Amsterdam protest says no to war and conscription 

The strength of feeling against war fever in Europe is growing. Mark van der Hout reports from a major demonstration in the Netherlands

On Sunday 27 September thousands of people gathered in Amsterdam for a much-discussed anti-war protest. I estimate that there were between five and ten thousand. Although certainly not the first anti-war protest in recent years, it was the largest and most visible one this decade. Only the protests against the genocide in Gaza were bigger, but these had a more limited focus on stopping Israel, and did not mobilise people against militarism and NATO-spending.

The protest was organised by the New Peace Movement (Nieuwe Vredesbeweging), the youth division of the biggest Dutch trade union FNV, and the national student union (LSVb). In a manifesto titled ‘Stop the war fever!’, the groups explain that politics is “gripped by a war fever” that is leading The Netherlands “down a reckless path of militarisation and social dismantling”. The protest focused attention to the fact that, also in The Netherlands, public services and social security are being axed to fund high military spending. It also warned for a new set of laws that would give the military vastly more domestic power and would reintroduce forms of conscription.

A large number of leftwing social initiatives and parties supported and attended the demonstration, including the parliamentary Socialist Party (SP), the youth movements of PRO (the Duch social-democrats) and the Animal Party, as well as Extinction Rebellion, several local and national Palestine groups, and a host of other socialist, feminist and anti-fascist organisations. On stage there were musical performances by Eefje de Visser (a much-loved pop artist) and the punk/hiphop duo IJSLAND.

In the week leading up to the protest, a tidal wave of negative opinion pieces had appeared in local and national media to criticise the protest. It was a striking change of approach, given that the peace movement had, up to that moment, been largely given the silent treatment by the establishment. But now the attempts to dissuade people to join the march were impossible to miss. With headlines such as ‘Choosing peace as disguised surrender’, ‘Peace as betrayal’, and ‘The children of Odesa have no use for our pacifists’, they all rallied around the position of the Dutch government, the European Union, and Nato: more investment in the war industry is necessary.

I cannot but see this as a concerted effort to nip an emerging anti-war movement in the bud. But yesterday’s turnout proved it has failed.

I joined the protest as part of the Extinction Rebellion block, which was relatively small but good-spirited. Within XR, the theme of anti-militarism is only slowly gaining attention, even though it should be obvious that an accelerating arms race is incompatible with climate justice.

The largest blocs were of different socialist and Marxist organisations. Apart from the parliamentary Socialist Party (which has shaken much of its Marxist feathers, unfortunately), the Dutch Communist Party (NCPN), the International Socialists (aligned with the IST), and the Dutch branch of the Workers’ Party of Turkey took part. Also the recently formed Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), a communist party formed from the socialist youth movement Rood (Red) had a significant presence. It was good to see so many comrades of various Marxist plumage walk side by side.

Seeing the relatively hight number of students taking part in the march was a delight. The chant ‘Stik er maar lekker in, wij gaan niet het leger in’ (‘Go choke on it, we’re not joining the army’) was taken up with enthusiasm. Some of the students I spoke with were already part of organisations like Rood or RSP, others were still trying to find their footing and admitted to me that it was the first big protest they attended.

The manifestation in Dam Square and subsequent march took place without incidents. There was a counter-protest by a handful of Dutch, Ukrainian and Polish activists waving flags with the Azov emblem, among other emblems of Ukrainian military units. They argued that the idea that Nato expansion is a cause of the war in Ukraine was ‘Russian war propaganda’. It may of course well be so that Russia appeals to it in its propaganda. But that doesn’t mean it is not true.

One of the hardest things international worker solidarity demands is to resist letting our stance be determined by simplistically inverting whatever is said by some other side. Any Marxist anti-war movement must insist on making its own analysis, forefronting the fate and role of the working class. To borrow a saying from XR: Speak the truth; even when its uncomfortable or makes you unpopular with those in power.

A next big thing on the agenda for the Dutch anti-war movement is an international student strike against conscription on the 20th of November. I hope that the anti-war coalition that has started to form will in the next months work together to reach Dutch students and organise with them to stage a mass walk-out in protest of military conscription. We face a steep challenge, I think, given that political organising is currently under-developed among school students in The Netherlands, in part due to decades of defunding and neglect in the education system. But the recent anti-draft protests by students across Germany may offer a role model, and Sunday’s promising turnout of student activists is ground for confidence and determination.

About the author:

Mark van der Hout is activist with Extinction Rebellion Netherlands, and a member of Techwerkers, a Dutch tech worker solidarity network.