Report back from the “Holland against hate” anti-Trump protest in Den Haag, the Netherlands:
Around 4000 people gathered in Den Haag for the Holland against hate protest in response to Donald Trump’s Muslim ban. The demonstration was planned to be at the US embassy, but the cops ordered it to be held at the windy Malieveld nearby. The energy of the very diverse crowd was good, and more importantly from the signs it was also very clear that for most people it was about more than just Trump.
The demonstration consisted of a bunch of speeches ranging from pretty good (refugee orgs calling out the EU and Dutch government) to terrible liberal drivel, and some music. The speeches by the politicians of the labour party (who are in government and responsible for our terrible immigration and refugee laws) didn’t get let off the hook when they tried to paint themselves in the typical hypocritical Dutch way as so tolerant, liberal and progressive, as groups of people kept shouting “Hypocrites!” during their speeches. At the end of the demonstration some young women of colour rushed the stage and managed to quickly speak some words on the hypocrisy of the almost entirely white politicians’ speeches we’d been treated to that day, before being removed by the police.
The visual representation of the hypocrisy of liberal politics and Dutch tolerance was almost too perfect as the organiser (who coincidentally is part of the labour party of course) grabbed the microphone from her and said to the crowds “I will talk to them later, because we exclude noone!” as the cops were hauling the women off the stage behind him.
When most people were leaving the Malieveld to go home there was a pretty big group of people who clearly weren’t ready to go home yet and were also underwhelmed by the demonstration. They were in a big group dancing and singing anti-trump slogans. Then some people started shouting “To the embassy!” and walking through this group in the direction of the US embassy, and in no time several hundred protesters where marching to the off-limits embassy shouting antifascist slogans. The cops started scrambling to block off the routes, and eventually we were blocked by a line of riot police. We decided to have a sit-in in the road as the women who had been removed from the stage earlier held the speech they had meant to give. After a while of traffic and trams being blocked the cops threatened to use violence and arrest everyone, and we dispersed.
For a good report back in Dutch: [“No Ban! No Wall! Equality for All!” Prachtige actie in Den Haag]
