League of Communists in the Netherlands
The League of Communists in the Netherlands (Dutch: Verbond van Communisten in Nederland or VCN) was a communist political party in the Netherlands. The VCN was the result of a split in 1984 in the Communist Party of the Netherlands (CPN), who disagreed with the revisionist and eurocommunist line of the new leadership of the CPN. Already in 1982 did an orthodox communist platform within the CPN emerged, called the Horizontaal Overleg Communisten, (Horizontal Forum of Communists) (HOC), which at first functioned as a lobby group within the CPN. Former member of parliament Fré Meis was one of its more prominent members. After the CPN Congress of 1984, in which democratic centralism and Marxism-Leninism were abandoned, did the HOC decided to split from the CPN and form the VCN.
The VCN was mostly active within the traditional CPN strongholds, such as Amsterdam and the province of Groningen. In 1986 the VCN contested the Tweede Kamer elections, but only gathered 4,800 votes, just 0.1% of the votes. However the CPN just barely missed the 0.67% hurdle and therefore lost its representation. If the votes of the VCN would have been included, the CPN would have gotten representation. In 1989, after the CPN had already merged into GroenLinks it again contested the elections, and although gaining more votes, it still did not get close to winning a seat (7,700 votes, 0.1%). It was estimated in 1989 that the VCN had about 1000 members.[1]
In 1992, after the final disbandment of the CPN, the VCN decided to merge with local communist groups and those of the HOC who decided to remain within the CPN, which resulted in the formation of the New Communist Party of the Netherlands (NCPN).