Provos - Amsterdam's Anarchist Revolt

Page 12

introduction

In the mid- 1 960s , the political and artistic imagination of the Netherlands was seized by a unique and bizarre political movement known as Provo. Sparked by a fatal­ ly-timed pun, Provo sprang into birth full-grown, almost overnight, and succeeded in fomenting a year-long rebellion in the heart of the Dutch capital that culminated explosively in a spon­ taneous five-day riot on June 14th, 1 96 6 . Provo made a lasting im­ pression in the Netherlands , changing the course of Dutch political life and helping transform Amsterdam into a legendary Mecca for an emerging international counter-culture . Though the Provo move­ ment is not well known outside of Belgium and the Netherlands , it was one of the most stunning of the cultural revolutions of the '60s . Bits and pieces of the Provo legend have been woven , here and there , into the mythology of the period. Non-Dutch readers , how­ ever, have never had the opportunity to become better acquainted with the movement because little about it has been published that isn't in Dutch. This small contribution is a first step towards break­ ing that silence. After 1 966 the Netherlands was forever changed. One obvi­ ous transformation has been the de-facto , if not de-jure , acceptance of the use of soft drugs such as marijuana, hashish, LSD, psilocybin, and mescaline , making the Netherlands a pioneer in unofficially but openly tolerating the " soft " drug subculture . One effect that Provo and related movements of the time had was to push a smug middle­ class social democracy far enough to the left that on two separate occasions the Dutch parliament publicly disassociated itself from the efforts of the United States in Vietnam. Provo 's strategies and tactics assisted in activating a solid political base for a renewed Left and initiated a resurgent Anarchism in the Netherlands: even­ tually helping inspire the student seizure of the Maagdehuis (the administrative building of the University of Amsterdam) in 1 969 and the creation of the Kabouter movement in 1 970 - movements

••••••• p rovo : amsterdam 's anarc hist revolt • l l


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