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Communist Party of the Netherlands Communistische Partij Nederland
Leader	David Wijnkoop (1909–1925) Louis de Visser (1925–1935) Ko Beuzemaker (1935–1939) Paul de Groot (1945–1967) Marcus Bakker (1967–1982) Ina Brouwer (1982–1991)
Founded	14 February 1909 (as the Social Democratic Party)
Dissolved	15 June 1991 (1991-06-15)
Merged into	GroenLinks
Headquarters	Felix Meritis,Amsterdam
Youth wing	General Dutch Youth League
Ideology	Eurocommunism Dutch republicanism Before 1980s: Marxism-Leninism
Political position	Far-left
European Parliament group	Grael
International affiliation	Comintern (1919–1943) Cominform (1947–1956)
Colours	Red
Politics of the Netherlands Political parties Elections

TheCommunist Party of the Netherlands (Dutch:Communistische Partij Nederland,Dutch pronunciation:[kɔmyˈnɪstisəpɑrˈtɛiˈneːdərlɑnt],CPN) was acommunist party in theNetherlands. The party was founded in 1909 as the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and merged with thePacifist Socialist Party, thePolitical Party of Radicals and theEvangelical People's Party in 1991, forming theGroenLinks. Members opposed to the merger founded theNew Communist Party of the Netherlands.

In 1907,Jan Ceton,Willem van Ravesteyn, andDavid Wijnkoop of theSocial Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP) foundedDe Tribune ("The Tribune"), a magazine in which they criticized the party leadership.^[1] They maintained orthodoxMarxist views and expected aproletarian revolution.^[1] They opposed the leadership of the SDAP, who were more oriented towards more arevisionist ideology and aparliamentary andreformist political strategy.^[1] At a party congress inDeventer held on 14 February 1909, SDAP leaders demanded that they stop publishingDe Tribune or be expelled from the party.^[1] Wijnkoop and Ceton refused; they and their supporters, including the poetHerman Gorter and the mathematicianGerrit Mannoury, left to form a new party.^[1] This was the first such split in a Western European socialist party, although others followed. There had already been a split between theBolsheviks andMensheviks in theRussian Social Democratic Labour Party, and between theBulgarian Workers' Social Democratic Party and theTesnjaki ("Narrowist") group. On 14 March 1909 the dissenters founded the newSocial Democratic Party (SDP).^[2] They had a membership of around 400 spread across different cities:Amsterdam (160),Rotterdam (65),The Hague (45),Leiden (56),Utrecht (25),Bussum (15).^[3]

In the 1910s, the SDAP paid much attention to attacking the newly formed SDP. The mobilization forWorld War I, which the SDAP supported and the SDP opposed, further strengthened the differences between the parties. In the1917 general election the SDP was still unable to win any seats. In May 1918, the left wing founded the journalDe Internationale, uniting four opposition groups within the SDP, with groups inAmsterdam,Rotterdam andThe Hague plus the Zimmerwald Left Propaganda Union. This group did not favour theparliamentarianism of the majority.

TheRussian Revolution fractured most European parties between their revolutionary and reformist factions; this had already happened in the Netherlands, but it profoundly changed the SDP. Previously a party oforthodox Marxist intellectuals with little working class support, the SDP saw an influx of members coming from the free socialist organisations, primarily theNAS.^[4]: 149

The SDP entered the election again inJuly 1918, winning two seats that were occupied byWillem van Ravesteyn and Wijnkoop; Wijnkoop assumed the leadership of the party. The SDP formed a revolutionaryparliamentary party with theLeague of Christian Socialists and theSocialist Party, both of which had one seat. In 1921,Willy Kruyt, the MP for the League of Christian Socialists, joined the SDP^[5] while the MP for the Socialist Party left the revolutionary parliamentary party.

As theGerman Revolution (and the relatedBrussels Soldiers' Council) developed across the borders in November 1918, the Netherlands was also affected by strikes and mutinies. On 10 November, the SDP called for the formation of soldiers' andworkers councils with a view to forming a popular government. A week later at theirLeiden Congress, the party name was changed toCommunist Party Holland (CPH),^[6] to stress its identification with the workers councils. The following year, on 10 April 1919 the CPH joined theComintern,^[6] which helped transform the party from a mix ofanarchists,syndicalists and orthodox Marxists into a tightly-knit Leninist community.^{[4]: 149–150}

In 1920, prominentleft communists Gorter andPannekoek left the party to form theCommunist Workers' Party of the Netherlands which advocatedcouncil communism. In the1922 general election the CPH retained its two seats. One of its unsuccessful candidates that year,Tan Malaka, was the first subject of the colonialDutch East Indies to run for office in the Netherlands.^[7][8]

Before the1925 general election, Wijnkoop was replaced as party leader byLouis de Visser^[9] under the pressure of the Comintern; this was the cause of heavy internal division within the party.Jacques de Kadt had already left the party in 1924 to help set up TheLeague of Communist Struggle & Propaganda Clubs. In the background of several of these divisions was the conflict in the Soviet Union betweenJoseph Stalin andLeon Trotsky. Wijnkoop,Henk Sneevliet (a prominent international communist and an ally of Trotsky), and other prominent members, were expelled from the party. Sneevliet founded the Revolutionary Socialist Union, which later became theRevolutionary Socialist Party (RSP).^[10] In 1926, the entire Rotterdam branch was expelled. These expellees joined Wijnkoop to form a separateCommunist Party of Holland-Central Committee. All three, the RSP, the CPH-central committee and the old CPH (which ran under the name "CPH – Dutch section of the Communist International"), contested the1929 general election and both CPHs won one seat each, whilst the RSP failed to win any. In 1930, the CPHs were forced to merge by the Comintern.

After the mutiny on theZeven Provinciën in the same year, the independence of theDutch Indies became an important theme at the1933 general election. The party performed particularly well at this election, doubling its seats to four. Among those elected was the Indonesian nationalistRustam Effendi, the first subject from the Dutch Indies to enter parliament. At the1937 general election, the party was able to retain its seats.

On 15 May 1940, immediately after the German occupation, the party decided to organize an underground movement. In July 1940, theNazi occupation force banned the CPN; the party continued illegally. In 1940, together with the much smaller anti-Stalinist communistRevolutionary Socialist Party, the only pre-war organisation that had protested against the anti-Semitic measures by the German occupiers, it founded aresistance movement calledRaad van Verzet ("Resistance Council"). It published a resistance newspaper calledDe Waarheid (The Truth). Both took part in theFebruary strike in 1941, the largest act of resistance in the Netherlands.

After the war, the party was led byPaul de Groot, who had a strong grip on the party's organization. In 1945 the CPN was offered one ministry in theSchermerhorn–Drees cabinet, mainly because of the CPN's role in the Dutch Resistance. The CPN refused, demanding a second ministry. In the1946 general election, the CPN received nearly 11% of the vote and won 10 seats in theHouse of Representatives. The CPN also won seats in theSenate for the first time. This electoral success was linked to the role of the CPN in the resistance.

The following period was characterized by decreasing popularity for communism, the rise of internal divisions, and the methodical isolation of the CPN by other parties.

With the rise of theCold War, the party began to lose popularity. The1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état tainted the reputation of Communism. In the1948 general election, the party lost two seats. In 1949, a group ofFrisian Communists were removed from the party ranks; they founded the Socialist Union, but they were unable to play a significant role in Dutch politics. In the1952 general election, the party lost two additional seats. In1956, the CPN lost votes again; however, because of the expansion of parliament it won an additional seat. The party supported the Russian intervention against theHungarian Revolution of 1956. After the invasion, the party office, in Felix Meritis in Amsterdam, was attacked by opponents of the invasion.

Meanwhile, internal dissent against the strict leadership of De Groot was rising. In 1958, theBruggroep ("Bridge group") left the CPN in a conflict over the role of the CommunistEenheidsvakcentrale (Unity Trade Union). Leaders of theBruggroep were prominent Resistance figures likeGerben Wagenaar and Henk Gortzak. TheGeneral Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) claimed to be behind the split, while the CPN leadership claimed that the dissenters were agents working for the U.S.Central Intelligence Agency. TheBruggroep founded a new party, theSocialist Workers' Party (SWP). In 1957, thePacifist Socialist Party was founded. The PSP united former members of the CPN, including members of the Socialist Union, and theLabour Party (PvdA), and other left-wing independents. In the following1959 general election the CPN lost all but three seats, while the PSP won two seats, and the SWP was unable to win any seats. Many SWP members, like Gortzak, later joined the PSP.

In the 1940s and 1950s, the CPN was methodically isolated by other parties. Civil servants were forbidden to become members of the CPN and it was not allowed separate time on public radio or television. The party's unequivocal support for decolonization of theDutch East Indies isolated the party in parliament. Because of its anti-NATO andEuropean Economic Community stances the party was blocked from the Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Nuclear Energy committees in parliament. The AIVD kept close tabs on the party. All other parties in parliament were deeply anti-communist, especially the social democratic PvdA.

In the1963 general election the party gained one seat. The developing students' movement was an important impetus for the party. In 1964, the international conflict between thePeople's Republic of China and the USSR also split the CPN. A group calledCommunist Unity Movement of the Netherlands (Marxist–Leninist) left the CPN in that year. They went through several intense splits based on ideological and personal conflicts. In 1971 one of the small groups formed theSocialist Party, which became a successful political party from the mid-1990s. The CPN took a rather ambiguous stance in the conflict between the USSR and the PRC.

Before the1967 general election De Groot was replaced by Marcus Bakker. De Groot was made an honorary member of the CPN. The party won another seat, making the total five. The CPN condemned the Soviet intervention against thePrague Spring. In1971 yet another seat was added, and in1972 the party had seven seats. The1977 general election saw a conflict between the social democratJoop den Uyl and the Christian democratDries van Agt. Many CPN sympathizers voted for the social democratic PvdA and the CPN lost all but two seats. In 1978, under pressure from new young members, De Groot lost his honorary membership. In the1981 general election, the placement of Americannuclear weapons is a major issue. The CPN, which prominently led one of the campaigning groups, The Committee against the N-bomb, was rewarded with another seat.

In the 1982 elections, the party got its firstmayor in the Communist stronghold ofBeerta. Before thegeneral election of the same year Marcus Bakker stepped down in favour ofIna Brouwer. With her a new generation of younger, often female MPs entered politics. She was able to keep the three seats. The CPN tried to renew its political program, emphasizingNew Left issues like feminism and gay rights. In reaction to this working class-oriented members founded the Horizontal Council of Communists (called so because they were members from different local branches, breaking the vertical organization ofdemocratic centralism). The group tried to pressure the CPN into returning to itsOld Left course. In 1983 they left the party and formed theLeague of Communists in the Netherlands (VCN,Verbond van Communisten In Nederland). In1986, both the CPN and VCN contested the elections. Neither won a seat in the House of Representatives. The CPN still had twosenators. As one of the last acts of the party, the party leadership attended the festivities surrounding 40th anniversary of theGerman Democratic Republic.

In 1989, the party merged with three other small left-wing parties, namely thePacifist Socialist Party (PSP), the left-wing ChristianPolitical Party of Radicals (PPR) and theEvangelical People's Party (EVP) to form theGroenLinks.^[11] In 1991, the party officially disbanded; the VCN was joined by other former members of the CPN, who left because they disagreed with the new course, and founded theNew Communist Party of the Netherlands (NCPN), which still exists today.

There is no influence left of the old Marxist wing of the CPN in GroenLinks. The "new" generation has been very prominent:Ina Brouwer led the party in the1994 general election and one of the party's senatorsJos van der Lans was a member of the CPN. The former party chair who was very influential in the formulation of the new liberal course, Herman Meijer, was one of thegay rights activists who joined the CPN in the 1970s.

The CPN changed its name two times. It was founded as Sociaal-Democratische Partij (Social-Democratic party; SDP). It followers were commonly known as "Tribunists" after their main organ.^[12] After the Russian Revolution the termsocial-democracy became linked to the reformist socialists, while the termcommunist was linked toLeninist revolutionary socialism. All sections of the Comintern were obliged to adopt the name 'Communist Party'. In 1919 the party changed its name to Communistische Partij Holland (Communist Party Holland; CPH). The name implied that the CPH was the Dutch section of the worldwideCommunist International. In 1935 the party changed its name to Communistische Partij van Nederland (Communist Party of the Netherlands; CPN), to express its allegiance to the Netherlands and Dutch institutions.^[13]

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The SDP was founded as an orthodox Marxist party advocating aneconomic and social revolution that would overthrow thecapitalist economic and political system, in favour for asocialistdictatorship of the proletariat, which would in turn evolve into a classless,communist society. They broke away from the SDAP, when thereformist leadership blocked their publication of an autonomous journal.

After theRussian Revolution, the party adopted the name Communist. With the departure of the left-wing grouped aroundDe Internationale, the party adoptedMarxism–Leninism, the official ideology of the USSR and the Comintern. This advocated the overthrow of the state by avanguard party, which would lead the country towards socialism. The party remained faithful to the USSR's version of Marxism–Leninism during the 1920s, whenTrotsky's interpretation became an important ideological competitor ofJoseph Stalin's. This led to a split when a group around a prominent ally of Trotsky,Henk Sneevliet, left the party to form theRevolutionary Socialist Party (RSP).

In the 1960s, the party did not choose sides in the conflict between the People's Republic of China and the USSR. Nevertheless, aMaoist group, called theCommunist Unity Movement of the Netherlands split from the Party. In the 1970s and 1980s, the Party began to move away from its Marxist/Leninist roots^[14] and began embrace a more libertarian andEurocommunist programme with a strong emphasis onfeminism.

The Communist Party has always been an advocate of the interests of the working class as shown by their advocacy of higher wages and lower prices. They also campaigned forwork conditions in factories should be improved, thatchild labour should be banned completely, that thework day should be regulated and that laws againststriking should be repealed.

The CPN advocated a strong role of the state in the economy. They believed the state should supply cheap housing, free and neutral education and health care insurance. They felt that important industries should be nationalized in the short term and in the long term the entireeconomy should be planned, thattaxation should be progressive and that those without jobs should receive benefits.

The communist movement emerged from other strands of theworkers movement because of their vigorous opposition toWorld War I. After 1918, the recognition of the USSR and the independence ofIndonesia became important issues. DuringWorld War II the party was active in theresistance movement. After the war, its foreign policy was explicitly anti-West German and pro-USSR. It favoured Soviet interventions inCzechoslovakia^{[citation needed]} andHungary and sought Dutch recognition ofEast Germany. It opposed Dutch membership ofNATO and theEuropean Economic Community. In the 1970s and 1980s its policy became more critical of the USA, supporting theNational Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam in theVietnam War. It played an important role in the popular opposition against the placement ofnuclear weapons in the Netherlands.

The party also emphasised the radical democratisation of the Dutch political system. It opposedmonarchy. It sought to abolish theCouncil of State and theSenate. Areferendum andtrial by jury should be implemented. Citizens should appoint civil servants.

In the 1970s and 1980s the party began to embraceNew Left issues like the fight forwomen's andgay rights.

Although the CPN was particularly strong in several provinces, especiallyGroningen, it never cooperated in anyprovincial executive.

The party supplied only onemayor, namely Hanneke Jagersma in the CPN stronghold ofBeerta. In the late 1940s, the CPN participated in severalmunicipal executives but after the USSR's intervention in Hungary, these all fell. In the 1950s the party got an absolute majority in themunicipal council ofFinsterwolde the municipality was consequently put under control of the national government. In the 1980s the party again started to cooperate in local executives.

The following table shows the results of the provincial election of 1962 by province. It shows the areas where the CPN was strong, namely North Holland and to a lesser extent Groningen and South Holland. The party was very weak in rural and Catholic Limburg and Brabant.

The support for the SDP, which was founded before the introduction ofuniversal suffrage, was strong among left-wing intellectuals and educated working class circles. This was mainly limited toAmsterdam andRotterdam. With the introduction of universal suffrage, the SDP, and later CPH began to branch out to the poorest circles of the working classes. In the Zaanstreek, aroundZaandam and the port cities of Amsterdam and Rotterdam the party was especially strong. After the Second World War, the CPN branched out to the poor rural province ofGroningen and other poor rural areas likeWest Friesland. In some Groningen municipalities like Finsterwolde, Beerta, the party won near absolute majorities. In these municipalities, which now formReiderland the refounded CPN,NCPN still performs particularly well. In the 1950s the general support for the CPN weakened with the rise of Cold War. In the 1960s and 1970s the CPN began to gain support form students. In the 1980s the party lost its working class support.

The party was organized on the principle ofdemocratic centralism. The party's board was the highest organ of the party, it decided the order of candidates on election lists for the Senate, House of Representatives and European Parliament, had the final say over the party program and had the ability to expel members. It was elected by the party'sCongress. The party saw its political unity and strong discipline as conditions for its ideological zeal.

Between 1946 and 1980, the party's headquarters was inFelix Meritis in Amsterdam.

The party had a small, but strong communistpillar around it. Important organizations were the communist trade union, the Rode Vakcentrale (Red Trade Union) before 1940 and the Eenheidsvakcentrale (Unity Trade Union) between 1945 and 1960, and the party's paper,De Tribune (the Tribune) before 1940 andDe Waarheid (The Truth), which was founded as a resistance paper and named after itsSoviet counterpart after 1940. The party's youth organization was the formally independentGeneral Dutch Youth League. The party's scientific organization was the Instituut voor Politiek en Sociaal Onderzoek (Institute for Political and Social Research) which publishedPolitiek en Cultuur (Politics and Culture). The CPN had its own publisher called Pegasus.

Since 1918, the party was a member of theThird International, first in the form of theComintern, and after 1947 in theCominform.

For a long time the communists were methodically isolated, partially because of its revolutionary ideology and partially because of the antagonistic style of its politics. The communists used this style to prevent its electorate from moving to its competitors.

The relationship between theSocial Democratic Workers' Party (before World War II) and theLabour Party (PvdA, after World War II) was always troublesome. The SDP split from the SDAP over ideological differences, orthodoxMarxist,revolutionary politics versusrevisionist andreformist politics. The social democrats saw the communists as insignificant while the communists taunted the social democrats by calling them "servants to capitalism" and "social fascists". During the Cold War, the PvdA embracedAtlanticism,NATO and the alliance with theUnited States, while the CPN advocated stronger links with theUSSR. The PvdA had the strongest anti-communists in its ranks. During the 1970s when a more radicalized PvdA advocated a large progressive coalition, they still excluded the CPN.

The relationship between left-wing splinter groups and the communists was notoriously bad. The CPH ignored theRevolutionary Socialist Party during its four-year term in the 1930s. ThePacifist Socialist Party, which was partially composed of those expelled from the CPN, was denounced as a party of agents of the U.S.Central Intelligence Agency.^{[citation needed]} The CPN methodically voted against proposals of the PSP, even when they supported them.^{[citation needed]} In the 1980s the PSP and the CPN grew closer as they both campaigned against nuclear armament and both began to embraceNew Left and libertarian politics^{[citation needed]}. In 1984 they formed a common list for the European Election together with the greenPolitical Party of Radicals (PPR) and theGreens. In the 1989 the CPN, PSP and PPR were joined by the left-wing ChristianEvangelical People's Party in the formation of theGroenLinks.

Relationships with the other parties whether liberal or Christian democratic were very poor.

The CPN is one of the few communist parties to be formed before the Russian Revolution. It lies between the Northern European communist parties, like theCommunist Party of Sweden and the Southern European communist parties, like theItalian Communist Party. Like its Italian counterparts, and unlike its Swedish counterparts it was methodically isolated in parliament. Like its Swedish counterparts, but unlike its Italian counterparts, it gained around 5% of the vote. Like its Italian counterpart it was closely linked to Moscow until the 1960s. In the 1970s, it became involved in New Left politics, like its Swedish counterpart.^{[citation needed]}

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