Antivist

By Ben Fraters

It's here again; 1 May, Labour Day. The day when left-wing parties can show their faces for once. And they did; at the Day of Real Jobs, organised by the FNV, the Oosterpark in Amsterdam was coloured red. Almost all leftist parties were represented; the Labour Party had a stall, the NCPN turned up, and so many SP flags were waving that for a moment I thought I had ended up at the greengrocer's.

And GroenLinks? GroenLinks sent Liesbeth van Tongeren to speak on stage for five minutes and sat in the Burcht in the evening holding its own afterparty without having really been an organised presence at the original party. OK, the festiv-*ahem*- protest may not have been so good for the greenery of the Oosterpark, but even then GroenLinks could at least have joined the march with flags waving.

And then some of the upcoming activities from GroenLinks's agenda; an "Expert Meeting with the Energiewende", a "Contribution to the Agricultural Discussion", and receiving the first copy of a book on the impact of Western habits on the earth. All important topics that certainly deserve due attention, but is a book pick-up really the best way to bring attention to our wasteful habits?

At times, it seems that GroenLinks has become a party of antivists; people who want to change the world just by always having discussions instead of being truly activist. Of course there is an important place for discussions, debates and conversational evenings, but these types of activity should not have a monopoly on the party agenda.

Jesse recently expressed a desire to make GroenLinks a broad people's party, and that is a laudable goal that we should certainly pursue, but to do so GroenLinks will have to take to the streets more. Intellectual discussions in expert panels do not appeal to the less educated; taking to the streets, showing that you are there and doing concrete things at local level does.

For instance, there are plans for DWARS Leiden-Haaglanden to do volunteer work in a nursing home; this type of action gets immediate results and shows that GroenLinks and DWARS exist and are willing to step out from behind the debate table and roll up their sleeves. That's what makes you a broad people's party, not just debates and discussion evenings that only interest highly educated people and specific target groups.

If you also plan your actions in, say, areas with a lot of immigrant citizens, you immediately solve the problem that DWARS is a PJO of educated whites sitting around arguing about why there are practically only educated whites in DWARS.

In short, to make GroenLinks a truly broad people's party, as Jesse set out to do, the party needs to step away from the speakers' chair from time to time and pick up the banner again. If you really believe in the words that you preach, get off your screens and onto the streets.