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.