Blackwell Reference Online

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In the spring of 1970 a countercultural group called the Kabouters (Dutch for “Gnomes”) launched a ludic electoral campaign that included many acts of mass absurdism and civil disobedience, non-violent sabotage, and symbolic, Utopian inversion/subversion in the Netherlands. An ideologically heterogeneous, loosely organized anarchist/environmental movement, the Kabouters were unified in their opposition to the Dutch capitalist, social-democratic system and its attendant paradigms, symbols, and rituals. They referred to their counter-institutions and people's meetings as the organs of the Orange Free State, a mythical, mystical, New Left fantasy-nation that had formed, and was meant to flourish, within the rotting body of the corrupt capitalist state. Ironically, though the movement was anti-parliamentarian, their electoral campaigns and their overall history were completely intertwined. In fact, the ebb and flow of Kabouter unity, power, and grassroots energy were reflected by their various showings at the polls. Though the Kabouters' accomplishments included the creation of an impressive array of non-electoral, grassroots, and egalitarian counter-institutions, the movement began with a municipal electoral campaign and ended with a campaign for the national parliament. This was a result of their innovative use of the electoral system as a central forum for their guerilla theater ... log in or subscribe to read full text