Peace/Martin L. King action Leiden 26 January
nowar - 26.01.2002 21:27
[in English] Engelstalig verslag vredesdemonstratie Leiden 26 januari
Peace activists, anti-racists, remember Martin Luther King, Leiden, The Netherlands, 26 January
Saturday 26 January is the first weekend day after this year´s Martin Luther King Day. The Anti War Committee in Leiden, The Netherlands, held its Dr Martin Luther King memory march, against the "New War" and racism, and for civil rights, on that Saturday, to enable also working people to participate. After the Committee had already announced its plans, it turned out that the Dutch (and, mostly in practice, German) nazis of the Nederlandse Volksunie would try to march that day in Rotterdam.. Many people from Leiden who would have normally joined the Leiden march decided to go instead to Rotterdam for the national demonstration against the nazis.
In spite of this and of the extremely rainy and stormy day, a committed crowd gathered at the Stadhuisplein, the square near the sixteenth century town hall. It was diverse, from "native Dutch" to Filipino to Afghan to African.
The first speaker, of the Anti War Committee, reminded the audience that the best way to remember Dr
Martin Luther King was to carry on his fight. His fight for peace, civil rights, and anti-racism. We should protest against the Dutch extreme Right profiting from war hysteria by burning an Islamic school in Nijmegen. Racism will not just hurt Muslims, if we don´t fight it.
We should say no to the CIA and their ilk, who nurtured Bin Laden and the Taleban in the first place, getting more powers, damaging civil rights.
Dr Martin Luther King opposed the Vietnam war. He said: ´The greatest purveyor of violence is my own country´. Martin Luther King shows that the struggle against racism and the struggle against war should go hand in hand. Also warmongers and racists go hand in hand. The only political parties in Europe who tried to organize demonstrations in favour of George W. Bush´s war against the civilians of Afghanistan, are the extreme Right: Vlaams Blok in Belgium, and Fini and Berlusconi in Italy. The Nederlandse Volksunie first became known in the seventies, led by Joop Glimmerveen, then an official of NATO in The Hague. That party wanted and wants to rehabilitate the 1933-1945 nazi regime. Pictures of Hitler and racist violence are rampant in the NVU. The NVU demonstrated in the nineteen eighties against Black people from Surinam and the Antilles; and for NATO nuclear cruise missiles. Glimmerveen´s present successor as NVU Fuehrer, Constant Kusters, spied on demonstrators against the 1999 war against Yugoslavia. Kusters´ girlfriend helped as a member of the Dutch Air Force, air base of Gilze Rijen, to bomb Yugoslav civilians to death.
The present so called war "against terrorism" costs thousands of innocent dead in Afghanistan, as innocent of the attacks in New York as the inhabitants of Leiden. Civilians are still dying from bombs, hunger, and cold. Today in Afghanistan, the forces of the Minister of Defence fight the forces of the Junior Minister of Defence, Dostum. The US support Dostum. Russia supports the minister. Will this lead to confrontation between two governments with nuclear arms? The war in Afghanistan also worsened the confrontation between India and Pakistan, both also nuclear powers.
We should say no to Dutch participation in the war. The governments now wants the Dutch tax payers to fork out over five billion euro to buy US Joint Strike Fighter war planes. It wants to force feed this through Parliament before the elections due in a few months time; robbing the electorate of a chance to prevent this most expensive military bill in history.
Remember that "military advisors" (like in Vietnam in the 1960s) from the US are already in the Philippines. Against the constitution of the Philippines. If the US and its allies will attack, after Afghanistan, a second country [Iraq? Somalia? etc.] the peace movement in The Netherlands and the world will react. For Leiden this means: on the day of the attack [or the next day, if the attack is during the evening, Dutch time] there will be a demonstration on the Stadhuisplein, 7 p.m. There will also be a big national demonstration in The Netherlands, during the week end about 10 days after the beginning of the attack.
As Anti War Comittee Leiden, we call for:
Peace; stop the war
Stop Dutch government support of this war
Stop racism
Stop attacks on civil rights
The next speaker was Paul Day. Now, he is a town council member for the Socialist party. He used to be in the nineteen seventies one of the first people, then as a member of Surinam music group Revo, to oppose the nazis of the Nederlandse Volksunie. He said that Dr Martin Luther King´s struggle will go on. The will of young people to fight for a better society without racism or war inspired him.
The next speaker was Dr Hans Feddema, an anthropologist and ex-member of the Provincial Assembly for the Green Left party. He spoke on the influence of Gandhi on Dr King, eg, his opposition to the Vietnam war. Gandhi has said that wars sometimes seem to solve problems. However, not more than "seem", when you see that they really lead to, for instance, a next war. The war of the US and its allies in Afghanistan is an example of this.
Next was a speaker from the Afghan Cultural Society in The Hague. Nothing, he said, justified killing people in New York City. Nor does anything justify killing innocent civilians in Afghanistan. The bombs of the first months of the war had already killed nearly 4.000 civilians. The real factors behind the war were not what the propaganda said, but questions of oil, other economics, and power politics.
Before the demonstration started, a Dutch Palestinian speaker addressed the crowd. She noted that the "New War" was an excuse for still more violence against Palestinians. Even some soldiers of the Israeli army protested against this.
Then, there was a spirited march down the Breestraat, the main shopping street of Leiden. Slogans resounded against its ancient buildings: "Stop the war, peace now"! "Pro Peace, like Martin Luther King!"
The demonstrators arrived at the destination of today: the monument to the anti nazi resistance fighters of World War Two.
Some of them went on to the "Las Vegas" alternative space, in the Koppenhinksteeg, to see videos about Martin Luther King and other activists from his time, like Malcolm X and the Black Panther Party.
So, on Saturday 26 January, not only in Rotterdam, but also in Leiden, people were active against racism; and for peace and civil rights. In Leiden and elsewhere, the peace actions will go on. On Saturday 16 February there will be in Felix Meritis in Amsterdam a symposium on the reality of the war "against terrorism". On Easter Monday, 1 April, in The Hague, there will be a big peace demonstration, starting 2 p.m at the Plein next to the Parliament building.
 Website: http://www.wereldcrisis.nl
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