04.03.2004

European criticism

European Social Forum

The Greek Social Forum, in which over 200 organisations are involved, has issued a ‘Letter to Europe’ expressing concern about the “big problems” of the ESF process in Britain. The Greek Communist Party and the SWP’s small Greek section are the only noteworthy forces not involved in the GSF.

In surprisingly blunt language, the GSF “acknowledge our mistake not to take into more serious account voices of criticism before the whole discussion for the ESF3”. It goes on to criticise “exclusions and an attempt to close down information on economic issues. This worries us, not only because it is an attempt to ban transparency, but it is stupid.” (As an aside, the comrades do not solely rely on “inaccuracies” they have read in the Weekly Worker, but say that they have also been informed by IndyMedia - the next one up for exclusion?)

They seem particularly worried about the role the GLA is playing: “Both Florence and Paris municipalities helped in logistics, providing space or even money. But they didn’t try to run it or interfere with political aspects” (original emphasis). The London ESF has certainly taken on a qualitatively different character in the last few months. The ESFs in Florence and Paris have always been seen as the “property of all the European movements”, with major decisions generally being made at the European assemblies.

Redmond O’Neill seems to have a different formula in mind. For example, in a discussion at the coordinating committee on March 3 about how the website would be run, he reported that “the French want a European committee to run it. That is a problem, because this would hand control over to people who are not putting up the finances … The people who spend £1 million will decide on the organisation of the event. The Europeans can either say ‘Yes, we want this event’ or they can go somewhere else.”