Dutch post-war history and the anti-apartheid movement (1960 - 1990)

2. Dutch post-war history and the anti-apartheid movement (1960 - 1990)

3. Background of the Dutch - South African relations • Dutch East India Company and the arrival of Jan van Riebeeck (1652) • Dutch colonisation of the Cape province • Anglo-Boer wars (1880 - 1881 and 1899 - 1902) • Dutch sympathy for the Boer - Paul Kruger

4. 21 March 1960 the Sharpeville massacre(SA Police killed 69 black South Africans during a protest)

5. The Netherlands in the 1960s • Reconstruction of society after WW-II • Pillarization • Cold war and Dutch Atlantic focus • Youth protest - against Vietnam but also against authorities and bourgeois lifestyle

6. Anti-apartheid in the 1960s • South Africa Committee • Anti-communism • Blood ties with the Boer • The changes in the Dutch protestant churches • Civil rights movement in the US • Honorary doctorate for Martin Luther King

7. Anti-apartheid in the 1970s • Linking with the student movement • Local groups were initiated • New, inventive action methods • Boycot Outspan • Movement was ideology focussed: Marxism, ‘third world-ism’, anti-imperialism • Dutch anti-apartheid movement - AABN • Breyten Breytenbach - Solidarité - and the armed struggle

9. Anti-apartheid and the holocaust • The holocaust shaped the moral identity of the Dutch • Racism is the ultimate evil • Apartheid = racism • New insight: Not all Dutch had resisted the Nazi occupier • Shame about Dutch collaboration with Nazism

11. 1976 - Soweto • This time the movement was much better prepared - professionalized • Repressive tolerance worked very well in the Netherlands • Opposition got finance from state • Nowhere more action groups than in the Netherlands • The target of the movement became the political centre: Christian democrats • Widening the movement instead of deepening

13. And then there was Shell • Shell had violated the UN-embargo against Rhodesia/Zimbabwe • Talking with Shell • An oil boycott against South Africa? • The debate in parliament • The closure of the political arena

14. Radicalization

15. Radicalization • The squatter movement stepped in • Reaction to the slackening of the movement • Reaction to repressive tolerance • Reaction to the ‘dark decennium of the 1980ies’ • Reaction to right wing leaders like Reagan, Thatcher, Kohl and Lubbers • Actions against Shell • The assaults on MAKRO • Violence works!

16. Students against apartheid • Blood ties between Dutch and South African universities • Free University Amsterdam and Potchefstroom • Students protest against meetings with South African Universities • Kampen University and the black theology students - Allan Boesak • Students protest against all contacts with South Africa • The academic community and Shell

17. Wageningen • Working Group South Africa - Wageningen • ANC support group Wageningen • Anti-apartheidfund Wageningen University • WUR university news letter taken hostage by radical students (november 1989)

18. The biggest social movement in Dutch post war history • The anti-apartment movement mobilized more people than ever before • Anti-apartheid became an everyday subject • Companies withdrew from SA • SA products were driven from the Dutch market • All cultural contacts with SA were banned • But did it really succeed? • Government policies stayed the same

19. In the set-off between clergyman and salesman the latter usually wins • For the Dutch the fight against apartheid was a rehabilitation after WW-II • Dutch state policies collaborated with the enemy (again)

20. Success factors • The anti-apartheid movement made it a national, home struggle • There were concrete things people could do to fight apartheid • The movement operated strategically • The movement was trustworthy, serious, and realistic • Movement leaders were upright and self sacrificing • The movement had firm international backing (e.g. UN-embargo) • The movement was authentic (it voiced the opinion of the ANC) • The movement offered a clear and acceptable alternative (democratic, non-racial majority rule)