arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

Report to the Tendency
from IS-Netherlands

The shooting of Pim Fortuyn, the leader of the extreme right in the Netherlands, on the 6th of May has dramatically changed the circumstances under which the Dutch IS-group is working.

Before the killing, we were one of the most visible forces in organising a demonstration against racism that was planned for upcoming Saturday, the weekend before the general elections. At least 10.000 people were expected
to march in Rotterdam, the city where Fortuyn won a third of the votes in the recent local elections. While the national coalition campaigned under the slogan 'No vote to racism', our campaign 'Stop the Dutch Haider'attracted far more attention. The way we campaigned gained us a lot of
respect from other left wing groups and immigrant organisations in particular. But our visibility before the 6th of May also meant that we became a target for the right after the shooting.

The shooting of Fortuyn had the same effects these kind of attacks usually have. Hysteria is being whipped up against all the opponents of Fortuyns policies, including the ruling Labour Party. While CNN and BBC responded to
the murder by saying that a leading figure of the European far-right had been shot (CNN even interviewed Filip Dewinter, the leader of the Flemish fascists) the Dutch media have responded by making a national hero out of
Fortuyn. Meanwhile, fascists are using the fact that the killer came from an environmentalist background to create an atmosphere of terror against whatthey call 'the extreme left', again including the Labour Party (who are so very left wing that Clinton and Blair called them an example for the Third
Way).

Given the leeway that's now being allowed the extreme-right, and the fact that all other parties have temporarily stopped their campaigning, there's achance that the General Elections will see a landslide for Fortuyn. In the Netherlands, it's possible to run a dead candidate, and Fortuyn's party, desperate to make a martyr out of their leader, are using every way of moralblackmail imaginable to win these elections.

The campaign of the right has already had its effects. The demonstration that was planned for the 11th of May was cancelled. Instead, there have been demonstrations in favour of Fortuyn. On the evening of the murder, fascists
were on the streets shouting 'All blacks to the gas'. The media ignored this. Every hour, we receive threats by phone or e-mail. More seriously, our printer refused to print our paper any longer, because of our politics.

But as much as we were in the front of fighting Fortuyn's rise, now we're in the front trying to stop the offensive of the right. Immediately, we put out a statement saying that we condemn the murder, but that the responsibility
for whipping up a climate of racism and hatred lies with Fortuyn. We also argued that the fight against racism by mass mobilisations from below, as we've recently seen in France, is more necessary now than ever. This gained
us a large hearing. The day after the murder we were all over the media, being the only organisation that dared to respond so quickly (and, in the words of one of the interviewers, the only organisation that didn't change
it's opinions in order to be popular). We also immediately started to draw together those on the left who were willing to do something in order to plan meetings in the run up to the elections.

At the moment, the left is being pushed in the defensive. But the political polarisation underlying the rise of Fortuyn has not gone away, and far from all of this polarisation was to the right. A lot of people who after the
murder either were pushed into dropping their opposition to Fortuyn's politics, or were afraid to speak out, will feel the need to fight back again when the first wave of hysteria dies down: against the hardcore racists and fascists who try to make use of the murder politically, and
against the hypocricy of the mainstream politicians, who created the climate in which Fortuyn could grow and now wail about his death. We have to work hard to help preparing the left to go over to the offensive again.