Dutch voters move left...
Local election results show a shift away from the governing parties, and growing support for parties to the left of Labour. The far right lost almost all its local council seats. But will the left be able to maintain this momentum in the 6 May parliamentary elections?
Barend de Voogd
The Socialist Party (populist, exMaoists) and the Green Left, a regroupment of the old CP, ex-Maoists, pacifist social democrats and Christian radicals, gained considerable ground. Local parties also did well. The right-wing liberal governing party VVD did less well than expected.
As in local elections elsewhere, turnout was low (61%). Many supporters of the governing Labour Party and their right-liberal coalition partners the VVD stayed at home - though they will probably turn out to vote in May.
The feeling that "however you vote, the politicians do as they like" dominated these local elections. Nonetheless, disgust with the political establishment was expvote through progressive policies. That is, if the PvdA wants to do so, and if the GreenLeft can resist the temptation to become part of the "respectable" city government.
In any case, the Amsterdam city council now has a broad left (to the left of social democracy) with 13 of the 45 seats. That should be enough to make a difference, by making city politics greener, more social and more democratic. One important step will be to reverse the undemocratic changes to the referendum rules.
The basis for a different policy can be broadened in years to come. The coalition's new council members are Roel van Duijn of the Amsterdam Greens, Ernst van Lohuizen (Socialist Workers Party (SAP), Dutch section of the Fourth International) and Hansje Kalt (independent).
The three new Councillors face the big challenge of bringing opposition back to the Amsterdam city council. They will draw strength from a permanent dialogue with the city's activists, put forward the demands of the broad range of ecological, democratic and social movements, and fight to introduce experiments from abroad like the experiment with free public transport in Hasselt (Belgium) and the participatory budget policies of Porto Alegre (Brazil).
Already during this election it was apparent that an even larger potential exists for a critical green-red coalition. In particular, Amsterdam Anders did badly in some neighbourhoods with a high number of immigrants, who voted less than in previous years: the image of the Amsterdam city council is still white, middle-class, academic, and male. For Amsterdam Anders this is a chance and an obligation. The social and multicoloured face of Amsterdam has to become visible in the neighbourhoods.*
Amsterdam differently - and democratically
A new left-green coalition has won three seats on Amsterdam's municipal council
Herman Pieterson and Barend de Voogd
The Amsterdam Anders/De Groenen [Different Amsterdam/the Greens] list has won three seats on the municipal concil of Holland's capital city. The 5.7% score (14,800 votes) is a better-than-expected score for the "rainbow alliance" founded in October 1997, as a Socialist Workers Party (SAP) initiative to form a broad electoral list for these municipal elections.
The Amsterdam Greens are known in the city for their uncompromising opposition to big infrastructure projects like the construction of a new subway line and the building of a new neighbourhood (IJburg) in the ecologically valuable body of water called the IJmeer. In three consecutive referenda, on the subway line, IJburg and the transformation of the city into a undemocratic 'city province' the majority of the citizens voted - like the Amsterdam Greens and SAP -against the city's proposals.
SAP candidate, now Councillor Ernst van Lohuizen, was the main spokesperson for the committee against the new subway line. Democracy
The creation of Amsterdam Anders was motivated by discontent over the refusal of the city concil to respected any of these referenda decisions. In fact the rules for referenda have been changed to make winning virtually impossible. The new list also attracted support from a layer of militants frustrated with the general lack of opposition by GreenLeft, a very 'constructive' regroupment of ex-CPers, ex-Maoists, Christian leftists and pacifist social democrats.
The list of Amsterdam Anders candidates included militants from all walks of life: activists for the protection of the Ruigoord ecological area, a trade unionist active in the recent strike at Amsterdam 9 International Viewpoint #299
Port, organisers of the Amsterdam European Counter-summit, youth, immigrants and artists. A new dynamic
Amsterdam Anders is a rainbow coalition, in which party members and nonparty-members work together on an equal basis. No special rights are given to the Amsterdam Greens or SAP, although they remain existent as independent organisations.
Amsterdam Anders participated in the elections on a program against the big infrastructure projects, against privatisation of public transportation, and in favour of reduction of the working week without loss of pay, an increase in the minimum wage and a restoration of the original rules for referenda. In the campaign the coalition presented daring plans to build new houses above the freeway, tax the Amsterdam Stock Exchange to pay for social policies, and experiment with free public transport.
The success of Amsterdam Anders was overwhelming, and can be seen in a broader context. The fact that only 45.7% of the Amsterdam electorate actually voted, points to the fact that - more than elsewhere in Holland - voter have lost confidence in the political elite.
Another positive note is that the extreme right lost all four of their seats, and that the electoral gains of Amsterdam Anders coincided with a strengthening of the broader left. The GreenLeft got 7 seats (up from 6), and the left-populist Socialist Party (SP) got 3 (up from 1).
The composition of the new city council has shifted to the left: a broad majority is in favour of a left coalition. The social-democratic party PvdA (currently governing the city and country together with the liberal VVD and D66) won 16 seats. With the GreenLeft (7 seats), Socialist Party and Amsterdam Anders, there is a potential majority of 28 seats to
ressed, not only in abstentions but also in votes for local and far-left parties. The left-liberal D66,the smallest of the three governing parties, paid the highest price: its share of the vote was halved. Among the winners was Amsterdam Anders (A Different Amsterdam), a local coalition of Greens, independent activists and the far-left Socialist Workers Party (SAP-4* International). The coalition elected three city council members by appealing to voters' anger that the city's elite has ignored the results of three local referenda.
The gains for almost all opposition parties was striking. Besides antiestablishment sentiment, social justice has suddenly become the popular campaign theme. The far left, Christian Democrats and smaller Christian parties all fought on this terrain and profited from it. This must be alarming for the ruling social-democratic Labour Party.
Prime Minister Wim Kok thought he was playing a trump card by saying that if left voters desert Labour for the far left, the VVD will become the biggest party and its leader Frits Bolkestein will be the next prime minister. The tactic didn't work. And why should it? Differences on social policy between Labour and the VVD in government have become negligible.
The question is of course whether Kok's tactic will work better in the national elections. In the meantime, he is doing everything he can to smear the "unrealistic" Green Left, the "Maoist" SP and the "extreme left" in general. Fascist defeat
In this context, why was the far right virtually wiped out, losing all but two of its dozens of local councillors? Probably because there is more optimism about the Electronic Viewpoint Some of the articles for the next issue of International Viewpoint are already viewable at our web site. We are slowly adding a downloadable archive of articles published in previous issues previous Issues www.internationalen.se/sp/ivp.html The International Viewpoint list server enables you to receive all our articles, as soon as they are translated into English. Several weeks earlier than they are available in paper form! As well as announcements and updates from our sister organisations around the world. We also have lists in French and Spanish. Subscription is free. To add your name, send a message to: <100666.1443@ compuserve.com>. International Viewpoint is at <[email protected]> economy. The general mood seems to be: *The lean years of cutbacks are behind us, the deficit is no longer an issue, Holland will soon be in the European Monetary Union anyway, so now is the time to tackle growing social inequality.'
Fascist leader Hans Janmaat said -disappointedly- on election night that immigrants no longer seem to be a hot item. Let's hope he's right.
In fact, many of Janmaat's demands have become government policy. The hunt for 'illegals' has intensified, the right of asylum has been cut back, bilingual education is under fire. But, at the same time, with a tightening labour market, Holland seems to need its "illegal' workers after all. Leftward shift
The parliamentary elections on 6 May may be exciting. On the basis of the local election results, the Green Left, which now has five seats in parliament, and the Socialist Party (SP), which now has two, would each gain seven additional seats. Though we shouldn't forget that before the last elections, in 1994, many voters told pollsters they would back the far left, only to change their minds on election day.
So far, unfortunately, the unrest about growing social inequality is almost exclusively electoral. The relationship of forces in society has not essentially changed; there is no large-scale social mobilisation on which the Green Left and SP could base their parliamentary activity.
Not that either party sees this as much of a problem. In fact, the desire to 'deliver the goods' could pull them both towards the political centre.
The Green Left has already gone far down this road. It no longer questions the market economy at all, and in local government often sits in coalition with Labour, D66 and even the VVD
The SP, despite its hard-leftist rhetoric, risks heading the same way. It also has very little idea of what political pluralism means, or self-organisation, or joint work with others on the left.
Nevertheless, the local elections show that the ruling coalition is by no means sure of a return to office. There are more possibilities for a strong left opposition. This means not just doing our best in elections, but also hitting the street, together! *
14th Congress of the Fourth International Transformation and regroupment The collapse of Stalinism and the continuing capitalist crisis has contradictory effects. Myths and illusions connected to the restoration of capitalism in the postStalinist societies have dissipated, faced with the actually existing market economy. But reactions to the socio-economic crisis all too often take the form of reactionary tendencies of an ethnic, nationalist, racial or religious character. Hence the urgent need to rebuild a world-wide movement of anti-capitalist struggle, taking account of the recomposition of the workers' movement which is underway as a result of the double failure of social democracy and Stalinism. Regroupments of forces determined to learn the lessons of the historical abomination that was Stalinism and to continue, against the winds and the tides, to fight against capitalism are being realised in a number of countries. In all the countries where such possibilities exist, the organisations of the Fourth International are ready to be part of the re-groupment process. We consider this as an important step towards the recomposition of the anti-capitalist left on a world scale. At the international level, the 4* International is an active participant in re-groupment, bringing with it the advantages of a long tradition of combat agains capitalism and Stalinism. * Price: £5/S10/60FF plus 10% postage charge
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