Indies Social Democratic Association ISDV

the organization initially responsible for the spreading of Marxism in Indonesia. (The name is a result of the fact that Indonesia until 1945 was a Dutch colony and was known as the Dutch Indies.) It was formed in May 1914 at the initiative of Dutch left social democrats. Around 1917 many Indonesian revolutionary members of the intelligentsia entered the ISDV. In 1917 a reformist group left the ISDV, forming the Indies Social Democratic Party. The Great October Socialist Revolution had a great influence on the ISDV. It launched a drive to propagandize the ideas of the revolution, which was widely accepted in Indonesia because the way had been prepared by the previous work of the ISDV. The work carried on by the ISDV within the most popular anti-imperialist organization in Indonesia, Sarekat Islam, contributed to a significant radicalization of the latter. Its efforts at raising the class and political consciousness of the Indonesian proletariat aided the expansion of the strike movement, the formation of trade unions everywhere, and the creation in 1919 of a national trade union center (the Center for Trade Union Associations). In May 1920 the Indies Social Democratic Association was transformed into the Indonesian Communist Party.