The Netherlands' first socialist MP, who turned anarchist and was expelled from the Second International for his anti-war general strike
Born in Amsterdam in 1846, he was a Lutheran preacher who lost his faith and took up the political fight for workers, led the founding of the Social Democratic League, and in 1888–1891 was the first socialist member of parliament in Dutch history. At the Brussels congress of 1891 he proposed that the workers of all countries answer an outbreak of war with a general strike, and was voted down. Drifting towards anarchism, he was expelled from the Second International in 1896 and then broke completely with the socialist movement. He died in Hilversum in 1919.
Career timeline
- 1888–1891Member of the Dutch House of Representatives, the first socialist MP
- 1891Proposed an anti-war general strike at the Brussels congress
- 1896Expelled from the Second International
The astrophysicist who mapped the Milky Way, and the council communist Lenin attacked in 'Left-Wing Communism'
One summer night in Bremen, 1908 — after teaching a workers' class — Pannekoek went out with his telescope. His verbal descriptions of the Milky Way clouds, notebook after notebook, would later become the evidence that let stellar statisticians first gauge the distance to our galaxy's spiral arms.
Dutch astronomer and founder of council communism. He won the RAS Gold Medal for his work on stellar atmospheres and galactic structure. In the Dutch and German left he built the theory of workers' council revolution, becoming the principal target of Lenin's 'Left-Wing Communism'.
Career timeline
- 1899Observer at Leiden Observatory; PhD on Algol variability
- 1901Joins the Dutch SDAP
- 1906–1914Active in the SPD left wing in Berlin and Bremen; party-school teacher
- 1909Co-founds the Social Democratic Party, forerunner of the Dutch CP
- 1918–1921Co-founds the Dutch CP; Comintern Amsterdam Bureau
- 1920Target of Lenin's pamphlet; replies with 'World Revolution and Communist Tactics'
- 1921–1927Expelled from CP; active in KAPN and the Communist Workers' International
- 1925–1942Professor at University of Amsterdam; founds the astronomical institute
- 1938Publishes 'Lenin as Philosopher' under pseudonym J. Harper
- 1946Publishes 'Workers' Councils' as P. Aartsz
The Dutch revolutionary who planted communist seeds in Indonesia and China, then fought both Stalinism and Nazism
On the night of 12 April 1942 at Amersfoort camp, bound and facing the firing squad, Sneevliet refused a blindfold and together with seven comrades sang 'The Internationale.' He asked the executioners to untie his hands; they refused.
Dutch labour organizer and revolutionary socialist. After railway union work he helped build socialist organization and labour activism in the Dutch East Indies. As the Comintern’s representative in China under the name Maring, he attended the CCP founding congress in 1921 and mediated contacts with Sun Yat-sen and the United Front. Back in the Netherlands he broke with Stalinism, built a revolutionary socialist party and served in parliament. He led the underground MLL Front during the German occupation and was arrested and executed in 1942.
Career timeline
- 1902–1911Dutch railway & tram union (NV) officer; chairman in 1911
- 1912Joined the Social Democratic Party (SDP); wrote for De Nieuwe Tijd
- 1914–1918Dutch East Indies; co-founded ISDV, organized railway union, expelled
- 1920PKI delegate to 2nd Comintern Congress; elected to ECCI
- 1921–1923Comintern representative in China; CCP founding, Sun Yat-sen meeting, First United Front
- 1924–1927CPN Central Committee, NAS secretary; broke with Stalinism
- 1929–1938Founded and led RSAP; International Bureau of Revolutionary Socialist Unity
- 1933–1937Dutch MP; elected from prison for supporting naval mutiny
- 1940–1942Organized MLL-Front, published Spartakus, February 1941 strike, arrested & executed
Dutch council communist arrested for the Reichstag fire of 1933 and executed
Born in Leiden, he worked as a bricklayer and at sixteen, in 1925, joined the Communist Party of the Netherlands and its youth section. An accident at work damaged his eyes and left him unemployed; in Leiden he founded the "Lenin House" and was active among unemployed workers. In 1931 he broke with the party and approached the Group of International Communists. He went to Germany in 1933 and on 27 February was arrested inside the burning Reichstag. The Nazis cast him as part of a communist conspiracy and exiled communists as a Nazi tool, but he maintained that he had acted alone to protest against the condition of the German working class. Sentenced to death at Leipzig, he was guillotined on 10 January 1934 and pardoned posthumously in 2008.
