My Impressions of the ESF – London 2004

It is impossible to “report” on the European Social Forum. Every report I have seen is obviously partial and incomplete. Some accounts are tragically, embarrassingly, maliciously or comically incomplete. There were 20 something thousands of people there, we have not got accurate figures yet. They came from all over the world, but mainly the UK and Europe. Loads were young. Each of them had a very particular experience. Apparently it was the largest conference ever held in London. There is no single venue in either Paris or London big enough to contain it. There were hundreds of seminars, workshops and plenaries. If you want to get an idea of astounding variety, and even check if there was something on your particular interest, then go to http://www.fse-esf.org/ and find the programme which can be searched by key words. I missed all but a few of the scheduled events. On the other hand, I participated in two truly wonderful workshops that were not even on the programme. There were locations all over Central London, as well as at the headline space, Alexandra Palace, where the Big Action happened. For those of you who do not know Alexandra Palace, it is a fantastic place for a spectacle, but a lousy place to actually meet people or eat anything. What follows is my impression, gathered from press reports I saw, gossip I heard, and what I actually experienced. You might like to know that when I read the Guardian on Monday I failed to find a single article. When I read the Observer on Sunday, I also failed to find a single article. So for me the mainstream press coverage was a joke. Fortunately there are other sources of information.

Overall, I think it was a great event to attend. I wouldn’t miss it ever, unless I had a good reason. How I am going to make it to Greece next year is a bit of a mystery, as I don’t have any free, quiet, private accommodation lined up (I have “needs” in my old age). Do YOU know anyone who has accommodation in Athens, maybe a second home? I am delighted that the ESF got organised, and organised relatively well, given that it was done by people who had never done it before, and will never do it again. Hard to get a one-off exactly right, especially that size. Later I might comment, very briefly, about the “way” it was organised. The work of the “autonomous” groups, the young volunteers who worked liked dogs (for a free admission) and the translators who also volunteered, is often ignored. But last year and this, the “hidden” or submerged work impresses me immensely, much more than the headline “political” organising. I suppose the higher cost of getting to, and living in London, much less the high price of admission, must have limited attendance. It was, in fact, smaller than the first two ESFs. Probably that’s no big thing. This is a case when size is not the most important factor. But if the next one is even smaller, then we are going to have to rethink the whole process. No point in having huge events where fewer and fewer people come. It might be better to have more focussed events attended by smaller numbers. Anyway….

The weather was pretty dire. Even the SWP paper sellers went indoors on the Thursday opening day at Ally Pally, the only time I was at the Big Venue. The flat I borrowed had lovely huge windows to the east and west, but I could not tell where the sun was for four days. Just grey and drizzly, with wet pavements and the vague, but constant threat of showers. In the end I only got wet twice. When I got back home it was sunny and 25 (although it has decayed since). I remember what it was like in England from October to April. Still, everyone just got on with it.

The most important process in the ESF for me will always be to see friends and organise projects together. If I manage to meet a few “new people” with common interests and a twinkle in their eye, then this is a total bonus. I do expect this bonus though. It has happened both times I have gone to the ESF. Although this may seem like a rather introverted path, perhaps not even political (seeing friends and looking for unknown members of my tribe), it is not. Ever. For me, scheming with mates has always been the highest and most pleasurable form of politics.

I know that after two ESFs, in fact I knew before the first one, that the large meetings, with thousands or hundreds in rows, listening to speakers on a raised table up front, simply are not for me. I have been in this political business for over forty years. Unless I am exploring a new problem, or looking for passive entertainment (usually with a controversial speaker), those meetings are boring. I know already what most of them will say, although of course I never know the details or how to evaluate the details. Usually, I know the style of the argument or rant. There is seldom any interesting dialogue, just debating tactics and point scoring for an audience. However, I am well aware that for beginners, just getting into this kind of politics, and for people who like spectacles, these huge meetings have a very real audience.

For example, I caught a few words of one “seminar”, which had probably a hundred people sitting rows in curtained off space in a hall big enough to play three games of football simultaneously, maybe four. The Chair of Attac (France) and one of the big cheeses from SWP were speaking as I drifted through the Big Venue during my three hours there. I had such a powerful jolt of déjà vu (or lu) that I was almost puzzled. Sometimes when people say or do exactly what you are sure they will do, it is puzzling that you got it so right. In one case I read it all in the ATTAC bulletins I get by being a member, and in the other because the SWP say the same thing all the time. Someone chooses speakers for such “spectacular” meetings as if they were trying to force me to go elsewhere. The good speakers all have websites anyway. How would they get to the ESF as a speaker unless they were “somebody”? And the other thing is that in this London ESF it seemed that the plenaries were really a bit excessively packed full of Trots and trade unionists. Without wishing to be too evaluative, these are generally not people I want to hang out with and plan any action with. They are, if anything, usually an obstacle to projects I take an interest in. Or they just dismiss the projects as “peripheral”. I guess it boils down to different visions of Social Forums. Some tend to think of them as spaces of “representation” of people who are not there or perhaps structures which can make “practical policy on issues”. Others think of it as a space of “encounter” for the people who are there. Its not that simple, but therein lies a big difference. Some think of them as something to control and others as something to be kept open or out of control. But one can work with many kinds of people, and attend many kinds of events that are not totally pleasing in their process. Both Local Social Forums (of which there are apparently hundreds in Europe) and the ESF are workshops where different currents of the movement try to work together effectively.

Oh yes, when I was up at Alexandra Palace I went to a “seminar” in a huge, cold marquee, with water all over the floor. Maybe two hundred people spread out in a venue which could have had five or six hundred. I wanted to hear a pal who was beginning a two days series of events on Genetically Modified Organisms. Several of them, including one other person I wanted to have a hug with, were organising events which began with two presentations of a huge public nature with a line-up of speakers from all over, and then worked towards a couple of smaller workshops in central London. I gather the whole thing was a success, especially the workshops. There were GMO activists from all over Europe, meeting, chatting, hugging, scheming. An excellent example of what the ESF is really for. Although that tent was a miserable venue, I have to say.

To carry on with a political rant for just a bit longer, sometimes I even wonder what the heck “they” (people like SWP, trade unions hacks and Socialists working for Ken Livingstone) are doing in our movement, much less in the centre of some small moment in our movement. But they are undoubtedly there. The SWP front group, Stop the War Coalition (everyone agrees it is a front group), were given the sub-contract for the Sunday march. Not “the ESF” organising the march at all, in any way. I sometimes have to remind myself that things are never simple. It is true that a highly disciplined group of bureaucratic hacks, who saw a golden political opportunity, took over the organising and headline events of the ESF. This is not unpredictable. They do that kind of thing as often as possible, and I suppose they must be good at it. The altermondialiste movement of movements (AMOM) is so open, (perhaps also wise or clueless) that there is no real way to deny the “verticals” (as they are often known), the possibility of “exerting power”. You can’t really kick them out, without loads of heavy argument and conflict. In fact it is not clear if anyone can be “kicked out” of AMOM. This global movement has not yet worked out all the operational details of how exactly “it” works. When all is said and done, at this stage of the development of the AMOM, the vertically inclined folks ARE a part of the movement of movements. They CAN exert power, and they do. Florence and Paris were much the same, but naturally the names of the lefty groups and trade unions are different. Everyone seems to agree that a coalition of leftists controlled the planning and the headline programme of the ESF. Some details follow, for those interested.

One part of the coalition was Socialist Action http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/sa_review/sahome.htm . This is some kind of lefty power structure or sect or group or network. It is historically closely related to Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London. Many of the prime movers in this grouplet were prominent in the organising process of the ESF. Personally I am too far away to have any idea how big Socialist Action is or precisely who is in it. There are a few names I heard while I carefully followed the actual organising process of the ESF (by email lists of course). Sometimes people called it “the GLA “, which stands for the Greater London Authority which runs a few functions of the London area. Not really a proper powerful mayor. Thatcher pretty much destroyed that proper London local government structure, when lefties took it over a decade or two ago. The Socialist Workers Party (SWP) was another part of this coalition. They are the strongest British “Trots”. What can you say about the SWP? They are just the same as when I arrived in London over thirty years ago. Although I think then they had a different name, was it International Socialism? Certainly I seem to have been watching them sell their paper for decades. Nothing new. Through their various front groups like Globalise Resistance (in the UK), they are currently making an attempt to “Control and Shape” the AMOM in their mould. Fortunately this is impossible. But they CAN help take over the London ESF big time organising process and control many of the largest public events.

The Trade Unions were the last partner in the coalition. Actually a few lefty trade unions. In fact, a few “leaders” of lefty trade unions. Speaking as a trade union member for 32 years, what we used to call, with a sneer or raised eyebrows, unions hacks. People from these three groups have enough paid time to spend ages organising and going to meetings during the day. Even this daytime meeting schedule virtually excluded anyone who worked, unless they worked for the GLA, the SWP, a big trade union or some other organisation that could pay them to be at the ESF process. People outside London were very scarce throughout the planning process. There was a small debate about the not very open nature of the meeting times. In addition, most of the meetings took place in the GLA headquarters, in the daytime. These three partners, or rather a few leading individuals in these groups, did much of the wheeling and dealing. They organised agendas, processes, meetings etc, all backed by the threat that unless things went their way, the Trade Unions and the GLA would not make their big contributions. Things just would not happen. In fact they labelled any resistance people who were trying to “sabotage” the ESF. They found out after three or four months, when they actually had a brief open moment, that nearly all the resistance was to their style and process, not to the ESF itself. But they never understood this, not really. They can’t. There was amply documented resistance, I seemed to have several emails a day for most of the year from various resistance oriented lists. But most times when there have been battles between the “verticals” and the “horizontals” for a particular objective or event, especially if it involves money, the verticals win. Verticals is the name for the bad guys and horizontals for the good guys. It involves a crude summary of the styles of organisation, one going top down and the other going sideways. There was some effort to control the excesses of the British verticals by various other European groups, but they largely failed.

But what this lefty coalition won is not the same thing as the AMOM itself. No one has control of that extremely complex, global movement of movements. That is why the altermondialiste movement is actually dangerous to the normal mondialistes (like the lefties). The real problem we have with the “takeover lefties” is to find a way to get on with our political activities without being forced to deal with them. Not just yet. Obviously tensions that arise in this latent or manifest conflict must be dealt with at some point in human history. But in daily working, the SWP types are just not worth the grief. We, as a movement, and as an individuals, have too much to do ourselves. So what happened in the end, was that many of the genuinely altermondialiste networks organised their own festivities and joyous encounters. I had to go to Alexandra Palace to get the very handy free travel pass that you got when you paid the admission fee of £20 if poor or £30 if normal, compliments of Ken Livingstone and the GLA. Other than that morning I missed every big time event. Those events were the ones that had “invasions” of the pitch, little political tussles and disruptions. You will have to get your information about those Big Top events from someone else, which should be easy since all the reporters and thousands of people went to Alexandra Palace.

Disruptions often get press coverage and seem to be a focus of many accounts. For example, at a meeting where Ken Livingstone was supposed to speak, the meeting was disrupted by some genuine actual anarchists of the modern breed (Wombles - http://www.wombles.org.uk/auto/ ). The other Palace disruption was by Iraqis and some “other leftists”, who said that one of the guys speaking was really a tool of the Americans, and not (as billed) a leading light in a free trade union in Iraq. These pitch invasions and the reaction to them often hinge on arguments involving exactly what is actually happening in Iraq, and who went to what meeting in either Paris or Brussels last spring…In short, boring, ineffective and unimaginative. I read about those events in the independent and dependant press or media and I find them issues of supreme indifference. Other people argue about them all the time. If any of you who weren’t there want to discuss such pitch invasions then get in touch. I am keener on the actual football.

So AMOM carried on. Alongside the big events, attended by the vast majority of the customers or participants there were other events in what got called the “autonomous space”. By the way, I have no idea why ESF admission payers are called “delegates” since anyone can turn up. This autonomous space was organised by a several different networks within the AMOM, some of whom had not worked together before. That space is where I spent all my time. I did take my daily nap, so most days I might have only hung out in the Autonomous Spaces http://www.altspaces.net/ for five or six hours. I go to bed early too. I simply cannot get somewhere at 9 or 10 and stay in action with loads of people and noise and action and talking until late at night. Frankly I don’t know how those young people do it. Actually, I do. My spirit is still about 25-35, as my friends well know. The body just can’t take the pace.

I saw some old London pals for a couple of days before the event. Then I attended my first ESF event on the Thursday, with an old friend. We first went through a rather frustrating piece of bad organisation, trying to register, before we drifted off to lunch. We failed to register due to bad luck and the organisers’ bad planning. But earlier that morning, I managed to set foot in the lobby of the British Library for the first time. I also spent loads of time in the area of the massive St. Pancras station construction site, where my trains from France will shortly arrive. As in Paris, I am sure there was a bit of tourism that went on for many foreign visitors during the ESF. Since things are constantly changing in the modern world, I also had to get used to the new ways of using the phone and the new methods of buying transport in London. Anyway, in the afternoon, after my nap, we met up and went out to Leytonstone. You may well ask, where is that? Actually, its not that far if you are going for the day. A squatted art centre that was the venue for Radical Theory. I went to one short meeting of this RT bunch last year, and had a great time. This year it was an entire day. Whatever Radical Theory is, I don’t get much of it in Bédarieux, certainly not in English. Getting a serious whiff was a real delight. Anyway I saw two people I didn’t expect, and about ten or more that I did expect. I was very comfortable. And so was my old pal, who normally does not attend “things like this”. More the NGO type. She actually really liked it, and met a few unexpected people too. It was such a good way to start the whole thing. I think someone is making notes of that meeting if any of you think you might be “Radical Theorists” and have an interest in more. There is an email list too which I can join you up to if you are inclined that way.

That Radical Theory event, for me, consisted of two meetings. Check out the others that I missed on http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/free/wsf/london2004/radical_theory_forum.htm The first meeting was where we discussed various matters concerning “post-Marxism”. Although it is a complicated story, and Marxism is not totally dead or useless, post Marxism means some kind of anarchism. It is a matter of figuring out what this newish anarchism is and what kinds of words most elegantly and lucidly evoke that process of discovery. These people in my small group talked about plateau and multitude and rhizome and complexity and emergence and all that. Mostly I listen, as I am not exactly in the mainstream of the RT river at present. But I think I can still follow the conversation. I definitely know the tune. Since I also know some of the people and had heard them before, I could also admire how well they communicate, at least to me. Of course, we didn’t “resolve” anything. I found out the names of few more people who I liked, but hadn’t met. Actually, the small and large group in this meeting was one of several where we could have gone on for longer and still enjoyed it. Clearly structures will have to emerge which allow these conversations to go on outside the ESF, during the rest of the year. Beats me what they will be, but someone will do it.

The second meeting was about how the ESF and WSF have been organised over the last four years, and also how the London ESF was organised. This is where four very lucid and interesting people told their stories. Each of them were “horizontal” types (good guys) who had been heavily involved working with the vertical types (bad guys). This was one occasion that nearly everyone agreed that we just wanted to hear the stories, just to listen. We didn’t want to break down into small, participatory discussion groups. We horizontal types usually do just that when there are more than 30 people in a room. So we heard four highly articulate and reflective stories of what happens in the organising process of the World Social Forum and the ESF. When you go up against The Socialists, you sometimes get pasted. Blown away. Resistance is futile. But they were good stories, not actually as depressing as they might be, and all of these front line combatants are alive, and after a rest, will be back in action. It is true that someday, this part of the AMOM has got to figure out a more satisfying strategy to deal with the vertically minded groups. Maybe Global Uprisings can help that (see below).

Then I had a meal with several people including one member of the Global Uprisings working gang (more below) whom I had not met. He turns out not only to be a pretty sharp academic, but also is a Tour de France nut. And he has a French wife, with family near Avignon. Michelin tells me that it is a two hour drive. So he was, in some sense, a new guy I met who I might get along with fine. He has a dry sense of humour too. Also in the dinner group was a friend who I didn’t expect to see, a rather new “old friend”. A “back country activist” like me. She had a very good time at the meetings and it was really good to see her and chat for half an hour or so. She gave a brief rundown on roughly what she does as an activist in back country England. In my view, I think the thousands of such meals that were going on around town were probably one of the most important parts of the event. That kind of semi-intimate, free space allows people to do lots of things that formal events to do not. Furthermore it is here that important, but quite ordinary, bonds of trust and familiarity are built over the years. This “networking” is at the heart of our AMOM.

The next day, I didn’t really get involved in the ESF until after my nap. I thought I was going to go to the Laboratory of the Insurrectionary Imagination http://www.labofii.net/ , but I was quite tired from the previous late night meal, and wanted to make sure I knew a little more about the neighbourhood in London where I was staying. After my nap, I drifted down to the Indymedia place in Camden Centre. Check out their site for the kinds of things they do and report on. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/actions/2004/esf/. I knew that some pals would be there, thanks to my highly modern new mobile. Camden Centre was actually a most enjoyable space, and felt familiar because I have been to a couple of anarchist book fairs in that venue. Quite a large hall, with comfortable chairs and an excellent sound system provided by the Indymedia people. Big screen, and a number of presentations of various projects and movies people thought were good. I think you could have just stayed in the auditorium all day. My friends said I had just missed three excellent presentations. These presentations were not “entertainment”, these were scary and challenging presentations of work people were doing and the forces of evil they were discovering. Sorry I missed them. I saw bits of a movie about Bush and America, heard a rap about a brand new website which is meant to collect data and experience concerning World Financial Institutions so as to transform them or destroy them, or at least to know more about them. They were quite impressive, although I expect the network they create will not actually complete the transformation of those institutions within the fiscal year. I am going to keep track of it though. http://www.ifiwatchnet.org/

In between cups of tea (very good café actually, with good food) and waiting for someone to show up so we could go for dinner, I also caught a presentation of the Laboratory of the Insurrectionary Imagination. As it happened I never got to their actual venue that day or the next. So sadly, all I knew about the LAB II was from a video they showed, made that day on actions in London. These people http://www.labofii.net/ are, according to the guy commenting on the video, between politics and art, foolishness and work (actually that’s not quite it, but nearly). I have not explored all the links on their temporary website, but I remember rather liking www.mydadsstripclub.com

“"The more imagination is liberated & shared, the more useful the medium."
Hakim Bey - Immediatism

The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination (Lab of ii) will bring together creative activists, , interventionists, situationists, guerrilla communicators, tactical media makers, pranksters and everyone whose activities fall outside of and in between the spaces of culture and politics; whose actions exist between resistance and creativity.” You get the idea, but you have to check out some of the interventions, shows or whatever it is they do. These are one kind of network that obviously distinguishes the “autonomous spaces” from the other ones on the hill. These people are great.

A quick evening meal with three people. Not quite perfect, as I didn’t get to talk to one person quite as much as I would have liked. But these meals are really quite priceless, even if nothing happens. On the way home we popped into a pub, where I encountered a pal whose mum lives in the South of France, and my old pal from Thursday, whom I had not seen all day. Good to have a mobile in these events, so you know where people are. We left very shortly and walked to the tube together. She was staying with friends somewhere in Camden Town and I was in Kentish Town. Anyway that sort of surprise meeting with an old friend is worth coming to the ESF for.

The next day, Saturday, I didn’t get into things until after my nap, because I knew we had a meeting of Global Uprisings in the evening, 7-10. I put the final touches on my research into how to phone home at the cheapest rate, when the flat you stay in has no fixed line. This whole “phone booth to anywhere” phenomenon seems to have popped up recently, at least for me. But I now know the cheapest place in either the High Street or up Brecknock Road. Seems to be 7p a minute to ring France. Anyway I am also reading the Guardian, having breakfast, wandering around the area a bit, during all this other time. Even if the ESF were not happening, a visit to London, to this flat and neighbourhood, would add a good deal to the next few years of my life. Until I have something resembling more than one or two “old pals” within a day’s travel, going to visit actual real pals, even for only a few hours, is very important to my general sense of self and other.

Oh yes, and the food up on the hill was horrible. Expensive, totally straight, not a semblance of “alternative”. Sorry, just remembered that I read that. I never ate anything up there. I had surprisingly good and surprisingly cheap food in central London. Not a trace of fair trade or organic or local or anything. Just subcontracted Standard British Food.

I spent the afternoon at Life Despite Capitalism http://www.letslink.org/solidarity/clement-sat.htm during which I met two more unexpected friends and missed an encounter with another pal. But he comes to France, 45 minutes away, several times a year, so him being a bit late was no big deal. LDC was a two day event. There were speeches that started things off during the morning. I missed that. Apparently they were not bad at all, and one of them, some fellow called John Holloway http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0745318630/wwwlink-software-21/202-8968012-3724629, impressed several of the Global Uprisings Gang. I can send you a copy of you like, only five sides, double-spaced. I went to something which was discussing “democracy”. Some of you just got that bored look on your face, but actually its quite good. The concerns expressed and the arguments people made are not entirely what you would have heard twenty or thirty years ago. Things are moving on. I had to leave early to make the Global Uprisings meeting, but it was another kind of fairly high level unorthodox conversation about democracy that I cannot have down here. I only intervened maybe once. I listened mostly. There was a guy whose words I was admiring. He introduced himself. Turned out we already knew each other by email. Those encounters are at the heart of the ESF.

Now the real reason I came to London. The meeting of what is now the Working Gang (editorial collective) of Global Uprisings: a Journal of Ideas and Action. Frankly I don’t like the bit of our tentative title after the colon. I like Bulletin of Another World. Or “of Other Worlds”. Anyway we might change the second half, although people are happy with the first half. This a group which evolved out of the first meeting of the Radical Theory group last year at the Paris ESF. The idea emerged that we should make “our kind of journal”, and we are doing it. The precise process whereby some people from the initial meeting are “in” the working gang and others are not, is something I don’t want to know about. As someone said, Deleuze says that all foundings are violent and exclusionary. Apparently. Anyway if we do a good job, everyone will be happy. There are about 12 or so of us now and maybe there will be fifteen. Too many white guys, but otherwise a really exciting group. It is a pleasure to go to meetings. Mind you, there are some “members” of the gang who have never been to a meeting. But they are still in the gang. The precise process whereby we get from this group to a couple of issues of the journal is not utterly clear, although we have many clues and many specific tasks. But let me say this. If everyone, all 25,000 people, had the experience I did in this group, then the actual process of crating another world would be practically finished. In my estimation, these personal, working encounters, which were happening all over London, are the most important part of the ESF (did I already say that?). These are the encounters that have not got much to do with the purposes of the big event organisers. They almost take place in the cracks of the “real world”. But they always take place, and are a real treat. No, I don’t know if we will actually copmplete this project. If someday I send some of you a PDF copy of the mock-up of the first issue, for comments, you will know we are there. Maybe sometime in 2005. The journal is “theoretical”, but also useful for activists, “of, by and for the altermondialiste movement of movements”. We have a longer mission statement, which I can send you, but that gives the basic idea.

Sunday morning, I was thinking of going down to the summing up of the Life Despite Capitalism event. I am glad I didn’t, as my pals told me it was a disaster. I can’t remember why, but it was. Instead I walked over to a friend’s house and had breakfast with him. It seemed that during my visit this was the only two hour window that we had. Anyway that was just as well, since we had decided to have an afternoon meeting of Global Uprisings, instead of the scheduled one on Monday morning. All to do with when we would get the most bodies, given the actual on the spot realities of the ESF in London. For example, one person had not come to the ESF. Three others were totally caught up in other projects at the exact times everyone else could meet. However, that meant I missed the big march early on Sunday afternoon. No doubt if you are interested you have already read something about it. One of my personal rules was to have my afternoon nap, unless there was some vital event I just could not miss. I really don’t like marches that much and had not made plans to march with any friends. There was another march as well, the “alter march” complete with small actions happening here and there. At the big march, “some anarchists” tried or even succeeded in charging up to the platform in Trafalgar Square where the boring speakers were. Most of the others in the Working Gang burst in with their tales of Big Demo events, arrests, laughter or whatever. We probably lost half an hour while people traded anecdotes and experiences. Clearly a good demo, but not for me. I heard enough second hand.

The Global Uprisings meeting was very good indeed, such a good bunch to hang with. We didn’t sort out everything, but we have enough to get our teeth into. We shall see. There was one person who was new to the group from the day before. We need two or three more people who can work with us and who are not white guys. But our work has begun. We now know what kinds of stuff we want to publish. We know where to get it. We met both times in a tenant’s association office in a housing estate near Euston, the Mary Probert Room, formerly the “Laundry”. Or so it said outside. After the meeting I went with an good pal to share a coffee at Euston, before I left for the flat and he left to go north. For me, at that point, the ESF was over.

I stayed two more days and saw a few friends. I have not described my pals much, but they are just as interesting as the ESF type pals. The opportunity to combine that two, the ESF and non ESF pals in one visit is a real treat. But from now on , my trips to London, with or without Naurika, are going to be about seeing friends only. Maybe sometime I could meet with Global Uprising Working Gang for another live meeting. I think Global Uprisings might be a fine project to be involved with a for two or three years. The whole project might not have happened without the existence of the ESF. In fact the roots of the journal go back to the interaction of first ESF meeting and another internet organised network. I might end up being the co-animateur (co-editor in old money). I don’t think we have decided yet for sure, but it is likely. My co-animateur is a 25 American doing her PHD in North Carolina, research work in Italy, and who might be moving to England especially to work on this journal. And two other members of Shifting Ground www.shiftingground.org are on the Working Gang.

So what do I think of the ESF. I think it is an important form of organisation for the indefinite future of our AMOM, especially in the context of the Local Social Forums. Some of us in that movement, a very small percentage, have a genuine need to get together now and again. For example, I am the only one in my Bédarieux ATTAC group who has gone to and ESF, even when it was in Paris. I will report on the trip to them. Most of us activists are actually poor, it is hard to travel very often. But once a year, “everyone” can gather. Although it is always hard to organise “everyone”, we still manage it. This is a good thing. Although none of the first three ESF processes have indicated an openness to new methods of organising, the ESF has remained open to SOME of the alternative or radical currents or tendencies. At least we can usually find space in town to get together. We have yet to see an ESF organised remotely “otherwise”. But many people are learning precisely how to organise otherwise, each time there is a new ESF. The ESF will be probably taken over or partially controlled by the Socialists with Money. Sometimes those people are slightly generous and open, sometimes not. We will see about the “Greek Movement”. I know nothing about that part of AMOM. Could be controlled by Greek Communists for all I know.

But every time at the ESF, there will be many meetings organised by one kind of autonomous group or another, what I think is at the real heart of the AMOM. For example, I myself never made it to Conway Hall, where another venue had been organised. It had a lot to do with LETS (we belong to SEL in France, the equivalent), Local Social Forums, and coops among other things were going on http://www.letslink.org/solidarity/ I just didn’t have time, even though I am variously involved here in the Social Forum and SEL and have a longstanding interest in co-ops. It is clear that there will always be space for such “alternative” organisations. So in my mind, the AMOM should just let the Rich Socialists get on with their thing. Let the media think that what goes on at the plenaries, the meetings of hundreds or thousands, is the actual ESF. The spectacle looks at itself. Even if the food is bad and the sound system crap, the Big Venue will always get the Big Reporting. One nice thing about that is that all the SWP and Trade Union hacks were up there and didn’t bother us in Central London. A great relief.

I was also going to say what kind of people were there. But since I was hardly at the Big Venue, I don’t really know. The papers said we were primarily young, but I saw plenty of older folks. They said we had less people of colour than we should. Probably true, its been a constant problem of the altermondialiste groups in mostly white countries. But overall, as far as I could see, all sorts of people were there. Enough for everyone to be happy.

So yes, I think attending the ESF was great. Not every minute and every meeting and every group. Not the struggles for the mastery of the spectacle side of the ESF. I find that slightly interesting, but only because on email lists you can find out about it. I can’t find out about the struggles within the French state, for example. In that sense, our ESF process is quite open and transparent. Everyone who really cared, knew who was taking over the process, as they were doing it. For me the story of such power struggles is dwarfed by the thousands of individual and collective encounters, over actual projects of action, that were going on throughout the four days. They lead to the intelligence of the AMOM, they are its highest qualities. Another word that the high theorists often use is “swarm”. I have no idea if it will fly for more than a decade, but it is a way of capturing the remarkable intelligence of loads of individual acts within a collective phenomena. That is, when you get a whole lot of semi-autonomous bits together, what they do “together” is unpredictable, creative and effective. Sometimes beautiful. I guess my experience of the ESF is a bit like that.

I think, from all reports, the AMOM (or at least the Autonomous Spaces) has the best parties.

This, for your information is some kind of official press release send out by the people that organised it. “The ESF Office”. You’ll see what I mean about them.

ESF 2004 – a breakthrough for the movement

In the biggest event of its kind in Britain, 20,000 people from nearly 70 countries took part in the three-day European Social Forum in London this October. Participants flocked to Alexandra Palace in North London and Bloomsbury in central London to hear over 2500 speakers at over 500 meetings and to discuss with passion and enthusiasm how to make Another World Possible. 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.

An integral part of the forum was a huge diverse cultural programme with more than 100 films, music, drama, poetry and exhibitions.

The forum ended with a huge 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.

 The forum was witnessed by 600 members of the international media who took the message and highlights of the ESF to a global audience.

The Assembly of Social Movements which met during the ESF called for national mobilisations in all European countries on 19 March against war, racism, and against a neo-liberal Europe, against privatisation, against the Bolkestein project and against the attacks on working time; for a Europe of rights and solidarity between the peoples. The date marks the second anniversary of the start of the war against Iraq and the meeting of the European Council.

The networks and alliances established during the three days will be strengthened in the coming weeks and months and years. The next World Social Forum will be held in Porto Alegre, Brazil in January 2005.  The next European Social Forum will be hosted by Greece in March 2006.

Tom Cahill
26 October 2004