IL NOSTRO GREEN NEW DEAL
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GreenNewDeal Programma ITA
DIEM25: ELETTE ED ELETTI DI NC, CC E ALA ELETTORALE
Settembre comincia con il totale rinnovo del Collettivo Nazionale, dell’Ala Elettorale e del Coordinamento Collettivo Europeo. Ecco tutti i risultati!
IL NUOVO COLLETTIVO NAZIONALE ITALIANO
Dal 26 luglio sono stati eletti i 12 nuovi membri del Coordinamento Nazionale italiano, 10 donne e 2 uomini:
AGENDA: Alessandra Rossi (42%); Paola Banovaz (38%); Andrea Serra (35%) mentre tra i non eletti Raniero Bordon (34%), Stefano Lotti (33%) e Massimiliano Civili (19%)
COMUNICAZIONE: Patrizia Pozzo (48%); Martina Tarozzi (43%), Fabrizia Biondi (43%) mentre tra i non eletti Kosta Juri (33%), Ivan Alberto larosi (19%), Giuseppe Schermi (11%), Ferdinando Manzo (10%)
TERRITORIO: Stefania Romano (41%), Maria D’Onofrio (37%), Antonella Trocino (36%) mentre tra i non eletti Simone Careddu (33%), Angelo Amoroso D’Aragona (22%), Alessandro Seri (19%), Giampaolo Samblich (11%)
EVENTI: Giovanna Saboureault (45%), Claudia Cagnarini (42%), Enrico Caccin (35%) mentre tra i non eletti Edoardo scatto (35%) e Massimo Carola (18%)
LA NUOVA ALA ELETTORALE ITALIANA
Dal 29 agosto è ufficialmente eletta la nuova Ala Elettorale:
Paola Pietrandrea (54%), Eleonora Vasques ( 50%), Simona Ferlini (47%), Paola Urbinati (43%), Michele Fiorillo (40%). Veralisa Massari ( 39%), Alessandra Fata ( 33%), Vincenzo Fiore (32%), Giovanna Saboreault (31%), Paola Banovaz (29%), Stefano Spivach (29%), Piera Stefanini (29%), Paola Bristot (26%), Angelo Amoroso D’Aragona (26%), Stefano Lotti (25%).
A seguire ecco l’elenco dei candidati non eletti: Giuseppe Schermi (25%), Andrea Bellavite (23%), Alessandro Seri (21%), Lodovico Rella (21%),Matteo Contini (20%), Alessandro Scalise (20%), Ivan Alberto Larosi (19%), Agata Spallino (17%), Roberto Angrisani (15%), Antonio Zucaro (15%), Nicola Ricci (15%), Carlo Fontana (12%), Jacopo Tolija (11%), Giampaolo Sablich (8%)
IL NUOVO COORDINAMENTO COLLETTIVO
E infine ecco i risultati delle elezione per il Collettivo di Coordinamento Europeo:
Yanis Varoufakis (78%), Srecko Horvat (53%), Gianna Merki (37%), Simona Ferlini (35%), Erik Erdman (33%), Daniela Platsch (32%), Ivana Nenadovic (32%), Renata Avila (31%), Sissy Velissariou (31%), Agnieszka Dziemianowicz (30%), Mame Faye-Rexhepi (30%), Jordi Ayala Roqueta (29%).
Tra i non eletti: Costanza Sciubba Caniglia (29%), Rosanna Martens (27%), Fotini Bakadima (25%), Dolores Bajo Alonso (25%), Silvia Terribili (23%), Andrea Pisauro (22%), Jacques Terrenoire (22%), Eírini Mítsiou (21%), Eleonora Vasques (21%), Pawel Wargan (21%), Nikos Vakolidis (20%), Michele Fiorillo (20%), Nicolas Dessaux (19%), Brice Montagne (18%), Jochen (Joachim Hermann Leopold) Schult (17%), Rodanthi Aristea Bairaktari (17%), Aleksandar Novaković (14%), Germinal Pinalie (14%), Ioannis Manomenidis (13%), Christos Dellasoudas, Georgios Gokas (11%), Dimitris Gkomozias (10%).
Il lavoro da fare in Italia e in Europa è tanto, dunque … carpe diem!
We’re hiring! Communications Coordinator in Germany
If you’re a German-speaking communications professional with a passion for social change and radical progressive politics, we want to hear from you.
Working closely with DiEM25’s Communications Director and their team, you will help develop DiEM25’s communication strategy in the country, and will be responsible for implementing it.
DiEM25 backs campaign to halt EU Commission’s anti-privacy legislation
We are among over 100 civil society and professional organisations that have signed a letter to uphold privacy, security and free expression
As we enter an ever more digitalised world, it is crucial that fundamental rights like freedom of speech and privacy are upheld. Yet the European Commission’s latest proposal, which claims to combat child sex abuse, comes with far wider digital rights concerns.
If it were to pass, then Europe’s traditionally sturdy stance on privacy and end-to-end encryption would cease to exist.
That is why we are standing against the proposal, and we are in good company. DiEM25 is among the more than 100 civil society and professional organisations that have signed a letter to uphold privacy, security and free expression by withdrawing the proposed new law.
Through this new proposal, the European Commission would make it permissible for private companies – particularly untrustworthy tech giants – to go through their servers and look for potentially abusive material. This leaves obvious room for wider abuses of privacy with access to all forms of communication, and is in direct opposition to current European law on encryption.
“It is not possible to have private and secure communications whilst building in direct access for governments and companies,” the letter reads. “This will also open the door for all types of malicious actors. It is not possible to have a safe internet infrastructure which promotes free expression and autonomy if internet users can be subjected to generalised scanning and filtering, and denied anonymity.”
“The proposed CSA Regulation has made a political decision to consider scanning and surveillance technologies safe despite widespread expert opinion to the contrary. If passed, this law will turn the internet into a space that is dangerous for everyone’s privacy, security and free expression.1 This includes the very children that this legislation aims to protect.
“These rules will make social media companies liable for the private messages shared by their users. It will force providers to use risky and inaccurate tools in order to be in control of what all of us are typing and sharing at all times. The Impact Assessment accompanying the proposal encourages companies to deploy Client-Side Scanning to surveil their users despite recognising that service providers will be reluctant to do so over security concerns. This would constitute an unprecedented attack on our rights to private communications and the presumption of innocence.”
In recent years, the EU has fought to be a beacon of the human rights to privacy and data protection, setting a global standard. But with the proposed CSA Regulation, the European Commission has signalled a U-turn towards authoritarianism, control, and the destruction of online freedom. This will set a dangerous precedent for mass surveillance around the world.
DiEM25 supports Occupy: End Fossil Now campaign
DiEM25 is backing the Occupy: End Fossil Now campaign which is arranging a series of youth-led protests in the coming months to put an end to the use of fossil fuels.
Between September and December 2022, the movement will coordinate climate-conscious youths to ‘occupy’ schools and universities all over the world.
The goal of Occupy: End Fossil Now is to throw a spanner in the works of the system by ending the fossil economy on an international level.
“The youth movement has showed its strength over the last few years, but emissions keep increasing as time to act shortens. The climate justice movement has the power to change the world, and the youth movement has the power to end fossil now,” their website reads.
“The fossil fuel industry is one of the most important pillars of the system. If we dismantle it, we can lead the way to stop climate change and ensure a just transition for all peoples.
“We believe each group of society should mobilize where it can to build a mass climate justice movement that will win.
“Thus, we will use the spaces we have – schools and universities – to organise the change of the course of history. We will use these occupations to fight for our presents and futures, which are only possible through demanding the immediate end of fossil fuels.”
The group has highlighted three principles for those who want to organise protests.
With the climate crisis set to be detrimental to future generations above all, the first principle of these upcoming demonstrations is that they must be youth-led.
The second is defining the political framework behind these occupations, which is that of climate justice. The aim is to end fossils to achieve climate and social justice globally.
And finally, the third principle is to continue to occupy schools and universities, disrupting the normal functioning of society, until the local demand is met.
This push falls in line with our fight for climate justice in the form of a Green New Deal for Europe, where we urge for a transition away from fossil fuels that will protects frontline communities, empowers workers, and redresses Europe’s historic role in resource extraction around the world.
Tiny protest, big results
You think getting media coverage for your cause is hard. You think the media machine is working against your activist goals.
But it isn’t; it’s just optimised for something else. It’s a dumb machine, that cares mainly about its business: clicks and engagement.
The journalists themselves might not be sympathetic to your cause. But they are subordinate to the business side.
And with a little effort and moderate risk, you can get the machine to work for you.
Case in point: these guys.
What happened at the museum
Last Friday morning, two young climate activists glued their hands to the covering glass of a painting, in a prominent art museum in Florence. A third helped unroll a banner and took photos and video as a crowd gathered around the group. A freelance journalist was there, and also took photos.
The pair explained their actions to the crowd, and their two concrete demands.
Siamo ancora in tempo per salvarci, ma il #governo non agirà senza una fortissima spinta popolare. E’ il momento di smetterla con i combustibili fossili. Le alternative esistono!
Unitevi alla resistenza civile! pic.twitter.com/Q70V3ZMiRv— Ultima Generazione (@UltimaGenerazi1) July 22, 2022
The team were members of Ultima Generazione (Last Generation) in Italy, a climate action group specialising in civil disobedience tactics. The painting was Botticelli’s ‘Primavera’ (Spring), one of the most famous in the world.
It’s not clear how long the activists stood there, stuck to the glass, surrounded by people snapping them with phones. But at some point, a security guard leapt onto the scene. He ripped the activists’ hands from the glass, and dragged them along the floor before the crowd.
The two went limp, and continued to voice their demands. Police later removed them from the museum, and detained them to face charges.
The group released a statement explaining that they took great care not to damage the artwork. And they vowed to scale up their protests.
Content production
This modest action generated 32 pieces of coverage in legacy media in English alone, including the BBC, The Guardian and the Daily Mail (twice). And it was national news in Italy.
English-language coverage of the group’s action, via Google News.
As you might expect from legacy media, much of the coverage is about how narcissistic activist zealots staged a disruptive protest. And the social media commentary follows suit. Who do these kids think they are? Good on the guard for dragging them away!
Or: at least they didn’t damage the painting!
But look beyond the angry headlines and the vitriol, and in almost all the coverage you’ll see some elements that are helpful to the activists:
- The name of the group
- A concise summary of the activists’ messages on climate change. Including their slick quote “Is it possible today to see a spring like this?”, referring to the painting.
- The message that they took steps to ensure they didn’t damage the art. This is smart pre-emptive neutralisation; it communicates that they are thoughtful people, and not vandals.
- Photo/video of them doing the action, showing them as passionate and dedicated. It helps that the pair are photogenic.
- Photo/video of the establishment (represented by the security guard) dragging the young people away. To anyone who supports their cause, these images are evocative, and motivating to act.
- The message that the group is planning more actions
A security guard manhandles a young female activist, who is clearly not resisting. Images like these, while distasteful, help the group’s cause.
Content distribution
90% of those who read this coverage probably will just click and move on.
But the group isn’t aiming at them. It’s targeting people who may be sympathetic to its cause. And at this stage in its evolution, I suspect what it needs is to recruit activists and generate funding.
Social media algorithms put things in front of you that make you mad, so you engage more with their platforms. People share content on their timelines that they find objectionable, so they can invite their tribe to ridicule it with them.
And so, there’s a good chance some of this coverage could land in your feed.
If the article makes you curious about this group, with one Google search you will be on their site.
Want to give them some loose support? They make it easy to donate. Want to find out more? There’s a video presentation. Want to go further and join them? With one click you can join their organising zoom call. Or sign up for an in-person talk.
(I interviewed a spokesperson from Last Generation before the summer break. This PR and member engagement path isn’t random — the group is very strategic. The interview will be out soon.)
And a week from now, you can be trained up and ready to act in your city for the cause.
To reach you with its messages, the group only needed three people willing to get arrested, and a tub of glue.
Small effort. Moderate risk. High reward.
* * *
Of course there’s a point where too much negative coverage can harm your cause. But in a clash with a much stronger power, if you’re risk-averse, you’ve already lost.
This was first published on the Subvrt activist newsletter. Your constructive feedback is welcome: Twitter or email.
Erik Edman: Greek coast guard approached migrants in war mode
DiEM25’s political director recounted things he witnessed during his time in the Greek military that now make far more sense to him given the revelations of the Forensic Architecture/Forensis investigation
The shocking investigation by Forensic Architecture/Forensis exposed the systematic campaign of violent expulsions of migrants trying to get to Europe.
The Greek Coast Guard and FRONTEX were at the heart of an operation that saw over 27,000 migrants pushed back while trying to cross the Mediterranean within the last two years, leaving them to die in the sea.
While unaware of the extent of what was occurring at the time, DiEM25’s political director, Erik Edman, gave an insight into some of the things he witnessed during his time serving in the Greek military that now make far more sense to him given the revelations of the investigation.
Erik recalls how the Greek coast guard would be out on patrols in full military gear in warlike mode, while the details of the operations were kept behind closed circles.
“About this time last year I was doing my military service and I was stationed on one of the islands just off the coast of Turkey, so right on the border,” Erik began, during DiEM25’s panel discussion on the matter of illegal pushbacks.
“My left wing credentials were well known before I arrived so I wasn’t given responsibilities that might be crucial for the dealing of “illegal migrants” as they are referred to on the border.
“So I wasn’t responsible for taking care of radars in the middle of the night, or being up where the radars were. I was always down at the headquarters together with the officers but there were times at night when I was the only person there at the headquarters. And we used to share a building with the coast guard of that island.
“Without giving too many details, very close to where I was stationed doing my night shift… I was in the room of the special operations of the coast guard for that island. And they were every night kitted out for war: they wore bullet proof vests, they had machine guns, they had night vision goggles, they were not a coast guard – they looked every bit the part of a special forces units, and they would go out every night on patrol.
“And of course our job, being armed forces, was to not interfere with anything that we identified unless we thought it was armed forces from the other side, from Turkey, but if it’s anything else you pass on information to the coast guard – that’s where your responsibility ends.
Military service is mandatory in Greece. So last year @edmantweet, @DiEM_25‘s Political Director, went and did it.
Here’s his first-hand account of Greece’s involvement in illegal pushbacks, and why it’s crucial for people to call out their governments for carrying out crimes. pic.twitter.com/Kon0g88Zfv
— DiEM25 (@DiEM_25) July 29, 2022
“So seeing this report, I know now that on the island I was stationed, over 100 illegal pushbacks were conducted. And I have to think, how many of those are cases that were called in while I was doing my shift?
“It’s a very weird feeling because it doesn’t matter who you are, it doesn’t matter where you stand on the political spectrum, when your government is doing these things you are an accomplice. And there are different levels of being an accomplice.
“When I was there [in the army] I was more of an accomplice than somebody on the other side of the country minding their own business because I was part of the defence mechanism that is used and weaponised against these people.
“Sometimes you see them come back having rescued people at sea and you think maybe it’s not as bad as you think – and that’s the insidious thing, that your humanity and your mind always urges you to think that it’s not as bad as you think it is, because it helps you sleep at night. It’s easier to put your mind at rest about what government you have, what elected politicians you have, who represents the country, what these people do in your name, at our borders or wherever else.
“The good news is mixed with the bad news and we try to focus on the good to water down the bad news.
“My point that I’m trying to make is that while these governments are in place, we’re all accomplices because this is being done in our names.”
Listen to Erik’s segment from our live panel discussion here:
Civil liberties in Greece are reserved for the elites
The Greek government’s atrocious legal and human rights record is continuously burdened with new cases of authoritarian and inhumane decisions by those in power, and the legal system which they orchestrate.
It’s only been a few days since the rapist of underaged children Dimitris Lignadis (an actor chosen by the Mitsotakis government to direct the country’s national theatre) was set free, despite being found guilty of two counts of rape. It’s only a couple of weeks since the police officer, Epaminondas Korkoneas, who shot and killed 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos in 2008 – sparking social unrest which eventually contributed to the birth of the Greek Indignados movement – was allowed to walk free. No justice for the victims of those who serve the state, and the elites who rule it.
On the other hand, there are cases such as that of Yiannis Michailidis, an anarchist who has served more than 3/5 of his 20-year sentence, which according to Greek law makes him eligible for conditional parole. However, the courts stubbornly refuse to recognise his right, which has led him to a hunger strike that is now on its 67th day. A final decision on his appeal was announced earlier this morning, declining once again to recognise his right for parole, thus essentially condemning Michailidis to death.
The case has also drawn the attention of international organisations, such as Amnesty International, who have called upon the Greek state to release Michailidis. Their call falls on deaf ears, or rather deeply classist and nepotistic New Democracy ears, who bend and twist the law anyway that suits them, their cronies, and their ever-more extreme right-wing audience.
Michailidis’ case is indicative of the slippery slope Greece has been on since the election of Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ New Democracy party in 2019, and just how far down that slope Greece has slid. From the murder of refugees on the border with Turkey and the silencing of the media – which has landed the country last in the EU’s freedom of speech rankings – to the authoritarian way in which the legal system is being used to safeguard their allies and punish those who oppose them.
Mitsotakis is waging a full-blown class war in Greece. A policy that this EU-golden-boy is fully supported in pursuing by the EU establishment, which has its fair share of the blame for what this austerity-torn nation has become.
DiEM25 and MeRA25, our political party in Greece, will be joining hundreds of thousands of people in Athens, Thessaloniki, Patra and across all major cities of the country to demand that the court decision is overturned and Yiannis Michailidis is allowed to live!
EU Commission plans to end encryption and make Big Tech the gatekeeper
The European Commission is dressing up its latest attempt to end encryption under the guise of protection against child sexual abuse material.
The European Commission has proposed legislation that would essentially spell the end of personal privacy online and end-to-end encryption.
While dressed as a method to combat the proliferation of child sexual abuse material online, the proposal would hand tech giants like Meta and Apple access to users’ images and messages, opening the door for far wider reaching surveillance system.
Under the proposal, the Commission has outlined the requirement for private companies to scour their servers for abusive material and report them to relevant authorities. Not only would this leave massive room for error due to the magnitude of data that companies would have to sieve through, but also for wider abuses of privacy with access to all forms of communication.
Allowing any authority access to private communications should be deemed unacceptable but handing that ability to notoriously untrustworthy Big Tech companies is like letting the fox guard the henhouse.
Yet as preposterous as such an idea sounds, it can come as no surprise when looking at just how much influence Big Tech wields inside European institutions. Lobbying is legalised bribery and when it comes to this particular tactic, no sector does it quite like the tech giants.
Big Tech lobbying continues to increase
Europe’s once proudly strong safeguards on data protection have been gradually eroded precisely by these companies, who have lobbied relentlessly to intrude further and further into the public’s digital space.
This has resulted in a shift of power that now sees these tech giants sway the laws and regulations into their favour, prising power from EU states.
Apple, which will play a prominent role in ‘assisting’ the EU in this latest proposal, being one of the two global mobile operating systems, has increased its lobbying expenditure by 900 percent in less than a decade. From 700,000 euros spent in 2013 on lobbying EU institutions, that figure reached 7 million in 2021. And from having zero lobbyists with European Parliament accreditation working on the company’s causes in 2013, it now employs eight on a full-time basis.
It is no mere coincidence that this proposal eerily resembles the very plan that Apple sought to implement less than a year ago, before it was struck down due to privacy concerns.
Now it is back, rebranded, and with the support of the European Commission.
Not the first EU attempt to end encryption
The desire from certain sections of European institutions to bring an end to encryption is nothing new. The bloc’s most powerful and influential states, France and Germany, jointly pushed for this under the guise of terrorism prevention in 2016, while an internal draft document from the Council of the European Union outlined plans to do the same on the back of the 2020 Vienna terrorist attack.
Before, it was due to ‘counter-terrorism’ efforts, today it is to prevent ‘child abuse’, tomorrow it will be to combat ‘Russian disinformation’ or ‘COVID-19 sceptics’. But no matter how it is dressed, it will always be to strip citizens of their right to digital privacy, as has long been the objective.
Like many of the Commission’s proposals, what sounds like a well-intended plan on the surface is yet another ruse to further intrude on individual privacy.
Following EU practices and other eco-myths
On World Nature Conservation Day, Dusan Pajovic provides a timely reminder that, when it comes to environmental policies, the EU and its institutions must mediate this process through citizens’ assemblies and activists, instead of leaving it to careerists and lobbyists
Countries like Belgium, France, Germany and Sweden are promised lands for almost every Balkan man and woman. It’s a shame that those countries are where they are because they were based and survived on torture, forced labour and/or the sale of weapons used to conquer territories. Many of them still keep their shackles around the countries of the Global South through public debt and the monetary zone that binds African currencies to the euro and ‘Western’ banks. The Global South is responsible for all the Teslas and other ‘fancy’ electric cars, but gets almost nothing from it. Let’s say, lithium is mostly mined in the Global South, so that white hands don’t get dirty and their land polluted. Because of this, countries like Chile and Argentina suffer from the destruction of fertile soil, water pollution and increased incidence of respiratory problems; thereby perpetuating systemic racism and neo-colonialism.
The European Commission announced the approval of gas and nuclear energy as green energy sources. I guess it doesn’t matter that nuclear energy is dangerous, unreliable, and requires the maximum engagement of services and massive monitoring of citizens, just as it doesn’t matter that civilian nuclear energy programs are the first step towards making nuclear weapons. And who cares that gas, as a fossil fuel, should be coloured green? Although gas inevitably releases methane during drilling, extraction and transportation, which according to the most conservative estimates is at least 25 times more harmful to the environment than carbon dioxide.
Our politicians, intellectuals and activists say that we should strive for it. We should listen to Emmanuel Macron and Ursula von der Layen, not us southern Slavs “with an IQ of 86”. They are so smart and emancipated that the interference and direct financing of politicians is called lobbying, not bribery and corruption as with us, wilder tribes.
Those ‘emancipated’ and ‘environmentally responsible’ G20 countries have given over three trillion euros in subsidies to fossil fuel industries since the Paris Agreement, while 15 European Union members regularly subsidise the same industries more than renewable energy sources. And if you’re wondering where the huge amount of money you pay for monthly electricity and heating bills goes, it’s worth noting that oil and gas companies are breaking all records, and this year they will make a net profit of 834 billion euros. Additionally, they actively oppose the ban on diesel and gasoline.
Why? Well, because the EC President, Von der Leyen, is negotiating a “green transition” with the directors of Shell, E.ON and other leading companies in the fossil fuel industry. Similar to my country, Montenegro, irresponsible citizens and their lack of education are collectively blamed by those oligarchs for slow changes and devastation of the environment.
Considering the credibility of the EC, I have no doubt that there is someone who will show them what the real environmental problems are, but I’m not sure when it comes to our Balkan politicians. Well, they get all the education on this topic from the EC – which doesn’t want a change of the status quo – or from the European Greens, whose prominent members approve the coalition’s decision to direct 100 billion euros towards militarisation. Apart from noting that they will probably use that money to invade again in the name of the aforementioned companies, it’s important to say that the army is not at all eco-friendly. Only the American military industry damages the environment more than many countries, including Sweden, Norway, Peru and others. While the brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine, in addition to human lives, took away biodiversity and a large amount of clean water, polluting the air and risking a ‘new Chernobyl’.
The Montenegrin economy wasn’t destroyed by IQ 86 people although our current prime minister claims so. The economy was destroyed by the arrogance, personal interests and ignorance of politicians and people in power. That said, the last nail in the coffin of the ecological state itself, and of Europe, won’t be the behavior of citizens, but the conviction of decision makers that the climate crisis can be solved by cycling and tin straws. I can easily imagine how our political “elite” order the most expensive fish dishes or steaks in their favorite restaurant, while telling the waiter that they don’t want a straw – to save the planet. Gentlemen, politicians and dear activists, waste from fishing nets alone makes up as much as 46% of all waste in the Pacific Ocean, while straws make up only 0.025% of plastic waste in the world’s oceans. On the other hand, animal agriculture accounts for at least 32% of global methane emissions.
In addition, only 100 companies having monopoly power emit 71% of all greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. Yes, the same companies they’d rush to give tax facilities and present them as messianic “foreign investors” who create jobs. Fast fashion, the opening of which you celebrate with red ribbons, is responsible for more pollution than all the cars in the world, while tourism, on which you rely heavily, contributes 8% of global gas emissions.
Dear Balkan ‘elite’, don’t mention IQ as a ‘scientific’ concept. Because that’s the only way you can compare yourself to the aforementioned countries, which, in the distant past, used IQ to justify their imperialist and colonial activities. So, by using that narrative, they wanted to win and oppress, and you want to make yourselves rich and stay in power despite failures. But your knowledge about ecology is the same as about IQ, which modern psychology does not see as relevant data.
In Davos, for a change, instead of toasting to our low IQ, collectively agree that you will leave the management of society to society itself. Because those same powerful people haven’t managed to solve problems for decades, but they rather create and continue to reproduce them.
Leave municipal, state, regional and global networking to us through citizens’ assemblies and harmonising political measures with scientific consensus. I assure you that we will have success. You will lose privileges in the process, but you will gain the entire planet. Your descendants’ yacht cruise around submerged Bangladesh will not save them from the avalanche of prehistoric bacteria that will be released by melting glaciers due to global warming.
The EU and its institutions must mediate this process, instead of being a place for careerists and well-paid lobbyists.
Thus, although the EU should not be the current model, it must be the model we should strive for because the alternatives are much worse. Unity and solidarity, the original ideas of the Union, are very necessary. Neither big-state projects like Open Balkans, nor Russia nor China will help in the greening or democratisation of the Balkans, while the EU, for example, could. The western Balkan countries must strive for EU membership so that they may further democratise it along with other progressive forces. Considering that we all share the same planet, we must continue to cooperate with other countries of the Global North, and the South as well, and pay them reparation compensation, relieve them of their debts and so on. The upcoming generation knows how. Not oligarchs who like top-down command, but horizontally organized citizens, scientists and activists. They just need a chance.
A day in Bremen: Prosperity for the many instead of wealth for the few
This past weekend, activists from MERA25 and DiEM25 in Germany met for a day of workshops and an evening event in Bremen that was both militant and loving
We think Germany is at a crossroads: the government has decided in favour of American, Qatari and Azerbaijani gas and against a green transformation. The government bends and twists its morals while the climate continues to collapse. At the same time, prices keep rising. The government refuses to take any action to improve the economic situation. Instead, it imposes austerity. DiEM25 is needed now more than ever, because we connect the political struggles of people from all over Europe.
We have learned a great lesson from Occupy Wall Street and the Indignados, that demonstrating in the streets is not enough. We don’t have time to influence those who have brought us to the brink of the apocalypse: We have to replace them. That is why we are founding MERA25 all over Europe.
Erik Edman, political coordinator of DiEM25, was a guest. In his speech, he emphasised one of our most important principles.
“There is no fight between the North and the South, but between the citizens and those who try to impoverish and oppress them,” he stated.
The local level is as important as the international level because the problems are interconnected in the system we live in. We have to start everywhere, and that’s why our weekend was so important: people all over the continent looked to Bremen!
Our work towards the 2023 parliamentary elections in Bremen
Throughout the day we worked on our vision of how a Bremen for the many can look concretely in areas such as energy supply, education, work, health and culture. Because unlike others, we develop programmes together with those who join us: With a view to next year’s parliamentary elections, we are not just fighting against what is not possible, but also for what is possible.
In the evening, we had the Bremen Unemployed Association, the activists of Letzte Generation, the Bündnis Menschenrecht auf Wohnen and the citizens’ initiative Platanen am Deich as guests. Many of our guests’ goals are also ours, because we too know that new investments in fossil energies are the wrong way to go, that housing vacancies must be ended and trees must be preserved. We too are against rising prices and demand that prices go down.
We stand together against politicians like Sigmar Gabriel or Christian Lindner who predict hard times for us because they have no idea that times have never been easy for us in a society where the few have too much and the many too little.
For us, getting to the root of the problem with a radical financial policy means, as Vincent Welsch emphasised at his workshop, that it’s “time to finally solve the problem of too little investment by reforming the monetary system! Among other things, monetary policy decisions belong under public control”.
Many thanks to our MERA25 Bremen team, to all our guests, to the band Seelefant and to a great audience for a successful, combative and loving day.
Our conclusion: prosperity for the many instead of wealth for the few is possible, and not a utopia.
It is important to always remember the following: All social and economic conditions are made by people and can therefore be changed by people. That is what we stand for. We want to do this not only for you – but with you! Because change never comes from above. Will you join us? Become a MERA25 member here!