“Building the world’s first cross-border democracy: PES activists and their emerging political role
in the Party of European Socialists and in the national member parties on European issues.”

In a speech given at the PES activists Forum 09 in Dublin on the 12th September, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, President of the Party of European Socialists, issued an invitation to PES activists to come forward with proposals for the role they wished to build within the PES and with the national member parties on European affairs. Activists were invited by the President to respond over the next two months in time for their views to be considered at the PES Congress due to take place in Prague in December 2009.

This document is a working paper of possible responses that PES activists may wish to consider when replying to the invitation issued by Poul Nyrup Rasmussen. This paper synthesises the various contributions made by PES activists during two debates held at Forum 09 on the future of PES activists.

Current situation

The Party of European Socialists (PES) is a confederation of socialist, social democratic and labour parties operating primarilly within the member states of the European Union. These national parties form the membership level of the PES and are represented and have voting rights in the institutions of the PES.
Every member of a PES party is a member of the PES. Members who join PES activists are able to get into direct contact with each other across country borders and into contact with the PES. Activists are encouraged to support the work of the PES and to campaign for its programme. The PES offers information tools, campaign material, communication channels and activities. The PES consults PES activists, for example when drafting the PES manifesto. PES activists may also attend PES Councils and Congresses as individual guests.

When discussing representation of PES activists, the language barrier shouldn’t be forgotten. The PES communicates with PES activists in English and French only due to budget constraints. Socialists that do not speak English or French should not be discriminated against.

PES activists do not constitute a formalised structure within the PES. A PES activist represents only him or herself. PES member parties are invited to provide the means to support the activists on the ground. This support can take form of a structure with local, regional and national coordinators. However, these structures only function within the respective local, regional and national parties.

The network of City Groups brings together local or regional groups of activists. City groups are working groups or discussion clubs, organised and structured on the basis of the needs of the respective member party. The groups are only accountable to their local or regional branch, sometimes also to the national party. City groups can get into contact with each other and receive regular information on campaigning opportunities. City groups are invited to organise European policy debates on local or regional level.

Summary of opinions expressed at the debates

The views and opinions expressed during the two debates on the future role of PES activists held at Forum 09 fall broadly into three categories:

1. Maintaining the current informal and independent arrangements

There was a very strongly held view that the current loose and informal arrangements have served PES activists very well indeed. PES Activists has grown to almost 20,000 registered participants organised in some 80 City Groups right across Europe. The independence of each City Group or national grouping enables activists to be creative in their organisation and to seek new and exciting ways in which to build support for the PES and its policy programme.

The concern was expressed that if PES Activists becomes a formally constituted part of the PES the existing creativity and energy will be put at risk as more formal processes are adopted and as a consequence of competition between City Groups for position within any new structure. It was felt by some activists that horizontal and distrubuted organising through social networking tools offers greater scope to bring activists together, especially if the existing national social networks are linked.

The view was also expressed that PES Activists are currently relatively weak vis-à-vis the PES and the national parties and that we should be careful not to create the perception that we are threatening the position of national member parties within the PES. We should only think about creating representative structures when the nmber of registered PES activists exceeds a much larger number that we have at present.

2. Developing a more structured relationship with the PES and national member parties

Equally strong views were expressed by activists who believed that in order for PES Activists to grow and increase our influence further it was necessary to secure formal recognition of our role by the PES and national member parties.

PES Activists have already delivered many successes and has enabled nearly 20,000 socialists and social democrats to express their interest in European affairs in a much more enjoyable and effective manner. PES activists have shown the value that they bring to policy development in national parties and constitute an important pan-European campaigning resource. It is now necessary for this commitment to be recognised and rewarded. Formalising the status of PES Activists within the PES will have the effect of securing our existing achievements and creating a framework for further growth and success.

It was also felt that there was a tendency to view PES activists attending PES events and events organised by national parties as “cheering crowd for leaders.” This traditionalist view of the role of activists leads to disenchantment and the weakening of commitment by those who feel that their input to the European Left is under-valued and only welcomed where it does not challenge existing power structures. Putting PES Activists on a formal basis within the statutes of the PES and extending rights of represenation at PES Congresses and Councils would begin to change this perception amongst many national parties to a more positive recognition of the real value that PES Activists can deliver at both the European and national level.

Finally, it was observed that PES activists need to take more control of how we organise ourselves beyond our own City Groups. Currently, PES activists depend almost exclusively on the support of the PES Secretariat for pan-European organisation. By producing pragmatic, cogent and well-reasoned proposals for the PES Congress in Prague we will demonstrate to the national parties that we can complement the work that they do and not compete with them within the structures of the European Left.

3. Communications within the PES and with national member parties

It was strongly felt by activists that, in order to increase the profile of PES activists and to secure recognition for our increasingly important role, we need to consider how we should communicate the achievements and proposals of PES activists to the various stake-holders and decision-makers in the Party of European Socialists.

One Austrian activist commented that, “We need to convince our parties by giving good examples. We need to communicate our new ideas so that our own structures value and respect us.”

A number of ideas were generated which could constitute the basis for a communications strategy:

· A blog for PES activists where our ideas and achievements could be showcased and where PES activists could debate and work together to develop our ideas and strengthen our relationships. In this regard, however, it was noted that PES activists should avoid creating a programme independent of, or at variance with, the programme of the PES.

· We could share the experience we gain of the value of working with PES activists from other countries by bring “symbols” of those activists home with us to our own national parties.

· Considerable effort should go into preparing a communication (brochure, leaflets, video, presentation, etc.) on the achievements of PES activists across Europe which can be used at the PES Congress to demonstrate the added-value that we bring to the European Left.

· We should organise a fringe session at the Congress in Prague where our proposals could be presented to delegates to the Congress and debated with them.

· A Wiki-page should be constructed “really fast” so that we can work collaboratively on-line to develop our proposals.

· We should also consider ways in which we can strengthen our relationships with our MEPs and with the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament.


Conclusion

It was clear from the debates that took place at PES Activists Forum 09 that there was considerable enthusiasm for debating the future of PES activists and how we might play an increasingly important role in the Party of European Socialists and in our national parties. Concerns were expressed, however, that the informal networking structure that we currently possess should not be undermined or threatened by any proposals to win formal recognition, for example, in the statutes of the PES. The existing horizontal and independent arrangements have served PES Activists well in the last few years. We have created a pan-European, political space where activists have been able to organise and campaign in a host of creative, imaginative and original ways.

However, as Victor Negrescu said, “Doing a meeting like this is OK, but after some time there is no outcome.” In order to turn PES activists from an organisation dependent on the goodwill of others and to develop our role away from being “flag-wavers for the leaders” it is necessary to strengthen the way that PES Activists functions collectively. All of our voices matter individually, but if we are able to combine our voices and to focus our efforts together, then our voice will be louder and our opinions will carry more weight within the PES and with the national member parties.


Desmond O’Toole
Co-ordinator, PES activists Dublin.

(t) +353 (0) 87 953 4500
(e) otooledg@tcd.ie
(w) www.pes-dublin.eu


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Author: Desmond O’Toole is a member of the Irish Labour Party, former Chairperson of its Dublin Mid West Constituency Council, Joint-Director of Elections for Joanna Tufy T.D. and a member of the International Affairs Sub-Committee of the Labour Party National Executive Committee. He was recently elected to the Labour Party Central Council, the main policy-making body of the party after the National Congress. He is the co-founder and co-ordinator of PES activists Dublin and was a member of the organising team for the PES activists Forum 09 which took place at Trinity College Dublin between the 11th and 13th September 2009.