SNEEVLIET, Henk (Hendricus Josephus Franciscus Marie)

(1883–1942)

   Politician. A railway employee since 1900, Sneevliet became a member of the Sociaal Democratische Arbeiders partij (SDAP, Social Democratic Labor Party) and the union of rail way workers, of which he was appointed deputy president in 1909 and full-time president in 1910. In 1912, he resigned from the SDAP after a conflict over tactics used during the international strike of seamen the year before. After a short-lived membership in the ortho dox Marxist Socialistisch Democratische Partij (Socialist Democratic Party), he was expelled in 1912 from the board of his union. He moved to the Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia), where he again became a member of the union of railway employees and an active propagandist. Because of his radical ideas and seditious pamphlets, he was repatriated by order of the government.

   Sneevliet had trouble finding a congenial field of activity even in the Dutch Communistische Partij Holland (CPH, Communist Party of Holland). He became a paid official with the Nationaal Arbeids Sec retariaat (NAS, National Labor Secretariat), a federation of trade unions in the tradition of the Second International. In 1920, Sneevliet represented the Communist Party of the Netherlands East Indies at the second meeting of the Comintern in Moscow. He was sent to China, where he worked with the Chinese Communist Party until 1923. Upon his return to the Netherlands, he resumed his work with the NAS. Af ter his withdrawal from the CPH in 1927, Sneevliet became the first president of the Revolutionair-Socialistische Partij (RSP, Revolution ary Socialist Party) in 1929, and from 1933 until 1937 he was a mem ber of Parliament. This intractable individualist, who also broke with Leo Trotsky (1879–1940) in 1938, was a member of the Resistance during World War II. In 1942, he was convicted by the Nazi German Obergericht at Amsterdam and executed.

   See also Socialism.