DiEM0216.Press conference, Volksbuhne. Arno-image. All rights reserved.Last
year did not end well, this year took a bad start: Europe will be facing its
test of endurance in 2016, so they said at the beginning of the year. In this
doomsday mood, a manifesto appears: 'The European
Union will be democratised. Or it will disintegrate!' The
deadline is in 10 years, hence the name DiEM25 – Democracy in Europe Movement
2025.
Ten
years to change Europe: a powerful announcement! And a rather optimistic
outlook in the face of last year's turbulence. The man who initiated the DiEM25-movement
knows what he's talking about: Yanis
Varoufakis, leftist economist, former finance minister of
the Syriza government in Greece and 'Rock Star of the Economy' (Business Insider).
Many
have followed every move in the showdown between him and the Eurogroup; the
Referendum; the OXI… The 'Athenian Spring' has failed except in one regard — to
clarify that T.I.N.A. still reigns: There is no Alternative! After all, the
election result should not impede the economic policies that have been accepted
by a previous government. That's what Varoufakis
was told when he insisted on his political mandate.
Megaphone
of the whistleblowers
Reelections
followed, Varoufakis stepped down and left on his motorcycle: a Minister no
more. Now he's back, on the stage of the Volksbühne at the Rosa-Luxemburg Platz
in Berlin. Incidentally, not for the first time. When he shared the stage with
Franco "Bifo" Birardi at the end of 2015, the venue busted at the
seams (here a video
recording). Now again the event has been sold out for
weeks.
Outside,
people are queuing in the rain hoping to snatch remaining tickets. On a banner
at the entrance someone has scribbled: "Stop Merkel's and Gauck's
theatrocraty". When parliaments turn into theatres, theatres have to be
turned into parliaments: enter Varoufakis. He is the amplifier, the megaphone
of the whistleblowers, as he exclaims: "Speak truth to power". And
further: the EU is a "democracy-free zone"! "Democracy in Europe
is dead. And we have let her die."
Can
liberal democrats put up with this? asks Varoufakis insistently. The spectrum
of people around him ranges from the social democrat Gesine Schwan (who ran for
Federal Presidency twice) to militant activists of Blockupy, who gained
notoriety after the blockade of the ECB in Frankfurt.
Postmodern
version of the dreadful 30's
There
is an unanimous agreement: multiple crises exist side by side (debt crisis,
bank crisis, investment crisis, poverty crisis, nationalism crisis, migration
crisis). But there are mainly two enemies: neoliberalism and nationalism.
'Whoever talks about right wing extremism, should not remain silent on
austerity', explains Schwan, diversifying Horkheimer's dictum. Varoufakis is
certain that the lack of democracy and the fatal economic policy go hand in
hand. According to him, the EU has long been the 'sick man of world economy',
who contrarily to China and the US won't recover from the financial crisis, the
'1929 of our generation'.
DiEM0216 Session One, Volksbuhne. Arno-image. All rights reserved.If
we want to avoid a postmodern version of the dreadful 1930's, we need to break
through the vicious cycle of austerity, recession and authority: the more
austerity is prescribed, the bigger the recession will grow and the more
authority is needed by the governments to push through austerity, which in turn
will lead to more recession, and so on… But what is there to be done?
The
answers to this question strongly diverge, sometimes even within the same
party. Dieter Dehm of the LINKE am Morgen called on everyone to stop holding
the 'primitive' belief that the crisis can be surmounted with 'more Europe' and
instead to opt for the national welfare state. The Federal Chairwoman Katja
Kipping on the other hand argued in the evening that 'the Demos cannot
be a national one'. Today the alternative is: transformation into a
transnational democracy or organized barbarism.
Much
remains unclear
10.02..
Day one after the kick-off. Just now I have joined the DiEM movement per mouse
click. Much remains unclear. Is DiEM to turn into a political party like
Podemos in Spain? A social movement? Or a think tank? The dream of a marriage
between capitalism and democracy is over. The dream of a powerful nation-state
too, explains Srecko Horvat, the left-wing thinker behind Varoufakis.
DiEM0216.Volksbunhe. Session one. Srecko Horvat chairs. Arno-image. All rights reserved.Is
there a European dream? A democratic dream? Or is it rather a question about
finally waking up? Only one thing is clear: we can no longer accept opacity.
'We are allergic to a lack of transparency'. Citizens become more and more
transparent, institutions become more and more opaque.
The
European process of decision-making can no longer take place behind sealed
doors, as in the case with the TTIP negotiations. A beam of light needs to
break through the dark, the documents need to be publicized (as is common at
the US FED), the meetings ought to be broadcast in live streaming. This demand
could change everything – just like in a mediocre Sci-Fi-Paranoia-movie.
Everything remains normal, until a tiny change occurs, a button pushed by
accident, and suddenly all hell breaks lose. This simile obviously came from
Slavoj Zizek, who promises: 'Stay truthful to your
particular demand and things will start to happen.'
We need you like in 1937
DiEM
could turn precisely into such a Sci-Fi-movie: is the market the Matrix? Didn't
the EU start as a cartel for coal and steel, a kind of OPEC? Will we opt for
the right pill? Did the vision of a unified Europe once seem just as utopian as
the demand for its democratization? And is it not utopian to hope for the
preservation of the status quo, in light of the crisis? As the thought of the
Sci-Fi-movie crosses my mind, the evening event starts on livestream. I follow
everything from my couch after having taken part in the work groups during the
day.
An
interesting mix of people has formed around 'Yanis' on stage, almost familiar,
even though their outlooks differ greatly: politicians, activists, artists like
Brian Eno, virtual revolutionaries like Julian Assange (who joined via video),
but also activists turned politicians like Gerardo Pisarello, the first
representative mayor from Barcelona, who talks fervidly of a 'network of rebel
cities' and who demands international brigades: 'We need you like in 1937.'
DiEM0216.Session 3.Volksbuhne. Marga Tsomou. Arno-image. All rights reserved.This
indicates that the notions of democracy diverge widely. This was already clear
at the beginning of this long day as Marga Tsomou reported about a general
strike that took place in Greece last week. Curiously no one demanded that the
government step down. This means: the game is over. No one believes in
democracy any more. At least not in its institutional form. The demand for
democracy however, is as big as ever.
Ulrike
Guérot, (European
Democracy Lab) warns of a 'wild democracy' on the streets and
squares: Democracy is not only participatory but also a functional
organization. Europe needs to become a republic, a res publica. But according
to French participants, the citizens of Europe are not equal. During that very
night, a law had been voted through in France which will deny civic rights to
all those who are considered a national security threat.
DiEM026.Session 2,Volksbuhne. Ulrike Guerot. Arno-image. All rights reserved.
National
security threat
That's
exactly the message ISIS tries to convey to young Muslims: 'You are not part of
the republic.' And what about the millions of refugees who came to Europe last
year? Or what about Jacob
Appelbaum? A partner of Edward Snowden, 'American
by birth, but immigrant by political circumstances', he declared: 'I came to Europe with the promise of democracy.'
Insistently
Appelbaum called for a greater social autonomy against the backdrop of
omnipresent surveillance. But how to achieve it? Some in the meeting were
enthusing about the potentialities of the social media: 'Martin Luther King didn’t have social media, we do!'.
Others however, warned of its dangers: 'Even if you
don’t use the internet, the internet uses you.'
The
Internet as the popular academy for the new movement?
Geert
Lovink of the Institute of
Network Cultures made clear that the
Internet is anything but 'horizontal'. It is a vertical power structure – and
it does not belong to us. At the same time, it became evident that activists
can learn all kinds of methods that developed with the use of the Internet: organized networks
that interact without being physically together. They make us question the left
myth of 'unity' and learn new types of openness.
DiEM0216.Sessin 3.Volksbuhne. Hilary Wainwright. Arno-image. All rights reserved.An
Italian dissident hits the mark: 'We are building a strange left.' Members of
the Green party from France and Hungary, United Leftists from Slovenia, critics
of the media from Holland, activist publicists like Hilary Wainwright of Red
Pepper or Sławomir Sierakowski of Krytyka
Polityczna, initiatives like European Alternatives, the European Movement from Italy, the Transform!-Network (European Network for alternative Thinking and Political Dialog) from
Austria, the Right to the City-Movement from Croatia, Alter Summit from Belgium, or Right to Change (equality democracy justice) from Ireland, the veterans of openDemocracy.org (free thinking for the world) or the
media-enthusiasts of acTVism.org, etc. A start into a new democratic modernity?
The
economists were talking about cutting debt, about unconditional basic income
and about how a New Green Deal can be an incentive for new investors. Others
suggested local economies and alternative currencies and evoked the suppressed
histories of local communities which support one another through a system of
contracts (similar to the Hanse which no Empire dared to attack).
The
main problem of the Left
One
of the main questions was whether politics should become the centre of
attention or whether the economic and social problems should be dealt with
first. Isn't it the main problem of the Left not to be able to give a new
perspective to the people, now that it cannot promise to raise their salaries
any more?
The
Right has a simple answer to this: we stop the migration and your salary
remains the same. The labour union official Hans-Jürgen Urban (IG Metall)
lamented how difficult it was to convince German workers to stand up for their European
fellows, as for instance in Greece. The activist unionists’ RIGHT
TO CHANGE from Ireland on the other hand were raving about the past labour
disputes in Germany, during which the workers supported factory strikes. If the
strike succeeded, it started all over again in a new factory.
Just
like those factories, the different countries need to support each other: PUTTING THE DEMO BACK INTO DEMOCRACY and this means: Putting
feet on the streets! Elections are coming up in Ireland. On 20 February (one
week before elections) a big demo will take place: “Show us the support of the
European people!”
DiEM0216.Volksbuhne. Session 3. Arno-image. All rights reserved.The activists of the Altersummit, for their part, invited everyone to
travel to Brussels on the 24 February where a lawsuit against TTIP will be
negotiated in the constitutional court of Brussels: “We need a second Seattle
on a continental platform!”
Common
experiences
Most
importantly, social bonds need to be formed on the basis of common experiences.
Reasons for such bonds exist aplenty: 2017 elections are coming up in France
and in Germany. While Marine Le Pen of the Front National can hope to become
France's first female president, the right-wing populists of the AfD ('Alternative für Deutschland' – Alternative for
Germany) have become the third-strongest party in Germany. Furthermore, Germany
will be chairing the G20 in 2017.
Therefore
the activists of blockupy have decided to relocate their activities to Berlin
and have called for an autumn-mobilization with the aim of occupying squares
all over Germany's capital and block the 'German Europe': 'the German elections
have to be europeanized.' Whether Europe will turn into a res publica or
whether a European Commune will develop can probably only be determined in
2025.
But
if it is true that 'democracy' has merely been an empty signifier, it is now
important to redefine its meaning. Or to revolutionize it. That will be this
year's focus of the Jour Fixe
Initiative Berlin which started last Sunday
with a lecture by Alex
Weipert on the 'second revolution' in Germany: the Rätebewegung (council movement) of 1919/20.
Another
Europe is possible?
The
Rätebewegung failed mainly due to a lack of supra-regional coordination. But
this would hardly be a problem today. What we can learn from this period is,
that we do not need to choose between Parliament (Party) and plenum (council)
right away but that both can – no: must! – coexist.
DiEM0216.Volksbuhne. Session 3 – Mary Fitzgerald chairs. Arno-image. All rights reserved.This is the only way to revive democracy:
through gatherings, assemblies, town hall meetings and conventions like this
one in the Volksbühne. The Icelandic Pirate Party demonstrates how to do it: in
Iceland a new constitution
has been written with the direct participation of its citizens. Another Europe is possible? “It’s not only possible, she
is on her way – sometimes I can feel her breathing…”
Thanks to Moh Hamdi for translating from the original German, published here on February 11, 2016.