Speech at 5th Congress of the Comintern : Semaoen (1924)

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.