Contribution of New Communist Party of the Netherlands

Dear Comrades, 

We would like to thank you for the invitation and for organising this conference. We see this as an important opportunity to learn from your knowledge and experience, and we are keen to share our own experiences with you. 

NCPN’s vision

We believe that the strength of workers lies in their capacity to organize and unify, and this capacity begins primarily  in the workplace, but also in the places of schooling and study and in the neighbourhoods. Therefore for us, as communists, the foundation of our political work among the working class lies in our intervention in the workplaces, whereby we establish roots on the shop floor, are active there, talk to colleagues, raise issues, put forward demands, discuss developments, and become the point of contact. For us, trade union work is an extension of this.

The union’s problems 

The FNV is, the largest trade union in the Netherlands, organizing the vast majority of unionized workers in the country and organizing the vast majority of strikes that occur. Chronic problems that have plagued it are primarily a reformist or social-democratic direction, which directly leads to an attitude that often fails to directly involved and organize a large number of workers on the workfloor with the actual class struggle, at least in many sectors. As an ultimate result of its bureaucratic structure and the resulting lack of involvement, it, has been in serious turmoil since early 2025. An interpersonal conflict that began within the union’s leadership has prevented the organisation from fulfilling its core mission — defending and advancing the rights of working people in the Netherlands. The union leadership has spent far too long focused on itself and has lost sight of its members. The conflict has caused significant harm: long-serving union members have resigned their membership, and for months the union was portrayed negatively in the media. In the end, the situation deteriorated to the point where the bourgeois justice system intervened in the labor union’s internal structure, as it was deemed by the capitalist system to not be able to fullfil its role in the class-collaboranist system of “polderen” (striking so-called “mutually beneficial” deals between capitalists and workers).

The court-mandated structural changes have stripped the members of the already limited power they had and further concentrated it in the hands of a small group of union elites. As a result, individuals closely connected to the Netherlands’ main social-democratic party now effectively determine who is in charge of the leadership of the union.

It is important for you to be aware of this. Because this conflict created the conditions under which the court was able to appoint individuals from outside the union to:

– amend the statutes,

– alter the union’s democratic decision-making structure,

– and remove the members’ ability to elect their own leadership.

This intervention violates even the principles laid down in International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention No. 87 on Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise and is of course a gross form of repression against the working class struggle..

The violation of international trade-union law is not only a threat to the Dutch labour movement, but to the international labour movement as a whole. Because at a time when the working class is coming under increasing pressure, it is essential that workers themselves have to retain the power to decide the strategy and direction of their own workers organisation— the trade union.

Local work

Despite the union’s internal problems, the work of organising the workplaces continues. Strengthening the fighting capacity of union and non-union members is, in our opinion, the best way to build power both within and without the union. In our opinion, it is important to also introduce political demands that workers stand behind. I would like to discuss a few examples of how we do this.

 To begin with, our work within the peace movement. We contribute to — and initiate — the formation of local peace committees. Within these committees, we work together with people in our city to build a organize a counter-voice against the increasing militarisation of society.”

A significant number of the communist youthyoung people in our organisation are active in the various local student unions. Student unions in the Netherlands oppose cuts to education, the growing influence of the Ministry of Defence within universities, and the unaffordable housing market and shortages in student accommodation. We see that young comrades struggle and work within the student movement, they do their best to help the student movement grow and strengthen and that these are highly educational experiences. We also see that, through the trade-union struggle, many young people encounter the fight for socialism for the first time, and though the union come into contact with the CJB (the youth organisation of the NCPN).

Finally, we are active in workplace member groups and action groups. Workplace member groups are groups of union members at a single workplace — though unfortunately they do not exist everywhere. Action groups are also groups of union and non-union members at one workplace, but they are temporary in nature, formed around a single action or a period of actions. Members of our organisation have often been active for years, standing up for themselves and their colleagues as union members. This effort does not go unnoticed, and as a result they take on positions within action groups, such as during the recent relay strike in higher education. In twelve cities, strikes were organised against the government’s dismantling policies and the cuts to education. The union — which, as discussed earlier, has many shortcomings — often prefers to decide top-down, when, for what purpose, and how actions should be taken. Through local interventions in workplace member groups and action groups, more colleagues became involved in organising these strikes. In many local groups, progress was also made by linking the dismantling of education to the enormous increase in funds for the military and directing criticism accordingly — a position that remains controversial within the trade union.”

Challenges

Our work finds a lot of Challenges.

Firstly, the internal disagreements, conflicts, and power struggles within the union leadership distract its members from the real goal — building a strong workers’ movement. They take place because the structure of the union is such that it does not encourage the participation of the vast majority of workers in the formulation of its plan of action and the coordination of the class struggle at the local, sectoral and national level.  All these challenges require us to be firmly rooted in our workplaces, sectoral union groups, and neighbourhoods. They demand consistent political and practical work combined with criticism of existing structures. For this reason, our party attempts to present (in words and in practice) a vision of a democratic union, where workers are directly involved in the decisions being made about them. Thanks to the hard work of a lot of comrades, we are able to present this vision at every level of the union, both grassroots and in its leadership structure. Furthermore, we have often found it useful to organize workers outside of the structures of the labor union, and only involve the union once worker’s power in a workplace is already built up, in order to assist with legal procedures. But this, of course, demands revolutionary patience.

Working inside the various political movements also grassroots comes with many challenges. Many of the people we encounter in our work in local action groups or committees participate with the primary aim of ‘speaking on behalf of their political group’, turning a peace committee, action group, or student union into little more than a platform for their own promotion. This opportunistic attitude alienates large parts of the as-yet unorganised working class.

In addition, establishing a (peace) committee is an incredibly labour-intensive task. In many places, it is difficult to find people willing to share the organisational and practical responsibilities with us. This has been a process of trial and error.

It is the task of communists, organised in the communist party, to play a leading role in organising workers at the grassroots, in the neighbourhoods, and in the workplaces.