<div dir="ltr"><font size="6"><b>European Social Forum: a report from Malmo</b></font>
<p>X <a href="http://www.permanentrevolution.net/entry/2316">http://www.permanentrevolution.net/entry/2316</a>
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<p>Last Sunday, the European Social Forum (ESF) came to a close in the city of Malmö, southern Sweden. Nearly 10,000 people from
across Europe took part in hundreds of
political and cultural events over four days, reports Wladek Flakin, from the
independent youth organization <a href="http://www.onesolutionrevolution.org/">REVOLUTION</a>.</p>
<p><br>
The highlight was a demonstration on Saturday with 15,000 participants where
trade unions, environmental groups, autonomists, left parties and socialist
youth organizations together called for "Power to the People!".<br>
<br>
The ESF participants came primarily from Scandinavia.
For example, 14-year-old Vilma came with two friends from "Ung
Vänster", the Swedish Left Party's youth organization. "We have spent
the last few days painting banners, but we were also at the demonstration for
immigrants' rights", she said about her personal highlights at the forum.<br>
But activists from across Europe - from Spain
to the Ukraine - and even
from Latin America were also there. From Germany, dozens
of people traveled in buses from the "Left Youth - Solidarity" and
the trade union youth. Even from the Basque Country, over 20 young activists
came, after spending 40 hours in two small buses. The ESF'ers stayed in
gymnasiums and schools around the city, while the events took place in public
buildings, rented ballrooms and a mosque.<br>
<br>
The ESF is an opportunity for different movements to network internationally.
Opponents of the U.S. Air Force base in Vicenza
in Italy could meet up with
opponents of the planned U.S.
missile base in Poland.
In a large gathering, they exchanged experiences and planned protests against
the forthcoming 60th anniversary of NATO. Representatives of European students
also had a special meeting to discuss a Europe-wide day of action against
education cuts.<br>
<br>
<b>Special events</b><br>
New for the ESF was a "Labor Youth Space": a church building in which
the trade union youth from different countries organized their own workshops.
"The point is to have the youth of the European trade unions network from
below" said Joachim Heckel, a young activist of the German metalworkers'
union from Nuremberg.
"Here, we see that flexibility a huge problem for young workers across Europe. That is why we must think about organizing
Europe-wide days of action."<br>
<br>
At an event about the EU "terror lists", representatives of the
revolutionary left from Turkey,
the left-wing independence movement from the Basque country and
anti-imperialist organizations from Denmark shared the podium. They
explained how these "black lists" are used to repress left-wing
parties and movements around the world. At the time of the forum, a huge wave
of repression by the Spanish state against the Basque independence movement was
in full-swing, in which several political parties were banned. Ulrik Kohl from
the Danish group "Fighters and Lovers," which sells T-shirts with the
logos of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the
Colombian guerrilla organisation FARC, had been condemned the day before for
"supporting terrorism" – at the ESF, however, he announced he would
continue the solidarity work.<br>
<br>
<b>Riot and chaos</b><br>
<br>
Over the the weekend, the Swedish tabloid press headlined: "Krawall och
Kaos!" or "Riot and Chaos!". This was referring to a
"Reclaim the Streets" party which had gone through Malmö's city
centre on Friday evening. The approximately 2,000 participants danced to
hip-hop and techno - and because the Swedish autonomists seem somewhat more
class struggle-oriented than their German counterparts, the whole party took
place behind a banner with the slogan "Klass mot Klass" ("class
again class").<br>
Some people sprayed graffiti along the road and a window pane of the bank SEB
was smashed - i.e. it was hardly the mass riot that the press had been warning
about for days! The police, who were present, remained surprisingly reticent.
"If they were to attack, then everything would get much, much worse"
said an ESF organizer about the police tactics.<br>
<br>
Outside the official ESF program, numerous actions by the anarchist-oriented
"Action Network" took place. On Friday, for example, around 1,000
people gathered in front of the office of the energy corporation E.on to
protest against climate change. The day before, a few hundred had demonstrated
in front of the "foreigners' office" in Malmö to call for an end to
deportations.<br>
<br>
The ESF ended on Sunday with the Assembly of Social Movements that decided on a
final declaration of the forum. A major mobilization for all ESFers will be the
protests against the 60th Anniversary of NATO in April 2009. But the protests
against the G8 summit in Sardinia in July 2009 or against the climate conference
in Copenhagen
in November 2009 also have a great significance. The venue and date of the next
ESF has already been decided too: 2010 in Istanbul.<br>
<br>
<b>A preliminary balance-sheet</b><br>
Overall, the forum was different from previous forums in Florence
(2002), Paris (2003), London
(2004) and Athens
(2006). Malmö is the smallest city to ever host the ESF, and in light of this,
the 15,000 participants at the demonstration represented a success. Since the
venues were scattered throughout the city, it was difficult for an individual
to get an overview of the forum – but the number given by the organizers of
10,000 registered participants would certainly be accurate.<br>
<br>
The size of the 5th ESF was below expectations (20,000) as well as below the
levels of previous ESFs (with the possible exception of the more or less
disastrous 3rd ESF in London).
This can be partly explained by external factors. For example, there were
hardly any participants from Germany,
given that there were almost 60,000 people at different demonstrations at the
same time in Cologne, Berlin
and Stuttgart.
So the three buses from Germany
were on average only half full.<br>
But that's not enough to explain the ESF's small size. The ESF is the great
forum of "talking past" or "talking at" one another – the
political diversity amongst the participants, from social democratic NGOs to
environmentalist hippies to revolutionary Marxists makes it difficult to find a
common denominator. But the functioning of the forum and especially the final
assembly makes it completely impossible. The final declaration is not decided
by a democratic vote, but rather presented by a more or less self-appointed
preparation group and then rubber-stamped with "consensus". The text
contains bullet points to satisfy nearly all of the participants, but no
concrete mobilization plans. After years of noncommittal chatting, many are
wondering what the use of the whole event is, and that is a good explanation
for the almost constant decline in number of participants.<br>
<br>
Given the shrunken size of the ESF, the anarchist counter-activities on the
sidelines had a much greater weight than before. In past years, it was no more
than splinter groups who organized, parallel to the ESF, small (and hard to
find) "counter-forums". But this time, the "ESF Action
Network" represented a serious competitor to the ESF. Simply because of
high ticket prices (€40 or €20 for students), there were certainly more than
1000 young people from southern Sweden or the neighboring Copenhagen who came
to the ESF, but not to the official seminars, only to the anarchistic actions
on the all around.<br>
<br>
<b>Problems and potential</b><br>
The vast majority of seminars were alienating for young people. It was not
unusual for an event lasting two and a half hours to consist of two hours of
speeches from the podium and half an hour of "discussion", whereby
the latter consisted in reading out different communiqués. The demands in the
flyer from REVOLUTION for independent youth structures at the ESF proved to be
completely correct. It was positive that for the first time there was a
"youth space" by the trade union youth, but this was occupied by
up-and-coming functionaries and offered little opportunity for an independent
organization.<br>
<br>
The non-stop attacks on workers, migrants and young people in Europe,
which are centralized by the EU, make a common, Europe-wide resistance more
necessary than ever before. But the unofficial bureaucracy which dominates the
ESF (which is in turn made up of various social-democratic and trade union
bureaucracies) again and again prevents that the ESF from becoming a focus of
such resistance. We greatly appreciate the networking that takes place at the
ESF - after each meeting, activists from across Europe
exchange their email addresses - but overall the ESF is and remains pretty
aimless.<br>
<br>
As far as we are concerned, we will participate at the ESF - the relatively
larger revolutionary left in Turkey
will certainly make the forum in Istanbul
more exciting - but always emphasize that a revolutionary international
organization is needed to turn the diffuse slogan "another world is
possible" into a concrete, socialist reality.</p>
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