Dublin - Event Notice
Thursday January 01 1970

Time For Change: Time For 'DIRECT DEMOCRACY'

dublin | politics / elections | event notice

Wednesday June 10, 2009 12:27

by Jaan

A PUBLIC meeting on how to best use Direct Democracy to create a fairer society

A PUBLIC meeting on how to best use Direct Democracy to create a fairer society is
being held at Dublin's Central Hotel, Exchequer St, on Wednesday, June 10th. at
8.00p.m.

The meeting is being organised by Dubliner Ray Whitehead of www.directdemocracyireland.com, Founder of www.unitedminds.ie Ross O'Mullane, and Wicklow resident Jan Van de Ven of www.nomeansno.ie.

Event Info: http://www.galaxius.com/Central_Hotel_Direct_Demo.pdf
George Hook Radio Show: http://www.galaxius.com/0906RHdirectdemocracyireland.mp3

Mr Whitehead (59) who stood for local election in the Glencullen Sandyford area,
said he had experienced first-hand the palpable anger of the Irish electorate and
was determined to locate like-minded individuals to tap into the nationwide desire
for real change:

Direct Democracy offers the opportunity for people live in a fairer society by
participating in the decision making process on an on-going basis - rather than
writing a number in a box every four or five years.

Direct Democracy removes special interest groups from the decision making process.
Direct Democracy gives the power back to the people.
Attendees of the meeting will be invited to discuss:

- setting up a "Direct Democracy Ireland" political party - with the aim
of introducing Direct Democracy in to the Irish political system by fielding
candidates in the next General Election.

- implementing initiatives that could introduce elements of the Direct
Democracy concept in to our current government.

- assisting Irish political parties to adopt more transparent policies
by setting up web based fora where the public can scrutinise their decisions and
discuss ideas.

All three called on people, young and old, to "Get Involved" and to
support Direct Democracy and to attend the inaugural meeting:

"The era of the well-fed politician looking after his friends in banking and
construction has to end if we are to succeed in turning things around. It is time
for people power. Time for change. Join us."

Guest speaker at the launch will be Patricia McKenna, former member of The Green Party and former MEP www.patriciamckenna.eu

For further information contact:

Raymond Whitehead on 087 657 5316
Jan Van De Ven at jaan@galaxius.com
Ross O'Mullane at rossom@gmail.com

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Comments (2 of 2)

Event to Setup new political party: Direct Democracy

by T

Wed Jun 10, 2009 13:47

The intentions of the above meeting this evening (Wed) seem good, but there have been many political parties setup throughout Europe over the past few years and whilst they start off generally with a lot of support, they all seem to fall into the same traps of the political parties and thence lose any initial popularity.

Whether this washing out of their policies is caused by nefarious people that join up with such intention is another matter. However before starting out on such a journey, it would make sense that many of the obstacles to success are identified. One that I can think of is to make organisations more "efficient". This usually amounts to deferring deision making to smaller groups thereby speeding things up. But for a "Direct Democray" party, this would be fatal in the long run.

Any new political party that will call itself Direct Democray would also need to spend a large amount of its time engaging with people other than soley through the channel of the Dail or the Senate. This involves a lot of work and willing people, something that is hard to come by. By their very nature, people will prefer to look and work towards the goal of public image and or office. Again this is a trend that can disenfranchise the rest of the members.

The core problem is that we know the people want X, Y and Z, but all the intermediate power layers who have access to most of the resources shaping and informing public opinion are owned or controlled by those with power (whether they are visible or not). It is clear that this new group/ party want to do away with that layer and connect directly.

What they may or may not realize that if you even attempt to take away the levers and mechanism of power then the more effective you are, the more violent will be the reaction. Indeed this is what many Left wing, social justice, Anarchist groups, and environmental groups have tried to do in numerous countries and depending where one is, you either get shot, beaten up, arrested, slandered or ignored.

So whilst I wish this group the best of luck, unless they realize vicious people become, who hold onto power, and by power I must stress that it does not always come in the shape of being a minister or TD, but also being a key institution of influence like ERSI or IBEC or even more so in the case of the many many PR people, then such a group will fizzle out in time. Perhaps a good start, would be to call for the a shake up in the entire media domain. For example, the postering ban should be lifted, 100s of public notice boards should be constructed by all councils within their area, to allow people without permission to post up notices and anyother stuff. All TV and radio stations broadcasting within the country should allocate a certain amount of time and or resources to allow various groups to have their say. However this still would not be ideal, because these organisations could easily introduce new "rules" to again limit and wash out any unpopular voices. But these are the sort of things, one should be thinking about.

Lastly regarding policy, it should be recognized that the objective of infinite growth by the so called market capitalism is a deadend, although I am sure the presence of Patrica McKenna will ensure that environmental issues are taken on board.

It seems that economists think the environment is a small sub-component of the economy and not the other way around. This is why mainstream political parties under the religious ideology of neo-liberalism / capitalism cannot and are incapble of grasping that we live on a finite planet. At present we place tremendous problems and some of these are: peak oil, climate chaos, over-population, pollution, lack of clean freshwater (not in Ireland), massive species loss, human rights abuses and wars, widespread environmental damage, collapse of world fisheries. So in the case of the financial crisis, we can print money out of thin air, fixing any of the above problems cannot be done so easy. Any politicial organisation that is not addressing the above in some way can be considered to be totally irrelevant and so this new party should not shy away from stating these major issues as looming ever larger. The temptation will be to shy away from such "greeny" issues as it might be bad press. That would be the first fall in towing the line and adhering to the mainstream agenda

Ireland is a Plebiscite

by Jaan - Direct Democracy Ireland

Sat Sep 24, 2011 23:18

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Time For Change: Time For 'DIRECT DEMOCRACY'

Comments (2 of 2)