Historical conclusions from the tactics of the anti-fascist fronts. The contemporary struggle of communists against fascism

Contribution of the NCPN

Dear comrades,

The recent rise of far-right parties all over Europe confirms that imperialism has the historical tendency to the reactionary side of politics. This reflects the fact that capitalism in its imperialist stage has “outlived itself” and is historically redundant. Fascism itself grew out of capitalism as a protector of bourgeois interests against the rising workers movement with at its spearhead the communist party.

For us as communists, it is essential to study the phenomenon of fascism, as well as the opposition to it, and study the historical experiences of our movement in the struggle against fascism. This in order to struggle effectively against the fascist beast and its producer, the capitalist system. Because fascism is not something that exists outside of capitalism, but a tool for the bourgeoisie which they will reach for in times of crisis.Fascism is a form of bourgeois management.

In our contribution we would like to highlight some historical experiences of both the development of the strategy vis-à-vis the struggle against fascism as was discussed in the Communist International, as well as the crystallization and localization of this strategy in the Netherlands, by the Communist Party of the Netherlands (CPN).Moreover we will highlight some developments in the Netherlands concerning the rise of the far-right.

Fascistoid forces in the Netherlands

Since the fall of the USSR, the Dutch bourgeois political climate is characterized by anincreasingly reactionary ideology, which expresses itself through the policies and attitude of all bourgeois parties, from “left” to “right”, from “progressive” to “conservative”.The two important fascistoid entities, the so-called “Party for Freedom” (PVV) led by Geert Wilders, and the “Forum for Democracy” (FvD) party, are an important expression of this reactionary tendency. The former focuses mainly on fostering anti-muslim, anti-refugee and Dutch nationalist sentiments amongst the people. The latter represented a more “refined” form of the far-right, with intellectualist overtones and the rehashing of deeply reactionary views akin to “classical” fascism. These parties, particularly FvD, has promoted a more pro-Russian orientation, which makes them a handy “opponent” for social democracy and liberals, which promote the imperialist EU and NATO and the reactionary Zelensky government in Ukraine in the name of the “fight against fascism”.

These far-right forces criminalize opposition against the bourgeois system, promote the idea that “cultural marxism” has “taken over our country”, attack the organized working class, the trade unions etc., spreads vile nationalism, anti-communism,chauvinism and hatred against refugees, and so on. All whilst faking an “anti-elite” attitude, whilst at the same time they are funded and supported by capitalists and represent their interests.

The increased dissatisfaction of a large part of the Dutch population with the current bourgeois state of “normality”, as a result of inflation, years of attacks on social rights and the capitalist crisis, has propelled a section of them into the embrace of the far-right. With slogans that promote on the one hand welfare for “our own people” and on the other side promote the destruction of other social rights, they manage to persuade a part of the petit-bourgeoisie and working class to go along with their rotten political line. The struggle of the CJB and the NCPN is to expose these forces as anti-people, despite their slogans, to discuss with workers that have been superficially persuaded by the far-right to turn against the bourgeois system itself, not against their fellow workers. On the other side, we warn the workers and other layers of society that the “left”, social democracy, liberalism, and so on, do not provide the answer since they defend the capitalist system and will always side with capitalism against the workers. Historically, the NCPN stands in the tradition of the historical Communist Party of the Netherlands (CPN) in their struggle against fascism.

The anti-fascist struggle of the CPN and the strategy of the Comintern

The CPN played a heroic role in the resistance against fascism, which appeared first as the collaborating National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands and later as the Nazi-fascist German occupier. Many of our comrades lost their lives in the struggle against fascism – an estimated 2/3rd of the party cadre was murdered by the Nazi fascists.

In the years before Nazi fascism occupied the Netherlands, the CPN repeatedly warned the Dutch working class and the people for the imminent threat that fascism posed, with the “5th columnists” of the NSB preparing the way for the invasion of Nazi Germany.

In 1937, the CPN published in their election programme that they would “…struggle for the formation by parliamentary means of a democratic government, possibly consisting of Social Democrats, Roman Catholics and other democrats, able and willing to defend democracy and peace againstFascism and bring greater prosperity to the working people.”

This reflects the line of the 7th Congress of the Comintern, which states that alliances must be sought with social democracy and bourgeois democracy. In the Dutch context, of course, the imminent threat of a fascist invasion also played a role in the above formulation.The attempt to rally people with different political ideologies is not per se the issue with this strategy, but it becomes questionable when these alliances are sought at the level of bourgeois political parties, the bourgeois state apparatus and the bourgeoisie itself - in other words, the social forces that 'gave birth' to reaction and fascism, which, like fascism, are enemies of the workers' movement.This new orientation thus had a tendency of absolutizing the contradiction between fascism and bourgeois democracy.Of course, this orientation was the consequence of certain historical conditions. Confronted with the fascist onslaught in several countries in Europe such as Italy and Germany, the international communist movement had to face the full terror of rotten bourgeois power under fascism.

One of the consequences of theorientation to absolutize the difference between bourgeois democracy and fascism was felt when after the war ended, when forces within the party promoted a line of dissolving the partyinto a “broad organization of the masses” under the flag of the party newspaper, “De Waarheid”. This was prevented and the party continued to exist as a communist party, but the strategy for workers power was largely abandoned in favour of the formation of a “left” government, which echoes the earlier quote from the election programme of 1937. In essence, this orientation vindicates bourgeois power, so long as it is not fascist. This focus on parliamentary "power" eventually led to the liquidation of the CPN in the 1980s, and the resulting need for reconstitution and reorientation from which our party, the NCPN, emerged.

Some conclusions

The NCPN feels that it is necessary to study further, in a collective process, the correct tactics and strategy for the fight against fascism. We can nevertheless draw some conclusions from the historical experiences of the strategy of the communist movement. Fascism can only be fought as capitalism. It has to be understood as a form of bourgeois management, which is particularly brutal, but not exclusively so. The various forms of bourgeois management have all played the role of “butcher” of the people as history teaches us.

We stress that we recognise that the Communist Party must engage in the fight against fascism in order tomobilise the grassroots masses in the anti-fascist struggle as broadly as possible. Even people with social democratic, liberal, conservative or other views. Even more so if that struggle becomes linked to the national liberation struggle, as was the case with the Nazi German occupation. That very struggle is an important 'school' for the masses to see what capitalism really is and what it produces, and that its overthrow is necessary - provided that theCommunist Party in that struggle also conducts the ideological and political struggle, not only against fascism but more generally the bourgeoisie and opportunism.

Alliances against fascism can therefore never be based on the supposed unity with bourgeois forces that mask themselves as “anti-fascist”. One can see that, for example, the social chauvinists of the “World Anti-imperialist Platform” separate capitalism and fascism and end up supporting so-called “anti-fascist Russia”. The fight against fascism requires us to consistently unmask fascism as the “running dog” of big capital, the servants of the monopolies. On the other hand, the fight against fascism must be combined with the struggle for socialism-communism. Consistent, hard work is required from us, to build alliances in the workers organizations, the workplaces, the popular neighborhoods against fascism and capitalism, and not allow ourselves to get trapped in false dilemmas as they are posed to us by the bourgeoisie. Only then can the struggle against fascism succeed – by taking out its root cause, the capitalist system.