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From The New International, Vol. XIV No. 8, October 1948, pp. 247–248.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
The first elections to take place in Holland after the liberation showed that despite the Nazi occupation the people had not changed their political line-ups.
The Catholics, enjoying an absolute majority in the provinces of Limburg and Brabant, came out on top. The Labor Party – which had been formed through a fusion of the Social-Democrats, progressive Liberals, left Protestants and Catholics and elements from the democratic resistance movement – came next. The Communist Party, tripling its votes, represented a third of the working-class electorate. The Protestant clerical parties, Anti-Revolutionary Party and Christian Historic Party, as well as the Liberals, made up the right wing of the political line-up.
The recent elections in June registered losses for the two left-wing parties. The CP suffered a 25 per cent drop especially in the working-class sections. This represented the reaction of the worker-voters against the policy of verbal radicalism, symptomatic of the fact that the proletariat of Amsterdam and the big industrial centers refused to support the line of the Cominform.
The demagogic press campaign of the official CP organ De Waarheid against Koos Vorrink, one of the anti-Nazi resistance leaders and head of the Labor Party, cost the CP (led by Paul de Groot) tens of thousands of worker votes; this was also the effect of the resignation of Koljemans, editor in chief of their official organ, who refused to go along with this anti-socialist campaign.
The Labor Party also suffered losses. In its case they were less obvious, especially since they involved bourgeois elements who, three years after the liberation, slid back toward the Liberals or Catholics. The departure from the Labor Party of Dr. Oud, ex-mayor of Rotterdam who rejoined the Liberal Party, only had the effect of bringing the party closer to its pre-war working-class character, socially speaking.
If it lost to the right, it gained on the left; and a large number of CP supporters voted this time for the Laborites. In the Dutch parliament 35 socialist and CP deputies represent the working-class electorate, while the bourgeois parties have 65 deputies.
The extraordinary influence wielded by the clericalism of the various religious parties is the result of a serious mistake of the socialists and Liberals on the question of the relationship between church and state – a mistake which goes back to the beginning of the century. As a consequence of their badly understood policy of neutrality, the lay parties never made a fight against the granting of state subsidies to the religious schools.
The former students of these schools, soaked in the partisan religious spirit, are the voters of the clerical parties today. The Laborites are trying to break this clerical hold through their new policy of fusionism, which has transformed the former lay Social-Democracy into a federation of three tendencies: lay-humanist, Protestant and Catholic. Hence the name applied to the fusion – doobrak (breaking-through).
For the moment the fruits of the doobrak policy are still quite small, particularly in the Catholic sector.
The two-party (Catholic-Laborite) basis of the government was insufficient to ensure the constitutional changes necessary for the settlement of the Indonesian question. The coalition’s majority was extended toward the right by the entrance of the colonialist Liberals and the reactionary Christian Historic Party. But is it possible to achieve any durable work with such a coalition?
Within the ranks of the socialists, the feeling of bitterness is at a high point and the leadership is accused on all sides of weakness and inconsistency.
The head of the government, the rightwing Laborite Drees – although not regarded as a statesman of important stature – is, however, a “hard” as opposed to the “softs.” Especially on the economic field, where the danger of a reduction in the standard of living must be fought, he is expected to hold out against the demands of the bourgeois Liberals.
The Labor Party’s experience completely upset the expectations of the Marxists. The fusion of the various non-Marxist groups with the Social-Democrats – the doobrak – was fought by the socialist Left, which was greatly alarmed about the future of the party. “Let us remain what we have always been” – this was the slogan of the Social-Democrats who were opposed to giving up the party structure established by Troelstra, the founder of the Social-Democracy. In reality they believed that the heterogeneous elements coming from the resistance movement would change the character of the party.
But now, and this shows a good sense of self-criticism, the Left recognizes that it has acquired some of its best points of support among the newcomers, while the old Social-Democrats who put this policy over finished by lining up on the right wing of the party.
On the occasion of Secretary General Paul de Groot’s resignation, the leadership of the Dutch Communist Party published (in De Waarheid) a rather interesting document on the causes for its electoral defeat.
The principal mistake, it said, was the fact that “the party did not fight against the Marshall Plan strongly enough,” did not make propaganda for Russia with sufficient energy; “and did not effectively unmask the right-wing socialists.”
On the organizational field it proposes to strengthen CP ties with the workers of the free trade unions and Christian trade unions. Does this mean that the CP is going to abandon the Stalinist “unitary” trade unions, which are on the downgrade?
From the trade-union point of view the result of the experience with these dual unions has proved to be a great mistake. As before the war, the free trade unions connected with the Labor Party are the strongest, although in the South it is the Catholics who have the majority among the miners.
Under Stalinist influence the “unitary” trade unions did succeed at certain junctures in embracing a large number of non-Stalinist workers, especially those who had belonged to the former (prewar) trade-union center led by the left- socialist party of Sneevliet. When these unions were transformed into mere appendages of the Communist Party, the crisis in relations between the Stalinists and the worker elements became inevitable. Thus, the dissension in their ranks in Rotterdam ended up by destroying completely the influence of the “red” trade unions in that port.
More than 20 per cent of the elements who broke away from the Unitary Federation are now in the process of organizing an independent trade-union movement based on shop organizations.
The two key problems of Dutch political life – Indonesia and the economic question – demand energetic democratic measures. Peace with Indonesia can be effected if that republic is treated on a basis of equality. Dutch public opinion is extremely sensitive on this point, and the anti-colonialist spirit of Mulatili is clearly dominant.
The courageous struggle put up in behalf of liberty for the Dutch East Indies, by the weeklies Vlam and Vrij Nederland and by the dailies Het Parool and De Waarheid, has met with a favorable reception; whereas the colonial-imperialist groups have suffered serious setbacks in recent elections.
Without the constant pressure of public opinion on the government, peace with Indonesia will be delayed, and together with it the prospect for economic stabilization. While the latter (in comparison with the other European countries) is still quite favorable, the enormous expenditures for the so-called “police action” in the colonial empire are having the effect of negating the post-liberation constructive effort. Out of a total of 641,000 workers (December 1946), only 21.2 per cent are unemployed, while in 1938 there were 303,000 workless.
The balance between prices and wages has been held better than in any other country. Taking 1938 prices as 100, in 1946 the index was 191, jumping by May 1948 to 203. At the same time wages went up from an index of 100 in 193–1939 to 163 for industry and 235 for agriculture, rising by June 1948 to 175 for industry and 259 for agriculture.
In order to ensure the purchasing power of the wage earners and masses of people, the rationalization program has been kept up for scarce goods. While the apartment developments are truly models, there is still a 10–15 per cent scarcity in living quarters for workers. But in comparison with the tragic situation in other countries, this figure seems altogether insignificant.
It is clear that the prospects for success for a left socialist and democratic policy are intimately bound up with a consistent struggle for the maintenance of the standard of living. To impress this fact on the Dutch working-class movement is the task being pushed by those Labor Party comrades who consider themselves militant socialists, as well as by others outside the ranks of the party.
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