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Wijnkoop’s suggestion, the SDP’s Leiden congress (6 th -7 th June 1914) adopted the slogan “Indië los van Holland”: the separation of Indonesia and Holland. This slogan concretised the policy officially adopted by the 2 nd International. But the SDP’s colonial policy immediately led it into ambiguities in relation to the expanding Indonesian nationalist movement. The party declared its uncritical solidarity with the Indische Partij, formed in 1908 and led by Ernest Douwes Dekker (1879-1950), a distant Indonesian relative to Multatali, in exile in Holland. It even opened the pages of De Tribune 122 to the nationalist leader, whose aim was independence in cooperation with the Asian ‘elites’, in other words with the Asian national bourgeoisie (Japan). This was the forerunner of a policy subjecting the ‘native’ proletariat to the Asian bourgeoisie, which was to be fully developed by the Komintern, and of which Sneevliet was one of the main architects. The ambiguities of the SDP’s policy on the colonial problem were laid bare when Sneevliet returned to Indonesia between 1913 and 1918. Sneevliet, who was formally a member of the SDAP until 1916, worked locally with members of the SDP. Settled in Samarang – a large port on the north coast of Java – he entered the leadership of the rail and tram workers’ union (“Vereeniging van Spoor- en Tram Personeel – VSTP), the only union to admit Indonesian workers, and which was to form the proletarian base of the future Indonesian Communist Party. In May 1914, on Sneevliet’s initiative – thus applying the resolution of the Paris international congress – was formed the Indonesian Social-Democratic Union (“Indische Sociaal Democratische Vereeniging” – ISDV). This organisation had some hundred Dutch members, including a few Javanese and Indo-Europeans. In 1915, it published a bi-monthly in Dutch: Het Vrije Woord (‘Free Speech’), led by Sneevliet and Asser Baars. In 1917, it published the first Indonesian language socialist paper: Soeara Merdika (‘Free Speech’). The ambiguity of the ISDV’s existence lay in its close relations with the nationalist organisations. Of these, the most important were Sarekat Islam (Islamic Union), formerly formed in 1912 – it was founded in reality in 1909 under the name of Sarekat Dagang Islamiyah – by Muslim tradesmen to spread their influence over the workers and peasants, and Douwes Dekker’s Indische Partij, founded in 1908, mostly made up of Indo-European office workers, and renamed ‘Insulinde’ after its dissolution in 1913. Sneevliet and other members of the ISDV also belonged to the ‘Insulinde’ movement. But above all, after 1916 the ISDV broke with ‘Insulinde’, which defended a pro- Japanese policy and the nationalist slogan of ‘Java for the Javanese’, and allied itself closely to the Sarekat Islam. Indonesian members of the ISDV, like Samoen, were simultaneously members, and even leaders, of the Islamic movement. During the war, the ISDV recruited a considerable number of Indonesians from Sarekat Islam, which had some 20,000 members (against 7,000 for the Indische Partij). One of them – briefly – was Sukarno, the future nationalist leader – leader of the Partai Nasional Indonesia (PNI) formed in 1927 – and president of Indonesia in 1946. This policy prefigured, in embryonic form, the policy adopted in China after 1921 – with the encouragement of Sneevliet and the Komintern – of a united front, even to the point of a fusion of nationalist and communist organisations (the Kuomintang and the Chinese CP). Nevertheless since 1916 – in De Tribune, October 14, 1916 –, a leader of the Tribunist left – Barend Luteraan – warned against “the error of the revolutionists” of the Western countries to invite “to support the ideology of Islam”. During the war, the positions adopted by Sneevliet and his organisation against the war, for Zimmerwald, for the Russian Revolution, and for a Third International, undoubtedly demonstrate the internationalist nature of the ISDV. In March 1916, Sneevliet and his supporters left the local SDAP to join the Tribunist SDP. Thanks to the Russian Revolution, the ISDV was becoming more and more revolutionary; the right wing of the organisation split to join the Indonesian Social Democratic Party, the Indonesian branch of the SDAP. In fact, from 1917 onwards the ISDV’s entire activity was directed towards support for the Russian, then for the German revolutions. The only revolutionary movement in which the ISDV took part was that of the soldiers and sailors of the Dutch fleet in Surabaya (Java’s second town, on the north coast). Sneevliet’s participation in the movement led to his expulsion from Indonesia in December 1918. In 1920, the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) was formed from the ISDV and Indonesian trade unionists linked to the nationalist movement. Significantly, within the Komintern Sneevliet represented the PKI and the ‘left wing’ of Sarekat Islam. This 122 De Tribune, No. 89, Augustus 1914. 50
alliance with the indigenous Islamic bourgeoisie was to last until 1923. 123 It is interesting to underline that the first secretary of the PKI was not an Indonesian but the Dutch Pieter Bergsma (1882-1946), editor of Het Vrije Woord (from 1920 to 1922), who became later secretary of the CPN (1926-1930). Sneevliet’s policy on the colonial question was in complete accord with that of the SDP. It expressed a constant oscillation between an internationalist orientation encouraged by the Russian Revolution, and an orientation in favour of ‘national liberation’, which led in fact to the Indonesian proletariat’s subjection to nationalist Islamic organisations. This oscillation between nation and international class was summarised well in the ISDV’s programme, adopted at its congress in May 1918: “The ISDV aims to organise the proletariat and peasants in the East Indies, irrespective of race or religion, in an independent union, to conduct the class struggle in their own country against a ruling capitalist class, and thereby strengthen the international struggle and at the same time undertake the only possible struggle for national liberation.” 124 . It was the current led by Gorter and Pannekoek which, little by little, called into question the SDP’s support for ‘national liberation’ movements, to put forward the unity of the world proletariat in every country, against world capital, and for the world revolution. Pannekoek’s reappraisal of the national question in Germany was to be decisive. The Dutch left and its influence on German radicalism From the beginning of the century, the Dutch left had had considerable influence on the political debates within the German Social democracy. Largely thanks to Pannekoek’s personality, its influence was fast to become determinant in the formation and structure of the radical current, especially in Bremen (Bremerlinke), one of the founding nuclei of both Spartakism in 1918, and Linkskommunismus in 1919-20. First contacts with German Social Democracy The SDAP’s formation took the German party as a model, and it was soon to become influential within the instances of the 2 nd International, particularly through its reformist leaders Troelstra, Van Kol, and Vliegen. The Marxist wing of the SDAP made early contact with the centre of German Social democracy, represented theoretically by Kautsky who at the time was positioned on the left thanks to his defence of Marxist ‘orthodoxy’ against the revisionist current. After 1901, Gorter developed close political and personal ties with the ‘Pope of Marxism’. Considering himself as Kautsky’s disciple, he often took on the task of translating the ‘orthodox’ leader’s work into Dutch. Henriëtte Roland Holst, who had been charged to draft a resolution on the general strike question for the International Congres of Amsterdam (1904), had been entrusted by Kautsky to write a book on the mass strike, that should draw the practical and theoretical lessons from the 1905 Russian 123 For the resolutions, proceedings, and debates on the colonial question, see the reprints (in English, French, and German) of: G. Haupt and M. Winock (eds.), La Deuxième Internationale 1889-1914, Vols. 1-23 (Geneva: Reprint Minkoff). See also: G. Haupt and M. Rebérioux (eds.), La Deuxième Internationale et l’Orient (Paris: Cujas, 1967), pp. 18-71; 212- 248, and 319-332; M. Perthus, Henk Sneevliet, revolutionair-socialist in Europa en Azië (Nijmegen: SUN, 1976), pp. 89- 201; F. Tichelman, Socialisme in Indonesië. De Indische Sociaal-Democratische Vereeniging 1897-1917, Vol. 1 (Dordrecht, 1985); Vol. 2, 1991; F. Tichelman, Henk Sneevliet, Een politieke biografie (Amsterdam: Van Gennep, 1974) [French translation: Montreuil: Éditions La Brèche, 1988]; M. Williams, Sneevliet and the birth of Asian communism, in: New Left Review, No. 123, Sept.-Oct. 1980; R.T. MacVey, The rise of Indonesian Communism (New York: Ithaca, 1965); L. Palmier, Communists in Indonesia (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1973). For the social-economic background of Indonesia, see: F. Tichelman, Social Evolution of Indonesia, The Asiatic Mode of Production and its Legacy (Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff, 1980). 124 Het Vrije Woord, 20 th May 1918. 51
Page 1 and 2: PHILIPPE BOURRINET The Dutch and Ge
Page 4 and 5: The Dutch and German Communist Left
Page 6 and 7: General studies ...................
Page 8 and 9: INTRODUCTION Despite the theoretica
Page 10 and 11: In fact, it was not the GIC, but th
Page 12 and 13: history of the Dutch communist curr
Page 14 and 15: Chapter 1: Origins and Formation of
Page 16 and 17: 1862-1866, 1871-1872); these conser
Page 18 and 19: Dutch and German workers’ movemen
Page 20 and 21: However, this ‘radicalism’ of D
Page 22 and 23: emained an internationalist. It is
Page 24 and 25: a formidable weapon against the lef
Page 26 and 27: form the Tribunist movement: Mendel
Page 28 and 29: of the organisation. 31 He only dev
Page 30 and 31: The support given to the various re
Page 32 and 33: Using the pretext of the struggle a
Page 34 and 35: the end of 1903. 57 By contrast, a
Page 36 and 37: Bolsheviks had deputies in the Duma
Page 38 and 39: imposed to form an organised fracti
Page 40 and 41: was obliged to include in the pream
Page 42 and 43: ‘right’ 100 - which was based i
Page 44 and 45: This was the beginning of an increa
Page 46 and 47: carried out by the SDP - in the for
Page 48 and 49: The growth of Dutch imperialism cou
Page 52 and 53: evolution. 125 Right up until the w
Page 54 and 55: helped to write the pamphlet addres
Page 56 and 57: section, supported a counter-resolu
Page 58 and 59: Chapter 2 Pannekoek and ‘Dutch’
Page 60 and 61: The philosophical bases of radical
Page 62 and 63: Wrongly presented by its opponents
Page 64 and 65: is most necessary. Only knowledge g
Page 66 and 67: ended in defeat - but whatever help
Page 68 and 69: The Dutch Left never considered the
Page 70 and 71: ourgeois revolutions, thinks of not
Page 72 and 73: eligious faith in the success of th
Page 74 and 75: organisations they had so patiently
Page 76 and 77: forces... The most backward country
Page 78 and 79: mass strikes; the proletariat’s s
Page 80 and 81: ‘Great Night’: “[passive radi
Page 82 and 83: economic, and whose political domin
Page 84 and 85: letter to Paul Lafargue (20 th June
Page 86 and 87: Luxemburg in urging a clear rejecti
Page 88 and 89: explicit criticism of their leaders
Page 90 and 91: As in most of the belligerent count
Page 92 and 93: the main goal was the return to pea
Page 94 and 95: Gorter’s analyses were remarkable
Page 96 and 97: political factors which led to this
Page 98 and 99: During 1915, opposition to the war
Page 100 and 101:
inform its readers about the Confer
Page 102 and 103:
It is noteworthy that Roland Holst
Page 104 and 105:
powerful opposition to this policy
Page 106 and 107:
The workers’ reaction was immedia
Page 108 and 109:
concealed the Wijnkoop leadership
Page 110 and 111:
Lenin was quite right to emphasise
Page 112 and 113:
“Don’t you feel, little by litt
Page 114 and 115:
dissolved itself. There only remain
Page 116 and 117:
Chapter 4 THE DUTCH LEFT IN THE KOM
Page 118 and 119:
Spartakusbund not rejected particip
Page 120 and 121:
However, the circular of the Komint
Page 122 and 123:
Kommunist, publication of the Breme
Page 124 and 125:
Russians - like Trotsky 433 - no lo
Page 126 and 127:
The resolution adopted by the confe
Page 128 and 129:
Led by Wolffheim and Laufenberg, th
Page 130 and 131:
Pannekoek’s great clear-sightedne
Page 132 and 133:
Rühle’s anti-party current. But
Page 134 and 135:
All these accusations fail to stand
Page 136 and 137:
not that of a general staff, in whi
Page 138 and 139:
democrats and bourgeois in the war
Page 140 and 141:
The unions also resemble the state
Page 142 and 143:
eal decision-making centre. In this
Page 144 and 145:
communism extends from the Rhine to
Page 146 and 147:
The NEP (New Economic Policy) in th
Page 148 and 149:
and the workers, who had all been a
Page 150 and 151:
However, all the left communists, G
Page 152 and 153:
was more disastrous for the VKPD th
Page 154 and 155:
At its 3 rd Congress, the Komintern
Page 156 and 157:
when he was in fact in Spain at the
Page 158 and 159:
workers, and that every three month
Page 160 and 161:
committee is also of the opinion th
Page 162 and 163:
large towns passed from capitalism
Page 164 and 165:
KAI would be “infinitely difficul
Page 166 and 167:
private property”. They constitut
Page 168 and 169:
side, of two KAPDs, with two papers
Page 170 and 171:
intention of working for the reunif
Page 172 and 173:
‘old enemy’ Paul Levi. 650 Deth
Page 174 and 175:
district in Amsterdam, condemning a
Page 176 and 177:
THE GROUP OF INTERNATIONAL COMMUNIS
Page 178 and 179:
the Dutch theoretical review Radenc
Page 180 and 181:
the CPO decided to dissolve in orde
Page 182 and 183:
political sleep by the crisis of th
Page 184 and 185:
economic, rather than the political
Page 186 and 187:
the nationalist, even anti-Semitic
Page 188 and 189:
parliamentary stipend financed the
Page 190 and 191:
shreds”. 706 But significantly, t
Page 192 and 193:
KAPD. The GIC, followed by Pannekoe
Page 194 and 195:
It was a party which dared not spea
Page 196 and 197:
a big impact in the unemployed move
Page 198 and 199:
anarchist group like the BAS was ch
Page 200 and 201:
The other factor in the defeat of t
Page 202 and 203:
would ‘awaken’ the German prole
Page 204 and 205:
Spartacus, organ of the LAO, while
Page 206 and 207:
Chapter 7 TOWARDS A NEW WORKERS’
Page 208 and 209:
The evolution of the Dutch GIC towa
Page 210 and 211:
the world, especially since 1968. 7
Page 212 and 213:
Secondly, by trying at all costs to
Page 214 and 215:
In a contradictory way, the GIC rep
Page 216 and 217:
The ‘new workers’ movement’ a
Page 218 and 219:
The function and functioning of the
Page 220 and 221:
een eclipsed and replaced by a “d
Page 222 and 223:
and developed since the birth of th
Page 224 and 225:
GIC recognised the fundamental role
Page 226 and 227:
This view has a certain resemblance
Page 228 and 229:
“At the beginning of the period o
Page 230 and 231:
Bogdanov, the social process was re
Page 232 and 233:
to construct a coherent and ordered
Page 234 and 235:
“As soon as the proletarian class
Page 236 and 237:
the danger of state capitalism. The
Page 238 and 239:
inseparable from the anti-organisat
Page 240 and 241:
growing uncertainty of existence is
Page 242 and 243:
indivisible unity operating like th
Page 244 and 245:
“freedoms” and the introduction
Page 246 and 247:
Steuermann 972 , Rühle showed that
Page 248 and 249:
Russian capitalism. It was only con
Page 250 and 251:
The unemployed workers of Amsterdam
Page 252 and 253:
Unlike the Paul Mattick group in th
Page 254 and 255:
The contribution by this group, whi
Page 256 and 257:
Chapter 9 THE DUTCH INTERNATIONALIS
Page 258 and 259:
workers’ councils”, the KAPN’
Page 260 and 261:
impoverished peasants and, on the o
Page 262 and 263:
The first ‘minority’ was formed
Page 264 and 265:
iting, since the Dutch RSAP and the
Page 266 and 267:
seems to have come from an ex-membe
Page 268 and 269:
esult which appeared positive to th
Page 270 and 271:
Chapter 10 FROM THE “MARX - LENIN
Page 272 and 273:
to the previous history of Germany
Page 274 and 275:
posterity a political, as much as a
Page 276 and 277:
Council communist theory had a revo
Page 278 and 279:
organisations together, including t
Page 280 and 281:
This ‘broad’ policy towards oth
Page 282 and 283:
The MLL Front played a considerable
Page 284 and 285:
workers had been liquidated. A tota
Page 286 and 287:
Chapter 11 The Communistenbond Spar
Page 288 and 289:
political past, marked less by synd
Page 290 and 291:
process, and “the [capitalist] sy
Page 292 and 293:
organisation, once theoretical and
Page 294 and 295:
organisation: “The Bond is a temp
Page 296 and 297:
The implicit rejection of the Russi
Page 298 and 299:
the ‘right’ to speak in the Ber
Page 300 and 301:
slavenmaatschappij tot arbeidersmac
Page 302 and 303:
In 1945-46, the Bond examined sever
Page 304 and 305:
Luxemburg’s conception, it was fo
Page 306 and 307:
draws in ever greater masses. [...]
Page 308 and 309:
The onset of the Cold War left the
Page 310 and 311:
- General rejection of all groups t
Page 312 and 313:
disappeared in 1948. Canne-Meijer w
Page 314 and 315:
Bond arrived at the idea that the R
Page 316 and 317:
After World War II council communis
Page 318 and 319:
joined the left wing of the SPD or
Page 320 and 321:
Like SB, it paraded a strong anti-b
Page 322 and 323:
If ‘councilism’ as an organised
Page 324 and 325:
The history of the Dutch and German
Page 326 and 327:
organisational discipline, both exp
Page 328 and 329:
looked to changes in the sociologic
Page 330 and 331:
The criticisms put forward by Geyer
Page 332 and 333:
BIBLIOGRAPHY A bibliography on the
Page 334 and 335:
Stan POPPE (1899-1991) archives: mi
Page 336 and 337:
Rote Armee (constituted in April 19
Page 338 and 339:
Korrespondenz-Blatt der KAPD, ‚an
Page 340 and 341:
‘Monatsblätter aus der Jugendbew
Page 342 and 343:
Nasha Duma, Sofia, Oct. - Dec. 1919
Page 344 and 345:
THE NETHERLANDS The Dutch communist
Page 346 and 347:
Uit eigen kring; intern orgaan (the
Page 348 and 349:
(These latter two texts have been t
Page 350 and 351:
There is a good choice of texts, tr
Page 352 and 353:
Zur Psychologie des proletarisches
Page 354 and 355:
Marxism: last refuge of the bourgeo
Page 356 and 357:
(These texts are in Authier-Barrot,
Page 358 and 359:
Der Kampf um die Macht in der Gegen
Page 360 and 361:
Pamphlets by the Bulgarian left com
Page 362 and 363:
REICHENBACH (Bernard), ‘Moscow 19
Page 364 and 365:
‚Über Karl Korsch’, in Jahrbuc
Page 366 and 367:
ROEGHOLT (Richter), Ben Sijes. Een
Page 368 and 369:
JANEV (Nikola), Balgarskata komunis
Page 370 and 371:
The ‘intellectual current’: lit
Page 372 and 373:
MALANDRINO (Corrado), ‘Anton Pann
Page 374 and 375:
BERENDSEN (Hans), & WEEDA (Rik), Ui
Page 376 and 377:
HARMSEN (Ger), Historisch overzicht
Page 378 and 379:
NGO VAN, Vietnam 1920-1945, révolu
Page 380 and 381:
WINCKLER (Heinrich August), Arbeite
Page 382 and 383:
Protokolle der Vereinigungs-Konfere
Page 384 and 385:
Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli,
Page 386 and 387:
CWI: Communist Workers’ Internati
Page 388 and 389:
NSV: Nederlandsch Syndikalistisch V
Page 390 and 391:
VOC: Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compa
Page 392 and 393:
Blackwell (Russell) [alias: Negrete
Page 394 and 395:
Fischer (Ruth) [Eisler (Elfriede),
Page 396 and 397:
KAPN, 17, 138, 172, 187, 199, 204-2
Page 398 and 399:
Most (Johann), 29 Mühsam (Erich),
Page 400 and 401:
Rühle (Otto), 13, 17, 21, 62, 120,
Page 402 and 403:
Vonk (group De), 324, 329, 337, 351
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