As some of you might have noticed, I have been active for long years in a youth NGO called the Young European Federalists, better known as JEF by its acronym. Now, generally we would call ourselves a bunch of EU-geeks who try to discuss the European Constitution and European federalism in a friendly way, but seldomly make it to avoid the usual political debates that you read in the reports of the European Summits. Everything apart, this is a great organisation, where anyone with an interest in EU politics and Europe will find a good place.
This intro serves to present an action that JEF is launching this weekend – Youth takes action: Europe´s statues will go as quiet as democracy inside of Belarus. JEF activists all around Europe have stood against the last dictatorship in Europe already last year in an impressive collection of actions. This year the actions will go even further, to even more places. For a simple reason: Europe and the EU simply cannot stand blind to what is happening in Belarus and political pressure has to be put on Lukashenka’s regime to democratise. And as much as we federalists care about democracy in the EU, we also care about democracy beyond.
So far the actions have been confirmed to take place in: Paris, Bordeaux, Berlin, Geneva, Chemnitz, Freiburg, Vilnius, Lund, Stockholm, Brussels, Porto, Lisbon, Riga, Bucharest, Ljubljana, Ã…rhus, Bern, Helsinki, Dublin, Podgorica, Nancy, Poland and in Boston.
A good way to cover the action and spread the word around is of course blogging. Using new technologies for pan-European actions is of course a common challenge, but seems that it really does touch a politically very active part of Europe’s society. This would be my modest contribution. If you’re a blogger that cares about people in Belarus, write about it next week and look for JEF activists preparing actions by writing to my ever favourite Åsa (asa.gunven@gmail.com).
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You can view some glimps of the action in 2006 in JEF picture galleries and as promised the updates will be published on JEF’s website: www.jef.eu.
Marko Bucik 
Now the action has happened and it was a reall success:) Youth in over 30 countries and 60 cities joined to silence all of Europe’s statues in support of civil liberties and democracy in Belarus! A true cross border movement that somehow proves the European integration we tend to speak so technically about:)
here are the cities – but do have a look at all the pictures unde http://www.jef.eu/index.php?id=1639&tx_lzgallery_pi1%5BshowUid%5D=101
US; Boston, Canada; Ottawa, France: Bordeaux, Nancy, Paris, Strasbourg, Lyon, Germany; Berlin, Chemnitz, Freiburg, Jena, Lithuania; Vilnius, Sweden; Stockholm, Lund, Borås, Skövde, Gothenburg, Malmö UK; Edinburgh, York, Leeds, Nottingham Belgium, Brussels, Löwen, Portugal; Lisbon, Porto, Matosinhos, Latvia; Riga, Romania, Slovenia, Denmark; Århus, Copenhagen, Odense, Aalborg, Switzerland; Bern, Finland; Helsinki, Oulu, Netherlands; Wageningen, Ireland; Dublin, Montenegro; Podgorica, Croatia; Zagreb, Bosnia, Kosovo; Pristine, Serbia; Nis, Bulgaria, Sofia, Varna, Italia; Florence, Greece, Komotini, Poland; Warsaw, Wrclaw, Poznań, Gorzów, Gdańsk, Białystok, Krakow, Wielkoposki, Spain; Madrid, Barcelona, Ukraine; Kiev, Lviv, Czech; Prague.
At least!
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