DiEM25 event shows solidarity and resistance is not a strategy, it’s a practice

DiEM25’s landmark event united Yanis Varoufakis, Jeremy Corbyn, Zack Polanski, Grace Blakeley, Laura Pidcock and Brian Eno in an electrifying night of radical politics. It proved that cross-party, cross-movement solidarity is not a distant dream, but something that can begin tomorrow.

On the night of 24 March, the historic Troxy in London’s East End was packed to capacity, with an audience that was treated to a mix of poetry and provocation, moments of grief and speeches of passion.

DiEM25’s Resistance Is Existence brought together some of the top minds of the political Left, who offered both warnings about the current situation but also practical solutions on how to get involved and bring about tangible change.

The evening opened with comedian and DiEM25 Coordinating Collective member Francesca Martinez. She brought the house to life with a searingly funny and deeply personal account of what resistance means to someone who has spent years fighting for a more humane world.

Following her was Nigerian poet and playwright Inua Ellams. Her performance cut to the heart of the contradictions of our age.

In the first panel, DiEM25’s political director Erik Edman brought together co-founder Varoufakis, former MP Pidcock, and musician and long-time DiEM25 supporter Eno. The message from all three was urgent and unambiguous. Eno warned:

We are dealing with fascism now. It intends to end the game of democracy, it intends to smash it.

Reflecting on a decade of political upheaval, Eno called on everyone in the room to stop watching from the sidelines. Find someone doing something you admire, and help them. Pidcock echoed the call in her own register. She urged the audience to reimagine democracy beyond the ballot box in workplaces, in communities, in every space where people organise together. She said:

We have to widen our conception of democracy… let us expand our imagination for everywhere we can build power for ourselves.

DiEM25 brings together Polanski and Corbyn

The second panel produced a very significant moment for British politics.

Eno had said it plainly in the first half. The climate movement, the anti-war movement, the fight for democracy, these are not separate battles. They are the same fight, wearing different faces.

Former Labour leader Corbyn and Green Party leader Polanski took the stage together, where recognition and threads connected. Polanski set the tone from his very first words, reframing what resistance actually means:

Resistance is making things more accessible, more inclusive, making sure we are talking to friends, family, even strangers sometimes…

Resistance is joy, is art, is culture. And resistance is saying: what is happening in this country, where 50 of the wealthiest families own more wealth than the bottom 50% of the population. That’s not right, that’s a political choice. Let’s make different political choices.

From there, the conversation moved outward to electoral reform, a wealth tax, an end to homelessness, and accountability for Britain’s role in Gaza. Corbyn named it without flinching:

If the ICJ [International Court of Justice] has decided that acts of genocide are taking place… that makes the British government complicit in genocide.

Alongside them, DiEM25 Coordinating Collective member and author Grace Blakeley delivered the structural analysis. That all the hope in the room counts for nothing without rebuilding worker power from the ground up. Blakeley stated:

For the first time in a long time I do see some hope that we might be able to come together and translate it into something that really scares those at the top.

Varoufakis, who anchored both panels, drew the threads together: democracy is not something we inherit. It is something we have to make, again and again, in the face of those who would unmake it.

You can watch the full event on YouTube here.

Featured image via Chloe Chia (Haych) / DiEM25