Esf london 2004

These forums are in fact very small bodies mainly dominated by libertarian individuals, deeply hostile to the SWP and seeking to thwart what they clearly believe is a conspiracy, with London Mayor Ken Livingstone, to ensure that the ESF excluded them. The point of contention was the viability or not of London bid.

Certainly a major problem exists with holding the ESF in London - the most privatised capital in Europe with the most rabid pro-Bush and de facto neoliberal government. This means they will be far more hostile to the ESF than Chirac was! The cost of putting on the ESF in Paris was million euros.

But much financial support 3 million euros came from, local, regional and even national government funds. The same was the case in Italy, as far as the city of Florence and other municipalities and regions were concerned. In both cases the local authorities opened schools and sporting facilities to provide sleeping accommodation. Even this will be difficult if not impossible in marketised London. With hired interpretation equipment and all other necessary facilities etc, the cost would be far more than would be covered by attendance fees.

Whilst a number of unions are, so it seems, likely to give some material support, this too will be limited. Clearly a massive campaign of fund raising, in the unions, in the local communities, will be necessary and this needs to begin now. These suggestions are totally unrealistic if you want to draw 20, people from abroad to the forum.

In reality this is a proposal not to have a social forum at all. Unfortunately the ridiculous consensus model of decision-making sic resulted in the compromise that the decision will now be finally taken on March th at the next European preparatory assembly, also to be held in London.

The mayoral team will meanwhile produce a report on its financial viability. In the meantime too there will be another UK assembly on January 24th. Hopefully this wretched debate about nothing will not be repeated. If it is then the majority of organisations seriously committed to the ESF should absolutely refuse to let it be vetoed by a few self-important individualists.

There was widespread support for the idea - put forward by the League for the Fifth International - that the seminars should be organised by networks of activists, campaigns and other organisations already at work in various fields, and that there urgently needs to be a mechanism whereby proposals for action, policies etc, which emanate from discussions at these seminars, can be put to the Assembly of Social Movements.

The final assembly passed another weak consensus resolution noting the fact that the ETUC had called actions against the attacks on workers social gains for April and repeating the Paris call for action on these issues. In short it does not endorse the date for joint action. They pointed out just how important this day could be for drawing in the unions into the ESF movement. On the other hand there has been massive critique, how the concrete preparation process in London took place - especially concerning the dominance and the undemocratic behaviour of some organisations.

We are in solidarity with the struggle of the so called 'horizontals' to defend the open charcater of the ESF and to prevent a instrumentalisation by certain political parties. More Info on that can be found here. An overview of the workshops, seminars and meetings can be found here. Especially we want to promote the seminar "The demagogic use of anti-globalisation phrases by the far right" , that takes place on Saturday Translation will be available in English, French and German.

AVANTI will report about the situation in Germany and present some thoughts, how our movement should react on fascist threat. Their hope is to persuade sections of the bourgeoisie that the machinery of the state should be used to implement a diluted form of old-style Keynesian regulatory mechanisms, coupled with limited social concessions, in order to prevent the development of a political movement against capitalism. It is worthwhile recalling the standpoint advocated by the World Socialist Web Site at the time of the first Seattle protest in It stands today as a basic refutation of the disastrous course that has been advanced by the ESF and its apologists.

The most complicated task facing human beings is the organisation of a movement against the existing system The only social force capable of organising the global economy in a progressive fashion is the international working class The issues raised this week in Seattle cannot be solved by protest. This means a struggle for fundamental change, to reorganise society on a new social principle.

This is a political struggle for which the working class needs its own instrument, its own political party. Menu Search. Latest Profile. Contact About. What do such incidents reveal about the political character of the ESF?

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