Green Smurfs in Appelscha

Anarchists from all over Europe gathered in the Dutch province Friesland from Friday 21 to Monday, May 24^th.

By Gerda Minkjan

Since 1933 The Pinksterlanddagen take place every year in the Whitsun weekend on the camping site tot Vrijheidsbezinning. Anti-militarism has always been an important topic. Other themes are anti fascism, squatting and the climate crisis. Visitors are not allowed to drink alcohol or use drugs.

Shades of Green

On Saturday I visited the camp for the first time, not knowing what to expect. As a “freshwoman” in the Dutch Green Party I was pleasantly surprised by the green calibre of the participants. The food is organic, nothing is thrown away. The principle is: give what you can, take what you need. These beautiful people care deeply about our beautiful planet. And they will do whatever it takes to take good care of it. Their shade of green may be a bit darker than the Green Party’s bright green. Where politicians fail they take over, risking arrests, fines and even imprisonment.

Green Smurfs

I was glad to see my GroenFront! friends there. A very nice guy who also deals with the media a lot told me that he did a workshop once about debating and to simplify things the subject was: how do you define a Smurf. A Smurf is blue, he has a white cap and is chased by Gargamel. They should ad a Green Smurf to the list of characters.

We proudly present

In the tent on the big field two GroenFront! people were supposed to present their campaign against Enschede Airport Twente, but one of them couldn’t make it that afternoon. So it was a good thing I was there and I helped out and provided the attentive audience with the latest facts from Twente. June 16^th the Provincial Parliament in Zwolle (Overijssel) will vote about the airport plan. When the majority will vote Yes the GroenFront! campaign will continue. Let’s hope it won’t come to that.

Barricades

After the GroenFront! presentation a workshop about barricades took place on the big field. It was very impressive and sometimes even scary. You could imagine very well what it would be like in a real situation, like at a demonstration or at a road block. All kinds of possibilities were practised. If I hadn’t been interviewed about Enschede Airport Twente at that time I would have participated.

Cross Border

When I was sitting on the toilet thinking about weather or not I could write a piece about the “Pinksterlanddagen” for the Cross Border page of the European Greens website I heard two women speaking speedy Spanish in front of my door. Outside again I heard Flamish, English and German. So yes, Cross Border it is! It was a shame I had to leave, it would have been so nice to get to know more of these friendly and colourful people. Maybe I’ll bring my tent next year and stay for the weekend.