Indymedia call for ESF to demand server theft enquiry
Further calls
Say hello to the new boss...
Some delegates disagreed with the intervention
Some got very angry
Attempts made to cool things down
Security man who claims to have dismissed the police
Policeman hides identity - says "his mum doesn't know he's a copper!"
Key speeches made the point that far from being a “democratic” and horizontal forum, it was in fact hijacked by Ken Livingstone who “bought the ESF with a £400,000 donation and the promise of free travel for delegates.”
And as ESF speakers talk on how to make the world a better place to live, the poor, who must pay a £30 entrance are, as ever, excluded..
Babel interpreters claimed many of their volunteers were refused entry to the UK by authorities, others claimed that the autonomous spaces and free accomodations - such as Ramparts - were constantly monitored, harrassed and photographed by police.
Reports are coming in that police are harrassing people as they leave the venue. On the positive side, when they came to break up the occupation, security staff told them they weren’t welcome, and claim to have signed a declaration that they had the matter under control.
There were no reported arrests or injuries involving police inside the hall.
Comments
Hide the following 7 comments
Why not explain the reason for the Ally Pally demo action
17.10.2004 09:36
No Jo Ro
e-mail:
nojoro@waitrose.com
The Ally Pally anti-Ken demo needs more explanation
17.10.2004 09:44
No Jo Ro
e-mail:
nojoro@waitrose.com
Police using batons against protestors
17.10.2004 11:12
rachel
Reasons
17.10.2004 15:04
The intervention was principally aimed at the hypocrisy of Ken Livingstone, the allegedly "leftist" mayor of London, who was going to speak against racism just after he has rejoined the Labor party, which is prosecuting an unjust and racist war. I don't understand how United Against Fascism can put someone like this up as an anti-racist speaker. The banner "Ken's Party, War Party" should make this fairly clear.
Ken's police (agents of state violence) have also been harassing people at the movements' Social Centres and on the streets continuously since the start of the ESF. This sort of behaviour may be accepted in the UK but it is well beyond the level of what people will accept from the police in other countries. The on-stage intervention was thus carried out in a very mature and peaceful fashion to highlight this at the ESF. Video will be available soon, it should help in dispelling any lies that are being circulated about what happened.
Keep in mind that the Babels network have worked for the ESF throughout the entire Forum, translating the entire conference on a volunteer basis. The statement read by the Babels speaker from the stage is at
Lastly, there have been serious flaws in the organizing process of the ESF in the UK, as documented at
Personally, I have had very mixed reactions to the ESF; the extensive use of corporate partnerships (e.g. the London Guardian is the "media partner" of the ESF), the lack of openness in the organizing process, and the involvement of "War-party Ken" Livingstone, mayor of London, are all in major conflict with the principles of the World Social Forum, below. The extensive penetration and co-optation of the process by authoritarian leftist political parties is also problematic. The principles of the Social Forum process are ones that the people doing the intervention were trying to protect.
WORLD SOCIAL FORUM CHARTER OF PRINCIPLES
( excerpted from
8)
The World Social Forum is a plural, diversified, non-confessional, non-governmental and non-party context that, in a decentralized fashion, interrelates organisations and movements engaged in concrete action at levels from the local to the international to build another world.
9)
The World Social Forum will always be a forum open to pluralism and to the diversity of activities and ways of engaging of the organisations and movements that decide to participate in it, as well as the diversity of genders, ethnicities, cultures, generations and physical capacities, providing they abide by this Charter of Principles. Neither party representations nor military organisations shall participate in the Forum. Government leaders and members of legislatures who accept the commitments of this Charter may be invited to participate in a personal capacity.
11)
As a forum for debate the World Social Forum is a movement of ideas that prompts reflection, and the transparent circulation of the results of that reflection, on the mechanisms and instruments of domination by capital, on means and actions to resist and overcome that domination, and on the alternatives proposed to solve the problems of exclusion and social inequality that the process of capitalist globalisation with its racist, sexist and environmentally destructive dimensions is creating internationally and within countries.
manifestation
The articals have failed to address
18.10.2004 08:48
Joshua Fenton-Glynn
e-mail:
guildmembers@liv.ac.uk
some answers
18.10.2004 12:58
>physicall assult on one of the speakers.
Another report suggests that it was overblown. Apparently someone did loose their wallet and phone but then everyone tried to help find it.
>It also dosen't address the fundimental stupidity of the attack
>on Livingstone for being in a party who supported a war he was
>against.
It was not stupid. Livingstone is part of a system that events like the ESF are supposed to against. He supported war in Kosovo and has asked the cops to arrest anticapitalist activists BEFORE the events have even started!! There is much more about him - the Wombles produced an excellent leaflet.
>The anarchist groupes did not join in the ESF organising proses
>and were then shoked when they didn't get what they wanted out of
>it.
Lots of people tried but found it so undemocratic they didn't want to be part of it.
>However in my view an attack on an anti fascist meeting was the
>kind of indulgent individualism you would expect from children of
>the upper middle classes.
It wasn't simply an anti fascist meeting. Apparently it was Unite Against Fascism which is just another SWP front. Anything that helps prevent the SWP recruiting people to their odious cult like organisation has to be a good thing I'm sure you'll agree.
>The fact is the are a lot of things wrong with the world and we
>spent the weekend trying to put barriers up to slow them or stop
>them but those self involved idiouts weren't happy with that and
>decided to act like spoilt bratts.
This was the best bit of the ESF for me. I thought it rocked. And I didn't waste £30 entry either!
Actions speak louder than words.
steve
Why all this fuss over £20
18.10.2004 20:52
Also, please don't do what too many people did this weekend and assume that everyone attending the esf thinks the same, eg that we all want 'revolution' or all all 'anarchists'.
Finally, although I'm glad that the fact that many eastern europeans were not allowed into the country was highlighted, I'm not impressed that people are reporting this sloppily and making it sound like it was the esf which wouldn't let them in.
And on last thing - you might not know from all the negativity around here but it was in many many ways a fantastic and inspiring weekend....
Catherine