The following video features interviews with spokesmen for the Dutch Defence League and Anti-Fascist Action about tomorrow’s demonstration in support of free speech in Amsterdam.Anti-Fascist Action (AFA or Antifa) is a hard-left anarchist organization which routinely engages in violence and intimidation against anyone who opposes the multicultural agenda, and which enjoys the tacit support of certain European governments, especially when the Socialists are in power.
The interesting thing about this Dutch TV news report is that it gives a fair hearing to the Dutch Defence League. My guess is that the average Dutch television viewer regards the gray-bearded DDL spokesman with greater empathy than the young AFA punk with his shaved head and earlobe stud — especially since the latter makes it clear that he supports a violent response to the EDL and the DDL.
The Dutch state-TV program “Nieuwsuur” interviewed Bert Jansen (DDL), and Job Polak (AFA). The mayor of Amsterdam, Eberhard van der Laan (PvdA, Labour, Socialist) responds. I’ve placed the video below the jump to avoid the “Blogger bug”:
Many thanks to our Flemish correspondent VH for the translation and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling.
A complete transcript is below:
| 0:00 | [Mayor of Amsterdam] Because we have solid information, that apart from foreign football hooligans, | |
| 0:04 | also Dutch hooligans will show up, and not just to demonstrate, | |
| 0:08 | but to seek confrontation with the police and other demonstrators. | |
| 0:12 | “What evidence do have you for that?” Hard evidence, | |
| 0:16 | and I can not explain that further. We have not yet gone so far as | |
| 0:20 | to ban it altogether, because that right to demonstrate here in town, | |
| 0:24 | for whomever it is, we want to uphold for as long as possible. | |
| 0:28 | The Dutch Defence League is a new movement in the Netherlands. | |
| 0:32 | Its sister organization, the English Defence League, has a lot of hooligans | |
| 0:36 | in its ranks. And in Great Britain demonstrations often culminate in violence. | |
| 0:41 | But here in the Netherlands it’s actually the Left that is out on Saturday for a confrontation. | |
| 0:46 | Reporter Martijn Bink visited both sides, before they knew the demonstration had to be relocated. | |
| 0:53 | My name is Bert Jansen, I am spokesman for the DDL. | |
| 0:57 | This Saturday there will be a demonstration about preserving | |
| 1:01 | freedom of expression, and the preservation of our legislation. | |
| 1:06 | I am Job Polak, of the anti-fascist action, and we call on everyone to | |
| 1:11 | come over this Saturday to the Museumplein to take action against the arrival | |
| 1:15 | of the extreme right-wing English Defence League. | |
| 1:18 | These are the spokesmen for the groups that will face each other this Saturday. | |
| 1:22 | The anti-fascist action, a network of leftist and extreme leftist groups, | |
| 1:26 | and the new right-wing civil movement, the Dutch Defence League. | |
| 1:31 | The Dutch Defence League, basically are people who found each other | |
| 1:35 | precisely in such social networks as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, you name it, | |
| 1:41 | who at a given time stood up | |
| 1:45 | and dared to say that they indeed vote for a party such as the Party for Freedom, | |
| 1:53 | who are concerned that we have so many people in the Netherlands, | |
| 1:59 | who have a good education, but who when they say they voted for that party, | |
| 2:04 | are ignored by their neighbors, | |
| 2:08 | are attacked by groups, are called racist. | |
| 2:12 | ||
| 2:14 | However, it will not be the Museumplein where the camps face each other on Saturday, | |
| 2:17 | but the Western Harbour area, near Sloterdijk Station. | |
| 2:20 | At this demonstration the DDL will also receive backup from the UK. | |
| 2:24 | ||
| 2:26 | And confrontations there between the EDL and anti-fascists | |
| 2:30 | on a regular basis turn into a battle. | |
| 2:33 | ||
| 3:20 | What will your goal be this Saturday? | |
| 3:23 | We want to make it loud and clear that these kinds of extreme right clubs | |
| 3:28 | are not welcome to manifest themselves on the streets in Amsterdam. | |
| 3:31 | What do you base it on, that you know this is an extreme right-wing club? | |
| 3:35 | The EDL we know very much about, if you look the key positions, | |
| 3:41 | those are all occupied by well known right-wing activists. | |
| 3:45 | Also in the Dutch branch are known right-wing activists who | |
| 3:51 | among other things have been prosecuted for acts such as setting a mosque on fire. | |
| 3:54 | Has the extreme right tried to seek to join up with you? | |
| 3:58 | No. | |
| 4:02 | ||
| 4:04 | At demonstrations of right-wing groups in the Netherlands, the anti-fascists | |
| 4:08 | are invariably present. In no way do they avoid confrontations. | |
| 4:12 | The intelligence service AIVD writes about this in his report: | |
| 4:16 | “Often the image is created that anti-fascists defend themselves | |
| 4:20 | against the aggressive right-wing extremists, while most of the time | |
| 4:24 | the roles in general are rather the other way around.” | |
| 4:31 | We clearly do not call people to violence; however, we make no judgment | |
| 4:35 | on how people should perform their actions. “What do you mean by that?” | |
| 4:39 | That people are free to campaign the way they please | |
| 4:43 | against racism and the extreme right. | |
| 4:47 | “And violence might be part of that.” | |
| 4:50 | I’m not going distance myself from it if a few people decide to pelt the EDL with rotten eggs. | |
| 4:56 | I think that this is precisely what harms the image of those groups. | |
| 4:59 | Because they want to create the image that we are racist, | |
| 5:03 | that we are violent, but that is not what we are. And if these groups | |
| 5:07 | indeed will be there, and come to, as the Dutch say, ‘kick up a row’, | |
| 5:12 | then we cannot do anything about that. We are not calling for that. | |
| 5:16 | ||
| 5:24 | “Now, basically one-sixth of the Dutch have voted for Geert Wilders, | |
| 5:28 | so do those people have the simple right to demonstrate peacefully here, | |
| 5:30 | and express their support to Geert Wilders?” | |
| 5:33 | We are not here to scare people away, we just want to show very clearly | |
| 5:39 | that the majority of people just do not welcome such a tsunami of hate | |
| 5:44 | and fear being poured out on us, and where people are set against one another. | |
| 5:49 | “Have you heard of any people who are being scared off? | |
| 5:53 | Yes indeed, precisely because of the coverage in the media, | |
| 5:59 | and I hope in this way we can refute that somewhat. | |
| 6:04 | I think it’s important those people simply stand up and show their faces, | |
| 6:07 | just like me. | |
| 6:10 | PVV leader Geert Wilders has nothing to do with the demonstration. | |
| 6:14 | He would also rather see the demonstration not happen if there is | |
| 6:17 | any chance of violence, as he said earlier. | |
| 6:19 |
