Podemos

a anNo org Sh, a crowdsourcing website, has had a phenomenal success in social media. t is not difficult to understand given that there are many ilipinos, 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 PDA and the DAP.

Protest gatherings have become pass and if you think more deeply too ephemeral to sustain a movement for change no matter if it counts a million attendees. hen, 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.

he 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. know because was in two. ndeed, 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.

he constitutional assembly in the end will reach a dead end when voting comes. t may win in the ower ouse 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 ouse and the Senate. Only the people can overcome what has been called by neti ens as the new conjugal dictatorship of the executive and legislative.)

We should have a government with a vision on how to bring greater equality and cohesion of the body politic. hat 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.

hat is how other countries have turned to crowdsourcing, by organi ing the many, the people at large through social media. n celand, the crowdsourcing for a new Constitution brought policy reforms that gave the country a more effective strategy to solve the banking crisis.

n Spain, they did more than just crowdsourcing. And that is the example wish to illustrate here. n the crowdsourcing (mobili ing the citi enry) they were able to create a political party called odemos (We Can) and win elections. rom 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 citi en politics.

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

t is led by Pablo glesias, a 35-year-old political science professor. or 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 odemos (We Can) won five seats and 1.2 million votes in Spain’s European elections. t is now recogni ed as the third largest political force in many Spanish regions including the capital of Madrid.

he idea behind the party is simple, glesias told the uardian, and we can learn from that simple description as well in the Philippines through Ea anNo org Sh

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

glesias was formerly a member of the Communist youth party but he has now gone mainstream to become more effective. he ruling People’s Party (PP) won the elections, but not unlike what happened in celand, odemos, 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, glesias said.

odemos program included removing tax havens, a guaranteed minimum income and retirement age to 60. he unusual political group did not have the money needed for a widespread campaign but it used what is now called crowdfunding. glesias 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).

he main strength of odemos 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 iberal parties. Manglapus et al were too early for its time. hey did not have an internet to run a campaign on a shoestring budget.

ere is another lesson Ea anNo members might learn from odemos

“ he movement was incredibly expansive and impossible to fully capture in a political party, he said, “many of us were there, in the pla as 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, odemos wouldn’t be possible.

“We’re a citi en force, made up of people who got together and ran an electoral campaign practically without any money, said Errej n another odemos leader.

e 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 Errej n. “We don’t want to structure ourselves in the same closed off way.

odemos 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 citi ens engaging in politics. And we want to be a tool for that. Errejon added. Crowdsourcing. here you go.