WeeklyWorker

20.10.2004

ESF 2004: Where next?

London's European Social Forum should be described as a success, says Tina Becker. Hopefully though, this year's event will become known as the last ESF that was simply a carnival of the left: the protests, the police, the poor attendance figures, the stitch-ups and the bureaucratic shenanigans have sparked a European-wide debate on the need to radically reassess what we are doing

Our third European Social Forum was a mixed bag. It was fantastic to meet again with thousands of socialists and activists from across Europe. It was very inspiring to make so many new political contacts. Some of the (smaller) meetings saw truly wide-ranging and interesting debates.

But still … Three years running and the ESF should really have moved up a gear. Instead, the ‘old format’ was simply copied and spiced up with an even stronger stage-managed feel to it. While many people I spoke to enjoyed the event, they were also questioning the purpose of it. What is the outcome? Where are our international networks, the European-wide campaigns? The Assembly of Social Movements addressed some of those questions, but many activists did not even know that the ASM or its preparatory meetings were taking place.

Undoubtedly, this year’s event will go down as the one with the stage invasions, the protests, the small numbers and the police presence (groups of two or three bobbies were occasionally seen wondering along the aisles, attempting to chat to stallholders and looking nonchalant).

The event did not quite have the buzz of Florence 2002 or the excitement of Paris 2003. Also, with well under 20,000 visitors, less than half the number turned up, compared to the last two events. Many of the seminars and almost all of the plenary sessions in Ally Pally lacked any real debate. For example, the packed plenary session on Palestine consisted mainly of loud screaming about how bad the situation in the Middle East was. No serious attempt was made to discuss outcomes and, more importantly, how we ought to organise to achieve them.

It was often very difficult to follow the discussions in any case. The translations (provided for free by the volunteer group, Babels) were generally - although not always - of a good standard, but the acoustics in the halls were terrible. Massive rooms were divided up with only four-metre high screens between them. In the West Hall in particular you had to strain to hear the speaker in front of you over the noise from the adjacent session.

Despite a number of decisions of the ESF coordinating committee to guarantee diverse and cheap food at Alexandra Palace, this simply did not happen. True, there were stalls selling Chinese and Caribbean food at astronomical prices - as with the in-house caterers there were massive queues. The latter seemed to have put up their prices for their bland fare. The boards with the usual prices were covered up, but I very much doubt if a sandwich normally costs more than the £3 the ESF activists were charged. The hire contract with Alexandra Palace was only signed a week before, so it could be that - in order to reduce the hire costs - the GLA had to guarantee Alexandra Palace a certain level of revenue.

While the transport links between Alexandra Palace and Bloomsbury were quite good and extra buses were put on, most people I have spoken to seemed to have stayed at one of the other of the venues. I am told that in general the discussion was better in Bloomsbury, as the meeting halls used tended to be smaller and more intimate, allowing for real debate. But the different venues were quite far apart and as a result small groups of ESF activists could be seen wandering around - some drifted into the West End, went shopping or sat in cafés. That might have been enjoyable for them, but it did not help to create a sense of unity at the ESF.

Ken’s responsibility
Much of the responsibility for this year’s problems lies with London mayor Ken Livingstone, who has exercised a tight grip over the event. Having financed the ESF to the tune of £500,000 using GLA money, he mostly decided how it would be spent; he insisted that the plenary sessions and many key seminars were only addressed by his friends and political allies and ensured that all critical voices were sidelined from the various preparatory meetings (I myself was twice thrown out of meetings of the coordinating committee) and excluded from the decision-making process.

All this was done with the help of his loyal allies in the Socialist Action sect and - disgracefully - the Socialist Workers Party. The SWP, for example, voted against letting a single trade union militant speak from the platform of any plenary session - instead, against sizeable opposition, they pushed through various members of the trade union bureaucracy. Eager to please their new master, they denounced anybody who was critical for wanting to “destroy the ESF”.

Livingstone’s role not only led to the alienation of many groups and individuals - it also made the event and the preparations incredibly bureaucratic, unwieldy and slow.

Rethinking the ESF
But this year’s event also highlighted the lack of a general vision that is crippling the European left. While many organisations across the continent recognise - in the abstract - the need to build an alternative Europe (whatever interpretation is given to the phrase), very little is happening in terms of real, practical coordination and organisation. As in previous years, the setting up of networks was not facilitated at all by the organisers.

Most of the networking that did happen was on the level of individual, previously connected organisations - for example, the founding of a campaign for a social Europe (see opposite). But there were no public attempts to build, say, an international campaign for open borders across Europe or closer unity between national trade union bodies.

The ESF needs urgent reform. Fortunately, most European comrades agree with this assessment. At the final preparatory assembly on October 14 it was decided that the next ESF should take place not in 12, but 18 months time. Many speakers agreed that, while we had become competent at putting on big ESF events, we have not been able to build alternative political campaigns and organisations. In fact, we are often so preoccupied with technical problems that we have left the question of politics almost totally unaddressed.

Leaving a gap of 18 months until the next event risks a slowdown in our coordination. But slowing down is not what most comrades want - speaker after speaker made it clear that we need to step up our unity. Therefore, an extraordinary ESF assembly has been called for the weekend of December 18-19, which will discuss the political future of the ESF.

Weekly Worker? CPGB?
On page 7, the ESF programme sports the list of all the “organisations that affiliated before October 1”. An impressive 162 groups are listed, amongst them Agreed Ireland Forum, Dilligence Advise, Eleca Jeffers and the Zimbabwe Women’s Network - not exactly organisations you are likely to come across very often in the ESF process (or anywhere else, for that matter). Ten Unison branches are listed, as are seven of the Transport and General Workers Union. Then there is Workers Power, Red Pepper, The Socialist, Socialist Resistance, Socialist Appeal, the SWP’s Globalise Resistance - and even Alex Callinicos’s Project K.

Now guess which organisation was left out? A hint: it was the first to affiliate, one of the few to pay the full affiliation fee of £250 … Well, I suppose it was quite easy to forget the CPGB’s Weekly Worker - especially if you compare our impact within the ESF with that of groups such as the ‘Community group Dr Paizah Neave’, the Asian People with Disabilities Alliance, The Buddahpadipa Temple or the Older Feminists’ Network.

We take this omission as a compliment - it shows we have done a good job in exposing the SWP-SA backroom deals and bureaucratic stitch-ups. This was confirmed to several CPGB comrades by ESF participants from across Europe. It was truly refreshing and encouraging to see how many people had followed the Weekly Worker’s coverage of the ESF and we received many positive comments.
Over 400 copies of the paper were sold on our Ally Pally stall and the best part of a thousand were distributed on Sunday’s demonstration.