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Last Saturday, the political members' council of the PvdA took place in Zwolle. As International Secretariat and Foundation Max van der Stoel, we took this opportunity to organise a sub-session on one of the topics most heavily weighed down by the inclement winds of the right: International Solidarity. Witness the packed hall, where people had to stand against walls for lack of enough chairs, it became clear that international solidarity is still seen as one of the core values of our movement.
International secretary Ties Huis in 't Veld kicked off by answering interviewer and FMS director Kido Koenig's question on the 'why' of this session: 'We no longer live in times when tens of thousands of people take to the streets against cruise missiles, or against the apartheid regime in South Africa. But I am convinced that international solidarity is still within us. And now that it is so under pressure, in this sub-session I want to find out with you what we have to do as a party, but also how we can join forces with civil society organisations in this.'
For inspiration - to be motivated and inspired to enter the conversation themselves - the audience heard three speeches from experts in the field: Michiel Servaes, director of Oxfam Novib; Liana Hoornweg, director of trade association for international organisations Partos, and Lau Schulpen, scientist at Radboud University in the field of development cooperation. We then went into groups to discuss the questions on which we should focus substantively for international solidarity and how we should then organise ourselves to achieve it.
In the end, a lot of input came out of this that may count as a mandate for politics and Green Left-PvdA in particular. And, it was after all a political members' council, there was representation from the political world. MEPs Marit Maij and Thijs Reuten, Ties Huis in 't Veld on behalf of the parties responded to the input from the experts and the audience. It was striking that many concluded that our values are still relevant in this world: we truly stand for development cooperation and solidarity. But that, above all, we have a lot of work to do in communicating them, in investing in world citizenship and mobilising the organisations, people and parties that care about international solidarity.
As organisers, we also like to take that challenge to heart. The next moment to put our money where our mouth is will be on 13 - 15 December, at the Weekend for International Solidarity (https://groenlinkspvda.nl/weekend-van-de-internationale-solidariteit/). For all motivated party members: there is still plenty of opportunity to join! We look forward to seeing you all then.
