To the front page

11/1 Jurists want to stay in Oudemanhuispoort

8/2 Mayor’s portrait

8/2 Websites for social cohesion

7/2 Spreading tourism proceeds with difficulty

7/2 GroenLinks on districts: Be a man

6/2 Zuideramstel opens new office on Sabbath

5/2 The truth about integration

4/2 Wilders has little support on Amsterdam

3/2 Elite involved in neighbourhood

2/2 Johnnie Walker avoids taxes in Amsterdam

1/2 Rotterdam to tinker with district councils as well

31/1 Wooden rowing boats to disappear from Amstel

31/1 ZeeburgTV launched

27/1 Privacy activists to mess up loyalty card system

27/1 A few were still coughing, but that was an act

27/1 Chrisis in de Baarsjes

26/1 Youth have positive view of districts

24/1 Action groups call for Carmel and Jaffa boycott

24/1 PvdA members dismiss plan for districts

23/1 KLM takes on crisis with new uniform

23/1 District office not squatted

21/1 Merge districts

20/1 Closing squat bar Vrankrijk not necessary

20/1 Cleaners welcome new Schiphol director

18/1 Palestine at the Jewish Historical Museum

18/1 What is the right size for a district?

17/1 PvdA Oost against fewer districts

16/1 Committee: 7 districts by 2010

15/1 Soldiers may attend Afghanistan debate after all

15/1 Bait bike leads to arrest

14/1 Youth for Christ to republish vacancies

13/1 Paintings of the Zuidas

13/1 New Youth for Christ contoversy

11/1 Social cohesion initiative raises eyebrows

10/1 Fewer districts in 2010

10/1 Zuidas: People feel that we are losers

9/1 Fun on the ice - but not for all

9/1 Supermarket coupon fraud thwarted

9/1 I Amsterdam must remain exclusive

8/1 Use term Apartheid in every discussion

8/1 No city kiosk in Amsterdam yet

7/1 Snow

7/1 Fatima Elatik to run Zeeburg

7/1 Municipal managers to return to shop floor

4/1 Police: take photo of strange people

3/1 Gaza protest criticises politicians

1/1 Thousands to protest against attacks on Gaza

1/1 Mustapha Laboui leaves district council

2008 Archive

2007 Archive

2006 Archive

2005 Archive

Support for cleaners’ campaign

26 September 2007 - The progressive movement is too defensive and should become more creative, find Thijs Vissia and Merijn Oudenampsen of Flexmens. They want to improve the situation of precarious workers, among them cleaners at Schiphol Airport.

Flexmens wants to combine social critique with marketing and design. “You can learn quite a bit from marketing experts. The problem of many progressive movements is that they seclude and marginalise themselves, also in their aesthetics. If you want to reach a new public, you will have to understand the popular culture”.

“It also has to do with the kind of language you use. Do you use words that instantly signal: this is the position we think is OK? Or do you use a more open language, trying to get people to think about those issues themselves?”

Flexmens is supporting an organising campaign among Schiphol cleaners. “We are going to help them get in touch with other social movements. The idea is to get a lot of pledges of support from social organisations, social movements, churches, tenants’ organisations”.

Union FNV Bondgenoten is working with the American services union SEIU to organise the Schiphol cleaners. SEIU has launched highly successful Justice for Janitors campaigns in the US and is now trying to form a global alliance of cleaner activists.

On Monday 15 October at 8 pm, an information meeting on the campaign will be held in Amsterdam. Details will be posted at the Broeinest website. Interview with Oudenampsen and Vissia (in Dutch). Illustration: Justice for Janitors (photo RoB / Houston.Indymedia)

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