"Das Werden einer neuen Arbeiterbewegung" was first published in German in Rätekorrespondenz, no. 8-9 of April 1935, the journal of the Dutch council communist Group of International Communists (GIK).

The English version  -  "The Rise of a New Labor Movement"   -  was published in the United States in International Council Correspondence, no. 10 of August 1935, the journal of the United Workers Party, later the Groups of Council Communists (GCC). This English version is only a partial translation. The (...) marks are as they appear in International Council Correspondence, presumably marking where sections of the original have been omitted.

Following the total collapse and repression of the 'old workers movement' in Germany the circles of Council Communists  -  the restgroups of the KAPD, the KAU and the Rote Kämpfer  -  continued underground, but had very naturally serious internal discussions about reorientation and reformulation of their basic positions and the perspectives of their efforts.

With this text Canne Meijer presented the positions of the Dutch GIK to these debates.

The 'death' of the old workers movement were not to be regretted and the 'old' concepts of the German/Dutch Left of the 20'ies (the KAP-ideology of the 'real' communist worker's party) were not worth holding either. Instead Canne Meijer advocated the GIK-concept of the political 'work-groups' as organs within the working class for propaganda, discussion and clarification.

This attempt to formulate a new orientation of the Council Communists were discussed both in Germany and abroad. Critical responces were made in two directions. In one perspective Canne Meijer were accused of idealism; the vision of the 'new worker's movement' as developing from the 'political workgroups' were not radical enough. In another perspective the article was just too abstract; it did not address the very concrete problems and tasks of the clandistine networks of 'political workgroups' actually operatin in Nazi-Germany.

However and in spite of these critical debates this text is one of the most important documents of the Council Communist current in the 30'ies.

The e-version of the German text was copied from the Left-Wing Communism-site at www.left-dis.nl
The e-version of the English text was copied from the John Gray Website - For Communism-site at http://www.geocities.com/~johngray/