On 19 January, comrade Wil (Willy Ernst Karl) van der Klift, former member of the NCPN Political Bureau and Central Committee, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Manifest and international secretary, passed away. With his insights, humour and tireless efforts, Wil fought for a better world. He made an indispensable contribution to building the communist movement in the Netherlands.
Wil initially worked as a ship engineer and was involved in the trade union. Later, he worked as a social worker and played an important role in setting up trade union work among social workers in The Hague. Through the trade union, Wil became involved in the Communist Party of the Netherlands (CPN), which he joined in 1972.
In the CPN, Wil held various cadre positions, including as member of the district bureau and political secretary of The Hague district. He was particularly committed to work in the companies and trade union.
From the beginning, Wil opposed the reformist, Eurocommunist current in the CPN, which wanted to liquidate the party. He was involved in the Horizontaal Overleg Communisten (HOC), which opposed this liquidation attempt, and then the Union of Communists in the Netherlands (VCN) and the NCPN.
Within the NCPN, Wil served on the Central Committee and the Political Bureau for decades. For 28 years, Wil was editor-in-chief of Manifest, the NCPN's newspaper, which Wil saw as an indispensable tool in the class struggle.
International solidarity was a high priority for Wil. In particular, Wil gave significance to solidarity with Cuba. Wil was international secretary of the Central Committee and valued the exchange of experiences and thoughts with sister organisations. Wil represented the NCPN at countless international meetings around the world, maintained contacts with foreign sister organisations and with the Cuban embassy in the Netherlands on behalf of the NCPN for many years, and was among the initiators of annual conferences with sister parties in neighbouring countries.
Wil paid special attention to the youth. With his rich experience, lively stories and humour, he involved young people who joined the Communist Youth Movement (CJB) in political work.
Despite his health deteriorating in recent times, Wil remained concerned about the worrying developments in the world until the very end. A world full of injustice, exploitation and wars was something he could not and would not accept. Wil was deeply convinced that a different, socialist society was necessary. He was convinced that the working class needed its communist party in the struggle for a better society.
From these convictions, Wil fought steadfastly even under very difficult conditions of counter-revolution and deep crisis in the labour and communist movement. He made an immeasurable contribution to the reconstruction of the communist movement in the Netherlands.
We will miss Wil tremendously. His valuable insights and discussions, but also his sailor stories and humour. We will remember Wil as a militant communist who dedicated his life to the struggle for a just society, for socialism. We will continue that struggle!
We wish his wife comrade Tineke, his daughter Judith and his son-in-law Remie, his grandchildren and other loved ones much strength.
KKE: On the loss of Wil van der Klift
In a statement, the International Relations Section of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) expresses its condolences for the death of Wil van der Klift:
It is with great sadness that we bid farewell to comrade Wil van der Klift, a leading cadre of the New Communist Party of the Netherlands (NCPN) since its foundation, who contributed substantially for decades as a member of the PB of the CC, editor-in-chief of the NCPN newspaper, Manifesto, and Secretary for International Relations of the party.
Comrade Wil worked tirelessly under very difficult conditions after the counter-revolution to enable the CP to regroup in the Netherlands.
With his important contribution, the NCPN was founded in 1992 and the Communist Youth Movement of the Netherlands (CJB) in 2003, while the NCPN made important steps forward by renewing its ranks.
Comrade Wil firmly believed in the right cause of the working class struggle and its historic mission to build a world without capitalist exploitation, socialism.
We convey our deepest condolences to the family of comrade Wil and his comrades in the NCPN.
