Nieuws van de afdeling

12 April 2006

Demonstration addressed by SP's Jan de Wit: ‘Stop the abuses before you open the borders’

“It is irresponsible to open the borders fully to workers from the new EU member states, whether on May 1st or January 1st,” said SP Member of Parliament Jan de Wit today when addressing the demonstration whose slogan was “Equal work, equal pay”. An unmanaged influx of labour from the new member states will result in disruption of the labour market, he said, with Polish workers suffering exploitation, and Dutch workers and small businesses forced out of the market. The labour market will become a Wild West with workers forced into cut-throat competition.

12 April 2006

European Union refuses visas to Council of Europe's Palestinian guests

“A serious breach of the right of Europe's oldest human rights organisation to invite people who could do useful work for us.” This was SP Senator Tiny Kox's description of the refusal by the European Union of a visa to the Palestinian parliamentary delegation invited to a meeting of the Council of Europe. The delegation would have participated in a tripartite forum of Israeli, Palestinian and European parliamentarians by means of which the Council of Europe intended to offer its support to restarting the currently stalled peace process.

12 April 2006

SP seeking clarification on preparation for Uruzgan mission

SP Member of Parliament Krista van Velzen has asked Defence Minister Henk Kamp for his reaction to statements from a Dutch soldier to the effect that the troops posted to the Afghan region of Uruzgan are extremely inexperienced and poorly prepared. “If this whistle-blower turns out to be right,” Ms Van Velzen said, “these soldiers are running an unnaceptable risk in Afghanistan.”

11 April 2006

Van Bommel demands response from Foreign Minister over alleged US plan to attack Iran

SP Foreign Affairs spokesman Harry van Bommel has asked Foreign Minster Ben Bot to give his view of the article "The Iran Plans” published in this week's New Yorker magazine. According to the author, respected journalist Seymour Hersch, the United States government is giving serious consideration to the possibility of attacking Iran with tactical nuclear weapons. The weapons would be used to destroy strongly defended underground bunkers.

10 April 2006

The reserve army of France’s ‘banlieues’

The last few years have seen religious faultlines appear in our societies. With the riots in the deprived outer suburbs of Paris we are witnessing a return to a time when the faultline ran between the people of no property and the propertied class. Time for Marx, writes Ronald van Raak.*

6 April 2006

European Employment Commissioner "juggling with statistics"

European Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs Vladimir Spidla, due to address today's Dutch parliamentary hearing on open borders for workers from the new member states, is guilty of juggling the statistics and of blatant propaganda, according to SP Member of Parliament Jan de Wit. Mr de Wit's accusation came in reaction to Commissioner Spidla’s assertion that the countries which applied no limits to the influx of workers from central and eastern Europe had performed better economically, enjoying greater employment growth and falling unemployment. “He makes no attempt to substantiate this statement statistically, while the figures which he does present simply do not permit one to draw these conclusions. In practice what is revealed, furthermore, is that there are major problems attached to such a policy.”

International