European Social Forums

2002 November 6-10. The first European Social Forum 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.

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.

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.

Before its opening the ESF raised a large political polemy between Tuscan 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.

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.

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

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.

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 NGOs such as Amnesty International joined the ESF, together with no-global organization such as ATTAC, 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.

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

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.

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.”

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.

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.”

In the final assembly of social movements the call was launched for a Europe-wide day of action on what would become the February 15 Global day of action against the war. 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

The organizational efforts were to a large extent a success. The forum was sustained by 1,000 volunteer workers,. A network of volunteer translators, Babels, 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. 

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.

Another summary can be this quote by Chris Nineham:

”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.”

 2003 November 13-15. The second European Social Forum in Paris.

 This ESF gathered 51,000 delegates who came with the possibility of participating in a very large number of activities in both an official program and many sideevents spread all around the city. Plenary sessions had between 1,000 and 2,000 people 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

2004 15-17 October. The third European Social Forum in London.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

2006 May 4-7. The fourth European Social Forum was held in Athens.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

2008 September 17-21. The fifth ESF taks places in Malmö.

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:

” 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.”

Alex Callinicos and Chris Nineham

Quote from ”At an impasse? Anti-capitalism and the social forums today” Posted: 2 July 07 http://isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=337&issue=115

2010 The Sixth ESF takes place in Istanbul.

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.