[Individual-members-EL] 1.may

Fri Oct 7 22:53:34 CEST 2011

Dear friends,

it's nice to hear from you. The network of the EL individual members seem to be alive again. And it has grown by a couple of
members I havn't heard from before. That is the good news.

I think you have a few options on how to continue, but only one seems to me to be promising and worth putting in a lot of energy.

First of all, I'm no longer a true individual member. I joined Die Linke (German member party) in Berlin last month. I'll continue to
pay 24 Euro a year for the EL (as my party advises me to do),
but I've always argued that individual members are the new generation of partisans who have overcome
national borders and haven't signed up for national member parties. Eventually all members should only hold EL membership, the
names of national parties should gradually vanish along with their contradictory manifestos.

I have joined the LINKE since I had the feeling the EL (not only indiv. membership) is heading to a wrong direction: no direction.
As soon as I have the time, I will try to become actively involved on the local level (a chance that indiv. members in some countries don't
have on a - left - party level) and enjoy again talking to people in the streets, supporting an election campaign, rallying against corporate
greed and the demolition of the welfare state.

You can do this too, on a local level, within a European party, but probably not or too rarely within the EL, as you can't spend any of the money
that you paid in, as Norbert pointed out.

The left European party that regards its members as its backbone and their energy as an asset and not a nuisance still has to be founded.
Go ahead, do it. That would be my
OPTION A if I were you.

OPTION B: the letter you have typed, still have to circulate, and that might end up like past proposals and speeches that we hammered out.
Given that Laurent is a member of the influential French Communist Party, it is unlikely that you succeed. It will consume a lot more time than
it already has. But why not try it.

OPTION C: taking legal action. You may have a chance as we have all paid fees (if not much, and some nothing anymore).
It will consume time and money, and more time and more money. In the end you might win in court, but whether you win in the EL is uncertain.
The short paragraph in the EL statute about us can be altered or omitted by the bodies of the EL, and without individual members the EL
doesn't have to give them any rights.

OPTION D: giving up. That's no option for visionaries and ardent hobby politicians who are young or young at heart.

With option A you could compete with national parties in European elections in 2014 and further on. Mike knows how the WASG pressured
first Social Democrats and then the PDS.Die LINKE in Germany around 2005-06. In the end two left parties gained (later merged)
and some former WASG-candidates have entered parliaments on all levels. And surely the WASG has improved the PDS.DIE LINKE and not only enlarged it
massively (Mike, please excuse my little simplistic anecdote).

Whether and how soon a new EUROPEAN (!) party can compete with established ones and whether a later merger is desirable needn't be discussed today.

But the biggest advantage to the present situation would be that nobody can put their feet on your brake any longer, and this alone
will set free a lot of creative energy and optimism. Start networking, sitebuilding again, write letters to people who read them and type the answers by themselves,
collect money for a new flyer, not one that needs to be approved by the EL-ExBoard, inform public media, levy and spend money as your democratic
committees decide.

The EL definitely lost potential in the last election for the EU parliament in 2009 because they ignored us and we ignored them during the campaign. (Their outcome
was devastating around most of EU-Europe.)
I can say that much for Germany (where, after a long period of gains from election to election, this was the first election where the turnout was lower than expected,
and from then on much of the boom was history), and I guess that there would have been a British EL in 2009 of more than 1000 people and their slate on the ballot
and other growing national branches of individuals and local activities between elections if the EL leaders had started it in 2006 when we wanted to start it.

Now you can start. Maybe there are more options. Or one of the other three is more promising than I thought. My only wish is that you don't go back to the SLEEP mode
again. People are being brainwashed in the new Age of Crises by the media, by school books, at work etc. They are being intimidated and told that they can't
change anything. We as members of left parties shouldn't have our own leaders do to us what is being done to all citizens already outside our parties by homophobic capital lobbyists.

If they don't grant us inalienable rights, we will take them without grant.
(By the way, I have paid monthly fees to DIE LINKE twice, but nobody ahs invited me to any meeting, nor have they sent a membership card as promised.
I'll wait and see, but not for too long.)

Good night and have a good weekend

Uli, individual member 2006-2011

Kuba Puchan wrote that, as a trade unionist he is used to changing situations instead of complaining. For me this
statement of his is the statement of the week.

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: "MARCH Luke" <L.March at ed.ac.uk>
Gesendet: 06.10.2011 13:01:48
An: "Indiv. Members EL" <individual-members-el at listi.jpberlin.de>
Betreff: Re: [Individual-members-EL] 1.may

>
>Dear Norbert
>
>Please find attached a slightly changed English version - hopefully it has done justice to the original sense. I also share some of the other comrades' doubts about whether the ExB is really interested in a solution given the overriding national interests of parties, but it would be good to draw it (again) to their attention.
>As for further signatories Myrto Tsakatika (Myrto.Tsakatika at glasgow.ac.uk) and Richard Dunphy (r.a.g.dunphy at dundee.ac.uk) have said they would sign
>
>Comradely
>Luke
>
>
>
>
>--
>The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
>Scotland, with registration number SC005336.
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: individual-members-el-bounces at listi.jpberlin.de [mailto:individual-members-el-bounces at listi.jpberlin.de] On Behalf Of Norbert Hagemann
>Sent: 03 October 2011 17:27
>To: Indiv. Members EL; "asbjørn andersen"; arthur.lindbom at yahoo.com; EPirelli at t-online.de; laurarey at online.no
>Subject: Re: [Individual-members-EL] 1.may
>
>Dear Mike, dear Stephen, dear Luke, dear Individuals :-) attached you can find the letter to Laurant translated by me into English. I think Stephen and / or you Luke you should please be so kind and check and correct this translation otherwise Laurant will get a worst translation into frensh and please let's avoid a situation that he can not understand due to language reasons.
>Afterwards the question is, who finally will sign, I saw a feedback only from Mike, Stephen and Luke or ... ?
>Let's try to have it ready till Thursday and then to distribute the letter via the EL office in Brussels (as a Mail or a letter ...?)
>
>kind regards
>
>Norbert
>
>
>
>
>________________________________
>
> Von: "Norbert Hagemann" <norberthagemann at web.de>
> Gesendet: 24-Sep-2011 19:03:51
> An: "Indiv. Members EL" <individual-members-el at listi.jpberlin.de>, "asbjørn andersen" <asander at online.no>, arthur.lindbom at yahoo.com, EPirelli at t-online.de, laurarey at online.no
> Betreff: Re: [Individual-members-EL] 1.may
>
>
> Dear all,
> I'm using this mail to go in contact with you. Hopefully this will work.
> I would like to ask you all to give me a feedback on the following idea.
>
> Next days there will be a meeting of the Ex-Board (?) in Paris. This meeting will take place roughly 9 months after the Paris Party Congress. Since this congress the board had a lot of meetings around the globe during which never ever was the discussed the issue of our rights, the rights as Individual members in the Party. So finally (after being for years - since Athens - a member without any rights) I would ask you to send a letter from our side to the Board meeting asking to find urgently a solution and to involve us in this process / decision how the solutions should looks like. I personally stopped 9 months ago to pay my Party contribution (no rights - no obligations) but nobody is caring about that.
> Would someone be interested to write together with me this letter and to sign it.
>
> Kind regards
>
> Norbert
>
>
>
>
>
>
>________________________________
>
> Von: selvåg <kollung at online.no>
> Gesendet: 01.05.2011 11:49:02
> An: "asbjørn andersen" <asander at online.no>, arthur.lindbom at yahoo.com, EPirelli at t-online.de, laurarey at online.no, individual-members-el at listi.jpberlin.de
> Betreff: [Individual-members-EL] 1.may
>
>
>________________________________
>
>________________________________
>
>________________________________
>
> red_flagworkers of the world unite.
> 1.may 2011.
>
> kollung selvåg
>

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