We have white smoke! The results of MeRA25′ electoral program vote
The basic principle of DiEM25 – and MeRA25′ of course – is our internal democratic processes. MeRA25′ electoral program was voted in favour by 97,73%!
Besides the vote on the program as a whole, there were five individual votes regarding the following fields:
- Conversion of medical and law schools to exclusively postgraduate schools, according to the US and Australian models, with students being obliged to complete another undergraduate program before joining the Medical or Law Schools, which was voted in favour by 87,59%
- The legalisation of marijuana and the creation of many small public health units that will anonymously provide heroin to anyone who asks for it, in a safe and hygienic environment, while at the same time strengthening rehabilitation centres for those who choose it, which was voted in favour by 94,14%
- The extraction and co-exploitation, together with problematic regimes and multinational corporations, of the hydrocarbon in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Aegean, the Cretan or the Ionian Sea, with the vote turning out NO by 87,08% in favour of Green Economy and geopolitical stability
- The agreement about the name of FYROM as Nothern Macedonia, which was voted in favour by 84,93%
- The abolishment of mandatory military service, which was voted in favour by 83,62%
Message to DiEM25 members: The summer is over, let's seize the day, let's seize 2019
To all DiEM25 members
Friends, comrades, DiEMers,
Today I am writing to you in my capacity as Secretary of MeRA25, DiEM25’s Greek electoral wing.
Today, we begin voting on MeRA25’s electoral program. This is a remarkable moment. Think about it: DiEM25 is developing transnational democracy for the first time in Europe’s history, indeed globally. We are all (Germans, Greeks, Italians, Brits, Portuguese, Irish etc.) shaping, together, the electoral program of our Greek electoral wing. It is a moment to savour independently the outcome: DiEM25 is trailblazing.
Over the past weeks a debate seems to be brewing amongst some of our members regarding DiEM25’s internal democracy. Such debates are important. But equally important is the recognition of what we have achieved and the remarkable democratic culture that DiEM25 has created across a huge, diverse, difficult continent – across Europe. The all-member votes – six different ones – that are commencing today are the best proof of this.
Six months after the inauguration of MeRA25, and following a period of consultation with Greek citizens whom we met in person, in venues and on our site, DiEMers across Europe are now being called to play an active role in finalising MeRA25’s electoral program. Why ‘active’? Because this is not just a YES/NO plebiscite on MeRA25’s electoral program.
The MeRA25 Political Secretariat has not only produced a splendid, comprehensive, progressive and innovative electoral program out of all the ideas we collated but has, also, identified five areas that are controversial in Greek society. As a result, you are now being asked to:
- Read the complete document (that was beautifully and heroically translated into English by Erik Edmen)
- Vote in each of the five separate all member votes on specific contentious issues – akin to five ‘referenda’
- Vote on MeRA25’s Electoral Program in its totality
Before specifying the five ‘referenda’ questions, let me conclude by stating once more the pride that we all feel about our internal democracy, along with our determination to improve it again and again.
2019 will be a key year in the history of our countries (including Greece), of our Europe. As I keep arguing, we DiEMers have a historic duty that is coming to a crunch in 2019.
MeRA25 depends on each and every one of you for its electoral program as well as its capacity to put it across against the better efforts of an oligarchy determined to silence us.
Please read the proposed electoral program in its entirety before participating in the six votes. (If you can also contribute to MeRA25’s finances, that would be an added bonus!)
Onwards (and never inwards)!
Yanis Varoufakis
THE FIVE ‘REFERENDA’ TO RESOLVE FIVE ISSUES IN MeRA25’s ELECTORAL PROGRAM
The draft of MeRA25’s Electoral Program is a coherent whole, whose parts are closely integrated. The five different issues below (reproduced here for your convenience) cannot, and should not be, taken out of the context of the complete document. Please read the whole document before voting on the five specific issues below – and note the recommendation of MeRA25’s Secretariat.
1st Vote – EDUCATION: Converting Greek University Medical and Law Schools into exclusively postgraduate schools
CHOICE: YES/NO
MeRA 25 proposes to convert Medical and Law schools to exclusively postgraduate schools, according to the US and Australian models, with students being obliged to complete another undergraduate program before joining the Medical or Law Schools. The aim is to relieve 18-year-olds from the social pressure of becoming doctors or lawyers just because they were admitted to these schools, and to open up the possibility for other young people, who hadn’t been admitted to these schools at 18 years old, to take the place of those who no longer wish to pursue a medical or legal education.
Recommendation of MeRA25 Secretariat and DiEM25 Greece National Collective: YES
2nd Vote – CANNABIS-DRUGS: Legalising marijuana and the provision of heroin to addicts in a clean, safe environment provided by the National Health Service
CHOICE: YES/NO
To end the scourge of drugs that takes lives, pushes young children to robbing their parents, friends and neighbours, empowering various mafias and gangs, MeRA25 will legalise marijuana and create many small National Health Service units that will anonymously provide heroin to anyone who asks for it, in a safe and hygienic environment, while at the same time strengthening rehabilitation centres for those who want to use them. In this way, drug dealers go bankrupt, meaningless deaths cease, and the addicts’ motive to abuse themselves, their relatives, friends and neighbours disappears
Recommendation of MeRA25 Secretariat and DiEM25 Greece National Collective: YES
3rd Vote – OIL & GAS EXTRACTION IN EASTERN MEDITERRENEAN
OPTION 1: MeRA25 opposes the extraction of fossil fuels from deep sea facilities (oil and natural gas) in joint ventures involving the Greek state, other states – some with highly problematic regimes – global oil companies etc. Development cannot be based anymore on fuels that enrich oligarchies and destroy the planet. Instead, MeRA25 is dedicated to economic development based on renewables and green energy innovations in cooperation with all countries of the region
OPTION 2: MeRA25 supports the extraction of fossil fuels from deep sea facilities in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Aegean, Ionian and Cretan seas (oil and natural gas) in joint ventures involving all countries of the region
OPTION 3: MeRA25 supports the agreement of the current Greek government to extract fossil fuels from deep sea facilities in the Eastern Mediterranean in a joint venture involving Israel, Cyprus and Egypt
Recommendation of MeRA25 Secretariat and DiEM25 Greece National Collective: OPTION 1
4th Vote – MACEDONIA: MeRA25’s position viz. the Athens-Skopje agreement to resolve the name dispute and other matters
CHOICE: YES/NO
OPTION 1: MeRA25 welcomes the agreement between the two governments to resolve the dispute around the name of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, to be named ‘Republic of Northern Macedonia’ as one that is advantageous for all peoples of the region, including Greeks. MeRA25 calls on Skopje to cease any attempt to monopolise the name of Macedonia and condemns any form of irredentism or hysterical, nationalist narrative. At the same time, MeRA25 will oppose the hysterical nationalist narratives in Greece that divide our people and prevent the people of Greece to ally with their northern neighbours, despite our common interests.
OPTION 2: MeRA25 opposes any name for the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia that involves the name Macedonia
OPTION 3: MeRA25 proposes that the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia be known as ‘Republic of Macedonia’
Recommendation of MeRA25 Secretariat and DiEM25 Greece National Collective: OPTION 1
5th Vote – MILITARY SERVICE: Legalising marijuana and the provision of heroin to addicts in a clan, safe environment provided by the National Health Service
CHOICE: YES/NO
OPTION 1: MeRA25 will abolish Greece’s mandatory military service, while creating new positions and educational/training opportunities for young men and women in the armed forces in order to balance the armed forces’ loss of conscripts with improvements in quality.
OPTION 2: MeRA25 will reduce the length of Greece’s mandatory military service from 12 to 6 months but extend it also to women
OPTION 3: No change to present mandatory military service
Recommendation of MeRA25 Secretariat and DiEM25 Greece National Collective: OPTION 1
So head over to your DiEM25’s Members Area and let your voice be heard. Vote and help us push forward.
Bernie Sanders and Yanis Varoufakis call on progressives to unite against Trump’s Nationalist International
Senator Bernie Sanders, the former US presidential candidate, and Yanis Varoufakis, co-founder of DiEM25, are today calling on progressives worldwide to form an international movement to combat the rise of authoritarianism represented by Donald Trump.
In the first of a series of exchanges published in The Guardian, the pair described the urgent need for a ‘Progressive International’ that can bring together people across the globe around a vision of shared prosperity, security and dignity for all.
“While the very rich get much richer, people all over the globe are working longer hours for stagnating wages, and fear for their children’s future,” said Sanders. “Authoritarians exploit these economic anxieties, creating scapegoats which pit one group against another.”
Varoufakis said: “Our era will be remembered for the triumphant march of a Nationalist International that sprang out of the cesspool of financialised capitalism. Whether it will also be remembered for a successful humanist challenge to this menace depends on the willingness of progressives in the US, the EU, the UK as well as countries like Mexico, India and South Africa, to forge a coherent Progressive International.”
As a first step, Varoufakis called for the creation of a common council that draws out a blueprint for an International New Deal, a “progressive New Bretton Woods”.
“Yanis Varoufakis is exactly right,” Sanders underscored in his reply. “At a time of massive global wealth and income inequality, oligarchy, rising authoritarianism and militarism, we need a progressive international movement to counter these threats.”
Sanders went on to argue that, “the solution, as Varoufakis points out, is an international progressive agenda that brings working people together around a vision of shared prosperity, security and dignity for all people. The fate of the world is at stake. Let us go forward together now!”
Read the complete exchange here (Bernie Sanders) and here (Yanis Varoufakis)
At DiEM25 we have been working hard since 2016 to make our stand as the first pan-European grassroots movement, powered and funded by people like you. We have brought together tens of thousands of people around a humanist, progressive agenda that can take the fight to the failing Establishment and repair and rebuild our common European project. Earlier this year, we began assembling European Spring, a coalition of progressive political parties from across the continent to compete in the May 2019 European elections and stage a citizen take-over of the EU.
And now, we are playing a key role in bringing together the global progressive alliance that Varoufakis and Sanders are calling for and that is so desperately needed to counter the rise of the hard right. We invite all like-minded political forces in every corner of Europe and beyond to join in!
Together we must send an unmistakable message that the way to beat the Nationalist International agenda of the likes of Donald Trump, Viktor Orbán, Matteo Salvini and the other xenophobes around the world is by running on progressive policies and electing candidates who will represent all of us – as Bernie Sanders says, “on every continent and in every country”.
But we need your help to do it. Here’s how:
- If you are not yet a member of DiEM25, join! It will only take a few seconds for you to start making a difference, like taking part in our current bids to take over the European institutions, such as:
– – This morning, MeRA25, DiEM25’s electoral wing in Greece, presented its political programme’s draft in Thessaloniki. Go ahead and vote it in!
– – Our German political party is getting ready to elect its board. If you want to coordinate our campaign efforts in Germany, please submit your candidacy here.
– – DiEM25 – Italia is calling DiEMers to step up and join its party coordination and assembly bodies. Present your candidacy here
– – Support our European Spring partners by registering in our common site, where you’ll find ways to promote our common policy agenda and campaign for it
- It’s going to take every one of us working together supporting progressive candidates across the world, to defeat the Nationalist International and bring the change we want to see in our planet. No matter where in the world you live, drop us a line and let us know you are ready to get hands-on and volunteer.
- Unlike our Establishment opponents and incumbents, DiEM25 rejects corporate and institutional funding. This means we are beholden only to you and the principles and ideals we share. Your contribution, no matter how small, will go a long way to keep us going. Donate here.
Ours is a struggle not just about human rights, care for our global environment, social justice and progressive values, but also about survival. Our struggle is about combating the rise of the toxic ideologies and horrors we faced less than a century ago. And it is a struggle we can win — together.
Carpe DiEM!
Luis Martin is DiEM25’s Communications Coordinator
Democracy returns: presenting MeRA25's electoral programme for Greece
The Greek people know that the course of the country is doomed. At the same time, however, the Bailout process has succeeded in persuading many that there is no alternative to this course that is bringing Greece to its knees. Nothing threatens democracy, and the country, more than this feeling of resignation and depression.
The only antidote to the paralysis and the acceptance of the country’s systematic desertification, with thousands of young people leaving every month, is the realistic, responsible, concrete, radical proposals for what should and can be done on Monday morning “in order to immediately abolish the Debt Colony, and revive the Republic of Greece”. These are the proposals MeRA25 puts before you in its Electoral Programme for national and European elections.
The MeRA25 Programme sets out what specifically needs to be done specifically in every area (from the economy to international relations, culture, education, etc.) setting aside political costs and emphasising innovative policies that together form an organic, programmatic total.
MeRA25’s Programme has three main features that differentiate it from proposals of other parties:
- Differentiation from the Memorandum Alliance promises (eg. radical reduction of tax rates, substantial support for weak citizens) that, in order to be materialised, requires a rupture with the creditors that the Memorandum Alliance refuses to consider.
- Our position is that the only way to be responsibly Europeanist is through a rupture with the lenders – which is why MeRA25 is an integral part of the first trans-national, single, pan-European movement, DiEM25, whose members contributed to the Programme from all parts of Europe and the world; something unique in European political history.
- MeRA25 aims to socialise privatisation, education, culture, and important local and regional issues, etc. through the establishment of permanent Consultative Assemblies of Selected and Allotted Citizens that will be staffed in a way that makes them representative of society and secures citizens’ interests from those of corporate, oligarchic and party interests.
Breaking down the Debt Colony | indicative economic and social policies:
Maximum VAT and tax rate for small and medium-sized enterprises = 18% | 50% of profits in total contributions and taxes to small and medium – sized enterprises. Abolishing tax prepayment. Moratorium for all insurance contributions and taxes for startups. Bank levy of 0,2% on bank debts to support pensions. EUR 800 minimum wage. Reform of independent work. Establishment of a Public Digital Payment System and provision of a Minimum Guaranteed Income of EUR 400 per month for each family. Establishment of a Public Debt Management Company (“red loans”) with abolition of auctions | Establishment of a Cultural Hellenic Fund for Artists and a Promotion Agency for Greek Cultural Products | 2% tax on digital communication devices to counterbalance piracy. Conversion of the Privatisation Organisation into a Greek Development Bank with cessation of all privatisations | New condition for Golden Visa: offering 10 new full-time jobs and restrictions on rent.
Return of Democracy | indicative institutional reforms:
We all know that the state policy on education, media, etc. is failing because the ministries are being swayed by the interests of the oligarchy, trade unions, party politics, and other local interests. At the same time, privatisation not only does not solve, but actually worsens the problems. For this reason MeRA25, will institutionalise the transfer of decision-making to society through a new institution: the Consultative Councils of Allotted and Elected Citizens. MeRA25 believes that no government can bring the educational revolution needed. In order to ensure the uninterrupted, continuous educational reform necessary, the Council for Learning and Education, which consists of 300 members: 100 to be allotted from the active teachers (10 from kindergartens, 30 Primary School teachers, 30 High school teachers, 30 university academics), 100 will be allotted from the general population of the country (all with two-year terms), while the remaining 100 will be nominated by parliamentary parties according to their electoral power. Commitment of the new participatory institution to the elaboration of the education policy. Corresponding institutions will democratise, and upgrade, policies on culture, media, local and regional government. At the same time, new participatory institutions will elect the Supreme Judges, control the Universities, prepare constitutional reviews, etc. while Parliamentary Immunity will be abolished and a Corruption Prosecution Body will be established.
2015 will not be repeated:
The MeRA25 Programme will be legislated without any prior consultation with the lenders. “But if we do this, will they not eject us from the Euro?”, we hear the internal troika supporters ask.
We respond as follows:
- It would be best for the lenders, since Grexit would cost them about EUR 1 trillion (with the already degraded situation in Italy, escalating as we speak), to accept the unilateral adoption of the key points of the rational, prudent, moderate MeRA25 programme – and not to choose Grexit as a punishment for a Greece that does what it has to do for itself and for progressives across Europe.
- If MeRA25’s legislation leads to Grexit, we accept it as the second-best option for the country, despite it not being our chosen option.
- We believe that the continuation of today’s desertification, in the context of the 4th Silent Memorandum and its “Enhanced Surveillance” to be the absolute worst case scenario and we will oppose it above all else.
As an indivisible part of DiEM25, the first transnational pan-European movement in history, MeRA25 is a genuinely Europeanist party and as such considers it its duty to oppose incompetent pseudo-technocrats who are sacrificing Greece – and betraying the European Idea – on the altar of oligarchic interests. We do not fetishise the euro, nor the drachma. But we are determined to liberate Greek Democracy and end our country’s desertification! The regime of the Debt Colony will end. Greece will turn a new leaf. Democracy returns.
(*) For the entire Programme, click here.
DiEM25 and Demokratie in Bewegung — stronger together
The German electoral wing of European Spring is joined by parties in France, Denmark, Poland, and Portugal: a coalition that grows by the day to fight for democracy and solidarity in Europe. To that end, we are participating in the election with a common Spitzenkandidat, joint programme and common campaign.
DiEM25 Germany already has an electoral wing known as Demokratie in Europa, which is the only true transnational alternative to the
right-wing zealots and the neoliberal establishment. Following a membership vote, the German electoral list will be supported by the DiEM25 electoral wing as well as our friends in Demokratie in Bewegung (DiB), as decided by large majorities in the respective parties. The next general assembly in Hannover at the end of this month will formalise the collaboration.
Here and now: a creative vision for Europe, London, October 10
On October 10, “Here and Now: A Creative Vision for Europe” will bring together Srećko Horvat, Danae Stratou, Yanis Varoufakis, Bobby Gillespie and Rosemary Bechler at the Platform Theatre of Central Saint Martins to consider the role of culture in the fight for the future of Europe. With a range of performance, presentation, and discussion, the event will invite citizens to help shape a new politics of culture – in Europe and beyond.
The event will start with an aerial straps piece by Kit Hill which sees her indicate that perhaps the dystopian future already exists in the present and that the two might in fact be a mirror image of one another.
The event will be moderated by Mary Fitzgerald who is Editor-in-Chief of Open Democracy. Representing the DiEM Voice team, Igor Stokfiszewski will be presenting the cultural policy paper process.
The event is organised by DiEM25 + DiEM Voice, and supported by Creative Unions, a CSM initiative supporting artistic collaboration across borders.
OPEN CALL: Participate with one word
Duration: 1st September – 1st October, 2018
Send us the one word that best expresses that which currently:
- Frightens or threatens you the most
- You believe is in urgent need of protection
The words gathered through this call will be used by visual artist Danae Stratou in the creation of an art video to be presented at the Here and Now: A creative vision for Europe event.
Submit Your Word: http://www.opentheblackboxes.com/participate/
Event details and tickets:
https://www.arts.ac.uk/colleges/central-saint-martins/whats-on-at-csm/platform-theatre
Support a Creative Vision for Europe
https://internal.diem25.org/donations/to/csm_event
DiEM Voice
From its beginning, DiEM25 has placed arts and culture at the heart of its vision of a democratic Europe. DiEM Voice takes this mission forward – dedicated to developing a new vision for culture in Europe and providing a platform for its expression.
“Here & Now”
The on-going crisis in Europe is not only economic, nor only political. Rather, we are in throes of a severe crisis of culture: ‘the disintegration, destruction or suspension of some basic elements of sociocultural life,’ as anthropologist David Badney has described it.
A culture war is, then, underway in Europe– not between the ‘anywheres’ and the ‘nowheres’, but between those who use culture to divide – by class, by race, by nation – and those who use it to connect. This war is not based in Parliament – but on the street, in our homes, and across the internet.
In order to end this war, we must create conditions for all people in Europe to exercise their right to cultural expression. In a word, we must reinvent ‘democratic culture.’
How can we achieve this goal? Such is the prompt of DiEM Voice’s London event — “Here and Now.”
Our Conversation
The fight for a democratic culture must address the key assumptions that define Europe’s current cultural regime.
The first is that culture actually means high culture: arts, theatre, opera, film, music that appear inaccessible to the vast majority of Europeans. Works produced at the grassroots, by social movements, and through neighbourhood associations are often dismissed or delegitimized.
The second is that the most appropriate model for sustainable culture is industry: from film and music to art auctions and private collections. Subordination to the market simultaneously cheapens culture — and makes it exorbitantly expensive.
The third: culture is not work. Europe’s cultural space remains highly precarious, both within institutions and outside of them. Artists in Europe are poor and powerless, with little to no social securities or pension support.
Fourth: there’s nothing worse for culture than democracy. Culture is individualistic, it’s irrational, it’s arbitrary. This assumption results in resistance to democratic governance within cultural institutions and organisations — as well as the tight control of cultural production by those with extensive resources.
How to overthrow those barriers? Which other barriers prevent the emergence of a genuinely democratic European culture?
To stimulate further discussion, we have formulated 10 questions that we present to DiEM25 members, experts, and the general public to reflect on the state of the culture war in Europe and what kind of solutions we can put forward to drive the democratisation of the continent.
We believe the above questionnaire can inspire a fruitful discussion on the future of culture and democracy in Europe. If the cultural conflicts on the street, in our homes, and across the internet present real dangers, they also present opportunities to reach people that have disengaged from traditional forms of politics – and to hear their voices in response.
It's time to stop funding and supporting the deadly war in Yemen
A war is raging in Yemen — a war in which many European governments are complicit. And yet few of us are paying attention.
The Yemeni Civil War has reached far beyond the borders of Yemen. It is fought by Saudi pilots, Sudanese soldiers and British weapon dealers. But it is the Yemeni civilians who suffer the most. As of January 2018 22.2 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, 11.3 million in need of acute humanitarian aid and people living in 107 out of the 333 districts in Yemen are at risk of famine. 52.000 people have been killed, 2 million people are displaced and there has been a cholera outbreak with 900,000 suspected cases.
What has caused all this, and what can we do about it?
Yemen’s struggles began long before this round of conflict. Before 1990, Yemen was split up into South Yemen (”People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen”), formerly a British colony until 1967, and North Yemen ( “Yemen Arab Republic”). South Yemen was a Marxist state, governed by the only party in the country, the Yemeni Socialist Party. The North, on the other hand, was an Islamic state, ruled by Ali Abdallah Saleh, who was to play a crucial role in its subsequent history.
When Yemen was unified — without violence — Saleh became president. He remained president until 2011, leading a corrupt government that was mainly held afloat by a compromise between the army, government and businessmen of Yemen.
But the Arab Spring also exerted its influence in Yemen. Protestors poured onto the streets demanding the end of the corrupt government, a better handling of the economy and the halting of amendments to the constitution that would have otherwise abolished the presidential term limit and allowed Saleh’s son to become president when Saleh died. Saleh abdicated, and elections were organized. Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, the previous Vice-President, was elected in a one-man contest with a mandate to improve the economic situation and defeat AQAP, the wing of Al-Qaeda present in Yemen which had been committing terrorist attacks in multiple cities.
But Hadi did not deliver on his promises. The government was too weak and too busy fending of attacks from separatist leagues, AQAP and Shia insurgents. Yemen is largely Sunnite, but it has a large minority of Zaydi shiites. A certain group composed of these Shiites led a insurgency against the government in 2014. They called themselves the Houthis, after their leader Hussein Badreddin al-Houth, who was killed in 2004 by government forces.
Houthi insurgencies had been attempted in the past, but this time, they allied themselves with the former president Saleh, who wanted to regain power. They gained control over the capital, and forced the resignation of the government in January 2015. A large part of what was previously Northern Yemen has since been under the control of the Houthis, and their Revolutionary Committe, which passes laws valid inside its territory.
President Hadi was forced to flee to Riyadh, which prompted Saudi Arabia to take action against the Houthis. They claimed that the insurgents were being helped by Iran, and arranged a coalition to restore the previous government to power. The coalition consisted of United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco, Sudan, Egypt, and Pakistan — largely Sunnite countries (Qatar withdrew in June due to its ongoing litigation with Saudi-Arabia). The United States offered support with logistics, intelligence and targeting, while the US, UK and France all have arm dealing contracts worth billions with Saudi Arabia.
Now the war has been carrying on for over three years, and is approaching its fourth. Since the start of the war, the damage to Yemen has been extensive, including a high and rising death toll among Yemeni civilians. According to Human Rights Watch, there have been 85 unlawful coalition strikes, resulting in the death of almost 1000 civilians.
The Houthis have fired artillery indiscriminately into Saudi territory and Yemeni cities. Both sides have arbitrarily detained individuals and there have been rumors of torture. The Houthi forces have confiscated products crucial to the survival of the Yemeni people in need, such as food and medicines. Both sides have used child soldiers, which account for about a third of all individuals involved in the conflict. The UN put both the coalition and the Houthis forces on the “list of shame” for violations against children (although the coalition was later taken off this list as they threatened to withdraw millions in donations to the UN).
The Vietnam War ended only when a powerful movement of citizens rose up to stop it. That war, like Yemen’s, featured powerful western countries pursuing their own interests with disregard for human life. It was also a time when the Western conscience awakened, a time of love and compassion. The population was striving for a better world.
Now the consciousness has fallen asleep again, too occupied with the spectacle of Donald Trump and the rise and fall of stock prices. It is simply incredibly — and outright sickening — that the suffering of 22.2 million people could be overlooked, or simply ignored.
We need to confront those in power, point to their crimes and contradictions. How can any European politician say that he is in favor of peace when he allows the selling of arms to a nation killing thousands every year? How can he say that he will fight for what is right when he turns a blind eye to human rights violations?
Progress has been made. The Netherlands, Canada, Belgium, Ireland and Luxembourg have succeeded in getting an investigation by the UNHR into what is happening in Yemen underway. In the US Senate, a bill was proposed by Bernie Sanders, Mike Lee and Chris Murphy to stop the aid that the US provides to the Saudi´s in the Yemen war (although it was later voted down). There have been protests in London against Saudi-led airstrikes.
But more can be done. The spirit of the anti-war protests is still alive, and its power must be wielded again. This time not to stop the dropping of napalm on remote Vietnamese villages, but to stop the funding and support of a deadly war, and to stop the biggest humanitarian disaster in the world today.
Harm Roelant is a 17 year old Dutch citizen, currently living in Helsinki and attending the European School of Helsinki.
Chemnitz #C2708: Facism is back
We deeply despise the outrageous Nazi riots that took place in the city of Chemnitz on Monday.
During the annual city festival a 35-year old man was killed through a knife attack by two young men in the margins of the festival.
Just shortly after this brutal incidence the extreme-right party Alternative für Deutschland (AFD) organised a so-called funeral march to honour the victim. It soon became clear though that this self-proclaimed mourning ritual was nothing more than another act of emotional instrumentalisation. Within the next two days the city of Chemnitz transformed into a dystopian no-go zone. The initial funeral march had given rise to a series of Nazi attacks on foreigners and migrants. People were chased through town, threatened and attacked, journalists went under shelter. On the streets of Chemnitz “Hitler” salutes were enacted freely and hateful, xenophobic speech was plainly audible everywhere. The democratic opposition was present too – yet in a highly asymmetrical relationship.
Saxony’s police was said to be “overwhelmed” by the riots.
Saxony’s Minister of the Interior Wöller of the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) termed the “protesters” slobs. Both German media and established politicians suddenly provide analysis of the events, blaming each other, while struggling to name what happened at the same time.
But we have to get the words right now!
Let’s call the Chemnitz events what they were: a series of violent attacks by Nazis.
Whatever truth one may prefer, the occurrences in Chemnitz point out to a dreadful reality that is likely to be overseen and underestimated: extreme-right and fascist structures have never “disappeared” in Germany – on the contrary. As the riots in Chemnitz have shown, extreme-right violence and the speed of mobilisation have increased tremendously, leaving both the establishment and the public puzzled. Behind these mobilisations breaths a political monster that can no longer be ignored, that has entered far into supervisory committees, state criminal police offices and layers of society. It has found its legitimate parliamentary expression in the extreme-right wing party Alternative für Deutschland (AFD).
Some fear that the events in Chemnitz just mark the beginning of a greater series of fascist attacks undertaken by a movement that hasn’t just grown number, but also strategy-wise. It extends far beyond Eastern Germany with is special Neo-Nazi legacy.
Chemnitz yet marks a new level of Nazi violence.
While the monster is breathing, hope is breathing closer than one may assume.
The last few weeks have spiralled movements and alliances on the left and within the so-called “centre”. These movements and alliances are growing as well, such as die Seebrücke, We’ll Come United or Unteilbar. We in DiEM25 share friendly relationships with all of these movements and alliances as we are a part of them.
These movements will have to nip it in the bud though and move beyond symbolic expressions of protest. And we in DiEM25 will continue reclaiming, building and implementing our collective-democratic vision together with those who will continue to oppose.
The first step may be to get the words right.
The results are in: Here’s who was elected to lead our movement
DiEM25 members from across Europe and beyond have voted, and our renewed Coordinating Collective (CC) has emerged.
Meet the women and men chosen to guide our movement in the months ahead!
- Noam Chomsky, re-elected (76.2%)
American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, political activist, author, and lecturer. Institute Professor and professor emeritus of linguistics at MIT. Noam Chomsky has been a member of DiEM25’s Coordinating Collective since its conception.
- Virginia López Calvo (56.57%)
Virginia is a Spaniard member of DiEM25. In the past 14 years she lived in London, Istanbul, Brussels, Rome and is now back in Madrid. She has been active in the 15M and Occupy movements; organised Southern European migrants to counter austerity in London (P.I.I.G.S. Uncut); participated in pan-European initiatives to network activists for a democractic, just and sustainable EU as part of European Alternatives and the Alter Summit; co-founded the Festival of Choice, and was a board member at Women in Development Europe (WIDE+) for several years.
She has also been active outside Europe – fighting for women’s rights and economic justice in Central America and Turkey as part of the Central American Women’s Network and Women Living Under Muslim Laws. Virginia currently works as a campaigner for We Move Europe (WeMove.EU) and dedicates the rest of her time to the Provisional National Collective in Spain.
- Brian Eno, re-elected (49.31%)
Brian Eno is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer, writer, and visual artist. He is best known for his pioneering work in ambient music and contributions to rock, pop, electronic, and generative music. A self-described “non-musician”, Eno has helped to introduce a variety of unique conceptual approaches and recording techniques into contemporary music, advocating a methodology of “theory over practice” throughout his career. He has been described as one of popular music’s most influential and innovative figures.
Eno is a member of the Labour Party, and he is the President of the Stop the War Coalition. He is also a trustee of the environmental law firm Client Earth, Somerset House, and the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, set up by Mariana Mazzucato. Brian Eno has been a member of DiEM25’s Coordinating Collective since its conception.
- Renata Avila, re-elected (45.43%)
International human rights lawyer and digital rights advocate. She currently directs the Smart Citizenship Foundation, operating in 17 countries in Latin America, with offices in Rio and Santiago. In her practice, she represented indigenous victims of genocide and other human rights abuses, including the prominent indigenous leader and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Rigoberta Menchu Tum. She also represented awarded journalist Julian Assange and Wikileaks since 2009. Avila sits on the Board of Creative Commons, is a trustee of the Courage Foundation, – an organisation set up to assist whistleblowers at risk – and is an advisory board member of DiEM25, a movement to democratise Europe launched by Yanis Varoufakis. Her book Women, Whistleblowing Wikileaks” was published by OR Books. She is currently writing a book on Digital Colonialism and regularly writes for several international newspapers.
- Rosemary Bechler, re-elected (38.64%)
For nearly two decades I have been an openDemocracy mainsite editor. My partner and I live in north London and both joined the UK Labour party relatively recently. I was at the DiEM25 launch in Berlin and became a mid-term member of the coordinating committee in April 2017, liaising with the UK pnc. In April this year, I was elected onto the DiEM25UK National Collective as a ground organiser. I joined the movement because I wanted to secure and share my cultural and political commitment to a democratic Europe, at a time when the UK is heading for Brexit, given the rapid rise of the very dangerous Nationalist International. I also joined it because I believe that self-organising social movements are highly creative agencies for the changes we want and need.
- Eírini Mítsiou (35.15%)
Irene Mitsiou is from Thessaloniki, Greece. She ha a degree in business administration and finance and has worked in the private sector for over 15 years. From 2012-2015 Irene was regional coordinator with SYRIZA in Thessaloniki area fighting against austerity and left when the cause was betrayed by the leadership . Nowadays she is a member of a school club because she is a single mother. Irene is a member of the Parents Union in the Municipality of Oreokastro. Also member of the Municipality Committee of Oreokastro and a member of the Education Committee too. She is a member of DiEM25’s Thessaloniki3 DSC. Irene believes in team work and in working diligently and responsibly for a common purpose, setting goals and achieving them. She speaks Greek, English and French.
(Percentages refer to the number of people who included these candidates among their six choices)
The newcomers above will be joining Srecko Horvat, Yanis Varoufakis, Lorenzo Marsili, Marianne Dufour, Gianna Merki and Ivana Nenadovic on our 12-person CC.
While the following candidates did not win election to the CC this time around, we thank them all for participating and hope they’ll continue working with us. DiEM25 needs you and your commitment to make our movement better!
Runner-up candidates: Fotini Bakadima (31%), Julijana Zita (24%), Steffen Wirth (24%), Rosita Allinckx (21%), Vincenzo Fiore (21%), Platon Florin Emilian (18%), Hugo Alvarez Fernandez (16%), Christos Dellasoudas (16%), Jakob Mohr (15%), Michael Fromm (12%), Johannes Fehr (11%).
The power of grassroots
By making their voices heard in this pivotal internal democratic process, our members have sent a loud message to the status quo: at DiEM25 we really mean it when we say that we believe in grassroots power!
This is exemplified by the 17 DiEMers who ran for a seat in the CC, as they all represent the pan-European, grassroots essence of our movement: women and men from very different backgrounds and countries, and from across the political spectrum. They all stand together ready to fight for the movement we all believe in. No other political organisation can pride itself on this level of openness and inclusivity, at such an international scale.
Background to the vote
Following DiEM25’s Organising Principles (OPs), six of the twelve seats in the movement’s CC were up for renewal this summer. Candidates could send their submissions from July 6 until July 26, and the voting period, which started on August 25, ended at midnight on the same day.
Candidacies to the CC were open to all DiEMers who adhered to basic criteria like how long they have been a member of the movement, and how much time they could give to working on the CC, among others.
Similarly, to ensure transparency and a genuine democratic process, voting was open to members that joined the movement before the elections were announced. Additionally, members’ accounts needed to be verified and active, for them to be able to vote.
As with all DiEM25’s internal democratic procedures, all transnational votes had equal value and were anonymised upon being cast. Furthermore, the results of the vote are in line with our OP’s gender-balance principles.