Mobilisation for the European Social Forum
Benjamin Geer | 07.04.2002 17:11
Invitation to participate in the UK mobilisation for the European Social Forum. The ESF is to take place in Italy in October or November 2002.
Dear Friend,
We invite you to join with us in organising for the European Social Forum
to be held in Florence in November. Last week we had a meeting in London
of representatives from Globalise Resistance, the Green Party, the Ilusu
Dam Campaign, ATTAC London, the Socialist Workers Party, the Socialist
Alliance, War on Want and the World Development Movement. There were also
activists in other NGOs, the Communication Workers Union, UNISON, the
National Union of Teachers, the National Union of Students, and several
individuals. We hope to include many more organizations and unaffiliated
people. We need your help.
The European Social Forum should be huge. It has been called by the
Italian social forums, and is modeled on the World Social Forum held in
Porto Alegre, Brazil, in January. Eighty thousand people went to Porto
Alegre. The anti-capitalist movement is growing. In December 100,000 trade
unionists marched outside the EU summit in Brussels for a social
Europe. In January 20,000 demonstrated against the Davos conference in
southern Manhattan, close to Ground Zero. In March 500,000 people
demonstrated in Barcelona against capital and war. That same month 2
million demonstrated in Rome against Berlusconi and for trade union
rights. It is impossible to know what will happen between now and the
European Social Forum in November. But our movement is growing. We may
also face an invasion of Iraq and a worse war in Palestine. We will
certainly face a continuing global drive to privatization, the attack on
workers' rights and public services, and the destruction of our
environment. All of this means that the European Social Forum will
probably be as large as Porto Alegre, and maybe much larger. Every person
we have spoken to who was at Porto Alegre says the same thing. It was
fantastic, and they came away excited for the struggle at home.
So we want to get as many people as humanly possible from Britain to
Florence. This will strengthen the Forum, but it will strengthen our
movement here too. Protest is growing in Britain. First 50,000 marched
against the war in Afghanistan, and then 100,000. Discontent with the
proposed war on Iraq now extends to a large part of the parliamentary
Labour Party. The trade union rank and file, and the union leaders, are
increasingly unhappy with Blair's policies. The recent votes at the NUT
conference are one sign of this. So is the fact that on Mayday, for the
first time, Globalise Resistance and the official trade union movement
have called a combined trade union and anti-capitalist demonstration.
But none of this will happen without organisation. Last week 61 people,
representing a wide variety of organisations and individuals, met in
central London to begin the necessary work. We decided to call ourselves
`Moblisation for the European Social Forum: A Better World is Possible'.
This is a start, but nothing like what is needed. Our next meeting in
London is on Monday 22 April at 6.30 p.m. at the University of London
Union, Malet Street. More important, we want committees to mobilise for
the Forum set up, and public meetings held, in every city and town in
Britain. We need to book coaches, raise money, sign people up, flypost,
agitate, publicise, create a buzz and put the Forum on the map. Please
circulate this letter as widely as possible.
Main UK mailing list for the European Social Forum:
http://lists.southspace.net/listinfo/esf-uk-info
UK working group lists:
Framework:
http://lists.southspace.net/listinfo/esf-uk-framework
Publicity/Mobilising:
http://lists.southspace.net/listinfo/esf-uk-mobilising
Practicalities:
http://lists.southspace.net/listinfo/esf-uk-practicalities
We invite you to join with us in organising for the European Social Forum
to be held in Florence in November. Last week we had a meeting in London
of representatives from Globalise Resistance, the Green Party, the Ilusu
Dam Campaign, ATTAC London, the Socialist Workers Party, the Socialist
Alliance, War on Want and the World Development Movement. There were also
activists in other NGOs, the Communication Workers Union, UNISON, the
National Union of Teachers, the National Union of Students, and several
individuals. We hope to include many more organizations and unaffiliated
people. We need your help.
The European Social Forum should be huge. It has been called by the
Italian social forums, and is modeled on the World Social Forum held in
Porto Alegre, Brazil, in January. Eighty thousand people went to Porto
Alegre. The anti-capitalist movement is growing. In December 100,000 trade
unionists marched outside the EU summit in Brussels for a social
Europe. In January 20,000 demonstrated against the Davos conference in
southern Manhattan, close to Ground Zero. In March 500,000 people
demonstrated in Barcelona against capital and war. That same month 2
million demonstrated in Rome against Berlusconi and for trade union
rights. It is impossible to know what will happen between now and the
European Social Forum in November. But our movement is growing. We may
also face an invasion of Iraq and a worse war in Palestine. We will
certainly face a continuing global drive to privatization, the attack on
workers' rights and public services, and the destruction of our
environment. All of this means that the European Social Forum will
probably be as large as Porto Alegre, and maybe much larger. Every person
we have spoken to who was at Porto Alegre says the same thing. It was
fantastic, and they came away excited for the struggle at home.
So we want to get as many people as humanly possible from Britain to
Florence. This will strengthen the Forum, but it will strengthen our
movement here too. Protest is growing in Britain. First 50,000 marched
against the war in Afghanistan, and then 100,000. Discontent with the
proposed war on Iraq now extends to a large part of the parliamentary
Labour Party. The trade union rank and file, and the union leaders, are
increasingly unhappy with Blair's policies. The recent votes at the NUT
conference are one sign of this. So is the fact that on Mayday, for the
first time, Globalise Resistance and the official trade union movement
have called a combined trade union and anti-capitalist demonstration.
But none of this will happen without organisation. Last week 61 people,
representing a wide variety of organisations and individuals, met in
central London to begin the necessary work. We decided to call ourselves
`Moblisation for the European Social Forum: A Better World is Possible'.
This is a start, but nothing like what is needed. Our next meeting in
London is on Monday 22 April at 6.30 p.m. at the University of London
Union, Malet Street. More important, we want committees to mobilise for
the Forum set up, and public meetings held, in every city and town in
Britain. We need to book coaches, raise money, sign people up, flypost,
agitate, publicise, create a buzz and put the Forum on the map. Please
circulate this letter as widely as possible.
Main UK mailing list for the European Social Forum:
http://lists.southspace.net/listinfo/esf-uk-info UK working group lists:
Framework:
http://lists.southspace.net/listinfo/esf-uk-framework Publicity/Mobilising:
http://lists.southspace.net/listinfo/esf-uk-mobilising Practicalities:
http://lists.southspace.net/listinfo/esf-uk-practicalities
Benjamin Geer
e-mail:
benjamin.geer@attac.org.uk
Homepage:
http://uk.geocities.com/mobilisationesf
Comments
Hide the following comment
who are you?
08.04.2002 15:00
I would love it if NGOs, trades unionists and direct action types could get together for a European social forum. I think we could all benefit from cross fertilisation of our ideas, tactics etc.
However, I (and the people I mix with) have learned to be a bit suspicious about this sort of thing when it happens in the UK because a certain group tends to regard these broad coalitions as an oportunity to set up trot front-organisations. Several of the groups you list are basically the SWP under different guises, and 'activists' from various unions often amount to the same thing.
This doesn't help us to develop the trust and respect we need to co-operate effectively. It also unfairly inflates the SWP's influence in these coalitions because they get more say: one voice for GR, one for the SWP one for the Socialist Alliance etc. The result is that loads of people who aren't prepared to go along with the SWP/GR way of doing things are put off whilst the new comers to the scene are conned into thinking they're participating in somethng they are not.
I found it depressing/amusing to find the last Stop the War Demo meeting point full of stalls representing different brands of the same SWP/GR product. To be cruel, I thought that it was basically a reflection of capitalism - loads of choice, loads of product differentiation but basically the same tired old shit packaged in slightly different ways. I mean, do the leadership of these groups really think that people are so stupid?
The other worry I have is that NGO's and are often not very willing/able to relate to non-formal organisations. We tried to do some networking with NGO's for the Dsei demo last year but the national offices seemed totally unable to connect. (Local groups like Tower Hamlets CND were really cool though).
I'd appreciate it if people didn't just do anti-SWP rants in response to this. On the other hand any SWPer who says I'm being sectarian can just fuck off.
christopher spence