Nieuws van de afdeling

18 January 2018

No Dutch weapons to belligerent nations in Yemen

Hundreds of children have died in Yemen during the past year as a result of air raids conducted by a coalition led by Saudi Arabia, while numerous schools, hospitals and mosques have been damaged. SP Member of Parliament Sadet Karabulut is urging Foreign Minister Halbe Zijlstra to do all he can in the UN Security Council to bring about a cease-fire by all parties in Yemen. The Netherlands is currently in the second of its two-year term as a non-permanent member of the Security Council. “The bombing must stop,” says Karabulut. “The blockade must be lifted so that food aid and medicines can reach the Yemeni people. And we need an arms embargo to be imposed on the countries taking part in the bombing.”

15 January 2018

Stop the European race to the bottom

Years of struggle have gone into this: after Belgium and Germany, we now have in the Netherlands also a ban on truck drivers, most of whom come from eastern Europe, spending entire weekends in their cabs on lorry parks during their compulsory rest periods. So it's to be welcomed that transport minister Cora van Nieuwenhuizen of the centre-right VVD actually joined a team of people this weekend distributing flyers informing the drivers about this new ban. This is a big step forwards in two ways: better conditions for drivers and a government minister from a right-wing party willing to go out and distribute flyers.

12 January 2018

SP, Labour and Green Left call for halt to investments in nuclear arms

On Thursday the biggest of the Netherlands' pension funds, ABP, which caters for civil servants and teachers, announced that it was ceasing all investment in nuclear weapons. Expressing her delight at the decision, SP Member of Parliament Sadet Karabulut said: “After years of campaigning by peace activists, the ABP has now come around. The campaigners deserve not only our congratulations but also our support in the fight for a world free of nuclear weapons.”

12 January 2018

Support the Iranian struggle for bread, jobs and freedom

“Just like everywhere else in the world, the fight must be waged from below.”

7 January 2018

For René

René worked for 22 years at Organon in Oss, as did thousands of others in the town. In every street lived someone who worked at the pharmaceutical company, either in the research laboratories or the factory. I was born and grew up in Organon's back yard. For us, Organon was much more than just work: for a hundred years it was the pride of our town. And it was known across the world as the inventor of the contraceptive pill.

27 December 2017

A Socialist returns to the United States

What happens in the United States becomes to a great degree reality in our own country within ten years. That's why in 1993 we made a study of the condition of the US in regard to such matters as wages and profits, labour laws and working conditions, education, health care, housing and integration. The visit provided the inspiration for a book, Tegenstemmen, published in 1996 and translated into English as Enough! A Socialist Bites Back. Three further trips ensued, in 1997, 2002 and then in October 2017, almost a quarter century after the first visit. During that most recent of visits three questions took centre-stage. 1. What are the similarities and differences between the 1990s and now? 2. How could Donald Trump be the White House's new resident? 3. What explains the success of Bernie Sanders? To prepare for this we spoke to many journalists, columnists and correspondents, analysing the political situation in the US. Once there we met with dozens of people from different interest groups and with different viewpoints.

International