29.01.2004

Setting another agenda

Tina Becker on another stitch up in the European Social Forums

Our first UK assembly, held on January 24 to plan for the European Social Forum coming to London, was a mixed bag. True, it was a bureaucratic stitch-up, which presented the meeting with a number of backroom deals and faits accomplis. But, on a positive note, there can be no doubt now that the ESF will definitely take place in London later in the year in one form or another.

It remains to be seen though if it can become a forum that can purposefully bring together organisations, groups and movements across Europe - and not just be another Ken Livingstone show, similar to his annual Respect festival. London's mayor has got his fingers deep in the ESF pot and undoubtedly sees this as a god-sent gift: An ideal opportunity to put himself forward as real Labour, in contrast to both the increasingly discredited Blairites and the passé old Labourites. And - who knows? - perhaps the publicity will enhance his prospects of becoming prime minister somewhere along the line.

So far, all those involved have concentrated solely on the organisational rough edges - establishing accountable structures, finance and political support for the forum. But our main task is to make sure that this third ESF will be remembered for mobilising the people of London and at the same time uniting the left and progressive movements of Europe on a higher political and organisational level. Livingstone and his chums in Socialist Action, we can be sure, will seek to mould the whole event to suit their own narrow needs and wishes. Not least rebooting Ken's image.

Readers of the Weekly Worker will know that this UK assembly was put together in a non-democratic way: a group of about 40 volunteers were supposed to draw up an agenda and propose chairs. The group was also supposed to draw up a text which, once it was ratified by the assembly, was to be used to sign up groups to the ESF process. But the volunteers group never met, thanks to pressure from Livingstone.

However, two days before the assembly, Dave Holland (Livingstone's appointee in charge of the GLA's European and international affairs) distributed a document entitled 'For a UK organising committee to host the European Social Forum in London'. Our three-hour-long assembly ended up only discussing this proposal, and reports from the working groups and proposals for European days of action fell off the agenda.

As could be expected, the assembly was not exactly a harmonious affair. Throughout, there were heckles and counter-heckles. An anarchist comrade, Hamish Campbell, chose to protest against the undemocratic organisation of the meeting by, well, behaving in a rather undemocratic way: he hijacked the microphone and, when a slightly hysterical Socialist Workers Party comrade grabbed it back, he pulled a chair up next to the top table and accompanied speeches not to his liking with rude hand gestures. No doubt the GLA-SWP bloc will use such silly behaviour to justify the need for closed meetings "¦

Alex Gordon, representing the RMT, introduced the GLA document which has been signed by the national executives of Amicus, RMT, CWU, NUJ, Natfhe, Unison northern region, and the South East Region TUC (Sertuc), comrade Gordon reported. It calls for a UK organising committee to "establish such bodies, legal entities, staffing arrangements, website and other practical steps necessary to assemble support for and organise the ESF in London". This body would meet monthly and is to be made up of one representative from each affiliated organisation.

While some people criticised the suggested affiliation fee (which start at £50), most critical voices focused on the underhand way of proceeding. For a while it seemed that no amendments would be accepted - after all, a number of big organisations had already signed up to it. Some were understandably upset about this. Their complaints were answered somewhat pathetically by two female SWP comrades. In their contributions, Florence and Nancy told the critics that they should be "ashamed" to talk about such minor things, "while there are thousands of children starving in Africa".

There was much huffing and puffing from both sides. However, it was finally agreed that the text would serve as the basis for affiliation. There is only one real problem with it - the things that are missing. What is happening to the working groups, which have been meeting since December. Are they to be disbanded and re-established under the guidance of the UK organising committee? Nobody would tell.

Comrade Gordon said that the GLA document was based simply on a translation of the French structure. However, when the comrades prepared for last year's ESF in Paris, they also established a smaller group of around 40 people. This secretariat met weekly (and in the end daily) to make all the crucial decisions. This omission from our UK proposal is certainly no accident. CPGB comrades put forward an amendment, which suggested committing "all ESF structures to meet in public, publish their agendas and discussion documents in public well in advance of meetings and make available full minutes". But, like all other amendments, it was referred back to the UK organising committee.

The assembly fizzled out, without announcing a date or venue for the first meeting of the organising committee. That despite the fact that two people told me during the assembly - independently of each other - that it had in fact already been arranged for the coming Thursday night. However, the invitation was only emailed out on Wednesday morning. Such bad practice certainly does not help to overcome the bad feelings and the high level of mistrust.

However, this was the first meeting which gave the distinct impression that the London ESF will actually take place, although a date has still to be confirmed. The GLA is committed to giving £250,000, while Unison is in the process of committing £100,000 and no doubt the other trade unions will also dig deep.

So it has taken months to set up a - still imperfect - structure to get the ball rolling. But the tasks ahead are incomparably larger. While our Italian comrades were able to put together the first ESF in Florence in only six months, they had at their disposal a massive and well organised Italian working class movement and the militants of Rifondazione Comunista. French comrades had over two years to plan the second ESF in Paris - with thousands of volunteers, most of them members of the Communist Party of France and the Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire.

In Britain, though, the situation is a lot different. Not only do we have just nine months left to organise a massive four-day-long conference/festival for 50,000 people, but there is also no hegemonic political force that can authoritatively take a lead. There is a real danger that the ESF London will be a GLA-led bureaucratic affair, aided and abetted by a few hundred foot-soldiers from the SWP and the trade union movement.

Undoubtedly, both the GLA and the trade union bureaucracy have their own agenda. Communists and revolutionary socialists likewise need to urgently start discussing how we can make a real impact on the ESF. For example, in Florence and particularly in Paris, the question of building functioning networks across Europe was completely neglected. Comrades came together for four days, had some fun, listened to debates - and then they went home again, mostly not to see or even contact each other again for another year.

This is not good enough. We need to start organising now to make sure that European-wide networks can emerge from the ESF. For too long, European unity has been left to the bourgeoisie with their bastardised and thoroughly undemocratic version of the European Union. If we are serious about challenging the EU, we need to build our own structures. Our disunity is epitomised by the inability of communist and left socialist organisations to field a single list of candidates for the June 10 European parliament elections. Rifondazione Comunista has opted to stand on a slate with the 'official' communist parties and it looks rather doubtful whether the Scottish Socialist Party, Izquierda Unida in Portugal, etc can get their act together to run joint contests.

The building of European left unity will require a lot of patience and hard work. And we could make a useful beginning by getting our own house in order. The British left is notoriously disunited and sectarian. Of course the ESF cannot substitute for something like the Socialist Alliance but it does give us the opportunity to bring together groups, organisations and grassroots alliances that have often never even spoken to each other.

We need to discuss now how we can involve as many local cultural, political and working class groups and activists as possible, as well as those from across Britain and Europe. We need to make sure that there will be opportunities for all such groups - for example, through the organisation of smaller workshops near the main venue (which in all likelihood will be Alexandra Palace) - to come together and make the London ESF their own property.