anti-establishment movements and the information age

[Daniel Pocock]

There seems to be a lot of anti-establishment rhetoric going about.

The UK may have an anti-EU referendum in 3 months.  Yanis Varoufakis
(controversial former Greek finance minister who rides motorbikes[1]) is
now trying to create some movement of pro-EU democracy activists under
the name DiEM25[2] with a launch in Berlin next week.

What is notably absent from debates on both the left and right of the
spectrum is any talk about the role of proprietary technology, big data
and the cloud.  Many of the social problems created by big data are
global.  The DiEM25 people are talking about "bringing back" democracy,
but I suspect that with their web site simply linking to Facebook and
Twitter they are simply another well-intentioned group transferring a
little more power into the hands of a few privileged people in Silicon
Valley.

Is anybody in FSFE reaching out to any of these groups - anywhere in the
political spectrum - to see if there are areas for collaboration?

Has there been any follow-up after the efforts around the last European
elections?

Is anybody potentially interested in the DiEM25 meeting next week, maybe
even trying to get somebody with competence in big data and the cloud
into their panel of speakers?

Even if we don't agree with everything these people have to say
politically, I feel these types of collaborations can lead to more
public awareness and sometimes fund-raising opportunities for the things
we do believe in.

Regards,

Daniel


1. https://www.google.ch/search?q=yanis+varoufakis+motorbike&&tbm=isch
2. http://diem25.org/