Marcus Bakker (20 June 1923 – 24 December 2009) was a Dutch politician of the defunct

Communist Party of the Netherlands The Communist Party of the Netherlands ( nl, Communistische Partij Nederland, , CPN) was a Dutch communist party. The party was founded in 1909 as the Social-Democratic Party (SDP) and merged with the Pacifist Socialist Party, the Political Party ...

(CPN) now merged into the

GroenLinks GroenLinks (, ) is a green political party in the Netherlands. It was formed on 1 March 1989 from the merger of four left-wing parties: the Communist Party of the Netherlands, the Pacifist Socialist Party, the Political Party of Radicals and t ...

(GL) party and journalist.

Biography

Early life

Bakker was the son of an accountant who worked for the slaughterhouse in

Zaandam Zaandam () is a city in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland, Netherlands. It is the main city of the municipality of Zaanstad, and received City rights in the Netherlands, city rights in 1811. It is located on the river Za ...

. He joined the then illegal

(CPN) in 1943, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. After the war he became an editor of the communist daily newspaper ''De Waarheid'' and an official of the CPN.

Politics

In 1953, Bakker became editor-in-chief of ''De Waarheid'', and in 1956 a member of the House of Representatives. He was a confidant of the then party leader

Paul de Groot Saul "Paul" de Groot (Amsterdam, 19 July 1899 – Bussum, 3 August 1986) was a Dutch politician of the Communist Party of the Netherlands The Communist Party of the Netherlands ( nl, Communistische Partij Nederland, , CPN) was a Dutch communi ...

, who took firm action against dissident movements within the party. Bakker wrote a book called ''De CPN in de oorlog'' ("The CPN during the war", 1958), in which he accused prominent party members such as Gerben Wagenaar,

Henk Gortzak Henk is a Dutch people, Dutch male given name, originally a short form of Hendrik (given name), Hendrik. It influenced "Hank" which is used in English-speaking countries (mainly in the US) as a form of "Henry (given name), Henry". People named "He ...

, Frits Reuter and Bertus Brandsen of being spies. They were eventually expelled from the party. In 1956, Bakker openly supported the crack down on demonstrations that expressed solidarity with the protests in Poznań in Communist-led Poland. Bakker did not accept criticism of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. When the Netherlands were in the process of adopting a new constitution, the draft of Article 1 banned discrimination "on the grounds of religion, conviction, political orientation, race or gender". Bakker proposed to add "or any other ground" to this, which was accepted.

Life after politics

Bakker was succeeded as CPN leader by

Ina Brouwer Ina Brouwer (born 11 April 1950) is a Dutch retired politician of the Communist Party of the Netherlands (CPN) and later co-founder of the GroenLinks (GL) party and lawyer. Education and early career Brouwer studied Law at Groningen University ...

in 1982. He was not involved in the talks that led the party to merge with three other parties to form

in 1991. He became a member of the new party, but cancelled his membership in 1999, when the party supported the

NATO bombing of Yugoslavia The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) carried out an aerial bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War. The air strikes lasted from 24 March 1999 to 10 June 1999. The bombings continued until an a ...

. Bakker published his memoirs, entitled ''Wissels - Bespiegelingen zonder berouw'' ("Reflections without Contrition"). He criticized his own role in the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

, but did not apologize for it. He also expressed regrets about labelling dissident party members spies. Bakker never distanced himself from communism as an ideology, although he stated that he felt 'used' by the communist practice in the

Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...

. Particularly the revelation that the Soviet Union was behind the

Katyn massacre The Katyn massacre, "Katyń crime"; russian: link=yes, Катынская резня ''Katynskaya reznya'', "Katyn massacre", or russian: link=no, Катынский расстрел, ''Katynsky rasstrel'', "Katyn execution" was a series of m ...

was a disillusionment to Bakker. The ''Marcus Bakkerzaal'', a room in the current building of the Dutch House of Representatives, was named after Bakker in 1991.

Personal life

Bakker married Els Ezerman in 1946. The couple had five children. He died on December 24, 2009, at the age of 86.

References

External links

;Official *
M. (Marcus) Bakker
Parlement & Politiek , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Bakker, Marcus 1923 births 2009 deaths Anti-consumerists Anti-globalization activists Chairmen of the Communist Party of the Netherlands Communist Party of the Netherlands politicians Communist writers Dutch atheists Dutch critics Dutch magazine editors Dutch newspaper editors Dutch opinion journalists Dutch resistance members Dutch republicans Dutch political activists Dutch political writers Leaders of the Communist Party of the Netherlands Marxist writers Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands) People from Zaanstad Writers about communism 20th-century Dutch male writers 20th-century Dutch politicians 20th-century Dutch journalists