I am grateful for this opportunity to contribute to ECOSY's debate by sharing a few reflections with the readers of this book commemorating the 15th anniversary of ECOSY.
What impressed me more when I joined ECOSY bureau, with comrades such as Anders Lindberg, Luke Akehurst, Pierre-Antoine Molina, Alexandra Kramm, Federica Mogherini and Enzo Amendola, to name but a few, was the very high level of the political debate. In a later life, hearing debates in "higher" circles of the European socialist and social democratic family, such as the PES Group in the European Parliament, I have, quite frankly, never been that impressed.
At that time the liveliest debate was about issues such as European federalism, European defence, "society issues" (drugs mainly) and of course enlargement.
But today another range of issues have emerged powerfully. Issues such as purchasing power, linked to stagnant wages and increase in prices of basic necessities (housing, energy, food, healthcare), or the organisation of the "labour market" (as they say), linked with flex-security. This should be a welcomed development for us, as these concerns are, historically, our "speciality". However, electoral campaign after electoral campaign, we seem to lose ground, not only to our traditional conservative and liberal opponents, but also, in a few cases, to political forces on our left.
The role of a socialist political youth movement, and its contribution to the overall family, should also be that of breaking new ground in terms of ideas. Other comrades have to run governments, ensure visibility of a message in the media, organise electoral machines.
Now more than ever, the European socialist and social democratic family needs the input of the young European socialist movement, able to overcome gridlock by majority voting, ambitious enough to tackle the challenges of the day and courageous enough to convince and campaign despite the scepticism of party leaderships.
What impressed me more when I joined ECOSY bureau, with comrades such as Anders Lindberg, Luke Akehurst, Pierre-Antoine Molina, Alexandra Kramm, Federica Mogherini and Enzo Amendola, to name but a few, was the very high level of the political debate. In a later life, hearing debates in "higher" circles of the European socialist and social democratic family, such as the PES Group in the European Parliament, I have, quite frankly, never been that impressed.
At that time the liveliest debate was about issues such as European federalism, European defence, "society issues" (drugs mainly) and of course enlargement.
But today another range of issues have emerged powerfully. Issues such as purchasing power, linked to stagnant wages and increase in prices of basic necessities (housing, energy, food, healthcare), or the organisation of the "labour market" (as they say), linked with flex-security. This should be a welcomed development for us, as these concerns are, historically, our "speciality". However, electoral campaign after electoral campaign, we seem to lose ground, not only to our traditional conservative and liberal opponents, but also, in a few cases, to political forces on our left.
The role of a socialist political youth movement, and its contribution to the overall family, should also be that of breaking new ground in terms of ideas. Other comrades have to run governments, ensure visibility of a message in the media, organise electoral machines.
Now more than ever, the European socialist and social democratic family needs the input of the young European socialist movement, able to overcome gridlock by majority voting, ambitious enough to tackle the challenges of the day and courageous enough to convince and campaign despite the scepticism of party leaderships.
2 commentaires:
Salut Yonnec,
Je découvre ton blog grâce à Facebook et du coup je vois que tu as eu la bonne idée de publier des impressions de quelques camarades écrites à l'occasion de l'anniversaire d'ECOSY.
Est ce que mes impressions pourraient également figurer ?
Bien à toi,
Claire
My first ECOSY experience took place in Italy. I was in Livorno for the ECOSY Summer Camp in 1999. I was impressed by the richness of the exchanges that we have the chance to have, as young socialist activists, with comerads living under very differents conditions, in so different parts of Europe, and sharing the same ideals. At that specific time, having the opportunity to meet comerads from the Balkans especially meant a lot to me. It still does, and it will always, and that is thanks to ECOSY.
I have been Bureau Member for two years. During that years, my organization, MJS France, has been through a particulary hard national political context. The day after my first bureau meeting in Valence (Spain), on the 22d April 2002, Jean-Marie Le Pen, nationalist leader, collected more votes at the first round of the presidential elections than Lionel Jospin, our candidate. Three months later, during the 8th ECOSY Summer Camp (July, 2002, Weissenbach-Attersee, Austria), a delegation of young european socialists went to Mathausen concentration camp. MJS France delegation was there. To the memory of and to pay tribute to all the victims of nazism.
One year later, the world was facing a particulary harmfull event. George Bush’s decision on attacking Iraq divided European Union leaders. It didn’t divided the Young European Socialists. Even if it wasn’t obvious for some organizations and some comerads to condamn the attack, we manage to be united against this war. At the 6th ECOSY Congress (March 2003, Bommersvik, Sweden), on behalf of the Bureau, I contributed to the building of our common position in the resolution on Iraq Crisis. Nine months later, the first European Social Forum took place in France. Assuring a place of socialist and social-democrat organizations in the ESF was a hard work that implies the strong commitment of many comerads from the social movements, such as trade unions or non formal education. This is the last ECOSY event that I have attended as a ECOSY Bureau Member and International Secretary of MJS France.
ECOSY is one of the organization where I have learned that we are always less far and less foreign to an other than we imagine. First time I heard about ECOSY, I felt proud to be part of an organization at the european level that was able to gather so many activists and make them debate on, build and defend common positions. We were aware of the responsability of our generation in order to build a united, peaceful and social Europe, a space of democracy and equality. Europe for the people, not for the profit ! I think that this responsibility is even heavier today for young socialists.
c est en ligne !
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