Netherlands:

‘Offensief Against Racism’ Success

LAST SUNDAY, 11 July, we organised the first meeting of our new anti-racist
youth campaign, ‘Offensief Tegen Racisme’ (Offensief Against Racism
-‘Offensief’ is the name of the Dutch section of the CWI).

Patrick Zoomermeijer, Offensief (CWI, Netherlands)

We chose to start the campaign in Rotterdam, the second biggest city in the
Netherlands, because its local government is ‘hard-right’ – made up of
conservative liberals and ‘Liveable Rotterdam’ (the party established by the
right wing, populist politician Pim Fortuyn, who was assassinated two years
ago).

Rotterdam council has discussed a ban on new immigrants entering the city,
introduced a tough ‘law and order’ policy, implemented many cuts in social
services, and now wants to stop poor people renting a house in certain parts
of the city.

The last measure, in particular, provoked a lot of anger amongst working
people in Rotterdam and recently led to a demonstration of several hundred
(mostly immigrant people) outside the city hall.

When, in response to the council’s attacks, we announced the meeting of our
new campaign ‘Offensief Against Racism’, we got the strangest possible
response! Michiel Smit, an extreme right City councillor and known racist,
wanted to take part in the meeting! Smit is an ex-member of the Liveable
Rotterdam party (he departed due to his extreme political views) and started
his own party called ‘Nieuw Rechts’ (New Right).

We responded with a press release in which we stated that either Michiel
Smit must have become an anti-racist overnight, or he might be trying to
disrupt our meeting. Since the former was highly unlikely we said we would not
have him at our meeting.

After that, a debate started on different extreme right websites, as well
as the Dutch left activists’ ‘Indymedia’ site. Michiel Smit did not turn up to
the meeting, despite the attention it got on the internet and in the local
media, or perhaps this attention is why Smit did not attend?

The police, however, were present, with about a dozen officers (including
some who know us from earlier activities in different local committees against
the Iraq war and against government cuts). The police sent some people away
from the meeting who were trying to take photographs of those attending so as
to make our faces known to the extreme right.

Full meeting

The meeting went very well. We had a good turn-out – a full room –
including some new youth. Some found out about our meeting through our
website, some by receiving leaflets handed out at a music festival the week
before, and others through the debate at the Indymedia site. Youth who we met
at different demonstrations recently also turned up.

Belgian CWI comrades were also present, to provide the meeting with the
valuable experiences of ‘Blokbuster’ (set up by CWI members in the 1990s, to
counter the far right Flemish ‘Vlaams Blok’, which has relations with Michiel
Smit and his party in Rotterdam).

The meeting consisted of thorough debates on the nature of the extreme
right, on the causes of wars today (introduced by a member of the Rotterdam
anti-war committee in which we take part), on the struggle against the Flemish
Bloc, and on the nature of capitalism and our socialist alternative.

We also decided on several activities, including a picket later this week
against the Rotterdam council’s attacks on poor people. We will argue for a
real solution to the problems facing all working people: not the scapegoating
of the poor, but jobs, affordable housing and decent wages.

After the meeting a young health worker decided, straight away, to join
Offensief.