Campaigning

L’ex-ministre grec des Finances veut lutter contre la pauvreté de façon «concertée» en Europe.

L’ancien ministre grec des Finances, Yanis Varoufakis, fait le tour de l’Europe à la recherche d’alliés pour proposer un programme de gauche aux élections européennes de 2019.

“I find arrest is a proportionate response.” That was the judgement delivered in court last Tuesday by Judge Emma Arbuthnot, presiding over the case brought to court by Julian Assange’s lawyers. Their argument had been that the warrant for his arrest ought to be withdrawn because arresting him (after the extradition request from Sweden had been rescinded)  “was no longer proportionate or in the public interest“.

We have white smoke! DiEM25’s members overwhelmingly approved the name of our new Greek electoral wing – the political party with which DiEM25 will contest elections in Greece, returning the spirit of the Greek Spring to the place of its birth. As with all major DiEM25 decisions, members voted from across Europe, confirming once again that another Europe is not just possible – but that it is here, within DiEM25!

For two years now, DiEM25 has been preserving the spirit of the Greek Spring of 2015 across Europe. Now, as we are preparing to present our progressive program to Europeans across the Union, via the ballot box, the time has come to found the Greek DiEM25 affiliate political party that will return the spirit of the Greek Spring to the country that gave birth to it.

Courtesy of opendemocracy.net, here is the transcript of my speech of 29th January at the House of Commons. The theme? How should Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party secure a progressive Brexit consistent with a socialist agenda for the UK but also with DiEM25’s campaign to democratise Europe.

Delivered in front of an audience of Labour MP and staffers, at the kind invitation of Chuka Ummuna MP.

In what was a tremendous honour, the Bloody Sunday March organising committee invited me to Derry’s Guildhall to deliver the annual memorial lecture highlighting the legacy of Bloody Sunday and linking it with Brexit and DiEM25’s pan-European campaign for democracy and shared prosperity. An audio of my talk is now available here. Afterwards, I was treated to the even greater honour of a public discussion with the legendary civil rights campaigner Bernadette Devlin – DiEM25’s latest member!

Why ‘Bloody Sunday, Brexit & The Democratic Process’ ?

Much like many other parts of the world at that time, the North of Ireland was undergoing a process of profound political change in the early 1970’s.  By the time January 1972 came around the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) had already been holding peaceful protests and marches for close on 4 years.

DECLARATION

We the undersigned, call for an immediate end to investments in new fossil fuel production and infrastructure, and encourage a dramatic increase in investments in renewable energy.