From: Jerry Dawson (j.dawson2@chello.nl)
Date: 14 Mar 2001 22:15 uur
<OK, usual apologies for writing this in English. As I said before,
my spoken Dutch is passable, written down it's too fucked up for
me:->
I was talking with a medewerker, at a major Multinational, about
this discussion, and I was saying how we've had this discussion
long before, back when I first came here; only then it was about us
Brits.
For those of you who are old enough farst to remember us -
escaping from the Thatcher dictatorship, overwhelmed with the
freedom here, and treating life like one neverending party. And
that's what the folks that are called 'kraak-toeristen' now are doing -
basically they've got away from a repressive environment and are
partying in a - comparatively - relaxed environment. Amsterdam's
renowned, for better or for worse, as a party-town, and like any
good party, it's not always particularly pleasant for those outside
the party, who've got other things to do.
BTW- I'm not saying this as a defence - merely by way of
explanation IMHO, from similar first hand experience.
I think you've got to accept that the 'squat scene' 'kraakbeweging',
whatever - isn't now going to be representing *all* krakers. That
concept of control goes back to some of the darkest days of the
80's. If a bunch of folks want to squat a place well then, beyond a
broad sense of solidarity, it doesn't mean you have to be directly
involved in what goes on there. To feel responsibility for a bunch of
party squatters upsetting your good image, seems to spring from
some Calvinist sixth sense that I'm afraid I'm missing :-)
I'm really pleased with some of the opening up that's gone on in the
scene over the last 5 years or so. The Dutch lessons starting up
are a real good move. Anybody who can remember the
authoritarian "verlanging" from a decade back can only be pleased
with things being more welcoming and less rigidly structured now.
Because our scene was very alienating then, and I'm afraid today it
still puts off most foreigners from getting involved. There's two little
criticisms I'd like to write about.
(Again, IMHO - it's not much point wasting time criticising others,
who aren't even reading what you write. Might as well talk about
what we can, potentially at least, actually affect).
Firstly, the notion of 'aanpassen'. This concept, if you were to
describe it in an English squat scene (or even outside), would be
regarded as blatantly racist. (Aside: It's easy, in a small land, to
mistake 'culture' for nation-state based perpetuations. The modern
concept of 'Dutch culture' is really only about 35 years old, and
was created very much as an act of political will.)
Secondly, to most of us foreigners from poor(er) lands, the notion
of class identity is very important, both politically and socially. It's
very difficult at first to grasp that Dutch squatters are mostly middle
class, university-educated, squatting not from need but from some
intangible notion of freedom, and - very importantly - that the whole
scene reflects those inculcated middle class values. It's an old
cliche that the only people who say "class isn't important" are
always the middle class :-)
2 cents worth enough for now...
jerry
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