UPDATE TO THE WORLD FORUM MOVEMENT ON THE EUROPEAN SOCIAL FORUM 2004

An overview and update on the ESF 2004 process:

From the start the ESF 2004 process has been on a difficult footing, with organisations that have opposed the setting up of local social forums calling for it to be held in London in 2004 – not the local social forums and those involved with them. Indeed, the Socialist Workers Party (and their front group, Globalise Resistance! -  http://www.swp.org.uk/,  http://www.resist.org.uk/) who are opposed to local forums, UNISON - which has had virtually no part to play in the anti-war or global justice movement -, and the CND, took it upon themselves to put in a bid at the ESF in Paris (2003). Local social forums and independent activists then argued that because the bid for 2004 had been submitted without the consent of local forums, 2004 was too soon for a London ESF; work needed be undertaken by all to discuss location, principles, organisational form, etc. For this reason, local social forums argued that 2005 would be a better year to hold the ESF in the UK ( http://www.londonsocialforum.org/esf). This advice was not heeded and at the European Preparatory Meeting (EPA) just prior to the 2nd European Social Forum the bid was proposed and subsequently accepted at the EPA on 10 December 2003. It wouldn’t be wildly inaccurate to say the entire process of getting the ESF to come to England in 2004 has been farcical – and points to some severe deficiencies in the ESF bidding process.

The subsequent proceedings have – not surprisingly - been controlled by the SWP (and their front group Globalise Resistance! ( http://www.schnews.org.uk/mr.htm,  http://www.schnews.org.uk/monopresist/monopoliseresistance/vampirealert.pdf), and people connected with the Greater London Authority ( http://www.london.gov.uk/). They have called meetings at short notice ( http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/01/284508.html), withheld information so as to be deliberately difficult to grassroots and independent activists, and presented agendas that activists are unable to discuss or question; they have imposed democracy rather than consensus on the proceedings, refused to contact people who have indicated an interest in giving support, and labeled those who have called for greater transparency and horizontal methods of organization as 'traitors' and 'wreckers' of the process ( http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/01/284356.html,  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/01/284379.html .

The Mayor of London and the hierarchy of those who called for the 2004 bid continue to shun attempts to broaden the call for more organisations to get involved, and even refuse to say who is pulling the strings in organizing the meetings ( http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/01/284513.html). This logically leads some to conclude that the small cabal that is trying to dominate the event is attempting to exclude non-affiliated individuals and small organizations from having stalls or getting involved at all. At the very least, the GLA, SWP/GR, UNISON and the like are attempting to turn the ESF in London into a talking shop for the old-left - an event, rather than the an integral part of the anti-war, anti-capitalist or social justice movement in Europe. Indeed, the Mayor of London has personally called for Mayday protesters to be arrested by the police – which include some of people most active in the social movements in Britain itself! (See  http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/may2001/may-m01.shtml,  http://www.sheffieldmayday.ukf.net/2001/ken.htm)

It is a ludicrous that an organisation that has opposed the creation of local social forums in Britain – and done its utmost to disrupt attempts to create them – is now trying to gain hegemony over the ESF process in London. It claims that Britain is ‘not ready’ for local social forums, but more likely sees them as a threat to its own influence. So even though France and Greece have at least 100, and Germany 50, for example, Britain has very few. Has this been GR!’s intention from the start – to prevent social forums from existing in Britain until it could control an event that will launch them instead and then claim to be the founder and initiator of local social forums, sell lots of newspapers and recruit activists? Whatever the case, the organisations that currently control the process have a warped notion of what the ESF and WSF are about, and are not representative of the forum movement globally, or the social justice movement.

It seems imperative - for the sake of the ESF and WSF - that something is done about this. It is now probably too late to stage the event in 2005 - which would allow us in Britain to properly discuss and organise a real bid to host the ESF. Instead the proceedings must become more transparent, using horizontal methods of organisation, with real consensus rather than imposed 'democracy' in meetings ‘packed’ by the authoritarian left. The events in England could seriously damage the reputation of the ESF and WSF as a whole, and should be a lesson to all of the regional social forums that the old-left can and will attempt to make the world forum movement a playground for its stale and failed form of politics, at the expense of those who have worked so hard to really try and create a world that is new.

Further References:

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/01/284413.html - Overview of preparation
for ESF in London Nov. 2004.

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/01/284424.html - an excellent summary
of the internal goings on inside the ESF 2004 London process.

 http://www.cpgb.org.uk/esf/ - updates and inside information on the workings
of the ESF 2004.

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2003/12/282454.html - report from the
first ESF preparatory meeting.

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/01/284508.html
- - Meetings being called without transparency. The short notice of this
meeting prevents most from anywhere outside of London from attending;
is this inclusive organising? Proof at  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/01/284415.html.

 http://www.fse-esf.org/ - European Social Forum 2003 Paris.

www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/free/wsf/ - World Social Forum discussion
documents.

 http://www.gfk-ooe.at/projects/cp/esf/esf%20gb.pdf - Lina Jamoul – The European Social Forum : Reflections on the English Mobilisation.