December 28, 2017
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
The university side of Amsterdam was particularly quiet that day, most of the lights were out and not a soul could be seen walking… except for some fifteen youth arriving one by one or by pairs at the speak-easy called De Verrekijker (DV). Most of the youth were coloured, so imagine if someone spot them walking through the empty university lot towards a speak-easy right beside a grocery store!
If it is to be remembered correctly, that night of December 28, melted snow was falling from the sky and the wind was a bit obscene and wild; but inside DV was warm and dry, there was a smell of pumpkin and carrot soup and smoked mackerel.
Scratch that, DV that night… was on fire as fifteen of the best of our generation tackled the issue of police violence and racism in the Netherlands. Two speakers from Strijd Tegen Racisme (Struggle against racism) and Revolutionaire Eenheid (Revolutionary Unity) lead the discussion about Netherlands’s heated issues.
Said, the first speaker shared his experience with the police and why is there police violence.
Technically, we can summarize the police violence by writing a mathematical equation out of Said’s sharing:
The formula of the state goes: State was formed to protect the wealth of the haves in the times of capitalism + one of the institutions created by the state is the police force = Police protects the state and not the people
So here is the formula of the police violence: Police protects the state and not the people
State is run by the ruling class (the haves)
= the ruling class divides the people and one of the tools used to oppressed the people and remain in their power is the police violence.
The police forces in the Netherlands usually targets the migrants or the poor Dutch like in the community of Schilderswijk in Den Haag, where the majority of the residents are working class and migrants. So no wonder, Bayu, our next speaker- talked about the racism in the Netherlands. The police violence is not by itself a police violence at all, it is a systematic racism and discrimination by the state. The two topic supplement each other and in a way share the same “formula”.
Racism, like police brutality manifested through capitalism, in the case of racism, it undeniably began during the colonial times and the slave trade of the coloureds. Our generation has not been spared from this, given the number of migrants and refugees we have in the Western countries. Wars, poverty and policies such as Labour Export Policy (LEP) in the Philippines are means to export labour or in other words: create migration, for migrants are cheap labour for the so called ‘First class citizens’.
If someone would have spot that group of mostly-coloured-youth that night crossing through the empty university lot, they would be invited to join the discussion and will be enlightened about the real struggle. At first glance, it isn’t obvious that police violence and racism manifested through capitalism, but with the increase in injustice and oppression, the rest of us will become class conscious and class struggle will no longer be taken as a myth, but an undeniable reality and the only solution will be to grab the state power from the hands of the ruling class and trust it to those who sow the land to those who produce the wealth of the nation!
So this is Anakbayan-Europe saying: we will provide food, you will share your story and we will do this monthly!
