PES Activists Greece: A Story about Passion
A few weeks ago the PES Activists Greece celebrated two years of life. Two years full of actions in Greece and abroad. We count till now 10 active city groups with over 400 active members and many more friends who share our progressive vision and our common fights for Democracy, Social Justice and sustainable Growth in Greece and in Europe.
The PES Activists Greece operate under the terms of a service charter that aims to give incentives for groups to stay active and to profess with passion the principles and values of the Party of European Socialists. Beyond this, we operate under the unwritten values of solidarity, comradeship, transparency and true friendship, forming an inclusive democratic community. It’s not just words, but a dedication to grassroots mobilisation, political activism and European Civil Society that give us the power to bring real change. We are all tied together in a growing group of young people aiming to evolve to an innovative social and political Movement.
In a nutshell, PES Activists Greece is a Bridge. A Bridge between local communities and European decision – making; A Bridge between social movements and political reforms; A Bridge between the harsh everyday reality of our generation and the democratic achievements of our progressive family over time; A Bridge between traditional national politics and new EU-wide means of expression and participation in the public sphere; Hopefully, a Bridge between the present Crisis and the future Rennaisance for Europe.
Maybe the key of our success is that we started from scratch. Every year we organize at least one big national gathering and now, after our first Conference in Crete and second in Nafplion, we are in the way of organizing our third conference this summer most likely at Thessaloniki.
Last six MonthsThe last six months, to campaign and promote our core values, we organized major thematic and interactive events in several cities where PES city groups are rather active and visible. We were also honored to be invited as key participants in significant events organized by think tanks, scientific and professional groups, political parties and collective bodies, while we further undertook pan-European grassroots campaigns and launched web campaigns spreading widely our specific proposals, sharing our plan for an alternative to the economic crisis, to youth unemployment and youth entrepreneurship, raising awareness about the refugees crisis and regarding the function of democratic institutions that are under severe threat both by the rise of the extreme right in Europe and by the forces of populism in Greece that unexpectedly and disappointingly find support from a few supposedly progressive voices.
Through our new www.socialdemocrats.gr website that now has considerable resonance, we empowered the voice of our members by hosting their articles and thoughts, we organised the pan-European initiative “#Univest” in collaboration with other activists groups and progressive citizens promoting the need of granting scholarships to young refugees in order to be able to come safely and legally in the Union to study, with nearly 500 people from 15 different countries so far to have support it (www.univestcampaign.eu). At the same time, we spread our Safe Harbour Initiative and backed the Ark Plan, presenting basic elements to the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, during his visits in Athens. We had a strong presence on the social media in order to transfer to the Greek society initiatives of the PES, of the progressive family of S & D, of the Rainbow Rose and PES Women, of European think tanks such as FEPS and FES but also to disseminate the proposals of the Greek activists for Education, Human Rights, Entrepreneurship, institutions and Democracy. Our “Planting Democracy’ initiative is an ongoing major success.
We communicated the proposals of the Greek activists in Europe. We have established an open dialogue with major leaders of our progressive families, directly communicating our concrete proposals for fundamental issues such as the refugee crisis, the function of democracy and justice, growth and economic/budgetary governance and of course the future and unity of the Socialdemocratic powers in Greece. Admittedly, we were impressed by the responsiveness, the accountability and the democratic spirit of the Socialist leaders, who didn’t just answered to our letters, but deeply embraced and promoted our contribution. We participated in the Forum of PES Activists in Madrid, in the “Tackling The Refugee & Migrant Crisis through a Social Democratic Gender lens” Congress organized by PES Women, PASOK, CEE Network and PES in Athens, we had active involvement in an event of S&D in Brussels on “New business logic for SMEs: Accounting and financing implications”, we were dynamically represented in Strasbourg during the EYE Event – presenting a concrete toolkit of proposed reforms - and in Vienna at the PES Academy. On the top of that, our close cooperation with the Greek S&D delegation at the European Parliament is already bearing fruits and making a significant difference especially at a local level.
But always, for us, the most important is the direct contact with society, with ordinary everyday people. We want to be their voice and for us, them, to be our inspiration.
Vision in Action
We gave the fight all over Greece, being driving actors in rallies, strikes and protests to support the social movements of lawyers, engineers, journalists, free-lancers, farmers, workers, SMEs , pensioners, students and the whole scientific and business community of creative and productive citizens against the destructive policy of the populistic and totally incompetent coalition Government of SYRIZA-Independent Greeks.
In Komotini, PES Komotini Activists, organized event on the interrelation between ignorance, irrationality and fanaticism, focusing on theirimpacts on the rise of populism, nationalism and the violation of human rights;
in Sparta, PES Activists Sparta, organized event on gender Violence and equality issues in modern Europe and they also strongly promoted a legal reform on LGBTI rights and equality.
in Athens, PES Activists Athens organized a great event entitled “Is startups entrepreneurship antidote to youth unemployment? Seeking for Conditions, Tools and Best Practices.”
PES Activists Pyrgos, our new city group, introduced itself with a major event with ME
P Ms. Eva Kaili, head of S&D Greek delegation, concerning the new narrative of European SocialDemocracy.
In Thessaloniki, PES Activists c. Macedonia and Xanthi co-organized with citizens’ movements for social democracy and the former PASOK President and Government Vice Chariman Mr. E.Venizelos a leading event on the pension insurance system reforms and the refugee crisis as the Symplegades (Clashing Rocks) of Greek Restart.
While in Crete, PES Activists Crete, launched a new initiative of “political labs” which aims to bring together citizens and policymakers with the first laboratory dedicated to the tourist industry which involved ministers MPs from PASOK and the River, citizens and many tourism professionals. Our important actions framed many even smaller as visits to refugee hosting structures and our cooperation with NGOs.
Τhe refugee crisis was an unprecedented challenge for Europe and especially
the struggling Greek society. The Greek citizens impressed the world with their hospitality under unthinkable conditions. PES activists Greece were there, in the front line. We undertook a major concentration and distribution of all items of first need at Syntagma square while PES activists Athens and Piraeus were at the port of Piraeus welcoming refugees and serving them food and shelter for several days. All this time, PES Activists representatives were volunteers at Mitilini, Eidomeni and many other –even makeshift- hosting structures and hotspots, where European values and human rights are still severely challenged every single day. We provided aid and solidarity, getting back invaluable experiences and unique emotions.
Last but not least we had the pleasure to participate in policy production workshops in the PASOK and the Democratic Alliance conference and attend and actively contribute in the congress of “The River”, where we stressed the need of progressive socialist and democratic forces of Greece working together and forming a big progressive alliance to transcend the current deadlock of failed populism.
Just the Beginning
All the above would be impossible without your invaluable support. Many more events are planned in the near future but above all we are planning our conference in which representatives of PES, PES Activivts from all over Europe, MPs and MEPs from the member parties of the PES and S & D, representatives of progressive think tanks and prominent figures from the civil society are invited and more than welcome. The key priorities of our conference will be an honest and decent approach to the refugees’ crisis and progressive ways to combat youth unemployment. In internal processes of PES Greece we will vote our new statute of operation and we are going to plan the directions for our actions during the next year.
We, PES Activists Greece, are a united group of citizens aspiring to express the young socialists and democrats, the progressive citizens of the country. We want to work together with ordinary people for a socially just development, for the strengthening of democracy in the country, for intergenerational justice, in and for an open Greece that will give a fair chance to all to reach a decent level of life. Together with our comrades from the PES Activists network we know that we can make it. It just the beginning.
LIVE.DREAM.ACT.INSPIRE
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