In case you missed it, here’s what we’re up to currently:
Our bid to build a transnational political party is taking shape!
Over a weekend of meetings with potential political partners in France, we took vital steps towards building the progressive political alliance Europe desperately needs.
Among those we met: Génération-s’, the movement of former French Education Minister and presidential candidate Benoît Hamon. Our delegation also met DiEM25 activists from across the country to get their take on the issues from the grassroots level.
Next stop: March, when we hold a meeting in Naples with our political partners from all European countries to form, pending approval of our members, a council that will govern the transnational party list. By April, the combined forces joining the transnational party will have agreed on a basic European programme. And in June we roll out the party to the peoples of Europe with a series of large-scale events across Europe’s capitals. Read all about it here. Exciting times!
We’re developing our Constituent Assembly paper!
We’re now developing the framework for our “Constituent Assembly” paper — a roadmap for how we’ll draft the Constitutional pillar of our Progressive Agenda (which we plan to take to EU parliamentary election ballots in 2019!).
A draft of the framework document should be completed by March 15. We will share this draft for members’ feedback and then put it to a vote on April 15.
As ever, all DiEM25 members are invited to contribute to the drafting of this framework as per the questionnaire found here. Send your proposals by February 28 to Tommaso Visone and Marc Almagro at constitution@diem25.org so they can be included in the public database that will generate the first draft.
If approved by our members, the Constituent Assembly paper will be included in the transnational political party’s founding manifesto — a manifesto that will also be voted by our members, as well as by the members of our “electoral wing” partner organisations.
We’re growing our network in Ireland and the UK
On January 27, DCS Belfast members gathered for a strategy meeting to formulate priorities for the upcoming year. Many of our Dublin members attended as well, as they tackled the important question of building an “all-island”, cross party, cross border response to Brexit.
The meeting was held almost a year from Yanis Varoufakis’ last visit to Belfast, so it was particularly special that DIEM25 co-founder returned to address the meeting, having been the Keynote speaker at the Bloody Sunday memorial in Derry the previous day:
The energy in the room was matched by a deep commitment to speed up DIEM25’s development in Ireland with sharp focus on 2019.
Our emerging base of activists in the UK met on Sunday, January 28 to plan its next steps, together with Yanis and Rosemary Bechler representing the Coordinating Collective. The next day, DiEM25 UK and Yanis, joined by Advisory Panel member Anthony Barnett, held a Q&A and debate in Portcullis House, hosted by Catherine West, Labour MP, founder of the former All-party Parliamentary Group on UK-EU Relations. All present said they wished to be invited to more. Yanis was asked a huge range of question from how to inspire people, to who DiEM25 could ally themselves with under the heading: “How can Britain, under Brexit conditions, best have a progressive influence over European democracy?”
Yesterday evening Yanis, alongside MP’s Heidi Alexander and Alison McGovern, was invited by Chuka Ummuna to address Labour MPs and councillors at a meeting packed to the gills in a House of Commons Committee Room, called by the Labour Campaign for the Single Market. Here he unfolded the many useful dimensions of a Norway plus approach to Brexit that could make the Labour Party in Britain a beacon for European progress. He also urged the campaign to change its name.
Here’s the audio from Yanis’address at the House of Commons:
We’re partnering with (the people who could become) Belgrade’s next administration
Our local group of activists in Serbia is teaming up with “Don’t let Belgrade d(r)own”, a grassroots initiative to bring the city back to its citizens that will be competing in the local elections in March.
We’re having a birthday party…
Our movement is turning 2, and to mark the occasion we’re holding a weekend of work-oriented (!) celebrations in Berlin. The agenda includes workshops, brunches, hangouts and of course a damn good party. If you’re coming along, be sure to tell our Berlin 1 local group at berlin1dsc@de.diem25.org.
We’re activating our ‘electoral wing’ in Greece, with a convention in Athens!
On March 26, our Greek National Collective (NC) will host a party convention in Athens to launch a new political party, DiEM25’s ‘electoral wing’ in Greece. More info coming soon!
And finally, we’re boosting our comms team. Want to be a part of it?
As our ambitions are taking shape to put our Progressive Agenda to the peoples of Europe, we need to strengthen how we communicate to the world. So we’re thrilled to announce some great new additions to our communications team.
- Davide Castro is our Social Media Coordinator. He is 25, from Portugal, based in Brussels. He loves Belgian beer and hates sharing it.
- Nataša Zorko is our new Graphics Coordinator. She’s 27, from Slovenia, and based in New Zealand (do we have a global team or what?).
Both of them are hardcore DiEMers and will be helping us take our comms to the next level as we wrestle with the Establishment towards 2019.
Do you want to join our comms team? We are now looking for:
- visual designers: illustrators, graphic designers
- writers, who can write for our site about the issues that matter
If you fit that description, we want to hear from you! Mail comms@diem25.org with a few sentences on your field of expertise, availability, languages and location, and we’ll come back with next steps.
Carpe DiEM!
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