Willem van Ravesteyn

Ravesteyn studied history at the University of Leiden and was involved in setting up the local branch of the Dutch Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP) in 1898.

[1] With David Wijnkoop and Jan Ceton he was on the editorial board of the left-wing Marxist newspaper De Tribune when it was set up in October 1907.

However, Pieter Jelles Troelstra and Willem Vliegen, the reformist leaders of the SDAP, found this unacceptable and organised a special congress to discuss throwing out De Tribune from the party.

[2] He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1918 and was an MP until 1926, although he left the Communist Party Holland (the successor of the SDP) in 1925.

[3] In 1928 he wrote a critical review of Herman Gorter's epic poem Pan which he described as a “tragic failure”.