Today is the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party. It's an important milestone for the CCP that is widely celebrated in China this year. 

The anniversary made me think of the amazing story of Henk Sneevliet. He was a Dutch communist who helped with the founding of the CCP. His story is rather unknown in the Netherlands and in the West. I had never heard of him until I visited the Sun-Yat Sen memorial hall in Guangzhou where Henk Sneevliet, nicknamed Maring  (马林), was mentioned several times. So what made him so important and why should he be remembered? 

Henk Sneevliet was born in Rotterdam in 1883 to poor parents. Thanks to some rich benefactors and his talents, he was able to get higher education. After graduation, he became politically active for the Social Democratic Labourers Party and worked his way up to become a Union leader for the rail workers. Sneevliet eventually left this party as it did not support large strikes and joined what would eventually become the Dutch Communist Party. 

In 1913 Sneevliet moved to the Dutch East Indies and was involved in the founding of the Indonesian Communist Party and acted as representative of the Comintern, the international communist organisation. In 1918 the Dutch authorities expelled him from Indonesia as his work endangered the political stability of the colony. In 1920 he attended the 2nd World Congress of the Comintern, became a member of the executive committee and was sent to China by Lenin to help with the foundation of the CCP.

Back in the Netherlands, Henk Sneevliet continued his work for the trade unions and eventually became Member of Parliament, while breaking away from the Comintern and rejecting the new Soviet Union as he supported Trotski. During World War 2 Sneevliet had to go into hiding as a prominent communist and was involved in the resistance. He managed to survive for 2 years but was eventually caught and executed. 

In this life Henk Sneevliet has made a lasting contribution to politics and communism in China, Indonesia and the Netherlands, met Lenin, Mao and Trotsky and actively resisted the Nazis. His story definitely deserves more attention. 

Originally posted on Instagram on July 1, 2021