Dutch union leader and social-democratic politician.
Jan Oudegeest (Dutch for John old ghost) was born in Utrecht as the son of a wagon maker. He was raised as a orthodox Christian and became a clerk. He went to work at the administration of the State Railways (The NS headquarter still resides in Utrecht) . He became a member of the Nederlandsche Vereniging van Spoorwegambtenaren (NV), where he later became chairman and in which he introduced social reforms, so that the lower railway staff could also become members. He participated in strikes, which the management did not appreciate. He came as a municipal councillor in the municipality of Utrecht. He moved to Amsterdam and came back to the council there.
During the First World War, Oudegeest showed himself to be a patriotic person, by helping to keep society stable instead of disrupting it. At the end of the First World War, Oudegeest is an opponent of Pieter Jelles Troelstra during the “Mistake of Troelstra”. Yet Oudegeest was not anti-revolutionary like most conservative Christians, he just felt that the revolution called for by Troelstra became only too fast and would be too violent. He thought that the social democratic SDAP should ‘lead the revolution in the right direction’.
In those days Oudegeest was mainly active for the international socialist movement. He was elected member of the Dutch House of Representatives in 1918, but resigned as a candidate for the 1922 elections, because of all the time it took him, including the daily travelling from Utrecht to Den Haag to talk about National trivial issues. Other 2nd House members complained that he skipped the House a lot.
He was right. But because he was mainly active for the international socialistic movement, Oudegeest became less known in the Netherlands. This hampered his career and position in Den Haag. For example, he participated in the establishment of the International Labour Organization (ILO) of the League of Nations (Oct 1919). He wanted to become the permanent representative of the Dutch trade unions in that organization. However, the Court of Justice decided in 1921 that it should be done alternately with a member of the confessional parties (neglecting Oudegeest’s Christian background).
In 1927, Oudegeest made his position available because of the British choice to cooperate with the Soviet Union, with the message that politics and the trade unions could be better separated.
After the resignation of Willem Vliegen, Oudegeest became chairman of the Dutch Labour Party SDAP in 1927, a position he held until 1934. Till 1939 the SDAP Labour Party was an opposition party. It was still divided in a left wing that wanted drastic reforms by unparliamentary actions and a right wing that was willing to compromise to enable slow reforms in a parliamentary coalition. Vliegen and Oudegeest belonged to the second group and when Vliegen attacked the left wing group on 26 March 1932 in Haarlem, Oudegeest lost his voice. It resulted in a new left wing activistic party called the Onafhankelijke Socialistische Partij (OSP, Independent Socialistic Party). Many Jewish socialists like Jacques de Kadt became part of it, as it was a clear and outspoken anti-fascist party.
But the leaders of the SDAP were more moderate, as they were keen to govern in a many party country were coalitions always had to be built. Christian PM’s like the Catholic Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck (Aug 1929 – May 1933) and the Calvinistic Hendrikus Colijn (May 1933 – July 1939) kept a ‘Ga maar rustig slapen’ (Colijn: Go to sleep peacefully) neutrality politics with regards to the growing fascism in Germany. In 1934 the 60 plus Oudegeest resigned because he believed that with the rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany, a younger president was needed.
He retired in Oegstgeest meaning “akker op geestgrond, die toebehoort aan Osger”. See also: Geest: The term geest is a substantivisation of the Low German adjective güst, which means “dry and infertile”…. The oldest settlements in Northern Germany and Denmark lie on geest, since it provided better protection against storm floods.
He died on October 16 (act 895), 1950 in Oegstgeest from a throat disorder. His death at old age (80) received little public attention in the Netherlands, but his funeral was attended by Willem Drees, the Dutch NS railway CEO and many union leaders.
Link to Dutch wikipedia