returned from Amsterdam saddened and dismayed: the impression of a sectarian movement controlled by maneuvers from above, suffering from all the mental depravities we’d fought against in Russia: authoritarianism, factionalism, intrigues, maneuvers, narrow-mindedness, and intolerance. Sneevliet and his party had had enough, finding the atmosphere unbreathable. They were honest and ponderous Dutch proletarians, used to fraternal mores. Vereecken, who adored the Old Man, said to me, “I give you less than six months before you break with him. He doesn’t put up with any objections.”
