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Socialism and Democracy

ISSN: 0885-4300 (Print) 1745-2635 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/csad20

The Radical Left in Benelux

Erik Meijer

To cite this article: Erik Meijer (2015) The Radical Left in Benelux, Socialism and Democracy,
29:3, 71-80, DOI: 10.1080/08854300.2015.1113743

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08854300.2015.1113743

Published online: 08 Dec 2015.

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Download by: [University of Nebraska, Lincoln] Date: 30 December 2015, At: 00:58
Socialism and Democracy, 2015
Vol. 29, No. 3, 71 80, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08854300.2015.1113743

The Radical Left in Benelux

Erik Meijer
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The small but densely crowded European states of the


Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxemburg have a long common history,
in which they were sometimes united and later separated again.
Linguistically, they are divided: 23 million of their inhabitants in the
Netherlands and in the northern Belgian sub-state of Flanders use
the Dutch language, five million in the south-eastern Belgian
sub-state of Wallonia speak French, and half a million in Luxemburg
and eastern Belgium have a German dialect. Their inhabitants live
under the economic and cultural influences of two big neighbours,
Germany to the east and France to the south. Within the wider
European Union, those three countries participate in a narrow co-
operation called Benelux.

General overview
Unlike in Germany, France, and many other European states,
social democracy was almost never in a dominant position at the
state level in Benelux. Even when they were the biggest party, social
democrats could only govern in coalition governments with right-
wing parties.1 This situation enforces many painful compromises

1. Thus, the Dutch 197277 government of Joop den Uyl in a bloc of the Partij van de
Arbeid (Labour Party [PvdA]) together with left-wing Christian Politieke Partij Radika-
len (Political Party of Radicals [PPR]) and the left-wing liberal D66, in order to get a
parliamentary majority, had to co-operate with the conservative Katholieke Volkspartij
(Catholic Peoples Party [KVP]) and the protestant Anti-Revolutionaire Partij (Anti-
Revolutionary Party [ARP]). Similarly, Belgium between 1944 and 1947 had five
short-lived governments of the social democrat prime ministers Achille van Acker
and Kamiel Huysmans with participation of communists and liberals. Luxemburgs
current government is somewhat to the left of its Christian-democrat predecessors,
but contains the centrist Demokratesch Partei (Democratic Party [DP]) together with
the social democratic Letzebuerger Sozialistesch Aarbechterpartei (Luxemburg Socialist
Workers Party [LSAP]) and green Dei Greng.

# 2015 The Research Group on Socialism and Democracy


72 Socialism and Democracy

that, in the long term, result in a general lack of mass participation. It


prevented a strong polarization between a Labour bloc and a conserva-
tive bloc like what exists in most European states, especially in Great
Britain and Scandinavia. Especially in the Netherlands and Wallonia,
the compromising posture of the social democrat leadership created
space for a radical leftist opposition within the party, inspired by Trots-
kys idea of world revolution, Titos worker-self-management, and
Gandhis nonviolent mass struggle. The big difference of opinion
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inside those social democratic parties was that the right wing was
proud of the results earned by participation in government, whereas
the left wing was continuing to fight for those parts of the original
program that had not been enacted. This Left Labour tendency,
however, was expelled from the main left parties and therefore had
to create its own political organizations, namely, the Pacifistisch Socialis-
tische Partij (Pacifist Socialist Party [PSP]) in the Netherlands and the
Socialistische Arbeiders Partij (Socialist Workers Party [POS/SAP]) in
Belgium.2 Although the electoral challenge from this left compelled
the social democrat leadership to support a more activist agenda,3 it
did not change the partys main line. A long tradition of class compro-
mises prevented any offensive struggle from gaining a majority pos-
ition for the left.
The main reason for this permanent minority position and a
general lack of polarization was the central position of Christian demo-
crat parties. During a long period, those parties were supported by
very well organized parts of civil society like Christian trade unions:
in the Netherlands, the still existing Protestant Christelijk Nationaal Vak-
verbond (National Christian Trade Union [CNV]) and the former
Roman-Catholic Nederlands Katholiek Vakverbond (Dutch Catholic
Trade Union [NKV]) merged together with the original socialist Neder-
lands Verbond van Vakverenigingen (Dutch Association of Trade Unions

2. The left wing of Netherlands PvdA left the party in different stages: the Socialist
Union (SU) was a minority which did not accept the merger in 1946 between the
large social democrat Sociaal Democratische Arbeiders Partij (Social Democratic
Workers Party [SDAP]) and the smaller left-wing liberal Vrijzinnig Democratische
Bond (Free-thinking Democratic League [VDB]); a big group of members left in
1947 as a result of the co-responsibility of social democrat leadership for the colonial
war against the liberation of Indonesia; an organized left-wing opposition, the Social
Democratic Center (SDC), was expelled at the 1959 PvdA congress. In Belgium, an
organized left wing and a Walloon separatist tendency were expelled at the Decem-
ber 1964 PSB/BSP congress.
3. For example, in the Netherland in the 1970s, social democrats got active in rent sub-
sidies for low-income individuals, investment in railways and tramways, widening
public health insurance, and introduction of a state bank.
Erik Meijer 73

[NVV]) to form the broad Federatie Nederlandse Vakbeweging (Dutch


Federation of Trade Unions [FNV]); in Belgium especially for
Flanders the Algemeen Christelijk Vakverbond (General Christian
Trade Union [ACV]). The same kind of relation exists with farmers
unions of Christian origin, the Land- en Tuinbouw Organisatie
(Federation of Agriculture and Horticulture [LTO]) in the Netherlands
and the Boerenbond-Union Paysanne in Belgium. Christian trade unions
contributed to this powerful position by resisting class struggle and
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far-reaching socialization of the means of production. Those histori-


cally dominant ruling parties4 were the deciding force behind the
choice to create majority coalitions alternately with liberals or with
social democrats.
As a result of secularization, the Christian democrat electorate has
been greatly reduced during the last decade.5 However, the left, which
expected to become the big winner of this process, failed to take over
the ruling positions. Currently, each of the three countries has a
prime minister from the right, belonging to its liberal party. They
lead different types of coalitions, in the Netherlands together with
the heavily weakened PvdA, in Luxemburg with the LSAP and
greens, and in federalized Belgium not only with the Flemish section
of Christian democrats but also with the rising party of Flemish separa-
tists Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie (New Flemish Alliance [N-VA]), which
has already become dominant in Flanders, where a majority of the
Belgian population lives.
Although the left never got a majority position at the three national
levels, social democracy had enduring strongholds in some regions: in
the industrial west and the rural north of the Netherlands, in the steel-
regions of Wallonia, and at the southern edge of Luxemburg. Those are
the same regions where official communist parties and Trotskyist-
influenced Left Labour groups had relatively strong positions.
However, in the 1980s and 1990s, those radical left parties collapsed,

4. In the Netherlands, the KVP, the ARP, and the Christelijk-Historische Unie (Christian
Historical Union [CHU]) which, in the 1970s, merged into Christen-Democratisch Appel
(Christian Democratic Appeal [CDA]); in Belgium, Christelijke Volkspartij (Christian
Peoples Party [CVP/PSC]), nowadays the Christen-Democratisch & Vlaams (Christian
Democratic and Flemish [CD&V]) and the Walloon Centre democrate humaniste
(Humanist Democratic Centre [cdH]); in Luxemburg, Chreschtlech Sozial Vollekspartei
(Christian Social Peoples Party [CSV]).
5. In the Netherlands national elections, Christian-based parties got 53% in 1956, 37% in
1986, and 14% in 2012. In Flanders, the CVP was the dominant party till 1999. In Lux-
emburg, the CSV, by far the biggest party, was always in power until it was defeated
at the end of 2013.
74 Socialism and Democracy

each in its own particular way. Probably, the collapse of the Soviet
Union and Titos socialist Yugoslavia in the same period played an
external role in this. But it also had to do with a changed economy
at home as coalmines closed down and many factories moved to
low-wage countries. Traditional occupations of industrial and agrarian
workers were replaced by expanding services, especially financial ser-
vices. The ideas of class struggle and socialist revolution lost their
popularity. They were replaced by new issues like the environment,
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human rights, feminism, gay rights, and immigration. The electoral


basis for Left Labour and communists was sharply reduced.6 They
totally lost their representation in the three national parliaments.
This mainly benefited the social democrats who had expelled them
before, but also brought gains for the newly rising greens, for leftist ten-
dencies among the liberals (in the Netherlands, the Democraten 66
[Democrats 66, D66], a separate party since 1966), and for far-right,
xenophobic forces.
However, after this defeat, the radical left succeeded in recovering.
The process and results of this recovery vary significantly in the three
countries. Nevertheless, radical left parties returned to parliament in
new forms. In the Netherlands, this happened earliest and most suc-
cessfully; in Belgium, late and only partially; in Luxemburg, only
slightly and with interruptions.

The Netherlands
In the Netherlands, the situation changed dramatically in 1989.
After gaining many radical leftist voters during a period of opposition,
the PvdA, entered a coalition government aiming to cut rising social
expenses. At the same time, four small parties to their left7 went
along with this move, for fear of not surviving further electoral
defeats. Their long-term project to merge was rapidly finalized, but
its aims changed significantly. The new combination GroenLinks
(Green Left) claimed not to be a traditional party of radical socialist
unity but something totally new. It preferred to be like the newly

6. In the Netherlands, parties to the left of the PvdA got 16 seats in 1972, six seats in
1977, three seats in 1986. In Belgium and Luxemburg, the decline started earlier
but the 1970s was still a period of stability.
7. The Communistische Partij Nederland (Communist Party of the Netherlands [CPN])
(1909) and the PSP (1957), which both had their origin in social democracy; the
PPR (1968), which was separated from the KVP; and the Evangelische Volks Partij
(Evangelical Peoples Party [EVP]) (1981), which was separated from the Protestant-
Christian Party (ARP).
Erik Meijer 75

arising Die Grune (German Greens), always somewhat different from


social democracy in choosing priorities but not consequently to the
left of it and never related to the working class or to a future socialist
society. It meant a rapid departure from the existing identification
with the more successful parties of Left Labour, like SF in Denmark
and SV in Norway, which tried to create a strong, integrated socialist
and green alternative to the moderate social democracy.
Those changes created new opportunities for the small but always
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very active Socialistische Partij (Socialist Party [SP]). The SP was already
created in 1972 as an initiative of Maoist-inspired former members of
the CPN and the PSP. Originally, it defended the sectarian idea that
only a pure new party, accompanied by new trade unions and new
organizations defending peoples health and housing, could create a
mass line and serve the people. Local grassroots campaigns,
mainly in the Roman Catholic southern regions, where the left had
been always very weak, were its main activities. So, it got 55 local coun-
cillors and became well known at the regional level, but it failed five
times to get any representation in national parliament (1977, 1981,
1982, 1986 and 1989).
However, after 1989, the SP suddenly became the only force of the
left interested in defending low-educated, low-waged, jobless, and dis-
abled people those most severely victimized by capitalism. It had the
capacity to use its new political monopoly position very creatively and
to overcome its traditional sectarianism and admiration for Mao. In
each social conflict with enterprises, local authorities, housing corpor-
ations, schools, or hospitals, the SP was visibly present on the streets
with its new symbol, the red tomato. It succeeded in mobilizing a
growing sector of disillusioned left-wing voters and non-voters. It
attracted new adherents in the western and northern regions, the tra-
ditional strongholds of the Pacifist Socialist Party (PSP) and the Com-
munist Party (CPN). In 1994, the voters gave the SP its first two
members in national parliament, in 1998 five, in 2002 nine, and in
2006 25 (16.6%). The SP was the main force behind the defeat of a pro-
posed neoliberal and NATO-linked EU constitution. In a 2005 national
referendum, 62% of the voters rejected it.8
The SPs combination of optimism and experiments, without any
clear strategy for transition from capitalism to socialism, was
doomed to fail in the coming years. Big campaigns, especially in
2009 against raising the retirement age to over 65, got broad support

8. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/jun/02/eu.politics3; http://www.
mehr-demokratie.de/fileadmin/pdf/nl2_eclr.pdf
76 Socialism and Democracy

but failed to be deciding. Modest efforts to limit the privatization of


public services, like urban transport or housekeeping support, did
not attract big masses. In 2010 and 2012, the SPs support dropped
almost to 10%, 15 seats in parliament. Its membership declined from
50,740 at its peak in 2007, to 46,507 in 2010, and 44,186 in 2012.9
However, external developments are again working in favour of the
SP. Its influence inside the main trade union federation FNV has
grown strongly as a result of young people taking the lead. The co-gov-
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erning PvdA, once at a level of 35% in the 1970s and 1980s, lost most of
its voters in different directions. Although the SP gets only a part of this
constituency, in recent nationwide elections (2014 European and 2015
provinces/senate), it is even the biggest remaining force of the left,
albeit with only 11.6%.
After the collapse of the PvdA in 2014 15,10 the question is whether
and how the SP will be able to take the leading role in the left and restore
its national impact. Till now, the SP has not presented any attractive
strategy for the future. It lacks any notion of a United Front (as advo-
cated by the former PSP) or Popular Front (as advocated by the former
CPN), in the international Marxist tradition, seen as roads to create both
electoral and non-parliamentary majorities for changing society. The
current biggest party, the conservative-liberal Volkspartij voor Vrijheid
en Democratie (Peoples Party for Freedom and Democracy, VVD),
often invites one of the three leftist parties to participate in its national,
provincial or local coalitions, aiming to keep the left divided by con-
demning the two other parties to opposition. A lack of remaining
local and regional left-wing majorities forced the SP to coalesce at
local and regional levels with right-wing partners,11 as the PvdA had
done. In general, the broad left is weaker today than at any moment
since the introduction of universal suffrage, nearly a century ago.

9. For electoral results in the Netherlands, see www.verkiezingsuitslagen.nl/na1918.


For membership figures of all political parties in the Netherlands on January 1 of
each year, see: www.politiekcompendium.nl/ledentallenvanaf1946.
10. In the 19 March 2015 elections, the SP rose from eight to nine members in the Senate,
while the PvdA, which had once had 28 seats, fell back from 14 to eight. In national
opinion polls taken in June 2015 (https://www.noties.nl/peil.nl), the left fared as
follows: SP 15%, GreenLeft 9%, PvdA 6%, and the more radical green-left variant
Partij voor de Dieren (Animal Welfare Party, PvdD) 3%.
11. Beginning in 2011, the SP was co-governing in 2 of the 12 provinces, in coalition with
the right-wing parties Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie (Peoples Party for
Freedom and Democracy, VVD) and CDA, with the PvdA as the official opposition.
Since 2015, it has been co-governing, in different combinations, in six provinces.
Since 2014, the cities of Amsterdam and Utrecht have been co-governed by the SP
in coalitions with the VVD and the D66 without the PvdA.
Erik Meijer 77

Belgium
In Belgium, for a short period of time, the communists were a sig-
nificant force. In the first post-WWII elections, they got 23 seats in the
parliament, participated in the government, and dominated the
socialist trade union federation Algemeen Belgisch Vakverbond (General
Federation of Belgian Labour [ABVV/FGTB]).12 During the cold war,
their parliamentary strength declined to five seats, with support remain-
ing only in the Walloon coal and steel-regions Borinage and Liege, and
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to some extent in the bilingual capital Brussels and the Flemish harbour-
city Antwerp. However, they lost all of that in the 1990s. The main
reason was the relatively left-wing position of the Walloon Parti
Socialiste (social democracy) even after they expelled their strong Trots-
kyist tendency in 1964. To this day, they dominate the south-eastern
sub-state Wallonia inside right-wing dominated Belgium.
The collapse of communist positions gave space to the Partij van de
Arbeid van Belgie (Workers Party of Belgium [PTB/PVDA]). Its origins
half a century ago are exactly like those of the Netherlands SP, and it is
involved in the same types of bottom-up struggle. However, the
further development of the two parties between 1990 and 2010 was
very different. The PTB/PVDA was not only a militant trade unionist
party, with strongholds among public transport workers, but was also
always seeking heroes and models abroad. It adored Maos China and
even North Korea. As a result of its sectarian positions, it made itself
hated not only by social democrats and greens, but also by the once-
strong Trotskyist movement (POS/SAP) and the remnants of the
former communist party, PCB/KPB. Its isolated positions guaranteed
a regular maximum electoral support of only 1%. A brief electoral
alignment with the Arab-European League, temporarily a remarkable
movement of self-conscious Moroccan migrant-children, led by Dyab
Abou Jahjah, did not change this hopeless situation.13
After those failures, the PTB/PVDA changed its traditional atti-
tude in favour of more practical positions. In a people, not profits
campaign, held mainly in 2014, it attracted support from the remaining
forces of the radical left (e.g. the PvdA-plus in Flanders). It intervenes
in clashes between the right-wing government and the trade unions. Its

12. In the first post-war national elections on February 17, 1946, the Parti Communiste de
Belgique (PCB/KPB) got 12.7% of the votes, most of them in French-speaking Wallo-
nia and for a lesser extent in Brussels. Only three of their 23 deputies were from
Flanders constituencies.
13. For an interview with Dyab Abou Jahjah see: https://www.opendemocracy.net/
faith-europe_islam/article_1908.jsp
78 Socialism and Democracy

members are considered the new communists. It draws support mainly


in the same regions as the old communist party. In the 2014 elections,
this resulted in four representatives in the Walloon parliament, four in
the Brussels agglomeration parliament, and even two French-speaking
men in the federal parliament. In the Dutch-speaking part of the
country, its support remains mainly restricted to Antwerp, where it
got four town-councillors in 2012. Defying Flemish public opinion, it
is the only political party still operating in both parts of Belgium
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together. That it is as active in Flanders as in Wallonia and that


Flemish people play a big role in its leadership is not enough to
make it attractive to broader groups of Flemish voters. Unlike the
Netherlands SP in the nearby regions, it did not succeed in attracting
formerly Catholic-organized workers. Those circumstances make the
PTB the most traditional, the most combative, and the smallest of the
three radical leftist parties in the Benelux.

Luxemburg
In Luxemburg, the communists regularly got five representatives in
the parliament, but lost all of them after the steelworks industry around
their stronghold Esch-sur-Alzette ceased to exist. A new combination
Dei Lenk (The Left) started as an electoral alliance between communists
and a range of other left-wing groups and individuals. Together, they
succeeded in entering parliament in 1999, but lost their only seat after
the communist minority decided to continue separately. In 2013, Dei
Lenk re-entered the parliament, winning two seats. It fights for the
environment as well as on trade union issues. Its current focus is a cam-
paign to get a referendum on their proposal for an alternative national
constitution, oriented toward social justice, more democracy, and a tran-
sition of the small grand-duchy14 into a republic.

Benelux radical left in the European Union


Since its entrance in the European Parliament in 1999, the SP has
been represented in the European United Left/Nordic Green Left

14. International agreements, starting at the 1815 Congress of Vienna, which, after the
chaos of the Napoleonic era, decided on future European states, their borders,
and their dynasties, stipulated that this newly created state should be headed by
a hereditary Grand Duke, understood as a monarch of lower status. From 1815 to
1890, those Grand Dukes were always the same persons as the kings of the Nether-
lands, but those functions were separated as the Vienna Congress determined that
the Luxemburg constitution did not allow succession in the female line.
Erik Meijer 79

(GUE/NGL). Dei Lenk was always a privileged partner of the GUE/


NGL, but is too small to get one of the six seats for the Luxemburg con-
stituency in the European Parliament. The PTB/PVDA is also too small
to be represented in the European Parliament, but if represented, it
would most likely belong to the GUE/NGL as this unites different
Marxist traditions. However, it has no tradition of maintaining
special relations with the GUE/NGL. The SP, the PTB/PVDA, and
Dei Lenk together criticize neoliberal and pro-NATO positions of the
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European Union. Only the SP has used a moderate kind of euro scepti-
cism, especially as an instrument in its electoral campaigns for 2009
and 2014. It accepts Netherlands EU membership but regrets the
early and imprudent introduction of the Euro single currency,
wishes for less Brussels, and claims to resist this Europe. Contrary
to expectations, this more critical position did not produce real elec-
toral gains in comparison with 2004. The SP got two seats in 2004,
2009, and 2014. In practice, voters disgust with the EU does not
result in voting for the SP but in abstention or voting in favour of the
far-right Partij voor de Vrijheid (Party for Freedom, PVV), which,
together with Frances Front National, is against EU membership
and the Euro single currency.

Prospects of the Benelux radical left


Overall, the SP, the PTB/PVDA, and Dei Lenk are not operating
within a climate of mass indignation like that which prompted the
rapid growth of SYRIZA in Greece or Podemos in Spain. Especially
the SP and Dei Lenk are better compared with the Socialistisk Folkeparti
and the Enhedslisten de Rd-Grnne (Red-Green Alliance) in Denmark,
or the Sosialistisk Venstreparti in Norway, although they differ from
these in not having the opportunity to participate in a left-wing
majority government. Among the three parties in Benelux, only the
SP has a somewhat broader potential and is already in a stronger pos-
ition. However, after its highest vote in 2006, it dropped its claim to
fight for a socialist future. Even more importantly, like the PvdA, it
accepts in its coalition policy the permanent minority position of the
left. A potential consequence of these positions for the SP is that it
could fill the gap created by the decline of the PvdA at the electoral
and (later) governmental levels. Such a development might push the
SP to adopt a more moderate left position (as happened with the
Italian Communist Party [PCI] after the fall of the Italian Socialist
Party [PSI]), and eventually provoke the founding of a more radical
party to its left.
80 Socialism and Democracy

Dei Lenk, for the time being, is still far away from this kind of
dilemma. It mainly functions as a pressure group. As a small radical
electoral front to the left of the governing LSAP (social democrats)
and greens, it does not have wider potential in the short run. The
PTB/PVDA is more exclusively dependent on the development of
class struggle than are its counterparts in the Netherlands and Luxem-
burg. Its expansion is limited by the relatively left-wing positions of the
greens in Flanders and the large and powerful Parti Socialiste in
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Wallonia. Its broader potential could materialize only in the event of


big social clashes in the combative communist tradition of Wallonia,
France, and Italy a position defended today only by the Communist
Party of Greece (KKE), which differs significantly from SYRIZA.

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