The German-Dutch Communist Left - Libcom

a formidable weapon against the left: this was to be the bitter experience of the Dutch Tribunists and the German
left around Rosa Luxemburg from 1909 onwards.
The beginnings of the SDAP – The three Marxist generations – Troelstra and the right of the party
None of the leaders of the Dutch left, including Gorter and Pannekoek, would have defined Dutch social
democracy as ‘bourgeois’, even after the split in 1909, and even as late as 1920. In 1922, Gorter, with hindsight,
observed that Marxism and revolution presided over the beginnings of the SDAP: “...really, the beginning was
good. At the beginning of the 1890s, a real revolutionary propaganda was set in motion, both outside and inside
Parliament. We said publicly and clearly: ‘we want reforms, but you will only get them through a revolutionary
attitude. By constantly aiming for the violent annihilation of capitalism; because you yourselves constantly
defend your rights’. Reforms and revolution together – that was the slogan.” 23
At its beginnings, between 1890 and 1900, the SDAP attracted the best Marxist elements. A whole constellation
of intellectuals broke with the bourgeoisie, and joined the party on the basis of revolutionary positions. Their
contribution to the both the Dutch and the international revolutionary movement was to be considerable. There
were three generations of Marxists, the last two providing the matrix for the formation of the Dutch Communist
Left. These successive generations were symbolised by the names of Frank van der Goes, Herman Gorter,
Henriëtte Roland Holst, Anton Pannekoek, David Wijnkoop, Jan Ceton, and Willem van Ravesteyn, to name
only the best known. This Marxist left had the particularity of being composed of artists, writers, and scientists
who were of no small importance in the cultural history of Holland, especially among those of the second
generation.
Frank van der Goes (1859-1939), one of the first to introduce Marxism into Holland, was of great importance. It
was he who trained Troelstra in Marxism – to little effect, it is true – and more importantly, Gorter and Roland
Holst. His itinerary is particularly symptomatic. This aristocrat “of mind and heart”, to use Pannekoek’s words,
gave the appearance of a ‘gentleman’ who had wandered into a workers’ movement from which all his
circumstances seemed to separate him. An insurance broker and writer by profession, he began as a member of
the Liberal Party and a bourgeois reformer. He came bit by bit towards the socialist movement through literary
criticism. He made his mark as one of the ‘leaders’ of the literary movement of the 1880s (known as the
‘tachtigers’), of which Gorter was also a prominent figure. In 1885, he founded the artistic periodical De Nieuwe
Gids (‘The New Guide’), an anti-conformist review for the ‘liberation’ of literature and society from all
conservatism. In 1890, he joined the SDB, to become leader of the opposition to Domela Nieuwenhuis and the
representative of a tendency seeking at all costs to form a social-democratic party by splitting from the SDB
without first conducting an internal struggle. His main contribution to Marxism was to translate Book I of
Marx’s “Capital”, and above all in 1893 to found – with his own money – the Marxist periodical De Nieuwe Tijd
(‘Modern Times’), which was to remain the organ of the Marxist left until its death in December 1921. In May
1896, it became the periodical of the SDAP, modelled on Kautsky’s Neue Zeit. Its editors, with Van der Goes,
were Gorter, Roland Holst, and Pieter Wiedijk 24 , who was later to be editorial secretary and to make this the
theoretical organ of Tribunism (see below).
23 H. Gorter, ‘Die marxistische revolutionäre Arbeiterbewegung in Holland’, idem, pp. 16-20.
See the Dutch council communist periodical Daad en Gedachte (‘Act and Thought’), Nos. 1 and 2, Jan. and Feb. 1984,
‘Over een povere en over een wezenlijke kritiek op de sociaal-democratie’. See also this group’s pamphlet: Was de sociaaldemocratie
ooit socialistisch? (‘Was social democracy ever socialist?’), Lelystad: Daad en Gedachte, 1990.
The periodical ceased to be published in 1998, although the group remained still alive. Cajo Brendel is a prominent member
of this group. The pamphlet was originally written by Jaap Meulenkamp (1917-1998).
24 Pieter Wiedijk (1867-1938) – nom de plume: J. Saks – was a pharmacist who joined the SDB in 1892, then the SDAP.
Editorial secretary of De Nieuwe Tijd (1902-1913); member of the Tribunist SDP from 1909 to 1915. See: F. de Jong Edz,
J. Saks, literator en marxist. Een bijdrage tot de geschiedenis van het marxisme in Nederland (Amsterdam:
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