A demonstrator on the bridge in Damstraat facing a riot squad during the disturbances on 30 April, 1980.
The engagement (1965) and marriage (1966) of Princess Beatrix and Claus von Amsberg (1926–2002) offered the Provo movement a golden opportunity to air their grievances. Although the Provos rarely matched deed to word, the royal couple’s procession through the streets of Amsterdam to the Palace was disrupted by riots and the fumes of a smoke bomb.17 From then on, the National Monument in Dam Square was the place for sit-ins, sleep-ins and other forms of peaceful protest. In 1970 a group of marines took it upon themselves to sweep the Dam clean. Their action proved successful. The tourists, hippies and student ‘dissidents’ who used to gather in the square packed up their sleeping bags and decamped to Vondel Park. This was also the heyday of the squatters’ movement, when protesters occupied vacant or derelict buildings to draw attention to Amsterdam’s housing shortage. More militant demonstrations marred the solemnities and celebrations surrounding the investiture of Queen Beatrix on 30 April 1980, with squatters jeering and the Provos threatening to ‘flood Dam Square off the face of the earth’.18 The police responded by cordoning off the square. Though this was not enough to prevent serious disturbances in the Dam and other parts of the city, the investiture proceeded smoothly. There was some consternation when a surveillance helicopter observed rioters approaching the square
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Pagina 44: Koningin Wilhelmina en Sir Winston Churchill op het balkon van het Koninklijk Paleis Amsterdam, 1948. Page 44: Queen Wilhelmina and Sir Winston Churchill on the balcony of the Royal Palace Amsterdam, 1948.
and Dam Square
surveillance by the authorities, proclaimed their own ‘Orange Free State’ – ‘freedom, good vibes’ – and launched their famous white bicycle project. Many of their demonstrations culminated in clashes with the police and occasionally unleashed excessive violence.