Speech at 5th Congress of the Comintern
Semaoen (1924)
|
The speech of one of the two comrades from Java present at the 5th
Congress of the Comintern in Moscow, 1924. The speech was delivered in
June 25, 1924.
It was translated from the report of the Congress in German into English June 2007.
|

Comrade
Zinoviev has observed, very correctly, that in countries with colonial
possessions we should have more intensive cooperation with the colonies.
Comrade Wynkoop has said that this is the case in Holland. But we know
that it is not quite so. True, the Dutch Party has launched the slogan,
“Free the Indies from Holland!” which lays down the correct line. But in
practice the revolutionary movement in Indonesia has drawn strength
primarily from the influence of the Russian revolution and help from the
Executive, and only partially from the work of the Dutch Party. The
Dutch Party's programme is not so bad, perhaps, but its practice does
not correspond to the programme. The link between Holland and Indonesia
is in reality very weak, as the Dutch Party's time is always taken up
with internal conflicts in the Party and in the Dutch movement. For
example, when the Indonesian Party was in struggle during the last great
rail workers' strike, the Dutch Party was involved in a conflict with
the national Labour Secretariat (Syndicalists), which has got to be won
over for the Profintern, so that too little attention was given to this
most important event. The Dutch Party is still not giving enough
practical support to the Indonesian movement because it is itself very
weak. It is urgently necessary that the Dutch Party should get stronger
and thus become a support for the Indonesian movement as well. We hope
that the Fifth Congress is going to work out the right line for the
Dutch Party.
At the same time we expect that, thanks to the Congress, work in the
colonies and eastern countries will be strengthened, both by the work of
the Executive and through increased work in the colonies on the part of
comrades in the imperialist countries.