On the precipice of a decisive summer, DiEM25 is preparing itself for the political struggle that lies before us. The financial crisis that was already underway since our failure to deal with the previous one has been turbo-charged by the economic slump caused by the pandemic, and the inability of those in power to react with meaningful policies.
It is our historic duty, when the European Union is dissolved in all but name, to represent through our politics, through our principles, and through our unity, the United Europe we want to build.
External Actions
This month we:
Launched the Progressive International (PI): DiEM25 co-founded the Progressive International, a global initiative for uniting progressive struggles across the world – an idea born out of a meeting between Yanis Varoufakis and Bernie Sanders two years ago. You can re-watch the inaugural presentation ‘Internationalism or Extinction’ featuring featuring five members of the PI Council: Prime Minister of Iceland Katrín Jakobsdóttir; Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate; Greek MP and DiEM25 co-founder Yanis Varoufakis; Guatemalan human rights & tech lawyer Renata Ávila; and writer and political analyst Nanjala Nyabola from Kenya.
Continued building on the success of DiEMTV with guests such as Caroline Lucas, James K. Galbraith, Vandana Shiva, Amazon whistleblower Chris Smalls, and many others!
Launched a Green New Deal for Europe articles series on why this COVID-19 crisis is a critical moment to address ecological breakdown: read about how the GNDE could shield us from future pandemics in an article by Redi Pecini.
Completed the first season of the Beyond the Balcony series, aimed at helping us organise across Europe during the pandemic. We had a total of over 100 grassroots organisers participate and close to 30,000 views on our YouTube channel!
Issued a response to Merkel and Macron’s ‘common fund’ which was lauded by many as a “Hamiltonian Moment” (the defining moment for the political unity of the United States was the mutualisation of debt and the creation of a Central Bank by Alexander Hamilton) for Europe. Similarly, pundits celebrated the EU’s declaration of a 750 billion euro transfer package, to which we responded with: “the EC valiantly tried to portray a crushing defeat as a stupendous victory. Conjuring up 750bn euro via leveraged loan guarantees (provided by, mostly, bankrupt states), von der Leyen is hoping the public will lose interest before her package shrinks into macro-insignificance.” We explain what this common fund really represents for Europe.
MeRA25 continued its resistance to the preparations of the Greek government for the austerity to come, through the presentation of alternatives for the environment, the economy, healthcare, tourism, refugees and migrants, and many other areas which are under attack by the right-wing. The possibility of another national election also looms over the country (articles in Greek)
DiEM25 NC France called for a European Rent Strike .
Belgian NC made a statement on George Floyd and racial profiling and discrimination by police in Belgium.
For DiEM25 in the news, you can access the internal area where our Press Team collects all relevant news stories regarding our work!
Internal Actions
This month we:
Finished the consultation for the six All-Member Votes that are set to launch the implementation of DiEM25 2.0!
Launched the new and improved DiEM25 website and members area with improved financial transparency, organising tools and many more exciting features.
Launched our first members’ survey to help us better understand the interests of the membership and improve our capacity for coordinated and impactful actions.
Held more live-recorded CC meetings open to the public and vsible on YouTube.
Next Month in DiEM25: June!
The votes for the finalisation of DiEM25 2.0 will run until the second week of June. Our movement will engage in the implementation of the results of the Prague Process (member proposals for actions and campaign, and the CC vision) based on the results of AMVs.
Another season of DiEM25 TV! Stay tuned and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
If you wish to send a point to be included in the next newsletter, or want to help drafting it, please contact us at office@diem25.org.
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