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This article gives an overview ofsocialism in theNetherlands, includingcommunism andsocial democracy. It is limited to communist, socialist, social democratic, and democratic socialistparties with substantial support, mainly proved by having had a representation in parliament.
Socialism came relatively late to the Netherlands, because of its slow industrialization. In the 1860s a socialist movement began to develop. Although the socialists were aided by the foundation of theFirst International and of the first Dutchtrade unions, united in theAlgemeen Nederlands Werklieden Vereniging, a socialist party was not founded until 1881, when theSocial Democratic League was founded. The slow industrialization was reflected in the support base of the first socialist parties. It wasn't the urban proletariat which supported them most, instead it were agricultural workers, who were the first to support the League.
Before the First World War, the socialist movement saw two major splits: in 1894 between revolutionary anarchists and parliament-oriented socialists. The latter left the League to found theSocial-Democratic Workers' Party, while the former kept control of the SDB, which was soon banned by the government. The second split was between a revolutionary Marxist opposition and areformist-revisionist establishment. In 1907 the opposition group left the SDAP to found theSocial-Democratic Party, which would become the Communist Party of the Netherlands (CPN) after the Russian Revolution. This was one of the first splits between reformists and revolutionaries within the European labour movement. Both the revolutionaries and the reformists have their own labour unions, the reformistNederlands Verbond van Vakverenigingen and the anarcho-syndicalistNationaal Arbeidssecretariaat. At the end of theFirst World War, a brief and very unsuccessful attempt at revolution occurred during theRed Week.
After theSecond World War, the SDAP merged with smaller left-liberal, progressive catholic and Protestant groups and parties to form theLabour Party (PvdA). The founders hoped that the old social structures would be replaced by a united progressive Netherlands, theBreakthrough. However, the Labour Party quickly found itself taking the SDAP's old place in the socialist pillar. It only gained only a third of the seats in the1946 elections. From 1946 and 1958, PvdA leaderWillem Drees served as prime minister of a broad coalition. The PvdA became social-democratic supporting awelfare state, amixed economy,decolonization andNATO. In 1946 the CPN performed particularly well as it had gained support due to the role played by communists in theDutch Resistance.
During the 1960s and 1970s socialism was invigorated with the development of New Left-movements. In 1957 thePacifist Socialist Party (PSP) was founded out of the developingpeace movement and provided an alternative to the pro-American PvdA and the pro-Soviet CPN. In 1967 the Nieuw Links, a group of young socialists within the PvdA gained control of the party and set out on a new course, which included both social-democratic and New Left ideals, such as a strong welfare state, women's liberation, environmental protection and international development. They wanted to form a progressive majority-coalition, together with their left-liberal and progressive Christian allies. A group of social-democrats leave the PvdA to formDS'70. The PvdA and their allies were unsuccessful at gaining a majority however in the1971 and1972 elections and the PvdA's leaderJoop den Uyl was forced to form a tenuous coalition with the Christian democrats.
During the 1980s socialism, communism and social-democracy were forced into a defensive position. The smaller socialist parties, PSP and CPN, which prospered in the 1960s and 1970s, lost seats, whilst the CPN disappeared from theHouse of Representatives in the1986. The PvdA was confined to opposition, while the liberals and Christian democrats reformed the welfare state. The socialist labour union lost members and merged with the Catholic labour union to form theFederatie Nederlandse Vakbeweging.
In the 1990s socialists and social-democrats renewed themselves. In 1989 the PSP and CPN merged with two smallChristian left parties (theEvangelical People's Party and thePolitical Party of Radicals) to formGreenLeft. In the 1994 general electionWim Kok, the new leader of the PvdA, lost a considerable number of seats, but still emerged as leader of the largest party. He forms an unprecedentedpurple coalition with progressive and conservative liberals which implements aThird Way policy, including privatisation of public companies, legalisation ofprostitution andeuthanasia and some institutional reforms. In 1994 a small formerly Maoist party, theSocialist Party (SP) also entered parliament.
In 2007 the PvdA re-enters thecoalition, now with Christian-democrats and the economically left-leaning but socially conservativeChristianUnion. The SP won an unprecedented 25 seats in the2006 elections. Since 2004, GreenLeft has radically renewed its image and is now promoting itself as a left-liberal party, breaking with its socialist roots.
Influential Dutch socialist thinkers include:
