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Beppe Grillo: Revolutionary Satire? Or is he Serious? - Jan Klimkowski - 26-02-2013 So, the most corrupt and banal democracy in Europe nearly gets Berlusconi again. Instead, the real winner is the stand-up comedian Beppe Grillo, who got 25 percent of the vote without even standing for election. Whilst the market's man, Goldman Sachser Super Mario was trashed at the ballot box.... Here's Beppe in his own words: "Politicians Go Home!" Quote:The rediscovery of being human Beppe Grillo: Revolutionary Satire? Or is he Serious? - Keith Millea - 27-02-2013 Published on Tuesday, February 26, 2013 by Common Dreams Big Winner in Italian Election? The Five Star Movement The Big Loser? Austerity - Craig Brown, staff writer Massive crowd in Milan's Duomo square at a 'Tsunami Tour' rally of Beppe Grillo, comedian-turned-political activist, in Milan, Italy, in this Feb. 19, 2013 photo. Grillo describes himself merely as the spokesman or "guarantor" of the Five Star Movement. (AP Photo/Alessandro Treves) Italy's two major political parties are stunned by the results of this week's elections: the dramatic surge of the anti-establishment Movimento Cinque Stelle (The Five Star Movement). The actual outcome of the Italian election remains in doubt, but there's no question who the big winner was: comedian-turned-political activist Beppe Grillo and the Five Star Movement (M5S). Poster for the Five Star Movement's "Tsunami Tour"Last year, the Five Star Movement barely registered in polls of likely Italian voters. With results now in, the Five Star Movement, took over 25% of the vote - more than the two major parties. The Five Star Movement's anti-austerity, anti-establishment message struck a chord with millions of Italians. The 'Five Stars' of the movement are the party's core principles:
The election, a massive rejection of the austerity policies applied by Prime Minister Mario Monti with the backing of international leaders from U.S. President Barack Obama to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, caused consternation across Europe. Grillo's insurgent campaign had almost no money, just a couple of campaign staffers and an RV that carried Grillo all across Italy in what he dubbed the "Tsunami Tour." The Five Star Movement's simple - yet clear and compelling - message paired with the smart use of social media overcame the challenges of a low-budget campaign. The M5S website is here - Facebook page here - Twitter here. Beppe Grillo's Blog (in English) here. Jamie Bartlett writing for the Guardian: How Beppe Grillo's Social Media Politics Took Italy by Storm "The mainstream parties are finished! They won't survive for long", announced Beppe Grillo, in typical style, on his Five Star Movement's online television channel late on Monday night. For a long time political scientists have predicted that the internet would lead to the decline of formal political parties and Beppe Grillo is showing how. [...] he has around a quarter of a million supporters who consider themselves members of the movement: an army of volunteers and door-knockers that would previously have taken years to recruit. The medium and the message fit hand in glove: the media is a racket, so circumvent it. Politics is closed especially the party list system so elect members online. That is why his election rallies have been by far the most well attended of all the candidates, and why the pollsters didn't see him coming: his voters turned out more consistently than anyone else. The same thing happened in Germany with the Pirate party in the recent Berlin election, where pollsters dramatically underestimated their support. Polling companies have some work to do. This election was a litmus test on whether social media campaigning and support can translate into actual votes. The result is a resounding yes. The melange of virtual and real-world political activity is the way millions of people relate to politics in the 21st century. Formal membership of political parties is plummeting, while social media following Facebook groups or Twitter followers is growing fast. Grillo has shown how to use them. http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/02/26-15 Beppe Grillo: Revolutionary Satire? Or is he Serious? - Magda Hassan - 27-02-2013 Quote: Looks like a good way to go. Some activists are thinking much more laterally now given that the traditional political forms are controlled by others. Beppe Grillo: Revolutionary Satire? Or is he Serious? - Jan Klimkowski - 27-02-2013 I want to believe..... Beppe Grillo: Revolutionary Satire? Or is he Serious? - Magda Hassan - 16-01-2014 Showtime! Thinking About Kim Dotcom's Internet Party By Chris Trotter / January 15, 2014 / Rating: 3.3/5 (23 votes cast) If Dotcom is able to combine these three elements: popular mistrust of the political class; an unmediated means of communicating with the masses; and carefully staged opportunities for cathartic political release; then he has every chance of polling well above the 5 percent MMP threshold. As [Labour Prime Minister, Michael Joseph] Savage progressed around the country it became clear that something extraordinary had been unleashed in the usually staid New Zealand voter. In town after town, huge crowds gathered to meet the Labour Prime Minister. Halls overflowed. Stadiums were hired. Stadiums overflowed. [New Zealand historian, Barry] Gustafson records that "Savage's speeches to crowds of up to 30,000 were among the most moving and inspiring in a New Zealand election campaign." No Left Turn Page 166 FEW, IF ANY of those attending Kim Dotcom's "Party Party" at Auckland's Vector Arena on Monday, 20 January 2014, will be unaware that they are participating in a major political event. As far back as September, Dotcom was telling his Twitter followers that a political party was in the offing and yesterday he tweeted its name "The Internet Party" and promised "to make politics interesting." The larger than life German Internet entrepreneur went on to say that his new party would aim to "activate non-voters, the youth, the Internet electorate." The Vector Arena seats 15,000 people and as of this morning (15/1/14) 15,000 people had registered their interest in attending. That is a huge audience for a political message. You have to go back a very long way indeed to find a political event of remotely comparable size. Nearly forty years ago, in 1975, the National Party Leader of the Opposition, Rob Muldoon, attracted 6,000 supporters to a rally in the Wiri Wool Store, but, as the above quotation makes clear, you have to travel back in time to the General Election of 1938 to find political audiences in the five figure range. And to those who say: "Oh, it's all just the usual Dotcom razzamatazz, there's no substance there." Just take a look at Italy, where Silvio Berlusconi and Beppe Grillo have been turning razzamatazz into votes for the best part of two decades. Forza Italia! and Grillo's Five Star Movement are not electoral parties in the traditional sense, rather they are opportunities for political excitement, for the sort of emotional release that being a part of a huge and enthusiastic audience makes possible. Don't think political meeting think rock concert or religious revival. If Dotcom has been studying the Italian examples, especially Grillo's Five Star Movement (which won 25 percent of the popular vote in last year's Italian general election) then he will understand that the fuel which fires such electoral phenomena is the disillusionment bordering on hatred which voters (especially young voters) feel towards the political class. These professional politicians, who seem to speak a language and act in accordance with a belief system which is quite foreign to ordinary people, remain coldly unmoved by the demands of democratic majorities. They may be members of different political parties, but the policies which they espouse are almost all variations on the same neoliberal and profoundly undemocratic themes. Frighteningly homogeneous, the political class never saw a Budget that couldn't be improved by slashing social spending, or a Statute Book that could not be stiffened with a few more curbs on personal liberty and a host of new surveillance powers for the State. (All in the name of "National Security" of course!) The other feature of Berlusconi's and Grillo's reconfiguration of Italian electoral politics is the way in which they were able to bypass the political class's mainstream media allies and enablers. Berlusconi was able to do this by virtue of the fact that he personally owned most of Italy's broadcasting networks; Grillo by using his extraordinarily influential blog, beppegrillo.it (according to Technorati one of the top 10 blogs in the world). With these personalised communications vehicles at their command both men were able to simply go over or around the normal journalistic gatekeepers and opinion-shapers and speak directly to their followers. The resulting impression that there was something transgressive about the bonds forged between these rogue politicians and their disaffected viewers/readers only made their messages more powerful. If Dotcom is able to combine these three elements: popular mistrust of the political class; an unmediated means of communicating with the masses; and carefully staged opportunities for cathartic political release; then he has every chance of polling well above the 5 percent MMP threshold. Indeed, given the huge number of politically disengaged citizens (many, if not most of them, young) Dotcom's Internet Party could end up (if I may borrow Fairfax journalist, Vernon Small's, metaphor) throwing a huge spanner in the works of the 2014 General Election. If I was John Key, I'd be doing everything I could to speed up Dotcom's extradition while I still had the power to do so. http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/01/15/showtime-thinking-about-kim-dotcoms-internet-party/ Beppe Grillo: Revolutionary Satire? Or is he Serious? - David Guyatt - 16-01-2014 Quote:If Dotcom has been studying the Italian examples, especially Grillo's Five Star Movement (which won 25 percent of the popular vote in last year's Italian general election) then he will understand that the fuel which fires such electoral phenomena is the disillusionment bordering on hatred which voters (especially young voters) feel towards the political class. How true that is... Beppe Grillo: Revolutionary Satire? Or is he Serious? - Magda Hassan - 09-03-2014 |