Almost two years ago, we got together under DiEM25’s broad umbrella to challenge old-style politics, to shatter TINA – the Establishment’s ‘There is No Alternative’ doctrine – at the pan-European level, to turn Europe’s democratisation into a radical, realistic, uniting project.
2017 was an awful year for European democracy. But it was an amazing year for DiEM25. We:
- Rallied tens of thousands of people in cities including Amsterdam, Athens, Brussels, Berlin, Dublin, Hamburg, London, Paris, and Rome, and toured the breadth and length of Greece and Italy, demonstrating that There is An Alternative; that Another Europe Is Already Here!
- Nurtured our activists. There are now 70,000 DiEMers in almost every country on the planet!
- Launched and pushed specific campaigns to expose the Establishment’s worst abuses – and we just filed a lawsuit against the European Central Bank to force them to release #TheGreekFiles
- Launched our European New Deal, our concrete social and economic Policy Agenda, crowd-sourced from DiEMers and experts across the world
- Influenced elections with our interventions, like in Germany, France and the UK, and supported/partnered with candidates or parties that embraced them, like in Catalonia, Zagreb, Denmark and Poland.
- Welcomed progressive leaders to our movement, like Naomi Klein and Richard Sennett
- Kickstarted the process for taking the European New Deal to a polling station near every European – at the Volksbühne Theatre, in Berlin
- Began electing our Coordinating Collective
- Presented the Real State of the Union – in Brussels, at the Bozar Theatre
- Set in motion the ‘Not Just Another Political Party’ endeavour
- Elected our first National Collectives, taking to new levels our ambitious experiment in grassroots transnational democracy – with all members (despite nationality) voting for different national collectives
And we did this by working our hearts out, supported only by you, our members, with modest donations!
2018 will be another difficult year for European democracy. So, let’s make 2018 DiEM25’s year. Let’s work hard to:
- Establish our electoral wing as a significant transnational political force across Europe, in preparation for the May 2019 European Parliament Elections
- Deepen democracy within our movement
- Make DiEM25 the first movement that uses the electoral process to change Europe, rather than allowing the electoral process (the old-style grubby way of ‘doing politics’) to change us
2018 will be no ordinary year. Recently we decided with a huge majority of our members that we should be able to compete in elections to bring our Progressive Agenda to the people of Europe. Our focal point is, naturally, the European Parliament Elections in May 2019.
That means we have just 17 months to make an impact! During these 17 months we must:
- Grow our activist base like never before
- Finalise our Progressive Agenda and adapt it to specific countries, regions and cities
- Consolidate alliances with progressive partners who stand behind our proposals — or run for elections on our own.
In short, we need to build a political machine that will make electorates in 2019 sit up and take notice. And do this while keeping that ‘machine’ subservient to our movement; in accordance with our collective decision that DiEM25 does not become a political party but, instead, creates political/electoral wings so as to use elections as one of its tools for bringing change about across Europe.
It’s only people like you, our committed members and activists who can do this.
Not a DiEM25 member? If there is a DiEMer in you, a few clicks can make a world of difference! Here are a few ways for you to get involved:
- become a member
- make a donation
- volunteer
- join your nearest DiEM25 local group of activists
Let’s make 2018 the springboard that will allow us and our allies to send our loud message both to the Deep Establishment and to the militant, xenophobic populists: “We’re coming for you!”
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