International

Next Friday, the thirteenth of October, people shouldn’t worry about black cats, but rather about the decisions the government will take that day. ‘Those are much more dangerous for society,’ SP chairman Marijnissen says in a nationwide radio broadcast.

Even now that we are richer than ever before, this government launches one attack after another against civilization. Health care, education, housing and international solidarity are neglected, reflecting the government’s neoliberal ideology, which prescribes a recipe of ‘more market less state’ for all of society’s ills. This policy, according to Marijnissen, has gone much too far. And a recent poll by the NIPO institute shows that a majority of the population (56%) agrees with him. A slightly larger majority (58%) is in favour of the State reclaiming territory lost to the ‘market’, partly because 76% think the gap between rich and poor has not shrunk (41% think it has actually grown). This gap is (much) too wide, say 53%, and the State should take action to change this, because the invisible hand of the market won’t, say 54%.
From next Friday on the SP will invite people to bomb the government with examples of this ‘civilization sell-out’. To that end, the regular and email addresses of prime minister Kok and all the members of parliament will be published in a campaign paper that will be distributed all over the country.
In the coming weeks SP branches will be investigating local people’s opinions on the consequences of this government’s attack on civilization. The Party wants to unite citizens and organizations in a joint effort to stop cuts and strengthen the public sector.