THE NETHERLANDS Millions sign against the missiles THE DECISION in principle of the rightist Lubbers government to deploy the cruise missiles was approved by parliament on June 14, 1984, despite massive protests. This vote touched off a crisis in the antimissiles movement.
Moderates started talking about compromises. In fact, the defeat coincided with expectations of a Social Democratic victory in the 1986 elections. The following article describes the last campaign of the peace movement against the final go-ahead for deployment expected on November 1 perspectives. ROBERT WENT
The focus of the antimissiles movement in September and October is the People's Petition, a massive collection of signatures to show once again that the majority of people who live in the Netherlands are against deployment of cruise missiles on Dutch territory. An estimated 80,000 activists are involved in house-tohouse canvassing, getting signatures on a card with the following text:
"To the government and the States General [parliament]. I oppose nuclear armament. Around November 1, you are to make a decision about the deployment of cruise missiles on Dutch territory. I ask you to say 'no' to deployment."
This petitioning drive has given impetus to a vast polarization. The supporters of deployment have responded with a more open counteroffensive than ever before. In advertisements signed by a "Committee for Bilateral Disarmament," prominent personalities have been appealing to people not to sign the card but to "tear it up." In this campaign, the right has mobilized, for example, the former NATO secretary general Luns and the industrialist Frits Philips (of the Philips Co.).
The ultraright is clearly playing a role in this campaign. But it was leaders of the Christian Democratic Party (Christen Demokratisch Appel -CDA), the party of the millionaire premier Lubbers, that first came out for it. The CDA always tried to and the advance of the debate on take an intermediate position, but now that the moment of truth is approaching, they are bothering less and less about that. Bert de Vries, the chair of the CDA fraction in the Second Chamber, has spoken out against the petition, saying that he sees a great danger in the action, because people could turn against "democracy" when the parliament and the government ignore the results of this petition.
The other government party, the rightwing liberal VVD (Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Demokratie — People's Party for Freedom and Democracy) has always openly supported deployment, and that has not changed. Leaders of this party make slanderous statments about signatures being forged and people being intimidated when they refuse to sign.
The biggest newspaper in the country, De Telegraaf, almost every day carries articles against the people's petition. In them, you find the argument being raised that the action could rebound against democracy. In one, there were even references to "Hitler's methods." In short, the right is not very confident.
In June 1984, the Lubbers government decided that the decision was to be made for deployment this November 1, unless the Soviet Union failed to deploy any new SS-20s between July 1984 and November 1, 1985. This was seen immediately by a lot of people as a cheap trick to International Viewpoint 14 October 1985
put the blame for the deployment on the Russians. But, nonetheless it took the leadership of the peace movement (the KKN) a long time to take any new initiatives. (1)
Leaders of the KKN said openly after June 1, 1984, that the time for big actions was past. And that was despite the fact that only a couple of weeks before, on May 10, hundreds of thousands of workers struck against the cruise missiles, together with high-school students. A lot of pressure from the rank and file of the movement was necessary before it was finally decided at the beginning of this year to organize a petition campaign. Local committees established
Petitioning has been going on now for more than three weeks, and as always when i there has been some organization, it has been a great success. Thousands of new people have become involved in this action. Tens of thousands of activists who were able to do little or nothing after June 1 have been reactivated.
Never have there been so many local united-front committees. There are now almost 600 committees for the total of slightly over 700 cities and towns in the country. The bulk of the people living in the Netherlands will have someone come to their doors at least once between September 7 and October 26 to ask them if they have signed or if they will give their card in.
From the opinion polls, it seems that since the start of the action, the number of those against deployment once again stands above 50%. Estimates are that at least 3 million signatures will be turned in by the end of the campaign, perhaps even 4 million.
The big question is "And what then?" The KKN has called for a demonstration on October 26 to mark the handing over of the signatures to Premier Lubbers. That is all well and good, but where do we go from there? What happens to the tens of thousands of people who have carried out the action? Here, we come to an area where the Social Democrat-dominated KKN is playing more and more of a braking role.
The KKN is explicitly opposed to a real demonstration to conclude the petition drive. It wants only a modest demonstration for the presentation of the petitions to Lubbers. This is despite the strong pressure of the local committees for a demonstration, which found expression in the national assembly of local committees May 25-June 1.
International Viewpoint 14 October 1985
The KKN sees no good in organizing an action for November 1, the day when the government is to make a decision. It refuses to conduct a discussion about "where to go after the petition," with the argument that it will be time to consider that if the petition drive does not get results.
The well-known IKV chair, MientJan Faber, is trying to work out compromises between "deployment" and "nondeployment," in order to make it possible for the Social Democratic PvdA (Partij van de Arbeid) to come into the government along with the Christian Democrats, after elections scheduled for next May.
The FNV (Federatie Nederlandse Vakvereningen), the country's biggest union confederation, which called a 15 minute strike against the cruise missiles on May 10, is giving only faint encouragement to its people to take part in the petition campaign and bring it into the factories and offices. The result is that much less has been done in the petition campaign in and by unions and union locals than in the previous actions of the peace movement.
The leadership of the peace movement decided only to organize a petition campaign and not to look beyond November 1. Or did it? In fact, putting on the brakes and developing no perspectives for after the government's decision means letting the movement wane again after parliament and the government make their decision. For a lot of leading figures in the peace movement, this petition drive seems for the moment to be the movement's last big action.
However, there is an important difference now. For the first time, a section of the movement has had the self confidence to undertake something ambitious, even if the national leadership of the movement (the KKN) is against it.
- On November 1, actions are to take place in many localities throughout the country. The most important will be a new school strike. At the moment Jongeren tegan Kernwapens (2) has sixty local branches that are organizing this strike. In various places, there will be demonstrations. And here and there the union leaders are getting appeals from factories and officies to make November 1 a day of action. Given the attitude of the union leadership toward the petitioning, however, there seems no possibility of this happening.
- A section of the movement, mainly more radical groups, is organizing an "alarm demonstration" for October 26, following the KKN demonstration that concludes the petition campaign. This alarm demonstration will not only mark the end of petitioning but also focus attention on the need to continue the movement and on the actions to be held on November 1.
The demonstration is being built by a number of city united-front committees; Jongeren tegen Kernwapens, Vrouwen tegen Kernwapens (Women Against Nuclear Weapons), BONK, a national organization that builds civil-disobedience actions; and one political party, the Socialistiese Arbeiderspartij (SAP -Dutch section of the Fourth International). The other left parties will not have anything to do with an initiative not supported by the KKN.
For the future of the movement, it is of great importance that these initiatives and actions be a great success. It is clear that there are two paths for strengthening the peace movement after November 1 and building new initiatives. On the one hand, the national united front, the KKN | has to be maintained and brought into new actions. On the other hand, sections of the movement have to take initiatives and start campaigns, even if the leadership of the movement is against that, even if - as is the case with the October 26 demonstration - the leadership explicitly opposes it. In this sense, the movement is making some important advances in these months.
anti EXTRA atoombommars
*t harde zaterdag 28 sept'85 Vertrek 14.00 uur vanaf station tHarde Geen kernwapens in Nederland Dus zeker geen kruisraketten
1. The KKN is the national coordinating committee of the peace movement. It includes the left parties represented in sadement one pence gane the the biggest union confederation, the FNV.
Jongeren tegen Kernwapens now has sixty branches, and consists nationally of representatives of all the left youth organizations, from the Jonge Socialisten (the Social Democratic youth organization) to REBEL (the youth organization in political solidarity with the SAP and the Fourth International).