On the Waterfront 7

8/7/2019 On the Waterfront 7

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On the Waterfront

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Introduction

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is seventh issue ofOn the Waterfrontdevotes more attention than the previous ones to the history ofthe Institute itself. In particular the items on Annie and Feltrinelli are about recently discovered sourcesthat have become available to the from the 930s to the 950s. In addition, this issue features the firstextensive report on the Friends research project Womens work in the Netherlands, 500-850.

Members of the Friends of theIISHpay annual dues of one or five hundred euro or join with a lifetimedonation of one thousand five hundred euro or more. In return, members are invited to semi-annual sessions

featuring presentations ofIISHacquisitions and guest speakers. ese guest speakers deliver lectures on their fieldof research, which does not necessarily concern theIISHcollection. e presentation and lecture are followedby a reception. In addition to these semi-annual gatherings, all Friends receive a forty-percent discount onIISHpublications. Friends paying dues of one thousand guilders or more are also entitled to choose Institute

publications from a broad selection offered at no charge.e board consults the Friends about allocation of the revenues from the dues and delivers an annual

financial report in conjunction with theIISHadministration.

eIISHwas founded by master collector Nicolaas Posthumus (1880-1960) in the 1930s. For the past decade,two of the institutes established by this history entrepreneur have operated from the same premises: theNEHA(Netherlands Economic History Archive) since 1914 and the International Institute of Social History (IISH),which is now over sixty-five years old. Both institutes are still collecting, although the subsidiaryIISHhas

grown far larger than the parentNEHA. (Detailed information about theIISHappears in: Maria HuninkDepapieren van de revolutie. Het Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 935-947 (Amsterdam

1986) and in: Jan Lucassen Tracing the past. Collections and research in social and economic history;e International Institute of Social History, e Netherlands Economic History Archive and related

institutions (Amsterdam 1989); in addition, Mies Campfens reviews archives in De Nederlandse archieven

van het Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis te Amsterdam (Amsterdam 1989), and Jaap Haagand Atie van der Horst have compiled theGuide to the International Archives and Collections at the IISH,Amsterdam (Amsterdam 1999). For all information concerning the Friends, contact Mieke Ijzermans at the

IISH([email protected]).

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mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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In the first half of 2003 about50 archive collections arrived atthe , of which two thirds wereaccruals to collections already inprogress. Among them was thereturn from Moscow of the finaloutstanding collections looted bythe Nazis in World War II andconveniently appropriated by theRussians (see On the Waterfront(2002), 4). is time the re-ceived about 70 folders contain-

ing the records of several pacifistand anti-militarist organizationsactive in pre-war neutral Holland.During the same period the received a substantial accrual to itsvast collection of annual reportsof companies in the Netherlandsand the Dutch East Indies. Allthese lovely acquisitions, as wellas others described below, led tothe following selection. News onthe Burma collection will be dealtwith in one of the future issue of

On the Waterfront.

Between Cook andKrusenstern: Johann HeinrichZimmermann (74-805)The Institute is rapidly placinginventories of its archives on theweb. Sometimes the results aresurprising, even when the itemslisted have been here since theearly years of the Institute. Theinventory of Georg von Vollmarspapers is now accessible online.

His papers arrived in 938, togetherwith the archives of Marx andEngels. In the supplement to thatarchive are the papers of a certainJohann Heinrich Zimmermann,

from the years 779 to 79, whichmystified those compiling the in-ventory. Zimmermann was clearlya sailor, and inventory numberA23 lists 34 documents about histravels between 779 and 788,but his connection to the social

Seventh Friends Day, 12 June 2003 I O O Q I I I O

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democrat Vollmar remained un-clear. Careful examination ofthe documents reveals that ourZimmermann was no ordinarysailor, as he came along on Cap-tain Cooks third journey and wasthe first to publish a travel report


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Among them was the commis-sion that Zimmermann receivedto build a ship in Marseille forthe Bavarian sovereign. He kepta travel log en route from Mu-nich via Trieste, Florence, andLivorno to Southern France. is

was quite an ambitious projectfor a man who shortly beforehad been a simple sailor and hadleft behind his wife and firstbornbaby. Later he got in touch withEnglish people in the SouthernNetherlands and surfaced in In-dia as well. In 789 an impressiverequest arrived from Russia toplan an expedition to the SouthPacific. According to the planshe drafted, the Russians wouldtravel in style for 80,000 roubles.

Presumably, this plan was nevercarried out, and Saint Petersburghad to wait for the famous Kru-

senstern to realize this ambition.To this day, little is known aboutZimmermann except for his travelreport published, but these papersmay change that.

e Compagnie van Trist

[Trieste Company] (78-785)At the end of the sixteenth centurythe Portuguese lost their trade mo-nopoly in Asia. Formidable com-petitors, such as the Dutch EastIndia Company () and laterthe English East India Company,overtook them. In the course ofthe eighteenth century other coun-tries tried to trade directly withAsia as well. While the amountsinvolved were rather modest, thevoyages were most impressive. As

noted above, Zimmermann set sailfrom the Southern Netherlandsaround 780. The country wasunder Habsburg rule at the time,and various companies launchedships bound for Asia from Ostendin the period 723-800. Item 544of the Special Collectionsfeatures original documents onthe subject, as does our library ofcourse. One of those companieswas the Aziatische Compagnievan Trist, which was based in

Antwerp and sailed from Ostendeas well as from Italy. China wasthe chief destination and was thesource of tea and chinaware. e recently purchased an origi-nal share in the company at anauction.

e Bond van Piano-stemmers[Piano Tuners Union] (94)Over the years thousands of in-dependent trade unions were or-ganized in the Netherlands. Most

eventually merged with largertrade union federations, lost theirraison dtre, or disbanded. Astudy to shed light on their diver-sity is now in progress at the research department. Small tradeunions were rarely national opera-tions, except for those of highlyspecialized workers. One suchunion was the Nationale Vakbondvan Orgel- en Pianomakers enStemmers [national trade unionof organ and piano builders and

tuners], established in 94 andlater renamed the NederlandseBond van Personeel Werkzaam in

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about that unfortunate voyageon which Captain Cook waskilled. Zimmermann publishedhis travel report in Mannheimin 78. He was a humble crafts-man who joined the voyage as asailor. On the way he took notes

in secret, since only the scholarson board were allowed to publishanything. Zimmermann appearsto have believed that Cooks deathexempted him from this restric-tion. Although the original pub-lication was suppressed in Ger-many at the request of the Brit-ish admiralty, French and Dutchtranslations were published. AnEnglish edition did not appearuntil 926. His publication aboutthe famous journey was a major

boost to his career, and the papersthat reached the reflect theprofessional benefits that ensued.


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het Muziekinstrumentenbedrijf[Dutch union of music instru-ment industry staff]. e unionsmembership was never large andis unlikely ever to have exceededone hundred dues-paying mem-bers. All the same, this union is

particularly useful for obtaining aquick understanding of the gener-al goings on within a trade union.With large unions, such as thoseof construction workers, a generaloverview would require siftingthrough dozens of yards of paper,with the risk that the informationobtained would merely concernbureaucratic procedures ratherthan the workers themselves.Studying the piano tuners un-ion, as the union was known for

short, does not entail this danger.is is particularly useful, as thismotley association did everything

a trade union should. Memberspublished a journal, arranged oc-cupational courses about subjectssuch as piano mechanics, set up aspecialized library and compiled acatalogue for it, established a pen-sion fund and provided unemploy-

ment benefits, organized propa-ganda trips (which are capturedon a lovely series of glass slides,including the one featured here),and as apparent from one of theslides supported a strike againsta large piano builder and picketedthe entrance to the premises forover three months in late 934.The entire repertoire of an av-erage Dutch trade union com-pressed into a single square meter!In March 2003 the Institute was

pleased to double the archive thatstarted to arrive in 999 by addinghalf a meter of accruals.

Jef Last (898-972)Jef Last has been covered herebefore (see On the Waterfront-2, 2000/, 5). e Institute firstacquired documents that hadbelonged to him in 990. Oth-ers followed in 999. The latest

acquisition arrived in 2003.Jef Last was a highly prolificwriter and a hack. His writingsinclude socially realistic novels,poems, reports, documentarybooks (about Japan, China, In-donesia), and the screenplay forJoris Ivenss first movie, ().

Rudi Wester, Jef Lasts bio-grapher: his life reads like a his-tory of the twentieth century.is quality justifies a biography

about him in my view. I havelearned a great deal from work-

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Archive of Eric de Lange(Socialistische Jeugd van

Nederland)The was a youth group dedi-cated to revolutionary socialism.Its members ranged from age 6to 30. While the had no officialminimum age for joining, barringa few exceptions, members wererarely under 6. e was part ofthe youth movement of the 960sand operated independently fromother political movements.

The recently acquired material that had belonged to

Eric de Lange (947-2003), whodrowned in 2003 while skat-ing. Eric de Lange was a formermember of the and a sociologistand was writing a history of thismovement; unfortunately, he wasunable to finish this study, whichhe had planned with great thor-oughness. He circulated detailedquestionnaires among the formermembers and interviewed them.is material sheds a unique lighton the background and motives

of the . The 250 surveys andinterviews conducted amongformer members of the are the

ing on this biography. e story

of the cosmopolitan and activistenthrals me. He was a member ofthe , served as a secretary toSneevliet, travelled across the So-viet Union, fought in the SpanishCivil War, joined the resistance,served on the board of editorsof the underground journal DeVonk, worked on Bali at Sukar-nos request from 950 until 954,founded the (the Dutch Les-bian and Gay Association), stoodfor the Provo party in the munici-

pal elections.is time we received 3 scrap-

books containing clippings of

articles (originals and photocop-

ies) by and about Jef Last and hispublications, as well as originaldocuments, such as correspond-ence and diplomas and photo-graphs; several files containingclippings and photocopies ofclippings about e.g. his propa-ganda trip through Scandina-via in November 937 and themonths thereafter and his stay inSpain during the Civil War; diaryof a militiaman, war diary anda notebook of calligraphy and a

few pen and ink drawings. escrapbooks have been assembledby W. t Hart.

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most valuable part of the researchmaterial. e archive also containsmaterial that the issued suchas pamphlets, leaflets, correspond-

ence, and reports of meetings between 960 and 972.

e collection of SteefDavidsonSteef Davidson, a printer andpublisher of e.g. Zwart op Wit-boek, De Kabouterkolonel; pub-licist and dedicated collector, co-founder of the serigraph printerscollective De vrije zeefdrukker,was a member of the anarchistNieuwmarkt action committee

and figured prominently in Dutchunderground culture.

He recently provided us withProvo scrapbooks about theperiod 966-977, newspaperclippings (chronological) fromDutch and foreign newspapersabout Provo, and posters of theInternationale Situationniste (ca.957-97).

e posters are a wonderfulcomplement to the Institutescurrent visual and documentary

materials on this group; the probably has one of the larg-est collections on the subject.The was established in 957by small groups of internation-ally concerned avant-garde art-ists expressing radical criticismof contemporary society. e is generally viewed as the maininstigator of the May 68 Revolte.Most material received, however,is from after 968. e analysedlate capitalism, in which visual

images and consumer societywere the most important com-ponents.

e Bangeswar RoyCollectionIn 932 Bangeswar Roy (9-200)co-founded the Communist Partyof Bengal in Dhaka. Before join-ing this party, he belonged to anunderground political movementof armed resistance against thecolonial rulers. Several resistancemovements existed all over India,although Bengal and Punjabwere the main centres. Roy spenteleven years of his lengthy politi-

cal career in prison.Roy wrote two books about his

experiences as a member of this

movement against British rule, aswell as works of fiction and poetrythat were never published. Shahri-yar Kabir ( correspondent inBangladesh, see On the Waterfront3, 200) interviewed him in Assam(India) in 2000, a few months be-fore his death. is interview wasrecorded on video. His familydonated his archive to the .Despite its poor condition, thisarchive is an important acquisi-tion, especially for the historiog-

raphy of the Communist Partyof Bangladesh, but also becauseof his efforts for the Society of

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V O I I I O .

[ G 2 9 / 9 3 ]


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930s; Bangeswar Roys speech atthe national Conference of Ex-Andaman Political Prisoners, de-livered at the gathering on 5 Au-gust 986; a letter from Roy to thePresident of India requesting that

he receive a delegation of Ex-An-daman Political Prisoners for aninterview; and a list of 2 namesfrom 977 of former AndamanPolitical Prisoners still alive.

Africae collects material from allover the world and takes a specialinterest in a few geographic areas.Europe has been a traditional areaof specialization, as has Asia sincethe late 980s. e Institute also

has a large collection on LatinAmerica. We might almost for-get the impressive material at theInstitute from other parts of theworld. Huub Sanders has com-piled a list of the holdingsconcerning Sub-Saharan labourand social history, for which theInstitute has never had a special-ized scholar. Fritjof Tichelman,although a specialist on SouthAsia, nevertheless followed devel-opments from 964 onwards. e

catalogue Huub Sanders recentlypublished reveals substantial ma-terial from and about this area.

Aside from the countless imagesat the Image and Sound Depart-ment, the journals and the booksin the library, no fewer than 04archive collections contain impor-tant African material.

e International Institute ofSocial History has an online guidein pdf (www.iisg.nl/publications/africa.pdf). e Institutes recentacquisitions in this area have sig-nificantly added to its African col-lections, which comprise: archivaland library material of the Werk-groep Kairos (one of the mostimportant Dutch anti-apartheidorganizations); the archive of theSouth Africa/Namibia Association(sanam), a Brussels based organi-

zation of European s activein Southern Africa at the end ofApartheid; the archive of the icco,a Dutch organization involved inaid and development projects inSouth Africa.

Up to now the most importantholdings on African history inour archival department were thearchives of international trade un-ion secretariats and internationalhuman rights organizations suchas Amnesty International. The

second area of relevant informa-tion comes from large national,predominantly Dutch, political,

former political prisoners of theAndaman Cellular Jail, whichwas probably the most horrificprison ever in India. Opened in858, this prison on the AndamanIslands has held freedom fighters

from all over India, many servinglife sentences. anks in part toRoys initiative, this prison is nowa national monument commem-orating Indias countless freedomfighters for independence.

The following selective listof documents in this collectionconveys its importance: a manu-script by Roy entitled ChhaadPilani Graan (songs of the roofbuilders). is manuscript is partof his book about Dhaka, the

capital of Bangladesh; an unpub-lished, untitled poem he wrote inthe mid 970s; Roys notes aboutthe Cellular Jail National Monu-ment, where he was imprisonedfor many years; a brief personallife history that Roy wrote at age90; an invitation from Roy to hisformer fellow inmates to visit theAndaman prison; a handwrittenmanuscript by Roy these pagesare part of his memoirs publishedas Dhaka Amar Dhaka (Dhaka

my Dhaka) in 986, describingthe torture he suffered when hewas first arrested in Dhaka in the

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and trade union organizationsinvolved in development andsupport of aid to Africa. e thirdsource consists of organizationsin Europe opposing racism andapartheid.

The present guide lists both

recent and older material in ourArchive Department and in theDepartment of Image and SoundDocuments and focuses mainlyon African topics. e aim of thisguide is to provide informationon primary sources available atthe International Institute of So-cial History for research on Afri-can social history. Because muchof this material is to be found inthe archives of European organi-zations sympathetic to the Afri-

can cause, data on the activitiesof such organizations in Europeare listed as well. is informa-tion provides a context for Afri-can studies.

e areas best covered in thisguide are Southern Africa, espe-cially South Africa, both becauseof the importance of the anti-apartheid struggle there and be-cause of the presence of miningand industry and consequentlylabour organizations in the area.

e other important country inthis guide is Nigeria because of its

large oil industry and the relatedsocial issue.

AnnieSometimes archives reach the In-stitute through the most unusualcourse of events. One such case

occurred around Christmas 2002,when somebody delivered docu-ments directly concerning the ori-gins of the . So the next sec-tion is about that history. By farthe most important person fromthe early decades of the Institute except for the founder and firstdirector N.W. Posthumus wasundoubtedly Annie Adama vanScheltema-Kleefstra (884-977).In 907 Annie Kleefstra marriedthe famous socialist poet Carel

Steven Adama van Scheltema(877-924). His death in 924meant that Annie was the widowof a celebrity for over half a cen-tury. On the one hand, her lifewas deeply affected, but on theother hand, she pursued a careerindependently from age 47 as theright-hand aide to Posthumus,who was a college friend of thepoet. At the University of Amster-dam, they and later celebrities (in-cluding several of international re-

nown), such as the mathematicianand philosopher Luitzen Brouwer,

the astronomer and Marxist An-ton Pannekoek, the classics scholarH. Bolkestein, the criminologistWim Bonger and the historianand art historian Henk Enno vanGelder, formed a vociferous butpromising group of young leftist

intellectuals. Annies longstand-ing acquaintance with Posthumus(she probably met him in 907),her insider knowledge of socialistcircles, and her extended residenceabroad with her husband the poet Adama van Scheltema was in-dependently wealthy made herperfect for helping Posthumuscarry out his plans. is worldly,polyglot woman knowledgeableabout the movement was exactlythe person Posthumus needed, es-

pecially when the papers of therevolution had to be rescued inthe late 930s. A lively accountof this exciting period appears inher memoirs. Upon her death An-nie left all her papers to the Let-terkundig Museum in e Hague.Despite her close ties to the ,her decision is understandable, asher husband was among the mostimportant poets of his day. Morerecent discoveries reveal that thisbequest did not make her en-

tire estate available for study.e people who moved into her

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apartment on the Vossiusstraat in

Amsterdam after her death foundall kinds of documents there thathad belonged to her and her hus-band. When they moved out 35years later at the end of 2002, theystill had their remarkable discov-ery. ey entrusted the entire boxof items to the . Among thecontents were several photographsof Adama van Scheltema duringhis years as a student (at the endof the nineteenth century), manyphotographs of Annie and some

of her correspondence, as well asother papers concerning formerInstitute staff members.

Feltrinelli

In Russia, too, new material re-cently surfaced at the inMoscow about the history of theInstitute. By the 920s Posthu-mus was known in Moscow forhis interest in the same kinds ofbooks and documents that Rus-sian scholars appreciated. As thedirector of the Netherlands Eco-nomic History Archive ()at the time, Posthumus aimedto establish a broad foundationfor social history. When he set

up the in 935 while still atthe , the powers in Moscowbecame more interested in his ac-

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tivities. eir curiosity obviouslypeaked when the whisked thepapers of Marx and Engels awayfrom under the very noses of theRussians in 938. Dumbfounded,the comrades must have assumedthat Posthumus was secretly

working for the Nazis. Nothingwas further from the truth, as theRussians undoubtedly later real-ized, when those same Nazis loot-ed the Institute. Nonetheless, the was to be kept under closesurveillance as a strong competi-tor. How did the Russians keeptabs on the , amid the increas-ingly icy Cold War, during whichthe even arranged to transferthe most important documents toColumbia University in New York

in an emergency? Documents re-cently discovered at the re-veal that ostensibly neutral peoplewere involved in the mission. Oneof the most important agents wasthe Italian publisher GiangiacomoFeltrinelli (926-972). Althoughhe was one of the wealthiest menin Italy, he became a communistat the end of World War II andstarted collecting antique booksand documents about the his-tory of the labour movement. He

transformed this private collec-tion into the Feltrinelli Institute,which exists to this day in Milanand was run initially by Del Bo.Feltrinelli is believed to have paidhis first visit to the in 95and to have been introducedthere by the German communistBert Andreas. Upon learning ofthese contacts, the Russians gotin touch with him via their em-bassy in Rome. In Moscow thevery highest echelons of the gov-

ernment even Krushchev wasinvolved expected to acquirethe archives of Marx and Engelsthrough Feltrinelli. The Italianwas in close contact with Moscowbetween 953 and 955. On NewYears Eve 953 Feltrinelli arrivedin the Russian capital on busi-ness to consult personally withthe administration of the .Shortly afterwards, Feltrinellidrafted a report about the staff, alternately describing them

as social democrats and anti-communists and as Trotskyists.In the long run, the Russians de-

rived very little benefit from theirspying Italian comrade. Feltrinellistarted to deviate from the officialline dictated by Moscow and in-tended to apply to all communiststhroughout the world. Feltrinellisfirst contact with Boris Pasternak

(Feltrinelli was the first to publishDoctor Zhivago in the spring of956) and the Hungarian Uprisingthat fall were undoubtedly con-tributing factors. Over the yearsthat followed Feltrinelli progres-sively drifted toward a sectarianleftist-extremism and was killedin an abortive attempt to blowup a power pylon. Meanwhile,the Russians recruited other spiesto keep abreast of the goings onin Amsterdam. None, however,

was as colourful or as influentialas Giangiacomo Feltrinelli.


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Lecture by Pieter Bogaers:Historiography

as the events take place Y M W O M O Y I O Y ( M M Y )

Until the mid 980s, PieterBogaers was a biologist.Specializing in ecological

field research, he took a criticalview of the universitys researchresults. is led him to study lawand subsequently to investigate

the way the Utrecht provincialauthorities treated citizens strug-gling to protect the environment.He concluded that enforcementpolicy was the main flaw in legis-lation and public administration,and that citizens were paying theprice. In 986 he joined the lawoffice in Nieuwegein, where heremains to this day. In his workhe focuses on administrative law:government actions and govern-ment treatment of citizens and

residents. He devotes most of histime to disability law and asylumlaw, highlighting the governmentand its actions in his research.In his lecture, Bogaers addressesasylum law. After some generalremarks, he discusses the case ofthe A. family from Sudan.

A refugees life story needs tobe traced with tremendous care(chronologically, systematicallyand with double checks) to un-derstand exactly how an individu-

al has manoeuvred amid hostilityover time. All psychological ex-periences from the origin of fearthrough the moment of escape areconsidered. A thorough approachmakes for success: over 80 percentof the refugee cases the speakerhas defended have culminatedin residence permits, despite thegeneral view that 80 percent ofall asylum seekers come to theNetherlands in search of a betterfortune, while only 20 percent are

genuine political refugees. Law-yers have a duty to protect theirasylum-seeking clients from the

government, which will do eve-rything possible to prevent theseclients from being awarded refu-gee status. e two main princi-ples of the (Immigrationand Naturalization Service) areto believe nobody and to admit

nobody. Opposition by Bogaersled the national ombudsman tofind in 995 and 996 that thestate secretary of Justice ignoredeven the most basic quality cri-teria (i.e. expertise, reliability,and political impartiality) in ap-pointing and recruiting interpret-ers and interviewing officers andin instructing and monitoringthem. Despite the reports fromthe Ombudsman, no social orpolitical debate has arisen on this

subject. e problem of the tensof thousands of individuals withno further possible recourse to thecourts is therefore attributable tocarelessness on the part of the and the lawyers assigned to thecases. Lawyers have virtually nointerest in methodological issuesin determining whether or notsomebody is a genuine refugee.After all, they are not trained asresearchers. e speaker, standingat a lectern at the , concludes

this section of his lecture by quot-ing a description in HerodotussHistories: e original meaningof the word historia, which ap-pears here in the Greek text, isthe desire to know, which isresearch, report of the researchfindings. Only later did it cometo mean history. Based on theseand a few other definitions ofhistory, the speaker says: In mywork as a researcher, I have de-vised a biographical method of

tracing a persons complete po-litical course to understand whythat person was forced to flee.

In the past two years, thelawyers archive comprising 629refugee files has been entrustedto the . In addition to allkinds of legal documents, it con-tains Bogaerss analyses of asylumprocedure and his analyses of a

persons life history and his or herescape. e files are those of refu-gees from about thirty countries:Eastern Europe, Russia and theBalkans, Vietnam, China and SriLanka in Asia; Ethiopia, Somalia,Sudan, Congo, Liberia, Tuni-sia and Angola in Africa; Chile,Panama, Peru and Suriname inLatin America; Iran, Iraq, Turkey,Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan inAsia Minor/the Middle East; andfinally from the United States.

These files, which staffmembers are disclosing accordingto various categories of entries, areexpected to give rise to many po-litical, legal, anthropological, andhistorical questions and answers.The speaker casually wonderswhat has happened to the casefiles and even whether they exist of the refugees denied admissionto the Netherlands shortly beforeWorld War II, often on the mostfar-fetched grounds. Where are

the clay tablets from that period?Next, Mr. Bogaers describes in

detail the circumstances concern-ing the A. family from Sudan toprovide an arbitrary example. efile reflects obstinacy, ignorance,lack of concern, and indifferenceon the part of the authorities. On-going critical examination is theonly way to achieve a favourableoutcome for the refugee family.If the speaker had accepted allthe statements and reports of

the authorities at face value, thefamily would have been deporteda long time ago. e interviews


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Report of theGeneral Meeting

of Members

and recent acquisitions indicatewhether they were purchased withFriends money; more elaboratepresentations of such informationare under development. An Friends logo has been designed.Constructive comments about the

website are welcome.

Ariadne Schmidtdelivers anoral report, which is distributedin writing as well (an abridgedversion appears below, of the re-search on Womens work in theNetherlands, 500-850, whichis co-funded by the Friends).is contribution is the result ofagreements reached to distributea more personal research reportof Friends projects at the June

meetings and a factual account inDecember.

I - O Y O

O W I V ? I O Y O W O M W O I

From a country of housewivesto one of part-time jobs, read aheadline in the Handelsblad

last fall. e impetus for the arti-cle that followed was the publica-tion of the Emancipatiemonitor2002, in which the Sociaal enCultureel Planbureau () andthe Centraal Bureau voor de Sta-tistiek () reviewed progressin womens emancipation in theNetherlands. Womens participa-tion in the work force was coveredas well. e investigation revealedseveral remarkable facts.

Womens participation in the

work force continues to rise, asdoes the number of women withpart-time jobs. While the tradi-

an Lucassen opens the meet-ing, welcomes everybody,and distributes On the Wa-terfront6, which includes

the report of the previous regularmeeting (pp. 2-4) and the finan-cial results (p. 5).

At the Friends day on 4 De-cember 2003 Martin van Bruin-essen (Utrecht University) willspeak about the Kurdish collec-tion (which is now at the Insti-tute). No definite answers areavailable yet about the Koreanarchive, considering the involve-ment of other parties here.

Subjects to be addressed at thismeeting are the presentation ofthe new website and the researchreports on Womens Work in the

Netherlands and Work, Incomeand the State in Russia.

Moniek van der Pal, who hasbeen working on digital projectsfor two years, presents the websiteimages to highlight the increasedand improved coverage for theFriends on the sitewww.iisg.nl/Overdevrienden. esite contains the following items:Membership; Newsletter On theWaterfront; Meetings; Lectures;

and Research projects. e firstthree issues ofOn the Waterfrontare now on the website and can bedownloaded and/or printed. emost recent issue is obviously notfeatured on the web yet; the sitecontent will consistently be oneissue behind the current one. eprogrammes of the scheduledFriends meetings and a list of lectures are featured, as wellas references to summaries in theNewsletter and a breakdown de-

scribing how the money from thefriends is spent. Funding sourcesare listed, and announcements

(an alternative to interrogations)are in many cases far too short,as are the preliminary interviewsin court; interviewing officersbluntly stated you are lying; in-terpreters were not always present which made for conversations

in faulty English; feedback washardly ever provided, and con-versations were haphazard; sev-eral individuals being questionedwere not allowed to finish theiranswers; crucial circumstancesconcerning the family or in-lawstended to be overlooked; andfailure to ask detailed questionsabout a lot of important informa-tion that the refugees were able orwilling to provide (in this case, forexample, knowledge of fraudulent

banking matters and governmentcorruption) meant that neitherthe nor the court understoodthe causes and circumstances thatled to the escape.

Mr. Bogaers reaches the fol-lowing conclusions at the endof his highly entertaining andinformative lecture: the Dutchsystem does not distinguish be-tween so-called genuine and so-called non-genuine refugees; the interview method prevents

investigators from obtaining anaccurate account of the escape bythe individuals they are investi-gating; the method of hearing bythe Ministry of Justice lacks anyscientific foundation on 2 July2000 then State Secretary Cohenconfirmed this in the presenceof the speaker, as a lawyer; theNetherlands has let down tensof thousands of asylum seekersand has created a problem thatwill be virtually impossible to

solve, unless all these people andtheir families are admitted to theNetherlands.

J
http://www.iisg.nl/Overdevriendenhttp://www.iisg.nl/Overdevrienden


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Holland: or, a three months travelabout that and the other provinces(London 696) 84)

While in the twentieth centurywomen in the Netherlands werefar less likely than women else-where to hold jobs, they appear to

have been exceptionally active onthe labour market during the earlymodern period. e observationsof travellers do not suggest thecountry of housewives that theNetherlands later became. Hasthe position of women on thelabour market changed so much?Or are the descriptions of the for-eigners who visited the Republicexaggerated, and has the role ofDutch women on the labourmarket always been marginal? Has

the course of womens work beenmarked by change or continuity?We aim to answer these questionsin the research project De arbeidvan vrouwen in Nederland inde vroegmoderne tijd [womenswork in the Netherlands duringthe early modern period].

e sheer numbers of womenworking were sufficient to dividethe study into six subprojects.Additional funding from the and the Van Winter Fonds

have helped make the projectfeasible. In 2002 Elise van Ned-erveen Meerkerk and Marjoleinvan Dekken started PhD studiesabout spinsters and about wom-ens involvement in the produc-tion and sale of alcoholic bever-ages, respectively. Lotte van dePol was recruited to completeher book about the work of poorwomen in Amsterdam. Daniellevan den Heuvel is exploring theinvolvement of women in trade

and Hilde Timmerman their workin the social services. ese stud-ies combined cover a large part ofthe labour market and should cul-minate in synthesizing statementsabout change and continuity inthe position of women on theearly modern labour market.

Change or continuity? Thistheme is highlighted at the work-shop that the research group is or-ganizing for 28 November 2003,where we will present our research

project. In addition, several histo-rians have accepted our invitationto deliver a lecture about their re-

tional division of roles, in whichonly the husband works, and thewife cares for the children, is be-coming less commonplace, wom-en continue to spend a lot of timedoing unpaid work. As explainedin the Emancipatiemonitor, Dutch

society still revolves around thesystem of breadwinners. (Figuresare from Wil Portegijs, AnnemarieBoelens, Saskia Keuzenkamp,Emancipatiemonitor2002. TheHague, 2002)

ese conclusions lead to theobservation in the that theNetherlands is changing from acountry of housewives into one ofpart-time workers. Twenty yearsago, most women quit their jobsafter having a baby. e Nether-

lands competed with Ireland forthe lowest percentage in Europeof women in the work force. eNetherlands is still unique, butnow for the enormous share ofwomen working part-time. Sev-enty percent of the men are eco-nomically independent, comparedwith less than forty percent of thewomen. Considerable differencesbetween men and women per-sist.

The article explores the

reasons for this situation and notesthe conservative views about rolepatterns, which are apparentlyfirmly embedded in Dutch socie-ty. As historians of womens work,we want to know how this cameabout. What is the historical scopeof the description of the Nether-lands as a country of housewives?How old is this description that isso apt for the twentieth century?Has the Netherlands always beena country of housewives, or did it

become one over time?Little is known about the peri-

od before the modern era. e ar-ticle in describes the changesover the past two decades. Muchof the research on the history ofworking women covers the nine-teenth and twentieth centuries.Hettie Pott-Buters studyFactsand fairytales about female labour,family and fertility(993) is a casein point. Pott-Buter demonstratesthat married women in the Neth-

erlands were far less likely tohold jobs than their counterpartsin other countries, and that the

bourgeois family ideal prevailedback then too.

Memories of the twentieth cen-tury reflect this pattern. Womenwere employed in typical womensoccupations and were dismissedwhen they got married. Mothers

stayed at home and made pots oftea, while the occasional spinsteraunt pursued a career, preciselybecause she had not married.ese personal memories of andinformation about the modernera distort the notion that thingswere ever different.

ere are several reasons to as-sume that the Netherlands has notalways been a country of house-wives. The scarce informationavailable about working women

in the early modern period sug-gests that the description froma country of housewives to oneof part-time workers is only aselective reflection of the courseof history.

One indication is the reputationof Dutch women in the sixteenth,seventeenth, and eighteenth cen-turies. According to reports fromother countries, Dutch womenwere remarkably independent andcompetent businesswomen. Many

visitors to the Dutch Republic ex-pressed amazement about the re-markable involvement of womenin public affairs.

At the end of the sixteenth cen-tury, for example, the EnglishmanFynes Moryson wrote about theNetherlands: e wives of Hol-land buy and sell things at home,and use to saile to Hamburg andinto England for exercise of traf-fique. (J.N. Jacobsen Jensen, Mo-rysons reis en zijn karakteristiek

van de Nederlanden, Bijdragenen mededeelingen van het historischgenootschap 39 (98) 272)

This situation remained un-changed a century later, as weread in Sir William Mountague:T is very observable here, morewomen are found in the shops andbusiness in general than men; theyhave the conduct of the purse andcommerce, and manage it rarelywell, they are careful and diligent,capable of affairs, () having an

education suitable and a geniuswholly adapted to it. (Sir Wil-liam Mountague, The delight of


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search there. We hope the eventwill help us publicize the studyabout womens work in the earlymodern period and look forwardto establishing a discussion plat-form for researchers covering thesubject. (For additional informa-

tion, checkwww.iisg.nl/research/womenswork.html, or contactAriadne Schmidt at [email protected]).

Gijs Kesslers four-page personalreport from Moscow about thestudy in progress in Russia,entitled Work, Income and theState in Russia and the SovietUnion, 900-2000 (report forthe period January-June 2003),is distributed. A few remarks ap-pear below; a detailed report will

be featured in the next issue ofOnthe Waterfront.

The first stage of the project(second half of 2002) consistedof an inventory of the history ofurban households in twentieth-century Russia. Examining the lit-erature soon revealed that surpris-ingly little was known about theform and structure of households,perceived according to a classicaldefinition as co-resident domes-tic units; the history of Russian

families in the twentieth centuryhas yet to be written. Visits toand contacts with Cambridge,

where pioneering research hasbeen conducted for three decadesabout the form and structure ofhouseholds in different societiesand periods, revealed a stronginterest in the study about Rus-sia. e issues covered there are

close to our field; we plan to stayin touch about our research.

e second stage of the studyaddresses the role of the state:how does it try to influence theway that households supportthemselves. Labour and employ-ment policy, family policy, andsocial care will be the pillars ofthis study.

e initial research results arevery meaningful and revolvearound the shortage of men since

the 920s, i.e. after World War Iand the Revolution; the repressionof the 930s, World War II, andalcoholism in increasing measureclaimed more victims among menthan among women. e surplusof women, their age at the timeof marriage, financial independ-ence, family size and family rela-tionships, social provisions by thestate, financial support require-ments, and difficulties with cen-tral tax collection: all these re-

search subjects will transform thejigsaw puzzle into a social accountof twentieth-century Russia.

M M O I O

I I O O W

Q I I I O V

I Y, 2 2 0 0 3 .

O O M I G

I O G , I O M

I G M I I M ,

G I V I G X I O O M I X I I .

[ O O G Y M O I Q V

]
http://www.iisg.nl/research/womenswork.htmlhttp://www.iisg.nl/research/womenswork.htmlmailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.iisg.nl/research/womenswork.htmlhttp://www.iisg.nl/research/womenswork.html


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Marga AltenaVisuele strategienFotos en films van fabrieksarbeidsters in Nederland(1890-1919)(ISBN 90 5260 117 8, 328 PAGINAS, GROOT FORMAAT (22 X 30 CM), GEBONDEN,

RIJK GELLUSTREERD, 35,00)

Als nieuwe deelnemers aan het openbare debat over vrouwenarbeid zochtenfabrikanten, Arbeidsinspectie en vrouwenbeweging naar geschikte uitdruk-kingsvormen. De opkomst van gellustreerde tijdschriften, verbeterde repro-

ductietechnieken en de uitvinding van de film maakten het voor deze driegroepen mogelijk om via visuele media hun ideen aan een massapubliek te presenteren. Fotos en filmsgaven niet alleen uitdrukking aan de visies van de opdrachtgevers, maar bepaalden tevens de richtingvan de openbare discussie. Dit schitterend uitgegeven boek laat zien op welke wijze nieuwe mediafabrieksarbeidsters in beeld brachten, welke beeldvorming dit opleverde en hoe de opdrachtgeversdeze strategisch inzetten ten behoeve van hun eigen politieke en sociale agenda.

Bert WartenaH. Goeman Borgesius (1847-1917)Vader van de verzorgingsstaat

Een halve eeuw liberale en sociale politiek in Nederland(ISBN 90 5260 115 1, 408 PAGINAS, GELLUSTREERD, GEBONDEN, 25,00)

Goeman Borgesius zette de staat op het spoor van de bescherming der zwak-sten. De staat moest daar zijn waar het particulier initiatief te kort schoot; nietalleen om de veiligheid te waarborgen, niet alleen om voorwaarden te schep-pen voor een bloeiende economie, niet alleen om contacten met andere statente leggen, maar ook om de sociale cohesie te versterken. Goeman Borgesiuszorgde er voor dat de opinie van de middenklasse over de situatie van de on-derste lagen van de bevolking kantelde en rijp werd gemaakt voor ingrijpende hervormingen. Achterafblijkt dat wat hij voorstond, het fundament was voor de twintigste-eeuwse verzorgingsstaat.

Harrie Heyink, Frank de Jong, Inez de Jong & Marina deVries (red.)Peter L.M. Giele. Verzamelde werken(ISBN 90 5260 111 9, 202 PAGINAS, GROOT FORMAAT (21,5 X 28 CM), RIJK GELLUSTREERD,

FULL COLOUR, 28,00)

Begin jaren tachtig van de vorige eeuw waart het spook van de recessie doorNederland. De nieuwste generatie kunstenaars laat zich daardoor geenszinsuit het veld slaan. Kunst moet de straat op, de musea uit en doordesemdzijn van het echte leven. In Amsterdam ontpopt Peter Giele (1954-1999)

beeldend kunstenaar, dichter, ontwerper en organisator zich tot spil en motor van zijn generatie.Dit boek is een ode aan Giele en zijn tijdgenoten en getuigt van het fin de sicle van de twintigsteeeuw, waarin de kunst drastisch van koers verandert, de punkmentaliteit plaats maakt voor opperstedecadentie en de decadentie op haar beurt met de club RoXY in vlammen opgaat.

Richter RoegholtDe stad is een gesprekTerugblik op mijn leven(ISBN 90 5260 126 7, 284 PAGINAS, GELLUSTREERD, 25,00)

Richter Roegholt verhaalt in deze autobiografie op caleidoscopische wijze van

zijn puberjaren, zijn studie geschiedenis bij Presser, zijn tijd bij Het Vrije Volk,zijn leraarschap geschiedenis aan de MMS in Amsterdam-Zuid, zijn promotiebij Frits de Jong Edzn. over de geschiedenis van De Bezige Bij, zijn uitstapjenaar de pozie, zijn redacteurschap van Verstandig Ouderschap(het blad vande NVSH), zijn rol als historicus van de stad Amsterdam en van zijn rijke vrien-

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