DWARS, GroenLinkse Jongeren is the independent youth wing of GreenLeft, a Dutch

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...

political party.

Ideals and policies

Both the ''manifest for a better world'', the organisation's program of principles and ''2025 - DWARS' proposals for the future'', the organisation's political program the party lists its five core-ideals which are equal to each other: *

Sustainability Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livi ...

: DWARS wants to share the Earth's finite resources with future generations. Furthermore, it believes that the rights of animals should be protected. In practice this means that DWARS supports the use of

renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

, wants to invest in

public transport Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...

and use the European agricultural subsidies to finance the transition from industrial farming to organic agriculture, DWARS seeks to include animal rights in the Dutch constitution and supports

squatting Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...

as a means to protest the government's housing policies. *

Solidarity ''Solidarity'' is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. It is based on class collaboration.''Merriam Webster'', http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictio ...

: DWARS wants to divide the resources of the world in such a way that every person has the means to develop his or her self. It wants to implement a

basic income Universal basic income (UBI) is a social welfare proposal in which all citizens of a given population regularly receive an unconditional transfer payment, that is, without a means test or need to work. It would be received independently of a ...

for all Dutch citizens, shift

taxation A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal person, legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regiona ...

from labour to capital and support small scale initiatives for non-capitalist economics. *

Freedom Freedom is understood as either having the ability to act or change without constraint or to possess the power and resources to fulfill one's purposes unhindered. Freedom is often associated with liberty and autonomy in the sense of "giving on ...

: DWARS believes that every person should be free to develop his or her self. DWARS wants to make all education in the Netherlands free of charge, equal representation of women and minorities in government positions, government to use open source software and it supports the legalisation of

soft drugs Recreational drug use indicates the use of one or more psychoactive drugs to induce an altered state of consciousness either for pleasure or for some other casual purpose or pastime by modifying the perceptions and emotions of the user. When a ...

. *

Democracy Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...

: DWARS sees a worldwide federal democracy the ideal form of government. On the first place it seeks to democratize the Netherlands by lowering the age to vote, strengthening the autonomy of municipalities and revert many anti-terrorism laws which infringe basic civil rights. *

Peace Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in the absence of hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (such as war) and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups. ...

: DWARS wants to attain worldwide peace by fighting injustice and the sources of war and conflict. In international politics, it wants to abolish

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

and instead it supports

European integration European integration is the process of industrial, economic integration, economic, political, legal, social integration, social, and cultural Regional integration, integration of states wholly or partially in Europe or nearby. European integrat ...

, it wants to strengthen the position of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

as forum for peaceful conflict resolution. Furthermore, it wants to invest in third world development with micro-credits to finance small scale projects and by ending protectionist policies of the Western world. It embraces migration as a natural phenomenon.

History

DWARS was founded on 4 January 1991. The foundation was decided on in congress on 15 and 16 December in

Wageningen Wageningen () is a municipality and a historic city in the central Netherlands, in the province of Gelderland. It is famous for Wageningen University, which specialises in life sciences. The municipality had a population of in , of which many t ...

by the PSJG the youth wing of the Pacifist Socialist Party and the

Political Party of Radical Youth Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

(PPRJ) the youth wing of the Political Party of Radicals. Because of the merger of these two parties, with the CPN and the EVP, in the GreenLeft, the youth wings were forced to merge too. The General Dutch Youth League, linked to the Communist Party of the Netherlands decided to continue on its own. The Evangelical People's Party did not have an independent youth wing. There were major differences between the two youth organisations. The PSJG was oriented towards actions and campaigning, mainly against

nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b ...

and

weapons A weapon, arm or armament is any implement or device that can be used to deter, threaten, inflict physical damage, harm, or kill. Weapons are used to increase the efficacy and efficiency of activities such as hunting, crime, law enforcement, s ...

. Within the PSJG there was a large

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...

group, which was opposed to parliamentary democracy. The PSJG operated independent from the PSP. The PPRJ was much more moderate and was not opposed to

parliamentary democracy A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of the ...

. The PPRJ was very dependent on its motherparty, the PPR. This difference between parliamentary oriented members and action-oriented members. In the first ten years of its existence the anarchist PSP youth held a majority, and DWARS became more independent from the GreenLeft. During this period

Judith Sargentini Judith Sargentini (born 13 March 1974) is a former Dutch politician and Member of the European Parliament (MEP). She is a member of the GreenLeft ( nl, GroenLinks) party, which is part of The Greens–European Free Alliance, and the European Gre ...

was one of the spokespersons of the organisation. Since a few years, the ties with the GreenLeft have been tightened and a more moderate group has come to power. In the last years DWARS has been oriented towards cooperating with other youth wings of political parties. In 2004 they signed the

Pepper Pepper or peppers may refer to: Food and spice * Piperaceae or the pepper family, a large family of flowering plant ** Black pepper * ''Capsicum'' or pepper, a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae ** Bell pepper ** Chili ...

-accords, together with ROOD, youth within the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

and the Young Socialists within the Labour Party, which called for tighter cooperation between the GreenLeft, the Socialist Party and the Labour Party, which would result in a new cabinet, after the next elections. It was called "pepper-accords" in reference to their colour (red) and taste (spicy), because a leftwing government in their view would produce exciting new leftwing policy. In 2001 DWARS signed the

Paprika Paprika ( US , ; UK , ) is a spice made from dried and ground red peppers. It is traditionally made from ''Capsicum annuum'' varietals in the Longum group, which also includes chili peppers, but the peppers used for paprika tend to be milder an ...

-accords together with the Young Socialists within the Labour Party and the

Christian Democratic Youth Appeal The Christian Democratic Youth Appeal (Dutch: Christen-Democratische Jongeren Appèl), officially abbreviated as CDJA, is the youth organisation of the political party Christian Democratic Appeal in the Netherlands. It came about via the merging o ...

, which also called for tighter cooperation between the GreenLeft, the Christian Democratic Appeal and the Labour Party, which would result in a new cabinet, after the 2002 elections. It was called "paprika-accords" in reference to their colours (green, yellow and red), which correspond to the colours of the respective parties. But DWARS has also been able to convince the GreenLeft to stay close to its political ideals, in 2001 the youth wing started a petition under local representatives of the party, calling on the GreenLeft parliamentary party in the House of Representatives to revoke its support for the War against Afghanistan, the petition succeeded.

Name

The name is very difficult to translate. DWARS means both "transverse" and "stubborn" in English, making the translation "contrary" grammatically correct, but it does not cover the short and alternative meaning of the name. The name was formed after a fierce debate on the founding congress. More moderate participants, who had a history in the PPRJ proposed the name "GreenLeft Youth" ("GroenLinkse Jongeren"), more radical members, with a background in the PSJG proposed "The green

spider Spiders ( order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species ...

in the left-hand corner of the chamber, staring to the

right Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of Liberty, freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convent ...

" ("De groene spin, die vanuit de linkerhoek, rechts de kamer intuurt). Both sides tried to sabotage the decision making, then the chairman jumped on the table and yelled: "You bunch of contrary minded people, be serious!" ("En stelletje dwarskoppen, nu serieus!"). The name DWARS stuck. The spider however remained an important symbol in the organisation, being the youth wing's logo for a while, and later the youth wing's magazine and email list.

Organisation

DWARS has approximately 3,000 members,https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/binaries/rijksoverheid/documenten/wob-verzoeken/2020/10/07/besluit-op-wob-verzoek-over-wfpp-2019/Bijlagen+GL+bij+besluit+op+Wob-verzoek+over+Wfpp+2019.pdf most of which are also members of the GreenLeft. It has a board of eight members. The

congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...

convenes twice a year, and elects a new board every year and sets the lines for the political course and can amend on the youth wings constitution. DWARS publishes the independent magazine OverDWARS (a pun meaning both "across" and about DWARS) and uses emaillists to communicate to its members, one of those is called "the Spider" ("de Spin") and the other the DWARSdoorsnee (a pun on the organisations name, meaning cross section)

Older forms of organisation

For a long period, DWARS did not have a chairperson or a board. It was organised according to anarchist principles. Between 1991 and 1996 DWARS was a collection of campaigning groups with a fast changing composition. The most important groups were the

UFO An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are id ...

(a pun on the term UFO and Uitermate Fantasievol Overleg "Extremely Fantastic Council") which functioned as board, the ParGo (the Parliamentary Group), which was oriented towards the GreenLeft parliamentary party, Dodo (like the

extinct animal This page features lists of extinct species, organisms that have become Extinction, extinct, either in the wild or completely disappeared from Earth. In actual theoretical practice, a species not definitely located in the wild in the last fifty ...

) which addressed environmental issues, the

Anti-Fa Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were ...

-working group, which followed organisations on the

extreme right Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...

. DWARS published two magazines, "the Spider" and the "Former Disaster" ("Voorheen RamPSPoed", a continuation of the magazine of the PSJG, which incorporated the acronym of the motherparty, PSP). Between 1996 and 1999 a crisis board took over, and in 1999 they proposed a new anarchist organisation, with executive working groups ("Uitvoerende Werkgroepen"), in which all members could join, of which representatives would come together in the coordinating council ("Coordinerend Overleg"). These representatives would function as board members and were directly elected on congresses. The coordinating council was joined by the Shadow Parliamentary Party (" Schaduwfractie") which followed the GreenLeft parliamentary party, later this group was called Youth Parliamentary Party (Jongerenfractie). This organisation was maintained until 2005, when the coordinating council and the youth parliamentary party merged to form a single board. Until 2007 it had two chairpersons, one for organisational matters and one for political affairs.

International

DWARS is a member of

Federation of Young European Greens The Federation of Young European Greens, often referred to as FYEG ( ), is an umbrella organisation that gathers young green movements and organisations across Europe with 40,000 members. FYEG's aim is to defend climate and social justice on the ...

(FYEG). For a short while they were member of

European Network of Democratic Young Left The European Network of Democratic Young Left (ENDYL) was an independent network of left-wing democratic socialist political youth organisations in Europe. ENDYL was open to European youth organisations of the democratic left that neither foll ...

(ENDYL).

References

External links

DWARS
- official website {{Dutch political youth organizations Youth wings of political parties in the Netherlands Youth wings of green parties in Europe Environmental organisations based in the Netherlands GroenLinks 1991 establishments in the Netherlands