Dear friends,

As we all know, the Irish People shall be the only one that will be consulted by a binding referendum about the coming into force of the Reform Treaty on the European Union.

Those people that had their say on the former Constitutional Treaty, have been robbed of their right to do so on this occasion by ruthless political and economical elites that follow their own agendas independently of their peoples will, silencing it actively if necessary.

Those same political and economical elites from across Europe will be ruthlessly campaigning for a YES vote among the Irish voters in the forthcoming referendum, spending enormous amounts of money to move their representants to Ireland to campaign actively and coping almost all the available advertising space.

Though it is without any doubt your referendum, it will also be the only referendum held on the Reform Treaty in the whole of Europe, and we, the European peoples that have been robbed of our sovereign right to decide for ourselves if we want such a treaty or not, feel that the Irish people are PEOPLE, just as we are, and that they should think about what the possible victory of a YES vote would mean not only for the Irish, but also for the rest of us peoples.

Already the sovereign decision of the french and dutch people in 2005 is being ignored and an almost identical text is being proposed to the Irish.

A text that can deny us our sovereign rights in europe, as anyone can see is being done, if voted YES, will have superior powers than the Irish Fundamental Law that still grants you this right as the only people left in Europe. You would be voting away your right to the next referendum!!!

While we can’t have our say about it in our own countries anymore, we can still do all what is within our hands as peoples and citizens of Europe to help the Irish cope with the bureaucratic assault on their right to decide by themselves, and help counter the institutional campaigns of those treacherous politicians that sold us out.

All over Europe resistance is rising, but we fear it might be futile if it doesn’t focus its efforts towards what is still a crucial battle that can be won, give it some hope that there is still something positive they can do, help the Irish people win their referendum against all odds and repeat what the french and dutch did in 2005.

Manifestations are being organised across Europe, and a grassroots initiative led by Étienne Chouard, plain citizen but well-known for his influence in the french referendum, is recently starting to organize small locally-focussed manifestations in every town on wednesdays at 18h. The idea is to have them very close to the people that are to participate, and repetitive…

I thought that perhaps they could be given a more positive meaning than just protesting against what they can not easily change anymore if their efforts could have some influence on the outcome of a battle that has not yet been lost… the Irish Referendum.

At this moment they are distributing leaflets and identifying themselves through the use of white balloons, and they have also “borrowed” the star-eating citizen of the European Citizen’s Initiative as their logo, and I thought that perhaps they could be convinced at this early stage of their movement to redesign their leaflets so that a part of them can be torn off and used as an conventional postcard to be sent to some unknown citizen of Ireland, “Mr. Voter”. As the message they want to transmit to their local population is similar as what they might want to say to their irish comrades that have yet to vote, either in english or through appropriate graphical and wordless representations… their leaflets could serve both purposes if they allow likeminded recipients of those leaflets to join in the campaign with their small personal effort by affixing the appropiate post stamp to the postcard and send it off to some unknown Irish citizen. Adresses could be gathered from street maps on the internet, tourist brochures, etc., or if possible provided by interested parties as Sinn Fein on a more rational and strategy-oriented basis.

Just imagine the possible impact… against the mass-media campaign and money-based effort of the professional politicians massively asking for a YES vote, suddenly and almost out of nowhere an unstoppable flood of postcards coming from simple individuals and citizens from across the whole of Europe, adressed to simple and ordinary citizens of Ireland, asks them to consider the way they were sideranged and ignored since the french and dutch referenda of 2005, and how the Irish could be sideranged and ignored after 2008 if they vote into force a treaty that assumes a higher priority than the Irish Constitution and thus ignore the only law that grants them today the right to be the only people in Europe still to be consulted by referendum.

If only a few percent of the 450 million europeans that feel themselves stabbed in the back by their governments can spare the cost of a post stamp to send a postcard to an Irish citizen… our campaign might even reach first page mass-media coverage simply by collapsing the Irish postal office facilities under the avalanche.

These postcards could not only be distributed at the different manifestations throughout Europe, but their design and instructions could be made available for download and selfprinting from any web simpathising with the NO movement.

Only 50 days to go untill the occasion is lost and the less time we waste the more momentum the campagne could build up before the referendum is there.

Nothing is lost as long as we have brains and do not run out of ideas.

Another good idea might be to take some chosen extracts from the film that won the Cannes Film Festival in 2006, Ken Loach’s “The wind that shakes the barley”, adapt the dialogues to the possibility of loosing the fought-for Constitution or whatever message seems appropiate to stress in the wake of the referendum, and spread them like wildfire through You-Tube, DailyMotion and similar services.

Good chance.

Sincerely,

A pissed off European Citizen with some brains left.