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Herman Gorter | |
|---|---|
 Gorter in 1926 | |
| Born | (1864-11-26)26 November 1864 Wormerveer, Netherlands |
| Died | 15 September 1927(1927-09-15) (aged 62) Brussels, Belgium |
| Education | University of Amsterdam |
| Occupation(s) | Poet, classical scholar, communist theorist |
| Notable work | Mei (1889) Open Letter to Comrade Lenin (1920) |
| Political party | |
| Movement | |
| Spouse | Louise Cnoop Koopmans |
Herman Gorter (Dutch:[ˈɣɔrtər]; 26 November 1864 – 15 September 1927) was a Dutch poet, classical scholar, and communist theorist. A leading member of theTachtigers, a highly influential literary movement in theNetherlands, he was one of the most acclaimed poets of his generation for his 1889 lyrical epicMei. After 1897, he became a committedMarxist and a prominent theoretician of the internationalcommunist left.
Gorter joined theSocial Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP) in 1897, becoming a leading voice of its left-wing Marxist opposition. In 1909, he was part of the Tribunist schism that formed theSocial Democratic Party (SDP). Following the outbreak of theFirst World War, Gorter became a staunch opponent of the war and a prominent internationalist, aligning with theZimmerwald Left. He hailed theRussian Revolution of 1917 as the beginning of the world revolution and supportedVladimir Lenin and theBolsheviks.
After 1918, Gorter became a key figure in the German communist left, particularly within theCommunist Workers' Party of Germany (KAPD). In 1920, he authored theOpen Letter to Comrade Lenin, a seminal critique of theCommunist International's turn toward parliamentary and trade union tactics, which became a foundational text ofleft communism. He was a primary force behind the creation of theCommunist Workers' International (KAI) in 1921. He spent his final years working to regroup the divided left-communist movement until his death in 1927.
Herman Gorter was born inWormerveer on 26 November 1864.[1] The son of aCalvinist pastor,[1] he studied classics and wrote a doctoral thesis on the Greek tragedianAeschylus.[1] In the 1880s, Gorter became a leading figure of theTachtigers ("Eightiers"), a highly influential Dutch literary movement that championedImpressionism andaestheticism.[1] He was acclaimed as the greatest poet of his generation, particularly after the 1889 publication of hissymbolist and idealist epic poemMei ("May"), which remains his most famous literary work.[1]Following a spiritual crisis, Gorter developed an interest in thepantheism of the Dutch philosopherBaruch Spinoza, translating hisEthics from Latin into Dutch.[1] He soon broke with the literary movement of his generation and turned to the study ofKarl Marx andKarl Kautsky.[1]
In 1897, Gorter became an enthusiastic member of theSocial-Democratic Party of the Netherlands (SDAP).[1] He became a dynamic militant and a remarkable orator, renowned for his ability to popularize complex Marxist ideas.[2] He founded the party'sBussum section, taught courses on Marxism to textile workers, and was widely regarded as a key agitator, organiser, and propagandist for the party.[3] He was seen as the only leader capable of genuinely connecting with the workers' emotions and inspiring their enthusiasm.[4]
Gorter became a prominent voice in the Marxist opposition within the SDAP, which coalesced after the defeat of the 1903 transport strikes.[5] In 1905, following pressure from the party's left wing, a new directing committee was nominated, composed of a majority of Marxists, including Gorter.[6] He became deeply involved in the theoretical and political struggles against therevisionism of the party leadership underPieter Jelles Troelstra, engaging in a significant polemic over the question of "proletarian morality" in 1908.[7]
In October 1907, Gorter and other radical Marxists began publishing their own weekly paper,De Tribune, in opposition to the party leadership.[8] This led to an anti-Marxist campaign by the revisionist leaders, culminating in an attempt to ban the paper at the Arnhem Congress in April 1908.[9] Although the proposal was rejected, an open crisis developed, leading to an extraordinary party congress inDeventer in February 1909 to resolve the issue.[10] Gorter, who was more cautious than other Tribunists, was initially hesitant to precipitate a split and argued for fighting to the last within the party.[11] However, the congress voted overwhelmingly to suppressDe Tribune and expel its three editors.[12]
After six weeks of hesitation, Gorter committed himself to working with the expelled Tribunists, who had formed a permanent organisation-commission.[12] He andDavid Wijnkoop met with theInternational Socialist Bureau (ISB) inBrussels to mediate a resolution.[12] However, before the ISB's negotiations could conclude, the Tribunists held a founding congress for a new party, theSocial Democratic Party (SDP).[13] Gorter became a member of the new SDP's leadership.[13] In 1910, he played a crucial role in combating sectarian tendencies within the new party, arguing against those who saw the old SDAP as a bourgeois party and advocating for tactical joint activity on issues such as universal suffrage.[14]
With the looming threat of theFirst World War, Gorter became a leading voice for internationalism. As an SDP delegate to the 1912Basel Congress of theSecond International, he prepared a powerful speech against militarism and imperialism.[15] In October 1914, following the outbreak of the war and the collapse of the International, Gorter wrote his seminal pamphletImperialism, the World War, and the Social Democracy.[16] The work, which was immediately translated into German, defined the war as imperialist, proclaimed the death of the Second International, and called for the formation of a new revolutionary International.[17] In it, he rejected national liberation struggles as incompatible with the proletarian cause in the epoch of imperialism.[18] The pamphlet was highly influential in the internationalist milieu and was enthusiastically hailed byVladimir Lenin.[16] Gorter became a key figure in theZimmerwald Left, working with Lenin and others to regroup the revolutionary forces against the war.[19] He was nominated by theCommunist International's leadership to theAmsterdam Bureau in 1919.[20]
Gorter was a fervent supporter of theRussian Revolution, translating Lenin'sThe State and Revolution into Dutch and, for a time, fostering what his contemporaries described as a "veritable Lenin personality cult".[21] In his 1918 pamphletThe World Revolution, he hailed theworkers' councils as the newly discovered form of revolutionary power, valid not just for Russia but for the entire world.[21]
Within theCommunist Party of Holland (CPH), the successor to the SDP, Gorter became a leader of the opposition to the party's opportunist leadership under Wijnkoop.[22] He became increasingly separated from the Dutch movement, however, and devoted his energies to the revolutionary movement in Germany.[23] He became a key theoretical leader and mentor of theCommunist Workers' Party of Germany (KAPD), a split from theCommunist Party of Germany.[24] In 1920, Gorter wrote hisOpen Letter to Comrade Lenin as a response to Lenin's pamphlet'Left-Wing' Communism: An Infantile Disorder.[25] In theOpen Letter, Gorter articulated the core principles ofleft communism, arguing against the Comintern's turn towards parliamentarism and trade union work. He contended that the revolutionary situation in Western Europe was fundamentally different from that in Russia, as the proletariat stood alone without the possibility of an alliance with the peasantry, and thus required different tactics.[26] TheOpen Letter became a foundational text of the Dutch-German communist left.[25] As a delegate for the KAPD, Gorter travelled toMoscow and defended his positions before theExecutive Committee of the Comintern.[27]
Gorter was the primary figure behind the establishment of theCommunist Workers' International (KAI) in 1921, an attempt to unite the forces of the communist left internationally.[28] The initiative, however, proved to be an "adventure without any future"[29] and was based on a pessimistic assessment that the vast majority of the world's workers were hostile to the revolution.[30]
After the split in the KAPD in 1922, Gorter initially sided with theEssen tendency and provided its program for the KAI.[31] However, he soon separated from the group and declared his intention to work for the reunification of the opposing KAPD factions.[30] He devoted the last years of his life to an unsuccessful effort to regroup the scattered forces of the left-communist movement.[32] His final political act was to write to theBerlin KAPD, warning them against euphoria after they absorbed new members from another group and urging them to maintain the "purity" of their principles.[33] Gorter died inBrussels on 15 September 1927.[1]
Herman Gorter is remembered as a central figure in the Dutch-German communist left, alongsideAnton Pannekoek andRosa Luxemburg.[34] While his early career established him as one of the Netherlands' most important poets, his later life was dedicated to the revolutionary cause. He was a prolific theorist whose work played a decisive role in the development of left communism. His critique of the Second International's reformism, his staunch internationalism during the First World War, and his later opposition to the tactical orientation of the Comintern established him as a leading figure of the revolutionary left in Europe. His writings, particularly hisOpen Letter to Comrade Lenin, remain essential texts for understanding the principles and trajectory of the left-communist current.[25]
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