The German-Dutch Communist Left - Libcom

of the textile industry in the Netherlands, which concentrated thousands of proletarians, like in Leiden and
Twente. 6
In 1878 the Social Democratic Association (Sociaal Democratische Vereeniging) was founded in Amsterdam,
and this soon led to the formation of local groups (The Hague, Rotterdam, Haarlem) who saw their task as
leading the class struggle. In 1881, the regroupment of these workers’ associations took the name Social
Democratic Union (Sociaal Democratische Bond). Its first secretary was Gerhard, who had been secretary of the
IWMA’s section in The Netherlands.
Domela Nieuwenhuis, the SDB and the SDAP
The personality who was marking the beginnings of the Dutch workers’ movement was that of Ferdinand
Domela Nieuwenhuis (1846-1919), a former pastor converted to socialism. At the time Domela Nieuwenhuis
was not yet an anarchist and led big campaigns for universal suffrage. The activities of his movement consisted
of leading economic strikes and helping to set up trade unions. The foundation in 1879 of the periodical Recht
voor Allen (‘Right for All’) – which became the organ of the Sociaal Democratische Bond – encouraged
agitation amongst workers’ groups. Its activities were varied: distribution of leaflets in the factories and
barracks, the education of the proletariat through courses on Marxism, demonstrations and meetings against the
army, the churches, the monarchy, alcoholism and class justice. Repression was soon to descend on the young
workers’ movement. Not only was Domela Nieuwenhuis arrested and condemned to a year of prison; for the first
time in its history, the police force was armed, and could be assisted by the military “in case of a conflict”. The
police had the right to be present in public meetings, to dissolve them and to arrest socialist speakers.
Considering himself a disciple of Marx and Engels, for a long time Domela Nieuwenhuis kept up a written
correspondence with the theoreticians of scientific socialism 7 . The latter, though following sympathetically the
development of the socialist movement in The Netherlands, had many reservations about the immediately
“revolutionist” conceptions of Domela Nieuwenhuis. Marx warned against ‘doctrinaire’ views which sought to
draw up plans for “a programme of action for the first day after the revolution”. 8 The over-turning of society
could not be a “dream about the world to come”. On the contrary, “The scientific notion of the inevitable and
constant decomposition of the existing social order, the increasing exasperation of the masses with governments
which incarnate the ghosts of the past, and on the other hand the positive development of the means of
production, all this guarantees that at the moment when the true proletarian revolution breaks out, the modus
operandi (all the conditions) of its immediate progress (nothing idyllic, of course) will have been created.”
Domela Nieuwenhuis’ importance in the Netherlands lies not only in his activity as an agitator and organiser of
the working class. He was the first to publish an abridged version of Marx’s Capital. This being said, he was far
from being a Marxist theoretically. His innumerable writings reveal a theoretical eclecticism, combining social
humanism and ethical religiosity, with a persistent attachment to the Christianity of the founding fathers. A
propagandist for atheism and ‘free thought’ – the groups of “free thinkers” had a considerable echo in the early
6 Caljé, P.A.J. & J.C. den Hollander, De nieuwste geschiedenis. Overzicht van de algemene contemporaine geschiedenis
vanaf 1870 tot heden (Utrecht: Aula Pocket 842, 1995).
7 ‘Marx-Engels-Nachlass’, Letter from F. Domela Nieuwenhuis to K. Marx, 28 March 1882.
8 Marx answered to Nieuwenhuis: “ The doctrinaire and necessarily fantastic anticipations of the programme of action for a
revolution of the future only divert us from the struggle of the present. The dream that the end of the world was at hand
inspired the early Christians in their struggle with the Roman Empire and gave them confidence in victory. Scientific insight
into the inevitable disintegration of the dominant order of society continually proceeding before our eyes, and the evergrowing
passion into which the masses are scourged by the old ghosts of government – while at the same time the positive
development of the means of production advances with gigantic strides – all this is a sufficient guarantee that with the
moment of the outbreak of a real proletarian revolution there will also be given the conditions (though these are certain not
to be idyllic) of its next immediate modus operandi.” [Letter from K. Marx to F. Domela Nieuwenhuis, 22 February, 1881,
MEW, Vol. 35, pp. 159-160.]
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