DiEM25: One Year On

[vc_row css_animation=”fadeIn”][vc_column el_class=”oyo_openning_text”][vc_column_text css_animation=”fadeIn”]In February 2016, we launched our movement with a simple goal: to democratise Europe. Back then, the establishment media quickly dismissed us as ‘too radical’ and ‘utopian’, and went back to the business of preserving the status quo for their corporate and political masters.

Well, a year on, our journey to ‘radical utopia’ is going quite well! We now have nearly 40,000 members in 56 countries, crossed swords with the Establishment with campaigns on migration and transparency, assembled a pack of progressive leaders like Noam Chomsky, Elif Şafak and Brian Eno to help guide our movement, and developed an economic agenda to save Europe in a pioneering grassroots democratic process that gives every single member a say. Here’s a detailed look at what we’ve done over the past year.

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February 2016

• Launched our movement with an event at the historic Volksbühne theatre in Berlin, alongside a wide range of progressive thinkers and doers, to a crowd of 1,200
• Published our manifesto for democratising Europe, in 19 languages

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March 2016

• Co-organised the Democracy In Europe event in Rome, to present DiEM25 in Italy
• Launched our ‘Transparency in Europe Now’ campaign calling for EU institutions to open their decision-making processes

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April 2016

• Held an Assembly in Vienna to discuss solutions for the most urgent crisis Europe is facing: refugees and migration
• Shared a stage with Noam Chomsky at the New York Public Library, where he cited DiEM25 as “the only hope for Europe”

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May 2016

• Co-organised the ‘Vote In’ event in London, to make the radical case for the UK to stay in the EU

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June 2016

• Welcomed UK Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell to our ranks (he would later become a member of our Advisory Panel)
• Spoke at the anniversary event of Barcelona En Comú in Spain, to encourage voters there to elect a progressive government
• Supported Serbia’s ‘Don’t Drown Belgrade’ protest against corruption, violence and media suppression
• Joined the global call to free Julian Assange, on the fourth anniversary of his political asylum, with speeches at an event in Brussels
• Met Italy’s Five Star Movement in Rome to urge them to take up our demands for a democratic transformation of the EU

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July 2016

• Called on EU leaders to stop the financial/fiscal waterboarding of Italy, Spain and Portugal
• Organised our fourth ‘Speakers Corner’ event in Cologne, a public grassroots forum on democracy, ecology and economics
• Held our fourth ‘Food4Europe’ event in Sardinia, an open meeting of grassroots activists to discuss ways forward for the EU

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August 2016

• Welcomed the Mayor of Naples to DiEM25
• Held an open debate in Aegina, Greece with our coordinating team (150 people attended)
• Organised a meeting between DiEM25 activists and renowned sociologist Saskia Sassen in Amsterdam to debate how to redesign democratic institutionalisation

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September 2016

• Unveiled our newly-developed online voting platform, to give a voice to every DiEM25 member
• Voted in our Organising Principles, after a wide-ranging democratic process to develop them
• Established a legal presence for our movement (International Association under Belgian/EU law)
• Spoke at the three-day-long Fête de l’Humanité in Paris on how humanists can reclaim Europe
• Co-organised the ‘Europe of the Future?’ conference in Budapest, bringing together leading European green and progressive thinkers
• Welcomed Italian Left leader Nicola Fratoianni to DiEM25
• Marked a milestone with DiEM25 Spontaneous Collectives now represented in 18 countries
• Embarked on a major collaborative process to build our Progressive Agenda for Europe, our antidote to the EU’s ‘There Is No Alternative’

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October 2016

• Announced the teams that will coordinate and guide our movement to democratise the EU – our Coordinating Collective and Advisory Panel – including leading activists, artists, scholars and political figures like Noam Chomsky, Brian Eno and Ken Loach
• Supported the #BlackProtest against Poland’s proposed law to stop abortion access
• Co-organised an event in London on how to revitalise progressive politics in Brexit Britain
• Participated in the Human Chain protest in Barcelona against CETA, TTIP and TISA
• Launched DSC News, to showcase what DiEM25 is doing at grassroots level

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November 2016

• Held a membership-wide vote to decide our position on the UK’s Brexit process
• Debated far-right politician Marion Le Pen live on Italian TV
• Participated in a workshop in Thessaloniki, Greece to help shape Europe’s emerging radical Left
• Drew up our first Validating Council, a team to vote on behalf of members whenever a decision has to be made very quickly

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December 2016

• Launched our #StopTheDeal campaign to save one’s life and shatter the EU-Turkey refugee deal. 50,000 people signed our petition in the first week.
• Held a broad democratic exercise, involving all our members across Europe, to determine DiEM25’s position on Italy’s upcoming referendum (85% of our members chose ‘No’)
• Held the first countrywide meeting of DiEM25 activists from Germany (60 people attended)
• Organised a Q+A in Zagreb to a packed-out theatre of 1,200 people, on why Europe is collapsing and what we can all do about it
• Surpassed 30,000 members in 56 countries
• Held a conference in Prague on alternative ways forward for the EU, with a host of activists and politicians from central Europe

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January 2017

• Spoke at Activsm’s event in Munich alongside Edward Snowden about the urgency today for political activism and grassroots movements
• Made our case for a progressive Brexit at the Guardian’s Brexit: An Unorthodox View event in London
• Launched DiEM25 UK at an interactive, grassroots-powered session with a crowd of 400 at Conway Hall in London
• Participated in the 5th Congress of the European Left in Germany
• Welcomed French presidential hopeful Benoît Hamon’s embrace of DiEM25

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February 2017

• Presented the first abstract of our European New Deal paper, a key part of our Progressive Agenda for Europe

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=”fadeIn”][vc_column][vc_empty_space height=”55px”][vc_text_separator title=”Can we count on you to keep our movement going strong?” color=”custom” el_class=”h2″ accent_color=”#ed2f00″][vc_empty_space height=”55px”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=”fadeIn”][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_cta h2=” Join!” style=”flat” add_button=”bottom” btn_title=”Becoma a member!” btn_color=”danger” btn_align=”left” btn_i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-forward” btn_add_icon=”true” btn_link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Finternal.diem25.org%2Fen%2Fusers%2Fsign_up|title:Becoma%20a%20member!|target:%20_blank|”][/vc_cta][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_cta h2=”Donate!” style=”flat” add_button=”bottom” btn_title=”Make a contribution!” btn_color=”danger” btn_align=”left” btn_i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-forward” btn_add_icon=”true” btn_link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Finternal.diem25.org%2Fdonations%2Fnew|title:Make%20a%20contribution!|target:%20_blank|”][/vc_cta][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_cta h2=” Participate!” style=”flat” add_button=”bottom” btn_title=”Volunteer!” btn_color=”danger” btn_align=”left” btn_i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-forward” btn_add_icon=”true” btn_link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fdiem25.org%2Flocal-groups-dscs%2F|title:Volunteer!|target:%20_blank|”][/vc_cta][/vc_column][/vc_row]