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The ESF soap opera continues

maybe | 16.03.2004 14:37 | European Social Forum | Free Spaces | Social Struggles | London

The London organising process has been a battle ground of different world views and organising techniques. The ESF process was brought to the UK by a small un-representative group, who then finding that they couldn’t, contradictable, keep control of the ESF in line with the principals that underline it closed the process to all but this small group by traditional authoritarian hard left strategies. In doing this they nearly destroyed the London ESF, it was only saved at the Europe wide meeting when they completely backed down and let lose all the techniques of exclusion that they had built up on paper. Though this paper change has not yet grown into an open cultural change.

This is the current challenge still, “is another world possible”.

The powers at the ESF

The closed bid group - verticals
The bureaucratic centralists
The authoritarian left

The ESF principal players - horizontals
The left progressives
The nutter left’s

Sitting on the fences
The liberal centralists
The mystical believers

What is to become of this culture clash of practical control and free practicality? Watch this space for the next instalment of London ESF.

maybe

Comments

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The nutter left's!?

16.03.2004 15:09

the nutter left's? Would that be the shouty anarchists who can't sit still & won't go quietly?

The anarchists are still the best looking bunch in this sorry farce.

Less drifting, more anchors!

dt