German-Dutch Left

I was hoping one of you could tell me who the major theorists are in the German-Dutch current, and which of their works are worth reading. I took a look around some of the older topics here and couldn't find much regarding the subject.

Thanks for the suggestions! From my understanding Pannekoek's works are taken to be the foundation of Council Communism? I think I remember seeing somewhere that from the Left Communist perspective, the councilists take some of his works out of context to support an anti-bolshevik stance and take some of his principles a bit too far.

It's not so much that Pannekoek's work is taken out of context by the Council Communists; more that Pannekoek developed his opinions and positions over 40 years.

In 1910, Pannekoek was on the left of Social Democracy (along with Lenin and Luxemburg). In 1920, he was a Left Communist. In 1940, he was a Council Communist.

The Council Communists aren't wrong about that. 'Why past revolutionary movements have failed' for instance is a text that I think pretty clearly expresses Council Communist positions on the nature of the party and the 'stagist' theory of the Russian revolution.

From the Left Communist point of view, Pannekoek becomes less clear about the reasons for the degeneration of the revolution during the 30s. It's the wrong answer to the right question, because it relegates the problems of the revolution to the specifics of the Russian situation. In that respect it's a flip-side of Stalinism, a kind of ultra-left Trotskyism, where the problem is one of policy. Yes the revolution degenerated, but the explanation is not, as it is in the Left Communist analysis, one of the failure of the international extension, it's a problem of the party form - too IInd International, not proletarian, ie it's a crisis of (the existence of) leadership; or it's a question of underdevelopment in Russia - in other words, Stalin was right that the only task for the Russian state was to develop industry (because the task of the Russian state-capitalist bourgeoisie was to develop industry and create a massive Russian working class) and Lenin was wrong to proclaim a socialist revolution in a backward country.

But that doesn't mean Pannekoek wasn't a Left Communist in 1920.

Thanks for the clarification, Blake. I can see that I misunderstood the history behind it.

Wow, that looks pretty awesome, thanks for the link. I have no free time these days, and a huge pile of reading to do; but that book is going straight near the top. It looks like it could answer most of the questions I'd have on the subject.