Provo
Encyclopedia
Provo was a Dutch counterculture
movement
in the mid-1960s that focused on provoking violent responses from authorities using non-violent bait. It was preceded by the nozem
movement and followed by the hippie
movement. Unlike these two movements, Provo was actually founded, on May 25, 1965, by Robert Jasper Grootveld
, an anti-smoking activist, and Roel van Duyn and Rob Stolk, both anarchists. Provo was officially disbanded on May 13, 1967.
, Dadaism, Herbert Marcuse
, and the Marquis de Sade
.
The Provos borrowed their name from Wouter Buikhuisen, who, in a 1965 doctoral dissertation, talked about “young trouble-makers” as ‘provos’.
Bernhard de Vries states that the Provos comprised four groups of people:
Harry Mulisch
's book, Bericht aan de rattenkoning (Message to the Rat King, 1966), reflects upon the riots following the Telegraaf’s coverage on a worker’s death in a protest:
In Provo#12 the magazine was described as:
and Claus von Amsberg
. The Dutch Royal Family was unpopular at the time, and Claus von Amsberg
was thought to be unacceptable to many Dutch people because of his Hitlerjugend membership during World War II. The engagement was announced in June, and in July the Provos threw anti-monarchist pamphlets from a bridge into the royal boat.
In the run-up to the wedding Provo made up a fake speech, in which Queen Juliana declared she'd become anarchist and was negotiating a transition of power with Provo. The White Rumour Plan was put into action, as part of which wild rumours were spread in Amsterdam, including that the Provos were preparing to dump LSD in the city water supply. These rumours led the authorities to request 25,000 troops to help guard the parade route.
Dressed as ordinary citizens, the Provos managed to sneak sugar and nitrate smoke bombs past the police. The first bombs went off just behind the palace as the procession started. Unable to identify the Provos, the police overreacted and the wedding turned into a public relations disaster. In the week after the wedding, the police attacked and beat patrons of a photo exhibition documenting police violence at the royal wedding. Following these events a number of well-known writers and intellectuals started requesting an independent investigation into police behaviour.
. The Provos set out to get busted for "consuming" tea, hay or herbs instead of marijuana. The Provos would often call the police on themselves.
Grootveld and the artist Fred Wessels also opened the "Afrikaanse Druk Stoor," where they sold both real and fake marijuana.
, and developed the "White Plans". The most famous of those is the "White Bicycle Plan", which aimed to improve Amsterdam's transport problem. Generally the plans sought to address social problems and make Amsterdam more liveable.
List of the White Plans:
At the same time the Provos participated in left wing student protests against the Vietnam War
. Demonstrations were banned, resulting in an increase in their size and popularity. The police responded with increasing force and by mid-1966 hundreds of arrests were made every week. Police brutality led to increasing sympathy for the Provos and the anti-war demonstrators among the general public. An official investigation into the crisis was opened.
These events eventually led to the dismissal of Amsterdam's police chief, H. J. van der Molen in 1966, and the resignation of mayor Gijsbert van Hall in 1967. After van Hall had been dismissed Grootveld and Rob Stolk (printer of Provo magazine) decided to end Provo. Stolk said:
“Provo has to disappear because all the Great Men that made us big have gone”, a reference to Provo’s two arch-enemies, Van Hall and Van der Molen.
s, founded by Roel van Duyn, and ex-Provos also re-appeared in the Dutch GreenLeft
, a green political party.
Counterculture
Counterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. Counterculture can also be described as a group whose behavior...
movement
Cultural movement
A cultural movement is a change in the way a number of different disciplines approach their work. This embodies all art forms, the sciences, and philosophies. Historically, different nations or regions of the world have gone through their own independent sequence of movements in culture, but as...
in the mid-1960s that focused on provoking violent responses from authorities using non-violent bait. It was preceded by the nozem
Nozem
Nozem was the earliest modern Dutch subculture, related to the Teddy Boy movement in the UK and the greasers in the United States. It was followed by the Provos....
movement and followed by the hippie
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
movement. Unlike these two movements, Provo was actually founded, on May 25, 1965, by Robert Jasper Grootveld
Robert Jasper Grootveld
Robert Jasper Grootveld was a Dutch artist who is best known for his events on the Spui in Amsterdam...
, an anti-smoking activist, and Roel van Duyn and Rob Stolk, both anarchists. Provo was officially disbanded on May 13, 1967.
Beginnings
The Provos are thought to have evolved out of the artist Robert Jasper Grootveld's anti-smoking happenings in June 1964. The following year other groups appeared as a fusion of small groups of youths around the pacifist Ban-the-bomb movement. Roel van Duyn is thought to have been the group's theorist, influenced by anarchismAnarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
, Dadaism, Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse was a German Jewish philosopher, sociologist and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory...
, and the Marquis de Sade
Marquis de Sade
Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade was a French aristocrat, revolutionary politician, philosopher, and writer famous for his libertine sexuality and lifestyle...
.
The Provos borrowed their name from Wouter Buikhuisen, who, in a 1965 doctoral dissertation, talked about “young trouble-makers” as ‘provos’.
Bernhard de Vries states that the Provos comprised four groups of people:
- "The happeners": those managing happenings in Amsterdam and Antwerp, combining non-violence with absurd humour to provoke the police. The police were regarded as “essential non-creative elements for a successful happening” and “co-happeners”.
- "The beatniks and hipsters".
- "The thinkers": those publishing Provo ideas in magazines and pamphlets, including Provo, Revo, Eindelijk and UvA student weekly Propria Cures.
- "The activists" or the “street Provos” who engaged in direct actionDirect actionDirect action is activity undertaken by individuals, groups, or governments to achieve political, economic, or social goals outside of normal social/political channels. This can include nonviolent and violent activities which target persons, groups, or property deemed offensive to the direct action...
with the intent to influence public opinion.
Harry Mulisch
Harry Mulisch
Harry Kurt Victor Mulisch was a Dutch author. He wrote more than 80 novels, plays, essays, poems and philosophical reflections. These have been translated into more than 20 languages....
's book, Bericht aan de rattenkoning (Message to the Rat King, 1966), reflects upon the riots following the Telegraaf’s coverage on a worker’s death in a protest:
"While their parents, seated on refrigerators and washing machineWashing machineA washing machine is a machine designed to wash laundry, such as clothing, towels and sheets...
s, watched TV with their left eyes, and their cars with their right eyes, a mixer in one hand and the Telegraaf in the other, the kids left Saturday evening for the SpuiSpui (Amsterdam)The Spui is a square in the centre of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The Spui was originally a body of water that formed the southern limit of the city until the 1420s, when the Singel canal was dug as an outer moat around the city. In 1882 the Spui was filled in and became the square that we know...
square."
Magazine
12 July 1965 the first Provo magazine was published. It contained the “Provo manifesto”, written by Roel van Duyn, and reprinted recipes for bombs from a nineteenth-century anarchist pamphlet. The magazine was eventually confiscated.In Provo#12 the magazine was described as:
“a monthly sheet for anarchists, provos, beatniks, pleiners, scissors-grinders, jailbirds, simple simon stylites, magicians, pacifists, potato-chip chaps, charlatans, philosophers, germ-carriers, grand masters of the queen’s horse, happeners, vegetarians, syndicalists, santy clauses, kindergarten teachers, agitators, pyromaniacs, assistant assistants, scratchers and syphilitics, secret police, and other riff-raff. Provo has something against capitalism, communism, fascism, bureaucracy, militarism, professionalism, dogmatism, and authoritarianism. Provo has to choose between desperate, resistance and submissive extinction. Provo calls for resistance wherever possible. Provo realises that it will lose in the end, but it cannot pass up the chance to make at least one more heartfelt attempt to provoke society. Provo regards anarchy as the inspirational source of resistance. Provo wants to revive anarchy and teach it to the young. Provo is an image.”
Actions and Ideas
The Provos gained world prominence through its protests at the royal wedding of Princess Beatrix of the NetherlandsBeatrix of the Netherlands
Beatrix is the Queen regnant of the Kingdom of the Netherlands comprising the Netherlands, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, and Aruba. She is the first daughter of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands and Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld. She studied law at Leiden University...
and Claus von Amsberg
Claus von Amsberg
Prince Claus of the Netherlands was the prince consort of the current Queen regnant of the Netherlands, Queen Beatrix.-Biography:...
. The Dutch Royal Family was unpopular at the time, and Claus von Amsberg
Claus von Amsberg
Prince Claus of the Netherlands was the prince consort of the current Queen regnant of the Netherlands, Queen Beatrix.-Biography:...
was thought to be unacceptable to many Dutch people because of his Hitlerjugend membership during World War II. The engagement was announced in June, and in July the Provos threw anti-monarchist pamphlets from a bridge into the royal boat.
In the run-up to the wedding Provo made up a fake speech, in which Queen Juliana declared she'd become anarchist and was negotiating a transition of power with Provo. The White Rumour Plan was put into action, as part of which wild rumours were spread in Amsterdam, including that the Provos were preparing to dump LSD in the city water supply. These rumours led the authorities to request 25,000 troops to help guard the parade route.
Dressed as ordinary citizens, the Provos managed to sneak sugar and nitrate smoke bombs past the police. The first bombs went off just behind the palace as the procession started. Unable to identify the Provos, the police overreacted and the wedding turned into a public relations disaster. In the week after the wedding, the police attacked and beat patrons of a photo exhibition documenting police violence at the royal wedding. Following these events a number of well-known writers and intellectuals started requesting an independent investigation into police behaviour.
Provoking the Police
The Provos thought to provoke the police in non-violent ways, aiming to shatter the self-righteousness of the authorities. Led by Grootveld, the Provos began a misinformation campaign to demonstrate the establishment's complete ignorance on the subject of cannabisCannabis
Cannabis is a genus of flowering plants that includes three putative species, Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis. These three taxa are indigenous to Central Asia, and South Asia. Cannabis has long been used for fibre , for seed and seed oils, for medicinal purposes, and as a...
. The Provos set out to get busted for "consuming" tea, hay or herbs instead of marijuana. The Provos would often call the police on themselves.
"One day a whole group of us went by bus to Belgium," says Grootveld. "Of course I had informed my friend Houweling [police officer] that some elements might take some pot along. At the border, the cops and customs were waiting for us. Followed by the press, we were taken away for a thorough search. The poor cops . . . all they could find was dogfood and some legal herbs. 'Marijuana is dogfood,' joked the papers the next day. After that, the cops decided to refrain from hassling us in the future, afraid of more blunders."
Grootveld and the artist Fred Wessels also opened the "Afrikaanse Druk Stoor," where they sold both real and fake marijuana.
The White Plans
The political wing of the Provos won a seat on the city council of AmsterdamAmsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, and developed the "White Plans". The most famous of those is the "White Bicycle Plan", which aimed to improve Amsterdam's transport problem. Generally the plans sought to address social problems and make Amsterdam more liveable.
List of the White Plans:
- White bicycle plan: Initiated by Luud Schimmelpenninck, the white bicycle plan proposed the closing of central Amsterdam to all motorised traffic, including motorbikes, with the intent to improve public transport frequency by more than 40% and to save two millions guilders per year. Taxis were accepted as semi-public transport, but would have to be electrically powered and have a maximum speed of 25 m.p.h. The Provos planned for the municipality to buy 20,000 white bikes per year, which were to be public property and free for everybody to use. After the plans were rejected by the city authorities, the Provos decided to go ahead anyway. They painted 50 bikes white and left them on streets for public use. The police impounded the bikes, as they violated municipal law forbidding citizens to leave bikes without locking them. After the bikes had been returned to the Provos, they equipped them all with combination locks and painted the combinations on the bicycles.
- White Chimney Plan: Proposed that air polluters be taxed and the chimneys of serious polluters painted white.
- White Wives Plan: Proposed a network of clinics offering advice and contraceptives, mainly for the benefit of women and girls, and with the intention to reduce unwanted pregnancies. The plan was for girls of sixteen to be invited to visit the clinic, and advocated for schools to teach sex education. The White Wives Plan also argued that it is irresponsible to enter marriage as a virgin.
- White Chicken Plan: Proposal for the reorganization of the Amsterdam police (called "kip" in Dutch slang, meaning "chicken"). Under the plan, the police would be disarmed and placed under the jurisdiction of the municipal council rather than the burgemeester (mayor). Municipalities would then be able to democratically elect their own chief of police. The Provos intended for this revised structure to transform the police from guard to social worker.
- White Housing Plan: The plan sought to address Amsterdam's acute housing problem by banning speculation in house building, and the squattingSquattingSquatting consists of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied space or building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have permission to use....
of empty buildings. The plan envisioned Waterlooplein as an open-air market and advocated abandoning plans for a new town hall. - White Kids Plan: The plan proposed shared parenting in groups of five couples. Parents would take turns to care for the group's children on a different day of the week.
- White Victim Plan: The Plan proposed that anyone having caused death while driving would have to build a warning memorial on the site of the traffic collision by carving the victim's outline one inch deep into the pavement and filling it with white mortar.
- White Car Plan A car sharing project proposed by Schimmelpennink featuring electric cars which could be used by the people. It was actually realized in a limited fashion as the WitkarWitkarThe Witkar was one of the first technology-based carsharing projects in the world. It is the invention of Dutch social inventor and politician Luud Schimmelpennink, an industrial designer and at the time Amsterdam city councilor...
system which was in use from 1974 until 1986.
The end
Tensions with the police peaked in June 1966, when the construction worker Jan Weggelaar was killed during demonstrations. De Telegraaf reported that he had been killed by a co-worker and the official autopsy stated heart attack, but it was widely believed that Weggelaar had been killed by the police. A strike was called by construction workers and large numbers of workers and their sympathisers, including Provos, marched through Amsterdam. Demonstrators fought the police in the streets (on the Dam and Damrak) and attacked the offices and vehicles of De Telegraaf.At the same time the Provos participated in left wing student protests against the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. Demonstrations were banned, resulting in an increase in their size and popularity. The police responded with increasing force and by mid-1966 hundreds of arrests were made every week. Police brutality led to increasing sympathy for the Provos and the anti-war demonstrators among the general public. An official investigation into the crisis was opened.
These events eventually led to the dismissal of Amsterdam's police chief, H. J. van der Molen in 1966, and the resignation of mayor Gijsbert van Hall in 1967. After van Hall had been dismissed Grootveld and Rob Stolk (printer of Provo magazine) decided to end Provo. Stolk said:
“Provo has to disappear because all the Great Men that made us big have gone”, a reference to Provo’s two arch-enemies, Van Hall and Van der Molen.
After Provo
Some members of the Provos continued in the anarchist KabouterKabouter
Kabouter is the Dutch/Afrikaans word for gnome or leprechaun. In folklore, the Dutch Kabouters are akin to the Irish Leprechaun, Scandinavian Tomte, the English Hob or Brownie and the German Klabauter or kobold. The term kabouter was also adopted by a 1970s hippie movement in Amsterdam that sprang...
s, founded by Roel van Duyn, and ex-Provos also re-appeared in the Dutch GreenLeft
GreenLeft
GreenLeft is a green political party operating in the Netherlands.GreenLeft was formed on 1 March 1989 as a merger of four left-wing political parties: the Communist Party of the Netherlands, Pacifist Socialist Party, the Political Party of Radicals and the Evangelical People's Party...
, a green political party.
External links
- A Capsule History of the Dutch Provos
- "Dutch Provos," High Times (January 1990), pp. 32–36, 64-66 & 73. [An article by Teun Voeten on the history of Provos, includes pictures].
- "Revolt and Recuperation in Holland," Internationale Situationniste #11 (October 1967). [Translated by Reuben Keehan. Proofread and copy edited by NOT BORED!]
- Richard Kempton, Provo: Amsterdam's Anarchist Revolt (Autonomedia, 27-08-2007). ISBN 9781570271816
- A print bibliography
- Roel van Duyn Biography
- Provo Archives (in Dutch) from the years (1920), (1940), 1955-1993 in International Institute of Social HistoryInternational Institute of Social HistoryThe International Institute of Social History is a historical research institute in Amsterdam. It was founded in 1935 by Nicolaas Posthumus. The IISG is part of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences....
, Amsterdam, Netherlands. - A Dozen Souvenirs of Provo in International Institute of Social HistoryInternational Institute of Social HistoryThe International Institute of Social History is a historical research institute in Amsterdam. It was founded in 1935 by Nicolaas Posthumus. The IISG is part of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences....
, Amsterdam, Netherlands. - Cor Jaring's photos of Provo people and happenings
- Netherlands: The Second Liberation - Roel van Duijn - Becoming a Kabouter
- Provo Collection - National Library of the Netherlands