CPN formed an electoral coalition with thePolitical Party of Radicals (PPR), thePacifist Socialist Party (PSP) and theEvangelical People's Party (EVP) calledGroenLinks it again contested theTweede Kamerelections, and although gaining more votes, it still did not get close to winning a seat (7,361 votes, 0.1%). It was estimated in 1989 that the VCN had about a thousand members.[3]
In 1990, the VCN was invited by the CPN to participate in the merger talks that would lead to the definitive formation ofGroenLinks. However, this invitation was rejected by the VCN, because they accused the CPN of pushing for the dissolution of the CPN as a political party.[1]
In 1992, the CPN would indeed dissolve and in turn the VCN merged with CPN chapters that refused to joinGroenLinks and the remnants of the HOC to form theNew Communist Party of the Netherlands (NCPN). The HOC continues to exist as the publisher of the communist newspaperManifest.
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