board of the newspaper Panorama, together with Liem Koen Hian, Sanusi Pane and Mohammad Yamin. In 1933, Amir was imprisoned by the Dutch for his Aksi Massa ("Mass Action") essay, an essay published in the Banteng Partindo magazine which encouraged the public to drive out the colonial invaders. Though in actuality, the essay was written by Mohammad Yamin, with Amir only stated as the author in the published version. Amir was imprisoned for two years, being released on 5 June 1935. In mid-1936, together with his colleagues Liem, Pane and Yamin, Amir started another newspaper, Kebangoenan, which – as with Panorama – was published by Phoa Liong Gie's Siang Po Printing Press. In 1937, towards the end of the Dutch rule, Amir led a group of younger Marxists in the establishment of Indonesian People's Movement (Gerindo). Under Amir's leadership, the party was considered a radical leftist anti-fascist political party, influenced by the ideology of Communism. The Soviet Union's Dimitrov doctrine, had called for a common front against fascism which helped swell the number of Indonesians taking a cooperative approach with regards to the Dutch colonial administration in an attempt to secure Indonesian independence. Gerindo was one of the more significant cooperative parties in the years leading to World War II whose objectives included a fully Indonesian legislature; It had modest goals in comparison to the Dutch-suppressed radical nationalists led by the likes of Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta, who Sjarifuddin had met before the War. By 1940, Dutch intelligence suspected him of being involved with the Communist underground. Having watched the increased strength and influence of Imperial Japan, he was one of a number of Indonesian leaders who warned against the danger of fascism before the war. Prior to the German invasion of the Netherlands, Amir himself led and promoted boycotts against trade with Japan. When the colony was invaded by Japan, his prominent role in these campaigns prompted the head of Dutch intelligence to provide Amir with 25,000 guilders to organize an underground resistance movement. Upon Japan's occupation of the East Indies, the Japanese enforced total suppression of any opposition to their rule. Most Indonesian leaders obliged either by becoming 'neutral observers' or by actively cooperating. Amir was one of a few prominent Indonesian politicians who actively fought against the Japanese, together with fellow future-Prime Minister Sutan Sjahrir. The Japanese arrested Sjarifuddin in 1943, and he escaped execution only due