MIA > Archive > Tan Malaka
From International Press Correspondence, Vol. 3 No. 56 [34], 16 August 1923, p. 607.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.
Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2022). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.
|
In No. 72 of the Inprecorr we published an article by Comrade L.A., The Labor Movement on the island of Java. Comrades Malakka and Bergsma now send us a statement differing from that of Comrade L. A., which we print as a reply. – Ed. |
The Dutch East Indian Communist Party, “Perserekatan Kommunist India”, has been reinforced to the number of several thousand members by the affiliation of the Semerang (Java) local group of the Sarekat Islam (the great Islamic People’s Party), the largest local SI organization in the whole Indies. In Java it has always been the endeavor of the communists to strive to gain influence in the great People’s Party, the Sarekat Islam, and they have amply succeeded.
Regarded with occidental eyes, the circumstances of the people’s movement in Java convey an impression that the communists have but little significance in the East Indies at present, and that they are are conducting propaganda without any system. This false impression not only gives an entirely wrong idea of the real situation in the Indies, but causes the work done by our comrades, under the most difficult circumstances, to be greatly underestimated.
The methods of work adopted by our comrades in the Indies are not always understood in Europe. But to be understood is not the main thing. We must look al the results. And these are supremely favorable to us in Java.
Only a few years ago there was not the slightest trace of communism in these parts. Now a party has sprung into existence; we have our press; the trade unions are under communist leadership; the S.I. groups have communists as leaders, etc. And all this has been accomplished by the East Indians themselves, without the aid of Europeans.
That we are not exaggerating is best proved by the bitter war being waged by the Dutch government against the communists.
In the Indies there are thousands of Sarekat Islam members who can be counted as communists no less than the actual members of the C.P. The mass entry of S.I. members into the C.P. has only altered the form of organization. The report of this affiliation confirms our assertion that the S.I. of Semerang is communist.
This reinforcement of the C.P. signifies that persistent communist propaganda has led thousands of the sons of this enslaved oriental people into the camp of the Third International, into battle against world capital. And those whom we have to thank for this are our East Indian comrades, now being persecuted by the blackest reaction.
Comrade L.A. speaks of “impudent reaction”, and of the many comrades incarcerated in the prisons or banished from the country, but he does not throw sufficient light on the further fact that reaction, through the agency of the government, is exercising a strict control over communist correspondence and over communist meetings, and is having the leaders watched day and night. Our experience shows that communist activity is a sufficient reason for having a comrade driven from the country without trial. Considering the energetic work just now being accomplished by the communists within the nationalist associations and trade unions, it is not quite accurate to speak of “loose connections” between the party sections and the party committee. It is not possible here to deal in detail with the activity of our comrades in Madium, or to go into their work at the last Sarekat Islam conference at Jokja, where large numbers of Sarekat members have now been brought under communist leadership; nor do we propose to discuss the activity of the communist congress in Bandung, the 13 schools which have been established by the various sections, and, above all, the great crisis developing in our favor in the Sarekat Islam. The correct application of the united front tactic has already led to as many as 20 sections of the S.I. coming under communist leadership. (These 20 sections had previously about 100,000 members.) We may fairly estimate that at present we have 13,000 members in our partv (including Ternate), and, further, at least 30,000 workers and peasants in the Sarekat Islam upon whom we can count, who are not yet members of the trade unions, but are under communist leadership.
Besides the railwaymen, the post and telegraph workers and the workers in the sugar factories play a most important role in the Dutch East Indies. These have been under communist leadership for months. The work of reorganization undertaken by the communists among these categories of workers, who were formerly under nationalist leadership, makes excellent progress. A false impression is thus given by Comrade L.A.’s statement that only the railwaymen’s union has been maintained. The last congress, held in March, brought not only almost all the trade unions and the Red S.I. under communist influence, but also the nationalist Indian party and the Budi-Utomo. And although we must admit that our Suara Rajat is still somewhat weak, it must be recollected that all the old editors have either been arrested, banished or deported. Despite this, translations of communist literature and discussions on the national and international situations are regularly published. The daily organ of the communist S.I. in Semerang, the Sinar Hindia, has been fairly efficiently edited for some years. The views which it now expresses on the situation of the working class, its criticisms of the government, its polemical articles against nationalist leaders, etc., are all pervaded with the communist spirit. At the present time the communist press is precisely what the East Indian working class needs and wants, for it mirrors the life of the workers.
Comrade Semaocu and Darsono were recently subjected to an interrogation by the government. In Java this is the preliminary to banishment. The government warned the two comrades to desist from further propaganda in the trade unions, and from the work of radical organization in the Sarekat Islam. This is a proof that our comrades have been maintaining a revolutionary attitude.
Last updated on 2 September 2022