Lessons and Fairy Tales

PKI

FRONTRUNNER

Henk Sneevliet and other Dutch East Indies socialists formed a labor union at the port in 1914, under the name Indies Social Democratic Association (in Dutch: Indische Sociaal Democratische Vereeniging-, ISDV). The ISDV was essentially formed by 85 members of the two Dutch socialist parties, the SDAP and the Dutch Socialist Party which later became the communist SDP, the Dutch members of the ISDV introduced Marxist ideas to educate Indonesians seeking ways to resist colonial rule.

In October 1915, ISDV began to be active in the publication of the Dutch-language newspaper, "Het Vrije Woord" (Kata Merdeka). The editor was Adolf Baars. At the time of its formation, the ISDV did not demand independence for Indonesia. At that time, the ISDV had about 100 members, and of those only three were indigenous Indonesians. However, the party quickly developed into a radical and anti-capitalist. The change came again, when Sneevliet moved their headquarters from Surabaya to Semarang and attracted many natives from various elements such as religionists, nationalists and other activist movements have been growing in the Dutch East Indies since 1900. Under Sneevliet, the party was dissatisfied with the SDAP leadership in the Netherlands, and who distanced itself from the ISDV and refused to cooperate with the government for refusing to "pretend" the Council of Communities (Volksraad Volksraad (Dutch Indies). In 1917 the reformist group of the ISDV broke away, and formed its own party under the name of the Social Democratic Party of the Indies. In 1917 ISDV launched its first Indonesian-language publication, Soeara Merdeka.

Under Sneevliet's leadership, the ISDV was convinced that the October Revolution as it had in Russia should be followed by Indonesia. The group managed to gain followers among Dutch soldiers and sailors stationed in the Dutch East Indies. The 'Red Guards' were formed and within three months their number had reached 3,000. In late 1917, the soldiers and sailors revolted in Surabaya at a major naval base in Indonesia at the time, and formed a soviet council. The colonial rulers suppressed the soviet councils in Surabaya and the ISDV. The ISDV leaders were sent back to the Netherlands, including Sneevliet. Dutch military leaders were sentenced to up to 40 years in prison.

Meanwhile, the ISDV formed a bloc with the anti-colonialist organization Sarekat Islam. Many SI members such as from Surabaya, Semaun and Darsono from Solo were interested in Sneevliet's ideas. As a result of Sneevliet's strategy of "deep block", many SI members were persuaded to establish a deeper revolutionary Marxist-dominated Sarekat Rakjat.

ISDV continues to work clandestinely. Launched another publication, Soeara Rakyat. After the forced departure of several Dutch cadres, in combination with work within Sarekat Islam, membership had moved from a Dutch majority to an Indonesian majority. In 1919 it had only 25 Dutch members, out of a total of less than 400.

Formation and growth

In the period leading up to the sixth congress of Sarekat Islam in 1921, members realized Sneevliet's strategy and took steps to stop it. Agus Salim, the secretary of the organization, introduced a movement to prohibit SI members from holding membership and dual titles from other parties in the struggle of the Indonesian movement. The decision certainly made the communist members disappointed and quit the party, like the opposition from Tan Malaka and Semaun who also came out of the movement because they were disappointed to then change tactics in the struggle of the Indonesian movement. At the same time, the Dutch colonial government called for restrictions on political activities, and Sarekat Islam decided to focus more on religious affairs, leaving the communists as the only active nationalist organization.[7]

Semaun was in Moscow to attend the Far Eastern Labor Conference in early 1922, Tan Malaka tried to turn the strike against government pawnshop workers into a national strike to cover all Indonesian trade unions. This turned out to be a failure, Tan Malaka was arrested and given a choice between internal or external exile. He chose the latter and left for Russia.

In May 1922, Semaun returned after seven months in Russia and began organizing all trade unions in one organization. On September 22, the Union of All Indonesian Workers' Organizations (Persatuan Vakbonded Indies) was formed.

At the fifth Comintern congress in 1924, he stressed that "the main priority of communist parties is to gain control of the workers' union" for there cannot be a successful revolution without this union of the working class

In 1924 the name of the party was once again changed, this time becoming the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI).

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