M.I.A. Library: Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis
Source: Labour Leader, August 8 1896 (pp. 4-5)
Publication history: Reprinted in the ILP pamphlet Full Report of the Proceedings of the International Workers’ Congress, London, July and August 1896.
Note: The interview was given during the 1896 Congress of the 2nd International. The interview is unsigned, but given Nieuwenhuis's reference to the interviewer's three years as an MP, must have been by Keir Hardie. Keir Hardie opposed the expulsions.
Transcription and HTML: Graham Seaman
Last updated: January 2021
None of the delegates to the Congress received more favourable notice at the hands of the pressmen than Domela Nieuwenhuis, His striking resemblance, which was generally commented upon, to George Meredith, and the calm, dignified strength which marks the man's every movement, could not fail, indeed, to have impressed the most casual observer.
Special interest centred round Domela on this occasion, as since the last International met he and the Socialist League of Holland have thrown over parliamentary action, and it was a well-known fact that the chief aim of the Marxists during the first two days of the Congress was to secure the expulsion of Domela and his colleagues. Fortunately they were checkmated and the Congress spared the ignominy of turning out one of the men who have suffered most for the Socialist movement. Domela, however, does nothing by halves, and whilst he is no Anarchist, he holds that all who are engaged in any department of the Socialist movement ought to be free to attend an International Socialist Congress; and when this point was not conceded he and his colleagues, after a brief statement as to the why of their doing so, withdrew from the Congress.
In the course of a conversation he explained his position at some length. In 1889 he attended the Marxist Congress in Paris, and used his good offices to some purpose to bring about a reconciliation between that and the Possiblist Congress sitting at the same time. At that time he was a member of the Dutch Parliament, having been elected in 1888. He was defeated at the next election in 1891. Asked why he had changed his opinion, he smilingly replied:
“You who were three years a member of Parliament do not require to ask such a question. My experience caused me to lose faith in politics. The very word ‘parliamentary’ is of itself sufficient to cause searchings of the heart. It is derived from two words—parler, ‘to speak,’ and mentir, ‘to lie.’"
And as Domela could not speak lies he withdrew from politics.
In 1893, when the Dutch Socialists met at Gronlund, it was resolved that in future the party—as a party—should not take part to the extent of running candidates to Parliament, but that each member was free to act as he pleased in the matter. So far as he knew, this action had not affected the membership, and they were as strong to-day as before the change was made. Nearly the whole of the trade-unionists supported the Socialist League—the name of their organisation. Asked how he proposed to bring about the change from capitalism to Communism, he replied:
“Our business is to educate the people and prepare them for the change, which will come of itself, as the present system is rotten and will fall to pieces of its own weight. To take part in parliamentaryism, and try and secure little bits of reform here and there, only tends to patch up, and thus perpetuate the system we desire to see changed.”
“Are you an Anarchist, Domela, or have you ever called yourself such?”
“No ; I am no Anarchist, but a Free Communist, in contradistinction to the State Socialist. I am all for freedom, and fear that under State Socialism the individual would be deprived of that liberty which I value so highly. Still," he continued, "many of our members continue to believe in and support parliamentaryism, and we do not seek in any way to interfere with their liberty of action, desiring to give that freedom which we hope will become universal under Free Communism in the future.”
In the course of the conversation it was elicited that under the old suffrage in Holland only 300,000 citizens had the franchise, but now what is almost manhood suffrage has been conceded, and the number of electors has been doubled.