Albert Bastiaan "Ab" Harrewijn (22 November 1954 – 13 May 2002) was a Dutch politician who was a member of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

and chairman of the

GroenLinks (, ; GL) is a Green politics, green List of political parties in the Netherlands, political party in the Netherlands. It was formed on 1 March 1989 from the merger of four Left-wing politics, left-wing parties: the Communist Party of the Neth ...

party.

Biography

Harrewijn was born 22 November 1954, in Giessen-Nieuwkerk. He was a preacher and a member of the

Communist Party of the Netherlands The Communist Party of the Netherlands (, , CPN) was a communist party in the Netherlands. The party was founded in 1909 as the Social Democratic Party (Netherlands), Social Democratic Party (SDP) and merged with the Pacifist Socialist Party, the ...

(CPN). He was strongly committed to helping people in the lowest ranks of society: the

homeless Homelessness, also known as houselessness or being unhoused or unsheltered, is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and functional housing. It includes living on the streets, moving between temporary accommodation with family or friends, liv ...

social security Welfare spending is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifically to social insurance ...

claimants and addicts. He was active in the CPN at the municipal and provincial level. On 1 February 1995 Harrewijn became partijvoorzitter (chairman) of the GreenLeft Party, which had emerged after a merger of the CPN, the

Christian left The Christian left, otherwise referred to as the religious left, is a range of Christian political and social movements that largely embrace social justice principles and uphold a social doctrine or social gospel based on their interpreta ...

Evangelical People's Party and

Political Party of Radicals The Political Party of Radicals (, PPR) was a progressive Christian (''radicaal-christelijke'') and green political party in the Netherlands. The PPR played a relatively small role in Dutch politics and merged with other left-wing parties to for ...

, and the left-socialist

Pacifist Socialist Party The Pacifist Socialist Party (, PSP) was a Democratic socialism, democratic socialist political party in the Netherlands. It is one of the predecessors of GroenLinks. Party history Before 1957 In 1955, a group of "politically homeless" activists ...

in 1991. He remained in that position until the 1998 elections when he was elected to the

House of Representatives of the Netherlands The House of Representatives ( , literally "Second Chamber of the States General", or simply ) is the lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliament of the Netherlands, the States General of the Netherlands, States General, the other one ...

. Here he focused on

defence Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense indust ...

and

social affairs A ministry of social affairs or department of social affairs is the common name for a government department found in states where the government is divided into ministries or departments. While there is some variation in the responsibilities of su ...

. This earned him the nickname "General Ab". As GreenLeft defence spokesperson, he was a member of the temporary committee on decision-making procedures for military operations. Harrewijn stood again in the

2002 elections The following elections occurred in the year 2002. * 2002 Bahraini parliamentary election * 2002 Comorian presidential election * 2002 East Timorese presidential election * 2002 Fijian municipal election * 2002 Hong Kong Chief Executive election * ...

. However, a few days before the 15 May election date he suffered a massive

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

, which ended his life two days before the election (the stroke may have been induced by the stress of the 6 May 2002 announcement of the murder of

Pim Fortuyn Wilhelmus Simon Petrus Fortuijn, known as Pim Fortuyn (; 19 February 1948 – 6 May 2002), was a Dutch politician, author, civil servant, businessman, sociologist and academic who founded the party Pim Fortuyn List (Lijst Pim Fortuyn or LPF) in ...

). The Leftwing Cheek, the GreenLeft platform for religion and politics, instituted an Ab Harrewijn Prize in his honour, for creative, small initiatives for people in the lowest ranks of society. The National Client Council organizes a yearly lecture in his honour. In 2006 the Harrewijn Law was adopted. This was based on an initiative of Harrewijn and fellow GreenLeft MP

Paul Rosenmöller Paul Rosenmöller (born 11 May 1956) is a Dutch politician and former trade unionist and television presenter. Between 1989 and 2003, he was member of the Dutch House of Representatives for GroenLinks and was party leader from 1994. Rosenmöller ...

, which seeks to inform

works council A works council is a shop-floor organization representing workers that functions as a local/firm-level complement to trade unions but is independent of these at least in some countries. Works councils exist with different names in a variety of re ...

s of the salaries of the top levels of management and its

Board of directors A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulatio ...

.Wet Harrewijn
ORnet.nl. Harrewijn died on 13 May 2002, in

Utrecht Utrecht ( ; ; ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...

References

* Th
Ab Harrewijn Prize
web site.
Ab Harrewijn-lecture
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harrewijn, Ab 1954 births 2002 deaths Christian communists Neurological disease deaths in the Netherlands Dutch Christian socialists Dutch communists GroenLinks politicians Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands) Chairmen of GroenLinks People from Giessenlanden Calvinist and Reformed Christian socialists