[WSF-Discuss] ESF: Looking for a second wind

[CACIM]

IV Online magazine : IV405 - October 2008

*European Social Forum*

*Looking for a second wind *

*Leonce Aguirre* <http://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?auteur77>

 @ http://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article1543

*Even though the level of participation in the European Social Forum in
Malmö (Sweden) was limited, this framework remains irreplaceable in order to
permit a sharing of experiences and to support the organization of
mobilizations on a European scale. *

[image: JPEG - 95.8
kb]<http://internationalviewpoint.org/IMG/jpg/800px-Babels_headsets.jpg>

*Translation headsets used at European Social Forum*

Image: Wikimedia

The Fifth European Social forum (ESF) was less filled with enthusiasm than
the preceding ones, in particular because the level of participation was
lower (a little more than 10,000 entries) and because of the sometimes
chaotic material conditions in which it took place. That is to be explained
mainly by the, at the very least, limited engagement of the Swedish
trade-union organizations. They are not very interested in Europe and in the
mobilizations that need to be to be organized on this scale faced with the
policies of the European Union (EU), thinking, wrongly, that they have more
to gain more by limiting their action only to a national framework in order
to preserve social gains.

But there are other reasons that explain a certain running out of steam of
the dynamics of the social forums. By confining political organizations to a
subordinate role, the whole question of the global political alternative
that must be counter-posed to neo-liberalism is evaded. The simple sum of
the social movements will not make it possible to defeat liberal policies.
Without a debate on strategy, the slogan "Another Europe is possible" is
just a hollow formula.

Having said that, the ESF remains an irreplaceable framework for exchanging
experiences, for building and consolidating networks on questions like
immigration, precarious work, the climate, or war. The demonstration which
took place in the streets of Malmö brought together some 15,000
participants, which is a lot for Malmö and for Sweden. Better still, the
general meeting of the social movements, which closed the ESF, adopted a
declaration fixing four great objectives, a kind of common agenda for global
justice activists.

The priority is to conduct a prolonged campaign, entitled "2009: to change
Europe", on social questions and those relating to work, opposed to the
reactionary policies of the EU, with the objective of a European initiative,
in Brussels, in March 2009, on the occasion of the summit of European heads
of state. The three other objectives are a European demonstration in
Strasbourg on April 4, on the occasion of the ceremonies celebrating the
60th anniversary of the creation of NATO; a counter-summit and a
demonstration during the next meeting of the G8, in Sardinia; and, lastly,
on the climate crisis, an initiative in Potsdam on December 6, as a prelude
to the big international gathering envisaged in Copenhagen in December 2009,
during the world conference on the climate that is being organized by the
United Nations. These four campaigns, as well as the preparation of the next
European Social Forum, which will take place in Istanbul, are so many
elements which can make it possible for the global justice movement to find
a second wind.

[image: -]*Leonce Aguirre is a member of the political bureau of the Ligue
Communiste Révolutionnaire (French section of the Fourth International).*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.openspaceforum.net/pipermail/worldsocialforum-discuss_openspaceforum.net/attachments/20081013/4f02699a/attachment.html>