John Stuivenberg: Belonging Nowhere

A sailor, unionist, international volunteer, and individualist: John Stuivenberg did not seem to be at home anywhere.

Sailor

John (Johannes) Stuivenberg was born on January 2, 1891 in Veenendaal, The Netherlands. In his early twenties, he moved to the United States where he worked as a sailor. He was a member of the Sailors’ Union of the Pacific (SUP) and listed San Francisco, the headquarters of the SUP, as his residence. Stuivenberg probably became aware of the political situation in Spain through his union ties.

Generally, sailors were able to travel to Spain more easily than other volunteers due to what was called ship-hopping: they would depart the United States on a ship heading someplace where they would board another ship heading to Spain. They thus circumvented the travel ban the United States had put on Spain during the war. Entering Spain remained a challenge, however, particularly after the French government closed the border. Stuivenberg, like other volunteers who signed the fan, had to cross the Pyrenees mountains on foot. He arrived in Spain on July 6, 1937.

Unionists 

The SUP had a complicated relationship with other unions and the communist party line. In 1935, a Maritime Federation of the Pacific Coast (MFPC) was created to unite all maritime workers. The MFPC elected the head of the SUP as its president. A year later, during the 1936-1937 strike, the SUP and the Maritime Federation, secured a monthly increase of ten dollars for the sailors. But, while the strike was largely successful, divisions within the MFPC became unmanageable.

In 1936, the SUP was expelled from the International Seamen’s Union as well as the American Federation of Labor in part because of the presence of communists in its ranks. The SUP, however, was not unified ideologically. A generational divide existed between younger members embracing communism and older members suspicious of the communist party. In addition, among communist members, Trotskyists differed from Stalinists. After the 1936 strike, the Maritime Federation, following the communist party line expelled prominent Trotskyists, while the president of the SUP, who distrusted Stalinists, kept Trotskyists in his union. 

Divided politically at home, SUP members also differed on their positions toward the International Brigades in Spain. A number of young SUP members joined the Brigades, while others disapproved of participating in the Spanish Civil War. While a combined leftist front against fascism temporarily bridged these divisions, the alliance eventually fell apart. 

The SUP was ideologically more aligned with the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo, a confederation of anarchist unions in Spain that pushed for a workers’ revolution during the war. The communist party, on the other hand, refrained from talking about a revolution, prioritizing instead winning the war. These differences within the political left only sharpened as the Spanish Civil War intensified.

In 1938, for example, SUP member and anarchist Sam Usinger sailed to Spain to deliver humanitarian aid to the Republican side. 

Sam Usinger was appalled to see young volunteers, as he put it, “butchered for the [communist] party, when you haven’t even a dying man’s chance to live. We call them ‘cannon meat.’”

Quoted in Schwartz, 123.

In a letter to the West Coast Sailors, the SUP newspaper, Usinger advised against supporting the North American Committee to Aid Spanish Democracy, insinuating that its funds did not reach the international volunteers but remained within the communist party. Usinger was later arrested and deported from Spain for trying to help an American volunteer to desert.

Stuivenberg’s records in the International Brigades archive state that he was not a member of the communist party. He remained focused on labor issues. He declared himself to be “one 100 percent in favor” of the policies of the Spanish Popular Front, because, as he wrote: “the popular front represent the workers.”

At the end of the war, the surviving veterans honored all the maritime workers from the different unions that had fallen fighting for the Republic in Spain. No longer able to fight, the veterans now contributed to fundraisers to help the thousands of Spanish refugees fleeing Spain ahead of Franco’s victory.

Battles and Injuries

Stuivenberg was initially a member of the 24^th Battalion, made up of mostly Cuban volunteers. He fought at Quinto, Belchite, Fuentes de Ebro and Levante. During the fighting at Fuentes de Ebro, he suffered a head injury and spent two months recovering at the hospital in Benicassim. He eventually joined the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, 4^th Artillery Group, where he met the other men who signed the fan. In his repatriation file, his superiors described him as a good worker who was, however, too “individualistic” and did not mix well with others. 

Deported 

While repatriation was hard for all International Brigades volunteers, it was particularly difficult for those who could not prove their American citizenship, like Stuivenberg. While most American volunteers were able to leave Europe by January 1939, Stuivenberg, who was first interned in the French camp of St. Cyprien, did not return until April. Though he had lived in the United States for over twenty-five years, when he attempted to re-enter the country, he was deported. Stuivenberg eventually returned to The Netherlands. He died in 1955 in Rotterdam.

Stuivenberg Profile

FURTHER READING

Bruce Nelson. 1988. Workers on the Waterfront. Seamen, Longshoremen, and Unionism in the 1930s. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Stephen Schwartz. 1986. Brotherhood of the Sea: A History of the Sailors’ Union of the Pacific 1885-1985. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.

Matthew White. 2017. “‘The Cause of the Workers Who are Fighting in Spain is Yours’: The Marine Transport Workers and the Spanish Civil War,” in Wobblies of the World. A Global History of the IWW. Edited by Peter Cole, David Struthers, and Kenyon Zimmer. London: Pluto Press. Pp. 212-227.  

SOURCES 

“William Bailey, returned MFOWW veteran from Spain….” Voice of the Federation, 16 February 1939, p. 7.

Chris Brooks. 2020. “The Flight by Sidney Kaufman.” The Volunteer 5/3. 

“Sailors Fighting in Spain Ask Unity in Labor’s Ranks.” Voice of the Federation, 8 September 1938, p. 2.

Spanish Civil War and the Seafarers and Dockers.

“John Stuivenberg.” Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives. Biographical Database.

“John Stuivenberg.” Personal File. RGASPI. Fond 545, Opis 6, File 996.

Bill Williams. “Pickets Thrown in Jail for Protest to Italian Consul About Mussolini’s War of Conquest.” Voice of the Federation, 31 October 1935, p. 1.