Communism in Denmark

[...] the Danish group, the Communist Task Force (KAK) engaged in a series of robberies in the 1970′s and 80′s to raise funds for the armed movement in Palestine, ostensibly for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine [...]. Like many other groups that were similarly engaged in revolutionary appropriations it was called a ‘Gang’ by the media and thus are commonly known as the Blekinge Street Gang in Denmark [...]. What is interesting about the KAK besides its more commonplace Third Worldism was its adherence to a nascent form of Maoism-Third Worldism.

The Communist Party of Denmark, like many other Scandinavian parties, sided with Moscow during the Sino-Soviet split in June 1963. Gotfred Appel, a member of the DKP, informally formed the KAK to influence the line of the DKP and was expelled from the DKP in September 1963 for having taken the trouble to do so. In December of the same year the KAK was declared a formal separate party. The same month as he was expelled from the DKP, Appel formed a publishing company, “Futura”, which would translate and publish the Danish-language publications for the Chinese embassy in Denmark including the immensely popular Quotations from Mao Zedong. In 1965 the KAK organized the first pro-Vietnam rally and in 1966 formed the first Vietnam Committee. None of this is particularly interesting. Indeed, it follows the usual course of events that one can see around the world. Thus, we must ask what is distinctive about them?

What is distinctive about the KAK is Appel’s theoretical developments from 1966-1967. In “Communist Briefing”, a KAK publication, Appel penned a series of theoretical articles in which he elaborated a ‘leech state theory’. The ‘leech state theory’ argued: that the rich countries make so much money by exploiting 3rd world countries that even their “poorest” citizens are so rich they are effectively “bribed” into being part of the Capitalist bourgeoisie and unlikely to participate in any Communist revolution until this source of wealth dries out due to liberation of the 3rd world. Accordingly, western communists who really want a communist ideal state must first help liberate the 3rd world countries from western exploitation.

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