The German-Dutch Communist Left - Libcom

– the SDAP recognises in a clearly formulated resolution the freedom of all its members or any group of
members, openly, in any form, written or oral, to proclaim the principles embodied in the programme and to
express their criticisms.” 102
The rejection by the ISB and the SDAP of these conditions, which seemed in effect to be an ultimatum, created a
new situation in the International: there were now two socialist parties in the same country, both claiming
membership of the 2 nd International. This situation was an exceptional one for the International. There was of
course the ‘Russian case’, where the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, the Jewish Bund, and the RSDLP (Russian
Social-Democratic Labour Party) were all members of the International. But within the RSDLP itself, even after
the split between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks, both the two fractions and those who were outside both
fractions, remained members of the same Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party, until the Prague split of
1912.
It was, however, very clear for the Marxist militants of the SDP that their party was a party of the International.
The split was a local one, not a split with the International itself. It was obvious for them that the International
remained a living body of the world proletariat, and that the bankruptcy of Troelstra’s SDAP was in no way that
of the 2 nd International. For the SDP, as for the Bolsheviks, the ‘model’ party was still the German social
democracy, to which it remained closely linked. As a member of the SDP leadership, Gorter maintained a
regular correspondence with Kautsky, at least until 1911 when the left broke with the kautskyist centre.
Pannekoek moved to Germany in 1906, and since the split in the SDAP had been a member of the SDP’s
Bremen section, after teaching in the Party School in Berlin.
The SDP promptly approached the International Socialist Bureau (ISB) in order to become a section of the
International. Gorter and Wijnkoop were mandated to explain the reasons for the split to the ISB, on the basis of
reports drawn up for the occasion, addressed to the International. 103 The request to be accepted as a fully-fledged
section of the International led to a conflict between the left, represented by Paul Singer (German SPD) and the
Frenchman Edouard Vaillant, and a right, whose spokesman was the Austrian Victor Adler. The SDP’s
admission to the International was only rejected by a small majority: Adler’s resolution against admission gained
16 votes, Singer’s resolution in favour gained 11 (7 th November 1909). 104 In effect, this vote excluded the SDP
from the international workers’ movement, thanks to the support for revisionism by a majority of the ISB.
However, the SDP was unconditionally supported by the bolshevik left. Lenin, who had contacted Gorter before
the ISB meeting, indignantly condemned the decision of the Brussels Bureau. He had no doubt that the
revisionists were responsible for the split: “[the ISB] adopted a formalist position, and by clearly supporting the
opportunists, have made the Marxists responsible for the split”. 105 He gave his unreserved backing to the
Tribunists’ refusal to accept the suppression of De Tribune. Like them, he condemned the centrism of Roland
Holst, “who sadly displayed a distressing spirit of conciliation”. 106
102 Congress resolution, quoted in the pamphlet Die Gründung der SDP, p. 36; Congresverslagen der SDP, 1909-1910,
pp. 44-45.
103 Ever since the 1904 Amsterdam Congress, the International only admitted one section in each country. To gain admission
for the SDP, the Tribunists drew up a report in French, written by David Wijnkoop and Maria Mensing: Rapport du PSD en
Hollande au BSI [ISB], 1910 [Histoire de la II e Internationale. Congrès socialiste international. Stuttgart, 6-24 août 1907,
Vo1. 18 (Geneva: Minkoff Reprint, 1985)].
Maria Mensing (1854-1933) was the secretary of the Bond van Sociaal-Democratische Vrouwensclubs (‘Social-Democratic
Women’s clubs’).
104 See: Bulletin périodique, No. 2, March 1910, pp. 39-42, which gives a complete account of the interventions during the
ISB session of 7 th November 1909 [Histoire de la II e Internationale, Vol. 23 (Geneva: Minkoff Reprint, 1979)].
105 Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 16, ‘The 11 th Session of the ISB’, 6 th January 1910 (Moscow: Foreign Languages
Publishing House, 1963).
106 Lenin wrote fiercely that “Madame Roland Holst is in my opinion a Dutch Kautsky, or a Dutch Trotsky […] in complete
disagreement with the opportunists, and in practice in agreement on everything important”. [Briefe, Vol. IV (Berlin: Dietz
Verlag, 1967), pp. 101 and 110.]
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