*[Enwl-eng] Taking action together
ENWLine
Hi,
I can’t seem to get these lyrics out of my head. ‘Is it getting better, or do you feel the same?’. It’s from the U2 song “One” and I used to sing it out loud in my room in the West of Ireland back in the early 90s, hairbrush microphone in hand.
In these last weeks, it has come back to me as friends and family ask these questions: for all the darkness of the coronavirus, is this a chance for things to get better? Or when the lockdowns end, will anything change?
The reality is that this crisis will change everything. And that change could go either way. We could spend the next decade responding to this pandemic and all that comes with it, putting plasters on problems. Or we could take this mega opportunity to change the way our societies work for the better.
It feels as though in this specific moment in history we are being called upon to take action towards deeper change. This email is about sharing with you what we intend to do to drive change in the months and years to come. All I ask is for you to read it and think about it.
In one way or another you and I, and almost 1 million other Europeans across 30 countries have found common cause in the WeMove Europe community, where we know the only way to make the change that Europe needs is through people power. One WeMove Europe member said it best; ‘I support your campaigns because you give me the chance to be part of a community that is bigger than just me and I know that community can change things’.
As the stakes for our future and for our planet rise, we know our work is more important than ever. That’s why over 2019, through conversations with our community, partners and other experts, we figured out a strategy so that every action we take is about going to the root of the problems we face and tackling those. Those conversations resulted in our new strategy “People Power to Transform Europe”. You can read more about it here. But three of my favourite takeaways;
- We got a lot of it right from when we started in 2015 --- that people hold the power to drive change, and that the Europe we live in today needs real, deep-rooted transformation so that its politics reflect the needs of people and planet rather than corporations and profit is still at the heart of what we do,
- We cannot do it alone as a community, we need to work with others, as we have been, to strengthen our position. That means brilliant partner organisations, movements, and experts who have skills that complement ours,
- And most importantly, which is a great source of hope -- we are not trying to reinvent the wheel on change. The alternatives are there, scattered across the continent. We don't need to live in a system that prioritises economic growth over well-being, and new approaches are already happening.
This strategy sets us on a path to start shaping deeper change, to transform how decision-making works in Europe now and after the crisis.
For example, the Universal Basic Income used to be considered a half-crazy idea, but the crisis changed all of that and opened up the space for big ideas. We took this campaign on precisely because it reacts to the crisis and could bring the deeper change we speak about in our strategy. How?
In the short-term, the income could help people to survive the danger of being left completely destitute when they lose their jobs. And in the long term, it could help us tackle the bigger issue of inequality by redistributing more wealth and allowing people to reach their full potential.
A basic income could help people avoid being kicked out of their homes when they lose their jobs. But it also could just buy time for people to learn a new skill, to do creative work, to volunteer, to get involved in activism. This could trigger so many other positive outcomes and much deeper change. UBI is a great big experiment to rethink our economic system. That system is unfairly designed and has led to a situation of spiralling inequality, where the richest 1% have more wealth than the rest of the world. [1]
As of last week, 170,000 of us signed this petition. It is being discussed all over: in Spain, in France, in the UK and US. Now even the Pope is calling for Basic Income. It's not mad anymore.
The teenage version of myself that sang that U2 song in the 90s was full of doubts. But I don’t feel the same. This crisis is opening up opportunities we could only dream about last year.
And together we can make sure that the new normal is different. Join us, read the strategy and share it far and wide!
Laura
PS: The links above take you to a short version of our strategy. For the long read take a look at The Europe we Believe In and People Power to Transform Europe, the Long Read.
References:
[1] https://www.fightinequality.org/vision
WeMove.EU is a citizens’ movement, campaigning for a better Europe; for a European Union committed to social and economic justice, environmental sustainability and citizen-led democracy. We are people from all walks of life, who call Europe our home whether we were born in Europe or elsewhere.
WeMove.EU is funded by donations from our community across Europe. Can you chip in with a few euros a month and help make sure we can move fast to win the campaigns that matter to all of us? Donate
Follow on Twitter | Like on Facebook | Subscribe on Youtube
WeMove Europe SCE mbH | Planufer 91 Berlin | www.wemove.eu | Privacy policy
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ENWLine
Hi,
I can’t seem to get these lyrics out of my head. ‘Is it getting better, or do you feel the same?’. It’s from the U2 song “One” and I used to sing it out loud in my room in the West of Ireland back in the early 90s, hairbrush microphone in hand.
In these last weeks, it has come back to me as friends and family ask these questions: for all the darkness of the coronavirus, is this a chance for things to get better? Or when the lockdowns end, will anything change?
The reality is that this crisis will change everything. And that change could go either way. We could spend the next decade responding to this pandemic and all that comes with it, putting plasters on problems. Or we could take this mega opportunity to change the way our societies work for the better.
It feels as though in this specific moment in history we are being called upon to take action towards deeper change. This email is about sharing with you what we intend to do to drive change in the months and years to come. All I ask is for you to read it and think about it.
In one way or another you and I, and almost 1 million other Europeans across 30 countries have found common cause in the WeMove Europe community, where we know the only way to make the change that Europe needs is through people power. One WeMove Europe member said it best; ‘I support your campaigns because you give me the chance to be part of a community that is bigger than just me and I know that community can change things’.
As the stakes for our future and for our planet rise, we know our work is more important than ever. That’s why over 2019, through conversations with our community, partners and other experts, we figured out a strategy so that every action we take is about going to the root of the problems we face and tackling those. Those conversations resulted in our new strategy “People Power to Transform Europe”. You can read more about it here. But three of my favourite takeaways;
- We got a lot of it right from when we started in 2015 --- that people hold the power to drive change, and that the Europe we live in today needs real, deep-rooted transformation so that its politics reflect the needs of people and planet rather than corporations and profit is still at the heart of what we do,
- We cannot do it alone as a community, we need to work with others, as we have been, to strengthen our position. That means brilliant partner organisations, movements, and experts who have skills that complement ours,
- And most importantly, which is a great source of hope -- we are not trying to reinvent the wheel on change. The alternatives are there, scattered across the continent. We don't need to live in a system that prioritises economic growth over well-being, and new approaches are already happening.
This strategy sets us on a path to start shaping deeper change, to transform how decision-making works in Europe now and after the crisis.
For example, the Universal Basic Income used to be considered a half-crazy idea, but the crisis changed all of that and opened up the space for big ideas. We took this campaign on precisely because it reacts to the crisis and could bring the deeper change we speak about in our strategy. How?
In the short-term, the income could help people to survive the danger of being left completely destitute when they lose their jobs. And in the long term, it could help us tackle the bigger issue of inequality by redistributing more wealth and allowing people to reach their full potential.
A basic income could help people avoid being kicked out of their homes when they lose their jobs. But it also could just buy time for people to learn a new skill, to do creative work, to volunteer, to get involved in activism. This could trigger so many other positive outcomes and much deeper change. UBI is a great big experiment to rethink our economic system. That system is unfairly designed and has led to a situation of spiralling inequality, where the richest 1% have more wealth than the rest of the world. [1]
As of last week, 170,000 of us signed this petition. It is being discussed all over: in Spain, in France, in the UK and US. Now even the Pope is calling for Basic Income. It's not mad anymore.
The teenage version of myself that sang that U2 song in the 90s was full of doubts. But I don’t feel the same. This crisis is opening up opportunities we could only dream about last year.
And together we can make sure that the new normal is different. Join us, read the strategy and share it far and wide!
Laura
PS: The links above take you to a short version of our strategy. For the long read take a look at The Europe we Believe In and People Power to Transform Europe, the Long Read.
References:
[1] https://www.fightinequality.org/vision
WeMove Europe is an independent and values-based organisation that seeks to build people power to transform Europe in the name of our community, future generations and the planet.
WeMove Europe is funded by donations from our community across Europe. Can you chip in with a few euros a month and help make sure we can move fast to win the campaigns that matter to all of us? DonateDonate
Follow on Twitter | Like on Facebook | Subscribe on Youtube
WeMove Europe SCE mbH | Planufer 91 Berlin | www.wemove.eu | Privacy policy
