Philippe Bourrinet , Ph.D. (1988), Université Paris-Sorbonne, independent researcher in social history. He has published monographs, translations and articles on Left Communism in Germany, Italy, Yugoslavia, Russia and social movements (Hungary 1956), including Ante Ciliga 1898-1992, Nazionalismo e comunismo in Jugoslavia (Graphos, 1996).

The Dutch-German Communist Left separated from the Comintern (1921) on questions like electoralism, trade-unionism, united fronts, the one-party state and anti-proletarian violence. The present volume provides the most substantial history to date of this tendency in the twentieth-century Communist movement.

Acknowledgements ... ix
Illustrations ... xi

Introduction ... 1

Part 1: From Tribunism to Communism (1900-18)

1 Origins and Formation of the 'Tribunist' Current (1900-14) ... 11
2 Pannekoek and 'Dutch' Marxism in the Second International ... 82
3 The Dutch Tribunist Current and the First World-War (1914-18) ... 132

Part 2: The Dutch Communist Left and the World-Revolution (1919-27)

4 The Dutch Left in the Comintern (1919-20) ... 177
5 Gorter, the kapd and the Foundation of the Communist Workers' International (1921-7) ... 226

Part 3: The gic from 1927 to 1940

Introduction to Part 3: The Group of International Communists: From Left-Communism to Council-Communism ... 277
6 The Birth of the gic (1927-33) ... 292
7 Towards a New Workers' Movement? The Record of Council-Communism (1933-5) ... 327
8 Towards State-Capitalism: Fascism, Anti-Fascism, Democracy, Stalinism, Popular Fronts and the 'Inevitable War' (1933-9) ... 380
9 The Dutch Internationalist Communists and the Events in Spain (1936-7) ... 407

Part 4: Council-Communism during and after the War (1939-68)

10 From the 'Marx-Lenin-Luxemburg Front' to the Communistenbond Spartacus (1940-42) ... 431
11 The Communistenbond Spartacus and the Council-Communist Current (1942-68) ... 456

Conclusion ... 517

Works Cited ... 533
Further Reading ... 550
Addresses of Archival Centres ... 614
Acronyms ... 615
Index ... 622

The Dutch-German Communist Left, represented by the German KAPD-AAUD, the Dutch KAPN and the Bulgarian Communist Workers Party, separated from the Comintern (1921) on questions like electoralism, trade-unionism, united fronts, the one-party state and anti-proletarian violence. It attracted the ire of Lenin, who wrote his Left Wing Communism, An Infantile Disorder against the Linkskommunismus , while Herman Gorter wrote a famous response in his pamphlet Reply to Lenin . The present volume provides the most substantial history to date of this tendency in the twentieth-century Communist movement. It covers how the Communist left, with the KAPD-AAU, denounced 'party communism' and 'state capitalism' in Russia; how the German left survived after 1933 in the shape of the Dutch GIK and Paul Mattick's councils movement in the USA; and also how the Dutch Communistenbond Spartacus continued to fight after 1942 for the world power of the workers councils, as theorised by Pannekoek in his book Workers' Councils (1946).