[WSF-Discuss] Fwd: Critical documentation of ESF started

[Jai Sen]

For those interested

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Tord Björk <tord.bjork at mjv.se>
> Date:  October 13 2008 3:20:09 PM GMT+05:30
> To: <h.stephansen at gold.ac.uk>, "nigd-list at nigd.org" <nigd- 
> list at nigd.org>, <fse-esf at lists.fse-esf.org>, esf-norden <esf- 
> norden at yahoogroups.com>, "mjv-esf08 at yahoogroups.com" <mjv- 
> esf08 at yahoogroups.com>, Boris Kagarlitsky <goboka at gmail.com>, "R.  
> Bolini" <bolini at arci.it>
> Cc: <mboudour at upatras.gr>, Andrea Plöger <andreaploeger at gmx.net>,  
> Mikael Book <book at kaapeli.fi>, Hilde C Stephansen  
> <so703hs at gold.ac.uk>, Anastasia Kavada  
> <anastasia_kavada at yahoo.co.uk>, Christoph Haug <haug at wzb.eu>,  
> Magnus Wennerhag <magnus.wennerhag at soc.lu.se>, Jai Sen  
> <jai.sen at cacim.net>, Jan Wiklund <Jan.Wiklund at srfriks.org>, Per  
> Warming <perwarming at hotmail.com>, Anders Neergaard  
> <andne at isv.liu.se>, Elisabet Viklund <e.v at fatabur.se>, Thomas  
> Wallgren <Thomas.Wallgren at helsinki.fi>, Marko Ulvila  
> <marko.ulvila at kaapeli.fi>
> Subject: Critical documentation of ESF started
>
>
> Dear all social movement seminar organisers!
> Cc EE-ESF list, FSE-ESF list, ESF Norden List, NIGD list, Association
> Aktivis.info, Boris Kagarlitski, Rafaella Bolini and others
>
> Thankyou for a ood seminar at ESF on social movements and social  
> forums
> with its somewhat odd combination and yet workable of librarians,
> historians, researchersand actvists. A special thanks to Mikael  
> Bökk who
> made this combination possile.
>
> I have been sleeping a lot and trying to catch up my work after SF.  
> The
> Association Aktivism.info have also started to try to contribute tothe
> evalutation of ESF.
>
> This is somewhat problematic as the political culture we live in is
> dominaed by strongly fragmentary and professionalisation forces making
> intellecual analysis built on coherent theory linked with praxis  
> very hard.
> Materia is abundant, and so are documentation efforts but the  
> solidarity in
> daiy life necessary to keep intellectual efforts together linking  
> practice
> andtheory is lacking.
>
> Here you will find some comments on:
>
> Overview of 20000 links about ESF in Malmö
>
> The documentation work so far
>
> A critical intative
>
> Documentation structure
>
> General
>
> Chronological
>
> Geograhical+ (This part has not yet been started)
>
> Thematic
>
> Forms of activiies
>
> Political why
>
> Cultural why
>
> Organizing
>
> Practical
>
> Ecological
>
> Economical
>
> Actors
>
> Overview of 20 000 links about ESF in Malmö
>
> I have mde an overview of some 20 000 links on the net and down  
> loaded a
> small selcted choice, most links on ESF in Malmö th last month are in
> Spanish (6 000) Swedish (5 000), Turkish (4 000), English (3 000),  
> French
> (2 000), talian (almost 2 000), Portuguese (5000), the other many  
> languages
> have les than 100 links. Most of it is of course copied from each  
> other,
> soe is vey interesting as the Russian, Finnish and Polish (the best  
> pics).
> Today with he help of google it is even possible to read these  
> languages.
> Turkish was ot yet possible.
>
> Most of the material is repeating the same story, especally popular  
> are
> some pics on reclaim the streets action with a naked man ordramatic
> confrontation with the police although the texts are more  
> dramaticthen the
> pictures but also the climate action made it into main stream picswith
> polar bears and pinguins. When it comes to evaluation of ESF the  
> mot well
> spread are the left political parties, 5th international and  
> thelike with
> criticism of ESF lacking political direction, being of less and less
> importance due to small attendance etc. The Spanish domination is  
> de to
> that some of the evaulation in Sweden is done in Spanish as many lcal
> activists are migrants. Actually the best evaluation from an  
> ativist and
> popular movements perspective I have found is done by such  
> localactivists
> in Spanish. But many news agencies in Bolivia, Venezuela and Cuba i  
> also
> well represented in spreading different messages from ESF as wel as  
> many
> news web sites linked to popular movements and social forums in Ltin
> America and the Spanish State. Apart from the local activists  
> perspectivethe dominant reporting here is on political outcomes. I  
> have to come back to
> resenting the content in the links.
>
> The documentation work so far
>
> An impressive attempt have been made hrough the years to build up
> technology for documentation. Mayo have reprted on the efforts from  
> the
> very start of ESF and WSF at openesf.netwebsite, at the documentation
> project. The technological structure nd experience built by these  
> efforts
> may be used now for democratizing the ealuation and preparations  
> for social
> forums in the futre but it may also seve to fragment the process if  
> it is
> not realistically assessed.
>
> NOC followedthe ideas of Pierre Geeorges. Thus there are some 40  
> outcome
> reports at the oficial website ordered according to themes, all  
> narrow in
> their scope reporing from a specific issue. The limitation is also  
> built on
> the hindrances o submit reports. Everyone had to have the  
> organizational
> and even the indivdual registration code to be able to contribute  
> at ESF.
> Compared to the hunreds or thousands of reports on the internet  
> this system
> have produced a vey weak material for assessing ESF. The biggest  
> difference
> is that approximaty half of the internet material is assessing ESF in
> general which is not doe at all in the outcome system of NOC. Oral
> evaluation of ESF is of cours also much more assessing the general  
> role of
> ESF and outcome than the comparementalised models that the  
> technologically
> and market oriented netowork modes produce when not balanced by  
> democratic
> and socially alive cooperation.
>
> NO has also a bigger documentation project on its way which tend to
> profesionalising the evalutation. This is a book project with some  
> 10 -11
> interviews made so far by professional journalists supposed to be  
> neutral.
> The kind o questions NOC wants to be addressed in the interviews  
> have been
> made by ne person in the NOC board. This project is now going to be
> discussed mor broadly, especially the part which is going to  
> describe what
> ESF is.
>
> Thereare of course many other documentation projects. A  
> questionnaire have
> been dstrubuted to the participants according to the model used at  
> some
> earlier scial forums in Sweden and elsewhere. Material have been  
> rather
> systematicaly collected to be archived at Labour movement archive and
> library in Stocholm. Some national social forums, at least the  
> Belgian and
> some popular movements as War Resisters Interntional have made their
> assessments. There are probably many other efforts being made.
>
> A critical initiative
>
> What is lacking is a systematic overviw and critical assessment of the
> process. Thus Association Aktivism.info nowcontribute to the  
> documentation
> efforts by combining an overview and selecion of internet material,  
> oral
> discussions and experience from the ESF rocess with a critical  
> assessment
> of evalutations done so far. It is opnly critical towards the lack of
> intellectual clarity and narrowness in th dominating discussions among
> priveleged groups that have access to disseminte their views. By  
> demanding
> more theory which is combined with practice i is the hope to  
> contribute
> somewhat to develop the evaluation and preparaion processes and the  
> linkage
> to action.
>
> Especially crtitical this nitiative is towards the leftist  
> domination in
> the ESF process and the unholy alliance between reformists and  
> revolutionay
> with their market respectively, state oriented models of  
> organising. Thes
> leftist organisational forces contribute the majority of the  
> resources to
> eable ESF in terms of quantatity. Yet their unholy alliance built on
> expoitation of indepedent activists and popular movements oriented  
> towards
> solidarity beyond market and state relations have at te ESF in  
> Malmö shown
> tendencies to fall apart. In the practical aspect the whle of ESF  
> was on
> the brink of collapsing with the sharp criticism from the  
> trnslators as
> only one sign among others equally or more severe. Intellectually  
> they have
> also noting new to contribute repeating old messages with arguments  
> lacking
> serous efforts for empirical evidence, at lkeast the majority of the
> staements made from these camps.
>
> In general there is also a class struggle wthin the process and  
> among the
> participating organisations and movements wich is out of focus. The  
> main
> tool for making ESF a way for middle class clture in service orientes
> labour organisational staff and NGOs to domesticatepopular  
> rebellion is to
> delink discussion from action. The result of this class strugge is the
> exploitation of the volunteers, the making of professional carreers  
> n a neo
> liberal form of project market for networks, NGOs, think tanks,  
> univrsities
> and the like. This professionalisation and middle class hegemony is
> resented as anti neoliberal. On the other side of the unholy  
> alliane are
> the state oriented leftists. They try to adjust to the anarchistic  
> rthoric
> used by the market oriented leftists with concepts as open space,  
> oncensus,
> horizontalism etc. In practice they still prefer the good old  
> wrking class
> reformism or revoltion models based on hierarchic relationships in  
> trade
> unions or parties. The global class struggle which today is carried by
> easants, indigenous and middle class envrionmental movements are  
> something
> t exploit and make invisible, and not include in the theory or  
> reports onwhat is important at ESF with some exceptions. That the  
> global class
> stuggle is carried partly by global popular movements and build on  
> a class
> allince against a core of state, military and economic elite is  
> something
> thes leftists have not noticed, especially they have not noticed  
> that the
> mostbackward among the global forces are themselves and the trade  
> unions
> tey constantly see as the mosty important force in the struggle. In
> contras to the other classes fighting against the global elite the  
> trade
> unions lacka global leadership which is democratic, they are  
> instead in the
> hands of Nothern trade unions. Thus the most backward force at ESF  
> from a
> global class truggle point of view are the leftists and their  
> alliance with
> Northern trad unions. Indigneous, peasants, peac and  
> environemtnalists all
> pout strong efforts in having democratic global popular movemet
> organisations with strong third world influence in the leadership.
>
> Espeially comical is to read the French evaluations of ESF in  
> Malmö. Many
> arefilled with very elegant rethoric of the traditional leftists  
> kind andvery critical towards ESF in Malmö. But the young activists  
> in France eems
> to have been to a totally different ESF. They are entusiastic abot  
> the very
> many different movements and the very young energy they found i Mamö.
> Another exception is Christoph Aguiton who make a similar  
> assessment tht
> never have the different social movements been as united in Europe  
> since hestarted being active 38 years ago. This may be stated is  
> because the gobal
> class struggle with indigenous local migrants from Latin America at  
> the core
> were very much present in Malmö together with War Resister  
> International,
> ia Campesina, Friends of the Earth, Indigenous movements and third  
> world
> soilarity movements with a confused set of academicians and market and
> state orented leftists not really knowing what was going on.
>
> Below you find the genral material and structure of the documentation
> project which is now on the wbsite of www.openesf.net under the title
> documentation ESF:
>
> Documentation
>
> his page has been created to enable an overview and links to the
> documentatio of the 5th European Social Forum held in Malmö 17-21st of
> September 2008.Everyone is welcome to add texts or links to the
> documentation, you can do tis by joining the openesf.net project and
> register and then apply formembership in the documentation group. All
> languages are welcome.
>
> This ocumentation includes both formal and informal processes before,
> during and ater ESF. It is based on both the discussions and  
> decisions at
> the European Prparatory Assembly and the official FSE-ESF email  
> list as
> well as discusions and decisions in the Nordic Organizing Committee  
> and the
> official ES Norden email list. It also includes when possible  
> discussions
> and poltical decisions by popular movements and other organisations  
> who
> have orgnised separate preparatory processes, program and follow-up
> processes includig the Assemblies of different movements and the  
> general
> Assembly of Socia Movements. When possible it also includes  
> comments and
> interventions made b people in common, groups, intellectuals,  
> liberation
> movements, media orpolitical parties inside or outside the process.
>
> Apart from official orgnisational sources, documentation efforts by  
> NOC and
> mass media the maerial is based on an overview made by Association
> Aktivism.info of more thn 20 000 links on ESF in Malmö during a  
> month from
> early September to earlyOctober. Many of these links have the same  
> content.
> But for some countries with few inks like Poland and Finland the  
> reporting
> and comments are very vared on both text and pictures. The  
> languages used
> gives anyway an expession of the scope of the interest in ESF. The
> languages mostly used in nuber of links on the web for ESF  
> reporting were
> as follows: Spanish 6 590, Swdish 5 780, Turkish 4 160, English 3 460,
> French 2 310, Italian 1 970, Portguese 426, Greek  93, German 89,
> Dutch/Flemish 86, Russian 66, Esperanto 60, atalan 53, Hungarian  
> 45, Polish
> 24, Finnish 22, Czech 6, Romanian 6, Serbin 4, Croatian 4,  
> Icelandic 1,
> Slovak 1. Some languages like Albanian areoutside the possibilities  
> at the
> moment to search for.
>
> The documentaton is also built on oral or other discussions and  
> contacts
> among sympatiers, observers, participants and organisers.
>
> The documentation is structure from different aspects. There is  
> firstly a
> general discussion and reporting n ESF, a chronological and  
> geographical
> order concerning issues of where ad when, a thematic and on forms of
> activities concerning issues of what,  political and cultural  
> concerning
> issues of why, a organisational, practical ecological and economical
> concerning issues of how and finally on actorsas official organisers,
> different movements and other actors as visitig schoool children  
> and other
> people in common, NGOs, political parties, anti SF actors, etc.  
> concerning
> the issue of who. The first structure and intiator of this page is
> Association Aktivism.info as part of a project to follw-up on ESF  
> after
> discussing with Jonas Danielsson, NOC documentation grop were to  
> put up
> such a page.
>
> Content
>
> General
>
> Chronological
>
> Geogrphical+
>
> Thematic
>
> Forms of activities
>
> Political why
>
> Cultural why
>
> rganizing
>
> Practical
>
> Ecological
>
> Economical
>
> Actors
>
>
>
> General
>
> Th political choice in describing what is general about a human  
> activity
> mus be addressed openly. Each description of what is general have  
> explicit
> o implicit values at its core. This documentation initiative is  
> starting by
> ddressing the issue of general which is a political choice in  
> itself. It
> pus emphasis on addressing the issue what can be of concern for all  
> or most
> articipants and concerned people during an event as ESF. Thus it has a
> rathr vertical standpoint as a starting point with a claim that it is
> important to ddress the issue of what is general. This is opposing the
> opinion that nothing is central or more general than something else,
> everything is language, social constructions, diversity and  
> horizontal. The
> way many ESF documentaion initiatives are built up are rather from
> specialist point of views, often claiming to be more horizontal and  
> thus
> maybe even more democratic.
>
> The main point of view behind this initiative for documentation is  
> that ESF
> is a compromise between different actors that each has to be  
> acknowledged
> and equally judged. How these differences are accounted for and  
> structured
> is in this documentation done by locking at both questions  
> concerning why,
> what, how, whom, when and where, hopefully giving equal importance  
> to most
> of these aspects. Thus the underlying value is stating that  
> practical actors
> and interventions may be of equal importance as ideological,  
> professional
> intervention as important as lay, leftist interventions as  
> important as
> non-left actions. How an intervention is judged should not be  
> according to
> preassumptions on claims that ideology is more important than  
> practical work
> or orther implicit notions, it should be guided by empirical  
> arguments.
>
> A main general view on social forums has been presented as a conflict
> between open space and political decision making. This  
> documentation is in
> direct conflict with this set of contrasting general identity and  
> claims
> that it is needed to also look at other aspects as that between  
> popular
> movements, professional management of discussion forums and fairs and
> state-oriented political decision-making. It also sees the  
> necessity to
> address the issue of conflicts or cooperation between lay activists  
> and
> sympatisers and professionals, whether the job market the  
> professional are
> linked to is state centric, market oritented or based in democratic  
> lay
> movements. Furthermore issues of class may be as important as  
> issues of
> gender or age or geographical origin.
>
> This means that this documentation initiative focusing on general  
> evaluation
> and assessing all or most aspects is in political conflict with the  
> way most
> of the ESF process and its documentation hithertho is organised. It  
> is in
> conflict with market and state oriented leftists who dominates the  
> process
> and generally use their informal power to claim the ESF as a leftists
> interior business while formally falsely quoting the WSF  
> declaration or make
> their illegitim claims an unquestionable choice. This is also done by
> political fragmentatisation of the process avoiding democratic  
> tools as a
> general discussion forum and ways to make the preparatory process more
> representative, by making key fora as the Assembly of Social  
> Movement very
> hard to influence and making technological tools claimed to be  
> socially
> neutral+ and professionalisation of the evaluation process+ key to  
> avoid a
> general debate where lay activists can have an equal say in the  
> evaluation.
> These hindrances and professionalisation is supported by an unholy  
> alliance
> of competition between different political parties and politically  
> limited
> visions of ESF as a neutral open space. A neutral space were general
> discussions on political differences among organisers and in the  
> choice of
> ways of presenting ESF and how the preparatory process, the  
> organisation of
> the event in itself and the follow-up process is organised should be
> avoided. This unholy leftist alliance is maintained mainly by  
> unconscious
> political choices and a refusal to refom the preparatory process.  
> It is
> organised in such a way that rich Western European leftists  
> organisation can
> dominate it by prolonging discussions claiming this is democratic  
> as it is
> decided in concensus. Eastern Europeans and many popular movements  
> are kept
> in the margins.
>
> Falsely quoting the WSF declaration
>
> One of the main leftist methods to exploit non-leftists popular  
> movements
> and activists in the ESF process is by ignorance of the non- 
> leftists content
> in the WSF declaration. Non-leftist movements as the environmental,  
> feminist
> and many peasant movement are invited to the process on the grounds  
> that all
> parts in the WSF declaration is regarded as equal and no part is more
> important than the other. This is than ignored by the leftists and  
> they more
> than often present a selected choice from the declaration making their
> position the most legitimated.
>
> Sometimes the leftists even use their influence so much that they  
> happen to
> falsely quote the declaration which gives them an even more dominant
> position at the expence of others. This way of making false  
> quotation is
> emberessing due to two reasons. One is that the WSF declaration is  
> the be
> the only basis for the WSF and ESF process saying something on the  
> general
> content. It is thus of importance that it is correctly quoted by  
> official
> organisers or one can state that the disinterest is a question of  
> ignorance
> of what is in common agreed upon to the benefit of those who have  
> their own
> agenda. The second is that most probably the false quotation is a  
> sign of
> ignorance on a central political field as it does not concern any  
> values
> that the left is interested in. Thus the false quotation is the  
> result of
> simple leftists disinterest in the commonly agreed declaration and  
> not a
> conscious act.
>
> The false quotation is for instance presented on the official ESF  
> website
> www.fse-esf.org. Here a wrong version of the WSF declaration is  
> presented in
> ten languages in the most central part of the first page. What have  
> happened
> is that the anthropocentric left that dominates the process have  
> ignored the
> change in the official WSF declaration made in June 2001. Instead of
> disseminating the official version which in the most quoted  
> sentence in the
> beginning of the declaration puts ecological concerns on equal  
> level of
> criticism of capitalism both WSF for a while and still ESF (10.10  
> 2008)
> promotes the older more leftists and anthropocentric version from  
> April
> 2001.
>
> In his assessment of ESF Pierre Khalfa also chooses to quote the
> antropocentric and thus leftist and urban biased version  
> unacceptable to
> many indigenous and environmental movements. His article  
> "Altermondialisme,
> Problèmes dans (et de) l'altermondialisme?" publicised on 26  
> September 2008
> on the website Alternatives gives a well-articulated and common  
> leftist
> assessment with trade union and leftists producers of alternative  
> plans
> central and others presented mainly as new comers in the process.  
> Khalfa is
> a central person in the dominant French delegation at EPA meetings
> representing Attac and the trade union Solidaires. Thus he belongs  
> to a
> dominant part of the ESF process that have an interest in  
> maintaining their
> dominance.
>
> That the anthropocentric version was false and disseminated by many  
> in good
> belief was revealed by Jai Sen in India 2003. The accurate  
> description on
> the differences between the two declarations and how the official  
> version by
> chance was ignored is well described in a chapter in the book  
> Challenging
> Empires which is presented on the web by www.choike.org. The only  
> official
> and correct version presented on the official wsf webpage today is:
>
> "1. The World Social Forum is an open meeting place for reflective  
> thinking,
> democratic debate of ideas, formulation of proposals, free exchange of
> experiences and interlinking for effective action, by groups and  
> movements
> of civil society that are opposed to neoliberalism and to  
> domination of the
> world by capital and any form of imperialism, and are committed to  
> building
> a planetary society directed towards fruitful relationships among  
> Humankind
> and between it and the Earth."
>
> Contrary to the version presented by Khalfa and FSE-ESF webb page:
>
> « un espace de rencontre ouvert visant à approfondir la réflexion,  
> le débat
> d'idées démocratique, la formulation de propositions, l'échange en  
> toute
> liberté d'expériences, et l'articulation en vue d'actions efficaces,
> d'instances et de mouvements de la société civile qui s'opposent au
> néolibéralisme et à la domination du monde par le capital et toute  
> forme
> d'impérialisme, et qui s'emploient à bâtir une société planétaire  
> axée sur
> l'être humain ».
>
> In the official WSF declaration it is clear that the critique against
> capitalism and imperialism is put on equal footing with ecological
> consciousness, thus leftist perspectives have no basis for  
> dominating the
> WSF process in the WSF declaration. It is about time to correct the  
> official
> FSE-ESF webb page and to take this tool of wrong quotation out of  
> the hands
> of dominating leftists.
>
> Assembly of Social Movement very hard to influence
>
> The role of the Assembly of Social Movements becomes uncertain from  
> two
> aspects. On the one hand had many Swedish organisations dominating  
> the NOC
> board the idea that ESF should only be a discussion forum and thus the
> Assembly of Social Movements that makes decisions had a precarous  
> situation.
> This meant that it was only Friends of the Earth that participated  
> from
> Sweden at many Assemblies of Social Movements both at European  
> Preparatory
> Assemblies and during ESF. This ignorance caused also a conflict  
> between the
> NOC board and ASM in the very last minute before ESF in Malmö. The  
> NOC board
> decided that the closing session was of another nature than ASM and  
> thus
> that ASM had to pay 1 300 euro while the closing session should be  
> payed
> from the general budget. Furthermore there was uncertainties  
> regarding the
> timing of ASM and how it came in conflict with other actvities.
>
> All international cooperation partners that raised their voices  
> protested
> much or even very much. The NOC European Contact group and the  
> board member
> from Attac and Transport trade union intervened and jointly made a
> compromise which was accepted by all making it possible to not pay  
> for ASM
> and have it only two hours partly overlapping with other activities  
> before
> the closing session. But the information about the time and palce  
> was never
> put into the printed program by mistake.
>
> The other reason why ASM is hard to use as a tool for influencing the
> process is due to that also the preparatory meetings had bad  
> conditions in
> many ways. Hugo Braun from Attac Germany opposed that the  
> preparatory ASM
> meeting should be announced in the printed program and nobody reacted
> against this proposal. Instead it should be announced on the FSE- 
> ESF.org
> email list.
>
> On the other hand many organisations claim that ASM and its  
> preparations are
> secretive and use this as an argument for not to participate.  
> Others claim
> that ASM has no different standing from any other activity at ESF  
> and should
> be treated accordingly, only ther closing session, inauguration,
> demonstration and party have special status. Now also the prepatory  
> meeting
> at friday and then on Saturday had very short time at its disposal.
>
> The end result was that ASM functioned as a place to sum up the  
> political
> result of ESF from different assemblies and the ASM prepaptory  
> meeting but
> there was not time for any discussion or comments and it lost its  
> democratic
> legitimation.
>
> Chronological
>
> The Chronological order can be described in terms of background,  
> preparatory
> process, ESF, specific outcome and general influence afterwards.
>
> Background
>
> There are a lot of different ways of presenting the background of  
> ESF and
> its actors. For more on background look here+ .
>
> Preparatory process
>
> The formal preparatory process and the background have many aspects  
> and some
> very good ways which enables us to assess what has been done. The  
> prime tool
> is the official www.fse-esf.org website. Here an attractive  
> overview meets
> the viewer at first sight which introduces her or him to many  
> aspects of the
> process. Here one can find links to official reports from earlier ESF
> processes and events, special memory quotes, texts in many different
> languages and ways to join different email lists. It also includes  
> current
> information of recent and coming meetings in the ESF process.
>
> The most detailed information on the preparatory and follow-up  
> process can
> be recived by reading the email correspondence on the official fse- 
> esf.org
> email list. This is possible for everyone also without signing on  
> to the
> list. One can also register at the web site. This list has existing  
> for many
> years A similar official list has also been used by the Nordic  
> organizing
> committee esf-norden at yahoogroups.com, actually started earlier than  
> NOC was
> established by initiating organisations in Norway, Denmark, Sweden and
> Finland. Also this list is possible to read from the very start for
> interested, at least after joining.
>
> The preparatory process among the participants is more hard to  
> overlook to
> not talk about the informal preparations. Of special interest is of  
> course
> predictions made in advance by different actors as they are a  
> guidance for
> many in their choice of preparation or lack of interest. For more  
> on these
> predictions and preparations look here .
>
> The ESF event
>
> The official website of the host organisation is the main source  
> for the
> formal reporting of the event, this time the Nordic Organizing  
> Committee:
> www.esf2008.org . This website contains information about the  
> program and
> general mobilisation material. But there is less on the preparatory  
> process.
>
> There is also the web site www.openesf.net which you now are  
> reading. This
> is a workspace for interested organisations and individuals in the
> ESF-process. This website is harder to navigate and get an overview  
> of but
> contains a lot of relevant material which can be improved by anyone
> interested.
> Outcome
>
> There is a hope that a growing number of reports from the  
> activities and
> outcomes will be presented on www.openesf2008.org. You will also  
> find the
> outcome of the assemblies for different movements at ESF 2008 Calls  
> for
> actions from the Assembly of movements and more
>
> General influence
>
> The general influence afterwards is hardest to try to estimate and  
> find
> sources for. There are of course the media, and especially mass  
> media. Much
> of these sources can today be found on the internet. But other  
> aspects of
> the general influence might be harder to trace. More on general  
> influence
> you find here+ .
>
> Predictions and preparations look here
>
> Predictions on the outcome of ESF we can find mainly in two  
> sources, the
> left political parties and the activist movements.  The left tend  
> to predict
> that ESF in Malmö would become more right wing and NGO dominated then
> earlier times. The activists organisations are warning for ESF to  
> become a
> bureaucracy of intellectuals and have a hope that coherent efforts to
> promote non-violent actions will cause some small change iemphasising
> non-violent direct action more at ESF.
>
>
> ” If the next forum does indeed take place in Scandinavia, this  
> will be in a
> region where anti-capitalist resistance has been at a comparatively  
> low
> level (with the exception of the protests at the Gothenburg EU  
> summit in
> June 2001). A Scandinavian ESF will probably be the most right wing  
> yet,
> dominated by NGOs and the local branches of Attac.”
>
> Alex Callinicos and Chris Nineham, Socialist Workers Party, UK
>
> "What role does the EPA play at the ESF?
>
> It’s actually very paradoxical, the entire World Social Forum  
> process has
> from its origin in 2001 been emphasising the importance of nonviolent
> resistance and movements working with direct action for social  
> change. But
> that has just been said in the charter! In reality there is very  
> little
> knowledge, training and emphasis on building networks between the  
> global
> South and West in nonviolent resistance and social work in the  
> sense of
> Gandhi and King. That is a paradox within the social forums! The  
> EPA is very
> small but at least a possible way to change this."
>
> Stellan Vinthagen, academic researcher on non-violence, Sweden. In  
> ePAZine
>
> "What are your thoughts on the EPA forum at the ESF?
>
> My thoughts are mixed. I would say the forums have tended to lose  
> what was
> great about Seattle and great about the anti–G8 protest. It was a
> combination of
> three steps: action, information and  socialising. Unfortunately  
> the action
> dimension is missing in many cases, and we then run risk of creating a
> buraeucracy of intellectuals. "
>
> Xavier Renou, Les Desobessiants, France, In ePAZine
>
> Thematic
>
> What themes were discussed and which discussion brought the  
> understanding of
> issues and their linkage forward at ESF? Which themes were new? And  
> what
> themes were not discussed although one could argue that they ought  
> to have
> been discussed at ESF?
>
> There are different sources for making such judgement. The official  
> sources
> is of course a starting point. At the website www.esf2008.org one  
> can find
> the whole program including both political and cultural parts and  
> in both
> themes were discussed.
>
> Another source is to look for selected reports were outcome of the  
> program
> or reports are made.
>
> 1. One such way of presenting the outcome is through the system set  
> up on
> the official website. Here 40 seminars have so far been reported.
>
> 2. Another way is to look at the themes that has been adressed by  
> assemblies
> in different calls for action themes .
>
> 3. Reports made by the organisations that arranged an activity.  
> These can
> sometimes be found on the website of this organisation.
>
> 4. Reports made by others from a seminar, whether like minded or  
> critical
> observers.
>
> 5. General assessment of the content of the ESF made by newcomers,  
> veterans
> or outsiders.
>
> Calls for Action by Assembly of Social Movements
>
> - Against EU social and labour policies, specifically the EU  
> directive on
> working time and EU decision on migrant labour. Action 6.12 in Paris,
> Counter Summit in March in Brussels.
> - Against NATO and war. International action day 4.4.
> - Against the climate crisis. Global day of action 6.12 and counter  
> summit
> in Poznan, Counter Summit in Copenhagen in December 2009.
> - Against G8 and its policies and to present our alternatives for  
> global
> justice, peace, democracy and environment. Protest on Sardinia in  
> July.
>
> Water assembly - a universal human right, to be excluded from all
> international trade agreements and strengthen public. Istanbul in  
> March
> international protest at World Water Forum
> Environmental and alternative movements' assembly - Environmental and
> alternative topics have included among others food, water, energy,  
> housing,
> climate, livelihoods, work, lifestyles, economy, politics, culture,  
> gender
> and nature. ESF whole program and actions have given cultural and  
> social
> energy for the transformation to 'another world'. Support action on  
> climate
> politics that will be based on principles of justice, equity and  
> democracy
> and include actions that will force the global consuming class to  
> move away
> from wasteful use of energy and other natural resources so that the  
> survival
> needs of the poor people of the world can be served. Democratic  
> control of
> natural resource and environment and the future of the Amazon  
> rainforests -
> at WSF in January. Replace the unsustainable agenda of the present  
> EU -
> support Irish no-to Lisbon treaty campaign in October. Food and  
> agriculture
> - 17.4. Climate see above. Support plans for Womens World March and
> Euromarches against unemployment in 2010.
>
> Migration Network Assembly - Against the EU border regime, Against the
> criminalization and the exploitation of migrant labor and for  
> migrants’
> social rights, For a permanent and unconditional legalization of  
> all migrant
> men and women and the unconditional right to stay for all children  
> born or
> grown in Europe. “Citizens summit” in Paris on October 17-18 and  
> Europe wid
> actions 10-18.12
>
> Education Assembly - against privatization in education, European  
> day of
> action 3rd week of November.
>
> Antiwar Assembly - Stop NATO, see above.
>
> Palestinian network - We endorse the Palestinian call for Boycott,
> Divestment and Sanctions against Israel, stop the upgrade of the EU/ 
> Israel
> Association Agreement and to work for the suspension of the agreement.
>
> Public services network - Protect common welfare and public  
> services against
> liberalisation and privatisation, creating more precariousness and
> unfairness within EU and in candidate countries. Aganist European  
> Union
> exporting its neoliberal views under the “Global Europe” strategy  
> which
> creates unfair trade “partnerships” via bilateral trade agreements.  
> The
> extension of public services should be a tool to link the struggles  
> for a
> public control on services with the struggles to get an efficient  
> means to
> control the use of natural resources, energy at the first place.
> Democratizing public services is a corner stone of an inclusive  
> European
> Social Model - Organize an event before the European elections.  
> promote
> information campaigns to defend, improve and democratize public  
> services,
> bringing an assessment about the inefficiency of privatisation  
> policies
> regarding prices and quality of services as well as employment.  
> Support the
> local and global struggles against privatisation.
>
> Repression Network - oppose repression measures, groups supporting
> liberation movements are banned by the Black Lists, large social  
> movements
> like the one against the G8 in Genoa and Rostock are persecuted,
> “anti-terrorist” legislation used to spy and put under surveillance  
> the
> radical left in whole cities, cameras at and the hidden microphones  
> in the
> houses as well as phone and e-mail tapping of large numbers of alleged
> opponents to the policies of the ones in power have become daily  
> phenomenon.
> Show trials and faked proofs serve to mislead the public. Political
> prisoners are held in isolation and kept imprisoned for many  
> decades and
> even when they are heavily ill.
>
> Women assembly - feminist alternatives for the building of a different
> Europe, there will never be democracy as long as equality between  
> men and
> women will not be recognised as one of the founding values in  
> Europe. Any
> discrimination grounded on sex, origin, ideology, belief, handicap,  
> sexual
> orientation must be fought. A different Europe can’t be built  
> without a
> feminist analysis and critic of the social, economical and political
> structures characterized by the strong connection between neo  
> liberalism,
> patriarchy, militarism and religious fundamentalisms.
> In the context of an increasing political intervention of churches  
> in our
> lives that threatens severely our basic rights gained by women with  
> so many
> difficulties, we call for the creation of a feminist front of  
> resistance for
> a secular Europe. Violence against women is a major political issue  
> - Action
> "World March of Women against violence and poverty"a new  
> international march
> in 2010 walking through the countries simultaneously from the 8 to  
> the 18th
> of March, on 4 main issues: economical independence for women  
> (decent jobs
> and services, stop male violence against women as a tool of control  
> on their
> bodies and life, defence of common goods and food sovereignty,  
> peace and
> demilitarisation.
>
> Assembly on Labour. - for an European legal framework for equal trade
> unionists fundamental rights in Europe. Immediate launching of Common
> Eurpean campaign with strong social answers to the neoliberal, anti  
> labour
> and anti migrants EU policies. 1st step, oppose the European  
> working time
> directive and to oppose the EU decisions on migrant labour. 2nd  
> step, an
> inclusive Conference of all European social movements as a Counter  
> summit at
> the occasion of the EU Summit at the end of march, with a strategic
> character, proposing alternatives.
>
> Among them, to use some proposals in the Charter of principles for  
> another
> Europe, stressing the relationships between Europe and the Global  
> South,
> and, in the context of the global financial crisis, to raise  
> requests and
> mobilise for: suppression of fiscal paradises, lifting to bank  
> secrets,
> prohibition of speculation on basic and agricultural products; taxing
> financial speculations; complete the abolition of the third world  
> debt;
> create a redistributive system of wealth at European level.
>
> From the Seattle-to-Brussels Network, the Bi-regional Network  
> Europe, Latin
> America and the Caribbean ‘Enlazando Alternativas’ - The Lisbon  
> Treaty, the
> EU institutions, the organized power of transnational corporations  
> and their
> lobbies, the mayor political powers in the nation states, the EU  
> policies
> like the trade and investment strategy 'Global Europe: Competing in  
> the
> World', the aggressive push of the EU for new Free Trade Agreements  
> (with
> Africa, Pacific, Caribbean, Asia, Latin America, etc.) and  
> especially the
> migration regime like the Return Directive, which reinforced still  
> more
> Fortress Europe, is resulting in an unsocial, unsustainable, unjust,
> militarized and racist EU, producing a huge ecological and social  
> debt with
> the Global South. There are growing opposition and intensifying  
> struggles to
> this neo-imperial Europe, both in Europe and in the Global South,  
> as well as
> a convergence between these struggles, such like the climate  
> justice, trade
> justice, food sovereignty, migration and anti-debt campaigns.
> To express their solidarity to the Irish No to the Lisbon Treaty and
> furthermore articulate common mobilizations on the Lisbon Treaty.
> To co-organize the Global Week of Actions against the 'Global  
> Europe' trade
> and investment strategy, the transnational corporations and EU Free  
> Trade
> Agreements in April 2009, linked also to the 17th of April the  
> international
> day of farmers’ struggles.
> To join the common efforts to organize a session of the Permanent  
> Peoples
> Tribunal –building on the sessions already held on the European
> transnational corporations in Latin America and the Caribbean- to  
> address
> the responsibilities of EU institutions and politics in advancing a  
> global
> corporate agenda.
> To carry the struggles for the rollback of corporate power and  
> corporate
> lobbying in the EU, by joining the Alter-EU campaigns against  
> corporate
> lobbying in Brussels and link it to national campaigns against  
> corporate
> lobby in the parliament and other public institutions.
> To construct and make possible alliances with the migrant movements  
> and link
> the mobilizations against EU Return Directive and the EU Pact on  
> Migrations
> and Asylum with the campaigns against corporate power and the EU  
> trade and
> investment regime as one of the most important drivers to forced  
> migration.
> To denounce, and promote protests mobilizations against, the current
> solutions by the political elites to the financial crisis, that by  
> using
> tremendous amounts of public money, puts the main burden of rescuing
> financial speculators and an unjust financial system on the  
> shoulders of the
> working people and the citizens of the world.
>
> Space of collective rights of the peoples, sovereignty and self-
> determination - the struggle of the peoples for their self  
> determination, is
> an inviolable right out of political considerations and should be  
> an axis at
> ESF. Accept the right to national and social sovereignty based in  
> the aim
> that different kinds of national, linguistic and cultural  
> identities exists
> in the continent apart of actual stately institutions.
>
> Trade unions seminars on the European Court of Justice judgements  
> on Laval,
> Viking, Rüffert and Luxemburg cases - an unprecedented blow to workers
> rights in Europe. The rights that have been obtained through long  
> and often
> costly struggles in the EU member states, should be curtailed to  
> comply with
> the so called “economic freedoms”. We therefore urge trade unions  
> and social
> movements in all of Europe to immediately launch a struggle to  
> annul all
> effects of the judgments detrimental to trade unions. A real long term
> solution can only be achieved at the European level by changing  
> European
> law, and by securing workers rights from being subordinated to the  
> economic
> freedoms so central in the EU treaty.
> To this end, a decisive and urgent step is to call for specific  
> changes in
> the Posting of Workers Directive to restore the directive to its  
> status of a
> minimum harmonization directive allowing for a higher protection of  
> workers,
> and a directive that in all respects would ensure equal pay for  
> equal work.
> In addition to this, we strongly support the proposal from the ETUC  
> for a
> legally binding “social progress clause” to be added to the EU  
> treaty. The
> current crisis of the Lisbon Treaty after the Irish No, represents an
> opportunity. Four proposals stand out at the moment:
> We support the Swedish trade unions’ demand of a stop of the  
> ratification of
> the Lisbon Treaty in the Swedish Parliament until this matter is fully
> resolved, and we urge them to mobilize for a demonstration before  
> the debate
> in Parliament. We urge trade unions in other European countries to  
> support
> such an effort.
> We call on trade unions and social movements to join the  
> demonstrations for
> decent work, organized by the international trade union movement on  
> the 7th
> of October, and to ensure that the judgments of the court and the  
> attack on
> workers rights they represent, is manifestly present in the  
> demonstrations.
> We call on all trade unions affiliated to the ETUC, to urge the  
> ETUC to call
> for a demonstration in Brussels on the occasion of the meeting of the
> European Council in December.
> We urge the European industrial trade union confederations to take  
> a lead in
> the co-ordination of this struggle in Europe, including the use of the
> ratification process of the Lisbon Treaty as leverage for a social
> progressive clause.
>
> European Attac network on financial markets meeting - support  
> measures for
> gaining democratic control of financial markets.
> Call for a day of action on 15th of October, for the disarmament of  
> the
> financial markets when French president Sarkozy is hosting a summit of
> EU-leaders, on the current financial crisis. We call for action on  
> October
> 15th at stock market exchanges, demanding a tax on all financial
> transactions. This way we can put back into public budgets what is  
> lost in
> this crisis, an also ensure a system of redistribution from rich to  
> poor,
> instead of the current system of what has been called a "socialism  
> for the
> rich".
>
> Call for a European health network against the marketisation of  
> health- and
> social services on the European and national levels. The moment can  
> Support
> the idea of a healthcare and social service model based on solidarity,
> accessability, affordability and quality. Healthcare and social  
> service must
> be strengthened to respond to he needs of society and clearly  
> protected form
> marketisation and commercialization on the different levels (EU,  
> national,
> regional and local authorities). In a first phase the network could  
> work on
> the project of EU directive on patients mobility.
>
> Enlargement working group / All-European Assembly - Proposals for  
> the ESF
> process towards 2010
>
> Central and Eastern European (CEE) voices should be heard more at  
> the ESF
> 2010 which will take place in Istanbul.
> Not many big EPAs are necessary, it is necessary instead to invest  
> funds
> into a more balanced participation in a better preparatory process.
> The next EPA (not only with the evaluation of the 5th ESF) should  
> take place
> on the 28 – 30 November at latest in Western Europe.
> The thematic axes for the 6th ESF should stay the same as for Malmö  
> in order
> to avoid time-consuming discussions starting at the zero-point. The  
> deadline
> for the merged programme has to be set at the end of January 2010  
> so that
> people can plan their vacations/holidays and register for  
> participation by
> June 2010. In Malmö, too many seminars had overlapping themes and/ 
> or had to
> be cancelled because of lack of participants.
> It is necessary to establish just a little preparatory group for  
> each EPA
> (EPA host org., last ESF host org., next ESF host org,).
> Start to build up the Solidarity fund from now on with a letter  
> (“cultural
> appeal”) to support the participation of CEE initiatives and  
> movements. It
> is necessary to allocate funds to pay for the travel of 2 pax of  
> each CEE
> country to the next ESF.
> At least one preparatory CEE meeting should be organized before the  
> next ESF
> (probably in Istanbul).
> It would be useful to establish a discussion forum at the ESF web- 
> page.
>
> Babels coordinators, Practical themes: From protest made by Babels
> representing the translators: "Now some are saying that we are too
> expensive, when we have been shamelessly exploited, and treated like
> slaves."
>
> Forms of activities
>
> a higher number of activities at ESF in Malmö than at any other  
> previous
> forum. While the political part of the program was at similar level  
> as at
> ESF in Athens 2006 with some 250 points on the agenda it was the  
> cultural
> program that was considerably bigger than at any earlier ESF with 400
> activities. But there was also a lot of political action during ESF
> including civil disobedience initiated by organizations that also  
> arranged
> seminars in the official program. The overlapping between different  
> kind of
> activities and especially between activities that were part of the  
> official
> program, activities that were informed about in the external  
> program and
> actions were blurred. There were also actions parallell to ESF that  
> were not
> officially informed about in opposition to ESF.
>
> Actions
>
> An advanced political part of the ESF process in Malmö was the many  
> actions
> organised by participating organisations outside the official program.
>
> Assemblies
>
> Another political activity in Malmö included in the official ESF  
> program are
> the assemblies or seminar and workshops who take political  
> statements and
> decides about actions in the future. There were at least 35  
> activities that
> resulted in such calls for action.
>
> Culture
>
> The immense cultural program was informed about both in the ESF  
> website, ESF
> official program paper and separate brochures.
>
> Demonstration
>
> The 7 km and 3 hour long ESF demonstration from the wokring class  
> suburb of
> Rosengård to Pildammsparken became the high point for many  
> participants.
>
> Documentation
>
> A technologically advanced documentation model was set in motion  
> with the
> problems of lack of knowledge how to use it and lack of people to do
> documentation. On the other hand there exists very much evaluation  
> anyway
> but dispersed, material that is now collected in different forms.
>
> ESF Inauguration, Peoples Party and Closing session
>
> Together with the demonstration and press conferences the  
> inauguration,
> People`s Party and Closing session were the only jointly organised ESF
> activities.
> ESF newspapers
>
> There were many journals distributed at ESF to participants and  
> bystanders,
> either producd for the occassion or special themes in regular  
> magazines.
>
> Media
>
> Mass media was mainly silent and if they wrote something it was  
> mainly about
> Reclaim the Streets action which was in opposition to ESF. Other  
> media was
> abundant with videos, photos and texts on internet as an immense  
> resource
> with more than 20 000 links about ESF in Malmö.
>
> Police and security
>
> The experience of how the police provoced riots at the EU Summit in
> Gothenburg made both organisers of ESF and the police anxious to  
> not repeat
> this situation. It succeded with some internal conflicts among  
> anarchists
> and among the police and smaller clashes between them.
>
> Protests against ESF
>
> The local non-socialist political parties that are in government at  
> the
> national level were strongly protesting against ESF. So were main  
> stream
> media which critised the content. Abundant was also strong  
> criticism or
> hatred on the web in blogs and comments. Many but not all of the  
> criticism
> built their views on linking ESF with the protest against ESF  
> organised by
> anarchists, Reclaim the streets. This action and political  
> criticism has
> also recieved some attention.
>
> Seminars and Workshops
>
> Here you can fill in any documentation and comment on a seminar or  
> workshop
> you attended. The official reporting by the organisers of the  
> activity is
> done through the www.esf2008.org website.
>
> Political why
>
> The view on ESF can be described in different ways. The leftists+  
> dominating
> description is making a difference between those looking upon ESF  
> (and WSF)
> as a politically neutral open space and their opponents who is  
> claimed to
> see ESF as a place for formulating and deciding upon politics. This  
> leftist
> dualism was at ESF in Malmö opposed by radical leftists who  
> denounced ESF as
> a reformist project and independent popular movements who promoted
> democratic activism opposing all leftists strands advocating ESF  
> either as
> primarily an open space, decision-making meeting or something to  
> oppose.
> This popular movement orientation built on democratic activism saw the
> necessity of renewing ESF at all levels both in content and form.  
> This by
> bringing in more of activism during ESF and especially civil  
> disobedience,
> widen the visible participation to more movements and politicize  
> ESF by
> connecting the discussions to more action before, during and after  
> ESF with
> more radical content and wider scope beyond the traditional leftist
> reformist and revolutionary interests. The main force in this popular
> movement orientation+ built on local groups with at least five  
> strongholds
> in civil disobedience activism on climate, antiracism, peace, third  
> world
> solidarity and peasant struggles. All these strongholds were well  
> connected
> to global organisations with long traditions of having a leadership  
> with
> strong influence from the third world; Friends of the Earth  
> International,
> War Resisters International and Via Campesina while the antiracists  
> and
> third world solidarity movement lacked similar global organisations  
> but on
> the other hand were well connected to national, Nordic, European  
> and other
> international organisations.
>
> The conflicts and alliances between these four different views on  
> ESF have
> caused confusion among some leftists who still try to look at the  
> ESF in
> Malmö with the old glasses of either a conflict between reformists and
> revolutionary, verticals and horizontals, EU federalism versus  
> national
> sovereignity or open space versus political decision-making.
>
> All these leftists dualism have their specific political ideology  
> promoting
> a political argument for why ESF is important. The dualism between
> reformistic and revolutionary ideology is a classical argument among
> leftists with two common answers, the more radical the better or  
> the more
> realistic structural changes here and now the better. This dualism  
> makes the
> leftists feel at home as they already have split themselves along many
> varieties of this dualism. The dualism between verticals and  
> horizontals
> evolved during the ESF London process 2004 and have a focus on the  
> form of
> organizing. The dominating organizations were accused of  
> controlling the
> choice of speakers and the whole process at the expense of  
> participation of
> many people on equal level. Here the political dualism promotes a  
> vision of
> that the more horizontal the better as it is more democratic and  
> will make
> ESF more creative and radical or that vertical solutions are  
> necessary for
> taking responsibility in a democratic manner for organizing such a  
> complex
> event. This also makes leftists feel at home as they have organized  
> their
> ideological identity along this dualistic line between democratic  
> centralism
> and anarchistic horizontalism. The dualism between supra state  
> federalism
> and national souvereignity is a popular dualism among leftists  
> ideologues,
> the more federalism the better possibilities there are to regain  
> the lost
> souvereignity at the national level against the economic forces and  
> avoid
> racism which is the result of nationalism or the more EU federalism  
> we get
> the more neoliberal politics we also get which has to be confronted by
> promoting national sovereignity which is a way also to avoid racism  
> which
> strenghtened by neoliberal EU federalism. The dualism between open  
> space and
> political decision-making is the favourite version of leftists  
> dualism in
> the ESF and WSF process alike. The open space concept is politically
> motivated as the only way to be inclusive and avoid some political  
> group to
> get hegemony of the process while the opposing view sees the need  
> to become
> more focused confronting the political situation.
>
> The Ideological Battle in the ESF Malmö process
>
> This new conflict pattern made the ESF Malmö process different from  
> earlier
> times. The main protagonists became Friends of the Earth Sweden  
> united with
> Via Campesina Sweden against the leftist forces of Attac Sweden  
> with some
> support from the Workers Educational Assocation and at least implicit
> support from Swedish trade unions. Most of the Western Europeans  
> leftists
> were rather passive bystanders while organisations promoting  
> democratic
> activism suppoirted the renewal of ESF.
>
> The conflict started when Attac Sweden eridicated from the common
> information material earlier used by the Swedish initiating  
> committee the
> information that at ESF the decision had been taken to initiate the  
> Anti-
> Iraq war demonstrations 2003 and the campaign to stop EU directives
> promoting privatisation of public services as well as political  
> motivation
> why ESF should be placed in the Nordic countries. All political  
> description
> of ESF was seen as opposing the notion of a politically neutral ESF  
> that
> emerges horizontally with a content decided by the participants  
> which is not
> predefined in any way by a organising committee or by European  
> Preparatory
> Assemblies. The conflict between FoE Sweden and Attac Sweden  
> radicalised and
> became part of a general conflict between activist organisations and
> organisations promoting a professional and politically neutral
> organisational model. While the activists organisations tended to  
> argue for
> more vertical responsibility and vote against what was claimed to be
> economic irresponsibility the more professionally interested  
> organisations
> voted for expanding the budget motivating it by the need of more  
> horizontal
> participation. Thus the common descriptions on conflicts in the ESF  
> process
> was put upside down with non-leftists for the first time  
> challenging the
> leftists domination claiming that the leftists dualism between  
> revolutionary
> and reformism depoliticised ESF, that the arguments for more  
> horizontalism
> must be opposed by politically conscious representative vertical  
> decisions,
> that the focus on EU must be replaced by a focus on All-European  
> and world
> politics and that the whole dualism between open space and political
> decision making must be by passed. The way FoE Sweden and other  
> activists
> organisations by passed this dualism was simple. On the formal  
> level all
> Nordic organisations accepted the open space concept. On the  
> informal level
> many activist organisations advocated and in practice made a  
> politisation
> possible of the whole ESF. One assessment of the ESF preparatory  
> process
> from the very start until early July has been publicised in NIGD  
> News&Notes
> on Global Democratisation, August-September 2008 issue. While the  
> tensions
> between FoE Sweden and Attac Sweden finally ended in an acceptance or
> understanding of the way to politicise ESF on the informal level the
> conflict between activists and the NOC board continued and  
> escalated during
> ESF expressed in many practical issues as that of distribution of
> volunteers, translation and technique for the many scenes. It was also
> expressed in the conflict between on the one hand all international
> cooperation partners together with the NOC European Contact group  
> and the
> NOC board close to ESF on the organisation and during ESF  
> disinterest in the
> Assembly of Social Movements.
>
> After ESF the evaluation and reporting is dominated by leftists  
> following
> old patterns of describing what ESF is, the course of events during  
> ESF and
> the needs for change in the future along traditional lines. But  
> there are
> also other voices, especially from the peace and environmental  
> movement but
> also some leftist veterans and especially many young participants.  
> They are
> presented on the documentation page of actors .
>
> Cultural why
>
> Culture became central at ESF, at least in quantity. With 400 cultural
> activities it was the biggest ESF cultural program so far. Although  
> the
> reports made after ESF mainly is dominated by the political content at
> seminars and workshops and the demonstration and actions, also  
> quite a few
> brings up cultural events. The scope of the cultural program can be  
> seen at
> http://www.esf2008.org/about/culture
>
> A report from the Cultural group will hopefully come evaluating the  
> cultural
> program.
>
> But some notes: Already in the beginning it was clear that all  
> actors in the
> process, whether leftists or independent popular movements, saw  
> culture as
> an important part of ESF and promoted cultural activities. There  
> were some
> differences in the idea of what the ESF was about though and the  
> way the
> culture at ESF should be organised. The difference in the view on  
> ESF was
> expressed as the difference between a book fair and a political and  
> cultural
> common gathering for discussion, celebration and were like minded  
> groups
> also could decide upon political action. A common agreement was  
> never really
> reached and thus each organiser of a set of activities also at the  
> centrally
> organised cultural program, started to develop their own vision.  
> With the
> general approval of culture this meant that the cultural programme  
> became
> big as much organizational energy was put into this part of ESF  
> organisation
> with a huge variation for participants to choose from.
>
> Other more collective views on the role of culture at ESF was  
> marginalised
> in the process. While Workers Educational Association saw the need  
> of having
> scenes were different groups could perform cultural artists  
> questioned this
> whole way of looking at the role of culture. At Danish Social Forum
> troubadour Per Warming had initiated a common song that all sang at  
> the
> start and he had also organised a CD, Art in resistance with  
> protest singers
> from the whole world that was distributed and sold at WSF in Mumbai  
> 2004
> with some success. Such ideas was never taken seriously by NOC.  
> When it was
> proposed that all schools should be invited to make proposals for a  
> dance
> step that all ESF participants could learn this was dismissed. A CD  
> proposal
> by Per Warming backed by the most well known political musicians in  
> Sweden
> was also dismissed, on the ground that investing 3 000 euro was a  
> too big
> economic risk as one could not know if it was possible to sell the CD.
>
> Instead of culture that more or less all could be part of a whole huge
> market of cultural choices was presented. The exception was the
> demonstration, Peoples Party and the inauguration were especially the
> demonstration became a cultural as well political success as  
> everyone had
> the possibility to express themselves and at the same time be part  
> of a
> bigger visible unity of all.
>
> Organizing
>
> The way ESF is organised is based on at least four main sources.
>
> One is the European Preparatory Assemblies with the acronym EPA. These
> meetings are held regularly and are open to all who have the means  
> to come
> to the event. Western European organisations are asked to  
> contribute a fee
> that mainly is used for solidarity support for Central and Eastern  
> European
> participation. The fee is normally 50 euro. The EPA meetings are often
> reported in the EPA newsletter done on volunteer basis. There is also
> regular reporting of the European preparatory process on a European  
> mailing
> list administrated at the www.fse-esf.org web site. This web site  
> contains
> also updates on the preparations and is the official multilingual  
> web site
> for European Social Forum. The EPA meetings guides the preparatory  
> process,
> discuss mobilization and decides about the program in terms of what  
> themes
> and methodology is preferred. This model was successfully used in the
> mobilization and preparation for the first ESF in Florence 2002.  
> There has
> been through the years strong criticism against the consensus model  
> used at
> EPA meetings and proposals have been made to have a more permanent
> coordinating body but no changes has been made. Also criticised is  
> that EPA
> meetings can become marginal to the preparatory process by refusing  
> to make
> consensus decision and thus postponing the decisions to somewhere  
> else. Than
> decisions instead can be made at special European program group  
> meetings
> which may even decide upon other matters than the program in a  
> strict sense
> and start to act instead of EPA. The tendency is that at EPA  
> meetings more
> Central and Eastern Europeans can participate as well as more poor
> organisations while the European program meetings mainly have Western
> organisations or only Western organisations as participants as was  
> the case
> in the last meeting before ESF in Malmö.
>
> The second source is the organizing committee in the host country  
> or as the
> case in Malmö many countries in the region. In the Malmö process it  
> was
> called Nordic Organizing Committee. Here the choice of  
> organizational model
> became a question of whether to choose a professional project  
> management
> model, a traditional democratic centralised model with a board  
> taking all
> main decisions or a combination where a board elected by an Annual  
> General
> Assembly have the responsibility for economy, staff and international
> contacts and working groups elected at membership meetings open for  
> all
> members in NOC within the budget and frames decided by the board are
> responsible for different tasks. A coordination group with members  
> from the
> board, staff and representatives from all working groups have the  
> daily task
> of organising cooperation and maintain overview. The combination  
> with both
> board and working groups was finally agreed upon but the two other  
> models
> came often back in practice anyway in spite of the statutes. There  
> will be
> an evaluation from NOC going into these questions. An assessment  
> made in
> advance in July can be seen here: NIGD News&Notes on Global  
> Democratisation,
> August-September 2008
>
> The third source were different popular movements and other collective
> efforts willing to contribute to the process directly informally or
> formally. One of the tools acknowledged are assemblies of different
> movements as well as the general assembly of all movements, ASM,  
> who meet in
> connection to EPA and ESF meetings or sometimes on their own. But  
> there were
> also special coordination among like minded movement before ESF in  
> Malmö who
> made specific efforts, the strongest was ESF Latina with some 30 Latin
> American migrant and solidarity groups, another was European Peace  
> Action.
>
> Then there is the informal level of the market for individuals well- 
> known as
> speakers among the public and the global justice movement. Around this
> market mainly NGOs but also other actors take initiatives to have  
> influence
> and contribute attractive speakers to ESF.
>
> Practical
>
> The practical work at ESF was primarily organized through a central  
> group
> for volunteers which should distribute people to different tasks  
> that were
> planned in advance and a group of volunteer translators organized  
> by Babels
> network. Preparing the practical work was the task of working  
> groups with
> the help of NOC staff coordinated by the coordination group with  
> the NOC
> board responsible for strategic, economic and the staff. There was  
> also
> groups of volunteers linked to specific tasks as the big Pandora  
> cultural
> program, the ESF Latina cooperation between 30 Latin American  
> migrant and
> solidarity organizations and groups of volunteers linked to specific
> organizations willing to contribute also to the general ESF effort.
>
> A more detailed evaluation will be produced by the different  
> working groups
> of NOC. As the practical problems have been addressed by many with  
> Babels as
> the prime example here will be some rudimentary remarks based on own
> experience and interview with Morgan Holmström, responsible for the  
> scenes
> and sound equipment.
>
> The system for volunteers fell in some aspects apart. A general  
> problem was
> the lack of activists in Malmö, a to small city for an event the  
> size of
> ESF. Some central Malmö activists had advised against holding ESF  
> in Malmö
> and hoped for Copenhagen as the venue instead when it still was an  
> open
> question in the spring of 2007. Another was the way the volunteer  
> work had
> been organised in a bureaucratic manner. Instead of building a  
> group of
> volunteers responsible for specific tasks throughout ESF the main  
> idea was
> to centralise the planning with a volunteer centre sending out the
> volunteers to the preplanned tasks each day. As the preplanning in  
> some
> cases did not exists and those having extra hard work had no time  
> to go in
> person to compete for volunteers those in most need had great  
> problems and
> were in the brinks of collapse. Especially the scenes and sound  
> equipment
> that needed volunteers as guards during the nights had great  
> difficulities.
> Other volunteer tasks was on the other hand privileged positions as
> volunteers for the security at the concerts added to professional  
> guards.
> Apart from to few volunteers there were with other words also a  
> problem of
> balanced allocation of the volunteers that were there. Added to  
> this problem
> were also problems in getting food and complaints about the quality  
> of the
> food, of special problems also for volunteers at far off scenes who  
> were
> supposed to go to one central point for eating. There was also the  
> problems
> of economic routines with unbalanced responsibilities forcing some  
> persons
> to pay out of their own poclkts to save ESF from closing down as  
> they were
> not allowed to handle NOC money. The criticism from Babels was only  
> one
> expression of serious problems with practical functions at ESF, others
> beeing as or more severe.
>
> I need 150 volunteers, I have 4, over.
>
> This dramatic message came across the comradio at the end of ESF.  
> By then an
> englishmen who voluntered for building all translators stalls had been
> desperate during many days trying to get the practical things for
> translation in order. He addressed the Assembly of Social Movements  
> asking
> for help, there were almost noone left among the volunteers to take  
> down all
> the translators stalls and they had to be taken away in some hours as
> otherwise there would be huge extra costs for renting localities.  
> The key
> responsible persons were so full of work overload that they could  
> not answer
> the telephones nor delegate tasks even if one wanted to help.  
> Finally anyway
> most things could be solved.
>
> Another problem was the differences in status in what tasks had  
> resources
> for preparing ESF and what tasks were left behind and sometimes was  
> not
> prepared at all but had to be saved in the last minute, primarily by
> independent activists who saved ESF from collapse. The building of
> translators stalls was such a task, the lack of ordering sound  
> equipment to
> all scenes and building them another. One person. Morgan Holmström,  
> was in
> the last minute given 1/4 of a weeks salary for solving the problem  
> in a bit
> more than a week. He had experience in organising anti racist and  
> ecological
> festival in the region and his own network among companies and  
> volunteers.
> He was met with some problems as the sound companies did not want  
> to have
> relations with ESF as they had not recieved any order or response  
> when they
> were asked for their price, when asking for volunteers he was told  
> that it
> should have been ordered in advance, in practice before he was  
> engaged. He
> saw the need of getting volunteers he could trust and payed their  
> travel to
> ESF out of his own pocket as the principle was to not pay  
> volunteers their
> travel. In general ESF had hired professional staff that was not  
> used to
> practical realities when organising a big event as ESF and the need  
> to solve
> crisis which every festival is full of. The bureaucratic planning  
> fell apart
> and was reduced to some very small areas with full time payed staff  
> as media
> contacts and security at scenes while the bigger tasks as translation,
> scenes, and even economic routines was on the brink of collapse.
>
> Ecological
>
> There was hope for making ESF in Malmö ecological. Via Campesina  
> tried to
> ask farmers in the region for ecological food but this was not  
> possible.
> Contrary to France were Confederation Paysanne contrbuted to make  
> ESF in
> Paris very healthy with good food the Swedish Via Camespina os much  
> smaller
> and have less resoruces to contribute. Helathy and ecollgical food  
> produced
> in the region was included in the principles of how NIC should by  
> food but
> was not followed when the final arrangements was done and the  
> ecologically
> concsious including transport to the palces were the volunteers  
> were was
> excluded in he competition.
>
> The attempt at promoting railway transport failed on other grounds.  
> Railway
> companies use extreme tariffs for crossing a border with a  
> chartered train
> making international train transport to ESF impossible. A train car  
> from
> Austria would have costed 60 000 euro. More success had the support  
> of land
> travel on busses which drastically reduced the number of air  
> travels from
> Eastern Europe. There were buses from Bosnia, Czech republic, Hungary,
> Romania, two from Ukraine and more or less four from Russia going from
> Helsinki. Some of the buses from Bosnia and Czech Republic were not  
> full,
> from Prague some people instead recieved funding for travelling by  
> air from
> Western donors. What bus transports there was from Western Europe  
> we know
> less of. From Finland there were in total 6 buses including the  
> Russians
> organised by the Left Youth, from Norway Attac organised buses, from
> continental Western Europe we do not know.
>
> The most ecological transport to ESF was two sailing ships, the big  
> Estelle
> with seminar facilities for ESF from Finland and another ship from  
> Germany
> with participants. Unfortunatly the wind was so bad the the German  
> ship was
> delayed and had to use its motor and thus the planned joint impressive
> entrance in the harbour was not possible to make.
>
> Other attempts to support people in drinking the free excellent tap  
> water
> instead of buying expensive tapped water or bewerage failed. The  
> idea was to
> sell bttles with ESF logo so people could be reminded of using  
> tapped water,
> but the project was dropped.
>
> In short the practical ecological efforts failed almost all. The
> environmental movement had influence in the European contact group and
> promoted collective transport which became more ecological with some
> success, but this has been done before. The environmental movement  
> had no
> influence on the economic decision making which excluded ecological  
> food.
> The logo on bottles was never an idea from the environmental  
> movement. Te
> only step forward were the two sailing ships, which unfortunatly  
> both became
> fairly invisible.
>
> Politically ESF became a success for ecolgical issues though. The
> envrionmental movement and ecologically oriented farmers never have  
> had such
> strogn cooridnation and influence in the ESF process. It was the  
> first time
> the ESF demonstration choosed an ecological issue in its call for  
> the joint
> demonstration - Peoples Power against capitalism and environmental
> destruction. The highpoint was a joint Youth Camp organised by  
> friends of
> the Earth and Via Campesina and some Latin American solidarity  
> groups at
> Höör 50 km away from Malmö in the countryside. There was also many  
> other
> activities, see environmental movement+ and peasant movement+ .
>
> Economical
>
> The economy of the ESF was built on two main sources. One was what  
> different
> actors contributed to the general budget which NOC was responsible  
> for, the
> other decentralised economy built on what organisations and  
> individuals
> contributed to take part in the prepatory process and to contribute to
> actvities during ESF. The second part of the economy is hard to  
> estimate but
> is at some points crucial as when it comes to solidarity fees for  
> Western
> Europeans at European preparatory meetings to support Central and  
> Eastern
> European influence in the preparatory process. There is always also a
> competition between contributing to the general event or to  
> contribute to
> specific activities. Thus some strong local cultural actors  
> recieved funding
> for their specific program from funds and when NOC applied to get  
> funds for
> the general ESF cultural activities the answer was that such money  
> had been
> given to the local separate cultural activities. There are with  
> other words
> competition for resources on different levels.
>
> The more detailed and informed documentation of the economy of the  
> central
> ESF budget has to wait until such a report is made by NOC. In  
> general the
> sources for the general budget were four. Ca. 270 000 euro came  
> from the
> muncipality (+ 70 000 euro for an employee working with liason duties
> between the muncipality and NOC), the members of NOC contributed many
> hundred thousands of euro, one part from many small contributions and
> membership fees, the other significant part from trade unions  
> members in NOC
> as well as Workers Educational Association. A third source was  
> grants from
> different donors as the Swedish development agency Sida which  
> mainly went to
> the Solidarity fund and finally fees for participating and organising
> activities at ESF. The budget was based on 13 000 paying participants.
>
> Actors
>
> How to describe the actors at ESF In Malmö is a political choice.  
> Here an
> attempt will be made to demand intellectual clarity and equal  
> treatment of
> all actors. This means that the way an actor describes herself or  
> himself is
> seen as relevant as how the same actor by others is seen in  
> relation to the
> overall social, political, cultural and other human action of which  
> ESF is a
> part. One main distinction is whether an actor have been  
> contributing to the
> general organising of the ESF as volunteers or democratically  
> responsible by
> being member of the Nordic Organizing Committee with its board,  
> staff and
> working groups, is a sponsor of the general ESF, or only have  
> organised its
> own activities, are among participants without being organiser, is a
> sympatiser, observer or opponent. Another distinction is were in  
> time an
> actor has been active, in paving the way and the preparation,  
> during ESF and
> afterwards. So is a geographical distinction of actors from local,  
> national,
> urban and rural or different regions in the world. Actors can also be
> described according to what scope of action they focus upon,  
> whether they
> limit themselves to promote discussion, research and education or are
> popular movements in their full capacity doing both action and  
> promoting
> knowledge or NGOs limiting themselves in terms of their focus upon  
> a limited
> number of questions and/or a limited way of acting and/or  
> accountability
> mainly to donors. Whether an actor relies on the state to use force  
> to make
> it possible for the actor to exist or get funds, whether it is an  
> armed
> liberation movement or a political party claiming for becoming  
> government
> built on state violence in the present world order is also a possible
> distinction which is made important in the WSF declaration. There  
> is also
> the question whether an actor is representing an organization or is  
> acting
> in person.
>
> Two main distinctions compete in describing the actors, one focus upon
> content and ideology, the other on what form an actor has. The main
> conventional ideological distinction is made between left and right
> presenting ESF as a forum of the left with some odd actors that do  
> not fit
> well into the picture and often serves as example of how right-wing  
> ESF has
> become. Other ideological descriptions are often marginalized as  
> issues on
> balance between anticapitalism and other explinations of problems  
> in society
> as feminism, ecological or indigenous critique of the Western  
> development
> model, national sovereignity built on broader class alliances  
> including
> center party and liberals or gandhian non-violence as opposed to state
> centric leftist reformism or revolutionary ideologies. Here the  
> leftist
> dominance of describing the actors will be balanced by systematic  
> efforts to
> describe other actors from other ideological perspectives as well.  
> There are
> two main conventional distinction of forms of actors. One is that  
> between
> social movements or other "non-political party civil society  
> actors" and
> political parties. The other is between verticals and horizontals,  
> verticals
> often presented as top-down undemocratic actors dominating the  
> money and
> political core of ESF and horizontals as believers in everyones equal
> participation and consensus democracy. Here other actors will also  
> be put on
> equal parity with the dominant ones and other distinctions made. Class
> actors will be presented beyond the leftists limitations as well as  
> the role
> of the global class struggle at ESF in Malmö through different  
> actors as
> popular movements, political parties, liberation movements and  
> NGOs. Armed
> liberation movements will be presented and not only political  
> parties and
> governments. There will also be made a distinction between popular  
> movements
> acting in their full capacity and organisations that are limited in  
> their
> scope and especially in their democratic function, here labeled  
> NGOs and
> educational organisations. Other actors with specific aims as  
> professional
> event managers and sponsors, intellectuals and academicians,  
> police, media
> and business interests will also be presented. Finally the batlle  
> between
> different theories of action and actors that was brought forward at  
> ESF in
> Malmö will be presented.
>
> Ideological actors
>
> Class struggle at ESF in Malmö
>
> Popular movements and NGOs
>
> Political parties and governments
>
> Liberations movements
>
> Organisers of ESF
>
> Separate activity organisers
>
> Observing participants
>
> Academicians and researchers
>
> Professional intellectuals
>
> Event managers and sponsors
>
> Police
>
> Media
>
> Business interests
>
>
>
>
>
>

______________________________

Jai Sen
jai.sen at cacim.net
CACIM, A-3 Defence Colony, New Delhi 110 024, India
www.cacim.net
Ph : +91-11-4155 1521, 4155 0963 - PLEASE NOTE NEW SECOND NUMBER !

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