Jacques de Kadt (30 July 1897,

Oss OSS or Oss may refer to: Places * Oss, a city and municipality in the Netherlands * Osh Airport, IATA code OSS People with the name * Oss (surname), a surname Arts and entertainment * ''O.S.S.'' (film), a 1946 World War II spy film about ...

– 16 April 1988,

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) was a prominent and often controversial 20th Century Dutch political thinker, politician and man of letters. Born into a liberal

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family, he was the youngest son of a factory manager, Roelof de Kadt, and his wife Bertha Koppens. Author of numerous books and articles, his reputation was established by his book ''Het fascisme en de nieuwe vrijheid'' (Fascism and the New Freedom) which was published in 1939, shortly before the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

.A.A. de Jong
"Kadt, Jacques de (1897-1988)"
in ''Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland''.

Early career

De Kadt's early political career was shaped, in part, by the influence of

Rosa Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg (; ; pl, Róża Luksemburg or ; 5 March 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a Polish and naturalised-German revolutionary socialist, Marxist philosopher and anti-war activist. Successively, she was a member of the Proletariat party, ...

. He joined the Dutch Communist Party, soon only to become disenchanted with it and, especially, with the political developments in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. In consequence, he left the

Communist Party of Holland The Communist Party of the Netherlands ( nl, Communistische Partij Nederland, , CPN) was a Dutch communist party. The party was founded in 1909 as the Social-Democratic Party (SDP) and merged with the Pacifist Socialist Party, the Political Party ...

in 1924. He subsequently chronicled his embrace of, and break with,

Communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

in the first volume of his autobiography, ''Uit mijn communistentijd'', published in Amsterdam in 1965 by his loyal publisher, G.A. van Oorschot. De Kadt developed into a trenchant and increasingly uncompromising critic of

Stalinism Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory ...

, and articulated an independent line of socialist thought and political practice. This was expressed both in the content of his first major book, ''From Tsarism to Stalinism'' published in 1935 in Antwerp, and in his pivotal role in the formation of the

Independent Socialist Party (Netherlands) The Independent Socialist Party ( nl, Onafhankelijke Socialistische Partij; OSP) was a revolutionary socialist political party in the Netherlands. History The party was founded by a group around Jacques de Kadt and Piet J. Schmidt on 28 March ...

(OSP). The book, which identified a continuity between the character of the Tsarist state and the Soviet political system under Stalin, contained an intimation of De Kadt's broader critique of twentieth century

totalitarianism Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and reg ...

– a critique which was to define the nature of his subsequent political career.

Fascism

The 1930s marked a significant period in the maturation of De Kadt's thought. He published widely on the major political developments of the time as well as on cultural, literary and philosophical topics. His writings addressed not only the threat posed by

Fascism Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...

and

but included a major study of

Georges Sorel Georges Eugène Sorel (; ; 2 November 1847 – 29 August 1922) was a French social thinker, political theorist, historian, and later journalist. He has inspired theories and movements grouped under the name of Sorelianism. His social and p ...

, and numerous articles on notable (and not so well known) political and literary figures. De Kadt was a prodigiously productive – if often acerbic and polemical – writer who, at his best, was a writer of great elegance and style. Bart Tromp, an editor of a posthumously published collection of essays, referred to him as "an

Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitari ...

of Oss". In ''Het fascisme en de nieuwe vrijheid'', De Kadt predicts the coming of the Second World War, the ultimate defeat of Fascism and the emergence of the United States of America and the Soviet Union as the dominant global powers. The book also contains a normative defence of "western civilization" and its scientific underpinning. The book served as one source of inspiration for H. Floris Cohen's 1994 historiographical exploration of the 'scientific revolution'.H. Floris Cohen, ''The Scientific Revolution: A Historiographical Inquiry'', 1994, Chicago, Chicago University Press, p. 4

Parliamentary career

De Kadt was a Labour Party ( Partij van de Arbeid) member of the Dutch parliament from 1948 to 1963. He served for many years as the party's principal spokesman on foreign affairs, though his outspoken stance on Indonesian independence (of which he was a vigorous early protagonist) and his sharp, unqualified, opposition to Stalinism and the Soviet system ruled him out as a contender for the Ministerial position that was held by Joseph Luns. De Kadt was a regular radio commentator during these years. His contribution to Dutch public life and service was recognized in 1959 when he was awarded a knighthood in the Order of the Netherlands Lion.

References

Bibliographical references

*Havenaar, R. (1990) ''De tocht naar het onbekende – Het politieke denken van Jacques de Kadt'' *Pels, D. (1993) ''Het democratisch verschil. Jacques de Kadt en de nieuwe elite'' *Cohen, H. Floris (1994) ''The Scientific Revolution: A Historiographical Inquiry'', Chicago, Chicago University Press

External links

*http://www.vanoorschot.nl/?isbn=9789028240124 *http://www.schrijversinfo.nl/kadtdejacques.html *http://www.dbnl.org/auteurs/auteur.php?id=kadt001 {{DEFAULTSORT:Kadt, Jacques De 1897 births 1988 deaths Dutch Jews Dutch political writers Jewish Dutch politicians Jewish Dutch writers Knights of the Order of the Netherlands Lion Labour Party (Netherlands) politicians Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands) People from Oss 20th-century Dutch journalists