On the Waterfront 49
Presentation: Huub Sanders on 90 years of IISH
Collection highlights and new acquisitions:
- the CNT photo archive from the Spanish Civil War
- Projekt Artur, a 1987 film project about radical left-wing movements in West-Germany
- the archive of the Committee of Moroccan Workers in the Netherlands (Komitee Marokkaanse Arbeiders in Nederland; KMAN)
- the international photo collection of the Participating Artists’ Press Agency (PAPA)
On the Waterfront: newsletter of the friends of the IISH
Authors: Aad Blok
Place of publication: Amsterdam
Year: 2025 / Issue: 49 / Format: 16 pp.
The past year has seen the institute celebrate its ninetieth birthday in various ways. The celebrations for this anniversary kicked off with the Friends’ Meeting on 26 June 2025. Although usually considered a particularly significant anniversary milestone, Leo Lucassen’s speech at the dinner for the iish Foundation’s Supervisory Board and other stakeholders on 21 October 2025 made it clear that current events in the Netherlands and around the world provide ample reason to draw parallels with the situation in and outside the Netherlands in 1935: ‘The current situation in which trade union members, environmental activists, women’s rights advocates, fighters against discrimination and racism, and democratic politicians around the world are fighting against the depletion of natural resources, man-made climate change, social and gender inequality, rising racism and fascism, and the oppression of political opponents on all continents, unfortunately bears an alarming resemblance to that of ninety years ago.’ This demonstrates that the iish’s work of collecting, documenting, making accessible and studying organisations and individuals who oppose oppression, injustice, and inequality is just as relevant today as it was when the institute was founded.
The kick-off on Friends Day on 26 June consisted of a presentation by Huub Sanders, former coordinator of the Friends and author of the history of the institute from its foundation until 1989, Het virus der betrokkenheid (The Virus of Engagement). As the summary of his presentation shows, he continued this history up to the present day, using the same triangular model of internal and external forces influencing the development of the IISH to outline the general trends of engagement and rescuing endangered materials.
Both trends are clearly visible in the presentation of collections and new acquisitions, including presentations by Almudena Rubio on the CNT photo archive; Bence Meijer on a collection of video footage from a 1987 film project about radical left-wing movements in West-Germany; Hawra Nissi on the archive of the Committee of Moroccan Workers in the Netherlands (Komitee Marokkaanse Arbeiders in Nederland; KMAN); and Lino Hellings on the Participating Artists’ Press Agency (PAPA).
With these presentations, the issue aptly reflects ninety years of the IISH’s history.
Aad Blok
