ERC@ESF

The Crew of the ERC presented the European Referendum Campaign during the European Social Forum in Paris from November 12th-16th. 20 activists from six countries worked at the stand. We held two workshops and a seminar to promote the ERC.

Our message: A more democratic EU begins with a democratically legitimised EU-Constitution. Therefore fair referenda in all countries concerned are necessary. The simple call for another Europe is not sufficient. The question "Who is holding the power?" has to be raised. The peoples of Europe have to decide about their future themselves.

At the stand in Saint Denis we had the possibility to get in contact with people interested in a democratisation of the EU. Marian and Tom gave interviews to a newspaper and a camera-team.

People passing-by were invited to take part in our opinion-poll with our incredible ballot box whether they want to decide on the EU-Constitution in fair referenda in all countries concerned or not:

95 % were in favour of a referendum!

Our seminar in Ivry sur Seine was more or less well visited and the audience could get an impression of the necessity of democratisation by the development of fair initiatives and referenda in the EU and the member states as well. On the panel were six speakers from five countries: Thomas Rupp and Michael Efler (Germany), Franck Biancheri (France), Francesca Conti (Italy), Nicu Bazga (Romania) and Mr. Dahle (Norway).

The audience got an impression on how the EU could be democratised, the unwillingness of the established politics to let the citizens decide on political issues in fair initiatives and referendums and that peoples' participation in the political decision-making needs fair initiatives and referendums. Art. 46 IV of the draft EU-Constitution, its history, chances and further development was presented also.

The two workshops in Saint Denis and Bobigny were not very well attended. They were located far away from the main activities and could only be reached with a metro trip taking one hour. In addition plenary sessions attracting a lot of visitors took place simultaneously. Some interested participants even didn't find the locations! The ERC workshops were not the only ones suffering from the poor organisation.

7000 copies of the new postcard were spread to the participants of the ESF. Most of them welcomed it with a smile. Some came back and asked for copies, that they could to spread at home.

Finally, we made the best out of it. We made a lot of contacts and increased the power of our campaign.