De Socialisten
Rudie Kagie
245 pages, including index
published in 2004

2002 was the year the Dutch Socialist Party became Salonfahnig. It had existed for three decades already and gone from a radical sectarian maoist party operating in the margins of Dutch politics, into a modern broad socialist with a decent if unspectacular numbers of seats in parliament. In 2002 however it was the only leftwing party to gain seats after the murder of Fortuyn and the backlash it caused -- "the bullet came from left". When the rightwing government collapsed in late 2002, the SP was even predicted to become bigger than the social democratic PvdA, to gain twenty or even twenty five of the 150 seats up for grabs. This didn't happen in the end, but it did force the media establishment to pay some attention to the party. One of the results of which was this book, De Socialisten, "The socialists", by Rudie Kagie, a well respected Dutch journalist and editor of the opinion magazine Vrij Nederland.

What Kagie has tried to write here is a broad overview of the history of the SP, for people who are not that familiar with it, as well as an overview of what the party is like now, or at least at the moment of writing. Which means a lot of attention is paid to, e.g., the current SP members of parliament and somewhat less to the principles the party stands for. This is very much a book about the people in the party.

On the whole this approach makes De Socialisten a qualified succes to me. Kagie succeeds well in his stated goal of providing a look behind the screens at the SP. Any reader new to the party will find this a reasonable overview of its history and its current status, with Kagie neither being sycophantic nor too antagonistic. For those who, like me, are already familiar with the party (I've been a member since 2001) it is less interesting, as there is little new information in this book.

What is worse, Kagie's focus on people makes for a somewhat anecdotical and unsystematic approach leaves little room for a real analysis of what makes the party tick. At times this anecdotical approach borders on the sensationalist, as he focuses slightly too much in view on the various conflicts people have had within and with the party. Particularly egrious I found the prominence he gave to Offensief, a radical Trotskist pressure group within the SP, whose activities in the last couple of years have mainly consisted of giving offence... I may be biased on this however, as I had to deal with them when I was an active member in the Amsterdam SP.

In all then, this is a good but flawed first look at the SP and if you are only looking for a book that gives an overview of the party this is a good choice. If you're looking for an analysis of the party and its politics, this will however disappoint.