Neo-nico-tinoids - bees 7 petitions! In German alone! 2 year ban – will be in force in December 2013 http://www.farmersguardian.com/home/arable/european-commission-confirms-december-1-neonicotinoid-ban/55842.article
Hugh’s Fish Fight, Tim’s Fish Fight, 850k+ signatures A reasonably green and sustainable CFP reform Rapporteur Ulrike Rodust underlined the role civil society played.
European Citizens’ Initiative – first to get 1 million http://www.right2water.eu/ “Water is a human right” Result: water is excluded from the Concessions Directive http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/barnier/headlines/speeches/2013/06/20130621_en.htm
BUT what about Climate Change? How can this be approached using these tools? Just too vast…
Open Society Foundations “Solidarity Now” http://www.solidaritynow.org/ But how to grip the problem?
Stats from 5 th July
This is pretty obvious for people in this audience. I’m no more senior than any of the people here, and you are not more senior than me. We build a network among us here today, we then go away and do our own thing. But that’s not how the political world works.
You become a different person when you cross the threshold into a party political meeting. We are not *normal* people in party politics. We can deal with that in our jobs – we are paid. But as volunteers? Why would we want to bother?
So what’s this “pre-figurative action” I mentioned? “ the attempt to practice the kind of democracy that the participants imagine” – essentially the organisation, the network, is the end in itself See: Mary Kaldor http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2012/10/20/subterranean-politics-europe/
As we well know we can network protest
But Tahrir Sq might be good. But UK Riots bad? How are we going to turn this into something workable?
And so you apply this to politics? The Pirates!
Gabriel cited in Welt: http://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article117272010/Die-kleine-Angela-moechte-aus-Neuland-abgeholt-werden.html
It can have nasty sides – Jobbik and Magyar Garda
So what about our friend in Italy, Beppe Grillo? Many of you are probably groaning just by seeing him
The UK has its own Grillo – Nigel Farage
What do Grillo and Farage have in common? They have realised that full party hierarchy is a headache, a burden, and have tried to reduce it. Both are at least flatter hierarchy movements than traditional parties. But what happens as the parties grow, are subjected to more scrutiny? Collapse, or professionalise, or Pirate-style network? Look at what is happening to Grillo locally, and the problems UKIP has with racism among its activists.
Advantage however is the traditional media hierarchies know how to deal with a Farage or a Grillo, but do not know how to deal with a Pirate Party. Remember the legacy role of mainstream media in social media – BBC the number 1 linked source on social networks in the UK.