page_title: Social Democratic Workers' Party (Netherlands)
section_title: 1919–1946
hierarchical_section_title: Social Democratic Workers' Party (Netherlands) / History / 1919–1946
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Affiche: Landelijke verkiezingen, SDAP, 1918
context_page_description: The Social Democratic Workers' Party was a Dutch socialist political party and a predecessor of the social democratic Labour Party.
context_section_description: Between 1919 and 1939 the SDAP got increasingly more seats but were kept out of government by a confessional majority, which in 1926 by mouth of Roman Catholic Political Party leader, Wiel Nolens said that the confessionals would only govern with the socialists in a case of extreme necessity.
  During the 1930s the SDAP began to moderate its policies. It removed the demand of national disarmament in 1934, and became less republican, for instance sending a telegram with felicitations to Queen Wilhelmina in 1938 after her daughter, princess Juliana, gave birth to princess Beatrix. During the crisis the party proposed several plans for economic reform. In 1935 the SDAP published the 'Plan of Labour' (Plan van de Arbeid), which included plans to increase employment, nationalise vital industry and implement a system of unemployment benefits.
  The confessional-liberal government rejected the socialist proposals for economic reform. After 1936 however it changed its course, giving into socialist demands by devaluating the guilder and allowing the national debt to rise in order to increase employment.
  In reaction to this moderate course a group of orthodox Marxist members, led by Jacques de Kadt, left the party to form the Independent Socialist Party. After an unsuccessful merger with the (Trotskyist) Revolutionary Socialist Party, many of the 3,000 split members returned.
  This course of moderation was suddenly interrupted by the incidents surrounding the mutiny on the cruiser De Zeven Provinciën. During the mutiny the political leadership of the SDAP announced that, although they did not support it, they could understand the motives behind the mutiny. Because of this incident the government temporarily forbade soldiers to be a member of the SDAP.
  In 1939, at the dawn of World War II, prominent SDAP members were asked to participate in a national coalition, led by Protestant politician De Geer; the dawning war was the extreme necessity that allowed the SDAP to enter government. After the Netherlands was invaded by the Germans this government became the Dutch government-in-exile, in London. The SDAP first supplied two ministers (Albeda and Jan van de Tempel) and in 1944 they were joined by Jaap Burger. The SDAP was banned in 1940 by the occupying force. Many SDAP members were involved in resistance work during the war.
  After World War II, there was a widespread sentiment in the Netherlands that the political system should be changed. This was called the Doorbraak ("breakthrough"). In order to force this breakthrough the SDAP merged with the left-liberal Free-thinking Democratic League (VDB) and the Christian-socialist Christian Democratic Union (CDU) to form a new party: the Labour Party. They were joined by individuals from the Protestant Christian Historical Union (CHU) and Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP) and members of the Catholic resistance movement Christofor.
caption: A political poster of the SDAP by Albert Hahn. It reads: "Vote Red, Vote for one of the candidates of the SDAP"; it depicts a socialist worker killing the octopus capitalism with its tentacles war, anarchism, famine and shortage
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