On 31 August 2026, Herman de Tollenaere presented his contribution at the Anarchist Studies Network conference. ‘People asked me to publish what I said, so I am doing it, here.’
My conference contribution is a continuation pof my chapter about the Netherlands in the book Punk, Anarchy In Action; and of my article on women in punk in the Netherlands, 1977-1982.
—-
Hi, I am Herman de Tollenaere, a historian. In the 1970s, I co-founded a punk fanzine, bands and the Rock and Racism movement in the Netherlands.
My subject is 20th century anarchism, 1977-1982 punk, militarism and women in the Netherlands. And also some more-than-human-anarchism.
Anarchism was strong in the early twentieth century Dutch labour movement.
In 1920, the syndicalist trade union federation NAS had 50,000 members.
However, after 1920, the death of prominent anarchist Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis, attraction of the 1917 Russian revolution and personal conflicts diminished support for anarchism. In 1940, only 1500 workers were still members of anarcho-syndicalist trade unions.
In the 1960s, there was the Provo movement, especially among students and artists.
It had differences with earlier anarchism. Like, no revolutionary optimism.
They wrote that they expected to lose. Contrary to earlier anarchists, they did not consider the working class as revolutionary, as, they said, in the 1960s many workers had bought TV’s.
There was a difference in Dutch society between the 1960s and the late 1970s, when punk arose. In the 1960s, unemployment among young people was 1%. In the late 1970s, it had risen to 20%. Including me.
Anarchism became a big influence on Dutch punk from 1977-1982. Anarchist punk had little influence of pre-1965 Dutch anarchism. It had some influence from Provo. But the main influence were UK anarchist punk bands like Crass and Poison Girls. After the records of Crass and Poison Girls had become available in the Netherlands, Dutch fanzines had mentioned them (the Top 5 of UK bands mentions in Dutch punkzines was 1. Crass. 2. U.K. Subs. 3. Damned. 4. Poison Girls. 5. Siouxsie and the Banshees.) , and the bands had played in the Netherlands. In 1978, there was only one mention in a Dutch punk fanzine of anarchism. In 1981, that had risen to fifty five mentions.
What were the similarities and differences between early Dutch anarchism, Provo and early Dutch punk anarchism on social issues?
We will see three issues: anti-monarchism, anti-militarism, and the role of women.
On anti-monarchism and anti-militarism, there were not really big differences. There were big differences on the role of women.
Let us look at anti-monarchism.
In the 19th century, Dutch anarchists were jailed for lese majeste, like blowing a whistle when the crown princess passed in a carriage. In 1966, Provo demonstrated against the marriage of Crown Princess Beatrix.
Already the first English punk band, the Sex Pistols, were skeptical about the monarchy in their song God save the Queen. In 1980, Dutch anarchist punks demonstrated against the coronation of Beatrix as queen. So, consistency throughout the times, over many decades.
Let us look at anti-militarism.
Anti-militarism was important in early Dutch anarchism. In 1921, thousands of workers went on strike against the jailing of an anarchist military draft resistor.
Not only anarchists joined that strike, also communist workers and some social democrats. In the 1960s, Provo demonstrated against nuclear weapons.
Crass and Poison Girls were pro-peace, they were in the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. In 1977-1982, in the Netherlands, anarchist punks were part of a massive movement against United States nuclear cruise missiles.
So, consistency throughout the times.
How about the role of women?
Pre-1965 Dutch anarchism was mainly male, more so than in Spain, or the USA. There was no organisation in the Netherlands like the Mujeres Libres in Spain. The first female government minister in Spain in 1936 was anarchist Federica Montseny. In the Netherlands, the first female government minister came 20 years later, in 1956. She was not an anarchist.
In the Netherlands, there was anarcho-pacifist and syndicalist Clara Wichmann. She died young, in 1921. Wichmann was nationally known, but not as internationally known as Federica Montseny, Emma Goldman or Lucy Parsons.
Wichmann was a more-than-human anarchist. She advocated giving non-human animals rights. She compared the situation of animals with the unjust situation of women and of slaves. Before her, Domela Nieuwenhuis had advocated vegetarianism, already in the 1880s. Then he was still a Marxist and not yet an anarchist. Domela based his vegetarianism on Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, relating humans to other animals. It was a personal viewpoint of Domela, not an official anarchist organisational standpoint.
Besides Clara Wichmann, there was another exception, not so well-known, to the rule that women were not prominent in Dutch anarchism. In February 1941, the German occupiers deported Jews to death camps.
The Communist Party of the Netherlands called for a general strike against that.
That strike, the February Strike, became the only strike in nazi-occupied Europe against the German occupiers’ mass murder of Jews.
Most literature about that strike is about Amsterdam, where anarcho-syndicalists joined the strike. That literature neglects other cities.
In Leiden, my city, a few hundred meters from where I live, there was then the Nederlandse Rotogravure, one of the biggest printing houses in the Netherlands.
A communist woman working at the Rotogravure asked an anarchist female colleague to form a strike committee. So, these two women got the Rotogravure workers on strike against the occupiers’ anti-Semitic atrocities.
In the 1960s, Provo was mostly male, with some more exceptions.
Provo differed from most anarchists in running for elected office. Irene van de Weetering became Amsterdam local councillor for Provo in 1968-69. She proposed pro-women measures, like preventing unwanted pregnancies.
Still, just before 1977, when punk in the Netherlands started, anarchism in the Netherlands was still mostly male.
When punk started, women were more represented than in earlier musical tendencies. In 1977-1982, at least 241 women played in at least 157 punk bands in the Netherlands. In Dutch punk, women also participated as fanzine authors, photographers, band managers, roadies, etc. Writings on Dutch punk hardly reflect that. There is only one book on Dutch punk 1977-1982. That book interviewed 29 men and one woman. Only three percent.
The first ever punk in the Netherlands was the drummer of the Lou’s, Saskia de Jong. She was refused at an art school, for being from a working class family.
She was mixed Eurasian, and fled racism in the 1960s Netherlands. She was lesbian and fled Dutch homophobia. Then, she met homophobia of the French government, which deported her three times from France for her supposed crime of lesbianism. She was the only Dutch person in 1975-1976 at the London shop of Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren.
She became a housemate of Chrissie Hynde and Public Image Limited. Her band the Lou’s toured with the Clash, Penetration and others.
Later, she returned to Leiden in the Netherlands as drummer of the Miami Beach Girls. Saskia de Jong was never mentioned in any book or scholarly article on early Dutch punk. Until my chapter on the Netherlands 1976-1982 in the recent book Punk, Anarchy in Action!
Saskia de Jong passed away last year, in 2025.
Among anarchist punks, women were more prominent than in earlier anarchism.
Young punks, mainly teenage girls, founded KAAS, Collective of Alkmaar Anarchist Socialists. KAAS gave rise to the important Alkmaar DIY venue Parkhof, the fanzine Blad and all-women punk band Wanda’s. There was Rock Against Sexism. A punk band played at a big rally for abortion rights.
How was the relationship of anarchist punks to other tendencies?
Generally, there were no conflicts then between punks with anarchist ideas, and punks with other ideas.
In Groningen, there was a punk collective called Red-White-Black. Red stood for socialist or communist punks. White for non-political punks. Black stood for anarchist punks. They all worked together.
In our band, Cheap ‘n’ Nasty, we had anarchist ideas. Our 15-year old punk roadie girls were from socialist families. Our punk driver girl, Annemarie, was a Communist Party member. So was the singer of Amsterdam band Infexion. The punk Collective of Alkmaar Anarchist Socialists worked with the ANJV, a mainly communist party minded youth organisation. Punk band the Ex was founded in a ANJV building.
Only one band at the time in the Netherlands had Trotskyist members. They were Alerta from Deventer.
We played with Alerta at an anti-nuclear weapons concert. We did not quarrel about the differences between anarchism and Trotskyism.
Paradoxically, the only thing about Dutch early punk which many people in other countries know is the conflict between English anarchist band Crass and the Rotterdam political punk band the Rondos.
That was basically then the only conflict in punk in the Netherlands between anarchism and other ideas. Crass originally had a good relationship with the Rondos. Some Rondos members had been in a Maoist group. They were no longer in that group, but still had some Maoist ideas, like supporting the then Chinese government.
Crass planned to tour the Netherlands with the Rondos. But Crass changed that plan, after their initial impression, that the Rondos were fellow anarchists, turned out to be wrong. So, Crass and Poison Girls in March 1980 toured the Netherlands and Germany with other Dutch punk bands, including our band Cheap ‘n’ Nasty.
So, as I conclude: my contribution fits in only to a small extent with the conference theme of More Than Human Anarchism. But it does fit in somewhat with More Than Male Anarchism. Now, I hope that there will be many questions!
Recent Comments