The German-Dutch Communist Left - Libcom

In fact, at the Extraordinary Congress at Deventer, the Tribunists fought bitterly for two days and in extremely
difficult conditions. 94 Often interrupted by Troelstra who systematically used an ‘anti-intellectual’ demagogy,
with his ironical references to the “professors of De Tribune”, often encountering the laughing incomprehension
of the Congress, they stayed on the offensive. They fought to maintain the revolutionary essence of the party, the
“salt of the party” in Gorter’s phrase. No freedom for a Marxist critique of opportunism – a freedom which
existed in big parties, like the German SDP – meant suppressing the possibility of “awakening revolutionary
consciousness”. 95 More than any other, Gorter was able to express at the Congress the revolutionary conviction
of the Tribunists: a decisive period was opening up, a period of looming war and of revolution in Germany,
which would draw Holland into the ferment: “Internationally, the period is very important. An international war
threatens. Then the German proletariat would make the insurrection, and Holland would have to choose its
colours; so the party should rejoice that it has in it men who put the revolutionary side of our struggle first and
foremost.” 96
Aware that the SDAP was sinking fast, Gorter concluded at the end of the Congress with a ringing appeal for the
regroupment of revolutionaries around De Tribune: “Come and join us round De Tribune; don’t let the boat go
under”. This appeal was not however an invitation to split and set up a new party, since the Tribunists would
thereby lose any possibility of developing: “Our strength in the party can increase; our strength outside the party
can never grow”. 97
But this fight to remain within the party failed. Old enemies of revisionism like Van der Goes, although they
refused to exclude the Tribunists, nonetheless voted to ban De Tribune. The ‘peace Marxists’ turned ‘centrist’
and abandoned the revolutionaries. The split became inevitable in the name of ‘party unity’.
The Congress decided overwhelmingly – by 209 mandates against 88, with 15 abstentions – to suppress De
Tribune and replace it with a weekly run mainly by Roland Holst. But, above all, it excluded from the party the
three editors of De Tribune: Wijnkoop, Van Ravesteyn and Ceton. In the view of the revisionists, it was
necessary to cut off the organising ‘head’, to separate the ‘leaders’ from the mass of Tribunist sympathisers in
the party.
This manoeuvre failed. After the shock of the exclusion of these spokesmen for Tribunism, in the sections the
militants got back on their feet and declared their solidarity with the three editors. Very quickly, what until then
had been an informal tendency became an organised group. Immediately after the Congress – proof that the
Tribunists had envisaged this possibility before the split – a permanent organisation commission was formed to
regroup the Tribunist tendency. Members of De Nieuwe Tijd group, including Gorter, ended up joining the
commission. 98 After six weeks of doubt and hesitation, Gorter finally resolved to commit himself
wholeheartedly to working with the expelled Tribunists. However, Gorter warned against the foundation of a
second party on a purely voluntarist basis.
It was in fact the SDAP’s publication, on 13 th March, of the party referendum approving the decisions at
Deventer, which pushed those who had been excluded to form a second party. By 3,712 votes to 1,340, the
SDAP confirmed the expulsion of the whole editorial board of De Tribune. 99
In the meantime, on 10 th March, before this definitive announcement of expulsion was known, Gorter and
Wijnkoop had gone to Brussels. They were met by three members of the International Socialist Bureau (ISB) –
Camille Huysmans, Emile Vandervelde and Edouard Anseele, all known to belong either to the ‘centre’ or to the
94 See: Verslag van het buitengewoon congres der SDAP, gehouden op 13 en 14 februari 1909 te Deventer (Deventer
Congress proceedings), Amsterdam, 1909.
95 Vrij Nederland, op. cit., pp. 19-23.
96 See the Congress proceedings, op. cit., p. 20.
97 Quoted in Vrij Nederland, op. cit., p. 22.
98 As did M. Mendels, who later left the SDP. The older militants like Van der Goes and H. Roland Holst remained in the
SDAP.
99 De Liagre Böhl, op. cit., p. 49.
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