Integrating activism into governance institutions

See this story. It's amazing what we the people can do if we but get active. An excerpt:

"The idea of the commons as an organising principle has moved from the streets to the heart of the European political establishment. For the first time, one of the European Parliament’s 28 Intergroups – groups made up of members from different political groupings, and that focus on certain issues – is devoted to discussing and defending the commons.

The Intergroup on Public Services and Common Goods was launched at the end of May, with support and members from the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, the Greens, the European United Left and Italy’s Five Star Movement.

The Intergroup’s stated goal is to defend shared, common goods – such as water, medical innovations and open-source code – from privatisation.


Last week, the Intergroup hosted an unlikely meeting of grassroots activists and members of the European Parliament (MEPs) inside the parliament building, to mark the finale of the “Reclaiming the Commons” project that spawned the Turkish film mentioned above, among others.
In a sense, it was an incongruous location for the discussion – in a meeting room in the heart of bureaucratic politics.

For many of the commons activists, the European Parliament would represent exactly the type of institution from which democracy needs reclaiming."