Social Democratic League

The Social Democratic League (Dutch: Sociaal-Democratische Bond, SDB) was a Dutch socialist political party. The SDB was the first socialist party to enter the Dutch House of Representatives.

In the 1860s a socialist movement began to develop in the Netherlands. The development was aided by the foundation of the First International and the foundation of the first trade unions.

Most of those unions however were united in the moderate Algemeen Nederlandsch Werklieden Verbond (General Dutch Workingmans' Association; ANWV) in 1871, which was founded by Protestants and liberals to combat the influence of the Dutch section of the First Internationale. Some prominent Dutch representatives of the First International joined the ANWV in order to radicalize the organization. In 1878 they, led by Willem Ansigh, left the ANWV to found the Sociaal-Democratische Vereeniging (Social-Democratic Association; SDV). It had branches in major cities like Amsterdam, the Hague, Haarlem and Rotterdam

The SDB was founded in 1881 by members of the SDV and similar local socialist parties. The strongest of these local socialist parties were located in the poor rural province Friesland. The party was based on Marxist principles and therefore expected a proletarian revolution. In 1882 Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis, a lapsed Lutheran minister, was elected as general secretary of the party. He would hold this position until 1887 and grow to become the party's strongman, he retained the position when he was in prison in 1886-1887 for insulting the monarchy. The party published the paper "Justice for All" ("Recht voor Allen") of which Domela was editor. The SDB was also affiliated to the League for General Suffrage, which was a dominantly liberal organization which campaigned for universal suffrage.

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