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Outcome of Sheffield Social Forum meeting (December 4th/5th)

Sheffielder | 13.12.2004 21:43 | European Social Forum | Sheffield


People participating in the UK Local Social Forum Network met in
Sheffield on the 4/5th December and found consensus on this document to be brought to the Assembly which is going to be held in Paris the 18/19 Dec 2004.

Hosted by SSF
Hosted by SSF





People participating in the UK Local Social Forum Network met in
Sheffield on the 4/5th December and found consensus on this document to be brought to the Assembly which is going to be held in Paris the 18/19 Dec 2004.

A Different ESF is Possible

1.. The British process to build for the ESF has been, from the proposal to have it in London onwards, organized without an open,
democratic, inclusive process. Actually no link has been created with
the UK Local Social Forums and the very same groups which played a prominent role in the process by organising mobilising committees for the ESF did so also in the places where a LSF was working already.
This attitude has generated more problems and divisions in the
movement in Britain and, even if some people have been inspired by
the ESF experience to go on to join a Local Social Forum, we are
registering a lot of repercussions from what happened, with people
pulling out from the LSF in several different places.

2.. The process is as important as the ESF in itself and we cannot have a different world if we don't force ourselves to practise
a different way of working together, based not on self-appointed
representation but on a wider inclusive process in which all the
differences can express themselves and reclaim the right to
participate. In the British process most of the power was based on
the monetary resources organisations could bring in, which is far
away from the world we are claiming to want (i.e. one where money
does not come first!).

3.. The Assembly of movements: although the final document was
built more openly than before the calls for actions have to come from
the work of the networks and the assembly is the space for all to
express the work which has be done. The way the London Assembly was organized didn't give the local social forum network the chance to comunicate their work. We also want to point out that Stop the War Coalition in Britain has called a rally for the 19th of March, the same day when the 'central demonstration in Brussels 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' will take place. We support the action in Brussels and we will work for that.

4.. We support the call 'to mobilise massively on the occasion of
the G8 summit in Scotland in July 2005' and we suggest a contrasummit organized by the ESF Network in order to present the alternative we are working for.

5. We reject the criminalisation of part of the movement and we denounce the absence of solidarity towards people who were held by the police in an underground station and arrested during the demo. No demo can carry on like that when some of us are in trouble only because they wanted to communicate what happened. A lot of people were really upset about the demo in itself because it didn't express the ESF and the diversity of the movement. No speakers were agreed for the demo so there was no respect for the decisions taken.

6. It's crucial to learn from the mistakes of this ESF.

7. The way the ESF works is crucial. Less plenaries, which
were just stages for the well known politicians, could be an answer.
Start from big thematic or affinity assemblies and then split into
working groups in order to establish networks aiming to work on
successful actions to fight neoliberalism and build alternatives.
Various documents have been written already and ignored, but there is the chance and the time to call for an open 'How to build the next
ESF' debate.


8. The location and the space in the ESF has to respond to the needs of the people. In Alexandra Palace the LSF network seminar
couldn't work in the way which had been decided because the space
couldn't be used in a different way but was only suitable for an old-
fashioned platform-based meeting.

9. The system of translation is important in supporting a different kind of meeting. Babels can find the way to implement a different approach using different methods. This is crucial for having translation in the workshops. We cannot accept an English-
speaking monoglot ESF any more than we can support an English-
dominated ESF: the days of Empire are over!

(For a full detailed reading of this draft text development, check Manchester Social Forum and Sheffield Social Forum sites.)



Sheffielder

Comments

Hide the following 8 comments

Useful - but just a couple of points.

14.12.2004 00:42

Just a couple of points. Firstly: "we are registering a lot of repercussions from what happened, with people pulling out from the LSF in several different places."

Have people really pulled out of local social forum because of the London ESF? And if so why? Because there wasn't a strong relationship between the two.

I think it might help if you defined what local social forum are or should be, and take this to the ESF, to set your draft in a context that might have more resonance with, and influence on the structure and organisation of, the ESF organising assembly.


Secondly: Your suggestion for the Gleneagles G8: "we suggest a contra summit organized by the ESF Network in order to present the alternative we are working for." seems a great idea.

ATTAC France and others organised a formal contra-summit for the last g8 at Evian, or more precisely the 3 days before the g8 started. It was quite impressive and wasn't too dissimilar to the ESF model. There was a large demo too. Of course all the criticism of the ESF could have been levelled at that, but they weren't because the horizontals organised separately.

The anti-authoritarians had their own meetings, convergence centres and self-organised villages, and a huge variety of actions and demonstrations which were separate, quite different. I believe these were even more impressive.

It would be a big development if there was agreement and co-ordination between to the two this time, and perhaps the ESF network would be the best facilitator of this - although not ideal it is probably the only space where this might be achieved.

Finally, have a productive meeting in Paris.

Anticapitalist


just out of interest

14.12.2004 09:43

i am not being funny but it would be useful to disclose the following info in order to get a feel of your local forum.

how many people participated at the sheffield social forum and what roughly was thier political background?

thanks

red letter


ESF-Gleneagles

14.12.2004 12:08

The idea of holding Social Forums in the run up to the Gleneagles convergence is a great idea. Thing is, people need to know if and when this is going to happen - where as well (rural space, edinburgh, glasgow, perth, etc). Any ideas about how quickly you will be able to give indications of this? People who are booking from Europe to come to Gleneagles want to know asap. Im pretty certain a lot of groups would be willing to get involved in this - could be a nice contrast with Alexandra Palace.

Cheers!

Krop


Replying to comments

15.12.2004 01:47

oioi,
i was at the Sheffield Social Forum meeting, but did not put up the initial post.
Although i was only present for the saturday, there were about twenty five people there (if i remember correctly) with a general 'left' political background.
There were a few ex-labour party members, a few students, a few people involved in the community - generally a good mix.

In response to talk of the social forums, i think the idea is for more than just a build up to the G8. The building of the network is to be permanent as opposed to being geared towards one event.
In Leeds, the Leeds University Social Forum has become active, including students and non-students. The group aims to get out of the uni and into the community in the new year, but realise that as a young group it is important to walk before you run.
If you are in an area that does'nt have a social forum, then i strongly suggest you set one up. The building of the official network website is underway.

Sparta


Yes, but ...

15.12.2004 05:23

Of course Sparta is right, and the point needs making, although I don't think anyone was really disagreeing.

The G8 mobilisation would be a nice sideline, if you like, or something concrete to build for on a national level (despite SF being 'local'), that might help social forum start or develop. Organising a big forum at the g8, along with other networks, would be quite a challenge.

I don't see the necessity to publish detailed attendance data, although in this case it is pretty harmless and may help to advertise that SF are diverse, and encourage others.

It's all very positive though, isn't it.

Anticapitalist


food not bombs

15.12.2004 18:53

there should we hope be a locall sf web url with links to all locall uk groups here is an online working copy  http://peace.lowtech.org/uklsf/ i hope to have it live by friday in time for the paris meeting.. here uklocalsociallforums.org.uk..

we will be talking more at the sheff meeting from there ill add my thoughts if there are any..

mozaz

mozaz
- Homepage: http://peace.lowtech.org


Some Info that you may have already.

15.12.2004 20:15

Nice one Mozoz. There was an attemt to start a web-site last year, but the interest wasn't there. I think the time has come now. Good luck.

Hasn't there been an attempt to start an East Anglia Social Forum

 http://www.easf.org.uk/

And also a Cambride Forum:

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/cambridge/2004/10/300007.html

Anticapitalist


Local Social Forums

17.12.2004 00:33

The SSF wiki has a list of some local social forums, but it's probably not complete:

 http://wiki.sheffieldsocialforum.org.uk/Local_Social_Fora

The ones listed there are:

# Manchester Social Forum ( http://www.manchestersocialforum.org.uk/)
# London Social Forum ( http://www.londonsocialforum.org/)
# Cardiff Social Forum ( http://www.cardiffsocialforum.org.uk)
# Durham/North East Social Forum ( http://www.dur.ac.uk/durham.socialforum/NESF/)

Chris


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