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00138: Re: Dutch Government lunches propaganda campaign

From: Filia den Hollander <fkdh(at)xs4all.nl>
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2005 13:35:41 +0200
Subject: Re: Dutch Government lunches propaganda campaign

Oh, I would wish they would “lunch” their propaganda campaign  ;-)))

What’s to say a bout the Dutch situation? Slowly public debates are starting to take place, i.e. in debating centers etc. The Dutch yes-campaign has started earlier than was originally planned, because parties and groups in society commented that the debate in the Netherlands so far has been a non-debate. In general, the people who go to the public debates (I attended one last Friday) are clever, reasonably informed and the do not let themselves be bullied by the “Tell-sell” stories. However, it’s the people who are not informed, they, from what I’ve heard from eavesdropping, only get more confused. There will be a propaganda campaign, yes, but the NO parties have united in “Comité Grondwet Nee” (Committee Constitution No) and they are pretty sharp on bringing forward the unjust behaviors (having said this, I receive their Newsletters, so my observation might be not based on what actually goes on in the media). They too, of course are being discriminated and have financial problems, but I estimate they can stand reasonably firm for the SP, the former communist party is because of their collective structure a rich party (the latter is not based on facts or publications).

And the good thing about democracy is that all politicians – thus also those who oppose the EU Constitution - have access to the media. So in this case an opinion which is a minority opinion, can still become a majority.

The Dutch government doesn’t have that much room to fool around. With le last elections, the two parties who had the most votes were the Socialist Party (PvdA) and the Christian Democrats (CDA). The coalition before the election was a coalition of rightwing liberals (VVD), Christian Democrats, and the LPF (late Pim Fortuyn’s party - rightwing). This coalition didn’t last very long because of the ongoing internal quarrels of the too inexperienced LPF. This means that already the Dutch population was making a swing to the left, as they had had already a taste of what this rightwing coalition’s intentions were. However, as the Christian Democrats had already promised to collaborate again with the rightwing liberals (they share the same views), prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende blew up the coalition negotiations with Wouter Bos, the nr. 1 candidate of the Socialist party PvdA. So the people were screwed. And in the past two years rapidly all sorts of social achievements have been teared/ torn (?)  down – up to that people who rent houses may face an increase of rent of 200 per cent (numbers not precise) because the government won’t protect them anymore, and thus a really endangered in their life standard (think of Maslow pyramid).
Include to this the murder on filmmaker Van Gogh, racial stuff in small Dutch cities, women who prepare for the second (or third) emancipation gulf (this is not apparent yet, but I can see it around me) anger on the big salaries of a.o. Ahold (supermarkets) and Nuon (energy supplier), a rightwing guy who proposed to include the death penalty again (this is no joke. Fortunately the Democrats 66 wiped it off the table right away), some Parliamentary Undersecretary who wanted to be called “eminence” again (jeered away of course – nevertheless it’s alarming that he even dared to propose this), 26.000 asylum seekers who have been here waiting for 5 or more years and who will now be kicked out of the country, obligation to show identification cards, amending of law so that people can become cought by the police/state on preventive grounds, Constitutional amendment, related to the elected mayor issue, which did not take place because of the Socialist Party PvdA...

So there is more or less consensus that the outcome should be respected.


As for the Dutch referendum movement – Ted Becker inquired about this – it seems that the official Dutch organization: Referendum Platform (4 members) is decisional neutral, i.e. they don’t advise about what to vote on the EU Constitution. So is the European Referendum Campaign (which is logical). Arjen Nijeboer, member of Referendum Platform and, as most of us know, involved in the international movement, is against the EU Constitution and he also writes articles about this. I recently read one in Jonas, a smaller (antroposophical) magazine. He writes as an individual, not as a representative of Referendum Platform.

To continue to answer to Ted Becker’s inquiry about the Dutch direct democracy situation (in general), Niesco Dubbelboer, also member of Referendum Platform, is a member of the opposing government party PvdA. He seems to climb up in the hierarchy (he’s now more public than in the beginning) but apart from the motion on the national referendum on the EU Constitution I haven’t seen him do or achieve anything (I’m considering to not vote for him again).

Amsterdams Initiatief, the local group of 7 Amsterdam people including Arjen Nijeboer and myself (first half) has dissolved after having installed the referendum system there. There is no one to protect against local government’s fooling around – and they do. This sort of thing, I must say, German organization Mehr Demokratie handles much, much better.

In the Netherlands, the movement is mostly based on some 4 or 5 individuals, and per project they attract people from the newsletter network who are interested in this or that project (the members of Amsterdams Initiatief were different people than the members of European Referendum Campaign Netherlands.

The (my) EVERYONE’S A CITIZEN BABY project is not a direct democracy political project in the strict sense although of course it has strong affinities with it.

I have no close contact with Arjen Nijeboer. It might be useful for a complete overview to inform about his views and activities too, for he is much more involved in organizations – Amsterdams Initiatief, Referendum Platform, Initiative and Referendum Institute, European Referendum Campaign Netherlands, Democracy International (latter not sure). If you do, I can give you his contact information but I won’t contact him myself.


Most likely this email will only be received by WDDM and D-Europe, not the other two.


Kind regards,
Filia



op 19-04-2005 20:47 schreef Leopoldo Salgui op lsalgui(at)demopunk.net:

> From the WDDF Forum
> http://64.62.195.58/wddf/viewtopic.php?p=84#84
>
> Shamefully, European propaganda media submits news as the following one
> without any negative comments.
>
> The (supposed) democrats informs of a clear aggression to the democratic
> principles without any mention to this [...]

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