Henri van Kol

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Henri van Kol

Henri van Kol , also Henri Hubert van Kol (* May 23, 1852 , † August 22, 1925 ) was a Dutch social democrat. In contrast to other socialists of his time, he spoke out resolutely for European colonial policy and thus came into conflict with Karl Kautsky , the leading theoretician of Marxism at the time .

life and work

Van Kol became involved early on in the International Workers' Association, also known as the First International , and in 1894 was a co-founder of the Dutch social democracy . Like all social democratic parties of the time, it saw itself as socialist. Within the Socialist International , however, the Dutch party was regarded as conservative, not least because of its partly pro-colonial views, which van Kol had a major influence.

Henri van Kol was a hydraulic engineer by profession and worked in the Dutch colony of Java (now Indonesia ) from 1876 . He was the first socialist to visit this colony . Van Kol got married in Java and bought a coffee plantation there in 1887. For a socialist this meant a serious conflict: on the one hand, he criticized the exploitation of the native farm workers in the colonies, which was often carried out with brutal coercion, on the other hand, as an entrepreneur, he profited from this exploitation himself. Van Kol "solved" this dilemma for himself by hiring a Christian family to oversee the plague. This gave Sunday off work and set up a school, which was considered "progressive" at the time. He also donated part of his proceeds to the socialist movement. In public, however, he did not talk about his double life as a plantation operator and a socialist - probably because he would have drawn criticism.

Confrontation with Karl Kautsky

Van Kol's private involvement in Dutch colonial policy was also reflected in his political position. Although he criticized the policy of the Dutch colonial administration, which was essentially based on coercion and military force, he never questioned colonialism as such. On the contrary, he defended the establishment of colonies, since he regarded the populations there as "savages" and incapable of self-government. He also represented this position in the Socialist International . There, at the International Socialist Congress in Stuttgart in 1907 , the German socialist Karl Kautsky demanded a firm rejection of colonialism by the Socialist International. Instead, a kind of voluntary development cooperation should take place so that the non-European regions could benefit from technological progress.

Henri Van Kol only ridiculed Kautsky for this concept. He replied:

“If we now bring a machine to the savages of Central Africa, what will they do with it? Perhaps they will perform a round dance around it (great cheerfulness) or also increase the large number of their idols by one (cheerfulness). Maybe we should also send Europeans to drive the machines. I don't know what the natives would do with them. But maybe Kautsky and I will try, maybe theory and practice will go arm in arm into the wilderness. Perhaps the natives will smash our machines, perhaps they will kill us or even eat us, and then (stroking their belly) I fear that I will have priority over Kautsky (cheerfulness). "

Van Kol's intervention illustrates the racist stereotypes about the populations in the colonies that were widespread at the time. These were generally viewed by Europeans as inferior and often compared with children who had to be brought up. Besides Liberal critics such as the early 19th century excesses already slave trade had criticized, first developed in the socialist movement, a fundamental critique of colonialism, such as in the German Social Democracy by Kautsky, but also by August Bebel and Rosa Luxembourg represented has been.

At the end of the Stuttgart Congress, not least because of Van Kol's intervention, only a very watered-down resolution against colonialism could be passed, which criticized colonialism “in its inner being”, but at the same time called for a reform of colonial policy. Van Kol and the Dutch socialists nevertheless voted against it. They demanded an open recognition of the "civilizing" mission of colonialism.

Works

  • 'Uit Onze Koloniën', 1903 (From our colonies).

Web links

Commons : Henri van Kol  - collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

  • Margreet Schrevel: Left colonialism - Het Rijke Rooie Leven. deel 32 in Spanning, Jan. 2008, pp. 16-18.
  • Ralf Hoffrogge : Socialism and the Labor Movement in Germany: From the Beginnings to 1914 . Butterfly Verlag, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 3-89657-655-0 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Biographical information on the website of the International Institute for Social History in Amsterdam
  2. ↑ Internationaler Sozialisten-Kongress 1907: Protocol p. 36 f., Quoted from: Ralf Hoffrogge: Socialism and Workers Movement in Germany. Stuttgart 2011, p. 168 f.
  3. ^ Ralf Hoffrogge: Socialism and the workers' movement in Germany. Stuttgart 2011, p. 169.
personal data
SURNAME Kol, Henri van
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kol, Henri Hubert van
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch social democrat
DATE OF BIRTH May 23, 1852
DATE OF DEATH August 22, 1925