NCPN restores name "Communist Party of the Netherlands"

In a document explaining the decision, the party traces its origins to the Dutch workers' and communist movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries. It recalls that the Social Democratic Party (SDP), founded in 1909 by the Marxist wing of the Dutch social-democratic movement, adopted the name Communist Party of the Netherlands in 1918 as part of its affiliation with the Communist International. The document highlights the former CPN's role in workers' struggles, trade unions, social rights, peace and anti-colonialism, as well as its resistance to fascism during the Second World War.

The NCPN says the original CPN subsequently moved away from its communist foundations. During the 1970s and 1980s, a reformist current gained influence, while the party leadership abolished democratic centralism and, in 1984, formally abandoned Marxism-Leninism. Communists who opposed this course organised through the Horizontal Consultation of Communists (HOC), which later contributed to the establishment of the Union of Communists in the Netherlands (VCN) in 1985.

When the CPN decided to dissolve itself in 1991, the VCN and groups of former CPN members established the NCPN on 14 November 1992. According to the NCPN, most of its founding membership consisted of former CPN members, including people who had held positions in the former party's leadership and local organisations. The NCPN therefore describes its foundation as a political continuation or relaunch of the CPN, while acknowledging that it was not its formal legal successor.

The party says the use of the CPN name was legally prevented when the NCPN was founded, which led to the adoption of the name "New Communist Party-NCPN". It argues that those legal obstacles no longer exist and that the word "new" no longer has substantive significance.

In justifying the change, the NCPN points to its continued adherence to communism and Marxism-Leninism, its participation in the international communist movement and its decades-long activity aimed at building a communist party in the Netherlands. It argues that these factors establish a political continuity with the historical CPN and that no other Dutch political organisation currently has an equivalent claim to the name.

The NCPN also acknowledges the historical significance of the CPN name and says it expects the change to be supported by its international communist partner organisations.

The party has consequently decided to replace Nieuwe Communistische Partij-NCPN with Communist Party of the Netherlands (CPN), presenting the move as the restoration of the historical name of the Dutch communist party rather than the establishment of a new political organisation.