One year since the mass strike rallies in France. Conclusions and prospects for the labour movement in Europe
Contribution of the NCPN to the ECA meeting in Paris on 16/03/2025
Dear comrades, we would like to thank you for inviting us and organizing this conference.
This conference we collectively reflect on the labour movement in Europe in the light of last year’s mass strike rallies by the French working class. We want to congratulate the French working class and our French comrades on their inspiring level of organisation and consciousness to such an extent that they were able to have these mass strikes. For us, as members of the Dutch working class mass strikes are namely a very rare phenomena. Partially as a result of the illegality of strikes with demands outside labour relations, that is with political demands, in combination with the financial responsibility for unlawful union activity laying with the unions instead of its individual members causing inaction. To clarify, for mass strikes in the Netherlands we have to go back way further than 1 year. Dutch mass strikes include; the February strike of 1941 organised by our predecessor, the CPN, the only mass public action in occupied Europe against the Nazi persecution of Jews; the April-May strikes of 1943 against fascist occupation and forced labour, partially organized by CPN members, the biggest public action in occupied Europe; the 1946 strikes organised by the CPN against sending troops to regain control of the Dutch colony of present-day Indonesia; the Women’s strike of 1981, for women’s rights and legalised abortion.
Where mass strikes are currently not yet on the agenda and despite many weaknesses and the problems to be overcome, the Dutch labour movement cannot resist but be shaped by the worsening national and global conditions in the imperialist system. The Dutch working class is showing signs of progressing towards increased activity, organisation and class consciousness.
Labour movement in the Netherlands
The activity of the working class shows signs of increasing on multiple fronts, both qualitatively as well as quantitatively.
Although the amount of called strikes are far from historic heights, 2023 did see the largest number in 50 years. 2019 saw the largest amount of people partaking in strikes ever since recording started in 1901, with that also the percentage of working people striking that same year.
Where 2024 specifically was a calmer year in comparison to 2023 (26 strikes compared to 52 ), the obtained average wage increase by percentage of 5,3% (7,1% in 2023) was above the historic average. Besides recent years similar increases can only be found going back 40-50 years. The durations of collective labour agreements too is below the historic average. As such, workers can obtain improvements in a more rapid fashion.
Activity increasing can also be seen by the actions in certain industries. Workers from industrial laundries as well as pharmacies went on strike for the very first time last year, with workers from the brick-making industry going on strike for the first time in recent history. Further more from late 2024 onwards the entire education sector is increasing their struggle against the drastic spending cuts faced by the education system, which would result in many job losses, in light of the government’s effort to redirect expenses towards more profitable industries including the defence industry. Strikes have started this very week.
The Dutch labour movement currently has a historically low level of organisation, in 2023 only 15% of people of working age were part of a union. The largest Dutch union, the FNV, has 60% of all members and did report a net increase of members from late 2022 onwards. With union membership increasing nationwide in 2023.
Despite the lack of a class-oriented trade union movement and the level of influence of a class conciliatory, social democratic line in the major trade unions, class consciousness shows signs of increasing. Some examples from 2024 follow:
The actions and strikes of workers performing so called “hard work”, with hard work being defined by workers and unions themselves, for a nationwide permanent option to stop having to work before reaching retirement age without financial repercussions.
The FNV campaign of struggling for a higher national minimum wage and social benefits linked to this increase. In 2024 a quarter of the collective labour agreements concluded won the strived for minimum wage of €16/h.
The efforts of union members from FNV to push their union to organize actions in solidarity with Palestine and later the creation of a national support network by active members to facilitate other members in such actions when the union’s response is lacklustre. This group has produced its own small actions against pension funds to make them divert their billions of investments in Israel and has supported concrete actions: strikes at the University of Amsterdam against its cooperation with Israel institutions and a small action within the Youth care branch. In the case of the strikes at the University of Amsterdam it is critical to stress that these were only realised by workers organising in a class-oriented action-committee outside of the main union structure, spearheaded by one of our comrades. Thereby they pushed the reluctant union to help organise the first (of only two) Dutch union actions in solidarity with Palestine. Moreover, last month they were able to get multiple members aligned with them to get elected into the FNV’s member parliament. All signalling the willingness of workers to use their power beyond demands specific to the work they do.
Dutch workers are starting to become more and more active in the face of imperialist annihilation and high inflation utilizing the leverage they have because of general labour shortages.
Political struggle within the FNV
The intensification of struggles of the labour movement are also causing an intensified struggle within the union itself. Here we wish to shortly focus on the dynamics within the FNV, which has been plagued by an internal crisis. This crisis manifested itself as an individual power play between members of the board where both board members, general union members and workers employed by the union were put in unsafe working conditions.
If such a struggle for positions and between individuals at the expense of a coherent collective strategy to improve the position of the working class remind you of bourgeois democracy, you would be correct. The democratic structure of the FNV is a result of a merger which has led to a combination of sectoral delegations and institutions that are in some ways even less democratic than those of a bourgeois republic. Its highest elected bodies exist of a directly elected parliament and chairman and a board elected by the parliament. With the sessions of the parliament and board being almost fully non-transparent and with members of parliament explicitly not having to hold themselves accountable for their actions. Sectorial delegations were able to remove members of parliament. Recently the parliament has voted to amend the statures to give that power to the union board which the parliament itself elects. The very board the parliament should be keeping in check and removing if necessary. Furthermore as a result of efforts from many sides the union’s board has been put aside by a new interim-chairman who normally works for the employers and has been 1 of the 5 highest Dutch police chiefs. This interim-chairman has recently taken over all ongoing portfolios from the previous board, despite having zero knowledge on them, endangering the continuity of the union’s efforts.
The sectoral delegations together with union personnel are still struggling against the unsafe working conditions, the democratic deficits within the union and the people in charge of it currently. So far the union personnel went on strike once and efforts are made to ally with new aligning union parliament members to regain control.
The politics of the Dutch capitalist class
The capitalist class of the Netherlands and its direct and indirect political representatives are very much aware of the people’s dissatisfaction. For example, the largest party for the past 15 years, the VVD, who have spearheaded, together with other bourgeois forces such as the social-democratic PvdA and the christian-democratic CDA, the deterioration of living conditions and the continued erosion of the social services, has recently publicised their ‘Agenda for those labouring in the Netherlands’.
Attached to the carrot is the stick, the repressive institutions are also being invested in. The new reactionary government, consisting amongst other of the far-right PVV of Geert Wilders, which presents itself as a ‘popular’ government with initial promises of improving the standard of living of the “common” people, will intensify the attack on the people’s rights, targeting migrants and sowing division between the working class, which serves as a ‘base’ for their new anti-people budget plans.
Besides cynical public relations attempts the policies focus around the interest of the monopolies, both on a national as international level. Similarly as likely many of your own countries, the capitalist class is trying to divert the wealth the workers produce towards the preparation for the imperialist war at the cost of housing, healthcare, education, culture and what not.
NCPN’s vision on the role of communists and conclusion
These bourgeois policies, which include increased repression and militarization in the context of the increased contradictions in the imperialist system, will plant the seeds for further mass dissatisfaction amongst the Dutch people.
Such levels of dissatisfaction are currently on a world wide scale being channelled into rising support for fascistoid or far-right parties. This is the consequence of on the one hand the increased dissatisfaction of the people, but on the other hand the lack of the accompanied development of the subjective factor, of the organised working class and its communist party. It is the role of the communists to open people up to the alternative to capitalism, which is the cause of their problems and dissatisfaction, to promote the interest they have in socialism-communism despite its vilification by all bourgeois forces.
Now more than ever, we must concretely work towards our alternative, socialism-communism, together with the people, building working class power and showing them that they have the strength to overthrow this system. In the general social movement, such as the peace movement, student movement, anti-racism movement and so on, this requires building action-committees uniting masses of people as opposed to coalitions of (bourgeois) political entities mobilising only its own members. In the labour movement its demands the building of self supporting groups of workers within companies and outside of unions.
The NCPN has decided at our last Congress to prioritise on increasing our presence in the working class movement, forming new base organisations in the workplaces and neighbourhoods, where the workers produce and live and where they can strike against capitalist power. New possibilities, but also dangers arise with the increased contradictions under capitalism, with the perspective of new wars, crises and austerity measures for which the people will have to pay the price. New possibilities which we will seize to strengthen the organisation and class consciousness of the Dutch working class!