PES Manifesto

A network of Nordic PES activists – yes, please

Published Sunday, March 2, 2008 at 23:58
by rikkeindenmark (922 views and 1 comments)

Among this morning’s activities at the Danish PES manifesto conference was a workshop about campaigns and cooperation in Europe – the participants discussed how Europe’s social democrats can work together on common campaign initiatives in the next European elections. There were plenty of ideas – to mention a few:

• Joint actions where PES activist groups in different cities coordinate events that will take place at the same date and time. Such coordinated actions should include internet activity (this site could be an excellent tool for this!) that can ‘bind’ the different happenings together
• Make a list of national contact persons that PES activists can contact if they go on holiday and want to meet with other local social democrats at their destination
• The message about PES activists and a common campaign in 2009 should spread to the local level – social democrats outside Europe’s big cities should also be invited to take part in PES activist events and campaigns
• It could be interesting to learn about the traditions of social democrats in other countries. In Denmark, for example, we have a strong tradition for ‘workers' songs’ (we sang a couple during the two-day conference) – is this the same in other countries? Which traditions and habits do social democrats in other parts of Europe have?

The meeting participants also agreed that it’s a good idea to launch a Danish national PES activist initiative and to work together with other Nordic PES activists (the group had a number of Swedish participants). There are already city groups in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Helsinki and a future Danish group should definitely get in touch with them and work on some common activities – who knows, maybe a joint action on fighting pollution in big cities?

PES activists in other parts of Europe: what do you think? Would you like to take part in common actions? And do you have any advice for starting up a national or local branch of PES activists?

Thanks to all work group participants for sharing their thoughts and ideas!

Tags: activists, citizens, elections, manifesto, PES