The German-Dutch Communist Left - Libcom

In Nashe Slovo, October 1915, Trotsky attacked the Tribunists, among whom he included Pannekoek. While
agreeing that the Manifesto was the fruit of a “compromise”, and emphasising the “perfectly correct criticisms”
of the Tribunists, he denounced – not without reason – a “narrow-minded confidence of town-hall politics”. For
him, Pannekoek was similar to Wijnkoop, a mixture of “scepticism” and “intransigence”, “which are
marvellously complementary”. And he concluded unkindly: “We find the most pure culture of formal extremism
in Holland, a country which is not at war, and which cannot be considered a focus of social revolution: we need
only add that the ‘Tribunists’ have never been able to attract more than 500 members.” 333 This argument was
taken again after 1920 by Trotsky himself to justify the policy of formation of mass parties and fusion with the
socialist parties.
In the case of Wijnkoop, Van Ravesteyn and Ceton, their sectarianism was only a cover for an opportunist
policy, which was to appear in the open from 1916 onwards. The ‘sectarianism’ of which the Communist
International accused Gorter, Pannekoek and their supporters in 1920 did not really exist. On the contrary, they
worked determinedly for an international regroupment of revolutionaries.
The development of the SDP: between revolution and opportunism
Despite the policy of the SDP leadership, Zimmerwald encountered an immense echo in the working class in
The Netherlands, as it did in all the belligerent countries. Indeed it was such that even the SDAP, under the
pressure of its own opposition, published the ‘Manifesto of the Zimmerwald Conference’ in Het Weekblad, the
Saturday supplement of Het Volk, but in order to combat it. 334
Finally, under the pressure of both the workers and the RSV – which it did not want to be alone to don the
mantle of revolutionary activity – the SDP unwillingly joined the international socialist commission created at
Zimmerwald. 335 This adherence to the Zimmerwald movement came late. In the end, several factors had caused
the SDP to change its attitude, and to move closer to the RSV.
In the first place, Roland Holst’s RSV had moved considerably closer to the Tribunists. It had even given solid
proofs of its move to the left: those members of the RSV who still belonged to the SDAP Left it in January 1916;
given the attitude of the SDAP, whose Congress explicitly condemned the Zimmerwald movement, the small
minority of those hostile to the 2 nd International henceforth turned towards the SDP. Roland Holst immediately
made it known that a merger with the Tribunist party was on the agenda. 336 With the exception of the split from
the left in February 1917 (see below), this was the last significant split from the SDAP till the formation of the
OSP in 1932.
Secondly, and despite the hesitation of its leadership, support for the SDP was growing in the working class. The
party’s propaganda had grown considerably: against the war, against three-year military service, against
unemployment and rationing. It was especially active amongst the unemployed and in the unemployed
committees which began to be formed. Politically, the party’s theoretical armoury made it appear as the only
consistent Marxist party in Holland. The theoretical monthly De Nieuwe Tijd (‘The New Epoch’), born in May
1896, which belonged neither to the SDAP nor to the SDP and had comprised ‘Marxist theoreticians’ from both
parties since the 1909 split (Van der Goes and Wibaut remained as editors), now passed entirely into the hands
of the internationalist Marxist current. The departure of Wibaut and Van der Goes eliminated the “opportunist
and revisionist current” from the pages of De Nieuwe Tijd.
333 Nashe slovo, ‘Gollandskie ekstremisty’, Oct. 1915, pp. 27-31. In French: Trotsky, La Guerre et la Révolution, Vol. 2,
p. 51 (Paris : ‘Tête de feuilles’, 1974).
334 See Burger, op. cit., pp. 42-44.
335 However, the SDP did not take part in either the Kienthal or Stockholm conferences. For Kienthal, the Dutch government
refused to issue a passport for the SDP delegate – Roland Holst, who was again chosen by the party.
336 See Burger, op. cit., pp. 51-53.
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