20.10.2004

Next stop - Athens 2006

Next ESF: Next stop - Athens 2006 Why did the SWP try to prevent the next ESF taking place in Athens? Tina Becker explains

The fourth European Social Forum will take place in March or April 2006 in Athens - despite the deeply divided nature of the left in Greece. The final European assembly before the London ESF began, meeting on October 14, felt that bringing the forum to Greece might help unify the left.

The decision was reached only after three tortuous hours of debate, in which the comrades from the Socialist Workers Party tried - in vain - to convince the meeting not to come to any firm decision. They insisted that "Greek comrades should talk amongst themselves" and sort out their problems first before we decide that the ESF should take place there. While this was meant to sound conciliatory, the SWP did in fact have deeply sectarian motives.

To understand the conflict, it is necessary to have a closer look at the left in Greece, which is pretty much divided three ways. Just before the first ESF in Florence, three rival 'committees' were set up, each one of them claiming that they should be in charge of organising the Greek intervention in the ESF.

Firstly, there is the Greek Social Forum, which is dominated by the left reformist party, Synaspsismos (which achieved 3.25% in the 2004 general elections). In 2002, the General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE), was still very much involved in the GSF, but I have been unable to confirm if this is still the case. Another 100 or so smaller reformist organisations, most Trotskyist groups and a number of NGOs are part of this first bloc.

Secondly, there is the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), which achieved an impressive 9.5% across Greece in the 2004 EU parliamentary elections (up from 5.9% in the 2004 general elections). In 2002 it set up the front organisation, 'Action Thessaloniki 2003', under whose banner it attended a number of ESF preparatory assemblies. It seems that the party has dumped this now, preferring to appear more honestly under its own name.

The KKE is very critical of the ESF and WSF process and - while it attends most of the meetings - refuses to officially support the forum. The current official position of the party is that it will not participate in the ESF 2006 - but I would not be surprised if the comrades changed their mind. Most participants at our October 14 meeting expressed concern over this position and encouraged the Greek Social Forum to attempt once more to pull them on board.

The third and smallest group is the SWP's sister organisation, Sosialistiko Ergatiko Komma (SEK). In 2000, the 300-strong SEK split almost down the middle, though there was a strange disagreement over who expelled whom and who left voluntarily. In any case, those in disagreement with the SWP mother ship in London went on to form the Internationalist Workers Left, which joined the Greek Social Forum. The other, SWP-loyal, faction set up the front organisation, 'Seattle 2000', which initiated the Greek 'Initiative for the European Social Forum'. In 2002, it swiftly renamed itself 'Genoa 2001' in the hope of attracting the 'anti-capitalist movement'. Genoa 2001 is not quite as hostile to the Greek Social Forum as it once was and in 2002 even took up a seat on the GSF steering group.

However, like the KKE, SEK/Genoa 2001 has refused to fully cooperate with the Greek Social Forum. A member of the Internationalist Workers Left told me that in 2002 that the SEK comrades had tried to dominate the GSF, but failed because of the combined strength of the other groups: "So they formed their own committee and have denounced ours ever since."

The SEK/Genoa 2001 has a similar reputation to that of its sister organisation in Britain. Like the SWP, it is known for setting up front organisations, carving up the key seats on their executives, and only then inviting other groups to join the ready-made structure. However, due to the relative strength of the KKE and other left organisations, they are much less successful in dominating the left in Greece.

In 2004, the SWP made an alliance with the devil in order to bring the ESF to Britain. It accepted that it would have to subordinate itself to the mayor of London and jump to attention on the instructions of his Socialist Action minions. The SWP supported one rightwing plenary speaker after another and made itself many more enemies on the British left - all so that it could present itself to thousands of ESF activists as the main player in town.

But the 2006 situation is very different. The SWP is not keen on its sister group being the junior partner to the Greek Social Forum, whose representatives at international ESF meetings have always been highly critical of the undemocratic shenanigans and stitch-ups that the SWP has orchestrated in the last 12 months.

This seems to explain why SWP comrades (and others from its International Socialist Tendency) argued obstinately against confirming the location and date of the next ESF. Maybe they are still hoping that another country might put forward a rival bid - Austria and Germany have been mentioned a few times. Although the SWP really is not hegemonic anywhere apart from in Britain, it seems that the level of its hostility to the Greek Social Forum is quite unique. Having the ESF in Greece would undoubtedly confirm and strengthen the GSF's dominant position on the Greek 'anti-capitalist' left. Or maybe the SWP is hoping for the Communist Party to come on board and take over the ESF - better 'official communists' than direct rivals.

Whatever the reasons, the SWP's stubborn refusal to accept that the overwhelming majority wanted to take a decision did not make it many friends. Comrades from Italy and France in particular began to get very impatient. Some of them very forcefully explained that "one organisation cannot block us coming to a decision here" and started to heckle the SWP's Alex Callinicos when he tried to explain for the umpteenth time that "the Greek Communist Party is very important in Greece" and that "we cannot set them ultimatums". The SWP were defeated.

This whole debate was all the more ridiculous as - officially - political parties are of course still banned from participating in the ESF and World Social Forum. During the preparations for the ESF 2004, the SWP insisted that the ban must be kept in place, while its comrades were hiding behind various of their fronts, like Globalise Resistance and the Stop the War Coalition (mysteriously, however, many of the speakers at the actual event - apart from SWP comrades, that is - were listed under their party name). Now the SWP argues that the ESF cannot take place in Greece without the Communist Party on board.

Of course, back in 'opposition', our SWP comrades might well move to the left again, arguing for the open participation of political parties in the WSF and ESF - just as they did until the ESF came to London.