Dutch elections

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You don't have to look as far as Latin America for an example of a successful radical left party. Just hundreds of miles from the UK, the Dutch Socialist Party became the third biggest party in Parliament in the last 2006 elections. Since then the Dutch Labour party has had to constantly look to its left, something that New Labour in Britain hardly ever had to do. There maybe a lesson here for the British Greens, who now have an MP. The Dutch Socialists were formed from the New Left of the late 1960s/early 1970s. In this week's election it is likely they will lose seats. Their current 25 may fall as low as 9 as the Dutch far right make gains. However, the lesson is there that extrparliamentary social movements, which is what the DSP is, can make inroads into mainstream politics as long as they don't forget their roots and become simply a parliamentary talking shop.

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