Willem van Ravesteyn (15 October 1876 in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

– 10 June 1970 in Rotterdam) was a

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

and historian. Ravesteyn studied history at the

University of Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange as a Protestant institution, it holds the distinction of being the oldest university in the Neth ...

and was involved in setting up the local branch of the Dutch Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP) in 1898. With

David Wijnkoop David Joseph Wijnkoop (; 11 March 1876 – 7 May 1941) was a Dutch people, Dutch Communism, communist leader in the first half of the twentieth century. Life He was the eldest son of Rabbi Joseph Wijnkoop and Dientje Milia Nijburg. At the Bar ...

and

Jan Ceton Jan Ceton (13 May 1875, Bodegraven – 21 January 1943, Amerongen) was a Dutch left-wing politician involved with both the Social Democratic Workers' Party and the Communist Party of the Netherlands. Ceton is best known as one of the founders of th ...

he was on the editorial board of the left-wing

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

newspaper ''De Tribune'' when it was set up in October 1907. However,

Pieter Jelles Troelstra Pieter Jelles Troelstra (; 20 April 186012 May 1930) was a Dutch lawyer, journalist and politician active in the socialist workers' movement. He is most remembered for his fight for universal suffrage and his failed call for revolution at the en ...

and

Willem Vliegen Wilhelmus Hubertus "Willem" Vliegen (20 November 1862 – 29 July 1947) was a Dutch journalist and politician of the Social Democratic Workers' Party who served as a member of the House of Representatives from 1909 until 1915, and again from 192 ...

, the reformist leaders of the SDAP, found this unacceptable and organised a special congress to discuss throwing out ''De Tribune'' from the party. They were able to get a clear majority for this at the congress held on February 14, 1909. The ''De Tribune'' group founded the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

(SDP) on March 14, 1909. He was elected to the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

in 1918 and was an MP until 1926, although he left the

Communist Party Holland The Communist Party of the Netherlands (, , CPN) was a communist party in the Netherlands. The party was founded in 1909 as the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and merged with the Pacifist Socialist Party, the Political Party of Radicals and the ...

(the successor of the SDP) in 1925. He was also a local councillor in Rotterdam from 1919 to 1927. He was curator of the Rotterdam Municipal Library. In 1928 he wrote a critical review of

Herman Gorter Herman Gorter (; 26 November 1864 – 15 September 1927) was a Dutch poet and council communist theoretician. He was a leading member of the Tachtigers, a highly influential group of Dutch writers who worked together in Amsterdam in the 1880 ...

's epic poem ''Pan'' which he described as a “tragic failure”.

Texts

De oorlog en de Internationale
(1915) * ''Herman Gorter, de dichter van Pan: een heroïsch en tragisch leven'' Rotterdam: Brusse (1928)

(1948)

References

1876 births 1970 deaths Communist Party of the Netherlands politicians Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands) Municipal councillors of Rotterdam {{Netherlands-politician-stub