It is easy to forget how dependent of the individual politics is. It is even easier when everything goes as it should go. Yet now and then people goes away. Only then is when we come to think, if we take the time to do so, how that one person that is suddenly gone, did change what we did yesterday, did maintain all those changes on the rails, did make this wonderful today possible.
In a political party like this GroenLinks of my love and my penance, the comings and goings of people are almost painful. Because we have realized, as a straightforward conclusion of our ideology, that politicians should not be politicians for ever. Even our elected positions, in the parliaments, are not meant to take more than three terms. And yet, there are so many cases of individuals that have created a great thing out of nothing, that their leaving feels like a tragedy.
There are cases where the persons that left did manage to create structures that survive their departure. An excellent example of that is Lot van Hooijdonk. Lot arrived as member of the board of GroenLinks Utrecht when that board was about three persons and had little or no oversight of Utrecht politics nor of party dynamics. When Lot left, a few years later, a board of 10 persons was not only established and fully functioning, but literature have been written to document all changes and a collaborative relation was established between elected politicians, members of the local government and party members. In a party like GroenLinks Utrecht, with great and stubborn politicians and not so great and perhaps more stubborn members (like me) it is hard to overstate the achievement of making and keeping all these people collaborating. Another example is the work of Bas Eickout as chair of the Europe workgroup, broadly recognized as a moment in which not only the working group established itself as a valuable meeting point for elected politicians and party members, but created and maintained initiatives that actively transformed not only the way GroenLinks looked to Europe, but even the European Green Party itself. On both cases, if only for a while, when Lot and Bas moved on there was the shared doubt… what are we going to do now?
So that is why I write now, not only to belatedly recognize the work of Lot and Bas… but now that the chair of the diversity workgroup has decided to move on. Now that I feel, once more, between the sword of hating see a great chairman leaving and the wall of recognizing that he should go, if he wants so. It is so good that people move on and I so bloody hate people moving on!
Now, Luc. Luc arrived a couple of years ago, in a moment that one of the many incarnations of the diversity workgroup was dying. We started a year before, tried two of three activities, with medium success…. and we saw no way forward. The party board had expectations that we neither could or wan’t to fulfill, acting politicians refused our attempts to contact them, and gone politicians that we interviewed painted a fairly depressive landscape of the “multicultural question” in GroenLinks. Luc showed up right then, because he wanted to become a member of our workgroup. We sort of tried to shake him off. But he was unshakable. He insisted, and when we did not answer anymore, trying to move on to more productive enterprises, he convinced the party board of getting all of us together. So we did, explained our circumstances, and promised our support… we being like two persons. Two persons and Luc, that is.
Fast forward to today, about one and a half year later. The workgroup passed from 3 to 15 members. We build together a 3 year plan, unique in the history of groenlinks utrecht workgroups. More interestingly, we are implementing it. Our voice was heard in the making of the election program, and there is a working, even if starting, relation with the newly elected politicians. There is more to say, but you reader get the idea. Luc did not do all this. But Luc made all this possible.
Obviously, just like with Bas and with Lot before, I wonder. I wonder if this entity, co-created with the intelligence, the emotions and the free time of Luc will survive. Nobody knows the answer. We all are going to try, of course. But let it be said loud and clear. Luc will be missed. And I am grateful, really grateful, for those capable managers that have made possible the GroenLinks of today. Among them, I’m grateful to Luc.
Fare well, dear Luc. Fair winds and open skies in wherever new sea you decide to fare. Here, at this shore, I’m thankful for what you helped us to become.
