International

For many years now the thinking of the left in Western Europe has been dominated by an enormously optimistic view of the social policy of the European Union. Trade unions and left parties told everyone that we were on our way to a "Social Europe", one in other words which distributed available work fairly; a Europe which would offer security even to workers with little education, to the unemployed, to those who cannot for whatever reason work, to young people just starting out on working life, to mothers with little experience of work outside the home, to pensioners. As long as the capitalist west of Europe had to compete with an east ruled by communist parties to win the approval of working people, the right wing had nothing to say against this.

The SP wants clarification concerning the role of the Indonesian Navy in attacks on own citizens. Member of Parliament’s Lower House Krista van Velzen has put questions in the chamber to clarify the role of the Indonesian Navy in the war in the rebellious province of Atjeh. On the basis of their own research, the SP has reached the conclusion that the Indonesian Navy is really used against its own population, contrary to what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs put forth in its recent letter replying to earlier questions.