Tales from ondernemers and migrants

on national entrepreneurs...

The initiative for groenlinks ondernemers (De Werkvloer) goes on in suspended animation state. We will meet the coming 5 of september, but in previous meetings we have recognized our lack of competence as a groenlinks werkgroep. Yes, we have organized our workshops in the Linkse Lente, yes, we have go on meeting -more or less- monthly, yes, we have wrote our contribution to the program of groenlinks. Nevertheless, it seems to us, we are pretty bad at doing what we want to do most.

In the year that we exist as werkgroep, we aim at linking politicians and entrepreneurs. It sounds nice, but we don't manage. In two or three occasions we managed to have a nice number of attendants to our meetings... but most of the people did not come back. What was (is?) going on? Well, the uncharted waters of politics are not so easy to fare, with experienced entrepreneurs, but alas, novice politicians as skippers. Even though our issues sound interesting and now and then we have hooked into relevant discussions, our meetings go on floundering by sloppy chairmanship, or sloppy follow up work. To identify the right discussion agenda is not so difficult. To get people together to discuss it neither. But to make a success of a meeting, to have an inspiring chair, and to give continuity to the effort... those are tasks that we groenlinksers entrepreneurs were not so good at.

So we are looking for new faces. In our last meeting we discharge ourselves as stuurgroep, and decide to ask help to the partijbestuur. Yesterday I had a nice meeting with our contact person Stefan Falke (another entrepreneur in the landelijke bestuur of groenlinks). In the coming months (likely after the TK campaign) we will be hard at work looking for a much needed chairperson, parallel to the expansion of our existing network. And we will see what comes out of it.

Would you happen to be an ondernemer AND an active groenlinks member. Or even better an active-to-be groenlinks member? Do contact us. A party better rooted in the community of creative ondernemers, of business with a social and green responsibility is very much needed. And a place to start walking in that direction is De Werkvloer.

and on local migrants...

In the groenlinks that I know, a lack of coordinated and well chaired groups is not only a trait of the entrepreneurs. In the Utrecht afdeling the migrants, up to recent times, shines in their absence. Four years ago I started in groenlinks being an active member of the multiculti werkgroep, which in spite of producing broad meetings, politiek cafes and manifestos, failed in keeping a core of involved people. Much worse, our share of the allochtoon vote in the last gemeente election, to put it mildly, was ridiculous. But hey, here the bestuur did come to our rescue. Since few months ago a full time bestuur lid is busy with the project “nieuwe doelgroepen”. In the time since Ed Hoekstra begin working, a stuurgroep has been created, realistic goals have been identified, and a strong relation with the fractie in the gemeenteraad has been established. Results we do not have yet, but the prospects are promising. A manifest distilled from previous documents and our election program is on the making, contact with migrant organization is being renewed, and even a conference with several groenlinks wethouders is being organized. Soon we will have a internet site and interested people will be able to contact us online.

With a rejoinder

The relevant take home message here is a very needed aspect of the groenlinks culture. Evaluation and acceptance of our failures, is what I am talking about. In the werkvloer tale, it took us far too long to realize that we were failing at our goals. The dynamic of a groenlinks werkgroep might be tricky. You read some emails, you see each other monthly, and the whole thing gets a life of its own. It took some three years for the utrecht afdeling to recognize that without bestuur support the migrant discussion inside groenlinks utrecht was hopeless. But once failures are acknowledged, solutions are at reach. It is certainly too early to claim victory in the migrant movement of utrecht, and I don't know if anybody at all will answer our call for new members in the werkvloer. But hey, it feels as if we are moving in the right direction. Recognizing mistakes is the only first step to solve them.

And a PS

interested in migration? here -welookaway.blogspot.com- my thoughts on the last hypocresy of europe

With or about?

The wind of the campaign blows strong in Groenlinks. Coming back from holidays we activelingen are already involved in meetings and discussions. Linkse Lente Lounge, Groenlinks in de versneling, amendementendag, the congress... The campaign is close by, and we might have a go at the government. Lots to do, we have got. But who is we?

In the Kleurrijk Platform we have already have a meeting with the coordinator of the campagnedeel that touches us directly. As announced elsewhere, our themas for this election are Sociaal, Groen and Tolerant. For us at the KP, tolerant it is. But again, who is us?

Well, when the chips fall, it turns out that we are not so many people. Formally the Kleurrijk Platform is the place for coordinate migrants in the party. Take a look at our ledenlist, then. The count is about twenty, from which some ten do come to one meeting or the other, and fewer are able to coordinate activities. No doubt, many more migrants are active in our party. Look at fracties and you will see the allochtoon names, look at staff and the same is true. Groenlinks do offer space for the allochtoon activist. But is our actual situation good enough?

In my evaluation of the status quo, by far and large, it is not good enough. Think in our main event for conceptual discussion, the groenlinks forum. In the last one there was a workshop on multiculturalism. I was there. Now take a very superficial descriptive statistic, skin color. How many of us, the attendants, looked foreigner? Answer: two percent. From the forty persons in the public, there was one obviously black guy. But Ok, we know that skin color is pretty bad at predicting “allochtoon-being” If I include in my count the people that was likely to be inmigrant, I might arrive at a reasonably twenty percent. Not too bad, after all. Twice as much as the landelijke percentage. Isn't that ok?

The problem that we face is that this percentage, again by far and large, is not enough. It is not enough because, at least in the past, the campaign of groenlinks seems to be directed to the white part of the netherlands, not to the migrant. Think in our past tolerance campaign, the one with the nice poster about acceptance. If you ask me today the oneliner of that campaign, here you are: Groenlinks want a Netherland that tolerate diversity. Isn't that ok? Well, no. We, migrants, do not want to be tolerated. As simply as that. If anything, we want to have the same perspectives of future that autochtonen have. It is not about being accepted, it is about being part of.

Coming back to the percentage, then, I believe that the central problem of groenlinks about allochtonen is that word, about. Today groenlinks is the party that has a better set of proposals about allochtonen... but they remain to be about, and not with. Our proposals do not come from the allochtonen inside our party, and are not discussed with them. Or at least, not structurally.

So it is campaign again. And we have a campaign to do. Well, surely I am happy that our main difference with the SP, or the PvdA is our position about allochtonen. We are surely far away from the conservatism of the SP and their underlined allophobic tone, or the assimilationist tone of the PvdA. But I'll be happier the day that the contents of our campaigns on multiculturalism will be developed with the migrants. Now, let's see if we can bring across our message against discrimination. That, still being -about- allochtonen, is still an excellent point.