Two elections – and the EU’s war on Europe’s peoples

Dutch Socialist Party's election night celebration of its successful damage limitation.

Both Britain and the Netherlands have voted recently in general elections. In Britain, two right-wing parties formed aa coalition while another right-wing party is the main opposition. No change of policies, just change of faces, with a coalition in power for the first time since the second world war. In the Netherlands, the radical left Socialist Party (SP) suffered something of a setback, but it survived what had at first looked like a potential disaster.

On Dutch Socialism

This interview first appeared on the New Left Project website

Steve McGiffen has been associated in various capacities with the Socialist Party of the Netherlands since 1999, and though he now lives in France, continues to work as a translator for the party. He is a former official of the United European Left Group in the European Parliament, and edits Spectrezine. On the eve of the Dutch elections, he spoke to NLP’s Edward Lewis.

Steve McGiffen

I am a writer, translator and teacher. My publications include scholarly articles, a novel, several short stories and plays, as well as books and articles on contemporary political themes.  My plays have been performed by professional and amateur companies in England and Belgium and on regional television in England.  Currently I’m a Senior Assistant Professor at the American Graduate School in Paris,  as well as the English language translator for the Socialist Party of the Netherlands and editor of the radical left website Spectrezine. Formerly I have worked as an environmental adviser to the United Left Group of the European Parliament, a lecturer in United States history and a teacher of creative writing. I am also a  gardener, my wife and I producing most of our own food at our home in a village on the Cher, a river in central France. I have two stepsons who live in Vietnam, one of whom, with the considerable assistance of my daughter-in-law Ha, recently presented me with a granddaughter, Emily. When I am not attempting to destroy capitalism, earning a living, or growing food, I suffer at the hands of my beloved Middlesbrough Football Club or watch such elite drama as Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek.