Han van der Maas | The weakness of modern activism
Columnist Han van der Maas looks with surprise at the left-wing activists who make debates and conversations impossible. “What is the strategy here? Femke Halsema and the Executive Board resign, the Telegraaf-reader is shocked and votes Bij1 en masse later this year?”
Halsema, are you afraid of critical students? This slogan, visible in the Cacerolazo during the discussion debate with Femke Halsema, sticks in my mind. It creates an image of genuinely interested students eager to debate with a mayor who refuses to engage in conversation. But nothing was further from the truth: Halsema preferred to debate in Hall A, but the chances of disruption there were deemed too high, rightly so it turned out.
Only a small number of visitors were able to debate in the Stopera. I am not of the festival generation so when I tried to get a ticket online at 20:01 I was too late. My fellow lecturers were there, fortunately. And what were they doing? They stood with their backs to Halsema and walked away from the conversation (“we reject this conversation”). Halsema is an excellent debater, walking away from that is not convincing.
Room for Discussion thus once again exposes the weakness of modern activism. Last time was with the interview with NATO boss Rob Bauer, which was made impossible with shouting, a form of violence. This walking away by UvA academics during an interview with a benevolent mayor of a leftist city was a new weakness. Who here is afraid of critical dialogue?
It is also questionable whether this brings the goal, a cease-fire in Gaza and ultimately a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, any closer. For example, has the Netherlands become more likely to recognize the Palestinian state? No, the Netherlands has made a move to the right, an outspoken pro-Israel party is the largest in the Netherlands and is at 48 out of 150 seats in polls. So is it convenient if the radical left simply chooses the left as its greatest enemy? What is the strategy here? Halsema and the Executive Board (CvB) step down, the Telegraaf reader is shocked and votes Bij1 en masse later this year? Do UvA activists ever read the Telegraaf, watch VI and check GeenStijl? Public enemy number 1 there is Femke Halsema. With their call for resignation, our activists can join the back of a long line of the extreme right, conspiracy theorists of all kinds and soccer hooligans.
I don’t believe in activism as an end in itself. It has to help. You have to win souls; after all, we live in a democracy. I myself am something of a legalization activist. In my opinion, and for the moment it is not a question of whether I am right, prohibition of the trade in soft and hard drugs is causing unparalleled crime with tens of thousands of deaths a year in Mexico alone. In the US, more than a hundred thousand people a year die of preventable overdoses. This is very bad and solvable with controlled legalization that excludes for-profit parties. What to do?
Some activists have been fighting for better drug policy for decades with frustratingly little effect. I have written three columns about it. Perhaps I should beat the Folia office down short, or hold our minister personally responsible for this mass murder. I demand the immediate cessation of the War on Drugs. The UvA must break all ties with the Ministry of Justice and Security!
But I won’t, because we live in a democracy. There is nothing to do but get public opinion on board. That is going slowly, if at all, and next year more people will die in Mexico and the US. That is deeply frustrating but no reason to adopt a strategy that only increases polarization.
There is also additional damage from UvA activism: the already waning sympathy for the foreign student has completely disappeared in a month. And that’s bad because the incoming administration wants to cut hundreds of millions from universities. In the process, English-language programs at the UvA, which are the breeding ground for activism for activism’s sake, will not be spared. Unprecedented cuts to universities are looming. Let’s move beyond these leftist backyard fights and figure out how to sway a third of the Dutch population away from the PVV.
