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Police brutality escalates in Greece

Pubblicato di & inserito in Articles.

MeRA25 calls for common action from left-wing parties to protect citizens and defend Democracy.

On Sunday afternoon, a family with small children sitting in a square in the Athens suburb of Nea Smirni were fined by motorcycle police for breaking lockdown restrictions. Having followed the rules that require sending an SMS notification before going out for a walk, the parents protested that they just took a few minutes to rest in the square. When a bystander spoke in support of the family, the police brutally beat him up and called for backup. More motorcycle police showed up and started terrorizing citizens indiscriminately.

Mainstream media initially adopted the police’s version of events, according to which the incident was preceded by “officers conducting lockdown checks being violently attacked by 30 anarchists”. This false narrative collapsed when another video surfaced, showing the victim of police brutality being singled out and apprehended for no apparent reason.

Later on that night, police using tear gas and stun grenades broke up a spontaneous march through the Nea Smirni neighbourhood in the aftermath of that event.

MeRA25 has already warned of escalating state authoritarianism and “the Orbanisation of Greece” through the gradual transformation of Greek democracy into a dictatorship under a parliamentary cloak.

These cautionary statements followed the blatantly unconstitutional restriction on the free movement of MPs by police and the stripping of a MeRA25 MP’s immunity from prosecution for criticizing the police in a parliamentary speech.

While MeRA25 rejects the prospect of entering any coalition government that does not openly strive to rid Greece of debt slavery, it believes that wider democratic alliances are necessary to combat the slide towards authoritarianism. Last night, Yanis Varoufakis made an appeal to KKE (Communist Party of Greece) and Syriza (The Coalition of the Radical Left – Progressive Alliance) for common action to protect Democracy and citizens from the Mitsotakis – Chrysochoidis government:

“In light of the escalation of state repression that is now threatening Democracy and leaves citizens unprotected from the praetorians of Mitsotakis-Chrysochoidis, MeRA25 calls on KKE and Syriza to undertake common action to defend Democracy and the citizens. It is inconceivable if, at such a critical juncture, we are not able to coordinate our actions in favour of democratic legitimacy.”

Rising authoritarianism under the pretext of combatting the pandemic is occurring worldwide.

In Greece it is unashamedly employed in order to contain the popular discontent arising from the government’s complete failure to protect citizens from the health and economic fallout. The fact that police continue to be fast-track hired and enter service after less than a month’s training, while no doctors have been hired for the National Health System, speaks volumes about the government’s intentions.

Photo: March against police brutality in Greece. The banner reads “Cops out of our neighbourhoods – Open Assembly of Residents”.

Photo Source: The Press Project. 

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Bomb back better: Biden breaks progressives’ short lived illusion

Pubblicato di & inserito in Articles, Opinion.

Syria once again fulfills its function of battleground and release-valve for global conflicts

Progressive hope for Biden’s presidency has been revealed to be a short-lived post-Trump illusion. The Biden-Harris administration’s first month in office culminated in what POTUS justified as “self defence”: targeted bombings in Syria aiming to punish militias sympathetic to, or allied with Iran for having clashed with the continuing US military presence in Iraq. Shia militias Kata’ib Hezbollah and Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq announced an ultimatum: they will target US military bases until they exit Iraq. The world’s major superpower does not take kindly to ultimatums.

Biden did not only ambush Shia militias: he also mousetrapped his own constituents in the US United States Congress. Progressive California congressman Ro Khanna, long-standing opponent of US interventionism in Syria, decried the unconstitutional act. According to the antiwar organisation “Win Without War,” four successive US presidents have abused the congressional national security authorisations (AUMFs) passed after 9/11.

Biden campaigned on the appeal of a post-Trump adrenaline-reduction — a few uneventful, breather-years for North Americans. But last Friday’s sudden rogue gesture seemed a dress rehearsal of Trump-era antics, supervening US Congress before undertaking drastic, bellicose operations.

Flippantly, Biden explained the anti-Constitutional killing of 22 in Syria as a national emergency, after conflagrations between the continuous US occupying forces in Iraq and local, Iran-linked militias killed a US private defence contractor in Erbil, a Kurdish capital.

Despite sane indignation from exceptional figures like Ro Khanna — who stands out in contrast to the sadly no-longer surprising silence of progressive figurehead Alexandria Ocasio Cortéz — little debate ensued as to why US forces are still in Iraq. Cortéz’ twitter-feed, as well as her “offline” activity during recent bombings kept to domestic issues such as the stimulus checks debacle, suggesting that Democrat progressives, after capitulating to the Biden-Clintonite establishment, largely remain cautious not to be falsely associated with Assadism, Venezuela or other convenient bugbears.

An easy justification would be the need to monitor whether Isil is about to crawl back out of the crevices — Daesh extremist propaganda still thrives. But Iraqi parliament, sovereign only in name, has decided it does not need or want an armed US presence. The Iraqi judiciary has meanwhile issued an arrest warrant for al-Askari, an Iraqi Kata’ib Hezbollah member who threatened the Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi. Apparently, the Iraqi authorities’ confidence that they can handle the problem of Kata’ib has alarmed those with vested interests in continuous US defense-contracting in Mesopotamia.

Official visits by Iranian officials like Qasem Soleimani had seemed part of a reconciliation process toward welcome cooperation between the two neighbouring countries that once waged the long Iran-Iraq war. Sparked by US-executed dictator Saddam Hussein’s US-backed invasion, it redefined the 1980s as “the Middle Eastern World War 1”.

By 2020, US operatives in Iraq seemed ever more anachronistic, after the infamy of Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo’s drone-assassination of Qasem Soleimani

Here’s a case of foreign policy déjà vu: after the Soleimani death-spectacle, Trump similarly announced American forces in Iraq will not timidly accept “bullying” or being “pushed around” by local rascals on territory Washington vowed to disentangle itself from for over a decade.

Biden didn’t ostentatiously tweet American flags moments after the strikes — yet such symbolic differences are but matters of taste. Most significant among otherwise minor distinctions between Biden’s volatile, convoluted action, and the Trump-Pompeo-Soleimani hatchet job, is the current lack of widespread indignation and shock among those who so vociferously repudiated Trump.

The Soleimani assassination unleashed a wave of partisan outpourings from US intelligentsia and the online commentariat; those unfamiliar with General Soleimani’s career, or his role in quelling Isil while countering Sunni regimes’ designs in the region. An uncanny symmetry emerged then: on one side, weeping masses gathered in public squares of Tehran and Isfahan, piously erecting banners of Soleimani in an afterlife embrace of the face-veiled Hidden Imam in an official, State-sponsored and Mullah-led beatification of the brutally murdered general. Juxtapose these to the Western outcry — slightly more reserved, more online, more angry than mournful, yet of a still perplexing intensity, especially given the fact that few Americans holding the unofficial wake for Soleimani knew who he was, or understood his real significance.

Compare the January 2020 mobilisations to now: Biden’s ambush merely caused a stunned, muffled confusion, though it similarly darkens prospects of either a lasting defeat of Isil pockets, or future revival of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA) nuclear deal.

It is no accident if Biden’s latest move resembles a tipping of the hat towards the Trump legacy

It is as if the Democrats’ obsessive hatred of Trump became appropriative, warping them into becoming him, the way ancient cannibalistic rituals of the Scythians were believed to lead the eater into acquiring traits of a devoured rival.

Biden’s campaign was driven only partly on electorates’ justified fear of Trump, and the rational capitulation among young progressives, who swallowed Biden’s continuing ill treatment of Bernie Sanders, toward a common goal of displacing Trump. Bernie Sanders, in turn, invoked baseless fantasies about Biden’s potentially becoming “another Roosevelt administration” conceding to dreams of Green New Deal democrats despite Biden’s every sworn statement refuting this.

Biden, to borrow Elizabeth Warren’s grotesque self-identification, is a “capitalist to the bones”: his strategy for countering Trump 2024 therefore includes competitively emulating the Trump-brand. A lawyer trained at Syracuse university, while boxing with then-adversary Kamala Harris Biden thundered in the 2019 primary debates: “fact of the matter is, that people who cross the border commit a crime!” He knows full well that illegal immigration breaches civil, and not criminal law. Recently, Biden has reopened Trump’s and Jeff Sessions’ Texan child-detention facilities, reducing the waiting time before family reunification, while maintaining the same procedure and site–a reform of Trump-Sessions’ policies, giving them softer edges and prompt efficiency. Perhaps this recalls how when Barack Obama had Biden as VP, instead of realising promises to close Guantánamo Bay’s transnational prison, the Obama-Biden administration simply ushered in technocratic reforms of the barracks, diluting Bush policies without breaking them.

Half a century as a Washington insider perhaps leads a politician to believing his own lies — that embarrassing yarn about having been arrested “on the streets of Soweto” while trying to visit Nelson Mandela not even being the most flagrant. As President, Biden’s latest mendacious assertion is that, as a necessary kind of performative “Realpolitik”, the way to coax Trump supporters (especially those who have defected from the Democratic Party) is not by distancing oneself from the now deeply unpopular neoliberal ideology, but rather, by imitating Trump’s most reactionary antics, to recapture voters who once fell for the “Trump appeal”.

In reality, Biden only satisfies donors in a military industrial complex who fear any notion of Middle East stability

The Syria attack came as a reassurance to Riyadh after the frosting of relations with Prince bin Salman, whom leading Democrats still consider a vital ally, client and cornerstone of the US economy despite Biden’s now hollow-ringing vow to make MBS into the “pariah he already is.”

Syria fulfills the function of battleground and release-valve for tensions and conflicts between both regional and global powers, as these send each other threatening messages. It is entangled in a war where the only rule is to confine the chaos within “the ring,” the contained devastation of the Syrian arena.

All of this risks sacrificing what may have been not the Obama-era’s “greatest” so much as its sole major diplomacy achievement, the JCPoA. Restoring it requires the trust of Iranian officials, and, far more importantly than the mullahs, the trust of an Iranian people. Washington instead opted for the aim of keeping the enemy (as well as sometimes-allies) in perpetual uncertainty, which defines the very aim of strategic terrorism.

The question for now is whether progressives find the stamina to treat Joe Biden with the same mobilisations of uproar and disobedience with which we once treated George W. and Donald J. DiEM25’s activists in Europe must reach out to other social anti-war movements and exert heat on EU politicians to not take Biden’s example. We must instead exert pressure towards a return to the nuclear deal with greater coherence than Washington’s.

DiEM25’s growing numbers engaged in foreign policy must also take the EU establishment to task for having ceded ground to Trump’s “maximum pressure” sanctions-and-threat campaigns. Hopefully DiEM’s Peace and International Policy group will start making its ripple towards this effect, in our upcoming virtual anti-conference held in parallel to the 2021 Munich Security Conference “Special Edition”.

The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect DiEM25’s official policies or positions.

Photo Source: DVIDSHUB on Flickr.

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Celebrating women and combating structural inequalities

Pubblicato di & inserito in Articles.

Elevate all our sisters, not just cis-ters!

In the early 1900s in the USA, variations of celebrations around women began. Since then, every year, March is commemorated as Women’s History Month which has been followed by other countries worldwide, with special attention to March 8 as International Women’s Day (IWD).

Women are at the frontlines of care work

The UN’s theme for IWD 2021 is “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world”. This focuses on women’s role as health-care workers, care workers, caregivers, and community organizers. It highlights the importance of a full and effective participation of women in spaces of decision making to achieve gender equality, and the impact of the pandemic on girls and women all over the world.

It has been shown that increased women’s participation in political decision making has had a direct impact on the formation and implementation of health and gender norms. This has had a substantial effect in the delivery of public health and health outcomes. Political representation has also been shown to have a wide range of benefits for communities and especially for the health of women and girls.

“Care work, which is predominantly provided by women and girls, is a central yet typically undervalued contributor to economies,” says Oxfam. This type of work consists mainly of caring for the daily needs and health of individuals in the home. In this sense, women are the backbone of our economies but even more so during the pandemic they are essential for recovery and resilience of communities. As a recent study published in the lancet and sponsored by the Gates Foundation states: “If the unpaid time that women spend on caring were monetised, it would almost equal the value of women’s contribution to the paid health-care workforce, with each globally accounting for more than US$1·5 trillion annually.”

Gender equality is a fundamental human right

This becomes all the more apparent when we see that women comprise 70% of health workers and make up a bigger share of all paid and unpaid care-related work. Women and girls undertake more than three-quarters of unpaid care work in the world and two-thirds of the paid care workforce and yet are rendered invisible in the economy. The invisibility of women in, and the feminisation of, care work is deeply rooted in the gender norms that pervade societies structured economically around capital accumulation and colonialism. This is a reality that the pandemic has aggravated; further pushing women into spaces of oppression and vulnerability.

Many movements around the world are tied to fighting against all forms of oppression and violence against women with an intersectional lens with the aim of giving visibility these systemic forms of gendered inequalities. This is even more important now with issues surrounding sexual rights, a rise in domestic violence, the gender pay gap, and the multiple intersecting nodes of discrimination against women along lines of race, class, and identity, to name the most well known. A lot has been achieved since the suffragettes started a feminist revolution in 1848. But in order to achieve full gender equality, inclusion is a key aspect.

The fight for women’s rights, in general, has been fought along the lines of achieving gender parity especially when it concerns rights to equal pay, access to voting rights, social parity and visibility, the right to wear pants and assume gender-non conforming presentation. While these wins have been invaluable, little has entered discourse about challenging gender norms upstream.

Gender norms pervade all levels of societal interactions, whether consciously or unconsciously. When intersecting gender norms with race, sexuality, immigration status and other marginalised identities it becomes clear that fighting for women’s liberation involves more than just achieving gender parity.

First and second-wave feminism have fought battles from the perspective of white women because they enjoyed a visibility and agency that, for example, women of colour were denied due to racial oppression. As racial justice movements have been clocking wins, so has the ability of black women to occupy spaces that were denied them even within feminist movements.

At the same time, trans women of colour have been at the forefront of queer movements and the fight for queer political recognition and inclusion, further nuancing liberation movements and their ability to bring visibility to marginalised identities. These three parallel fights have found it difficult to talk to each other because gender norms are enforced and perpetuated in a capillary system of infinite interactions, disguising a common enemy as a negative force. Indeed, it becomes difficult to fight an invisible enemy with the classic tools of equity wars. When intersecting feminist struggles with racial and queer movements what we are having to do is look further upstream at the very gender norms that form the basis for all kinds of discrimination.

We are well underway to a global counter-revolution led by neo-fascist forces. The familiar playbook once used against homosexual liberation in the 80s and 90s, and before then against women’s liberation, is now being used against trans rights, especially those of transwomen. Their fight for recognition and inclusion is being labeled as dangerous for women’s struggle for equity.

This kind of polemic belongs in the history books of first and second wave feminism and its focus by white women on fighting for access to the same social and political privileges that their white male counterparts enjoyed (and continue to do so). When intersecting feminist struggles with racial and queer movements what we are having to do is look further upstream at the very gender norms that form the basis for all kinds of discriminations.

Gender disparities and inequality cannot be addressed without taking existing gender norms apart and demanding their radical transformation. A process that should be made priority by governing bodies, institutions and policy makers striving to achieve true social justice. The research and evidence supporting these conclusions is unequivocal and the lack of progress in implementing recommendations to end gender inequalities has shown itself to be a solely political issue.

What can we do?

Elevate all spaces and movements that put pressure on power and institutions to implement change. We invite you to find a feminist campaign or organization closest to you. The following are some of the many feminist and transfeminist movements that are spaces to learn, support, and contribute.

DiEM25 is a feminist movement that aims to address many issues that women and LGBTQIA+ people face

DiEM25 has a “New Deal for Women” which strongly demands for gender equality, autonomy, and equal access to basic human rights. The Green New Deal for Europe is also another program aimed “to rebuild Europe’s economy, repair its infrastructure, rehabilitate its environment, redress its colonial history, and propel the continent toward a prosperous future”. It addresses the unequal care economy and power disparities, as well as employing environmental justice that recognizes the value that women and communities from the Global South create for economies in the North, and highlights the importance of an intersectional justice approach to ensure that no group of people is excluded.

The Taskforce on Feminism, Diversity, and Disabilities, as well as the Gender 1 DSC (Intersectional Feminism), will do a month-long project celebrating, commemorating, supporting, and remembering all women. This includes our continued Feminist GNDE #FemGNDE talks (our latest episode here), articles that can be accessed here (and older articles found here), a social media campaign on DiEM25’s “New Deal for Women”, a seminar on how to be an ally, and interviews with women in DiEM25.

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Debunking myths around population, poverty and the climate crisis 

Pubblicato di & inserito in Articles.

DiEM25’s Taskforce on Peace and International Policy report on how members think the movement should address the climate crisis

Is overpopulation the main environmental threat of our time? The idea that global demographic trends and high fertility rates, especially in low-income countries, are the main drivers of climate change has gained some traction — especially within reactionary circles. Most DiEM25 members call on the movement to debunk this myth and shed light on the links between population, growth, and structural poverty.

DiEM25 asked this question to its membership as part of the ongoing work to develop a green paper on peace and international politics. We are thankful for the large and rich participation from the membership. The Taskforce is currently processing all the input received and drafting a document that will be presented to members in the upcoming months. Until then, we are sharing some of the main debates as part of this series of articles.

Confronted with the threat of the climate emergency, some embrace a simplistic view that reduces the problem to a question of overpopulation. This reactionary narrative, focused exclusively on the threat posed by global demographic trends and high fertility rates especially in poorer non-European countries, has gained some political currency.

On the right side of the political spectrum, such views risk reinforcing pre-existing populist notions of Western decline, replacement theories, and racist undertones about “other” cultures’ proclivity to have many children. Equally worrying is the use of this narrative to promote eugenics — the grotesque idea that the reproduction of certain human beings is considered to be ‘superior’, should be promoted to the detriment of all the others.

We would like to challenge these distorted views and discuss how structural poverty and the absence of social protection in low-income countries lead to high fertility rates.

To begin with, greenhouse-gas emissions are highly concentrated. The ten countries (we count the EU as one of them) with the highest absolute emissions, together, are responsible for 73% of all global greenhouse-gas released in the air. It is also estimated that the richest 10% inhabitants of the planet are responsible for 46% of total emissions growth since 1990. “Overproduction and overconsumption,” a DiEM25 member argues,  “are greater evils than overpopulation. And the former two are primarily issues in Western and rich countries.” Others argue that “there is a direct correlation between someone’s wealth and the amount of CO2 they produce. A more egalitarian world would produce less CO2”.

Countries with higher fertility rates and a growing population emit on average less per capita than countries with a lower fertility rate and a decreasing population. The same trend exists when we look at material consumption. Why? Because higher fertility is often associated with lower incomes which in turns means less consumption and emissions.

The climate crisis is more of an issue related to income, lifestyles, and consumption, rather than population growth

As income levels increase, so does consumption and therefore emissions, while fertility tends to decrease. Pointing the finger exclusively at countries with growing populations is diverting attention away from other more consequential factors.

Source: Not enough

At the same time, the question of population growth cannot be addressed out of context. There is a large consensus in the respondents of the DiEM25 survey that structural poverty, not culture or religion (as conservative political forces want us to believe) is often correlated with high fertility rates.

For those who face destitution, high infant mortality rates, and cannot rely on functioning social protection mechanisms, having many children becomes “a strategy to survive” and ensure support for the elderly. DiEM25 respondents argue that “we should eliminate abominable poverty”, have a “better distribution of wealth” and advocate for a “basic income to be introduced at global level” to address the question.

Besides focusing on poverty and inequality, many highlight the importance of promoting women’s rights and education: “when you educate the girls, promote women’s rights, and create retirement programs, the fertility rate decreases”. Some have mentioned the importance of family planning and how facilitating contraception and allowing abortion promote women’s rights. However, while family planning is important, several members cautioned that such measures should in no way be imposed by external powers or legitimise the patriarchal control over women’s bodies.

Our members are equally wary of using distorted notions of overpopulation to promote eugenics, the suppression of reproductive rights for certain individuals or groups considered ‘inferior’ or ‘dispensable’. This concern was reinforced at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic which exposed a cynical trade-off between economic growth and the lives of citizens labelled as ‘dispensable’: the old, the sick and some other groups considered to be a burden for society because they are non-productive and are costly for the health systems.

Source: Not enough

Distorted ideas about overpopulation should not be used as a distraction from socioeconomic problems

Overpopulation should not be wielded to dehumanise certain individuals or groups and deny their fundamental rights. The climate crisis, poverty and overpopulation are considered by the majority of respondents to be the symptoms of a degenerative global economy that accumulates wealth in the hands of few while creating inequality, poverty, as well as social and environmental degradation for the rest.

Photo Source: Pexels. 

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Countering the co-optation of the green movement

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DiEM25’s Taskforce on Peace and International Policy report on how members think the movement should address the climate crisis

Without a doubt, 2020 will go down in history as a horrible year. If the pandemic was not enough, last year also registered as the warmest ever recorded. Confronted with mounting evidence, only a minority still denies the ongoing climate emergency. Most people agree that something must be done; the main question is what. At the same time, the compelling narrative behind climate action is being hijacked by forces that resist structural change. What can we do to counter this assault?

DiEM25 asked this question to its membership as part of the ongoing work to develop a green paper on peace and international politics. We are thankful for the large and rich participation from the membership. The Taskforce is currently processing all the input received and drafting a document that will be presented to members in the upcoming months. Until then, we are sharing some of the main debates as part of this series of articles.

When asked about the ongoing climate emergency, most DiEM25 members agree that radical and urgent action is needed

“A whole way of life needs to change” — as someone put it. At the same time, members warn about the risk that the green narrative is being hijacked by forces that seek to preserve our degenerative economic model by adopting only cosmetic “greenwashing” changes.

This strategy of co-optation heeds some of the calls from the global climate outcry but re-moulds them to reinforce the status quo. It claims that markets themselves will — with a bit of nudging — fix the climate crisis by redirecting the profit motive towards green goals. It reduces climate change to a technical problem that only needs technical solutions such as green investment and technology. It also frames the response around notions of individual responsibility and choices — preferably consumer ones. Specific sacrifices might be accepted; e.g., giving up diesel cars for electric ones, provided that the underlying system of continuous growth is not challenged.

Our members object that decades of unfettered market rule have only exacerbated the climate crisis. Sustainable development and green growth have been heralded since the 1990s, but global greenhouse-gas emissions, as well as material and energy consumption continue to grow unabated.

Our economic system, with its faith in endless growth on a finite planet, is seen as part of the problem, rather than the solution. Respondents call for a complete change of paradigm: “stop the fairy-tale of economic growth as the only possible way of living”, “understand that endless growth is not possible in a finite world”, “stop relying on GDP.”

Source: Oxfam

Our members are also very sceptical about the individualist approach of the status quo narrative. Climate action, as a member puts it, “depends on policy, not on private life”. Someone else argues “it would be misleading to think that changing course is only a matter of personal choice and behaviour. Individuals are powerless when faced with, for example, the lack of access to renewable energy or public transport infrastructure, a fiscal system subsidising fossil fuels or car purchases (rather than renewable energy or eco-innovation), an advertising industry and an entire system of values glorifying consumerism”.

Climate action cannot ignore the political and power structures or the vested interests behind preserving our dominant socio-economic model

It is misleading to reduce the existential challenge we face to a simple technical problem in need of technical solutions. The language of technical solutions and individual responsibility are used as smokescreens to divert our attention away from the structural causes behind climate change and the entrenched interests of those who profit from ongoing environmental and social exploitation. As most members argue, climate action must go hand in hand with political education, activism, and empowerment. We are not consumers, but social and political subjects.

DiEM25 members also suggest that global climate action should be primarily about justice, given that those who suffer the most are people who contribute the least to climate change. It is estimated, for example, that the richest 10% inhabitants of the planet are responsible for 46% of total emissions growth since 1990. Research also shows that twenty companies alone have been responsible for over one third of all energy-related emissions. Besides fossil fuel companies, military industries are also among the largest polluters in the world.

An individualist approach that is blind to such socio-economic differences, between and within countries, would end up being profoundly unjust. Most respondents were also suspicious about an unqualified focus on “sacrifices”: “In the current political jargon, it means ‘what sacrifices do the poor have to take to create a sustainable future for the rich?’ The question should be ‘what sacrifices do the rich and their political allies have to take to create a sustainable future?’”.

Others suggest framing our counter-narrative in terms of “benefits” and “opportunities”: “I am not sure if reducing our use of material resources really is a ‘sacrifice’ in the end. Capitalism fuels consumerism. More focus on the environment and care of other people, more free time, less work, and more time to cooperate in managing common resources are in the end not sacrifices”.

Another member adds that: “It is not necessarily as much of a sacrifice as people think it will be, because if shopping was a true necessity (and if it was spontaneously considered to be one by the people), it would not be necessary to deploy such an impressive amount of technology and data science to induce us into buying.”

DiEM25 members want to see real structural change to address the climate crisis

Within DiEM25’s membership there is a strong call to counter the strategy of co-optation of the green movement and offer a vision for climate action that is primarily about justice. A vision that calls for radical and structural change, and is ready to challenge the entrenched interests behind the preservation of the status quo. This implies putting people at the centre of our economic and political strategies, and building a care economy founded on values of cooperation, mutual help and sustainability.

Find out more about DiEM25’s Taskforce on Peace and International Policy here. 

Photo Source: Photo by Markus Spiske from Pexels.

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Last Month in DiEM25: February 2021

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External Actions

Last month: 

As the G20 met to discuss the global economic recovery, the Progressive International’s Debt Justice group called for a radical break with extraction and austerity — and proposed a new system in its place.

Yanis Varoufakis made a statement in support of Ken Loach amidst accusations of antisemitism.

The movement’s arts and culture platform DiEM Voice was officially relaunched, with an open call on the theme of Julian Assange and his liberation. Find out more and submit your work here!

On 22 February, the Progressive International released an open letter denouncing the attack on Ecuador’s democracy.

We launched a new season of DiEMTV with News from the Frontline, Faces of DiEM25 as well as a new series DiEM Voice TV focusing on arts and culture! See the episodes we covered this month here!

Our Campaign Accelerator project had a second open call. This project offers a chance for all DiEM25 members to put local issues that they care about on the map… and develop small campaigns to fix them! Read more about the project here.

Our Green New Deal for Europe team has established regular bi-weekly meetings, every other Thursday at 6PM CET. Join our next one!

The GNDE with the Club of Rome also held an important webinar to spread the message that our Planet is on the ice!

The GNDE and the Taskforce for Feminism, Diversity and Disabilities held a webinar on indigenous rights and leadership 26 of February.

People’s Gatherings offers our grassroots members the tools to discuss the issues relevant to their communities. Become a Gatherings organiser today and play your part in shaping our national political programmes! Download the questionnaires ad People’s Gathering Pack on the page to host your own Gathering, and attend our biweekly open call if you need advice!

The Rentvolution! campaign led by our members across Europe continues on! This is an urgent matter due to the second wave of lockdowns spreading throughout Europe, and the continued precarious nature of many peoples’ work.

Most importantly DiEM25 celebrated the 5 year anniversary of the movement on 9 February! Read about all that the movement has achieved in the last five years, re-watch our celebration event and watch the documentary premiered on that occasion!

Internal Actions

The DiEM25 Members Area saw major updates, including much-improved group pages and a DiEM25 Feed that collects the activities of all local, national and international groups — new articles, videos, events, discussions, opinions and so on. If you want to know what is happening in DiEM25, check out the DiEM25 Feed!

DiEM25 has a Conflict Mediation System (CMS). The CMS team provides a voluntary, confidential, and impartial process to members of DiEM25 to navigate conflicts they may experience in their activism. Find out more here!

We started creating Provisional National Collectives (PNC) for countries that did not meet the eligibility criteria for National Collective elections. The list for the PNC Italy is currently voted upon with an All Member Vote. Candidacies for Greece, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands, Turkey and the Czech Republic are still open, but should happen as fast as possible via [email protected].

Monthly coordination calls are being organised by the CC with members from all corners of Europe! During these calls we focus on the two big pan-European initiatives of the CC, namely the Campaign Accelerator and the Peoples’ Gatherings.

Here is the schedule for the calls, we hope to see you in one of them, soon (please keep the days in mind, as these calls will recur first and second Wednesday of each month, using the same link):

Register for your call through our calendar!

We are continuing to build our People’s Gatherings project! Want to help as a volunteer? We would love for you to send us your feedback about these countries using this form, so we can start developing the Peoples’ Gatherings project in these countries too!

This Month in DiEM25: March!

People’s Gatherings events are happening throughout the month to tackle issues in Serbia, Belgium and the UK. Join the conversation and register for the events here!

DiEM Voice is still taking submissions for our open call! The deadline to feature in the exhibition launch “Raise your voice for Assange” is 15 March, by 5 PM CET. Find more information here.

The Green New Deal for Europe campaign is restructuring and taking up speed again. With the new strategy, actions and goals we are heading towards a just and sustainable Europe! We need you to get involved, so reach out to us at [email protected]!

The Green New Deal for Europe is doing a re-lunch campaign, and will also take part in the Digital Global Climate Strike with the pressuring tweet-storm. So keep a close eye on the GNDE Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts!

If you wish to send a point to be included in the next newsletter, or want to help to draft it, please contact us at [email protected].

Etichette:

People’s Gatherings are taking place across Europe: Join the conversation!

Pubblicato di & inserito in Articles.

Join a Gathering to discuss the pressing contemporary issues in your country!

DiEM25’s citizen engagement project, People’s Gatherings, launched a few months ago and people are coming together in their local area to talk about topics that matter. This citizen engagement project is a first step in forging political programmes across Europe.

Gatherings have been organised in Serbia, Portugal and Belgium to discuss issues ranging from the climate crisis to housing and the cultural sector. If you are based in these countries, you can register for the event below.

Want to host a Gathering yourself but not sure how? You can also register here to join our biweekly open call tonight at 18:00 CET! Can’t make it to this one? Check the calendar and sign up to the the next open call. DiEM25 Gatherings can only be organised by DiEM25 members. If you’re not a member of our movement, you can still participate in the national events of the country you are based in.

People’s Gatherings: Public Space in Belgium (English)– Thursday 4 March, at 19:30 CET

We invite anyone interested in the future of Belgium to join us to take the first steps towards building a realistic political programme for the country. In this first Belgian edition, we will come together to talk about the ownership of public spaces in the country.

Find out more and register for the event here.

People’s Gatherings with GNDE: Greening Serbia — Friday 12 March at 20:00 CET

Join us to discuss and build DiEM25’s plan for a green and democratic Serbia! This year, for the global climate strike, we are coming together to stop the lip service to climate change governments across the globe have so far paid to the climate crisis. We’ll discuss and build DiEM25’s plan for a green and democratic Serbia so we can effectively put an end to the current green hypocrisy!

Find out more and register for the event here.

People’s Gatherings: Public Space in Belgium (Dutch) — Thursday 18 March at 19:30 CET

We invite anyone interested in the future of Belgium to join us to take the first steps towards building a realistic political programme for the country.  In this second Belgian edition, we will come together to talk about issues related to housing.

Find out more and register for the event here.

People’s Gatherings with Voice: Arts and Culture after COVID-19 in the UK — Friday 19 March at 19:30 CET

The current pandemic has undeniably hit the cultural sector hard. DiEM25’s arts and culture platform DiEM Voice will be taking some time to think about the future of the sector with you!

Find out more and register here.

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Interview: A DiEM25 member’s campaign to protect a beautiful region in Greece

Pubblicato di & inserito in Articles.

Faces of DiEM is about the less well known stories of our activists

It’s about the stories of those that came across DiEM, were inspired by the movement’s message, and got engaged with the project as activists on the ground. It’s about meeting these people and how their activism has instructed their own lives.

This episode features Andreas Andreopoulos, an activist in Greece who is fighting to protect Zagori due to the cultural and natural significance of the region. His campaign was selected in the first round of the Campaign Accelerator project. Along with moderator Erik Edman, they speak about the difference that a classification as a world heritage site could make for the region and how the future of Greece depends on sustainable development.

Watch the episode!

Highlights

“The ones who want to invest in all these mountains, it’s easy to use because nobody protects them (…) This is a very interesting moment, a very crucial moment, to have this weapon with us — that means a UNESCO nomination.” — Andreas Andreopoulos

“What we are trying to introduce as a new element is not just [a UNESCO nomination], but to enhance it with some projects which are already promoted by the UN and UNESCO and UNFCCC which give the region the properties of sustainable development. These are two projects; one for integrating sustainable development elements in the area under mild implementation and the other one is a training on professional orientation of the local creation on sustainable development principles. These are the new elements that we want to persuade the local population about, and they have already welcomed this effort, and from the other part to persuade the central government and more specifically the ministry of culture, to get these elements and incorporate them in the documentation.” — Andreas Andreopoulos

“We are grateful for DiEM25’s support from the very beginning and now we have already elaborated on a second level strategy. We are in contact with local entities that have been enthusiastically joining the initiative Zagori x UNESCO and now we are together; there is a committee (…) which incorporates many interesting entities of the area. (…) We are developing a very good series of actions to make our own initiative known to all — not only Zagori — and at the same time make familiar the responsible personalities / entities.” — Andreas Andreopoulos

Photo Source: Michał Kowalski on Flickr.

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New Greek law seeks to enforce joint custody on families

Pubblicato di & inserito in Articles, Opinion.

The new draft law’s measures threaten to worsen the situation for the children and partners stuck in abusive households

For the past few months, public debates in Greece have been preoccupied with a well-advertised reform of family law since 1983 that will regulate the relations between parents and children in cases of divorce, custody and guardianship.

In April 2020, the Minister of Justice, Mr. Tsiaras, set up a legislative committee to form a draft which, in its guidelines and instructions, emphasized on the best interest of the child, as defined by the international treaties that safeguard the rights of the child, as well as by the Greek Constitution.

However, the outcome of the committee did not satisfy a minority and as a result extreme pressure was put on the Ministry of Justice by powerful economic lobbies such as “Active Dads”, “Joint-Custody Association” and other father’s rights groups to completely alter the draft law. In the meantime, these lobbies spent an enormous amount of media propaganda on presenting the change of family law as essential for Greek Society. As a result, this non-disclosed draft law was drafted without the participation of the members of the above-mentioned committee and without consultation and publicity.

The new “draft law” was presented in the media through interviews of the Minister of Justice, news articles and the presentation of the positions of the lobbies. On 24 February 2021, the Minister of Justice presented the draft law to the Ministers’ Committee and the implementation was approved.

The “innovation” of this new draft law “reform of Family Law”  imposes a model of obligatory joint-custody between parents

This decision will mostly impact how children are raised after divorce, since they have to be taken in by both parents even if they disagree. Under the new system, the judge of the Greek courts does not have the right to examine each case by taking into consideration the personality of the parents, the age of the child, the geographic distance between parents residences, the bonds that the child has created with each parent and other matters that are essential in family court. On the contrary, the judge will be obliged to impose the joint custody between parents and distribute duties to them regarding the “management-raising” of the child.

In the current Greek legal system that is considered to be of the most child-centered systems in Europe, joint custody already exists and parents are free to select it if they wish to do so. The existing joint custody presupposes an agreement of the parties which cannot be imposed by law. In cases of disagreement between parents that are on obligatory joint custody either no decisions will not be made for the children or the children will obey to two regimes with the visible risk of being destabilised.

Intense objections to the new draft law has been expressed by many involved parties — mainly feminist movements, organisations for the well being of children, professors of law schools, lawyers, judges, and scientists. The main objection is concentrated on the fact that this reform will not solve the distortions such as the slow dispense of justice of the current system. On the contrary, the new legal framework will be a minefield due to its extreme and conservative provisions in the Greek society, since the result will be dangerous for both children and women.

After a divorce, children will be forced to divide their time equally between the two parents, no matter their familial circumstances

This means that children will have two lives, homes, schools and be treated as luggage. Taking this in consideration, why would this new law be established?

The main reason for the strong support from the father’s rights groups joint the fact that the equally time joint-custody will take away the monthly child support (alimony) and replace it with directly paid maintenance. Rather than handing over a fixed sum in advance to the other partner,  parents will pay for children’s needs as and when they arise. Court decisions that have been taken in the last decades will be overturned with this new regime.

The most frightening part of the new law is that there are no exemptions in the case of domestic violence, since the abusive parent (only to the child and not the other parent) is banned to communicate to the child only after a final court decision of the supreme court (9-13 years after the conduct of the criminal behavior i.e. in case of child sexual abuse). In contrast, in other European countries such as Italy even the assumption of abuse and/or violence serves as a reason for a ban in the communication. In the case of domestic violence, this law will mean that the child and the other parent will be unable to escape the violent situations for many years.

In the case of an abusive relationship, this draft law does not only impact the children but also the other partner

It would  prevent women from escaping from abusive partners, as it makes it even more difficult both to report such a partner and have the custody of their children guaranteed to protect the child. Obstacles for women facing violence would simply multiply, including from an economic perspective, since this law is questioning the fundamental idea of divorce.

The draft law claims to tackle the so-called ‘parental alienation syndrome’, a controversial theory that one parent can manipulate the couple’s children to reject the other parent. Developed by American psychiatrist Richard Gardner in the 1980s, the theory is not backed up by research and has been criticised for placing abused women and children at further risk by allowing violent fathers to manipulate custody battles and insist upon continued access.

The new law imposes private mediation (without the intervention of state psychiatrists and social services) at the early stage of separation and would certainly be very damaging if applied in certain cases, such as in those of domestic abuse. If the proposed reforms become law — the expense of a divorce, together with mediation costs and the threat of having to move house, could effectively discourage lower-income couples from seeking a divorce.

The burden could be especially heavy for women who depend on their husbands economically, as many in Greece do. It is noted that in the past years, domestic violence in Greece has increased significantly. Women are targeted more as a result of the economic crisis and they also face dismissal due to motherhood, less job opportunities due to motherhood and negative impact of telework. At the same time, the sharing of parental responsibilities by men at the Greek households in everyday activities (cleaning, cooking etc) remains slow.

The new draft law should be cancelled by the Government since it expresses a conversative and extreme philosophy

Without acknowledging the particularities of families and the needs and desires of children, there can be no suitable divorce arrangements. DiEM25’s Taskforce for Feminism, Diversity and Disabilities has been working on the pressing issue of domestic violence due to the increase of this silent threat during the COVID-19 pandemic.

 Fani Giotaki is Attorney At Law, Member of the Committee of Family Law.

The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect DiEM25’s official policies or positions.

Photo Source: Photo by cottonbro from Pexels.

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