Intervention by NCP of Netherlands

http://www.ncpn.nl, mailto:manifest@wanadoo.nl

History teaching in the Netherlands

In the Netherlands it has been a long time that we are being taught that communism is bad. From the media we are overwhelmed, each and every day with sneers against historic and current, communist leaders. The ruling class presents to us such a one-dimensional view of historic material that is really an insult to the people.

Still, they get away with this simple meta-phisical way of their slander against communism, because in our schools we are not taught to be capable of an independent, scientific way of analysis. In the absence of historic substance to serve their interests the capitalists resort to distortion of reality and to telling only a very small part of the story, silencing important facts, ranging from blatant lies to completely ignoring certain facts.

And this is what they do each and every day as well as on special occasions. Since a few decades the heroic role of the communists, is hardly mentioned anymore at the yearly national, commemorational events.

For instance, in Amsterdam every 25 of February we celebrate the political strike that took place in 1941. It was organized by the Communist Party of the Netherlands as a political protest against the increasing Nazi aggression against jewish people. The call of the party to the workers was followed by many thousands in many cities of the country, but the speeches on the even pay no attention to the role of the party.

In a comparable way, at the yearly commemoration of the death of one of our national heroes, Hannie Schaft, important facts are silenced. Hannie Schaft was a young girl, that was active in the resistance against the Germans throughout the war. She had managed to keep out of the hands of the Germans for years. In November 1944 she was finally caught and killed. She was arrested with the newspaper of the Communist Party, "De Waarheid" ("The Truth"), but the speeches at the commemoration refer consistently to "a resistance paper".

For these reasons it is important for us, communists, to analyse in what way it is best to contest these attacks on independent thinking. The increasing influence of corporation on schools can only worsen the effects on the minds of our youth. The capitalists not only want our working force they need to be able to manipulate our very minds. What we need is not a meta-physical way of thinking but dialectics. That is what we should be taught in our schools.

If we can contribute to a start in that direction, it would be a step forward.