Diemin tiedotus (Euroopanlaajuinen sähköpostilista)

DiEM 25 UK candidate vote: concerns

Hi,

I wanted to circulate my concerns about the vote that has recently been called on DiEM25 UK’s proposal to support 15 specific candidates in the UK general election on 6th June. I have made my concerns known to DiEM25 UK via Slack, and judging by the responses there, there are others who share these concerns.

My concerns are:

• The idea of ‘principled voting’ seems something of a distraction at the moment, IMHO, given the UK electoral system and the fact that we are days away from a general election. After the election, there will either be a Conservative government or a Labour government (no third option is at all likely). As with the French elections and Macron vs Le Pen, people in the UK need to cast their vote for the party most likely to beat the Conservatives in their area. Voting for any other party is, given the first-past-the-post electoral system in force, to waste one’s vote. A web site exists, tactical2017.com, which for every constituency in the UK will advise you on which way to vote to beat the Conservatives. I understand DiEM25 UK was aware of this site but chose not to recommend DiEM members use it, but rather to propose this list of candidates instead. Given that there are 650 MPs in the UK parliament I can’t help but think that recommending this web site would have been much more effective than recommending a list of 15 candidates. I also understand from DiEM25 UK that this list is part of a longer-term plan to make contact with particular MPs who share our progressive values. This does of course seem valuable, but I feel is something that should be happening in the background for now.

• The inclusion of Nick Clegg in the list of MPs DiEMers are recommended to vote for. As it happens, in his constituency of Sheffield Hallam, it seems he is the one most likely to win and keep the Conservatives out, but in general, as Deputy Prime Minister in coalition with the Conservatives, I’m not aware of any progressive policy he succeeded in getting implemented. The only thing he did succeed in doing was a) breaking a cast-iron promise to abolish student tuition fees and b) supporting the Health and Social Care Act, which included moves towards creeping privatisation of the UK National Health Service. Hence while he may espouse progressive policies I’m sceptical he can really be trusted to implement them in practice.

More generally, I discussed this type of vote, which concerns a local issue but on which all DiEMers are invited to vote, with other members at the Berlin event. Many of us, while we understand the laudable principle that all issues are treated as European and therefore everyone gets to vote, are concerned that in practice, depending on the peculiarities of each vote, it can be extremely hard to understand local issues in sufficient depth to be able to make an informed decision. As regards Nick Clegg, for instance, on the basis of the very limited information provided one might consider him to be an appropriate candidate to recommend, but when one is made aware of his record one might view things differently.

Thanks and Carpe DiEM,

Adam Newby

DiEM25 Andalucía

DiEM 25 UK candidate vote: concerns

Dear Adam,

You are doing very well expressing your concerns. Since here in Greece many members do not have a clue about british politics I will forward you opinion to them.

I also asked from Anghela Ghadery who is a member of Athens DSC and also a member of UK PNC to express her view. It may be useful.

Apostolos has asked me to write about this to give some guidance for Athens DSC members to decide how they vote.

So Theresa May called a General Election very unexpectedly, having said categorically that she would not, and with very little time for campaigning, clearly in the belief that she would win with a large majority and
little opposition while she negotiates Brexit. However, it now looks as if she has underestimated Jeremy Corbyn.

DiEM U.K. had to decide how they should respond to the election campaign and create a strategy.

Firstly we created a Provisional National Committee (PNC) (by self nomination temporarily due to the urgency of the situation). It was agreed on Yianis’s suggestion at a meeting of the committee in London on 6th May
that we should make a list of Members of Parliament (MPs) who we judged to fit with exactly or to some degree, with DiEM’s principles.

Committee members have decided on criteria and also made a table showing the best fit of each of the UK’s main parties with DiEM principles before nominating Possible MPs for our list. The list is now complete with
a short commentary on each MP to explain why he or she has been chosen.

We now want DiEM to vote to approve our list before we email each MP to tell them that we have chosen them as a member of our ‘dream team’. We will also of course go to the mainstream media with our list.

What is our purpose?

1) to lobby MPs from across several parties

2) to take the opportunity publicise DIEM25 and what it represents

We have to remember two issues particular to the U.K. I think:

1) The difficulty of deciding on DiEM’s role when the UK is planning to leave the EU

2) To most DiEM U.K. members, (it seems to me), the idea of DiEM25 becoming a party is not at all welcome. Most U.K. members are supportive of DiEM because it is not a party!

My opinion?

1) As we find ourselves in this position less than two weeks away from the election, I think this list is a very good way of making DiEM25 known more widely, and makes a helpful move towards MPs seeing cross party common
progressive views and thus going some way towards eroding the old party entrenched positions.

2) Had there been much more time, I would have liked to see DiEM25 taking the opportunity to go to the ballot box in the U.K. because

a. Brexit hasn’t actually happened yet and there are still some who believe it never will

b. I believe that DiEM could fill that gap between neoliberalism and nationalism more than anywhere in the U.K. as I see people clinging to one of these camps now but with uncertainty because they haven’t heard of any
other way. I believe Brexit could be a golden opportunity for DiEM to lead U.K. Citizens back to where a majority want to remain and get to work on restructuring the EU.

3) Any hope of 2) above would be contingent on making a pan-European narrative strong enough to appeal to the very insular British but this could be the time when our 'special relationship’ with the US is regarded less
highly thanks to Trump.

4) Any hope of 2) or 3) above would be contingent on DiEM25 U.K. members approving the movement’s progression to a party!

For now, I would recommend Athens DSC to vote for this strategy and so help DiEM’s profile in the U.K. Once the election is over, we will return to working on our U.K.New Deal and our position and strategy for Brexit
negotiations.

Thank you!

Regards,

Apostolos Gogakos

AthensDSC Coordinator

layout and design collaboration

Hi,

it would be very useful to have some cooperation with DSC's "propaganda"-material, i.e. logos, graphics, icons, design, layout, ... even bi-, multilingual texts.

Is there anybody interested in this? How do you produce your webdesign, leaflets, ... ?

I just started with Adobe InDesing and Illustrator.

Here are my first artworks (see the jpg's attached)

Best

Hans
Vienna1DSC

DiEM25 action to support the "European Citizens' Initiative: Ban glyphosate and protect people and the environment from toxic pesticides"

Dear
friends,

I think
time has come for DiEM25 to take serious action to support the European Citizens' Initiative: Ban
glyphosate and protect people and the environment from toxic pesticides!

This is exactly
what DiEM25 should promote at the European level with the support of all the
DSCs!

Here you can find the link to the ECI:

https://act.wemove.eu/campaigns/ice-glyphosate-fr

https://stopglyphosate.org/fr/

DiEM25
could play a major role in this Initiative calling on the European Commission
to propose to member states a ban on glyphosate, to reform the pesticide
approval procedure, and to set EU-wide mandatory reduction targets for
pesticide use.

This
crucial campaign should be our first “environmental” pan European campaign!

The members
of our DSC in Cagliari are ready to fight!

I look
forward to hearing from you soon

Best

Alessio

DiEM25 and the nuclear ban at th United Nations

G7 meeting in Taormina at the end of may has fostered the mainstream vision of a global "growth" system, made possible thru war as economic media of social control. Sicily is part of this system, with Sigonella Augusta Birgi bases and Niscemi's electronic warfare MUOS, all essential parts of US and NATO military interventions in north Africa and Middle East.

Nonviolent struggles of great figures like Danilo Dolci and Pio La Torre, compassion for thousands of migrants drowned in the sea south of Sicily, and the won battle against Comiso' euromissiles in the '80s, can give us a cultural background for a real alternative to be.

Many events took place in the Island, before and during G7. After it, the most significant will be the 1st of July, a manifestation that will confirm popular opposition to Mobile User Objective System, an electromagnetically polluting apparatus, wich serves as driving media for bombing by drones, the world around. We will bike ride from Comiso' civil airport to the illegal MUOS warfare in Niscemi, to build a symbolic link between the victorious struggle for peace of European people in the 80s - against cruise and pershing nuclear missiles - and an advocated victory on the illegally built Mobile User Objective System today.

The european DiEM25 DSCs can maybe mobilize themselves, together with Comiso-Niscemi protesters ? Every town and country has his own warfare to carry about. A collective nonviolent activity spread in Europe, can prevent tragedies and strenghten will for peace ?

After G7, G20 meeting in Hamburg will take place, the same days of the UN Assembly where a new Treaty, to definitely ban the nuclear bombs from the World, will be signed.

Can we as DiEMers start a global initiative of peace during G20 Alternative Summit, counteracting State chiefs behavior versus Syria, Libya, Yemen and whatelse, and strongly ask for a real, effective ban Treaty, to save humanity from a nuclear war ?

Alessandro Capuzzo, DiEM25 Trieste1, Italy

Discussing the party issue & more

Dear all,

As part of a broader effort to extend the functions of the Members Area, we have just added two new things:

• A log of past and current Validating Council votes, which you can access at https://internal.diem25.org/vc/vote_log

• A video filmed at the last CC teleconference where we discuss the Berlin aftermath / party issue at length - find it at https://internal.diem25.org/meeting_summaries . We decided to make this the first "CC answering questions" video because so many people in DiEM25 are presently discussing the topic. As this first discussion got much longer than intended, we have not yet been able to film discussions of the other questions that some of you sent in, but do keep sending us topics that you feel would interest a lot of people. We are also still looking for a user-friendly platform to have regular chats with CC members, as you recall the first platform was quite a disaster, so if you have other recommendations, please let us know.

The next step in the 'party' discussion will probably be a vote between the four different models of involvement in the European elections which have been suggested. I'll summarize them by the kind of voting recommendation that might emerge:

1) "Vote party X - they come close to our ideas for Europe" (like the all-member votes on Zagreb or France)
2) "If you're in Poland, vote party X. If you're in Spain, vote party Y - they will form a DiEM25-friendly subgroup in the European parliament"
3) "If you're in France, there are 5 candidates running on a 'Party X - DiEM25' list, 10 candidates running for Party X who are unaffiliated with DiEM25, and 2 candidates running on a 'Party Y - DiEM25 list."

4) "If you're in Greece, vote DiEM25 The Party"

(Countries chosen at random ;-) )

For as long as DiEM25 remains a movement focusing foremost on realising its policies in whichever way possible, these models don't exclude each other, it is imaginable to do 1+2+3+4 at the same time, or just 1+2+3 (never run as a party, only have a group of DiEM25-friendly MEPs from other parties), or 2+4 (no recommendations, no common lists), or only type 1 (only make recommendations) as before, none, or any combination. This will be subject to a vote. Afterwards there will be votes on organizational questions (how to make it happen, relationship of DiEM25 to the new entities, if any) and on which model we should apply where. As per the CC letter after Berlin, please have a discussion in your DSC about this issue and send a summary of the DSC members' opinions to the CC by the end of July at the latest, but the earlier the better, since we may have to schedule the first vote earlier than expected.

Please forward this email to all DSC members. Do not post content from the Members Area (especially information about ongoing VC votes, CC meeting summaries or this particular video), in public places like Facebook, just tell people that they can go to the https://internal.diem25.org to see these.

Thank you and Carpe DiEM!

Judith

Elections for the Coordinating Collective

Dear all,

Just a quick heads-up: the CC has just decided that the first-ever internal elections (contesting 6 of the 12 Coordinating Collective seats) shall take place at the end of August, even though the Organising Principles would allow delaying them until September. The reason is that a lot of political events happen in September, including DiEM25's "Real State of the Union" event in Brussels, so it would be difficult to replace half the team in the middle of this. August tends to be very quiet, so it is perfect for the transition.

As per our Organising Principles, any member will be able to declare himself/herself a candidate, without needing endorsements. In the election, members will freely select 6 people from a long list of candidates, who will present themselves by text and video. The only voting constraint will be for gender balance.

We expect to publish a call for candidates by the end of this month, outlining what is expected of CC members. Please do NOT declare your candidacy before knowing the requirements of the job ;-) After a period of collecting candidacies, members will have several weeks to review the candidates on our website and to form an opinion.

Carpe DiEM!

Judith

Discussing the party issue & more

Dear all,

Since people asked: we have a lot of time still till 2019, and some of the options we may want to cooperate with may not even exist yet (e.g. that broad progressive German alliance Thomas talked about in the video), so we will take baby steps on this one and we will have plenty of discussions and votes beyond August... and even beyond December ;-) It's important to get this right. The CC does not expect to receive a huge paper from your discussions, only

1) a first glimpse of how DSC members feel about the various models of political involvement

2) whether they believe that there currently are local/national/European forces DiEM25 might support

You could do this in the form of a statistic:

10 like model 1, 0 are against.

7 like model 2, 3 are against. They see the advantages as ... and disadvantages as ...

5 like model 3, 4 are against, 1 undecided. Many are worried that... . There should be a condition that ...

For the local elections on November 10th, 3 members believe DiEM25 might support party X, while 2 believe DiEM25 should support party Y and 5 believe none of the existing parties/coalitions are close to DiEM25's ideas. For the national elections, ...

A request: please make sure that only DiEM25 members are privy to these discussions, and to any discussions about the contents of the Member Area or DSC Coordination Group. There is a reason we put these texts behind a login screen. As you know, only DiEM25 members can be DSC members. While many DSC meetings and DSC online discussion groups are open to people who are "just looking", please ensure that this kind of discussion only happens in closed meetings / closed groups - we would not want political party representatives to influence the discussions or journalists to write about them before we have found a common position.

Carpe DiEM!

Judith

Discussing the party issue & more

Dear Judith dear all,

In Athens1 DSC we discussed on the 12th of June 2017 in the diem25 offices (15 members);

0 members like model 1 "Vote party X"

0 members like model 2 "If you're in Poland, vote party X. If you're in Spain, vote party Y etc"

0 members like model 3 "If you're in France, there are 5 candidates running on a 'Party X etc"

9
members (majoriy) voted "If you're in Greece, vote DiEM25 The Party" but the reasoning behind them differs.

-Some
said because they think there is a huge political gap in the parliament right now that DIEM25 can fill.

-Others
said that they agree only if DIEM25 becomes a paneuropean party and not just national.

-Others
said that they agree only if the party is real democratic with revocable represantatives "liguid democracy", a collective one not around a leader, from base to top, spontaneous and self-organised, with synthesis on policy papers, (we stil do not have answers on why some proposals
we made are not concluded in the European New Deal), transparency, internal voting, (we have a non elected, non transparent PNC and communication coordinator right now), drawings and voting amongst members of the same country or community for
national or local internal elections, because it is not possible for example for an Irish to know about German PNC members, so as to decide his vote.

-And
others said they agree only if the party is based on some principles and defends the worker's and farmer's interests and also has concrete proposals not only for the rest pillars (trasparency, green policy, immigration, workers and european constitution) but
also for the healthcare and the education.

-Others
said that in order to become a party we have to expand first, make new dsc's, support other green and left movements so as to have a strong base because it is possible that we become a party and fail in the elections.

-Lastly,
referring to the alliances after we become a party some said that we do not need to ally with any other party, but some others said that we need to ally with other democratic parties or democratic parties that are against the memorandum of the troika and
more specifically "ANTARSYA" and "Plefsi Eleutherias" were two names which were heard.

5
members abstained/ did not know what to vote and

1
member voted against every option because he said that diem25 is and must stay a movement and not a political party or take part in the elections, and said that now is far away from its start, last year and that diem25 proposals for Greece are economy-technical
and have nothing to do with democracy.

I
hope I gave you an insight in Athens DSC. We are also preparing a common statement in Greek, I will send this also next week. Is there a different CC email that I should send it?

Carpe
diem,

Apostolos
Gogakos

Athens1
DSC Coordinator

Discussing the party issue - DSC-vienna2

the party issue: how we discussed it in the DSC-Vienna2 group:

we where 3 people on that evening and we all agreed that DiEM becomming the

first truly european party is a good idea. and we support the idea.

as for the question if DiEM should participate in elections, we are also for

it. (if we DiEM meets the criteria in

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_political_party

DiEM would also get funded by the EU)..

in austria we had a few attempts for a left wing group for the EU:

2004 LINKE 0.8%

2009 KPÖ (austrian communists) 0.7% of votes

2014 Europa Anders 2.14% of votes

as we only have 18 seats in austria each seat would need about 5.5%. as the

previous attempts for a left wing candidacy where not that successfull i

would expect that most activists from the "europa anders" (communists,

pirates, independent, ..) would be happy to fight for the DiEM lable. (i

already talked to a few activists about this and they seem to like the

idea).

the only other party that, in its political direction somewhat compatible

with DiEM views are the austrian greens. (they had 3 mandates 14.5%)

while a DiEM candidacy would be seen as a competition, i would expect that

DiEM would attract different voters as well and thus, in the end strengthen

the left).

in larger countries e.g. germany with 99 seats an additional candidacy of

DiEM would (even against "Die Linke") only strengthen the left by catering

to slightly different voter preferences..

mond.

Tärkeitä äänestyksiä tulossa liikkeen järjestävistä periaatteista (OP) ja puolue(i)ksi organisoitumisesta:

http://mailchi.mp/diem25/vote-now-for-thematic-groups-and-elected-national-collectives?e=9f8255621b