View source for Provo (movement)

{{Short description|1960s Dutch countercultural movement}}
{{Use American English|date=February 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2025}}
{{More citations needed|date=June 2025}}
{{Other uses|Provo (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox organization
| name                     = Provo
| full_name                = 
| logo                     = LogoProvo.png
| image                    = Demonstratie in Amsterdam tegen het Amerikaans optreden in Vietnam. Provo Hans …, Bestanddeelnr 919-3639.jpg
| image_size               = 
| alt                      = 
| caption                  = Hans Tuynman is arrested during a provo protest in [[opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War]] in Amsterdam, 17 July 1966
| named_after              = {{lang|nl|Provoceren}}
| predecessor              = [[Nozem]]
| successor                = [[Kabouters]]
| formation                = {{start date and age|1965|05|25|df=y}}
| founders                 = {{Plainlist|
* [[Roel van Duijn]] 
* [[Robert Jasper Grootveld]]
* Garmt Kroeze
* Rob Stolk
}}
| dissolved                = {{end date and age|1967}}
| type                     = Political movement
| focus                    = 
| location_city            = 
| location_country         = 
| location_city2           = 
| location_country2        = 
| addnl_location_city      = 
| addnl_location_country   = 
| addnl_location_city2     = 
| addnl_location_country2  = 
| methods                  = [[Nonviolence]]
| fields                   = [[Anarchism]]
| key_people               = 
| publication              = ''Provo''
| footnotes                = 
| bodystyle                = 
}}
{{Anarchism sidebar |History}}

'''Provo''' was a Dutch [[counterculture]] [[cultural movement|movement]] in the mid-1960s that focused on provoking violent responses from authorities using non-violent bait. It was preceded by the [[nozem]] movement and followed by the [[hippie]] movement. Provo was founded, on 25 May 1965, by [[Robert Jasper Grootveld]], an anti-smoking activist, and the [[anarchists]] [[Roel van Duijn]] and Rob Stolk. The term was used for the movement as a whole and for individual members. Provo was officially disbanded on 13 May 1967.

==Magazine==
12 July 1965 the first ''Provo'' magazine was published. It contained the "Provo manifesto", written by Roel van Duijn, and reprinted recipes for bombs from a nineteenth-century anarchist pamphlet. The magazine was eventually confiscated.<ref>''[http://www.macba.cat/en/roel-van-duyn-provo Provo Magazine] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121217225427/http://www.macba.cat/en/roel-van-duyn-provo |date=2012-12-17 }}'' [[Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art|MACBA]]</ref>

In ''Provo'' #12, the magazine was described as

<blockquote>a monthly sheet for anarchists, provos, [[beatniks]], pleiners, scissors-grinders, jailbirds, simple [[Simeon Stylites|simon stylites]], magicians, [[pacifist]]s, potato-chip chaps, charlatans, philosophers, germ-carriers, grand masters of the queen's horse, happeners, [[vegetarian]]s, [[syndicalists]], santy clauses, kindergarten teachers, agitators, [[pyromaniac]]s, assistant assistants, scratchers and [[Syphilis|syphilitics]], secret police, and other riff-raff. Provo has something against [[capitalism]], [[communism]], [[fascism]], bureaucracy, [[militarism]], professionalism, [[dogmatism]], and [[authoritarianism]]. Provo has to choose between desperation, resistance and submissive extinction. Provo calls for resistance wherever possible. Provo realises that it will lose in the end, but it cannot pass up the chance to make at least one more heartfelt attempt to provoke society. Provo regards anarchy as the inspirational source of resistance. Provo wants to revive anarchy and teach it to the young. Provo is an image.</blockquote>

[[File:Manifest provocatie nummer 12, Bestanddeelnr 919-1450.jpg|thumb|The {{lang|nl|Manifest provokatie nr. 12}}, 12 May 1966. Held in the [[Nationaal Archief]]]]
==The White Plans==

The political wing of the Provos won a seat on the city council of [[Amsterdam]], and developed the "White Plans". The most famous of those is the "White Bicycle Plan", which aimed to improve Amsterdam's transport problem. Generally the plans sought to address social problems and make Amsterdam more liveable.{{citation needed|date=June 2025}}

List of the White Plans:

* '''White Bicycle Plan''': initiated by [[Luud Schimmelpenninck]], the plan proposed the closing of central Amsterdam to all motorised traffic, including motorbikes, with the intention of improving public transport frequency by more than 40% and to save two million [[Dutch guilder|guilders]] per year. Taxis were accepted as semi-public transport, but would have to be electrically powered and have a maximum speed of 25 m.p.h. The Provos proposed one of the first [[bicycle sharing system]]s: the municipality would buy 20,000 white bikes per year, which were to be public property and free for everybody to use. After the plans were rejected by the city authorities, the Provos decided to go ahead anyway. They painted 50 bikes white and left them on streets for public use. The police impounded the bikes, as they violated municipal law forbidding citizens to leave bikes without locking them. After the bikes had been returned to the Provos, they equipped them all with combination locks and painted the combinations on the bicycles. (The song "[[My White Bicycle]]" by the English [[psychedelia|psychedelic]] rock band [[Tomorrow (band)|Tomorrow]], later covered by [[Nazareth (band)|Nazareth]] and by [[Nigel Planer]], was inspired by the White Bicycle plan.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://members.tripod.com/pink_fairies/tomorrow.html |title=Tomorrow|first=John C. |last=Alder|website=members.tripod.com|access-date=25 September 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.officialcharts.com/artist/_/nazareth/ | title=UK Charts Nazareth | publisher=www.officialcharts.com | access-date=6 July 2014}}</ref>)
* '''White Chimney Plan''': proposed that air polluters be taxed and the chimneys of serious polluters be painted white.{{citation needed|date=June 2025}}
* '''White Women Plan''': proposed a network of clinics offering advice and [[contraceptives]], mainly for the benefit of women and girls, and with the intention to reduce unwanted pregnancies. The plan was for girls of sixteen to be invited to visit the clinic, and advocated for schools to teach [[sex education]]. The White Women Plan also argued that it is irresponsible to enter marriage as a virgin.{{citation needed|date=June 2025}}
* '''White Chicken Plan''': a proposal for the reorganization of the Amsterdam police (called "kip" in Dutch slang, meaning "chicken"). Under the plan, the police would be disarmed and placed under the jurisdiction of the [[gemeenteraad|municipal council]] rather than the [[burgemeester]] (mayor). Municipalities would then be able to democratically elect their own chief of police. The Provos intended for this revised structure to transform the police from guard to social worker.{{citation needed|date=June 2025}}
* '''White Housing Plan''': sought to address Amsterdam's acute housing problem by banning speculation in house building, and by promoting the [[squatting]] of empty buildings. The plan envisioned ''Waterlooplein'' as an open-air market and advocated abandoning plans for a new town hall.{{citation needed|date=June 2025}}
* '''White Kids Plan''': proposed shared parenting in groups of five couples. Parents would take turns to care for the group's children on a different day of the week.{{citation needed|date=June 2025}}
* '''White Victim Plan''': proposed that anyone having caused death while driving would have to build a warning memorial on the site of the traffic collision by carving the victim's outline one inch deep into the pavement and filling it with [[Mortar (masonry)|white mortar]].<ref name=autogenerated1>{{cite web |url=http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/21cc/counterculture/assaultonculture/provo/provo.html |title=Provo|website=www.bl.uk|access-date=25 September 2017}}</ref>
* '''White Car Plan''': a car-sharing project proposed by ''Schimmelpennink'' featuring electric cars which could be used by the people. It was later realised in a limited fashion as the [[Witkar]] system from 1974 until 1986.{{citation needed|date=June 2025}}

==End==
Tensions with the police peaked in June 1966, when the construction worker Jan Weggelaar died during a demonstration. A strike was called by construction workers and large numbers of workers and their sympathisers, including Provos, marched through Amsterdam. Demonstrators fought the police in the streets (on the Dam and Damrak) and attacked the offices and vehicles of ''De Telegraaf''.{{citation needed|date=June 2025}}

At the same time, the Provos participated in left-wing student protests against the [[Vietnam War]]. Demonstrations were banned, resulting in an increase in their size and popularity. The police responded with increasing force, and by mid-1966 hundreds of arrests were made every week. Police brutality led to increasing sympathy for the Provos and the anti-war demonstrators among the general public. An official investigation into the crisis was opened.{{citation needed|date=June 2025}}

These events eventually led to the dismissal of Amsterdam's police chief, H.&nbsp;J. van der Molen, in 1966 and the resignation of mayor [[Gijsbert van Hall]] in 1967. After van Hall had been removed, Grootveld and Rob Stolk (printer of ''Provo'' magazine) decided to end Provo. Stolk said:
"Provo has to disappear because all the Great Men that made us big have gone", a reference to Provo's two arch-enemies, Van Hall and Van der Molen.<ref name=autogenerated1 />

==Influence==
Many Provo groups emerged in other cities in Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and the US.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.provo-images.info/pamphlets.html|title=Provo Images|website=www.provo-images.info|access-date=25 September 2017}}</ref> [[Stockholm]] staged an anti-nuclear war [[happening]]/action under the name Provies.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.internationaltimes.it/archive/index.php?year=1967&volume=IT-Volume-1&issue=6&item=IT_1967-01-16_B-IT-Volume-1_Iss-6_003|title=IT06 - International Times Archive|website=www.internationaltimes.it| date = 16 January 1967 |access-date=25 September 2017}}</ref> In [[London]] a "Death and Rebirth of International Times" happening, after a police raid of the first UK underground paper, was seen as a Provo event.<ref>{{cite web | url =   http://www.internationaltimes.it/archive/index.php?year=1967&volume=IT-Volume-1&issue=10&item=IT_1967-03-13_B-IT-Volume-1_Iss-10_003 | title = IT10 - HALLUCINATIONS? SHAZAM! CAN FUZMAN STOP THE MENACE CALLED IT | date = 13 March 1967 | website = www.internationaltimes.it | publisher = Lovebooks Ltd | access-date = 8 April 2018 | quote = [[Mike Lesser]], part-owner of The Badge Boutique, took part in the ceremonies and was ecstatic about them! ''It is really happening here. The Provo scene is really happening here in London, with no leaders or nonsense like that.'' }}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Kabouters]]
*[[Orange Alternative]]
*[[Situationist International]]
*[[Witkar]]

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

== Further reading ==

{{refbegin}}

* {{Cite book |last1=Adlington |first1=Robert |title=Composing Dissent: Avant-garde Music in 1960s Amsterdam |date=2013 |language=en |isbn=978-0-19-998102-1 |publisher=Oxford University Press |df=mdy-all }}
* {{Cite book |last1=Batteau |first1=Jesseka M. |title=Literary Performances of Post-Religious Memory in the Netherlands: Gerard Reve, Jan Wolkers, Maarten 't Hart |date=2021 |language=en |isbn=978-90-04-47226-6 |publisher=BRILL |chapter=The Provo's: 1965–1967 |pages=58– |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5MtKEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA58 }}
* {{Cite book |last1=Kempton |first1=Richard |title=Provo: Amsterdam's Anarchist Revolt |date=2007 |isbn=978-1-57027-181-6 |publisher=Autonomedia |df=mdy-all }}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20120905075544/http://www.ghi-dc.org/files/publications/bu_supp/supp006/bus6_225.pdf Netherlands: The Second Liberation - Roel van Duijn - Becoming a Kabouter]

{{refend}}

==External links==

*[https://iisg.amsterdam/en/detail?id=https%3A%2F%2Fiisg.amsterdam%2Fid%2Fcollection%2FARCH02030 Provo Archives] {{in lang|nl}} at the ''[[International Institute of Social History]]''
*[http://www.iisg.nl/collections/provo/ A Dozen Souvenirs of Provo], images from the ''International Institute of Social History''
*[http://www.provo-images.info Collection of Provo pamphlets and magazines]

{{Culture jamming}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Provo (Movement)}}
[[Category:Anarchist movements]]
[[Category:Culture jamming]]
[[Category:Anarchism in the Netherlands]]
[[Category:Counterculture]]
[[Category:Counterculture of the 1960s]]
[[Category:Dutch youth culture]]
[[Category:1960s neologisms]]
[[Category:Political movements in the Netherlands]]
[[Category:1960s in Amsterdam]]