Early Life
Sneevliet was born in Rotterdam and grew up in 's-Hertogenbosch. After finishing his education, he started working for the Dutch railways in 1900 and became a member of the Sociaal Democratische Arbeiders Partij (SDAP, the predecessor of the Dutch Labour Party) and the railway union. From 1906, Sneevliet was active for the SDAP in Zwolle, where he became the first social democrat city council member in the elections of 1907.
Sneevliet was also active in the Dutch railway union, the NV and in 1911 he became its chairman. In the union, Sneevliet was one of the more radical voices. When an international sailor strike was called in 1911, several of the more radical Dutch unions took part, but the majority of the union movement and the majority within the SDAP were against it. For Sneevliet, this led to his alienation from both and strengthened him in his decision to leave the Netherlands for the Dutch East Indies.
Read more about this topic: Henk Sneevliet
Famous quotes containing the words early life, early and/or life:
“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not; it is the first lesson that ought to be learned; and however early a man’s training begins, its probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“Although this garrulity of advising is born with us, I confess that life is rather a subject of wonder, than of didactics. So much fate, so much irresistible dictation from temperament and unknown inspiration enter into it, that we doubt we can say anything out of our own experience whereby to help each other.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)