Bayanko can be Podemos

Bayanko.org.ph, a crowdsourcing website, has had a phenomenal success in social media. It is not difficult to understand given that there are many Filipinos, here and abroad, looking for ways to express themselves on what is happening to the country with incompetent government and shocking forms of corruption like the PDAF and the DAP.

Protest gatherings have become passé and if you think more deeply too ephemeral to sustain a movement for change no matter if it counts a million attendees. Then, of course there are the lessons of Edsa 1 and 2 that in the end returned worse social and economic inequalities in our society.

But with technology available, protests and criticisms of government can be sustained and give rise to new forms of people power other than mobbing in the streets. Crowdsourcing is one of them.

The struggle between the few and the many has been lopsided in favor of the few because of the flawed 1987 Constitution which included a provision for people’s initiative that cannot be implemented. I know because I was in two. Indeed, as one friendly Congressman put it to me, we have a Constitution that has provisions for amendments that are impossible to implement whether it is through a people’s initiative or a constitutional assembly. A constitutional convention will bring more politicians into the scene and/ or their relatives.

The constitutional assembly in the end will reach a dead end when voting comes. It may win in the Lower House but blocked in the Senate, the bastion of privilege and the status quo with only 24 members. (But all have become academic with the executive co-opting both the House and the Senate. Only the people can overcome what has been called by netizens as the new conjugal dictatorship of the executive and legislative.)

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We should have a government with a vision on how to bring greater equality and cohesion of the body politic. That is not happening.  And it should be clear now that we cannot rely on the government to do because the government has become the instrument of wealth and privilege. Any threat to it will be fought through whatever means.

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That is how other countries have turned to crowdsourcing, by organizing the many, the people at large through social media. In Iceland, the crowdsourcing for a new Constitution brought policy reforms that gave the country a more effective strategy to solve the banking crisis.

In Spain, they did more than just crowdsourcing. And that is the example I wish to illustrate here. In the crowdsourcing (mobilizing the citizenry) they were able to create a political party called Podemos (We Can) and win elections. From crowdsourcing to election success was just a step away because it had a program that intelligent Spaniards could support. Crowdsourcing in Spain led to the rise of citizen politics.

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“Barely 100 days old, the party was born from indignados movement and were able to put five MEPs (members of European parliament). They were determined that they would have to get into politics to change Spain’s politics.

It is led by Pablo Iglesias, a 35-year-old political science professor. For a while it had seemed that they were fighting the impossible and members lost interest in pursuing the crusade.

But that despair turned into joy when Podemos (We Can) won five seats and 1.2 million votes in Spain’s European elections. It is now recognized as the third largest political force in many Spanish regions including the capital of Madrid. 

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The idea behind the party is simple, Iglesias told the Guardian, and we can learn from that simple description as well in the Philippines through bayanko.org.ph.

“It’s citizens doing politics. If the citizens don’t get involved in politics, others will. And that opens the door to them robbing you of democracy, your rights and your wallet.”

Iglesias was formerly a member of the Communist youth party but he has now gone mainstream to become more effective. The ruling People’s Party (PP) won the elections, but not unlike what happened in Iceland, Podemos, with five MEPs had put its foot on the door. Doors will no longer be closed to their program for employment and fighting against home evictions.

“We want to build a political majority that reflects the social majority of Spain,” Iglesias said.

Podemos’ program included removing tax havens, a guaranteed minimum income and retirement age to 60. The unusual political group did not have the money needed for a widespread campaign but it used what is now called crowdfunding. Iglesias was also on television as often as he could. (Something we cannot do here because our television networks are owned by the oligarchy against change).

 The main strength of Podemos was that the Spaniards reached the end of their patience and ready to stop feeling helpless with “unemployment, austerity measures and corruption scandals.”

We made similar attempts in the past when Manglapus et al created the Progressive Party to compete with the humungous Nacionalista and Liberal parties. Manglapus et al were too early for its time. They did not have an internet to run a campaign on a shoestring budget.

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Here is another lesson bayanko members might learn from Podemos.

“The movement was incredibly expansive and impossible to fully capture in a political party, he said, “many of us were there, in the plazas and in the protests, we listened to what people were saying and we took notes. Without the changes that the movement brought about in the Spanish political scene, Podemos wouldn’t be possible.”

“We’re a citizen force, made up of people who got together and ran an electoral campaign practically without any money,” said Errejón another Podemos leader.

He said their political party is less what they want to be and more on what they don’t want to be. “Many political parties are always looking inside, never outside,” said Errejón. “We don’t want to structure ourselves in the same closed off way.”

Podemos’ primaries for the European elections were open to anyone who wanted to participate and attracted 33,000 voters.

“We don’t just want to be part of a political system that is decomposing. Spain isn’t lacking political parties. But missing is citizens engaging in politics. And we want to be a tool for that.”Errejon added. Crowdsourcing. There you go.