What does the NCPN stand for?
The NCPN is the party of and for the working class. These are the people who depend on their labor to make ends meet. In other words, the NCPN stands up for the interests of the workers, including those who are unemployed, welfare dependants, pensioners, and students who belong to the working class.
The NCPN in a nutshell
The New Communist Party of the Netherlands (NCPN) is committed to a more just society. And this is desperately needed! Because incomes and public services are being dismantled, while big business receives millions through subsidies and tenders. A small group is getting richer and richer, while ordinary workers, the unemployed, the retired, students and schoolchildren have to make do with less and less. But it is the ordinary people, the working class, who produce the wealth!
The fact that the wealthy accumulate wealth is because they own the big companies, factories, means of transportation and offices. This allows them to get rich from the labor of the workers, thus exploiting the working class. This system, in which the economy is in private hands, is called capitalism. Capitalism is also accompanied by many other problems. For example, the environment and climate are degraded for the sake of capitalists’ profits. Inequality of women, racism, fascism and other reactionary views are also perpetuated by capitalism. Internationally, capitalism results in imperialist wars, waged for the interests of the rich and forcing millions of people to flee every year.
The NCPN is the party of and for the working class. We fight for a society without poverty, unemployment, insecurity, war and injustice. Our goal is the overthrow of capitalism and the building of a just society, socialism-communism, where the economy is in the hands of society.
No more will the profits of the rich determine how the economy operates. In socialism, economic development is planned based on what the population needs, with consideration for the environment. Healthcare, education and other social services are provided free to all who need them. All people are guaranteed jobs. Poverty, unemployment and insecurity are a thing of the past. In socialism, there is no room for discrimination based on gender or sexual preference. There is no room for racism and fascism.
All other political parties want to preserve capitalism. Whether they call themselves left or right, the private property of the rich is sacred to them and therefore they end up doing what big business wants. Exactly therein lies the difference with the NCPN. The NCPN does have an anti-capitalist character. It is the only party committed to a socialist society.
“…’Our teaching is not a dogma, but a guide to action. Doctrine must not be a closed guild, with special tests and passwords, but an open door to mass action, a lever for hastening it, and a yardstick for testing its correctness. The truth of any doctrine, i.e., of any guiding principle, method, or theory, is not in its form of presentation, but in its correspondence to revolutionary reality. The criterion of truth is not the agreement of the conclusion with arbitrary, conventional, subjective opinion, but the agreement of the conclusion with objective reality.…”
W.I. Lenin, Against Dogmatism and Sectarianism in the Workers’ Movement, Progres Publishing House, Moscow, 1991, pp. 93-97.
What does the NCPN want for the working class?
- That everyone has a secure job with decent pay and working conditions.
- That public services such as healthcare and education are available to everyone completely free of charge, and that everyone has affordable and good quality housing.
- That women and minorities have equal rights and equal pay. That there is no room for discrimination and fascism.
- That there is peace and no imperialist wars that kill or force millions of people to flee every year.
- That action is taken against environmental destruction and climate change.
All these interests, however, are antithetical to those of the owners of large corporations, the capitalists. Making a profit is above all else for them. The rights and incomes of working people are a cost to them. The same applies to measures that promote the emancipation of disadvantaged groups and provide solutions for people facing additional problems (e.g., provisions for immigrants, people with disabilities, the elderly, etc.). Nature is seen by capital either as a dumping ground that can be polluted unimpeded or as a source of raw materials or economic activities.
The governments and the European Union serve the interests of the capitalists. They cut social security, healthcare and other things people need, while the monopolies receive billions through tax exemptions and tenders. Working people have to give in more and more, while the bosses get away with wealth. But it is the workers who produce all the wealth!
The capitalists, for one, do not live off their own labor; they become rich by exploiting others. This is because they are making a profit from the labor of their workers. We live in a society where the factories, means of transportation, offices and other means of production are privately owned by the capitalists. This allows this small group to get rich on the backs of the working people.
This is the capitalist system in which we live: a small group becomes very rich and the vast majority has to make do with less and less. But capitalism does not only exist in the Netherlands, it exists internationally and causes a lot of injustice in the world.
This is how all kinds of imperialist wars and interventions take place worldwide. All sorts of hypocritical pretexts are used as justification, such as bringing “democracy and freedom”. But behind them are the interests of the monopolies of various countries and imperialist alliances, such as NATO and EU. Between them they compete for control of raw materials, transportation routes and markets. Every year hundreds of thousands of innocent people die and millions have to flee because of these imperialist wars.
The NCPN is at the forefront of working people’s struggles, because struggle is the only way to force improvements and create a more just world! As communists, we contribute to organizing working people in their organizations, such as trade unions, neighborhood committees, as well as committees fighting for women’s emancipation, against racism and other forms of discrimination, or against fascism. We defend political rights and trade union rights, and fight against undemocratic and repressive measures by the state and bosses targeting the labor movement. We fight for peace, against imperialist wars and interventions. Rights are not bestowed from above, but are acquired through the struggle of ordinary people. So class struggle is our only option, and in that struggle the NCPN offers the perspective of a different society.
Because a different society is needed! Capitalist society, based on the private ownership of the means of production and the exploitation of the working people, offers no decent work, no peace and no prospects for the future. The NCPN fights for a society in which the economy is in the hands of the working class itself, so that prosperity benefits everyone. To achieve this, it is necessary to abolish private property and make the means of production into public property.
That society is socialism-communism. Since the means of production are no longer in private hands, the aim of the economy is no longer to make a profit, but only to satisfy the needs of people. The development of the economy then no longer depends on the anarchy of the market, but is centrally and scientifically planned. Everyone has a job. Things like education and health care are available for free. There is sufficient and easily affordable housing. Only the socialist, planned economy can truly take the environment into account and make the drastic changes in production processes needed to combat climate change and other ecological disasters. In socialist society there is no room for reactionary views and measures are taken that are necessary for the emancipation of women and minorities from the working class. This is the society the NCPN is fighting for, together with its youth organization, the Communist Youth Movement of the Netherlands (CJB).
The NCPN is fundamentally different from all other political parties in the Netherlands. The other parties (including those that call themselves “leftist” or even “socialist”) promise all sorts of things. But as soon as they come to power, they conveniently forget those promises. This is because they do not question capitalism. Private capitalist ownership, based on the exploitation of the workers, is sacred to the other parties. They uphold capitalism, and with it exploitation and all its problems such as unemployment, poverty, insecurity, discrimination and war. Within the framework of capitalism, governments, whether they call themselves right or left, will serve the interests of big business. The NCPN is the only party whose goal is to overthrow capitalism and build a socialist society, which is why it consistently serves the interests of the working class. The communist party does not promise that the party will solve the problems for the people, but organizes the people themselves in the struggle to collectively solve social problems in the struggle for a better, socialist society.
The NCPN bases this on Marxism-Leninism. This is the scientific worldview, the method, that provides insight into the laws of economics and society. The founders of this theory are Marx and Engels, and the theory was further developed by Lenin and many others. The theory is an indispensable “weapon” in the struggle against capitalism, in the struggle for socialism.
Want to know more about our vision and views?
Then read our in our political documents with background information, analysis and views on various issues.