The people who physically attacked the anti facist meeting 0n Saturday night at the ESF have crossed the line can no longer be seen as part of the movement.

Indymedia needs to consider it's role in the attack on the anti facist movement and the ESF.

Its official. A new low has been achieved by individuals suffering from Anarchism.

This action might just be lower than providing the police their cover in Genoa.

Thanks again guys, you are the vommit of our movement.

I am writing this in light of what seems to be such a real dearth of commentary in follow up to last weekend’s greatly anticipated 2004 european social forum. It’s almost a surreal, eerie silence across the media that has made me question if the event really happened at all! An official sponsor, the UK Guardian newspaper, has had little or no follow up coverage to it. The UK indymedia site has in turn fallen silent on the topic. I suppose I expected the esf to spark debate and activity, and to be a catalyst for action. This must surely be the aim of activists following so much theory and debate. But unfortunately if that was a central aim of the esf, then it has plainly fallen short of that goal. It just shows the gap that can emerge between expectation and reality.

I arrived at the esf in Alexander palace on Saturday afternoon fresh off a Ryanair flight from Dublin. My purpose for going was three-fold. Firstly, having been involved in the anti-war movement in Ireland I saw the esf as a potential site for advancing this cause. Secondly, as Noam Chomsky has pointed out in recent writings, the “second world super power” (after the US) is now the global community. The esf, as a subset of the world social forum, has at least the potential to mobilise that community to play a constructive role in resetting the global agenda in the interest of all of humanity, and not just in the interests of narrow private elites. Finally, I came to the esf in London because I wanted a concrete, lived experience of resistance, solidarity and liberation, to learn through action. Whether I found that or not I didn’t know in advance. But I guessed this might be a good place to look.

Well, I was both rewarded and disappointed. I was rewarded mainly because the esf has potential, not because of what the esf is today, but rather what it could become. The main venue, Alexander palace, was overflowing with information stands representing a broad spectrum of NGOs, left parties, and trade unions. That all these groups are gathered under one roof in 2004 is both significant and necessary if we are serious about advancing social and environmental change that benefits the majority of the world’s people. And there is a convergence of ideas and interests emerging here. I don’t wish to seem to be papering over the cracks between reformists and revolutionaries in all their shades; real and substantive ideological differences exist. But if these differences are to be thrashed out then this must surely be the kind of place to advance that work constructively.

I was disappointed mainly because although there was a very diverse and inclusive polyphony of voices and perspectives available in London last weekend, the cross pollination and engagement of ideas and policy leading to actions seemed to be lacking. The event was wonderfully decentered, but it was at the same time rendered benign and inert in a way that I don’t believe the organisers wanted it to be. After all, those of us involved in activism want to see constructive, consensual action arising out of an event like this.

It is ironic that the French philosopher Derrida should have died last week. His work very powerfully decentered the hither-to authoritative narrative of western civilisation. This has opened us up to otherness, difference and fringe narratives in new and fruitful ways that we are still exploring and we are indebted to him for this. However, as one writer on his obituary pointed out, Derrida’s radical philosophy left him no basis for grounding a political philosophy that could lead to action. Between Derrida and the esf we need to engage with each other and our world and somehow hammer out some common political philosophy. The elites that are driving neo-liberalism and a global war fought at various levels on ordinary people openly have a pragmatic political philosophy and engagement with the world. And it is becoming more and more patently clear that this is not in global communities interests. We’ve gotten this far, we now need to move towards the next step; full engagement of ideas and debate, and a willingness to participate in joint power and action.

Otherwise the esf will become just another talking shop. It will become another pressure valve in the system, useful for blowing off steam and dissipating dissent with disappointment, and not actually doing what it was set up for: to challenge illegitimate power, injustice and narrow short-term interest where ever it is found.

But I believe the esf merits winding up on a high note. The esf is young. It might be flawed, but it is in existence and it might not be but for the difficult organising work put into it to date. It has gotten us to a point where a spectrum of diverse groups working for social change are found under one roof, and are being (at least minimally) civil to one another. It has potential to be robust enough to contain diversity, tolerance and change; it must have this robustness. This, I believe, will be crucial in the years ahead. The best thing we can do now is look calmly at the european social forum as it is now, take stock, and build the wsf/esf to be the change we want to see in the time ahead.

Agree with that. With respect to all authors, too much IndyMedia coverage has focussed on the horizontal/vertical dispute, rather than reporting the wealth of wonderful events, speeches, debates, and experiences.

Splits may fascinate the embedded but they look silly from outside. We need to communicate the positive energy and ideas for changing the world.

One example: brilliant speeches from Arundhati Roy:
(have to link to Socialist Worker for these, sorry but that's where they are)

Public power in the Age of Empire:
 http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php4?article_id=2910

Hazard Warning:
 http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php4?article_id=2926

Beautiful or Bloody?:
 http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php4?article_id=2940


ESF website:
 http://www.esf-fse.org

People, let's get a grip here! Take a deep breath and look at the background of this website. See? The legendary 15 Feb demo. Why is this chosen? Why is it such an iconic image? Because there you see thousands upon thousands of people of all backgrounds and views united in common cause to speak out against the war. Anyone who was there will tell you how inspiring it was.

And here with the ESF (and yes, also the Beyond ESF events) we have another gathering of thousands of diverse people looking for ways to another world. And again anyone who attended will tell you how inspiring it was, the great events, meetings, speakers, the chance to exchange ideas and make links across Europe and the world.

It'd be tragedy to overshadow all this with a battle between horizontals and verticals. Let's be honest, neither group can claim to represent a majority even of activists, most of whom would rather avoid the whole fight.

And also keep perspective. As someone said, most people who weren't at ESF may possible have seen sketchy reports if they read the Guardian, otherwise will only maybe have seen coverage of the anti-war demo on the news.

Not belittling ESF but just saying if we get caught up arguing about it for weeks/months, we miss the bigger picture of the need to kick-start the anti-war movement again. There is widespread unrest about the latest troop deployments, and service families are starting to speak out for troop withdrawal. The time is ripe. Let's not be replaying past battles while the rest of the world goes by!