Michael Gurstein on Sun, 14 Feb 2016 22:38:26 +0100 (CET)


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Re: <nettime> notes from the DIEM25 launch


Sorry to intrude in this Euro-centric (myopic) discussion but just as DIEM25
was being presented Bernie Sanders was winning the New Hampshire primary for
the US Democratic party nomination on the basis of rebuilding US democracy
and being a facilitator of a "democratic revolution" and "socialism" in the
US.  

An interesting contrast I think in Sanders' self-identifying and embedding
his campaign as part of a broad based, highly distributed, Internet enabled
participative social movement with what appears to be a top down, (left)
elite driven and non-participative process in DIEM25.  Further it is quite
clear that should by some chance Sanders were to become the next President
of the US, the only possible means by which he can deliver on his promises
(and his expressed strategy) to curb campaign finances, break the hold of
Wall Street, implement single payer medicare etc.etc. is through continuing
and extending his campaign mobilization of his broad based, highly
distributed, Internet enabled participative social movement (something which
to his eternal discredit Obama chose to demobilize immediately after his
election...

Another straw in the hurricane which doesn't seem to have wafted through the
rarified halls in Berlin are Corbyn's broad based, highly distributed,
Internet enabled participative social movement towards his ascension to the
BLP leadership.

And finally, here in Canada the quite spontaneous and largely unorganized
and leaderless broad based, highly distributed, Internet enabled
participative social movement which led to the sound defeat (70% to 30%) of
Canada's version of austerity driven neo-liberalism (the hard right
government of Stephen Harper) and the rather surprising election of a
progressive centrist government through PM Justin Trudeau. Trudeau's
government while not itself responsible for the anti-Harper movement is, in
a wide number of interesting ways, attempting to govern as a broad based,
highly distributed, Internet enabled participative social movement and
directly opposite in social and at least for the moment, economic policies
of its immediate predecessor.
	
Some possible lessons to be learned?

M

-----Original Message-----
From: nettime-l-bounces@mail.kein.org
[mailto:nettime-l-bounces@mail.kein.org] On Behalf Of Frederic Janssens
Sent: February 14, 2016 8:22 AM
To: nettime-l@kein.org
Subject: Re: <nettime> notes from the DIEM25 launch

   Some comments and proposals.

   (I only followed the live-stream.)

   Geert Lovink 
   12 February 2016 at 21:33

   >"The real challenge DIEM has to tackle is the question of organization.
   >It is called a movement, but is it really? Someone mentioned that one
   >cannot "found" a movement. They emerge, bottom up. What will happen
   >over the next weeks, and perhaps months, are local DIEM events to start
   >with Madrid, Amsterdam and for sure more that I do not know about.  This
   >is the age of the internet so how about some internet coordination?"
   >...
   >"The internet easily
   >replicates the celebs memes but the hard work of designing internal
   >democracy has yet to begin."

   Yes.

   My proposal would be to formulate it thus :
 <...>

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