With a small break for much-needed sleep, we were active for over 27 hours with a liveblog on the March of Civilisation. Hard work, and at first we suffered from some start-up problems. After all: setting up such a liveblog requires some structure in the approach. We had introduced a few so-called #hashtags, such as #marsderivilisation, which on twitter allow people to aggregate their posts. From the start at six o'clock, things went wild there: not only runners and followers, but also very many opponents spoke up. Things got tough at times.
In the end, it turned out that the discussion was mainly about the choice of name for the cultural sector's action. The designation Mars Der Beschaving came across as rather pretentious, to say the least, and so the organisers knew it. The anger from outsiders was somewhat justified, even from those who do care about the arts. Fortunately, we don't have to repeat the discussion here. If you read the - cleaned up - liveblog, the proponents and opponents will have plenty to say. You can form your own opinion.
Our liveblog was finally followed by 8,400 people from 18:00 Sunday night to 22:00 Monday night. That's a great score, and indicates that we have therefore done something right. Also important for us, because following and interpreting news is not always completely free. So support from the field is indispensable.
The march was also a success according to the organisers: they themselves had expected a maximum of 1,500 people, and the police eventually spoke of 2,000 runners, while some 3,000 more sympathisers awaited the procession at the stopover in Delft. Notable incident that evening: during a diversion, the bus with which the organisation was accompanying the march was pulled off the road by the police. The latter informed that the insurance had not been paid, despite the fact that the organisation presented proof of payment for it. The next morning, the Haaglanden police apologised to the organisation: the officers at the scene had not acted correctly.
On Malieveld the next day, it was pleasant and warm. According to the organisers, there were at least 10,000 people; the police kept it at 8,000. They listened to speeches and performances, and when the demonstration ended at 16:00, most activists returned home. However, some of the protesters wanted to pass by the Courtyard walk, where at the time the chamber's Culture and Media Committee was debating with state secretary Halbe Zijlstra.
The police, who never allow Malieveld demonstrations to also visit the city centre, closed the streets with heavy force. In front of Press Centre Nieuwspoort, this led to a spontaneous sitting demonstration. The ME was deployed to remove the sitters. In the process, some blows fell and artists like Jan Joris Lamers were briefly arrested.
Meanwhile, the debate went as expected: Zijlstra quickly rejected all motions, including those of the cabinet parties. The chamber will vote on these on Thursday, after which Opera Zuid will remain as a PVV present for Limburg, Tryater will be included in the basic infrastructure after all and there will be a little more room in the post-academic training for artists.
NOS, RTL, NU.co.uk, Telegraph and Geenstijl then showed only footage of the police action.
You can read the minute-to-minute report here:
And Iris Vetter sent us this link to her photo report:
Photos Iris Vetter
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