Van Duyn, one of the founders of the movement. A certain Buikhuiser published articles on the « blousons noirs», choosing the ,therm Provo to designate ail those who amused themselves by provoking fights and distur,bances. Af ter the appearance of the Provo poor Buikhuiser was forced to change ·his Provos into « Provems » from the ducht « nozems », blousons noirs. In may 1965 in Amsterdam some young people distributed a leaflet announcing the birth of the magazine, Provo. The first happenings around the « Liverdje », a statue of a « little boy smoking» presented to the city by a tobacco company (the statue was taken by the Provos to be a symbol of enslavement to consumerism) were brutally repressed by the police. The engagement and marriage of Princes Beatrice to Claus von Amsburg became an occasion for the Provos to denounce the ease with which the powerful •forgive themselves for their offences. Claus, in fact, had been accused of collaborationism with the Nazis. A year of provo-cations bore fruit, the Provo magazinè increased from five hundred to twenty thousand copies. Provo groups sprang up everywhere, in Belgium, Sweden, England, .the USA, ,as far as· Prague (where tliere were many arrests) and even to' the Dutch AnWles. In may 1969 the Dutch government sent 100 marines to the Antmes to re-estabUsh ordér. In 1967 the Amsterdam Provos voluntarily dissolved themselves . . The author (an ex-provo) suggests that ,to understand the phenomenon you have to base yourself above all on the magazines, manifestos, leaflets etc. produced. Provo actions'were improvised, based on the instant denuncia/.ion of the abuses of power. But the Provos did not limit themselves to denunciation, they proposed solutions: for instance, the white bicycle plan in order to salve traffic and pollution problems. The Provo movement died a long time ago in Belgium but the white bicycle idea is still alive. Provocations1 ,happenings, white plans, simple methods which captured people's imaginations. Often the passer-by would play an active role in the havpenings. There were many P.rovo magazines but their .publication was irregular. They took their character from the editorial ,group. Contents: news of new Provo groups, of international events, development of the themes of current happenings... to, explanation of how to prepare a smoke bomb. Theoretical articles (Bakunin, Kropotkin) were rare, facts, news, and a large amount of irony were frequent. The Provos did not have any absolute ideological line. Where there was disagreement about an action, only those who agreed about it, took part in it. On militarism, for -instance, there were different opinions, some believed in conscientious objection and some in struggling within the barracks. However, they all believed in traditional struggles: antistatism, federalism, etc... ToheProvos supported other forms of struggle, women's Uberation, defence of homosexuals, ecological campaigns, etc. It can be said that to the Provos' minds there was no alternative to desperate strug,gle except waiting for the total catastrophe ... atomic war. The only hope the Provos had was anarchism, but it had to be renovated to make it possible· to transmit it to young people. '48
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