11.09.2002

Democratise the WSF

Vittorio Agnoletto is the only official representative of the Italian left on the international council of the World Social Forum. Tina Becker spoke to him

This council was set up after the first WSF in January 2001 in Brazil and has taken the lead in establishing regional social forums like the European Social Forum. Its composition is a little arbitrary, to say the least. The secretariat of the IC consists of eight Brazilian comrades who have taken it upon themselves to appoint 68 further council members. None of the 76 have been elected at any time. Nor are they accountable to anybody.

But that has not stopped them producing the 'Charter of principles' which everybody who wants to take part in any social forum anywhere in the world must abide by. This states, among other things, that political parties cannot take part in the ESF - there is no distinction between revolutionary communist organisations and Tony Blair's Labour Party: "Neither party representations nor military organisations shall participate in the forum. Government leaders and members of legislatures who accept the commitments of this charter may be invited to participate in a personal capacity." That means in practice that the CPGB has been unable to organise a seminar or send an official speaker to any of the big conferences.

This is of course an impossible position if one considers the role of socialist and communist parties across Europe. They are at the core of the anti-capitalist movement, especially in France, Spain and Italy. The foundations for the ESF were laid by the mass demonstrations of Genoa and Rome, with Rifondazione Comunista and the trade union Sin Cobas at their head. The ESF will be established in Florence, precisely because the Italian workers' movement is highly organised and political.

In this light, the ESF overwhelmingly voted at its assembly meeting in Thessaloniki in July that political parties should be allowed to organise at least workshops, which will take place in the afternoons. For example, the CPGB will organise one workshop on 'A chance for left unity: the European elections 2004' and another on 'How can socialists unite across Europe - the need for a Socialist Alliance and a Communist Party of the European Union'.

This decision to allow parties to organise workshops was heavily criticised by the August meeting of the international council, held in Bangkok, but a compromise was finally reached. Vittorio Agnoletto explained to Tina Becker what happened at this meeting, how he is working towards a change in the composition and the political role of the international council and how the Italian movement is influencing these developments.

Vittorio, you are the only Italian delegate on the international council, but you are neither a member of Rifondazione Comunista nor the Democratic Left (DS). My role is that of a coordinator between the different strands of the Italian movement bringing together the different ideas and opinions. I've been around the left since the 1970s and I have also been involved in some christian groups. So I think I have been chosen as the representative, because I can speak with people from very different backgrounds. I am a doctor and I work for 'Lila', the Italian League for the Fight against Aids. I spoke for Lila at the Genoa Social Forum and the first World Social Forum. Genoa was a very important event for the Italian movement. It saw the beginning of cooperation between very different groups and people. A few months before the G8 protests we formed an alliance that produced a joint document, Towards Genoa. Now we work closely together in the ESF, we have organised various demonstrations and we are preparing joint protests against Berlusconi's presidency of the EU in 2003. The organisations on the Italian left really work together very well. At the beginning of this year, we founded the Italian Social Forum, which tries to coordinate our work on a national level. Every three months we meet for our general assembly. Every 30 days the coordination group meets, with one person from each national organisation and one person from each local forum. The Italian social movement is characterised by the local social forums that developed after the events of Genoa - more than 200 have been formed since last summer. They contain NGOs, trade unions and various associations. Of course, Rifondazione Comunista was involved in these forums right from the beginning. After Genoa, a section of the Green Party and the left of the DS joined our movement. So in Italy there is no question as to whether or not political parties should be involved in the social movement. You are alluding to the international council's ban on political parties. Is this one of the things you want to change in the IC? The 'Charter of principles' was supposed to make sure that only 'civil society' is represented in the WSF. They wanted to make sure that neoliberal parties don't swamp it and make it impotent. But the charter doesn't take into account the fact that 'civil society' also exists on the right. There are some very rightwing NGOs and networks around. On the other hand, there are a lot of political parties which are leftwing and part of the movement. The charter also says that political parties cannot sign any of the statements or documents that the IC releases and they cannot be officially represented at seminars or debates at the various social forums. Only individual members of political parties can take part. Because the situation in Europe is so different, the ESF decided to allow political parties to organise workshops. But at the IC meeting in August some Brazilian comrades and the president of Attac France were highly critical of our decision. They said we had acted against the 'Charter of principles' and that they would not recognise us as the European Social Forum. They alleged that the Italian Social Forum intends to make the ESF too radical - we are too dominant and too leftwing. We had long, long arguments about this and we could not find a solution, because neither side would not give in. Finally, there was a 'private' meeting between four comrades and after hours of debate we found a compromise: I have been told that I must go back to the political parties and explain what the 'Charter of principles' means. I have to tell them that they cannot attempt to manipulate or dominate our event. But parties will still be allowed to go ahead with their workshops. For the time being, this is a compromise I can live with. The WSF has been largely sponsored, financed and organised by the Brazilian Worker Party (PT). It seems that the domination of one particular political party has led to the exclusion of others. This was one of the strangest things about the debate. I am not actually a member of any political party, but I was arguing for them to be on board, because I recognise their importance. And I get attacked by people who are either members of, or directly linked to, the PT. The third WSF will again take place in Porto Alegre, because the PT are the only ones that have enough money and administrative support to organise such an event. The Brazilian region of Rio Grande del Sol, which is run by the PT, will again fund it. In Italy, the region of Tuscany is dominated by a centre-left government with a DS majority. They will give a lot of structural help for the ESF's organisation, but no money at all. All these things led to a very unclear and sometimes confused discussion during the IC meeting. Of course there are differences in the role played by the various parties, NGOs and networks. When a number of local social forums in Italy decided to stand candidates in the elections, I was arguing against it. They were dominated by Tute Bianchi and would not listen to the national Italian Social Forum. In the end, they got very bad votes. Political parties have different roles from social movements, but that does not mean they cannot be involved in those movements. And in reality, of course, they are heavily involved in them. But in my opinion, political parties have in general not yet succeeded in covering all the political space that needs to be covered: we need to be able to openly discuss what to do against globalisation, against the war and for democracy. That's where the social movements come in. At the moment, they are a better vehicle for change, because the parties are too narrow. There seem to be quite a few tensions and problems in the international council. A few people have been arguing for an open rebellion against the IC. We could have walked out, but I think an open split with the IC would for the time being be wrong. I believe we can change it. There are of course some big structural problems. After the first World Social Forum in 2001 the need for a kind of organising committee emerged. The problem was that there isn't really a tried and tested concept around which could have been used to set up such a committee. So, in reality, the Brazilians decided the structure of the IC and who would be allowed on it. The Brazilian committee within the council is very well organised. I have always joked with them that they are really Leninists: whichever one of the eight you spoke to, they always said the same thing. They spoke with one tongue, although they come from very different organisations. The Brazilian committee acts as the secretariat of the IC, because the first and second WSF took place in Porto Alegre and because the headquarters of the WSF are based in Sao Paolo. The other 70 or so members of the IC generally come from international networks and international NGOs. However, in the last 12 months it has become more and more clear that these NGOs are not radical enough to move the WSF forward. Many of them found it difficult to agree with some of our aims. The WSF is clearly against war and against imperialism. But many NGOs work with governments or UN agencies and can't easily subscribe to such aims. Luckily, the Italians succeeded in persuading the council to bring representatives from social movements onto the IC. After they saw what happened in Genoa, I was appointed the first representative of a social forum. Then there are people like Samir Amin, who are not strictly speaking from social forums, but they nevertheless represent a movement in their country or continent. Although the international council has issued a number of statements and principles, they have not organised any international campaigns or activities. This is something the Italians really want to change. At the beginning the IC was an organisation of networks and NGOs only, which explains why they were willing to discuss, but never attempted to act or organise anything - apart from the next World Social Forum. There is too much outside pressure from governments on these forces. However, things have moved on. National social forums and movements have developed, which are much more radical than the initial IC forces. Some of these new movements are now on the council and they have been putting on the pressure to organise international activities. They don't just want to discuss things; they also want to decide - which international demonstrations can we organise, what campaigns can we launch? This is of course not just a structural or technical problem, but also a political one. For example, at the last meeting I proposed that we launch a declaration condemning the potential war against Iraq. There was a debate, nobody disagreed with the declaration, but a lot of people thought that we could not issue such international statements. So nothing came of it. Fortunately, a few Brazilian comrades have now started to recognised the need to change the council. So, at our last meeting in August the international council decided to have a proper debate on the role and the composition of the IC. We have set ourselves a deadline of January 2004 to finish this discussion and come up with a new set of proposals in time for the fourth WSF in February 2004. Also, we have decided to change the 'Charter of principles', which really condemns the IC to remain a debating club. I believe that NGOs, networks and social movements can work together, but we need some proper rules and regulations. You can't explain to people in the movement that we have an international council with eight people from Brazil and only one person from Italy. I think every country should have one representative on a reorganised council - a person that all the organisations in one country trust and who is accountable to the movement. But we need to have open elections for leaders and representatives. So, maybe it is a good thing that the IC has not made decisions on practical activities yet - after all, nobody on the IC has a proper mandate. But once we have democratic elections we need to move forward and organise international interventions. We have to show what kind of world we want. I understand the Italian comrades are preparing a 'Charter of social rights', which is to be discussed at the ESF in November. There will be seminars and a plenary session devoted to this document. Unfortunately, it has not been written yet, because we are all so busy with preparations for the ESF. However, there we have the same problem: As long as we are part of the WSF, we cannot sign or approve any documents or statements. That's what it says in the 'Charter of principles'. We can only produce a draft, show it around, discuss it for now and hope that in 2004 we will succeed in setting up a new structure that allows for proper initiatives.