seats in Amsterdam A coalition of Greens, the SAP. (Dutch section of the Fourth International) and a number of independents have just won three seats (with 14,800 votes) in Amsterdam's municipal elections. One of those elected was a member of the SAP. The coalition campaigned on a programme opposed to the big infrastructure projects in the city, against the privatisation of public transport, for a shorter working week without loss of pay and for an increase in the minimum wage. The coalition consists of a broad range of activists from environmental campaigns, trade unionists involved in the recent dock strike, organisers of last year's European Counter- Summit antiracist and others.
Overall there are now 13 of the 45 seats to the left of the Social Democrats, and potentially a new alignment in the overall control. On March 11 Danes re-elected the centre-left government of Social Democrats and Social Liberals, despite opinion polls and political commentators predicting a victory for the right and their policies of austerity and tax cuts. In the end the Government's vote actually increased slightly, with the traditional right wing parties losing I | seats.
The government and the left opposition parties successfully confronted the right's austerployment benefit for youth. many people voted for mainstream parties to oppose the right, thoughi they have maintained much of their base of support. about 200 new members. the defence of social rights, despite the outgoing Social Democratic government's record in removing taxes on capital and reducing unemThe Red-Green Alliance was formed in 1994 by the SAP (Dannish section of the Fourth International) and a number of other organisation. Their vote fell slightly, as The election campaign was a success for the Alliance, with more people active than ever before, including many young people. During the 2 1/2 week election campaign the Alliance signed up British SWP) Infiltrates Danish During the recent Danish elections a former intelligence agent admitted in a national television documentary that the intelligence services (SAP) to monitor the activities of its militants.
Their activity included copying the 20,000 signatures the SAP collected in order to stand for elections and spying on trade unionists and activists in international solidarity campaigns.
They seemed particularly interested in the work of the SAP as part of the Fourth International. SAP militants have pointed out that they always assumed the state was watching them. However as the revelations have caused widespread discussion on these issues, they. have been able to use them to explain more about how the state works.
Since the documentary it has also been revealed that the intelligence service knew of a fascist plot to attack members of the International Socialists (sister organisation of the The intelligence service never informed the IS of the plot and two months later, the secretary of the IS was killed in a bomb attack which remains unsolved. The SAP is demanding a public inquiry into the role of the intelligence service.
Secret Service Section