Marxists and Imperialism: The Indonesian Policy of the Dutch Social Democratic Workers Party, 1894-1914

One of the great unresolved problems which the Second International bequeathed to its post-1914 successors was the question of colonial policy. Superficially, colonialism posed no particular difficulties. In 1896, the London congress of the Second International condemned colonial expansion as an expression of capitalist enterprise. The condemnation was renewed by the Paris congress in 1900 and four years later by the Amsterdam congress. However, an attempt was made at the Amsterdam congress to place the Second International on record as condemning capitalist colonial policy and not colonialism per se, the argument being that socialist states in Europe might retain the colonies established by previous capitalist regimes. The obvious implication of this position was that the Second International should move toward the establishment of guidelines which defined a uniquely socialist colonial policy. Although this attempt to alter the previous policy guideline on colonialism failed, the forces in the Second International which favored a revision of colonial policy tried again at the 1907 Stuttgart congress. After heated debate, the congress voted, 127-108, with 10 abstaining, to continue the formal condemnation of colonial enterprise.1 This was the last policy position on colonies which the Second International approved before the First World War.