Thanks for the tips about the PKT list. I'll search through the archives.
Quickly, Dennis: There were about 60,000 people in Amsterdam for the big march against the EU. The French unions were probably the best represented, but people came from all over: from Africa and Eastern Europe as well as the EU countries.
The march was preceded by a week of symposia organized by the Dutch "Toward a Different Europe" coalition and the University of Amsterdam. Two views on the Eurostate emerged at these events. One, held mostly by folks on-the-ground, called for a complete rejection of the Union. The second, favored by some academics, advocated a "different" EU, with an expanded role for the European parliament and a more activist stance /vis a vis/ the world economy. It was thought that a united Europe with democratic institutions would have greater leverage, and might have a better chance to preserve the welfare state.
The European Commission gave Amsterdam a sobriquet for their meeting-- "The Capital of Inspiration." The Netherland's biggest daily, /Het Parool/, printed a full-page ad for the summit; the new slogan was reprinted under a marijuana leaf. There were drug protests, punk protests (the Autonomen showed up), gay protests, squatter protests, and one where women pissed on the street to protest Amsterdam's lack of female facilities (men go in the canals).
There was an interesting meeting one evening at the Old Church. The official program was hijacked by a Spanish faction that wanted to promote the upcoming Zapatista project, the Second Intercontinental Meeting for Humanity and against Neoliberalism. Not that it wasn't a good cause-- but when they started ranting into the mikes I felt that dread that Doug mentioned in his post about the Remy event: the incoherence and pathology of the Q&A period at Left meetings. The people running the event surprised me, though. They asked for a show of hands. How many people present wanted to talk about the Zapatista event? When the vote came back in favor of the Spanish faction, they ceded the floor. Something about that seemed typical of European democracy. It warmed me.
Hank Sims