A response to the Democracy in Europe Movement launch in Berlin, February 9, 2016.

In the context of growing frustration over the techno-financial determinism in the European political landscape that has cast veil upon veil over executive functions and facilitated the normalization of neo-liberal regimes, a new cosmopolitical movement was launched in Berlin – DiEM25. This event gathered a wide range of participants from across Europe and produced a great deal of hope and optimism. For a neat summary of the launch and his valid complaint of a lack of aesthetic engagement see Geert Lovink’s response. Also for a useful overview of the political framework and a comment on the need for a cognitive mapping of the multiple movements that are already in play see Marco Bascetta and Sandro Mezzadra: http://ilmanifesto.global/varoufakis-appeals-for-democratic-awakening/. In this brief response I will focus on the motivating principles and some procedures that may follow.

At the heart of DiEM25 is the scandal over the unaccountable and secret conduct of numerous mechanisms that dominate the European landscape. Yanis Varoufakis rose to global fame for not only his robust attempt to renegotiate the Greek debt, but also for his uninhibited commitment towards transparency in the process of negotiations. I suspect it was the latter that was even more shocking to the elites. While Varoufakis clearly failed to achieve a reasoned outcome from within the locked rooms of EU and in numerous mainstream press events, he has now rechanneled his energies into the launch of a movement that seeks to remind the world of the core principles of democracy – promoting the view and voice of the people in the conduct of power. He has thus countered the existing scandal of secrecy and unaccountability of technocrats by demanding that key meetings are streamed live and records are published. This is hardly revolutionary! In fact, it is already standard practice in other Federal political systems like the USA and Australia. So the big questions are: why are the people of Europe, the home place of democracy, so tolerant of these undemocratic structures, and how will the very politicians who have ratified the authority of these meta-committees to technocrats justify to the demos the need for submission to unaccountable and secretive structures?

The aim of DiEM is to expose the perversion of democratic principles and to adopt procedures that will make the conduct of power more visible to the people, and allow the voice of the people to register more directly in the places of power. These broad aims are now to be advanced through a series of concrete and strategic demands, followed by an extended public engagement over the definition of an assembly that can address the complex problems of living together in a continent that is as big and as diverse as other Federal Systems like the USA and Australia. I am not saying that just look to your former colonies and you will find your answers. But it is worth noting that the challenge of integration is not a unique historical question. In short, the appeal of DiEM is that it invites participation from everyone who is opposed to authoritarian structures, monopolistic cartels, and totalitarian regimes. It is asking the liberals, are you willing to live up to your liberal beliefs, forcing the democrats to confront the deficit in their democracies, and inviting radical from the green to the anarchist movements to join together in a coordinated manner.

But how will this coalition proceed? Some people imagined the formation of DIEM as a “think tank”. This is a poor metaphor in my mind – as tanks are not really good machine for thinking. The aim is not to blast our way forward but to gather the frustration that is already on the ground and find positive points of connection. The power of DiEM is in the beauty, simplicity and familiarity of the ideals of democracy. These ideals are now weak in Europe, but they are not foreign to Europeans. DiEM can revitalize the democratic urge as it spreads outspread. To launch DiEM in the capital of Germany, which is the unspoken capital of Europe, was a cunning and audacious gesture, now it is time that the rumors in every agora, the graffiti that traces the discontent in every arcade, come out to articulate a multitude of democratic assemblies.

Nikos Papastergiades

(Nikos’ INC publication in the Theory on Demand series can be found here)