Carpe DiET – Democracy in European Tummies

The other day we (DSC Porto) had the first meeting of 2019. In order to enjoy our meeting — not only intellectually but also physically — we decided to have a feast while we got to know each other and discussed our plans for the months to come.
We called this get-together Carpe DiET – Democracy for European Tummies, and it had all the ingredients of a great gathering: food and comrades.
Spreading around the tables in Café CCOP, which has been so kind to support us and provide us their space, we discussed our “menu” for the year.
Prior to the meeting we selected some activities and printed them to put them under the plate as a paper towel. So you could eat, get some inspiration, write down notes or just ignore the whole thing and eat some curry.
 

 
Here we sum up main topics of our meeting.

Founding a group to participate in the municipal assemblies and meetings.

In these sessions, citizens can participate in the activities of the current administration – including participatory budgets, spending in infrastructure and resources, housing policy, and green transition measures, among other subjects of our Porto1DSC’s choosing.

Participating and supporting local demonstrations

  • Greve Feminista on March 8.
  • Global Strike for Future on March 15 (see global event here; Facebook event here).
  • Our Italian colleagues have something similar going on.

Organising movie screenings + debates

We’ve been cooperating with Climáximo, a group acting against the fossil fuel drilling in Portugal, with whom we’ll start Ciclone: Ciclo de Cinema Climático, a series of movie screenings in universities and high schools, relating to environmental topics, especially drilling.

Building a legal case for future democracy

Investigating the possibility to press charges against the Portuguese state for violating its duty to protect its citizens, especially children, by not putting in place sufficient actions to lower the impact of humans on the environment and the climate (e.g. by pollution). A similar thing is done in the USA: Our Children’s Trust.

European May

Some DiEM25 groups (DSCs) around Europe are organising a political event from the beginning of May, called European May.  The purpose is to engage progressive movements to gain visibility and to create a local network ahead of the European elections. In this context, we’ll see how to support LIVRE.

We think the meeting was a great success. It gained more attention than our usual meetings, we forged some plans, and had great discussions about DiEM25 and the electoral wing.

Our next Carpe DiET meeting will be on February 21.

So feel free to visit us, from wherever you may come.
Kind regards and Carpe DiEM.


Write to us diem25.porto.dsc.001@gmail.com
DSC Porto

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