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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-size: 24pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">ESF Timeline</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">@ <a href="http://www.nigd.org/nan/nan-doc-store/07-08-2008/esf-timeline/">http://www.nigd.org/nan/nan-doc-store/07-08-2008/esf-timeline/</a>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">European Social Forums</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">2002
November 6-10. The first European Social Forum</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> takes place in Florence, Italy gathered 60,000 people out
of whom around 32,000 were paying participants. The presence of delegations
from other European countries at the first ESF was not purely symbolic: more
than 3,000 from France, 1,500 Spaniards, Greeks, Britons and Germans, 500
Belgians, 300 Hungarians 150 Poles and Swedes, 70 Russians. People came from
every continent, and from 105 countries. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">They
gathered for in-depth reflection, democratic debate, free exchange of
experiences, and planning of actions leading towards building a better world
without neoliberalism . The forum organised 30 big plenaries 160 seminars which
were slightly smaller, and a further 180 workshops. These covered every
important subject. On one morning you could go to big rallies-between 500 and
5,000 strong-on globalisation and the alternatives, food production, "no
justice, no peace", the emergence of the far right across Europe, in
defence of people denied rights, or on how to take back control of the media
and culture.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The
Forum culminated in a march against the looming US war on Iraq, with one
million people participating on November 9. According to police estimates,
around 500,000 people took part in the demonstration. There were also
other actions taking place. A group of about hundred Disobedients carried out a
symbolic occupation of a Caterpillar factory in Calenzano, Florence, the
multinational that produce bulldozer used by the Israelis Force Army to commit
war crimes.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Before its opening the ESF raised a
large political polemy between <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuscany">Tuscan</a>
local authorities on one side and the right-wing Italian government on the
other. President Berlusconi had forecasted the destruction of art works in the
Renaissance city by talibanized hordes, and spoken of the prohibition of the
ESF. The neofascists of the "Forza Italia" in the government had
agitated for weeks for example, with caricatures of demonstrators with hooked
noses, a bottle of vodka in one hand and a hammer and sickle in the other.
Under these influences many stores in the historic old part of the city nailed
their windows shut. People feared that the ESF could provoke riots and
accidents as those of the G8 protests i Genoa 2001. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">To encounter the governmental
propaganda against the meeting the movement in Florence had organised meetings
in schools and factories in colleges and hospitals to explain what the ESF was
about and how its concerns were connected to those of the general population.
This was very well recieved almost everywhere.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The ESF itself didn't hide behind
the walls of the conference centre in the Fortessa Dal Basso, a fortress built
in the sixteenth century to subjugate the city rather than to defend it.
Proceedings opened with a big ceremony in Piazza Sante Croce near the centre of
town. During the event different networks organised marquees in most of the
cities main squares with music, food and politics. By the end of 3 days
peaceful protest and discussion the owners of the expensive shops that had
closed and boarded up their windows were the laughing stock of Florence. More
importantly, the Berlusconi government had been humiliated</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The first ESF became a success due
to both a large number and very wide range of participants. The Italians
insisted from the start that the Forum should be an open space that would
welcome all sections of the movement. Crucially they applied this principle
from the start of the organising process. All organising meetings were open to
anyone involved in the movements. The meetings were deliberately rotated around
Europe to help draw in participants from all corners of the continent.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Many
reports talks about a growth in political pluralism of the global justice
movement present at the first ESF. Chris Nineham from Globalise Resistance and
Socialist Workers Party: "For the first time in decades years, huge numbers of
trades unionists, peace campaigners, socialists, environmentalists, anti
racists and many more were coming together to discuss and debate." Peter Wahl
from Attac Germany and WEED stated: Local social fora were represented, as well
as ATTAC, trade unions, the peace movement, NGOs, diverse Kgroups (communist
groups, transl. note), Greenpeace, the youth organization of the Party of the
Democratic Left (formerly PCI), Amnesty, Gays and Lesbians, Catholic nuns, the
Italian Greens, Christian Boyscouts, the Rifundazione Comunista and last but
not least, the mayor of Florence and the president of Tuskany (both DS)."
Wikipedia accounts as participants "Big <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-governmental_organizations">NGOs</a>
such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amnesty_International">Amnesty
International</a> joined the ESF, together with no-global organization such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATTAC">ATTAC</a>, left-wing parliamentaries
etc." A main force behind the organising of ESF in Florenc was the mass party
Rifundazione Comunista whose actvists according to many reports did not try to
impose their will on the whole event but was loyal to the idea of an open space
for all trands within the global justice movement. But for some Central and
Estern European partcipants the many red party flags from different
organisations which were omnipresent at the conference venue made them turn
their backs on ESF.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The creation of the broad unity
required a systematic strategy. It meant guaranteeing that every serious part
of the movement could participate, but it also meant putting an argument to the
various groups about the importance of a united movement. So for example it was
important to have a dialogue with the autonomist groups to try and persuade
them to be part of the forum and then to defend their decision to have 'one
foot in and one out' of the process. Thus a big separate anti-capitalist
autonomous space was organised in this strategy of "contanimation" ESF. But a
certain utopian feeling of overcoming </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">From the start the ESF was against
neo-liberalism, racism and war. Nineham states in his report that as the event
approached it became clear however that the threat of war was the big concern
of most people opposed to the neo-liberal agenda. Partly this was because a war
on Iraq was likely to cause a catastrophe in the Middle East and beyond. Partly
it was clear the prospect of the war was creating outrage in very wide layers
of society. But also it was because an attack on Iraq was the priority for
those at the headquarters of neo-liberalism in Washington. At the last
preparatory meeting in Barcelona there was an agreement that the main slogan of
the demonstration in Florence would be 'Don't Attack Iraq' and that the meeting
would issue a call for cross-continent anti war action.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">These were controversial decisions.
They risked putting the forum on collision course with governments and social
democratic organisations across Europe. Nineham continues his report on ESF in
Florence: "When word got out that the demonstration at Florence would focus on
stopping the war the ESF became a magnet to activists. 1,300 people signed up
to come from Barcelona alone in the three weeks before the forum. People were
deeply relieved that such a mainstream project conceived on such a grand a
scale was prepared to take a principled stand on the big issue. It was a stand
that had eluded most politicians, and it showed that the ESF really was going
to be something different, something honest, something that would make a
difference."</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">While
war became the main issue at ESF in Florence also other issues came to the
fore. The second theme that crystallized into a major focus in Florence is the
privatization of public services, from education to health and pensions to
water, energy and transportation. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Also
strategic issues caused interest. Wahl reports that "The organisers chose to
publicly acknowledge the confrontation between social movements and political
parties at a central point in the Forum at the end of the afternoon (Bernard
Cassen represented Attac France). The debate took place in front of an enormous
audience (proving that this is a crucial subject) but proceeded more like a
meeting than a real discussion. In spite of a few slips, in the main reasonable
control was exercised over the time taken up by the political parties. But
naturally, this did not prevent them mounting publicity seeking operations, the
most blatant of which was by François Hollande, the first secretary of the
French Socialist Party, who did the round trip in twelve hours."</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">In
the final assembly of social movements the call was launched for a Europe-wide
day of action on what would become the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_15,_2003_anti-war_protest">February
15 Global day of action against the war</a>. It was also decided to launch a
European campaign, oriented first toward actions during the end of March 2003,
with a central initiative in Brussels. By that time the negotiating phase in
the WTO in which the individual countries present their liberalization offers
and demands will be ended. After that, the ministerial conference of the WTO in
Cancùn, Mexico, at the beginning of September 2003 will become the next high
point of the campaign</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The organizational efforts were to a
large extent a success. The forum was sustained by 1,000 volunteer workers,. A
network of volunteer <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translators">translators</a>,
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babels">Babels</a>, was set up to
interpret the event into the various languages of the people attending. But
there were sincere problems with the what also psitive observers descibed as
panels being too big too old too white and too male. Others claimed that many
main plenaries did not allow interaction with the participants at all as the
panelists took the whole space. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">But
in general there is a utopian sense in the air. Wahl summarises his account of
positive aspects: - the movement has emerged from the shadow of violence, - it
has successfully built a bridge to the theme of war and peace, - its political
pluralism and breadth have increased further. He also warns us "against
transferring the understandable euphoria of Florence and the experiences of
Italy onto the rest of the world." He claims that the success of Florence
is owed mainly to the domestic constellation in Italy. He includes som factors
among others: - the Italian left is generally quite strong in comparison with
the rest of Europe, - the conflict with Berlusconi had been growing for some
time and had already led to a general strike, - the US friendly stance of
Berlusconi is met with broad resistance beyond the left, - psychological
warfare with the spook of a second Genoa led to counter reactions.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Another
summary can be this quote by Chris Nineham:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">"The closing demonstration was
extraordinary. Florentines lined the route clapping and in some blocks of flats
in working class areas it seemed like the majority of families were waving and
cheering. An amazing number of households had prepared banners saluting the
demo. There were a million on the march in a city of 400,000 odd. It was as if
the movement was merging with the working class of Florence. All of a sudden we
who were chanting against war, against neo liberalism and against racism felt
like the majority."</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">2003 November 13-15. The second
European Social Forum in Paris.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> This ESF gathered 51,000
delegates who came with the possibility of participating in a very large number
of activities in both an official <a name="OLE_LINK1"></a><a name="OLE_LINK2"></a><span style="">program and many sideevents spread all around
the city. Plenary sessions had between 1,000 and 2,000 people </span>in the
audience with up to 15 speakers on the panels to reflect the diversity of
countries in Europe - in most cases, including Eastern Europe. The big panels
also meant that there was no time for the audience to interact, and the
speakers seldom commented each other. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The themes of the plenaries were:
Against war: for a Europe of peace and justice open to the world, Against
neo-liberalism and patriarchy: for a social and democratic Europe of rights.
Against the singular pursuit of profit: for an ecologically sustainable society
of social justice and for food sovereignty, Against commercialism: for a Europe
of democratic information, culture and education, Against racism, xenophobia
and exclusion: for the equality of rights; dialogue between cultures; a Europe
open to migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The smaller seminars were more
participatory, but there was still too many speakers. All in all the
athmosphere was very welcoming well funded by the conservative government and
socialist mayors with all main stream parties making statements calling
themselves part of a movement critical towards globalisation. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The forum was in one sence a really
diverse and open space for all tendencies of the French activist scene. The "No
Vox" coalition – combining the homeless movement, sans papiers illegal
migrants, and young people from the socially marginalised districts – hosted
its own "village" with strong participation. The NGO coalition CRID organised
dozens of seminars. Inside CRID, Catholics, Socialists, and other groups work
together. ATTAC, was also an active participant; as was the small farmers'
union Confédération Paysanne. Thus the forum was more than a left gathering,
even if the French Trotskyist Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire was very active
as were the French Greens and the Communists. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">In spite of this diversity the
general debates had a tendency of having an old left message were the sharp
divisions within France was replaced by a common denouncment of present
globalisation. 100,000 took part in the closing demonstration on 15 November.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">2004 15-17 October. The third
European Social Forum in London.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">More than 20 000 people from nearly
70 countries came. There were over 2500 speakers at over 500 meetings and many
autonomous spaces with separate programs and some 5 000 participants in total. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The six key themes of the forum
were: war and peace; democracy and fundamental rights; social justice and
solidarity – against privatisation and deregulation, for workers, social and
women's rights; corporate globalisation and global justice; against racism,
discrimination and the far right – for equality and diversity; environmental
crisis, against neo-liberalism and for sustainable society. Autonomous spaces
covered such issues as life despite capitalism, womens open day, radical theory
forum, precarius work / causalisation end beyond ESF. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Attendance of those on very low
incomes was assisted by the provision of free travel and cheap accommodation
for up to five thousand people at the Millennium Dome. An integral part of the
forum was a cultural programme with more than 100 films, music, drama, poetry
and exhibitions. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The forum ended with a 70,000 strong
international demonstration through central London and a rally at Trafalgar
Square calling for an end to war, racism and privatisation and for a Europe of
peace and social justice. On Sunday morning, over 1000 people met in the
'Assembly of Social Movements', a separate open decision making body which
meets during ESFs. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The Forum in London was marked by its
strong domestic conflicts during the preparatory process between what was
labelled horizontals and verticals. The horizontals demanded openess in the
process on how to organise the event to make it inclusive and not a spectacle,
choice of thematic issues, finance and job recruitment coming from
organisations as the London Social Forum and their counterparts in other parts
in Britain, feminists, anarchists and autonomist marxists, womens peace
movements, Attac and environmentalists. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The verticals insisted on making the
preparations professional and effective and having each meeting in the
organising committe well prepared in advance among themselves and when it went
out of control march out of the meeting, having themes and demonstration suited
to the interest of trade unions with anti-war message as dominant rather than a
broad range of issues and keeping monopoly of the staff. They had on their side
the Labout mayor and his staff, trade unions and Socialist Action and Socialist
Workers Party with their strong allies in some organisations were they are
influtential and some important NGOs as Campaign against Nuceal Disarmament. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The verticals had made the bid for
ESF come to London and could with their control over money and knowledge in how
to exclude and include points on the agenda and minutes from meetings dominate
the process. The result was a strong polarisation ending with direct action
against meetings during ESF taking the microphone by force to criticise that
the mayors domination of the ESF which ended with arrests and continued
conflicts the next day at the concluding mass demonstration when horizontals
tried to get access to the microphone addressing the issue of solidarity with
the arrested persons and once again police intervened and new arrests were
made. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">An Irish critical remark about the
seminars at the offcial forum stated that "The funny thing was the trade union
speeches in general ignored the left wing parties, talking about how great it
was to link up with environmental groups and ngos. The Left wing parties
ignored the NGO's focusing on the potential of the trade unions joining the
movement. And the NGO's ignored everything except their own campaigns." </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">On the one hand the London ESF
caused severe splits and grewing scepticism among anti-authoritarian groups to
participate. On the other hand for the first time main stream social democratic
trade unions became centrally involved at the same time as the conflict
produced a deeper understanding of the need to make the social forum process
more inclusive although there were no solution to the problem.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">2006 May 4-7. The fourth European
Social Forum was held in Athens.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">35,000 participants gathered ending
with a demonstration against racism, war and neoliberalism with 80,000
participants. The strong critcism against the ESF in London for not being
participatory and dominated by British domestic interest had resulted in
efforts making the event more open, egalitarian and with a strong European
preparatory process. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">This became a domestic success in
Greece. The main organisers as the Greek Social Forum and the party Synapsismos
close to social movements had hithertho been marginal in Greek politics. During
the ESF the biggest ever demonstration called by other forces than the ortodox
communist party became successful and after ESF many young activists started
actions all over Greece across earlier ideological hindrances. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">It was also a step forward for
enlargement to the East. Solidarity funds for Central and Eastern Europeans
including Turkey and Middle East provided for participation of 2,000 making ESF
more All-European the largest delgationof 1,200 coming from Turkey. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Big plenaries with to many celebrity
speakers were out and instead there were more focused seminars and
workshops. Political parties speaking in their own name were in. Also
interpretation that ESF should strictly follow the WSF declaration not allowing
armed liberation movements to participate was rejected by the organisers who
invited main liberation movements from Palestine and Lebanon. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Criticism also from the libertarian
left stated that efforts in making the process more participatory and emphasis
on decentralisation had been brought to its limits and attempts were made to
interconnect rather than further decentralise the process. The need was seen
for a 'more open collective decision making with clear rules to overcome the
problem of informal power' and hopes for using techno-political tools for
interactive communication and collaborative work. Many large scale ESF related
web projects started ambitiously but most of them soon imploded. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">What was successful was the strong
moblisation against discrimination of migrants and the many direct actions to
support Albanians, Pakistani and other migrants in Greece whithout papers and
rights and in total are 1 million out if a population of 10 million. They came
to the demonstration and many actions took place to support them during ESF
both at a camp for Romanis at the border and in Athens. The politically most
important outcome was the establishment of a ESF network on public services and
an European campaign against the Bolkestein EU directive that partly had
success. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The enlargement of ESF that was the
main goal of the Greek organisers was successful in many ways, both
geographically by bringing in Central and Eastern Europé and the Middle East
but also politiall combining a strong sense for an egalitarian process and
horizontal tools for communication and at the same time a deeper respect for liberation
movements struggling under hard conditions. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">2008 September 17-21. The fifth ESF
taks places in Malmö.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The political debate before the ESF
in Malmö is comparibly weak as if those that use to have opnions do not know
what to say or are ignorant. But one clear prediction is made:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> " 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."</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Alex Callinicos and Chris
Nineham</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Quote from "At an impasse?
Anti-capitalism and the social forums today" Posted: 2 July 07
<a href="http://isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=337&issue=115">http://isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=337&issue=115</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none ; padding: 0in; line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">2010
The Sixth ESF takes place in Istanbul.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></p>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Timeline summarised by Tord Björk,
Friends of the Earth Sweden for Association Aktivism.info from different
internet sources and discussing with people. Tord Björk has never
attended ESF and is now coordinator for the European contact group in the
Nordic Organizing Committe or ESF in Malmö.</span></p>
</div>