The party was founded by a group around Jacques de Kadt and Piet J. Schmidt on 28 March 1932. The group had split from the SDAP after a conflict over the internal opposition publication, the De Fakkel. The moderate leadership of the SDAP banned the publication, in reaction to this the leftwing opposition left the party. It entered in the 1933 elections where at won 27,000 votes and nearly one seat. In 1935 the party merged with the Revolutionary Socialist Party, and formed the Revolutionary Socialist Workers Party.
The RSP was mainly supported by leftwing intellectuals and educated workers, who were highly concentrated in the large cities.
Organization
Linked organisations
The party had a strong basis of young militants, united in Socialist Youth Union. (Dutch: Socialistische Jeugd Vereniging; SJV). The party magazine was the De Fakkel (The Torch), which had actually ignited the break between OSP and SDAP. The Youth Union was affiliated to the International Bureau of Revolutionary Youth Organizations.
Relationships to other parties
The OSP was shunned by other leftwing parties, because of its strong opposition to the social-democratic SDAP and the Communist CPH. Cooperation with the small Left-Communist RSP led to their merger with the RSAP in 1935.