a noallaguerra dall'olanda: grandi manifestazioni contro la guerra in Olanda

Big peace demonstrations in Rotterdam and elsewhere in The Netherlands

On Saturday 10 November, people gathered for one of many local
demonstrations in The Netherlands for peace for the Afghan people in
Rotterdam, on Plein 1940. Plein 1940 is called after May 1940, when
Hitler's air force, the Luftwaffe, destroyed the city center of Rotterdam,
killing many people.

Already at 1 pm, one hour before the official beginning, a band of
Brazilian residents in The Netherlands took to the stage of the truck of
Theaterstraat theatre company. Their age ranged from early teens to
thirtyish. They concluded their Latin American songs with a call for peace
and love for everyone.

Signs on the stage said: No to the new war. Stop Dutch participation in the
war. Stop abolishing democratic rights. Stop war for oil and money. Against
imperialism, for international friendship. Stop war propaganda in the
media. Stop bombing the innocent. US and Taliban out of Afghanistan.

Then, two Afghan refugees resident in The Netherlands played Afghan music
on keyboards. Next, guitarist/singer Jos Linnebank sang an anti-war song.

The meeting started officially with Ms Nelly Soetens laying flowers at the
monument by sculptor Ossip Zadkine for the 1940 bombing, in memory of the
Rotterdam people who died in May 1940, the New York people who died on 11
September,  and the Afghan people dying day after day.

An Afghan studying medicine in The Netherlands said Afghanistan had been
abused bloodily by Cold War strategists. Today, Bin Laden and the Taliban,
products of the CIA, were used as pretext for killing the innocent Afghan
people. It was extremely obvious to Afghans they would never trust Western
governments. However, I call on the people of the Western countries to
stand tall, to end this war!

Wytze de Lange of the National Platform against the New War spoke, opposing
Dutch Prime Minister Kok. Kok had announced yesterday that 1300 Dutch
soldiers would join George W. Bush's war "against terrorism" [maybe,
according to analysts, in Somalia or Yemen or around the Arab/Persian
Gulf]. Wim van Wijk of the local anti war movement strongly criticized the
scapegoating of innocent Muslims by people like Silvio Berlusconi and
European Union Commissioner Bolkestein.

A representative of the Leiden Anti War Committee asked the people of
Rotterdam to come also to the peace demonstration in Leiden, Saturday 24
November, 2 pm, starting from the peace monument at the Garenmarkt. Also,
on 14 December peace activists should be at the big demonstration against
the pro corporate and militarist policy of the European Union in Brussels.
A Moroccan, speaking in Spanish, also addressed the crowd.

Then, the demonstration through the city center of Rotterdam started.
People varied from one year old in a perambulator to eightyish. From
Mohican haired teenage punk rocker with anarchist sign to middle aged
Yugoslav Dutch lady with anti depleted uranium sign. From African to
Iranian refugee to (many) Afghan refugee. In front were banners of the
local committee and a big red and yellow Stop the War Stop the cycle of
violence banner. Around the middle, other banners said: An eye for an eye
makes everybody blind. Kurdish people want peace. Near the end was the
banner of the Free Mumia Abu Jamal Committee. One of the slogans which
people shouted was familiar from demonstrations for this ex Black Panther
political prisoner in the US, threatened by the death penalty: George Bush,
we know you; your father is a killer too!, referring to Bush's love for the
death penalty and the Gulf War. One could also hear: What do we want?
Peace! When do we want it? Yesterday! For whom do we want it? Everyone!
And: Stop the war, stop it now! One, two, three, four, we do not want war
here; five, six, seven, let the Afghans live [Dutch: leven]! [Dutch Prime
Minister] Kok, shame on you, blood is on your hands! George Bush, assassin
(in French, by Moroccan Dutch). One could also hear slogans in Turkish and
Kurdish. If one looked back at a big roundabout from the first ranks of the
demonstration one could see very many demonstrators, but definitely not
all. So, there were definitely over a thousand demonstrators, who got much
support from clapping people on sidewalks and honking motorists on main
roads. The end of the demonstration came, again, at Plein 1940.

There were also many demonstrations elsewhere in The Netherlands. On Friday
9 November, the day of  the 1938 Nazi anti Semite  "Kristallnacht",
demonstrators in Leiden remembered the victims of Hitler; and of today. In
a speech, Kok's decision to send Dutch soldiers to the Middle East was
denounced. In Heerlen, the Kristallnacht was also remembered, with the
local Afghan refugee community participating. In Amsterdam, there was a
speaker of the Afghan Cultural Society at the Kristallnacht commemoration.

On 9 November, over 300 people joined an anti war demonstration in
Wageningen, a small town with an agricultural educational institution in
the Eastern Netherlands. Among the organizers were the
Political  Information Center Wageningen, Refugees Support Organization,
and Syrian Kurds in The Netherlands.
There were speeches on civil liberties, the Kristallnacht, refugees, and of
course the war. Around the march,
Food not Bombs Wageningen provided for soup, apples, and bread.

Many more actions against this war will happen around the world, until it
is over.



Met vriendelijke groet/Best wishes,
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Herman de Tollenaere
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My Internet site on Asian history and "new" religions:

http://www.asianhistory.myweb.nl/