The Labor Party is 70 years old. Reason for a party, so thought Frans Becker and Gerrit Voerman. They asked twelve political experts to analyze the past seventy years with them. It resulted in a thick book that is difficult to digest.
The idea for the Labor Party (PvdA) originated during the Second World War in German concentration and penal camps. There had to be a movement that looked beyond the Dutch pillars, the socio-religious groups that lived side by side until 1940. A movement that could connect them, starting with the Catholics and the Social Democrats. By 1937 the Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP) had already moderated its Marxist ideas and after the war the way was open for a new cooperation. The SDAP, the Liberal Democratic Union and the Christian Democratic Union decided together to take the same path and started the Labor Party.
Not a fairytale
Seventy years of the Labor Party tells the story of the founding of the party as the beginning of an idealistic fairy tale. Normally a fairy tale starts rosy, after which the evil stepmother throws a spanner in the works. Fortunately, after a few detours, it always turns out okay with the kiss of a handsome prince. Unfortunately, this book is not a fairy tale, no matter what the authors try.
Until the 1960s, the party grew steadily in the polls, but it failed to keep up with the major changes in society. People acquired more and more freedom and therefore felt less connected to one party. See here, the first floating voters. The PvdA could have won over these voters, albeit not because internal conflicts about the line to be chosen kept the party board too busy. The slow abandonment of strongly socialist views and the union springs (and thus the bond with the workers) even led to several splits. The PvdA still has no control over this problem.
Critical or non-critical; that is the question
In nine chapters, the book examines different aspects of the PvdA. It is commendable that the writers dared to be very critical until 1990. However, for the last 25 years, it comes off pretty easily every time. As if they want to condone that period, so as not to cause too much damage to the party. This diminishes their own credibility.
Seventy years of the Labor Party is a heavy book that focuses on the older, white, male PvdA celebrity. It gives the impression that it is especially easy to criticize people who can no longer defend themselves, but that the writers do not want to burn themselves with statements about the course that the PvdA should follow in order to win back the voter. . The PvdA should urgently look for a handsome prince to live happily ever after. Now we are left with the evil stepmother.