Report by Dr. Herman Spanjaard, Mr. Berts Sweerts and Mr. Hans van Iterson, Secretariaat Mayors for Peace-Nederland
In 2014 we raised the Dutch Mayors for Peace membership to 125 members. In total there are 393 Dutch communities so about 1/3 is a member already. The background of our success, since 2013, is that five dedicated Mayors for Peace-members of different political colors, Jan Hoekema (Wassenaar), Frank Koen (Capelle a/d IJssel), Hans Martijn Ostendorp (Bunnik), Geert Van Rumund (Wageningen) and Hans Romeyn (Heiloo) put their names under several letters we mailed to the Dutch mayors asking them to become a Mayors for Peace-member. This is a strategy that really works: Mayors persuading their colleagues. It’s not that hard, in every country you can find some of these dedicated Mayors for Peace. We send out the letters and register the new members (copy to Hiroshima). We double-check with Hiroshima and sometimes find a Dutch mayor who only registered in Hiroshima.
Furthermore we made a translation into Dutch of ‘The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki -‐The 5000-Member Milestone Exhibition’. This exhibition was shown for the first time on September the 23-th, 2013 in the municipality of Rucphen. Bert Sweerts and Hans van Iterson were present when this took place. Since then it was shown in Wageningen, IJmuiden and Heemskerk.
In 2014 we also had two meetings with this group of five. This was a good idea, we got to know each other and we’re able to discuss several Mayors for Peace-topics and strategies.
We think that if you want to approach Mayors for Peace in The Netherlands it’s best to contact this group of five. The best proof of this is the petition of the well known Dutch peace organisation PAX called ‘Sign against nuclear arms’ which is meant to collect 40.000 signatures needed to get the case of nuclear arms to be discussed in our parliament. The Mayors of Wassenaar (Hoekema), Vlaardingen (Blase), Maasluis (Karssen), Capelle aan den IJssel (Koen), Wageningen (Van Rumund), IJsselstein (Van den Brink) and Montfoort (Jansen) already signed this petition. We hope of course that this discussion will result in the prohibition of nuclear arms in our country. Dutch Mayors for Peace have an important role to play in getting as many citizens as possible to sign this petition. So far 23.000 signatures have been collected.
Burgemeester Koen en Blase
(Photo courtesy of Mr. Hans van Iterson)
Burgemeesters Jansen en Van den Brink
(Photo courtesy of Mr. Hans van Iterson)
Burgemeester Karssen
(Photo courtesy of Mr. Hans van Iterson)
Burgemeester van Rumund
(Photo courtesy of Mr. Hans van Iterson)
Burgemeester Hoekema and Herman Spanjaard
(Photo courtesy of Mr. Hans van Iterson)