International Socialists (Netherlands)
Encyclopedia
International Socialists is a revolutionary, Trotskyist
Trotskyism
Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party of the working-class...

 organisation in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

. It is part of the International Socialist Tendency
International Socialist Tendency
The International Socialist Tendency is an international grouping of unorthodox Trotskyist organisations based around the ideas of Tony Cliff, founder of the Socialist Workers Party in Britain...

 led by the British Socialist Workers Party
Socialist Workers Party (Britain)
The Socialist Workers Party is a far left party in Britain founded by Tony Cliff. The SWP's student section has groups at a number of universities...

.

Ideology

The IS believes that real change in the Netherlands can only come through revolution, although it is not opposed in principle to electoral work. It does not participate in such work at present, but believes in an activist party. The IS sees itself as standing in the tradition of people like Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....

, Lenin and Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg was a Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist and activist of Polish Jewish descent who became a naturalized German citizen...

. It is anti-capitalist
Anti-capitalism
Anti-capitalism describes a wide variety of movements, ideas, and attitudes which oppose capitalism. Anti-capitalists, in the strict sense of the word, are those who wish to completely replace capitalism with another system....

, anti-war
Anti-war
An anti-war movement is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conflicts. Many...

 and in general against "all ideas that put people against people", like racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...

, sexism
Sexism
Sexism, also known as gender discrimination or sex discrimination, is the application of the belief or attitude that there are characteristics implicit to one's gender that indirectly affect one's abilities in unrelated areas...

 and homophobia
Homophobia
Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...

. Currently, the Internationale Socialisten are largely active in the anti-war and anti-racism movements, as well as in the resistance against the austerity measures of the rightwing minority government of the VVD of prime-minister Mark Rutte
Mark Rutte
Mark Rutte is a Dutch politician who has been Prime Minister of the Netherlands since 14 October 2010, as well as Minister of General Affairs in the Rutte cabinet...

 and the CDA
Christian Democratic Appeal
The Christian Democratic Appeal is a centre-right Dutch Christian democratic political party. It suffered severe losses in the 2010 elections and fell from the first to the fourth place...

, which is supported by the PVV
Party for Freedom
The Party for Freedom is a Dutch right-wing political party. Founded in 2005 as the successor to Geert Wilders' one-man party in the House of Representatives, it won nine seats in the 2006 general election, making it the fifth largest party in parliament, and third largest opposition party. It...

 of Geert Wilders
Geert Wilders
Geert Wilders is a Dutch right-wing politician and leader of the Party for Freedom , the third-largest political party in the Netherlands. He is the Parliamentary group leader of his party in the Dutch House of Representatives...

 and the SGP
Reformed Political Party
The Reformed Political Party is an orthodox Protestant Dutch political party. The term Reformed is not a reference to political reform, but is a synonym for Calvinist. The SGP is the oldest political party in the Netherlands in its current form, and for its entire existence has been in opposition...

 .

Politically, the IS is located on the left of more mainstream leftwing parties like the Socialistische Partij
Socialistische Partij
Socialistische Partij may refer toNetherlands parties:* Socialist Party * Socialist Party Belgian parties:* Socialist Party - Different* Socialist Party...

 and GroenLinks
Green left
The term Green left is used primarily to refer to a combination of environmentalism, feminism, socialism, and pacifism in countries where the term is used...

. It is part of the International Socialist Tendency
International Socialist Tendency
The International Socialist Tendency is an international grouping of unorthodox Trotskyist organisations based around the ideas of Tony Cliff, founder of the Socialist Workers Party in Britain...

, which also includes the British Socialist Workers Party
Socialist Workers Party (Britain)
The Socialist Workers Party is a far left party in Britain founded by Tony Cliff. The SWP's student section has groups at a number of universities...

 and the German Linksruck
Linksruck
Left Shift was a Trotskyist group in Germany, which was the German affiliate of the International Socialist Tendency...

.

Activities

The IS does not participate at present in parliamentary democracy and does not stand candidates at elections. Instead, it puts much of its energy in outreach, education and protest activities. It sees much value in the productions of its monthly magazine De Socialist, formatted on the example of the SWP
Socialist Workers Party (Britain)
The Socialist Workers Party is a far left party in Britain founded by Tony Cliff. The SWP's student section has groups at a number of universities...

's Socialist Worker
Socialist Worker
Socialist Worker is the name of several socialist/communist newspapers associated with the International Socialist Tendency...

 newspaper. De Socialist is sold at any protest meeting or demonstration at which the IS is present, as well as on the street. The IS also publishes a wide range of booklets, both translations of SWP books and original material.

Every year, the IS organises its own 'Marxism school', which is open to anybody interested, in which the more theoretical issues of socialism and activism are discussed. It also holds regular discussion meetings and is often present at political meetings organised by other groups, either invited or uninvited.

For its protest actions, the IS has a tradition of working in broad coalitions with other leftwing parties and pressure groups, rather than separately organising actions. The IS is part of the Keer het Tij protest coalition against the Balkenende government, as well as the anti-war movement.

The IS has long worked together with the Socialistische Partij
Socialist Party (Netherlands)
The Socialist Party is a democratic socialist political party in the Netherlands. After the 2006 general election, the Socialist Party became one of the major parties of the Netherlands with 25 seats of 150, an increase of 16 seats. The party was in opposition against the fourth Balkenende cabinet...

 (SP) in protest actions as well as organisations like the Dutch Social Forum and at their party conference of November 2005, the IS decided to take things a step further by formally entering
Entryism
Entryism is a political tactic by which an organisation or state encourages its members or agents to infiltrate another organisation in an attempt to gain recruits, or take over entirely...

 the party. The IS would still exist as an independent organisation, but its members were asked to join the SP as well and play an active role within that party. The IS sees the relationship between itself and the SP as similar to that of
the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 SWP with RESPECT
RESPECT The Unity Coalition
Respect is a socialist political party in England and Wales founded in 2004. Its name is a contrived acronym standing for Respect, Equality, Socialism, Peace, Environmentalism, Community and Trade Unionism.-Policies:...

. The SP however does not see the relationship in this way and responded by not allowing IS members to be a member of both the IS and the SP in fear of attempts to radicalize its members by IS members. So far only two out of the nearly 170 local branches have allowed IS members to join the SP.

Internationally, the IS has taken part in the first two European Social Forum
European Social Forum
The European Social Forum is a recurring conference held by members of the alter-globalization movement . In the first few years after it started in 2002 the conference was held every year, but later it became biannual due to difficulties with finding host countries...

s held in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

 and Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, and is often active in international protests.

Influence

The exact membership figures are unknown, but an educated guess would put the amount of active members of the
Internationale Socialisten at roughly a few hundred. Its members and sympathisers are largely found in the big Dutch cities and university towns and large parts of its members are students or former students.
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