The two social forums I attended in Sweden demonstrated high degrees of well-articulated and well-founded activism.

At the forums the participants discussed, among other things:

· that neoliberalism has shifted the political decision making to non-democratic forums. The issues are now being presented to us in new packaging that we need to learn to identify (Helena Tagesson, Attac Sweden).
· in the world there are some 110 million construction workers out of which 75 % live in the global south (Kristian Välivaara, Byggnads).
· and we have some 3 billion workers on our planet (Ulf Edström, LO).
· we should not be "sentimental to the politics of the BWI and their illusions of privatisations" (Ursula Berg, Agora).
· the EU actually pays USD 50 billion annually in agriculture subsidies to European farmers and according to interviewes with countries' WTO delegations in Geneva, frustration with the WTO is only increasing (Aileen Kwa, Focus on the Global South - whose co-authored updated book on WTO politics will come out this summer).
· the link between free trade and militarisation: the security exceptions in free trade agreements justify for the North to keep subsidising also their civil industries under the title of military spending, examples being Boeing in the US and Airbus in the EU. (Steven Staples, Polaris Institute)
· in the WSF Charter of Principles the WSF participants take distance from violence. There is however very little work being done on the creation of new peaceful methods (Stellan Vinthagen, University of Gothenburg).

Interestingly, at the Stockholm forum, there was also a session organised by the Olof Palme International Centrum and Agora, among others, on the new Report on Social Dimensions of Globalisation by the ILO commission. In the report much attention is devoted to migration and the special advisor to the Swedish Minister for Migration spoke on migration globally and how traditional flows from the South to the North have been expanded by flows within regions. The session began by an introduction to the politics behind setting up the authors (the commission) of the report. Since governmetns tend to further different politics in the ILO and WTO it was impossible to set up the originally intended commission of the directors of those organisations. In general, the report was well-received among the panelists.

The creation of links between Swedish, Nordic and the European social forums was on the agenda. Again, we discussed possibilities of organising a Nordic Social Forum. We said that we'd look into the possibilities of meeting around this in connection to the European Social Forum in London this fall. Questions on the agenda could be: Where would such a forum take place? Would the Baltic regions be included? How and when? If so, would it still be a "Nordic" Forum?

During the past years, several-well attended social forums have taken place in Sweden. So far, however, the Swedes have not organized any Swedish Social Forum but rather strived at rooting the process at local levels. One of the goals of this method is to involve the LO, the major labour union in Sweden. By ensuring active participation by LO in seminars at local forums, the Swedes hope to engage LO also in the organisation of a future Swedish Social Forum.

To coordinate the hosting of four social forums in Sweden on a given weekend rather than to have one national event seems innovative. The forums may also have found own "nisches". For instance, as someone said, the more north you go the more positivist the forums get. By this, it was meant that in the south (Gothenburg) the forum was perceived as more analytical in identifying the reasons behind the present world situation whereas the participants of the forums in Stockholm and Uppsala "counted the numbers of crisis". Many of us international guests had been asked to speak at several forums and we gave our presentations on many occations.

However, judging from the number of participants in comparison to the Swedish forums of previous years, it was clear that the forums also competed. Last year, for instance, the Uppsala social forum has counted around 3000 participants whereas the number of participants now seemed lower, despite the wonderful first days of summer in Sweden. It was widely assumed that the 50 minute trainride to Stockholm and the vast program of the forum there may have motivated people to attend the forum in the capital.

I think that this experiment puts Oded Grajew's proposal in a slightly different light. Earlier this year, Oded Grajew proposed that that the world social forum should be followed by simultaneous social forums in every municipality on a given day, say 30 days after the World Forum. This idea could perhaps help bring down the fabulous numbers of participants at the World Social Forum and thus easen the logistic and other burdens on the secretariat and on the actual site of the forum. In addition, this could be a striking way to develop, expand and root the WSF process everywhere in the world. However, if the municipal forums are seen as competitors (materialised in competition for speakers and participants) this proposal may need to be further deliberated upon.

The Swedish organisation Arbetarnas bildningsförbund, ABF, covered my travel costs to the forums in Uppsala and Stockholm where I spoke mainly on the strengths of the WSF process and problems of democratisation at the WSF International Council. I was invited as representative of NIGD and member of the WSF IC.

For more information, see:
Stockholm Social Forum
Uppsala Social Forum