CHAPTER VI

Socialism and Labor in Holland

The recent closing of its frontier on the German side by the Dutch government, in order to prevent the inroad of Bolshevist propagandists, has called attention to an extraordinary situation in Holland; unexpected on account of the thrifty and cautious individualism of the Dutch character. During the war German propaganda was intense in Holland and gained control of banks, of big business and of political and intellectual leaders. The German policy of using Bolshevist agencies to disintegrate national sentiments and integrity found able exponents. Leading Dutchmen were tied to German apron-strings. Holland's international position makes the results important for us to understand, and to watch the Dutch government's struggle to prevent the possibility of a similar coup d'etat as that which Germany engineered in Russia through Lenine and Trotzky.

The Dutch leader of political Bolshevism is David Wijnkoop, who, we are informed, is a Jew. He and two other Communists, were elected in 1918 to represent Amsterdam in the Parliament, and he has been able to lead into the advocacy of revolutionary demands a considerable group of Socialists, Social Democrats and Laborites who do not belong to the Communist group. The effects on Labor programs in Holland is evident. The Social Democrat, Troelstra, is the leader in this radical swing.

The intellectual field is even more frankly invaded by Communism than it is in the United States. The presence of university leaders such as Mannoury, the mathematical professor, and Pannekoeke, the astronomer, on the executive board of the Communist Party, is a powerful aid to the spread of Bolshevik doctrines among the student body of every class. In the case of these men, the right to absolute freedom of speech and teaching has been raised by the government's refusal to appoint Dr. Pannekoeke to the professorship of astronomy at the University of Leiden.

As two further sources of danger among the Dutch themselves there are: The religious zealots, led by that fiery Communist preacher of the Dutch Reformed Church, Dr. Schermerhorn; and the sentimental idealists led by the greatest of living Dutch poets, Mme. Roland Holst, who urges the people "to rise and

sacrifice themselves for the common good because it is the holocaust on the barricades that must bring peace on earth and good will among men."

The present Spartacan revolutionary movement in Germany is increasing the danger in Holland and intensifying the call for immediate action. Thus far there have been no overt acts except the strike engineered by the Communists that will now be described.

The central figure, however, in Dutch Socialism is still the same as it has been for over twenty years Troelstra and his career must be sketched to explain the present situation. It was in 1894 that he and eleven others known as the Twelve Apostles founded the Social Democratic Labor Party of Holland, and entered politics, electing four members of Parliament in 1897, seven in 1901, nineteen in 1913, and twenty-two in the present Assembly. From the beginning it was troubled with both anarchist and Syndicalist elements, but they never gained control. In 1913 the question of allowing Socialists to take part in the ministry was decided in the negative at a party convention which definitely stated that " a party like the Socialist Labor Party, which in its origin, its nature and its aims, is diametrically opposed to the political domination of the capitalist class, is under no obligation to join a capitalist ministry." A small radical group broke away in 1909, calling itself the Social Democratic Party, claiming to be purely Marxian. It sent representatives to the Zimmerwald and Kienthal Conferences which the main body of Dutch Socialists had declined to recognize and it has now joined the Third (Moscow) International, changing its name to the Communist Party, and taking the usual anti-patriotic, anti-war, anti-parliamentary and ultra-international attitude. Meanwhile Troelstra continues to advocate for the main body of the S. D. L. P. participation in parliamentary life, even though it is unrepresented in the ministry. In this it is supported by the Federation of Trade Unions which backs up its political work. At present the Communists have three representatives in the Second Chamber (Wijnkoop, Van Ravesteyn) and the Social Democratic Labor Party has twenty-two members, under Troelstra and Schaper.

The present crisis has been brought on by the strike at Amsterdam and Rotterdam, which began on February 14th, by the Netherland Federation of Transport Workers. It had been

threatening for some time and had received the support of the Social-Democratic Labor Party. But the official organ of this Socialist Party, the "Volk," which had previously approved the strike movement, withdrew its support on February 14th, after it had been shown by the Algemeen Handelsblad that Messrs. E. Bouwman and H. Sneevliet, chairman and treasurer respectively of the Federation, had been the guests of the Secret Communist Congress held at Amsterdam on February 3d, and following days, when they accepted the direction of the Communist Party for the Labor movement and pledged themselves to organize strikes in Holland as part and parcel of the Bolshevist movement in Western Europe and to give such strikes as far as possible a revolutionary character. By associating the strike of the transport workers with the Bolshevist movement," says the "Volk" (14), "they have sold and betrayed the interests of the workers in question entrusted to their care, they have deceived the leaders of the League, and played such a double game that there can no longer be any agreement between them and us (meaning the Socialists of the S. D. L. Party) with regard to this conflict. While on the one hand, Sneevliet and Bouwman were exploiting the strike in the interest of the Communist movement, Bouwman, on the other, was issuing a strike manifesto in which he declared the whole dispute to be purely a question of wages and labor conditions which would be ended and done with the moment the employers agreed to concede their demands."

The S. D. L. Party does not propose to have Holland come under the heel of the Bolshevist dictatorship. (Dutch Socialist Press in the "Political Review," February 27th.)

and the character of her business the transport workers are the

The food supplies for Germany, relief for Austria and Hungary, were all held up by the strike. Owing to Holland's position key-note and determining factor of her commerce. It is freely stated that the strike may end in revolution. The head emissary from Russia, in charge of the International propaganda and relations, appears to be Rutgers, who represented the Dutch revolutionary Socialists at the organizing of the Third International in Moscow.

CHAPTER VII

Socialism and Labor in Scandinavia and Finland *

The three Scandinavian countries- Norway, Sweden, Denmark — and Finland must be considered together because of the close interaction of their various labor and Socialist organizations. It is true that of the four Norway seems the more revolutionary and Denmark the more conservative, while Socialism of the less revolutionary type is more dominant in Sweden than in any of the rest of the group. In fact in Sweden the question of the day was whether the Socialist Party should not take upon itseif the formation of a complete government instead of merely forming part of a coalition government. The leader of the Majority Socialists in Sweden, Branting, has long been known as one of the ablest leaders in Europe.

A movement is on foot to add to the above four nations of the league not only Iceland but the new Baltic states of Esthonia, Latvia and Lithuania, in a scheme for uniform Northern legislation and policy. It was announced in the "Reval SocialDemokrat" of January 27th that at the end of February a conference of the Socialists of Finland, Poland, Esthonia would be held for the purpose of discussing questions of general policy. This was to follow closely on the meeting of the Scandinavian Socialist Congress of December and the Scandinavian Labor Congress of January which are here reported.

SCANDINAVIAN SOCIALIST CONGRESS

A Congress of Scandinavian Socialists of the Left- the revolutionary branch of the party- met in Stockholm, December 8 and 10, 1919. It was attended by 143 delegates from Sweden, 107 from Norway and 18 from Denmark. The Norwegians, with Tranmael at their head, played a very prominent part. They advocated revolutionary methods in nearly all their speeches, Olaussen, the principal leader after Tranmael, especially stating that the final struggle must be fought out with arms.

The Congress split up into Communists and Syndicalists. The revolutionary methods proposed by the Norwegians were not well received by the Swedes, one of whom, Severin, asked Tranmael: "Why, if the Norwegian Labor Party is so unanimous in this

* See Addendum, Part I.

view, does it not raise a revolution in Norway, instead of coming to Sweden to talk about it?" The Swedish radical paper "Social-Demokraten" showed that the Bolsheviks and the Syndicalists, who formed the two big groups of the Congress, were hopelessly divided and could not come to any agreement. appeared as if the Syndicalists were in the majority.

It

The final resolution showed that the Congress did not regard Moscow as "the new Mecca," as it postponed the question of adherence to the Third International for further deliberation. Owing to the same reason the disagreement with the radical attitude of the Norwegian delegates the negotiations for Scandinavian co-operation was also postponed.

There was a discussion of the relations between Scandinavian working-class organizations and world revolution, and of the duties, methods and forms of the trade union movement. Here, again, the Syndicalists carried the day against the Bolshevists, who lacked solidarity. Syndicalism showed signs of joining forces with the political Socialists of the Left.

Shortly before this the Communal elections in Norway had shown a decided veering of public sentiment away from revolutionary radicalism, resulting in a Socialist defeat as well as the defeat of the party of the Left. (Quotations from Swedish and Norwegian Press in the "Political Review," January 9, 1920.)

SCANDINAVIAN LABOR CONGRESS

More than a month after the Revolutionary Socialists of Scandinavia met at Stockholm, there was opened, on January 21st, at Copenhagen, the Ninth Scandinavian Labor Congress. Four hundred delegates were present, representing a million organized workers. Sweden sent 109 and Norway 76 delegates, and 3 came from Finland. The rest of the 400 represented Denmark. The foreign delegates were welcomed by the Danish Social Democratic Party.

The last previous Congress had been in Stockholm in 1912. The matters dealt with by the Congress cover socialization, industrial democracy, the position as regards the International, future Scandinavian co-operation, mutual aid in trade disputes, social legislation, the high cost of living and co-operation. ("Social-Demokraten," 20, 22.)

Among the resolutions passed was one upholding the continuance of both political and trade union co-operation throughout