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This site is dedicated to present a danish marxist tendency on the left, that existed from the beginning of the sixties to the end of the eighties. They became known for their bank robberies for the PFLP in the seventies and the eighties. But their importance was in another field.
They questioned what the left wing did, trying to understand the situation openminded, and developed a new understanding of the world.
Communist Working Circle was started in 1963 by Gotfred Appel and other former members of the Danish Communist Party. They supported the Chinese Communist Party in the "Great debate" between USSR and China and criticized the revisionism in the Communist Party and in USSR.
Later on they asked the question: Why is the working class in the western world not interested in revolution?
The revolutionary left wing never understood that the material living conditions had improved especially since the Second World War. They thought that when you supported the workers in their struggle for economic gains, the worker would see, that revolution was in their interest. But the working class is now (in the sixties and today) in a position where they have more than "their chains to loose" as Marx and Engels wrote about in "the Manifest". Why should they jeopardize the gains they have already had, to get something quite insecure? The globalization has created at situation where most of the products of the welfare societies in the north are produced to a low cost in the third world, where the workers are payed a subsistence pay, and are often deprived any rights.
They developed a new theory, based on the study of the world they lived in, called "theory of the parasite state". It became a guidance in their practice: To support the revolutionary classes which has an interest in overthrowing imperialism where ever they are.
In the theory they said that the working class in the rich part of the world had become a part of the bourgeoisie as a workers aristocracy, gaining on the exploit of the exploited peoples of the third world.
The theory was developed following the workers struggle in one of the biggest working places in Copenhagen—Burmeister & Wain shipyard, and formed in discussions with other left wing organizations.
In 1968 the Communist Youth League was formed in 1968 and later merged with CWC.
In 1969 it came to a dispute with the Chinese Communist Party over the CCP view of the situation in Western Europe, and CCP broke the relations to CWC.
During the World bank meeting in Copenhagen in 1970, where there were some very violent demonstrations involving among other members of CYL. After that, the CWC and CYL changed their praxis. They devoted all their work make material support for the liberation movements in the third world, and study the development op the world.
Inspired by the American/Canadian solidarity group Liberation Support Movement, LSM, they started a new organization called Clothes to Africa. They collected used clothes, that were send to liberation movements in the southern Africa, and later they arranged flee markets to raise money.
In the late sixties the Palestine question became more important. CWC made contact to the new marxist organization the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine PFLP, and some time in the seventies they started to support them with money from robberies.
In 1978 it came to at split in CWC, and some of the members started a new organization Manifest—Communist Working Group (CWG) that continued to study the world and do solidarity work in Clothes to Africa, as well as they continued the criminal praxis in support op PFLP.
CWG made contact to Arghiri Emmanuel, a Greek professor working in Paris. He was the writer of the book "Unequal Exchange", which understanding of the world resembles the theory of the parasite state.
Other from CWC continued in other smal groups working with practical solidarity for the Third World on the same political foundation as CWG.
In November 1988 the group made a robbery in the center of Copenhagen in the post office of Købmagergade. When they were on the run, it came to a shoot-out started by the police, ending in an unfortunate shooting of a policeman. The police used all their strength in solving the crime, and in may the following year they, arrested some members of the group and the environment around them. The police eventualy found a hide-out, where the group had weapons and other materials hidden. After the address the group was then named the "Blekingestreet Gang" in the medias.
In this section there wil be published some pamflets and books, that earlier was published in English by the organisations. Plus two letters, written by the leader of Communist Working Circle, Gotfred Appel to the Chinese Embassy in Copenhagen and to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China from 1968-69, with critique of the Chinese medias views on Western Europe. The letters have not been published before.
Poul Mikael Allarp
Editor of snylterstaten.dk
(the parasite state)
August 20. 2013
