on the waterfront 6

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On the Waterfront

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Introduction

is sixth issue of On the Waterfront once again contains pages about the Friends’ gathering on De-cember . All this space is necessary to include – as part of the general meeting – the rst reports fromthe research projects that are possible thanks to the Friends: “Work, Income and the State in Russia and theSoviet Union, -” and “Women’s labour in the Netherlands during the early modern period (ca.-).” ough fairly brief, these annual reports accurately convey the operations performed. In addi-tion to these concise annual reports that will appear in the June issues of On the Waterfront until the projectsconclude, more substantive and even vibrant reports will be published in the December issues of On the Waterfront . Like last year, you will nd a nancial annual report in this issue as well, although we hope thisone will be more informative than the initial one was. Finally, the new acquisitions presented last Decemberwill be reviewed.

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Members of the Friends of the pay annual dues of one or ve hundred euro or join with a lifetime donationof one thousand ve hundred euro or more. Payments can also be made on the installment system. In return,members are invited to semi-annual sessions featuring presentations of acquisitions and guest speakers. ese guest speakers deliver lectures on their eld of research, which does not necessarily concern the collection. e presentation and lecture are followed by a reception. In addition to these semi-annual gatherings, all Friends receive a forty-percent discount on publications. Friends paying dues of one thousand guilders or more are also entitled to choose Institute publications from a broad selection oered at no charge.e board consults the Friends about allocation of the dues and delivers an annual nancial report in conjunctionwith the administration.

e was founded by master collector Nicolaas Posthumus (-) in the s. For the past decade, two of

the institutes established by this “history entrepreneur” have operated from the same premises: the (Netherlands Economic History Archive) since and the International Institute of Social History ( ), which is now over sixty-ve years old. Both institutes are still collecting, although the “subsidiary” has grown far larger than the “parent” . Detailed information about the appears in: Maria Hunink De papieren van de revolutie.Het Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis - (Amsterdam ), and in: Jan Lucassen Trac-ing the past. Collections and research in social and economic history; e International Institute of SocialHistory, e Netherlands Economic History Archive and related institutions (Amsterdam ); in addition,Mies Campfens reviews archives in De Nederlandse archieven van het Internationaal Instituut voor SocialeGeschiedenis te Amsterdam (Amsterdam ), and Jaap Haag and Atie van der Horst have compiled the Guideto the International Archives and Collections at the , Amsterdam (Amsterdam ). For all informationconcerning the Friends, contact Mieke IJzermans at the ([email protected]).

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including Screw cutting on engine lathes and Milling Machines and milling practice ().

e Firma Stokvis wasfounded in , when the Jew-ish entrepreneur Raphaël SamuelStokvis opened a hardware shop

in Rotterdam. In his sonstook over the export, and therm expanded its selection forstate agencies, corporate industry and individuals. In a branchopened in the Dutch East Indiesand employed over Europeansand a few thousand indigenousand Chinese.

Exactly when Dirk de Vriesjoined this rm is unknown (hewas denitely there by ). By he appears to have learned

so much about the business andto have such a vast knowledge of foreign languages that he was sentto the Dutch East Indies and thento Russia the year after.

He described both journeys inlong letters to the managementin Rotterdam. Two books areabout his journey to the DutchEast Indies from April until August , and the third coversthe one to Russia from Novem-ber until December . e

style in his reports is refreshingly direct and lled with quotes of statements by others. Dirk did

In the second half of , the acquired more than seventy archives, including about new ones and about supplementary collections. In addition to the ar-chival acquisitions of the ,the acquisitions for the library and the special collections of the (one dozen over the past six

months) merit consideration.

Craipeau, Yvan and theschool project about the history of ordinary people in the townof Taverny during the FrenchRevolution.Collecting archives is full of surprises. Some of us may haveexperienced this while clearingout a person’s possessions. Most of what we nd is familiar, and thenall of a sudden… is is what

happened with the archive of theFrench Trotskyite Yvan Craipeau(deceased on December ),which was acquired in August. e Institute already hasa ne collection on the FrenchRevolution (see On the Water-front , -). Understandably,this period has always enthralledFrench leftists. Craipeau was noexception.

His daughter mentioned that hehad been an advisor to a project at

a secondary school in his home-town of Taverny about life thereduring the French Revolution. Assuch, he appears to have receivedtwo original letters that (unlikethe other material on thesubject, which addresses revolu-tionary upheaval in exalted ideas)oer a glimpse of daily life.

One letter was sent fromaround Angoulême in southwestFrance to Chartres on messidorAn II (which was July ), at

the height of the Terror and twoand a half weeks before the fall of Robespierre. Nonetheless, this

letter is the charming accountof a daughter to her mother. edaughter has just given birth toher second child and writes:

“Although I am a bit weak,Dear Mother, my health is fairly good [.] My assurances on thissubject should put your mind atease about my condition [.] My husband has undoubtedly in-formed you that my little girl wasas fragile as her brother at birth

[,] but although she is small, sheis strong and nurses well [.] I amstill good at nursing and will haveeven more milk once the intenseheat we are suering subsides abit [.] It overwhelms me so muchthat I cannot eat in the evening,Since I have so little appetite, Iexpect to purge myself in a few days [.] is is the advice fromthe midwife, but we have delayeda bit, since I gave birth only threeweeks ago, and it is too hot. Jules

is doing well and sends you a kiss,his father sends his regards, and I,Mother, I hug you with my littleone [.] Sending you all our love[,] best wishes to your [male]friend.”

To Russia on business,autumn Recently, the purchasedthree letter notebooks from an an-tiquarian bookseller. ey containtravel reports from Dirk de Vries

(born in Delft in and died af-ter ) sent to his employer theHandelmaatschappij R.S. Stokvis& Zoonen in Rotterdam.

Dirk de Vries started as a latheoperator and manual labourerand advanced to supervisor, de-partment head, deputy managerand became the managing direc-tor of the Firma Stokvis in . A unique career indeed for a worker!He must have been a particularly quick-witted technician, as he be-

came a secondary school teacher“by exception” and wrote manu-als in both Dutch and English,

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severed, and the old, very favour-able German trade conventionwith Russia has been destroyed.is old situation is unlikely to berestored in the foreseeable future.e temporary war hatred hasgiven rise to this change but willnot perpetuate it. In fact, Rus-sian industry is awakening. ecountry experienced economic

pressure from Germany but waskept there by Germany’s irongrip. is was felt in Russia. Only something very special could re-lease them from this grip, as thewar did. is hard, cruel war cuto everything without mercy,causing countless diculties andmajor damage; but …, it is said inRussia, having been through theprocedure, now, if at all possible,we want to avoid a recurrence of the old disease.”

is self-made man from theworking class provided truly remarkable descriptions of acountry on the eve of the Revolu-tion. A report in the Rotterdammunicipal archive indicates thathe returned there in February and March .

Bruno Oscar (BrunoBorisovitsj) Becker (-)One year before Dirk de Vriesrst travelled to Russia, a Russian

came to the Netherlands for therst time. While De Vries wenton an economic mission, Bruno

Becker came on a scholarly one.Revolution and emigration

made for an unexpected turn inthe life of Bruno Becker (as they did in those of many of his com-patriots), the founder of Russianstudies in the Netherlands. A his-torian, he was forced by circum-stances to spend most of his careeras a Slavist. Although he intended

to study European th century intellectual history in Russia, hehad to teach about his homelandRussia in the Netherlands. Unlikehis work as a historian, Becker didvirtually no original research as aSlavist. Becker arrived in Am-sterdam with his wife and childin . Back in he hadvisited the Netherlands for twoyears on a grant from the Russiangovernment to conduct archivalresearch on Dirck Volckertsz.

Coornhert (-). By read-ing Coornhert’s work, Beckermastered th century Dutch.His eorts to speak this versionelicited surprise.

In Becker was appointedendowed professor in East Eu-ropean cultural history at theUniversity of Amsterdam.

In the s, Becker’s socialconcern led him to join thevigilance committee of anti-Naziintellectuals and the Aid to Spain

commission during the SpanishCivil War. After Hitler invadedthe Soviet Union in June ,

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not conceal his emotions. Hewas just as frank about a new commission he had negotiatedas he was deeply depressed by his failure that particular day, orthat his linguistic prociency leftsomething to be desired at times(“A Russian who spoke Frenchover the phone with De Vries!”he noted with a measure of self-

derision). Could his refreshingly direct approach be attributable tohis being a self-made man, un-tainted by academic conventions?On January he concludedhis journey to Russia, where hespoke with many army ocersand visited large rms (e.g. thePutilov factories) in Petrogradand Moscow with a general assess-ment of relations between Russiaand the Netherlands:

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been always very kindly disposedtoward Holland and Dutch rms.Both our envoy and various in-dividuals of Dutch origin haveassured me that the Netherlandsused to be held in great esteem.[…] Longstanding connections,friends, those in pursuit of com-mission, credit from banks andGermans in most senior ocesenabled the Germans to obstructforeigners trying to do businessthere and minimize their prots.

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Becker (who had been a Dutchcitizen since ) underwent along, humiliating interrogationby the Nazis in e Hague.

In July , his position wasconverted to a regular professorialappointment in Russian history,

language and literature. reeyears later he became the direc-tor of the new Russia Institute(known as the Eastern EuropeInstitute since ) at the Univer-sity of Amsterdam, where researchwas conducted on Soviet history,politics, culture and economy.Becker also started to teach thenew subject of Russian studies atthe Faculty of Social Science. isplethora of activities gave Beckerhis reputation as the progenitor of

Slavic studies in the Netherlands.Several of his students – includingJ.W. Bezemer, C.L. Ebeling andKarel van het Reve – later heldkey positions in Slavic studiesin the Netherlands and abroad.In March Becker retired andresumed his research on the thcentury humanists. Marc Jansenat the Eastern Europe Institute atthe University of Amsterdam re-cently arranged for his papers tobe donated to the . is col-

lection contains his correspond-ence with various known and lesswell-known people in Slavic andRussian studies, history and Rus-sian emigrants.

e NederlandseToonkunstenaarsbond [Dutchunion of musicians]Artists and especially performingartists are a very special group of wageworkers. Over the past sixmonths we have greatly expanded

our previously modest collectionin this eld.

In the archive received ascant metre of archives from theNederlandse Toonkunstenaars-bond (, aliated with the, later the ) – not very

much material for the unionwith thousands of members thathad existed for half a century by then. ough small, the hadan illustrious past, in part becausethis union had the rare but dubi-ous honour of being expelled

from the in . e causewas the boycott by the unionizedmusicians of Dutch television forhigher fees.

Major accruals about this smallbut illustrious union recently arrived via two entirely separatechannels. e rst comprised meters added to the actual unionarchive; the second comprised asmall but very ne collection of items found in a dierent accrual,the one to the collection of Mau-

rice Ferares (born in ). isviolinist was both renowned andinfamous for becoming involvedin the Trotskyite movement asa former member of the artists’resistance (although himself inhiding for being Jewish). To theimmense displeasure of the , hebecame the secretary of the in. While the Institute has had asmall archive on Ferares for severalyears, Marja Musson’s arrangementof it recently led Ferares to donate

an additional three meters of ma-terials. One of the surprises therewas a le on the .

In addition to documentsabout the union’s expulsionin , these items include abinder with materials assembledin by one of the oldestmembers, the musician MeyerWery (born in ). Among the

major events he remembers are acampaign against foreign artistsin and World War II. enMeyer, too, suered discrimina-tion for being a “half Jew,” thehighest status he had managedto attain thanks to his successfulforgeries in his family tree.

e Depression of and therising unemployment that ensuedinstigated discussions about a visarequirement for foreigners. Whilesuch a regulation had been intro-

duced in /, it was abolishedagain in . After demandincreased for its reintroduction.e result was the Aliens’ Act of , which authorized exclusionof aliens. Employers were allowedto hire aliens only if they provedthat no Dutch people were avail-able to ll the vacancies. espirit of this law applies to thisday. Performing musicians guredprominently in the upheaval thatpreceded the adoption of this

law. Meyer Wery argued that the (which the had joinedby then) refused to take a stand

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especially letters that he sent hisfamily from various prisons andhouses of correction in the periodFebruary – May .

Some letters contain secret,coded messages, especially re-ports to comrades he was asked

about during interrogations. Inthe letters with coded messagesan exclamation point appears atthe end of the heading. Duringhis term at the Luckau house of correction, Abendroth studiedseveral languages, such as Ital-ian, Spanish and – encouragedby a fellow prisoner who taughtOriental languages – Arabic andFarsi. His wife has said that heread these languages later in lifebut never spoke them.

Liberto Sarrau (-)Liberto Sarrau was active in theanarcho-syndicalist movement() and gured in the resist-ance against Franco after thewar. Kees Rodenburg obtainedhis collection for the fromhis compañera Joaquina Doradofrom Barcelona. ese documentsrelate to all the other material atthe Institute about the SpanishCivil War and its aftermath. As

a child, Sarrau attended the Es-cuela Natura, generally known asLa Farigola, the rationalist schoolof Puig Elias nanced by the textile union. As a student there,he illustrated Floreal, the schoolnewspaper of La Farigola.

After the civil war he ed toFrance, where he was recruited forforced labour by the Nazis duringthe occupation. He escaped and

against unfair competition fromforeign artists, which primarily beneted “the owners of hotels,restaurants and cafes.” e Rot-terdam chapter therefore formedan action committee under hisinspiring leadership. e com-mittee sent advertising vehiclesaround the city featuring life-size

paintings of disorderly concertsof foreign cafe orchestras with“utes and rhythmic instru-ments.” Chairman Van Wery was

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assaulted by a cafe owner but wasnevertheless sentenced to pay ane of one guilder or spend a day in custody for abuse. e cam-paign then spread to other cities.

Wolfgang Abendroth

(-)Wolfgang Abendroth has beenimmensely signicant in Dutchhistoriography. Social historiansat universities throughout thes learned about the Europeanlabour movement through Aben-droth. His work published by theSocialistische Uitgeverij Nijmegen() in was revised and ex-panded by Ger Harmsen for theDutch labour movement.

Abendroth was a respected

scholar and a lifelong political freespirit, his periods of membershipof the and of the German so-cial democrats () after the warincluded. His obstinacy made hima natural opponent of the Nazisfrom the outset and an advocateof the internationalist cause whenhe worked alongside the Greek freedom ghters of ELAS duringhis term of forced labour (penaldivision ) in Greece. His post-war correspondence (available for

consultation at the ) revealsthat he earned the scholarly,political and human respect of the countless people he debateddomestically and abroad, advisedor assisted in some other way.

Abendroth’s widow Lize andher daughter provided GötzLangkau with two ne accru-als to the Abendroth collectionalready present at the Institute:



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reached Dar Beida (Casablanca)in North Africa via Spain andPortugal. ere, he producedthe hand-written newspaper LaBestia, with a circulation of ten.Several issues are included in thisnew acquisition.

e “Democratie voorSpanje” [democracy for Spain]association (-)Spanish exiles were not the only ones who resisted Franco: sym-pathizers in Europe and Americasupported their cause. In theNetherlands the social democratJ.H. Scheps founded the De-mocratie voor Spanje association.Mrs. Nijho- van Kemenade, thewidow of the secretary P. Nijho,

presented us with the association’smodest archive.Founded on January ,

the Association was intendedto encourage support for andwherever possible promote therise of a democratic order inSpain. Provision of objectiveand comprehensive informationabout Spain served to attractmembers, especially politicians,intellectuals, students and work-ers, to support the struggle of the

Spaniards – in the Netherlandsin particular – against the Francoregime. e inclusion of workersin the target group was no longeran idle cause, since the Nether-lands had been recruiting foreignlabour from countries around theMediterranean (including Spain)for several years.

e collection contains thearticles of association, reports

from meetings, correspondencewith members, unions and po-litical parties, the associationjournal Democracia (which wasbilingual), newsletters and news-paper clippings about actionslaunched.

Mehmet Ali DikerdemIn addition to the Spaniards,foreign workers from othercountries formed movementsintended to inuence politicsin their homeland (where they planned to return once they hadsaved enough money). Especially leftist workers, whose political

freedom in Western Europe ex-ceeded their wildest dreams back home, tried to change the dictato-rial regimes there. is holds truefor virtually all countries of originexcept Italy.

e Institute already has animpressive collection about theTurkish opposition movement,which receives constant accruals.

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Last summer Zülkar Özdoganacquired the papers of MuharremKaraman, a foreign worker whofound employment at a minein Charleroi (Belgium) in .After attending night school and

becoming involved with tradeunions, he became the nationalsecretary for the Turkish membersin . He also supported theTurkish struggle for human rights,which were severely violated start-ing with the military coup in .Within a year of the coup d’état,, people were imprisoned.Understandably, people such asKaraman and many others inWestern Europe appealed to poli-ticians and the public.

One of the most successfulmovements in those years wasestablished by the social demo-crat Mehmet Ali Dikerdem.

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Concerned about the fate of hisfather Mahmut Dikerdem (-, a former Turkish ambassa-dor but sentenced to eight years of forced labour for his membershipof the Peace Association in ),

he appealed to political operatorsin England and especially the La-bour Party, as well as the aliatedtrade unions (which in turn iden-tied with its Turkish counterpartorganization Disk) and, of course,to well-known artists. Zülkar ac-quired his papers as well.

In Dikerdem foundedthe Turkish Peace Association,followed by the campaign forDefence of the Turkish PeaceMovement. e archive contains

countless letters from well-knownpoliticians, such as Michael Foot,Edward Heath, Tony Benn andNeil Kinnock. Even Margaretatcher became involved.Dikerdem’s most spectacular ac-complishment, however, was hissuccess in interesting the famousplaywright Harold Pinter in theproblem of political oppressionin Turkey. Pinter, in turn, gothis American peer Arthur Millerinvolved in the matter. Together

they travelled to Turkey for PENin March . Pinter, who was, and Miller, at the time,visited as many fellow artists aspossible, as well as politicians

and trade union leaders. ey also attended a political hearing.e highlight of their journey may have been an ocial visit tothe American ambassador, whichculminated in a dispute when theambassador asked Pinter to leave.

Miller followed immediately, andthe two received a ride from theFrench ambassador. Miller wrote:“In the black Peugeot, Pinterreported the [American] ambas-sador saying something to theeect that there could always bea lot of dierent opinions aboutanything, to which Pinter saidhe replied, ‘Not if you’ve got anelectric wire hooked to your geni-tals,’ at which the ambassador hadstraightened and snapped sharply,

‘Sir, you are a guest in my house!’upon which Pinter concluded hehad been thrown out.”

Pinter’s One for the Road isbased on his involvement in theTurkish cause, as is apparent froman unpublished conversation withNick Hern, which is included inthese papers.

Stichting Natuur en Milieu[nature and the environment](founded in )

Some archives reach the by chance, while other acquisitionsare the outcome of lengthy prepa-rations. is was the case for thearchive of the Stichting Natuuren Milieu () in Utrecht. islarge, national organization,which has precursors dating back to (when the NederlandseVereeniging tegen Water-, Bo-dem- en Luchtverontreiniging[Dutch association against water,soil and air pollution] was estab-

lished, requested Jack Hofman atthe archives department of the to write a report on the stateof its archive and suggest possiblenew accommodations. e archivewas ultimately transferred to the, under very special condi-tions: the had raised enoughfunding to cover the arrangementof its stack of papers spanning meters of shelf space.

e bulk of its material datesback to the last quarter of the

previous century. It addressedvirtually all aspects of nature andenvironment: nature and land-

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scape preservation (with a strongfocus on planning procedure) andenvironmental protection, includ-ing waste, recycling, water quality,energy (including nuclear energy)and clean technology. Nearly allmajor campaigns from the previ-

ous decades are documented inthis archive, from the preserva-tion of the Wadden Sea to thePietersberg at Maastricht, fromthe nuisance at Schiphol to thedike reinforcement in the Riverregion. e concern for owerbulb cultivation reects a typi-cally Dutch touch, especially withrespect to the harmful eects of the widespread use of pesticidesin this industry.

Max Arian collectionsMany people part with their cher-ished possessions only when theirhome or at least their bookcasesare on the verge of collapse. ewife of the well-known Amster-dam journalist reached this pointwhen her husband’s bookcasescrumbled.

e has provided shelter forve valuable collections:- Amsterdams Stads Journaal (a

lm collective established in

, that produced motionpictures about social prob-lems).

- the posters: (Discus-sie Aches Alledaagse Realiteit[discussion about posters oneveryday reality]) was initi-ated by two visual artists, HansZoete and Paul Kooijman whodesigned a series of posters onsubjects including housing, jobsand unemployment, youth,healthcare, women and foreign

workers.- Politiek Cultureel Tijdschrift:

a journal that never was pub-lished but was discussed foryears by Max Arian, AnnetteApon, Rudy Koopmans, Carry van Lakerveld, Siep Stuurmanand Joost Smiers

- the Chili Comité Nederland :e Dutch Chili Comité wasestablished in , after severalpoliticians (such as Jan Pronk)and journalists (including Max

Arian) travelled to Chile for an conference in Santiagode Chile. Following Pinochet’s

military coup and the death of socialist President Allende, thecommittee became very activein Dutch politics by organiz-ing demonstrations, lobbying,

launching boycott campaignsand the like. Max Arian wasamong the rst to become in-volved in the committee. earchive consists primarily of papers from the committee’searly years. Arian gatheredsome of the material in Chilein during the administra-tion of the Unidad Popular andPresident Allende, includingnewspapers and political andother cartoons, issued primarily

by the nationalized publisherQuimantu.

- the Centrum voor Chileense

Cultuur (): e centre forChilean culture opened in at the initiative of the Chileanexile and author Ariel Dorf-man, who lived in the Nether-

lands at the time. e archivecontains papers from the lifespan of the ccc and materialabout Latin American culture.e booklet Hoe lees ik Donald Duck by Ariel Dorfman andArmand Mattelart is particu-larly entertaining. It was issuedin Chile in . Signicantly,the English translation How toread Donald Duck, publishedin with an introduction by David Kunzle, was prohibited

in the United States because of the illustrations it containedfrom Disney cartoons.

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e impressive collection of Chinese propaganda posters arean important source of informa-tion for those interested in thepolitical, military, economic andsocial developments taking place

in the People’s Republic of China(). Over the ve thousandyears of its history, the Chinesepolitical system has used the artsextensively to propagate appropri-ate conduct and thought. Artisticexpressions such as literature,poetry, paintings, stage plays andsongs have served to educate thepeople about what was consid-ered right or wrong at any pointin time.

Chinese Propaganda PostersAfter the founding of the in, the Chinese CommunistParty () used propaganda artto illustrate the “correct” policiesof the moment and to mobilizethe people for political, economicor military purposes. e use of poster art by the was in part aproduct of the realization of its ef-fectiveness in reaching the largely illiterate rural population.

Posters were produced in vari-

ous popular artistic genres. Somewere inspired by the New Yearprints that had been designed

for centuries. Others were repro-ductions of oil paintings or werebased on gouache, woodcuts, wa-tercolours or paintings. Some hadexplicit political or propagandisticcontents, personied by ageless,larger-than-life peasants, soldiers,workers and educated youth indynamic poses, while others didnot. Similarly, some but by nomeans all contained politically

inspired slogans. e questionof how to portray revolutionary and/or political subjects led toheated debates that continue tothe present day. As a result, thecontents and styles of the postershave changed over time, inu-enced by political developments,mass movements and changes inthe analysis of what is consid-ered important. e medium of the poster has had an enormousvisual impact on Chinese society

and continues even today, whenposters must compete with arange of modern media.

e CollectionOver the years, the has builtup a substantial collection of thesecolourful primary materials (seeOn the Waterfront , front coverand p. , and , pp. and ).e holdings, currently to-talling almost , sheets, actu-ally consist of two collections: the

collection and the Stefan R.Landsberger Collection, a privatecollection, which was issued on

Lecture by StefanLandsberger:

“Rosy-cheeked peasants and muscular workers:Chinese PropagandaPosters – s”

(summary)

loan to the in . For all in-tents and purposes, these two col-lections form one organic whole,very much in line with the dictaof Liu Shaoqi, Mao Zedong’s po-litical opponent in the s, that“two combine into one.” When it

comes to funding new acquisi-tions, however, the slogan of thelate Chairman that “one dividesinto two” is in force.

Oering access to these materi-als for research purposes is one of the main justications for the on-going development of the collec-tion. Our driving ambition is tobring together the most completeand representative number of examples of this genre of politicaladvertising that spans more than

ve decades.Another opportunity to pro-vide access to the collections isthe Internet. A wide selectionof posters can be seen now atthe two websites we run on the server: e Chairman Smiles(http://www.iisg.nl/exhibitions/chairman/chnintro.html) andStefan Landsberger’s ChinesePropaganda Poster Pages (http://www.iisg.nl/~landsberger). Bothsites draw impressive numbers

of visitors. In the near future weintend to concentrate our Internetactivities on one website,http://www.chineseposters.net.

Rosy-cheeked peasants andmuscular workersTwo selected themes - represen-tation of peasant women andmale workers - demonstrate theposters’ value as primary researchmaterials.

e consistently endeav-

oured to improve the positionof women. e participation of women in production was seenas one of the basic instrumentsto bring about their liberation.By the early th century, arelatively well-established visualtradition had come into existencethat treated women as objects thatcould be consumed by the malegaze. is tradition originatedfrom the advertising posters pub-lished that featured the alluring

shapes of delectable young wom-en in the process of endorsingvarious products, ranging from



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other images, both thoseproduced by and for themarket and those pro-

duced by and for thepeople themselves,as the ow of images

and information onthe Internet indicates.

With popular interestin politics waning, many see the party-sponsoredutterances as irrelevant,

and they resist or ignorethe ideological nostrumsin whatever form.

Propaganda postershave lost their cred-ibility and appeal, andfewer are published each

year. e introductionof state-of-the-art printing

techniques and the use of thick,glossy paper of good quality may have updated the appearance andtexture of the posters, but all this

seems to be barely enough. Erst-while potential buyers see postersas old-fashioned or too tainted by their earlier political usage, eventhough their subject matter hasbeen brought in line with topicsconsidered more compatible withthe rapidly changing times, socialcircumstances and popular taste.Despite these dicult conditions,the central party and state appara-tus is still committed to the use of posters, which, as a result, remain

omnipresent in Chinese life.Propaganda posters, then, con-

tinue to provide us with informa-tion about China, and that is why we must continue to bring themtogether in Amsterdam. ey areimportant for what they show,but maybe even more, for whatthey overlook…

Report of the General Meeting of members

Following the distribution of On the Waterfront , the rst an-nual reports about the researchprojects sponsored by the Friendsare distributed and discussed.

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Research teamAt the end of the year, the researchgroup comprised ve members:- Dr Gijs Kessler (),

co-ordinator and responsiblefor the sub-period -( January - December)

- Timur Valetov. (Moscow State University), responsiblefor the sub-period -

( January - December);- Dr Andrei Markevich (no cur-

rent aliation), responsiblefor the sub-period -( January - December);

- Dr Victoria Tyazhel’nikova(Russian Academy of Arts andSciences, currently based inLondon), responsible for thesub-period -( January - December

);- Dr Sergei Afontsev (Institute

for World Economy and Inter-national Relations), responsiblefor the sub-period - (January - December ).

e members of the advisory committee are Professor LeonidBorodkin (Moscow State Univer-sity), Professor Jan Lucassen (incharge of the project) and Profes-sor Andrei Sokolov (Institute of

Russian History at the RussianAcademy of Sciences).

Problem addressed in theresearche project explores income-earning strategies of urban andrural non-agrarian households intwentieth-century Russia and theSoviet Union. It does so from theperspective of state-society inter-action and investigates how statepolicy set the parameters of thefamily economy, and how house-hold economic behaviour in turn

inuenced or determined policy formation in relevant areas such aslabour legislation and taxation.

Planninge rst year () has beendevoted to analysis of the evolu-tion of the household and fam-ily as a social entity over theperiod under study. e secondyear () is focused on theanalysis of state policy and theways in which households used

the labour resources availableto them. e third year ()will be dedicated to the analysisof the composition and evolu-tion of household income andincome-earning strategies. efourth and last year () willbe dedicated to writing the nalpublications. Each stage will con-clude with presentations at inter-nal workshops and subsequently at international conferences.

Results in In the rst half year Gijs Kesslerdrafted a project outline, plan of operations and a budget. In Junea call for applications was issued,and a round of interviews was heldin Moscow, where four other re-searchers were recruited. e teamstarted its work in July, meetingonce a month to discuss resultsand to dene the research agenda.is rst stage of the research con-sisted mainly of gathering demo-

graphic data to trace the evolutionof household and family structurein the course of the twentieth cen-

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tury. e results of this rst stageof the research will be presented atan internal workshop in Moscow at the end of January andsubsequently at the annual con-ference of the British Associationfor Slavonic and East-European

Studies, to take place in Cam-bridge in March .

Future planse Institute has applied to theNetherlands Organization forScientic Research () forfunding for a parallel projectstudying the same issues intwentieth-century India. If thisapplication is approved, regularmeetings will take place betweenthe Russian and the Indian re-

search teams. Recently, however,this application was rejected inthe rst round. e Institute willcontinue to try to get the applica-tion approved.

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Research teamAt the end of the year, the researchgroup comprised four members:- Dr Ariadne Schmidt (),

co-ordinator and responsiblefor research on all female occu-pations in the town of Gouda( February - January )

- Elise van Nederveen-Meerkerk, (, nanced by the VanWinter Fonds), responsible forresearch on spinsters ( March

- February );- Marjolein van Dekken,

(), responsible for inde-pendent trade by women inthe production and sale of beverages ( September - August );

- Dr Lotte van de Pol (no currentaliation), will complete her re-search on work by poor womenin early modern Amsterdam aspart of the project ( September - December ).

Professor Lex Heerma van Voss(in charge of the project) andProfessor Jan Lucassen are thesis

advisors to the PhD candidatesinvolved in the project. emembers of the advisory com-mittee are Dr Myriam Everard(Leiden), Dr Els Kloek (UtrechtUniversity), Professor Jan Lucas-sen (/Free University Amster-dam), Professor Henk Van Nierop(University of Amsterdam) andDr Pamela Sharpe (University of Western Australia)

Problem addressed in theresearche characterization of the Dutcheconomy as the rst moderneconomy and the frequent ref-erences to the independence of Dutch women during the early modern period suggest that theposition of working women inthe Netherlands diered fromthat of women elsewhere in Eu-rope. To this day, no systematicresearch has been conducted on

this subject. is research projectaims to compensate for this short-coming and will analyse women’slabour in the Netherlands duringthe early modern period (ca. -) from the perspectives of thelabour market and the womenwho worked.

PlanningOnce the project has beenlaunched in the rst year, theresearch will get under way in the

second year (), the traineeresearch assistants will completethe research programme at the

N.W. Posthumus Institute, anda workshop will be organized toinventory women’s labour in theNetherlands. In the third year() the provisional results willbe presented at the European So-cial Science History Conferencein Berlin. e monograph aboutpoor women in the Dutch Repub-lic will be presented at that timeas well. In the fourth year (),the sub-studies will be elaborated

into PhD theses. In the fthand nal year (), the bookswill be published, including thesynthesizing monograph by thecoordinator. At a concluding in-ternational workshop the researchresults will also be presentedand placed in an internationalperspective. e databases withquantitative data will be arrangedfor publication on the site.

Results in

Following a thorough orientationat various archives in the Neth-erlands, the rst year involvedintensive start-up eorts and thebeginning of literature and archi-val research. Elise van Nederveenlaunched her PhD research inMarch and entered the researchprogramme that same month. InJune the second PhD candidatewas recruited: Marjolein vanDekken was hired as a traineeresearch assistant and started

her research in September. Sincethen, Lotte van de Pol has joinedthe team as a senior researcher. In

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June the advisory committee met.In November Ariadne Schmidt

attended the conference Euro-pean Families, Relationships andMoney in Historical Perspectiveat the Economic History Society in London. She consulted the ad-visory committee member PamelaSharpe there as well.

Future plansFunding for two additional PhDpositions was requested from the. e request was approvedjust before this sixth Friends’

meeting! e two additionaltrainee research assistants willenable expansion of the researchscope to explore the entire labour

market and will consequently re-inforce the comparative nature of the project.

In addition to satisfaction withthe successful start of the twoprojects in two countries, theprevailing sentiment is delight atthe ongoing success – at least inpart – of the multiplier eect of the Friends’ projects. While wereported previously that the VanWinter Fund had obtained fund-ing for an additional position viathe (see On the Waterfront ,p. ), the recently allocatedfunding for TWO new positions

for the same project! Withoutthe Friends, the projects wouldnot even have started. By now,total research capacity for thisproject has more than doubled.Both the administration andthe Board of the Friends aim tocontinue applying this model.e operational reports need tobe complemented by more sub-stantive accounts of the projects,which will be requested for thenext meeting in June .

Board and membersJan van Olphen, an anthropolo-gist with extensive experience ininternational legal investigations,has joined the Board. e Boardis also interested in adding one ormore candidates with knowledgeabout taxes and other legal ornancial aspects.

Financial Resultse nancial results (see p. )

lead to a few questions and re-marks. Overall, the results for are in keeping with thebudget. Under revenues, the duesare slightly higher than projected,which indicates a slow but steady rise in the number of Friendspaying the agreed contribution.Under expenditures, however,the costs of On the Waterfront slightly exceed the budget, sincetypesetting and translation were abit more expensive than expected.

e general administrative ex-penses were somewhat higherbecause of the annual gift for theFriends.

Regarding the budget for ,which is fairly similar to the re-sults for , we are pleased tonote that Ben Scharloo, the di-rector of A-D Druk B.V. in Zeist,has agreed once again to sponsorthe Friends by continuing to print

On the Waterfront free of chargein the year ahead. e amountinvolved appears on the balancesheet under “Grant A-D Druk.”

Allocation of the revenues for the InstituteIn consultation with the ad-ministration, the Board proposesallocating slightly more than therevenues budgeted toward thepurchase of two collections for theInstitute. Director Jaap Klooster-

man explains why the wouldvalue this gesture on the part of the Friends:- a fairly complete collection of

printed matter, posters, agsand audio material concern-ing the illegal Partiya socyalistaKürdistan (Socialist Party of Kurdistan) established in thes. is will complementthe wealth of Kurdish materialalready at the Institute. e costis , euros.

- the collection of a Britishjournalist who operated on theNorth Korean side during theKorean War, lived in China fora long time, travelled throughTibet and photographed exten-sively. e collection comprisesdiaries and many photographs.His widow, who now lives inBerlin, would like to sell thiscollection to the . Jaap hasrequested that we donate ,euros.

Although this would lead to aslightly negative balance, thosepresent approved these grants.

’

At the next Friends’ Day in June, Mr. Bogaers will deliver alecture about Dutch aliens’ policy,the ensuing ow of informationand the signicance of such infor-mation as a historical source. eBoard is also preparing presenta-

tions for future Friends’ Days onthe Kurdish issue and about how socialism and the labour move-ment relate to music.

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Financial Results for and Budget for (in euros)

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Dues ,. ,. ,. ,.Donations “Women’s Work” ,. ,. ,. ,.Donations “Russia” ,. ,. ,. ,.Grant AD-Druk ,. ,. ,. ,.Advertising revenues . . . .Interest . .

,. ,. ,. ,.

Publication costs On the Waterfront no. ,. ... ,. ...

On the Waterfront no. ,. ... ,. ...,. ,. ,. ,. Support from the Friends of the Research project “Women’s Work” ,. ,. ,. ,.Research project “Russia” ,. ,. ,. ,.Turkish periodicals () ,.Videocamera for Burma () ,.Chinese posters () ,.La Feuille () ,.Kurdish materials () ,.Korean materials () ,. ,.To be decided () ,.

,. ,. ,. ,. General administrative expenses Representation . . . …Bank and exchange costs . . . …

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Ester KrukZOALS SNEEUWVLOKKENOVER DE WERELD DWARRELEN.De hedendaagse devotie rond Maria,de Vrouwe van alle Volkeren(ISBN 90 5260 090 2, 130 PAGINA’S, ¤ 14,50)

Mariavereringen trekken nog steeds duizenden gelovigen. ‘Verschijningen’van de Vrouwe houden eveneens duizenden in de ban. Maar wie is dezevrouw die in deze tijden van secularisering en ontkerkelijking zoveel gelovi-

gen in binnen- en buitenland op de been weet te krijgen? De antropologeEster Kruk, zelf opgegroeid in een protestants milieu, nam als vrijwilligsterdeel aan de organisatie van gebedsdagen en sprak uitgebreid met bezoekersvan zulke manifestaties en veel andere betrokkenen, en probeert dit mysteriete ontrafelen.

Henny BuitingDE NIEUWE TIJD. SOCIAALDEMOKRATISCHMAANDSCHRIFT 1896-1921Spiegel van socialisme en vroeg communisme inNederlandISBN 90 5260 067 8, 720 PAGINA’S, GEÏLLUSTREERD, ¤ 45,00

Het in 1896 opgerichte maandblad De Nieuwe Tijd was bedoeld als theo-retisch-literaire tegenhanger van De Sociaaldemokraat, partijorgaan van deSDAP. De twisten tussen ‘marxisten’ en ‘reformisten’ van rond 1901, lietenook De Nieuwe Tijd niet ongemoeid. Het blad bekende zich tot het radicalemarxisme en de SDP, later CPN. Redactie en auteurs omhelsden de nieuwesovjet-staat, totdat het Sovjet-Russische staatsbelang de overhand kreeg opde oorspronkelijk geproclameerde roeping de proletarische wereldrevolutiete ontketenen. Het conict leidde tenslotte tot de ondergang van het bladin 1921.Henny Buiting is socioloog en verbonden aan de Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam.

Hélène J.M. WinkelmanHIER IS BARBIE EN DE REST VAN DEMATTEL-FAMILIE (1964-2003)Veertig jaar barbiepoppen in NederlandISBN 90 5260 107 0, 117 PP., RIJKGEÏLLUSTREERD, ¤ 19,90

In de Verenigde Staten verscheen in februari 1959 een nieuw speelgoed: eenpop, gemodelleerd naar een echte vrouw. Barbie dus! Ze was het toonbeeldvan ‘the American dream’. Ze leefde in de glamourwereld van Peter Stuyve-sant. Barbie was een product van speelgoedfabrikant Mattel en sinds 1964ook in ons land te koop. Hier is Barbie vertelt het verhaal van haar introductieen van haar poppenfamilie. Ook elementen uit de Amerikaanse cultuur lif-ten mee. Aan de hand van historisch reclamemateriaal wordt deze collectie

speelgoed gedurende vier decennia gevolgd.Hélène J.M. Winkelman is historica en verbonden aan het NEHA te Amsterdam. Zij stelde een gelijk-

namige tentoonstelling samen, die tot 24 augustus 2003 te zien is in Museum het Domein in Sittard.

Marga Altena, Carolien Bouw, Maartje Broekhans,Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk, Jenny Reynaerts,Willemijn Ruberg & Marlou Schrover (redactie)JAARBOEK VOOR VROUWENGESCHIEDENIS 23Muzen aan het werk. Vrouwenlevens in de kunsten.ISBN 90 5260 098 8, 208 PP., GEÏLLUSTREERD, ¤ 17,50

De artikelen in dit Jaarboek gaan in op de vraag hoe vrouwen mogelijkhedenschiepen en kansen grepen om een plaats te verwerven in de wereld vande kunsten. Dat was doorgaans niet eenvoudig gezien de traditionele rolvan echtgenote en moeder. Hoe gaven deze vrouwen vorm aan literatuur,beeldende kunst, architectuur, muziek, dans of theater?Duidelijk wordt dat ‘talent niet genoeg is’.

Cruquiusweg 311019 AT Amsterdam

The NetherlandsT + 31 20 6685866F + 31 20 [email protected]

AntropologieEtnische studiesSociale en EconomischeGeschiedenisPolitieke theorieSociologieCommunicatiewetenschapVrouwenstudies

Verkrijgbaar in debetere boekhandelof rechtstreeks bijde uitgeverij

on the waterfront 6

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