The New Communist Party of the Netherlands (NCPN) has officially changed its name to the Communist Party of the Netherlands (Communistische Partij van Nederland – CPN).
The resolution also revisits the crisis of the old CPN during the 1980s. It states that communists opposed what they regarded as the party’s increasingly reformist course, organizing around the Horizontaal Overleg Communisten and later establishing the League of Communists in the Netherlands (VCN). After the old CPN was dissolved in 1991, the NCPN was founded on November 14, 1992, through an initiative involving the VCN, former CPN members and regional communist groups. The resolution explicitly acknowledges that the NCPN was not the formal legal successor of the former CPN, while describing its establishment politically as a continuation or “restart” of the communist party.
According to the party, the designation “New Communist Party-NCPN” was originally adopted because legal obstacles prevented it from using the historic CPN name. With those obstacles no longer applicable, the extraordinary congress concluded that “Communist Party of the Netherlands” more accurately reflects the party’s identity, its Marxist-Leninist principles and its participation in the international communist movement. Thirty-five years after the dissolution of the former CPN, the initials CPN have thus formally returned to Dutch political life.
The decision was unanimously adopted at an extraordinary party congress held on September 26, according to a political resolution published by the party newspaper Manifest on October 3. The party states that it will continue its struggle for the interests of the working class and for socialism under the historic CPN name.
In explaining the decision, the party traces its political tradition through the history of the Dutch communist movement, particularly the Social Democratic Party (SDP), which adopted the name Communist Party of the Netherlands in 1918. According to the resolution, the historic CPN played an important role in workers’ struggles and in the communist resistance against the Nazi occupation during the Second World War.
The resolution also revisits the crisis of the old CPN during the 1980s. It states that communists opposed what they regarded as the party’s increasingly reformist course, organizing around the Horizontaal Overleg Communisten and later establishing the League of Communists in the Netherlands (VCN). After the old CPN was dissolved in 1991, the NCPN was founded on November 14, 1992, through an initiative involving the VCN, former CPN members and regional communist groups. The resolution explicitly acknowledges that the NCPN was not the formal legal successor of the former CPN, while describing its establishment politically as a continuation or “restart” of the communist party.
According to the party, the designation “New Communist Party-NCPN” was originally adopted because legal obstacles prevented it from using the historic CPN name. With those obstacles no longer applicable, the extraordinary congress concluded that “Communist Party of the Netherlands” more accurately reflects the party’s identity, its Marxist-Leninist principles and its participation in the international communist movement. Thirty-five years after the dissolution of the former CPN, the initials CPN have thus formally returned to Dutch political life.