Colonial spokesman of the Dutch SDAP who argued for a "socialist colonial policy" at the Stuttgart congress
Dutch engineer and politician. Drawn to socialism while studying hydraulic engineering at Delft, he went to Java in 1876 as an engineer and joined the First International. One of the "twelve apostles" who founded the SDAP in 1894, he sat in the House of Representatives from 1897 to 1909 as the party's colonial spokesman. As chairman of the colonial commission at the 1907 Stuttgart International Socialist Congress he argued for a socialist colonial policy, while himself concealing a stake in a Javanese coffee plantation.
Also known as: Hendrikus Hubertus van Kol · Henri Hubert van Kol · Rienzi
Activities and affiliations
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1876–
International Workingmen's Association (First International)
Social movements and organizing -
1876–
Netherlands state institutionsHydraulic engineer in the Dutch East Indies
Science and technology -
1894–1925
Social Democratic Workers' Party (Netherlands) (SDAP)Main
Political and party leadership -
1907
Second International (International Socialist Bureau)Chairman of the colonial commission, Stuttgart congress
Diplomacy and international organization
Career Timeline
- 1870–1875Studied hydraulic engineering at the Delft Polytechnic.
- 1872.09Guided and interpreted for Marx's family at the Hague Congress of the International.
- 1876Worked as an engineer in Java and joined the First International.
- 1894Co-founded the SDAP.
- 1897–1909Member of the House of Representatives.
- 1907.08Chairman of the colonial commission at the Stuttgart International Socialist Congress.
- 1925.08.22Died in Aywaille, Belgium.
The "socialist colonial policy" and its contradictions
At Delft van Kol read Wilhelm Liebknecht's Der Volksstaat and Marx's Capital, and at the Hague Congress of the International in 1872 he acted as guide and interpreter for Marx's family. Going to Java in 1876 as a hydraulic engineer, he became the first socialist in the Dutch East Indies. In 1887 he bought the Cayumas coffee plantation with money lent by Domela Nieuwenhuis, and its income let him retire to Europe and give generously to the labour movement. Yet the man who argued in The Hague that "the poor Javanese people" must not be exploited was profiting from poor plantation workers, and he kept his ownership quiet.
Elected to the House of Representatives for Enschede in 1897, he became the SDAP's colonial spokesman. He travelled in the Indies in 1901 and 1902 and supported Kartini's request for a scholarship to train as a teacher. His travel book From Our Colonies (1903) showed a patriarchal view of the Indonesians as a people to be "led lovingly", along with crude racial stereotypes.
At the 1907 Stuttgart International Socialist Congress van Kol was elected chairman and rapporteur of the colonial commission. The majority resolution called the benefits of colonies exaggerated but did not reject in principle a colonial policy that "under a socialist regime" could have a civilising effect. In his report van Kol explained that the commission majority had abandoned a purely negative stance and demanded a socialist colonial policy, and Eduard Bernstein and Eduard David backed it. But the minority amendment signed by Georg Ledebour and others, backed by Karl Kautsky, passed by 127 votes to 108, turning the resolution's opening into a rejection of colonial policy in principle. Van Kol supported the SDAP's entry into government in 1913, which the party refused, and died after an accident in Belgium in 1925.