Good evening,
Please, can people comment on the following idea, earlier posted in the Discord/Dao ideas section, and say if this is something DAO would be willing to help fund:
I would like to send Nils Melzer’s book, “The Trial of Julian Assange”, to UK MPs, preferably before the 18th of May 2022.
(Other prominent people may be ‘targeted’ at a later stage, if Priti Patel doesn’t do the right thing. Like EU Parliament & Commission members; judges of the European Court of Human Rights; US Congress members. I already sent Patel a copy of the book.)
For the UK, we would need 650 books for the House of Commons, and 771 for the House of Lords. Someone suggested sending copies to the Queen and Princes Charles, William and Harry, as well, which would make a total of 1425 books. If we wanted to include some main journalists, too, we could round it off at 1450 copies.
[Further actions to make this a success, would be:
- Write an accompanying letter.
- Get proper titles, names and addresses for each MP and Lord.
- Print letters on good quality paper
- Personalise letters with addressees’ names.
- Send most of them, but hand over a few in person at the Houses of Parliament, so we can send it round on social media.]
Nils Melzer has put me in contact with the publisher, Verso, in the UK. The latter is willing to sell the £20 book for £10, so 50% off. This means that the total sum for the books would ,be £14,250 or £14.500 (excluding postage).
Verso will check if they can print out the accompanying letter as well, enclose one for every book and send it off (without postage, that would cost around £5 per book & letter, I believe).
Personally I think it would be better if supporters in Londen would hand as many copies as possible over, at the Houses of Parliament – at least for (some) London Councils? – so that we could film conversations with MPs (if we’re lucky) and share it on social media.
But this would demand solving a logistics puzzle urgently and I am not sure there is anyone owning a delivery van, in the London support group.
Of course, the first biggest hurdle is financing it. Would DAO be willing to contribute to this mission and, if so, how much? Do people think it a good plan? Any constructive comment or feedback is welcome!
Many thanks,
Djamila